USApp Managing Editor, Chris Gilson, looks at the week in U.S. state blogging

Gilson, Christopher

LSE Research Online

blogs.lse.ac.ukhttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2015/08/30/upstate-new-yorks-secession-plans-north-carolinas-budget-woes-and-north-dakota-okays-armed-drones-us-state-blog-round-up-for-22-28-august/New Jersey Governor Credit: Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA-2.0)Upstate New York’s secession plans, North Carolina’s budgetwoes, and North Dakota okays armed drones: US state bloground up for 22 – 28 AugustUSApp Managing Editor, Chris Gilson, looks at the week in U.S. state blogging . Click here for our weeklyroundup of national blogs.NortheastThis week in the Bay State, Blue Mass Group looks at what they call the ‘Massachusetts police state’, citingexamples of minorities being harassed with little police action taking place in response.Moving on to Rhode Island, RI Future writes Thursday on how the smallest state in the US now has the smallestuninsured rate, at 2.7 percent. They write that the state’s health insurance exchange, Healthsource, has made itvery easy for people to sign up for coverage, regardless of income.New York State’s State of Politics this week reports on a coalition of groups who support gun rights and frackingefforts to secede a part of the state. They say that the groups have been angered by Albany’s ban on fracking inthe state as well as recent gun control measures pushed through by Governor Andrew Cuomo.Heading south to New Jersey, Save Jerseyfact checks Governor Chris Christie’s claimthat he stood up to the state’s ‘Democraticmachine’. They say that looking at Christie’srecord as governor, he has actually co-optedthe Democratic machine in the state, mostlyby forging tactical alliances with Democraticmayors and bosses in order to help him gainreelection in 2013.PoliticsPA reports that the Keystone Statehas launched online voter registration, whichwill make it much easier to register to vote,be much safer in terms of personalinformation, and will also be much cheaper.Staying in Pennsylvania, Raging ChickenPress has the news that a GOPrepresentative, Ryan Warner, wants to make English the official state language in order to save some money inthe state’s budget. SouthIn North Carolina, Civitas Review writes that the chances that there will be a budget deal before the state’sAugust 31st deadline is now very slim. They write that while state House and Senate leaders, along with GovernorPat McCrory have agreed on the budget’s size – $21.7 billion – there is still disagreement on spending targets inareas of the state’s government. Staying in the Old North State, The Progressive Pulse says of the budget dealthat it is likely to contain another round of tax cuts for large corporations. They argue that there is no evidence thatsuch tax cuts lead to prosperity through improved wages or higher economic growth.Moving down to Florida, Saint Peters blog reports that while state lawmakers have been unable to agree onHovering drone Credit: Andrew (Flickr, CC-BY-SA-2.0)congressional redistricting recently, they have agreed that muzzling the state’s Supreme Court is a good idea.The Florida Supreme Court had previously declared that the current Congressional map amounted togerrymandering, something that state legislators have since referred to as judicial overreach. Shark Tank alsowrites on Florida’s redistricting travails, commenting on Tuesday that potential Congressional candidates are‘locked into a holding pattern’, with many incumbents unsure as to which district they will be representing.On Sunday, Left in Alabama has the news that Alabama is number four among states whose residents spend themost at Walmart, with the average Alabaman spending nearly $1,500 per year at the chain.On Thursday, The Arkansas Times writes that GOP Governor Asa Hutchinson is finding it hard to govern theNatural State despite having majorities in both legislative houses. Hutchinson has been fighting an ongoing battlewith the far-right of the state’s GOP over how Medicaid funding is apportioned.MidwestOhio’s Plunderbund this week wonders if the state’s Governor, John Kasich really understands economics. Theycomment that Ohio ranks 29th in the country in terms of job creation despite Kasich’s belief in the trickle downconcept of supply-side economics.Heading up to Michigan, eclectablog says this week that the state’s Republican Party has shown an abject failureof leadership for its failure to decide how to pay for critical infrastructure repairs to roads and bridges, as well as ablackmailing scandal between two GOP Representatives.Project Illinois looks this week at the state of women’s equality in the Prairie State. They say that while the statecame third in terms of women’s inequality in a recent study, that doesn’t mean things are good for women there;for example, 40 percent of full-time working women in Illinois earn less than $35,000 a year.On Wednesday, BleedingHeartland says that Iowa’sMedicaid privatization is raisingsome red flags after it wasrevealed that all four privatecompanies that are currentlynegotiating contracts to managethe scheme have previouslyfaced charges of fraud ormismanagement relating toserving Medicaid recipients inother states.Heading up to North Dakota, SayAnything blog has the news thatarmed drones are now legal inthe Peace Garden State. Theysay that while drones weaponsmust be non-deadly, they can stillbe fitted with an 80,000 volt taseror even rubber bullets.West and Pacific Earlier this month, there was alarge waste water spill in theGold King Mine in Colorado.Colorado Peak Politics has aguide to what they say is the Environmental Protection Agency’s cover-up of the disaster after the agency‘dumped’ nearly 100 redacted documents relating to the mine last Friday night. Staying in the Centennial State,The Spot reports on the state Republican Party’s decision to cancel its presidential poll at its 2016 caucus. Thedecision has raised some questions and some are nor claiming that the state party has misinterpreted how theGOP’s new national rules for nominations work.Moving down to Arizona, Blog for Arizona writes Wednesday that a state Superior Court Judge has surprisinglyruled in favor of Governor Jan Brewer’s plan to expand Medicaid in the state. The case apparently hinged onwhether or not a hospital assessment that lawmakers approved to fund the expansion counted as a tax or a fee,with the judge ruling that it was the latter.In the Golden State this week, Fox & Hounds writes that in order for the state’s Republican Party to becompetitive once again, it must change the hearts and minds of suburban and minority voters by becoming theparty of reform and good governance. The state’s GOP currently has 28 of 80 seats in the State Assembly and 14of 40 in the Senate.On Monday, Strange Bedfellows has the news that three major national gun rights groups, along with local gundealers have sued Seattle’s City Council to blog a new $25 local tax on firearms enacted earlier this month. Thepro-gun lobby has called the levy a ‘poll tax on gun owners and retailers’.Heading out to the Aloha State, Honolulu Civil Beat writes this week that a new study has shown that Honolulu isthe most expensive city in America for singles.Featured image credit: Taber Andrew Bain (Flickr, CC-BY-2.0)Please read our comments policy before commenting .Note:  This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of USApp– American Politics and Policy, norof the London School of Economics.Shortened URL for this post: http://bit.ly/1JEwUOpCC BY-NC 3.0 2015 LSE USAPP

Upstate New York’s secession plans: North Carolina’s budgetwoes: and North Dakota okays armed drones: US state bloground up for 22 – 28 August

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