JUNEAU — The Alaska Senate advanced the $3.9 billion capital budget, which has an emphasis on school maintenance and housing, to the House on Friday. The capital budget is used to fund infrastructure and maintenance projects across the state. The vast majority of capital budget funding comes from the federal government. The capital budget passed the Senate 15-3 along caucus lines. Fifteen members of the bipartisan Senate majority voted to advance the capital budget. Three Republican senators, who don’t sit with the majority, voted not to approve it. Democratic Sens....

Hawaii lawmakers have ordered the formation of a new working group to discuss lead contamination in the air and water around a Marine Corps’ shooting range in Ewa Beach. House Resolution 18, adopted on Friday, calls for quarterly gathering of elected officials, subject matter experts and the military to conduct informational briefings related to contamination and remediation at the Puuloa Range Training Facility. The group is expected to release quarterly reports to the House and take action the group deems appropriate until June 30, 2025. The measure comes after testing...

The top Republican in the New Jersey Senate wants the judiciary to launch a probe into a judge’s decision to assign her law clerk – a former Democratic operative who once worked for the defendant – to work on a politically polarizing lawsuit involving county organization lines. Senate Minority Leader Anthony Bucco is seeking more information about the role of the law clerk, Nicholas J. Gangemi, in a legal action where a Superior Court Judge ultimately backed County Clerk Joanne Schwartz’s decision to strip Burlington County of their organization line....

The Maine Senate endorsed a series of bills Friday night that would require mandatory background checks for private gun sales, create a 72-hour waiting period for firearm purchases and ban bump stocks and other rapid-fire devices. The Senate also voted to study whether the state should allow residents to voluntarily waive their rights to purchase or receive firearms. A bill that would allow civil lawsuits against gun manufacturers who irresponsibly market and sell firearms failed. All of the bills will face additional votes before any progress to the governor’s desk....

Embattled Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson traveled nearly 1000 miles on Friday afternoon to appear with Donald Trump in a live joint press conference at Mar-a-Lago to promote legislation banning non-U.S. citizens from voting, which has been a federal law, and a felony, since 1997. But Johnson used the event to attack Democrats, falsely accusing them of a conspiracy to increase the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. for the direct and distinct purpose of pushing them to vote illegally in U.S. elections. The Speaker offered no...

The bill failed to get enough support from lawmakers in the Senate, too. Example video title will go here for this video Example video title will go here for this video AUGUSTA, Maine — As several states continue to push back and forth on abortion rights, a bill that would have protected the right to an abortion in the Maine Constitution was blocked in the House of Representatives earlier this week. Presented by Sen. Eloise Vitelli and co-sponsored by Rep. Sophia Warren, the bill would have started the process to...

Former President Donald Trump's "election security" press conference at Mar-a-Lago with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was a big blow to one person in particular, suggested CNN's Kaitlan Collins: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). Greene has been to move to vacate the chair, toppling Johnson from power the exact same way Kevin McCarthy was — and yet, noted Collins, here is by Johnson's side, effectively giving him his own vote of confidence and potentially taking the wind out of that effort. "Obviously, he said a lot of a harsh things,...

During a campaign event in Tucson , Harris called the Arizona law “one of the biggest aftershocks yet” of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade , which eliminated the federal right to an abortion and put the issue into the hands of the states. And she hammered the point that Trump is responsible for the patchwork of state laws now governing abortion that have made access to it difficult, if not impossible, for millions of women across the country, branding them “Trump abortion bans” and calling...

AUGUSTA — A bill that would allow three currently vacant district courthouses, in York, Sanford and Biddeford, to be repurposed into housing cleared the Maine Legislature and has gone to Gov. Janet Mills. The bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Traci Gere, D-Kennebunkport, on Mills’ behalf, passed the Senate on Wednesday. Mills has 10 days to sign the bill, veto it or allow it to become law without her signature. Under Maine law, the Maine State Housing Authority has first dibs on purchasing a state property that is deemed “surplus,”...

Abortion initiative clears signature threshold to get on Colorado ballot A reproductive rights campaign working to enshrine abortion into Colorado’s constitution announced Friday it had collected enough signatures to get its measure on the November ballot. Abortion is legal in Colorado, and there is no gestational age limit for the procedure. But there’s also no constitutional amendment protecting it. That means a GOP governor and legislature could pass laws restricting access, unless the amendment passes.