Voters may decide fate of payday loans
From: www.stateline.org
"In Ohio and Arizona, the payday loan industry is trying a different strategy in its battle to survive."
Encore careers give 'retirees' another chance to do their dream jobs
From: www.latimes.com
"After 50 years practicing dentistry in Santa Monica, Cal Kurtzman hung up his drill and embarked on a well-deserved second chapter of life."
Gay marriages contribute to a June boom
From: www.latimes.com
"In the two days since same-sex couples have been allowed to wed in California, the number of marriage licenses issued statewide has surpassed that of an entire typical June week, according to a Times survey of the state?s 58 county clerks."
Judge rules in U.C. Berkeley sports stadium case
From: www.latimes.com
"BERKELEY, Calif. -- Supporters and foes of a proposed University of California, Berkeley sports center that ignited a rancorous tree-sitting protest claimed victory after a judge issued a complex ruling on the matter."
Anxiety grows in West over firefighting efforts
From: www.nytimes.com
"SAN DIEGO - As fire season arrives in the West, there are growing doubts about the region's ability to attack the kind of sweeping blazes that devastated parts of California last year."
State GOP proposes cap on spending
From: www.mercurynews.com
"Republican lawmakers Wednesday proposed capping spending and socking away cash in a rainy day reserve to cushion the blow of future economic downturns."
Rell signs mortgage-assistance bill into law
From: www.courant.com
"Homeowners struggling to make mortgage payments could get some help from legislation signed into law Wednesday, as expected, by Gov. M. Jodi Rell."
Del. to balance budget via tax hikes
From: www.delawareonline.com
"Corporate tax increases will make up the bulk of the so-called "revenue enhancers" the state Legislature will implement to balance the 2009 fiscal year budget."
Eminent domain a hot topic
From: www.delawareonline.com
"While one eminent domain bill sits on Gov. Ruth Ann Minner's desk awaiting its fate, another one that would attack the issue from a different angle appeared in Legislative Hall this week."
To drill or not to drill? Oil debate refuels
From: www.miamiherald.com
"If the offshore-drilling ban covering much of the nation's coast is lifted, the next oil and gas rush would start off of Florida's coast and spark an environmental battle of national scope."
Idea of offshore drilling seems to be spreading
From: www.nytimes.com
"MIAMI - Gov. Charlie Crist stepped on the third rail of Florida politics this week when he abandoned his opposition to drilling offshore for oil and natural gas. But surprise, surprise, he did not die. "
Jobless rate sets records in May
From: www.albanyherald.com
"Unemployment in Georgia hit a 15-year high last month, rising half a percentage point to 5.8 percent, according to the state Department of Labor."
Georgia unemployment rate highest in 15 years
From: www.ajc.com
"The jobless rate in Georgia leaped last month to the highest level it has reached in May since 1993."
Iowa flooding could be an act of man, experts say
From: www.washingtonpost.com
"As the Cedar River rose higher and higher, and as he stacked sandbags along the levee protecting downtown Cedar Falls, Kamyar Enshayan, a college professor and City Council member, kept asking himself the same question: "What is going on?" "
River muscles over levees
From: www.chicagotribune.com
"URSA, Ill. ? Despite a history of heart problems, Larry Ippensen lifted shovel after shovel of sand Wednesday afternoon with scraped and sunburned hands in a desperate sandbagging effort to save his 160-acre family farm from a nearby faltering levee."
Victory for Boeing
From: www.kansas.com
"WASHINGTON- In a major victory for Boeing, the Government Accountability Office said Wednesday that the Air Force made "significant errors" in awarding a $35 billion tanker contract and should reopen the competition."
Kansas property assessments begin to reflect real-estate market downturn
From: www.kansascity.com
"A real-estate market downturn is beginning to be reflected in some static or lower property assessments in Kansas, which could mean smaller tax bills, a Star data analysis suggests."
Attorney seeks to add pair to amusement park suit
From: www.kypost.com
"LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Attorneys for a teenager whose feet were severed on an amusement park ride last summer want to add two of her friends to a lawsuit against the park. "
Kentucky gas tax will rise 1.5 cents
From: www.courier-journal.com
"The hits just keep on coming: Starting July 1, Kentucky will collect another 1.5 cents tax on each gallon of gasoline, adding a bit more to prices that have held at $4 or higher in Louisville for much of the past month."
Agency taken to task
From: bostonherald.com
"The state Office of Labor and Workforce Development is being investigated by its own Underground Economy Task Force for hiring independent contractors to review unemployment insurance claims."
Lawmakers seek fed $$ for shellfish industry
From: bostonherald.com
"State lawmakers are calling on Gov. Deval Patrick to declare an economic disaster in the Bay State?s shellfishing industry amid a poisonous red tide outbreak that has forced the closure of harvesting flats from the New Hampshire border to Cape Cod."
Gas prices drive many stations out of business
From: www.boston.com
"Add to amateur stock car racers, pleasure boaters, taxi drivers, and workaday commuters a new group suffering from high gas prices: those selling the stuff at more than $4 a gallon."
Gas prices drive many stations out of business
From: www.boston.com
"Add to amateur stock car racers, pleasure boaters, taxi drivers, and workaday commuters a new group suffering from high gas prices: those selling the stuff at more than $4 a gallon."
Medical mistakes no longer billable
From: www.boston.com
"Hospitals and doctors who operate on the wrong limb or give a dangerous dose of medication will no longer be able to bill the state of Massachusetts or its largest private health insurer for costs related to fixing the error, health authorities announced yesterday."
D.C. region's foreclosure rate soars
From: www.washingtonpost.com
"The Washington region now has one of the fastest-growing foreclosure rates in the nation, as 15,613 homes went into foreclosure during the one-year period ending in February, an analysis to be released today has found. "
Maine officials reject Bush's call for more offshore drilling
From: kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com
"WASHINGTON -- Maine's governor and members of the state's congressional delegation Wednesday unanimously opposed President Bush's plan to allow expanded offshore oil drilling."
Certified products get state support
From: bangornews.com
"For several years now, state officials have urged Maine?s forest products industry to distinguish itself globally by growing more wood that is certified as being managed and harvested in a sustainable way."
Buffett seen as key player
From: www.stltoday.com
"The billionaire investor known as the "Oracle of Omaha" is Anheuser-Busch's second-largest shareholder, controlling almost 5 percent of its stock through his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. ? worth about $2.3 billion if the deal is completed. Only Barclays PLC has a larger interest."
Portsmouth's healthy economy behind bond-rating upgrade
From: www.fosters.com
"PORTSMOUTH, N.H. - In yet another form of national recognition, the city recently received word that one of the nation's largest bond rating agencies has upgraded its municipal bond rating citing strong financial management, continued growth, a large tax base and low debt burden."
Court offers homeowners help avoiding foreclosure
From: www.nytimes.com
"Homeowners in New York who face foreclosures would be offered help by the courts to save their homes or at least make the overall process easier under a new program announced on Wednesday by the state's chief judge."
Back a bill, then throw it under a bus? It happens
From: www.nytimes.com
"Once again, Michael R. Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, has been frustrated by the mysterious ways of the capital. "
Utah job growth slows
From: www.heraldextra.com
"The Beehive state posted job gains in May, but its growth continues to slow in tandem with the housing downturn. If the construction market continues to weaken, the state's economy could start to shed more jobs by early 2009, a state economist warned."
Payday lenders want voters to overturn new law
From: www.daytondailynews.com
"The payday lending industry wants to ask Ohio voters in November to overturn a new law that limits how much interest they can charge on short-term loans but advocates for the poor are hoping the issue never goes to the voters."
Nearly one-third workers elect to leave Ohio GM plant
From: www.daytondailynews.com
"DAYTON, Ohio - Nearly one-third of the approximately 2,400 hourly workers at the General Motors' sport-utility plant in the Dayton suburb of Moraine slated to close by 2010 have accepted buyouts or early retirement offers from the automaker, a union official said Wednesday."
Bush comments excite state energy industry
From: www.journalrecord.com
"As one would expect, local and state reaction in the oil and gas industry to President Bush?s comments regarding drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf was positive."
Tennessee- State seeks $1.25 million for possible 'major' Enterprise South prospect
From: www.timesfreepress.com
"Tennessee?s top economic development official will ask the state Funding Board this month to spend $1.25 million in an effort to lure a ?major? economic prospect to the Enterprise South industrial park in Hamilton County, according to a document."
Buyouts to trim 2,100 jobs
From: www.knoxnews.com
"Buyout offers to state employees have been designed to minimize a loss of government services, Gov. Phil Bredesen said Wednesday."
Tennesse- Local tomatoes safe, but growers worry
From: www.timesfreepress.com
"Area tomato farmers said there is increased demand for their locally grown fruit since reports of illnesses from salmonella-tainted tomatoes first started two months ago."
State agencies post reorganization plans
From: tennessean.com
"State agencies and departments offering buyouts to state workers revealed their reorganization plans on Wednesday, posting on the Web which positions have been targeted and why."
Partisan battle lines are drawn over oil drilling
From: www.tampabay.com
"WASHINGTON - President Bush's call for Congress to end a ban on offshore drilling sharpened the partisan divide over energy policy and reversed a position he had held publicly through his presidency."
Governors weighing options on offshore drilling
From: www.boston.com
"PENSACOLA, Fla. - Governors in some coastal states promised to fight attempts to tap offshore petroleum reserves, citing concerns about the environment and tourism. Others agreed with President Bush's call to lift a 27-year-old federal ban on offshore drilling, but said states should decide whether to allow it."
Drivers cut back by 30B miles
From: cms.stateline.org
"Americans drove 30 billion fewer miles from November through April than during the same period in 2006-07, the biggest such drop since the Iranian revolution led to gasoline supply shortages in 1979-80. "
Boomers' new jobs give back
From: www.usatoday.com
"Baby boomers who came of age in the era of John F. Kennedy's civic call to arms are now, in the second half of their lives, not just asking themselves what they can do for their country, but they're actually doing it."
Highway trust revenue expected to have shortfall
From: online.wsj.com
"WASHINGTON - As Americans cut back on driving, they are paying less in gasoline taxes, jeopardizing the funding for critical transportation projects."
Midwest floods dredge up dispute
From: online.wsj.com
"ST. CHARLES, Mo. - Since the historic flood of 1993, nearly 30,000 homes have been built on land that was underwater around the Mississippi and Missouri rivers near St. Louis. This weekend, the dwellers may find out if they built wisely."
Concerns leveled over polluted floodwaters in Midwest
From: www.usatoday.com
"Human waste overflows, fertilizer runoff and floating propane tanks are raising concerns in the flooded Midwest but should not cause severe or long-term environmental problems, health officials say."
High costs keep doctors from switching to electronic records
From: www.usatoday.com
"Primary care physicians are slow to adopt electronic health records systems, according to a new survey, largely because moving from paper-based to computerized records costs so much."
Horse racing under new congressional scrutiny
From: www.csmonitor.com
"ATLANTA - First, the filly Eight Belles falls awkwardly after finishing second at the Kentucky Derby, becoming one of some 5,000 horses that have died in the US since 2003.
"
Will $4 gasoline trump a 27-year-old ban?
From: www.nytimes.com
"WASHINGTON - One was an oilman from Texas, the other a high-paid energy executive. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, for seven years George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have been unable to persuade Congress and the public that domestic oil drilling is an answer to America's energy needs."
Some farmers devastated by flooding; Others brace for what might come
From: www.nytimes.com
"CANTON, Mo. - Looking out from the highest hill in this town, it suddenly seemed that there were two rivers: the Mississippi, of course, and now a new river, a nameless renegade that had appeared out of nowhere on Wednesday when the Mississippi?s waters broke over a levee near the tiny hamlet of Meyer, Ill., and surged over tens of thousands of acres of farm fields."
A hand-to-hand struggle with a raging river
From: www.nytimes.com
"CANTON, Mo. - They sandbag by moonlight. The school superintendent and the judge, the police sergeant and the mechanic, the Amish man in a straw hat and the young man in a Budweiser T-shirt, they lay down sandbags as if making peace offerings to a vexed god called the Mississippi."
Bush calls for end to ban on offshore oil drilling
From: www.nytimes.com
"WASHINGTON - President Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to end a federal ban on offshore oil drilling and open a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration, asserting that those steps and others would lower gasoline prices and ?strengthen our national security.?"
Oil shale development gets boost from Bush
From: www.deseretnews.com
"WASHINGTON - President Bush included oil shale development in Utah on a list of things Congress can do to increase domestic oil supply and help reduce gas prices."
Gas prices energizing Va. Senate race
From: www.washingtonpost.com
"RICHMOND, Va. -- Senate candidate Mark R. Warner said Wednesday that the U.S. government needs to get tougher with OPEC and better regulate investors speculating in the oil market to drive down gas prices. "
No guarantee against strike, resort says
From: wvgazette.com
"Officials with The Greenbrier resort insist the nine unions working without a contract at the four-star facility have never guaranteed they will not go on strike."
Bush's oil shale call meets with skepticism
From: www.casperstartribune.com
"Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal said the president was, in effect, beating an old drum in continuing to push for oil shale development in the Green River Basin, which includes Wyoming."
Officials begin testing herd
From: www.casperstartribune.com
"PINEDALE, Wyo. -- State and federal agriculture officials began taking blood samples on Wednesday from a western Wyoming cattle herd infected with brucellosis, the first step toward figuring out whether the state will lose its federal status as brucellosis-free."
Pick brings Arizona experience
From: www.casperstartribune.com
"His experience in Arizona will help Steve Ferrell in his new job as director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the executive director of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation said Wednesday."
Ranchers -- Brucellosis vaccine is failing
From: www.casperstartribune.com
"PINEDALE, Wyo. -- Twenty years ago, it wasn't unusual for wild elk to enter cattle feedlines on private ranches in western Wyoming as winter storms raged."
McCain, GOP govs split over disaster fund
From: www.stateline.org
"A congressional proposal to create a national “catastrophe fund” to help states recover from natural disasters has put Republican presidential hopeful John McCain at odds with a handful of GOP governors — including two state chief executives frequently mentioned as possible vice-presidential picks for the U.S. senator from Arizona."
Jobs are at risk if Congress doesn't fix the Highway Fund
From: www.stateline.org
"State budgets and nearly 400,000 jobs are at risk if Congress fails to replenish the Highway Trust Fund, John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials, writes in a commentary for Stateline.org."
Tax hikes rare among states — so far
From: www.stateline.org
"Most states are holding off raising taxes to patch holes in their 2009 budgets, but if you live in Maryland, Minnesota, Maine and New York, you’re out of luck."
Scalpers beware: States target ticket sellers
From: www.stateline.org
"The online hijacking of huge blocks of tickets for hot concerts and sporting events for resale at many times face value has raised the ire of consumers and caught the attention of several states that have taken steps to address the problem."
The economic downturn: an opportunity for governors?
From: www.stateline.org
"Most governors recognize that they have the best political job in America. Most also would concede that the job is more satisfying when the economy is strong and revenues are growing than during an economic downturn, when cutting budgets becomes the major task. But even a recession can present opportunities for governors to make improvements that yield lasting benefits for their states."
Visit the Stateline.org Economy & Business Page
From: www.stateline.org
"Most governors recognize that they have the best political job in America. Most also would concede that the job is more satisfying when the economy is strong and revenues are growing than during an economic downturn, when cutting budgets becomes the major task. But even a recession can present opportunities for governors to make improvements that yield lasting benefits for their states."
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