All posts tagged "Ballotinitiatives"

New Jersey lawmakers have introduced a bill that would make it the third state to legalize “magic mushrooms.” Under the legislation, anyone 21 and older could consume or grow the mushrooms for medical or recreational purposes. The bill would also expunge past and pending offenses involving the psychedelic drug. The bill comes as Hackensack Meridian, one of the state’s largest healthcare providers, and U.K. biotechnology company Compass Pathways partnered to research a synthetic psilocybin treatment, according to NorthJersey.com. The state health department would oversee licenses for facilities......

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two Missouri Republican lawmakers and a prominent anti-abortion activist filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the estimated cost of several proposed ballot measures to restore abortion rights. The lawsuit’s plaintiffs include state Rep. Hannah Kelly, a Mountain Grove Republican, state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, an Arnold Republican, and Kathy Forck, an anti-abortion activist from New Bloomfield. The lawsuit was filed in Cole County. Their complaint challenges a series of fiscal notes that Republican Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick prepared for the proposed ballot measures estimati......

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A proposed ballot initiative would force California lawmakers to disclose meetings with lobbyists and make investigations into alleged misconduct subject to public scrutiny. The measure is intended to strengthen the California Public Records Act by bringing more transparency to lawmakers’ activities. It would establish strict deadlines for responding to information requests, cap charges for producing records to no more than 10 cents per page and set a five-year minimum retention for all public records before they can be destroyed. “Legislators are often hosted in exotic pl......

Housing for homeless residents living with mental illness. Defenses against wildfires, droughts and floods. New and renovated school campuses. Treatment centers for fentanyl users. California voters can expect to be asked to approve billions of dollars in bonds in 2024 to help the state address a myriad of pressing issues. Lawmakers in Sacramento have proposed about a dozen bond measures that they want on ballots in March or November of next year. They include a $4.7 billion ask for up to 10,000 new behavioral health beds, $15 billion to make the state more resilient to climate change, $14 bil......

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A new Missouri group is seeking a ballot measure that would ask voters in 2024 to allow Kansas City, Jackson County and other local governments in Missouri to enact stricter gun rules than the state, which has one of the loosest firearm regulations in the country. The group, called Sensible Missouri, filed three versions of a proposed constitutional amendment with Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s office on Wednesday. The ballot measures come as Missouri law bars local governments from creating tougher regulations than the state. Every version of the ballot measure would emp......

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Robert Rivas tells anyone who will listen that his rise from farmworker housing on the rural Central Coast to Assembly Speaker is wholly unexpected, the California Dream become reality. The Hollister Assemblyman, who assumes the role on June 30, presents himself as a humble, soft-spoken person who fell into the job. But many who have watched the Democrat’s climb from an outgoing high-schooler to a San Benito County supervisor to the holder of one most powerful political offices in the state are not surprised. Throughout his journey, Rivas, 43, has carefully balanced policy......