Good morning, it’s Monday, June 10, 2024. In today’s edition, New York passes social media restrictions; tech group sues over another age verification law; Utah Gov leading primary by wide margin:
Top Stories
SOCIAL MEDIA: New York lawmakers voted Friday to approve legislation requiring social media platforms to display chronological feeds to minors, rather than algorithmically curated feeds. Legislators unanimously approved another bill that will bar companies from harvesting minors’ data for the purposes of targeted advertising. (Pluribus News)
ENERGY: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Friday signed an agreement with the federal government to increase offshore wind development in the coming years. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has completed environmental assessments of two lease areas that would provide energy for up to 2.2 million homes. (Baltimore Sun)
TECHNOLOGY: NetChoice, the tech industry trade group, has sued to block a Mississippi law requiring users of certain adult websites to verify their ages. The lawsuit alleges the law, aimed at p*rnographic sites, unconstitutionally limits access to online speech. NetChoice has brought similar suits in Arkansas, California and Ohio. (Associated Press)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Illinois lawmakers have given final approval to a bill creating an Office of Statewide Pretrial Services aimed at circuit courts and counties that do not offer pretrial services. State law passed in 1987 requires circuit courts to offer those services. (Center Square)
MARIJUANA: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has vetoed legislation that would have banned hemp products. Hemp products accounted for $10 billion in sales and employed 100,000 people in 2022, according to an industry trade group’s study. (Orlando Sentinel)
AGRICULTURE: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) has signed legislation barring “foreign government adversaries” from purchasing land in the state. Lawmakers said the update was necessary to block foreign entities who have begun purchasing land to grow crops for the state’s medical marijuana industry. (Capitol Beat OK)
PUBLIC HEALTH: Legislation allowing for human composting — burying bodies by themselves, without caskets — passed a Rhode Island House committee last week with little debate. A Senate companion bill has been held for further study. (Providence Journal)
The ProJo’s A+ headline: “Back from the dead?”
In Politics & Business
UTAH: Gov. Spencer Cox (R) leads state Rep. Phil Lyman (R) 62%-25% ahead of this month’s Republican primary election. Lyman captured 67% of delegate votes at the state GOP convention, setting up the primary fight. (Deseret News)
CALIFORNIA: Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco (R) is considering a run for governor in 2026, after years of criticism of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). Bianco first came to prominence in 2021, when he refused to enforce vaccine mandates for his employees. (Los Angeles Times) Bianco would be the first prominent Republican to join a race already crowded with top Democrats.
NORTH DAKOTA: Supporters of legalized marijuana say they have collected half the 16,000 signatures they need to qualify an initiative for the November ballot. They have until July 8 to collect the other half. Previous legal pot measures failed in North Dakota in 2018 and 2022. (Fargo Forum)
ARKANSAS: Pulaski County Prosecutor Will Jones said he will not bring criminal charges related to the audit of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s (R) administration’s purchase of a $19,000 lectern. In a statement, Jones said the audit showed insufficient proof of criminal conduct. (Talk Business & Politics)
By The Numbers
$13.4 million: The amount big tech companies lobbying legislators in 19 states that require strict lobbying disclosure in 2023, up from $4.4 million a decade ago. (Pluribus News)
$655 million: The amount Massachusetts has spent this fiscal year on shelters for migrants and state residents. Gov. Maura Healey’s (D) administration projects spending more than $900 million on the shelter program next fiscal year. (Boston Herald)
13: The number of consecutive presidential and gubernatorial winners who have carried majorities in Harmony Township, Wis., a streak that extends back to 2000. Town clerk Tim Tollefsen’s advice for other politically divided towns: “Chill out. … We’re only here a short time. Why waste your time being miserable?” (Associated Press)
Off The Wall
Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders died Friday when a plane he was piloting crashed off the coast of Washington State. Anders, 90, was best known as the astronaut who captured the iconic photograph known as “Earthrise,” the image of the earth rising over the moon on Dec. 24, 1968. (Los Angeles Times)
YouTuber Alex Choi is facing federal charges after a viral video in which two people in a helicopter blast fireworks at a speeding Lamborghini. The Justice Department charged Choi with causing the placement of an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft, a crime that carries up to ten years in prison. (Associated Press)
Harold Terens, 100, and Jeanne Swerlin, 96, tied the knot Saturday in Carentan-les-Marais, a Normandy town where Terens was honored for his service during the D-Day landings 80 years ago. The couple later attended a state banquet French President Emmanuel Macron held in honor of President Biden. (AFP)
Quote of the Day
“As touched and as grateful beyond words that I am to be given this award, part of me wishes that it did not exist, and that political courage did not have to be a thing.”
— Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams (R), accepting the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for defending the integrity of his state’s elections. (Lexington Herald-Leader)
