• As the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott begins his third attempt at passing new election laws, Texas Democrats still refuse to return to Austin as of August 7
• In a joint statement Saturday, Democrats said 26 of them would remain “part of an active presence in Washington maintained for as long as Congress is working.”

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• Governor Greg Abbot of Texas has ordered another legislative session in an attempt at passing a GOP voting bill to begin on August 7
• This announcement comes after more than 50 Democrats scrambled to fly out of Texas on July 12 which marks their second walkout

The post Legislative News – 08-05-2021 appeared first on Easy Ad - Local Small Business Resources.

• Today (7/19) President Joe Biden has said that his $1.8 trillion infrastructure plan must be passed in order to keep the economy’s momentum 
• For the Wednesday deadline set by the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the GOP motioned their opposition for the procedural vote
• Republicans as a majority oppose Biden’s plan for its negative impact on the economy with drastic increases in inflation

Federal voting bill taken to Georgia by Senate Democrats 

• Senate Democrats have taken their case for a federal voting bill to Georgia today (7/19) and this measure is needed for them to counter the state’s tightened voting laws
• In order to gain attention for their elections and voting agenda, Democrats used the rare field hearing in Atlanta
• Without a real plan, Democrats are seeking to keep the spotlight on voting issues, as they search for other ways to pass less important voting proposals

The post Legislative News – 07-19-2021 appeared first on Easy Ad - Local Small Business Resources.

• The voter Registration Purge Law in Indiana has been cancelled by the federal court
• The law was intended to restrict voter registrations for individuals who appear to have registered in another state for voting and the decision to block this law was released on Monday

Bipartisan infrastructure deal threatened by GOP with Filibuster

• Today (Tuesday) the GOP is preparing to block the vote for the Bipartisan infrastructure deal as they see it as a misguided and rushed process
• Instead of investing more than $4 trillion dollars into domestic outlays, Senate Republicans want to go after a more modest deal worth about $600 billion in new funds towards traditional public works and highway projects

Critics complain about charitable money in donor funds as philanthropists take advantage

• Many rich philanthropists have taken advantage of using donor-advised funds as a way to have tax deductions and investment gains long before they actually give away money
• Critics of Donor Funds have complained that there isn’t a financial incentive to donate the money right away and much of it sits in the accounts instead of going to charities that need it

The post Legislative News – 07-20-2021 appeared first on Easy Ad - Local Small Business Resources.

• Homeowners and Environmental groups in Alabama have filed a federal lawsuit against the state regulators for approving Alabama’s Solar Power fees on customers who have on-site or rooftop solar
• Alabama Power argues that the fees are needed to maintain the infrastructure that provides backup power to customers who don’t have sufficient power from  their solar panels

Texas Republicans demand that Democrat legislators return to Austin for new voting restrictions

• Democrats from the Texas legislature who have left to Washington, D.C. in order to block new election laws have been demanded by the Texas GOP  to return to the Capitol
• The governor of Texas, Greg Abbot has authorized law enforcement to bring more than 50 legislators “under warrant of arrest if necessary”

The post Legislative News – 07-13-2021 appeared first on Easy Ad - Local Small Business Resources.

• Coming from states that have not accepted the expansion of Medicaid , Three Democratic US Senators want the federal government to come up with a plan similar to Medicaid 
• Today (Monday) Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff of Georgia along with Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin are going to introduce the bill with the push of health care coverage expansion

• Within the state legislature, Texas Democrats have left Austin, Texas for Washington, D.C. to stop the election laws from being passed
• The Democrats claim that they plan to be there for weeks and although it is not clear how many of the 67 democrats in the state legislature have left, the number is sufficient to halt the legislature

The post Legislative News – 07-12-2021 appeared first on Easy Ad - Local Small Business Resources.

• Among a small group of Democrats, they prepare to stage a second walkout again in order to stop a voting measure in Texas from being passed
• Republicans this weekend have intended to advance the new election bill which would restrict polling places that run 24 hours, ban drop boxes, and stop drive thru voting 
• The voting law is aimed at preventing fraud and obtaining more accurate voting numbers but Texas Democrats are against this

Large Balloon releases are banned in Rhode Island to protect Wildlife 

• Yesterday (Friday) Governor Dan McKee of RHode Island has signed a new law that restricts anyone in the state from releasing more than 1 helium balloons outdoors
• Supporters of this new law have said that balloon releases have a large environmental impact and threaten birds, marine animals, and other wildlife 
• Violators may face a fine of $100 and this law will be in effect in November 

The post Legislative News – 07-10-2021 appeared first on Easy Ad - Local Small Business Resources.

• After causing a shootout, a rural California homeowner has shot and killed a suspected home intruder
• The intruder was identified as Rodney Lee Martin who was 41 years od and was found inside the home with a stolen firearm with his body
• Authorities were told that the homeowner had gone home after the received an alert from their alarm company that their home was broken into and upon arriving, the suspect fired and the homeowner fired back

Policy adviser for Republican party declares his run for California controller

• An academic and former policy advisor for Republican candidates named Lanhee Chen has announced that he will be running for California controller
• The California controller position is the state’s fiscal officer where they disburse state money and have the ability to audit state programs and agencies
• Chen wants to run for California controller as he believes that failures in the state’s Employment Development Department has led to fraud and late unemployment checks

Northern California Wildfires continue to spread: Update for Tuesday

• Throughout the week, the wildfires in Northern California Which include the Lava Fire, Tennant Fire, anf Salt Fire have prompted evacuation, closed roads, and destroyed many buildings
• In total, the fires have currently burned almost 48,000 acres of land which spread across the Shasta and Siskiyou counties
• Today, the expected winds could expand the fires to reach more areas

The post California News – 07-06-2021 appeared first on Easy Ad - Local Small Business Resources.

• At least one person suffered non-life-threatening injuries after gunshots were reported near the spot where George Floyd was killed one year ago, a spokesperson for the Minneapolis Police Department said Tuesday
• The Associated Press earlier reported that as many as 30 shots were heard a block away from the intersection, known as George Floyd Square, causing bystanders to duck for cover

• Issues in the summit meeting are expected to include the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline and U.S. sanctions over the Kremlin’s treatment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny
• The announcement comes less than a week after the Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov held a cautious face-to-face talk in Iceland

• The United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 challenges Beijing’s growing technological power by supporting U.S. chipmakers and science research
• The wide-ranging, 1,400-page piece of legislation, slated to cost about $200 billion, is expected to pass the Senate within weeks
• The bill is the end result of bipartisan input from at least six Senate committees and reflects the many fronts in the U.S.-China rivalry, as well as the urgency of a global semiconductor shortage
• It would appropriate $52 billion to U.S. chip making efforts and $81 billion to overhauling the National Science Foundation

• More than two dozen groups representing U.S. businesses and employers unveiled a new coalition to fight against virtually every Democratic plan to raise taxes on self-described “job creators.”
• The coalition of 28 industry groups argues that hiking taxes on corporations will hamper the U.S. economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
• The alliance emerges in direct opposition to President Joe Biden, who is pushing trillions of dollars in spending on a slew of economy-overhauling projects, to be paid for in large part by raising rates on corporations and the richest Americans

The post National News – 5-25-2021 appeared first on Easy Ad - Local Small Business Resources.