Around the Nation

The Coloradan, March 5, 2007
"Legislation gives police gift of time"
Time can be one of the most effective crime-fighting tools, and new legislation approved Thursday by Gov. Ritter has given law officers a much-needed edge.
House Bill 1010 will allow police to submit search and arrest warrant requests over e-mail and then allow judges to approve those warrants with an electronic signature. In a proactive approach, Fort Collins police officers helped craft the bill and supported the legislation through the process. Currently, law officers have to submit written requests and wait for a judge to sign off - a process that can take several hours or even days if judges are overwhelmed by paperwork. The e-mail system allows law officers direct access to judges, including during off hours.
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Stateline.org, March 6, 2007
"States go after smoking in vehicles with kids"
Thirteen states ban smoking in most public places and workplaces, including bars and restaurants, to protect people from puffs of others’ cigarettes. But now there’s a move afoot to fence off the private space inside a motor vehicle if children are present.
Arkansas pioneered the policy in April 2006 after state Rep. Bob Mathis (D) introduced a bill to shield children strapped in car seats from secondhand smoke. Critics didn’t believe his proposal would go anywhere, but the Legislature passed it overwhelmingly in less than two days. And then-Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), a reformed health enthusiast, signed it
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The Los Angeles Times, March 6,2007
"New York's Spitzer loos to Schwarzenegger for inspiration"
They appear to have little in common, these two governors.
One is a pumped-up, Harley-riding movie star with a taste for Hummers, Armani suits and the Kennedy clan. The other is a rail-thin wonk with a perfect LSAT score who is far more comfortable jousting over budgets than making small talk.
One threw a $2.4-million party to celebrate his most recent electoral victory, an event televised nationally and paid for by big business. The other marked his win with an austere public meet-and-greet as corporate lobbyists fretted that his election would diminish their clout.
One is a Republican, the other a Democrat.
But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer share more than an Austrian lineage. (Spitzer's grandparents were from the old country.) Both have an appetite for big issues and big challenges. And both hope to leverage landslide victories in November — and the public's affinity for their ambition — to transform the role of state government in public life.
And as they barrel ahead on issues that Washington can't or won't address — global warming, universal healthcare, stem cell research — both are prodding balky Legislatures to act.
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The (Cleveland, OH) Plain Dealer, March 6, 2007
"Pilot project to streamline court cases shows success"
A reform project in Lakewood and Shaker Heights municipal courts designed to streamline criminal cases in Cuyahoga County is succeeding and has justice system officials excited.
"Change is coming, and it's change for the better," said Judge Nancy McDonnell, the presiding and ad ministrative judge in Common Pleas Court.
The good news arrived on the heels of a scathing report by a grand jury foreman to McDonnell on Feb. 15.
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The Los Angeles Times, March 6, 2007
"Schwarzenegger calls for coordinated attack on gangs"
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called Monday on mayors and law enforcement officials across California to join with him in forging a counterattack on street gangs blamed for much of the state's violent crime.
Speaking at a news conference at Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department headquarters in Monterey Park, Schwarzenegger proposed a statewide summit after discussing the gang problem for about 40 minutes with L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, the sheriffs of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
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The Chicago Tribune, March 4, 2007
"$6 billion state tax in works"
Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected to propose a new $6 billion tax on corporate business revenues to help pay for his ambitious plan to provide affordable health coverage for Illinois' uninsured.
Though Blagojevich rolls out his Illinois Covered health-care plan Sunday, he won't immediately unveil details of his tax plan--the opening gambit in a high-stakes battle to alleviate the state's budget crisis.
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The Boston Globe, March 4, 2007
"Insurers slice rates on health premiums"
Governor Deval Patrick yesterday unveiled significantly lower prices for the health insurance plans that uninsured residents will be required to buy starting July 1.
Patrick said six weeks of intense negotiations, in which he personally called the chief executives of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and Tufts Health Plan, resulted in lower prices that will make the plans more affordable for uninsured residents.
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The New York Times, March 4, 2007
"Doubts rise as states hold sex offenders after prison term"
The decision by New York to confine sex offenders beyond their prison terms places the state at the forefront of a growing national movement that is popular with politicians and voters. But such programs have almost never met a stated purpose of treating the worst criminals until they no longer pose a threat.
About 2,700 pedophiles, rapists and other sexual offenders are already being held indefinitely, mostly in special treatment centers, under so-called civil commitment programs in 19 states, which on average cost taxpayers four times more than keeping the offenders in prison.
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