By FOCUS, a Leonine Business In late June the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a highly anticipated case regarding the legality of partisan gerrymandering in the states. The case in question, Rucho v. Common Cause, centered on gerrymanders in two states, Maryland and North Carolina, and whether legislators in those states acted unconstitutionally when drawing […]
By FOCUS, a Leonine Business Many state lawmakers and investors are familiar with enterprise zones – undeveloped or impoverished areas where tax incentives are offered to encourage investment and economic development – as the concept has been around for nearly 40 years. In that time every state has implemented enterprise zones, allowing investors to gain […]
By FOCUS, a Leonine Business Over the past several years, the focus on healthcare policy in both state capitols and the media has shifted largely towards curbing the rise of prescription drug prices. Legislators, emboldened by news stories of skyrocketing prices for brand name and generic drugs, have been tackling the issue head on, in […]
By FOCUS, a Leonine Business A little over one year ago teachers across the nation began going on strike to protest chronically low wages, budget cuts, class sizes, and deteriorating schools and infrastructure. In the wake of the great recession and its associated across-the-board spending cuts, education budgets have failed to recover to the extent […]
By FOCUS, a Leonine Company A few years after “ag-gag” bills swept the nation; a new type of agriculture protection bill is now finding favor in farm-heavy state legislatures. This time, the debate boils down to a single word and how it may be used: meat. In recent years, alternative meat products – either made […]
By FOCUS, a Leonine Company Over the last several years, the Airbnb mobile app and website has exploded in popularity, challenging the dominance of hotels and creating an entirely new front in the sharing economy by allowing individuals to monetize their apartments or empty rooms around the globe. Though known by many names, these types […]
By FOCUS, A Leonine Business Following 2008’s Great Recession, the national economy has slowly recovered by nearly every benchmark – state budgets have crawled their way back from massive cuts, unemployment has reached all-time lows, while markets have reached all-time highs. Wages, however, have not kept pace with overall economic growth since the recession, […]
By FOCUS, a Leonine Business In what has become a recurring nightmare for anyone who uses the internet these days, the global hotel chain Marriott recently announced that their online booking system was subject to a major data breach, resulting in the personal information of nearly 500 million guests being compromised. The full details […]
By FOCUS, A Leonine Business State alcohol laws are among the most rapidly changing in the country. FOCUS research shows that there have been at least 1,700 changes to state alcohol laws since 2012, amounting to roughly five changes per state per year. This rapid pace shows no sign of slowing down either, with […]
By FOCUS, a Leonine Company As more and more states prepare for the move into the retail marijuana market, including our neighbor to the north, Canada, two ballot initiatives in the Midwest could be the vanguard of the legalization movement’s march inward, away from left-leaning and coastal areas and into more traditionally conservative areas […]
