Lead testing bill clears Statehouse
A bill that requires schools across Indiana to test their water for lead contamination has passed the Statehouse and is headed to the governor’s desk.
A bill that requires schools across Indiana to test their water for lead contamination has passed the Statehouse and is headed to the governor’s desk.
Despite a push from Indiana House lawmakers to clarify in state code whether Attorney General Curtis Hill could remain in office if his law license is suspended, state legislators failed to pass a bill before adjourning this year’s session Wednesday night.
Indiana’s governor is endorsing a proposal that could force the state’s attorney general from office if his law license is suspended over allegations he drunkenly groped a state legislator and three other women.
The only thing certain in the discipline case against Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill is uncertainty. That’s the consensus of legislative and political leaders responding to the recommendation that the Republican AG serve a 60-day suspension without automatic reinstatement.
After a federal appellate court stopped Indiana’s process for removing ineligible voters from the registration rolls, the state is still looking for a way to clean its voter lists. But a new system being considered by the Legislature is not gaining support among voting rights groups and could spark more litigation.
From 2017 through 2019, nine legislators exited the Statehouse before their terms expired, requiring the state’s caucus system to ramp up to handle the large number of vacancies and bringing renewed attention to political party processes that choose who will represent voters. At present, 21.3% of Indiana legislators first entered the Statehouse through a caucus election.
The Indiana Senate has approved legislation that would ban drivers from holding cellphones while operating a motor vehicle.
“How many more victims will there be?” Dawn Price, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, posed that question before the Indiana House Courts and Criminal Code Committee on Wednesday while testifying in support of legislation that would extend the amount of time victims have to prosecute their perpetrators.
Questions about whether minor felonies reduced to misdemeanor convictions should trigger new five-year waiting periods for people seeking a criminal expungement caused confusion Thursday among some members of the Indiana Supreme Court.
Indiana’s governor said Tuesday he would keep pushing for a law requiring more businesses to provide workplace accommodations for pregnant women, even though the state Senate rebuffed his proposal last week.
A bill that would have done away with the statute of limitations for certain child sex abuse crimes is making headway in the 2020 Indiana General Assembly. But some advocates are disappointed in how the bill has panned out.
Indiana teachers who carry guns in schools would need to undergo annual training under a proposal advancing in the state Legislature.
Despite opposition from nearly all of the organizations and individuals who testified, a bill that would allow the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor over certain cases that a local prosecutor declines to prosecute advanced out of an Indiana Senate committee.
A bill increasing the penalties for juvenile offenders passed a Senate committee Tuesday night despite more than an hour of testimony from judges, attorneys, social workers, pastors and former inmates who all voiced strong and sometimes emotional opposition.
Alleged child sex crime victims would be subjected to discovery depositions only in rare circumstances under a bill that passed the Indiana Senate on a nearly unanimous vote. Adoption of the legislation would remove Indiana from the handful of states that do not shield child sex crimes victims from pretrial depositions.
Indiana lawmakers are considering making another change to the state’s business personal property tax — a move that could affect tens of thousands of small businesses.
Despite unanimous opposition from nearly all of the organizations and individuals who testified, a bill that would allow the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor over certain cases that a local prosecutor declines to prosecute has advanced out of an Indiana Senate committee.
More Indiana businesses would have to allow pregnant women to take longer breaks, transfer to less physical work and take unpaid time off after childbirth under a proposal state lawmakers are considering.
A bill mandating tougher penalties for juvenile defendants, including allowing 12-year-olds to be waived to adult court for attempted murder, is scheduled to be heard in a legislative committee Tuesday, but already strong opposition is mounting with both state and national organizations warning of the consequences.
The Indiana House passed a bill Tuesday that would prevent companies from requiring their employees to be microchipped. The bill passed without a vote in opposition and moves to the state Senate.