Preschool Is for Real

STATELINE
Faster Permits for Free-Range Deer 2
Drivers who kill deer in auto crashes in Wisconsin now don’t have to
wait as long to start preparing their critter dinner. The state recently
streamlined the process of acquiring the permit necessary to keep
the game meat. Motorists simply contact a Department of Natural
Resources call center, which can issue a permit by email at
any time of day or night. In the past, motorists were required
to call local police who sent an officer to issue a permit before an
animal carcass could be removed from a crash site. About 26,000 deer
are killed by vehicles every year, according to the DNR. Drivers have 24
hours to request a permit, and still must contact police if crash damage to a
vehicle is $1,000 or more, or if a turkey or bear was involved.
Alexander Hamilton: That’s a Rap 1
Founding Father Alexander Hamilton is still making
connections, long after his fatal encounter with
Aaron Burr along the Hudson River in 1804. Two state
senators—Chap Petersen and Donald McEachin, both
Virginia Democrats—claim ancestry with Hamilton,
and now the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury
is the subject of a well-received Broadway musical,
titled simply “Hamilton.” Lin-Manuel Miranda, who
conceived, wrote the lyrics and music for, and stars
in the production, has said his inspiration was the
best-selling biography “Alexander Hamilton,” by the
historian Ron Chernow. The hip-hop connection?
Miranda told the New York Times that he saw in
Hamilton’s difficult childhood echoes of rap stars
Jay Z, Eminem and Biggie Smalls. “I recognized the
arc of a hip-hop narrative in Hamilton’s life,” he said.
And hip-hop was the perfect musical style for a story
set during the American Revolution, because it’s “the
language of youth and energy and rebellion.”
5 Tears in Their Craft Beers?
Colorado is a leader on retail marijuana, but when it comes to beer, some say
the state is stuck in the past along with Kansas, Minnesota, Oklahoma and
Utah, all of which limit grocery stores to selling the low-alcohol 3.2 version.
Lawmakers’ efforts over the years to revise the laws, which date to the
1930s, have gone flat. But things could change if the group Colorado
Consumers for Choice gathers enough signatures to put the
question on the 2016 ballot. “Since 1933, we have invented
soft-serve ice cream, rock ’n’ roll, space travel, the Internet
and the cellphone, but you still can’t buy real beer or
wine in a Colorado grocery store,” the group’s website
says. On the other side is Keep Colorado Local,
a group of liquor store owners, craft brewers,
distillers and winemakers who say changing
the laws would put jobs and the state’s
$1.15 billion craft brewing industry at
risk. It might be the voters who make
the last call.
3Pot-Free Parkland
With illegal pot operations on the rise in California’s parklands and forests since voters
approved medical marijuana use in 1996, a new law gives the state Department of
Fish and Wildlife more power to fight back. “Some of these unregulated grow-sites
are responsible for the release of rodenticides, highly toxic insecticides, chemical
fertilizers, fuels and hundreds of pounds of waste dumped into the surrounding
habitats and watershed systems,” Senator Bill Monning (D) said. In addition, at a
time when the state faces historic drought conditions, some growers steal water by
constructing dams or diversions. Monning’s bill, signed recently by Governor Jerry
Brown, sets fines of up to $40,000 for illegally dumping many kinds of hazardous
materials into rivers and streams, and up to $10,000 for removing trees or trapping
and killing wildlife, the Los Angeles Times reported.
4Good Snooze for Students
New Jersey lawmakers sent Governor Chris Christie a bill requiring
a study of the benefits of later start times in middle and high
schools. The legislation, which Christie signed this summer,
comes amid growing concern from health officials that teens
aren’t getting enough sleep. A recent Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention report linked lack of sleep to health
risks—being overweight, drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco,
using drugs—as well as failing classes. And the American
Academy of Pediatrics last year reported that later school
start times are more in line with teens’ biological sleep
patterns. Under the law, the Department of Education will
look at the effects of starting school at 8:30 a.m. or later,
as recommended by the pediatricians’ group. Currently,
about 85 percent of
New Jersey middle
and high schools start
before 8:30, according
to the CDC. Some
school leaders and
parents say delays
could conflict with
extracurricular
activities and family
schedules, but
most New Jersey
students no doubt
are wondering,
What took you so
long?
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015 12 STATE LEGISLATURES