Further electoral reform protests are likely in Panama

Significance Amendments put forward by the legislature have been criticised by actors that helped create the draft text of the proposal, as undermining principles agreed by the electoral reform commission (CNRE). With President Laurentino Cortizo’s administration already accused of lacking transparency, the reform could provide a flashpoint for rising dissatisfaction with the government. Impacts More protests are likely to accompany the second and third readings of the bill in the current legislative session. Transparency concerns will increase scrutiny of government activity, especially regarding pandemic procurement. The long lead-time to the next elections will maintain electoral reform as an issue over the medium-term, during implementation.

Crossing Over: Majority Party Control Affects Legislator Behavior and the Agenda

Does majority party control cause changes in legislative policy making? We argue that majority party floor control affects legislator behavior and agenda control. Leveraging a natural experiment where nearly one tenth of a legislature’s members died within the same legislative session, we are able to identify the effect of majority party floor control on the legislative agenda and on legislator choices. Previous correlational work has found mixed evidence of party effects, especially in the mid-twentieth century. In contrast, we find that majority party control leads to (1) changes in the agenda and (2) changes in legislators’ revealed preferences. These effects are driven by changes in numerical party majorities on the legislative floor. The effects are strongest with Republican and nonsouthern Democratic legislators. The effects are also more pronounced on the first (economic) than the second (racial) dimension. Additional correlational evidence across 74 years adds external validity to our exogenous evidence.

Alaska

The Alaska State Legislature was scheduled to convene its Second Regular Session of the Thirty-First Legislative Session from January 21, 2020, through May 20, 2020. However, on March 29, 2020, the Alaska State Legislature, like other state legislatures, suspended its session effective immediately, in response to the coronavirus pandemic (“COVID-19”). While the suspension was initially continued through May 18, 2020, the Alaska Legislature formally adjourned on May 20, 2020. Given the adjournment, the legislature did not pass any substantive oil and gas legislation.

Congo launches landmark legislative session

Headline CONGO-KINSHASA: Parliament opens landmark session

Contributions on Computational Intelligence in the Medical Sector

Patients' treatments are becoming more personalized as healthcare becomes more commodified. Meeting this need requires not just a large allocation of capital, but also a comprehensive application of information, resulting in efforts like electronic health record standards. The quantity of medical data accessible for analytics and data extraction will grow rapidly as these become more mainstream. This is accompanied by an increase in new methods for non-invasive assessment and collection of medically important data in different forms, such as signals and pictures. Despite problems with standardization and availability, the enormous quantity of data that results is a significant tool for the machine learning industry. Biomedical CI technologies are already flourishing because of getting into this data stream. The legislative session "Computer science and information Intelligence in Biology and medicine" at ESANN addresses some of the field's most pressing issues. This paper introduces the session by highlighting a few of the submissions and pointing out possibilities and difficulties for CI in biomedicine.

A Lobbyist's Dilemma

Georgia Lobbyist, Jet Toney, didn't know what to do. There were 11 days left in the 2020 Georgia legislative session and the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Speaker of the House had decided, due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, to suspend the session to a time indeterminate. This had never happened, not even in wartime. Jet's oldest client, the Georgia Independent Colleges Association had a budget item and a bill they needed Jet to handle before the Session adjourned. Jet watched all his hard work evaporate as all 236 House and Senate Members scattered back across the state. With all no longer under the Capitol Gold Dome, what options did Jet have to preserve his successes and forge new ones?

New Mexico

Under the Produced Water Act (“Act”) enacted in the 2019 regular legislative session, the New Mexico Legislature authorized the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division (“OCD”) and the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission (“WQCC”) to regulate produced water resulting from oil and gas drilling or production. The Act governs the transportation and sale of produced water, recycled water (also referred to as recycled produced water), and treated water (also referred to as treated produced water).

Alaska

The First Regular Session of the thirty-first Alaska Legislature began on January 15, 2019, and ended on May 15, 2019. A First Special Session was held from May 16, 2019, through June 13, 2019, with a Second Special Session following from July 8, 2019, through August 6, 2019. The 2019 legislative session resulted in virtually no oil and gas legislation being passed, as the Alaska Legislature focused primarily on legislation regarding the State budget and the funding of the Permanent Fund Dividend. Despite the uncharacteristic lack of oil and gas legislation, the Legislature addressed the prevalent issue of oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (“ANWR”) through the passage of Senate Joint Resolution No. 7.

Conclusion

Major budget reform in Mississippi has occurred only twice in the last four decades, with the most significant reform occurring in the mid-1980s. No reform shaped Mississippi’s budget-making process more than the Mississippi Administrative Reorganization Act of 1984 (S.B. 3050, passed during the 1984 legislative session), which was passed not voluntarily by the legislature but as a result of a court order. The drastic budget reform would have not occurred if it had not been for then–Attorney General Bill Allain’s challenge to the structural makeup of the committee responsible for the budget-making process at the time, the Commission of Budget and Accounting. The state supreme court’s decision in ...