Publications

April 2014 ~ Stateline Midwest »

Since 1996, states have had the authority under federal law to require welfare recipients to undergo drug testing.

In recent years, more and more legislatures have given serious consideration to using this authority, including a handful of states in the Midwest. Kansas and Minnesota are among the nine U.S. states with drug-testing laws already in place, and according to the Center for Law and Social Policy, at least 30 states considered bills last year (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and North Dakota among them). 

Will Longwitz was sitting in his office in Washington, D.C., when Hurricane Katrina hit his home state of Mississippi in 2005.

Days passed and he hadn’t heard from his family and friends....

The popular perception that interstate compacts provide a tool for states to work cooperatively to avoid a federally mandated solution is true, but the long held opinion oversimplifies the use of compacts....

Many states are following a new path to economic development—retraining their workforce for jobs of the 21st century. Wisconsin is one of those states. Its Fast Forward Initiative allocates state funds to help companies train new and current employees, administered through a grant application program. Two Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development officials—Deputy Secretary Jonathan Barry and Scott Jansen, administrator of the Division of Employment and Training—will discuss the state’s retraining efforts during an April 21 webinar, “Training for Today: Retraining the Workforce for 21st Century Jobs.” The webinar, presented by Capitol Ideas magazine and CSG’s State Pathways to Prosperity initiative, will begin at 11 a.m. EDT.