Jon Davis

By next year, school districts across Iowa must begin to provide at least an hour of annual training on suicide prevention and “postvention” — the coordinated school response following a student’s suicide — for all licensed personnel who have regular contact with students.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has signed into law nine welfare reform bills as part of what he has called his  “Wisconsin Works for Everyone” plan.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the bills require able-bodied FoodShare program participants with school-age dependents to work 30 hours per week (up from 20); create drug testing and work requirements for public housing programs; and put asset limits on the FoodShare and Welfare to Work programs, excluding those with homes valued at or above $321,000 and personal vehicles worth more than $20,000.

Ridership on the region’s state-supported passenger rail routes has increased on almost every line over the past decade, according to Amtrak ridership data tracked by the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission.

North Dakota legislators sued Gov. Doug Burgum in December, alleging he overstepped his line-item veto authority by deleting words or phrases in ways that changed legislative intent. The state’s Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, and gave the governor’s office until Jan. 16 to file a response.