* New York Times…

(W)hen Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York needed to dream up something exceptionally grand this year for the annual State of the State address, the Manhattan ghostwriting firm was a good fit. For $25,000, it helped hire a writer to produce a 277-page book, “Achieving the New York Dream,” that outlined Ms. Hochul’s agenda and set the stage for budget fights over housing policy, tax rates and the state’s bail law that continue. […]

Although she has no shortage of in-house communicators, policy analysts and budget experts at her disposal, Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, has spent nearly $2 million on additional help, mostly on the giant consulting firms Deloitte Consulting and the Boston Consulting Group, in shaping her vision for the state delivered each January. […]

Representatives of three of Ms. Hochul’s predecessors — Andrew M. Cuomo, David A. Paterson and George E. Pataki — said they had never paid for outside help to prepare for the annual address. […]

Julie Wood, a spokeswoman for Ms. Hochul, said the outside firms had played supporting roles, helping Ms. Hochul’s policy team catalog proposals from across state agencies to present them to the governor and her senior advisers. Ms. Wood noted that Ms. Hochul had just a short time to hire her own staff and prepare for her 2022 speech, which took place less than five months after she was sworn into office.

Wait. She had five months? And that’s considered a short time in New York? Are you kidding me?

Just as an example, JB Pritzker was first sworn in on January 14, 2019. His budget/State of the State address was given one month later, on February 20th. And he was facing a $3.2 billion budget deficit plus a $15 billion backlog of unpaid bills.

Five months? Sheesh.

* Washington Post…

This week the Justice Department arrested two Americans for operating a secret Chinese police station in New York City and separately charged 44 Chinese officials with enforcing Chinese laws on U.S. soil. These actions spotlight a tiny piece of the network Beijing uses to exert influence inside the United States. Tackling this complex issue will require greater American awareness, sensitivity and action.

Until the FBI raided the facility in October, a Chinese government-controlled police outpost in Manhattan coordinated widespread harassment of U.S.-based critics of the Chinese Communist Party, according to the U.S. government. Although this seems to have been China’s first such operation inside the United States, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security has established more than 100 illegal police stations around the world. […]

What the criminal complaint doesn’t explain is how this police station fits into the larger picture of Chinese influence operations.

The station’s location offers one clue. The building was rented by the America Changle Association, a charity that claims to assist Chinese and Chinese Americans. The IRS revoked its tax-exempt status last May after it failed to file proper paperwork for three years. Nevertheless, just months later, the group was able to attract several prominent New York politicians to its gala, including Mayor Eric Adams.

Chicago’s current mayor has many faults, but cavorting at galas with secret Chinese agents likely isn’t one of them.

* On to Iowa…

The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Gov. Kim Reynolds that seeks to require her office to respond to public record requests.

The court in a unanimous decision rejected Reynolds’ argument that her office wasn’t obligated to respond in a timely matter to record requests and that she could avoid the state’s open records law by simply ignoring the requests. The Supreme Court ordered that the case be returned to the district court where it would be decided on its merits.

“The governor’s office wanted a rule that it and its agencies can ignore public records requests without any consequences,” said Thomas Story, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, which represented three media organizations. “Instead, the Iowa Supreme Court has ruled that nobody is above the law.”

Illinois’ FOIA laws may need to be tweaked, but that’s a bit much.

* So far, it’s just a bill. But it’s also Iowa…

Iowa children would be allowed to work longer hours, including in jobs that are currently prohibited such as serving alcohol, under a bill passed by the Iowa Senate early Tuesday morning after a marathon session.

The Senate voted 32-17 just before 5 a.m. Tuesday to pass Senate File 542. Two Republicans, Sens. Charlie McClintock, R-Alburnett, and Jeff Taylor, R-Sioux Center, broke with their colleagues to join every Democrat in opposition.

The House must still pass the bill before it could go to Gov. Kim Reynolds for her signature.

* North Dakota…

North Dakota’s Republican Gov. Doug Burgum signed a bill into law that restricts transgender health care in the state, immediately making it a crime to give gender-affirming care to people younger than 18.

Gender-affirming care for minors has been available in the U.S. for more than a decade and is endorsed by major medical associations, but it has increasingly come under attack in many conservative legislatures, including North Dakota’s, where lawmakers have passed at least three anti-trans bills this year.

* And, of course, Florida…

The Florida Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that would prohibit investment strategies that Gov. Ron DeSantis has deemed “woke,” sending the issue to his desk.

The Republican-controlled Senate voted 28-12 along party lines to prohibit consideration of “environmental, social and governance” standards in investing government money. The bill (HB 3), a priority of House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, passed the House last month.

The bill also would prohibit financial institutions from engaging in any “unsafe and unsound practice” or applying a “social credit score” when offering services. They wouldn’t be able to deny or cancel services to people based on political opinions, affiliation or speech.

The measure would expand on a directive issued last year by DeSantis and state Cabinet members requiring investment decisions in the Florida Retirement System Defined Benefit Plan to prioritize the highest returns without consideration of the standards known as “ESG.”

Haven’t seen anything yet about if this would effect Florida’s anti-BDS law.

* Texas…

In July 2020, at the height of protests over the murder of George Floyd by a police officer, Daniel Perry considered killing someone.

“I might have to kill a few people on my way to work, they are rioting outside my apartment complex,” Perry, then a 35-year-old Army sergeant, wrote to a friend, the Austin Chronicle reported. It wasn’t the first time Perry had spoken about killing people on social media or in messages with friends. On another occasion, Perry mused, “I might go to Dallas to shoot looters.”

After all this talk, Perry did shoot a Black Lives Matter protester in downtown Austin, an Air Force veteran and libertarian activist named Garrett Foster, who had been legally carrying an AK-47 at the protest. Perry, who was working as a rideshare driver, sped his car into the crowd, witnesses said, then opened fire on Foster. Perry claimed that he had acted in self-defense and that Foster had been raising his rifle, but prosecutorial witnesses told the jury during his trial that Foster had done nothing of the sort. “I believe he was going to aim at me,” Perry told police in an initial interview, having called law enforcement and turned himself in after the shooting. “I didn’t want to give him a chance to aim at me.”​​

Thursday night, the judge in Perry’s case unsealed a filing that also contained messages the jury did not see before the verdict. The document shows Perry sharing racist memes, referring to Black protesters as “monkeys,” and musing about “hunting Muslims in Europe.” Perry’s attorneys are reportedly seeking a new trial. […]

Convicted of murder, Perry became a right-wing political martyr. Last weekend, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott announced that he would ask the Texas parole board to recommend a pardon for Perry, following coverage from the Fox News host Tucker Carlson portraying his conviction as unjust and criticizing Abbott. Carlson characterized Perry’s conviction by a jury of his peers in one of the most pro-gun states in the union, not as a result of the atypical volume of evidence, but as a conspiracy by the liberal billionaire George Soros, who paid “people to put his political opponents in jail.” Fox News has a disproportionate influence over the only constituency Abbott heeds, which is Republican primary voters.