The Thicket at State Legislatures

The American Democracy Game

by Jan Goehring

Students can now step into the shoes of a lawmaker through NCSL's new online learning tool called The American Democracy Game. This interactive game, just released in 2012, teaches young people in middle school about the legislative process. The game allows the player to become a legislator and participate in the lawmaking process, learning basic lessons about how people disagree on issues and how those disagreements are resolved through debate, negotiation and compromise. Each of the three levels is designed to be played by an individual or in a classroom period. Issues include a community dog park, mandatory after-school exercise and the voting age. Supporting discussion guides and features that allow teachers to track student progress and provide NCSL feedback complement it.

The game is a product of NCSL's Trust for Representative Democracy and d'Vinci Interactive.

Play it today and test your skills.

Fantasy Teams Become a Reality

By Caitlin Rossiter

As March Madness wraps up this weekend, the focus shifts to summer and fall sports such as baseball and football. Eager sports fans begin to draft their teams for fantasy sports competitions. A fantasy sports competition, also known as rotisserie or roto, is a game in which people create a fantasy team out of actual sports players. This pretend team competes against other fantasy teams based on the statistics generated by real players that season. According to U.S. News and World Reports, nearly 30 million Americans play fantasy sports, generating up to $1 billion for the industry.  

In six states states, however, such fantasy competitions are subject to fines and criminal punishment: Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana (only unlawful by telephone or internet), and Vermont. The federal law, Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, exempts fantasy competitions, allowing states to decide how to enforce the law.  Proponents see fantasy competitions as a way to expand the fan base for national sports and promote camaraderie. Opponents associate such activities with the risk and chance of gambling, and note that under-the-table winnings are often not taxed.

Maryland lawmakers are debating a bill sponsored by Delegate John Olszewski Jr. concerning “Criminal Law—Betting, Wagering, and Gambling—Fantasy Competition,” that would exempt individuals in Maryland who place monetary wagers on fantasy games from currently applicable fines of up to $1,000 or imprisonment not to exceed one year. Since 2008, Olszewski bill has been criticized as not being a pertinent issue. Olszewski counters that the bill is necessary since the Maryland Department of Legislative Services concluded that fantasy sports are not gambling because winning is largely determined by an individual’s analytical skills of national sports statistics, and not based on chance. This year, Olszewski’s bill passed the House with an amendment and is making its way through the Senate. 

Louisiana lawmakers considered a similar bill in 2010 that failed 16 to 73 in the House. The penalty for participating in fantasy competitions in Louisiana is up to $500 or imprisonment for no more than six months. 

Although states have diverse laws regarding fantasy competitions, online fantasy sports leagues often tackle this muddy arena by posting disclaimers and legal notices encouraging individuals living in certain states to participate in free leagues, or leagues without entry fees, to earn points for purchasing prizes. So in the “buyer beware” market of fantasy sports competitions, if you choose to participate, know your sport stats and your state laws.

Online Gambling a Moneymaker for States?

By Alex Fitzsimmons

Some states are considering doubling down or cashing in on a new Justice Department opinion regarding online gambling.

According to the opinion, in-state Internet gambling does not violate federal law as long as it doesn't involve sports betting.

Issued just before Christmas, the opinion paves the way for states to move forward with stalled plans to introduce a variety of online gambling ventures. According to Politico, Washington, D.C., intends to offer online poker and blackjack by April, while Illinois plans to sell lottery tickets and New Jersey hopes to become the “epicenter” of online gambling.

It also protects the rights of states that oppose the expansion of online gambling, such as Florida, whose attorney general issued an opinion last week advising against the approval of new slot machines in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

The only problem: Congress is considering federal legislation, claiming that states lack the resources to enforce Internet gambling laws. States counter that a federal law would impinge on their rights. NCSL believes Congress must preserve state authority to allow or prohibit Internet gambling. Any federal action should respect the rights of states that choose to prohibit Internet gambling.

In 2006, Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which prohibits financial transactions in support of illegal online gambling. But Congress never defined “illegal online gambling,” except to exclude Internet gambling conducted solely within the boundaries of a state or tribe. This exclusion serves as the legal basis for state sovereignty over online gambling.

According to the American Gaming Association (AGA), online gambling revenues from U.S. bettors exceeded $4 billion in 2010, but most of those revenues went to offshore operators. In a white paper issued last year, the AGA outlined measures to legalize and regulate online gambling in the United States. These measures would secure the jobs and tax revenue Internet gambling generates while controlling potential social risks with tight regulation.

Whether states choose to fold 'em or hold 'em when it comes to online gambling remains to be seen.

Alex Fitzsimmons is an intern in the public affairs division in NCSL's Washington D.C. office.

Can you See Another State from your Capitol?

by Karl Kurtz

From the State House in Trenton, New Jersey there is a clear view across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. In the Google Earth image below, the complex of buildings below the "A" pin marker at the top right is the State House and the white line in the middle of the river at the lower level is the Pennsylvania border.

David April, the tour program coordinator for the New Jersey Legislature, wonders if his is the only state capitol from which one can see another state.

After some investigation, the only other capitol from which another state is visible that we know of for sure is Cheyenne, Wyoming. The Colorado border is only about 10 miles south of the Wyoming Capitol in Cheyenne, and one can see mountain peaks in the Centennial State from the Capitol.

Massachusetts is also just a few miles away from the State House in Providence, Rhode Island. Paula Dominguez, research director for the Rhode Island General Assembly, says that she lives in Rhode Island but has to drive through Massachusetts to get to the State House. But she says that the city of East Providence blocks the view from the capitol to the Bay State. Another friend in Providence reports, "On a clear day from the rim at almost the top of our dome (where no one is supposed to go, but some do), you possibly could be able to see across the bay toward the MA South Shore. I cannot say that I have seen that far, however."

Annapolis, Baton Rouge and Tallahassee are each about 30-40 miles from another state's border (Delaware, Mississippi and Georgia, respectively), but it seems unlikely that one can see that far from those capitols.

Corrections to this post are welcome! (See comments below.)

Hard to Get to State Capitals

by Karl Kurtz

How many state capitals don't have an airport with commercial air service? And how many are not on the interstate system? Those are the questions that fellow state capital trivia buff Bob Erickson of Nevada posed to us. With all the risks that lists like this pose (see "Where, Oh Where is My State Capital?"), I'll do my best to answer this question. Corrections are welcome.

The state capitals I know of that don’t have commercial air service are:

• Topeka (73 mi. from Kansas City International)
• Dover (42 mi. from New Castle airport and 68 mi. from Philadelphia)
• Montpelier (36 mi. from Burlington airport)
• Carson City (29 mi. from Reno airport)
• Annapolis (24 mi. from BWI)
• Frankfort (23 mi. from Lexington Blue Grass Field and 54 mi. from Louisville)
• Jefferson City (21 mi. from Columbia airport)
• Concord (19 mi. from Manchester).

If you factor in number of flights a day, then Jefferson City is the most difficult to reach by air, since there are only two flights a day into Columbia. The nearest major airport to Missouri's capital is Kansas City, 180 miles away. There are also only one or two commercial flights a day into Augusta, Pierre and Santa Fe, but at least they have airports in their own names. And how about Denver? It obviously has a major airport, but DIA is 25 miles away from the state capitol--about the same distance as many of the above capital cities are from a major airport.

The only state capitals that are not on an interstate highway are Carson City, Dover, Jefferson City, Juneau and Pierre. Juneau wins the prize for most inaccessible capital on this one because it’s the only capital that you cannot drive to from any other city in the state. A ferry or an airplane is necessary to get to Juneau.

Where, Oh Where is my State Capital?

by Karl Kurtz

Once you get started on state capital trivia, it's hard to stop. There's one city of more than 50,000 population that is closer to the state capitals of five other states than it is to its own state capital. What's the city (pictured at right)?

If that's too hard (the city is not famous), what region of what state do you think it's in? (Hint: Think about states that have borders with lots of other states.)

Answer below the jump.

More Capital City Trivia

by Karl Kurtz

A U.S. geography quiz in today's Christian Science Monitor feeds The Thicket's appetite for state capital trivia. The quiz includes one of our favorites, Which state capital has the smallest population?, as well as some classics like the state capitals that begin with the letter "S" or the letter "C" or the ones that are named after presidents.

There are 25 questions in the CSM quiz. I got 23 right, missing the one on the state that has two panhandles and suffering from my frequent confusion of which state has the smaller land area, Delaware or Rhode Island.

Here are some more state capital trivia questions:

1. What are the five state capitals that begin with "A"? (Hint: Four of them are east of the Mississippi R.)
2. What is the highest elevation state capital? (Hint: It's not Denver.) The lowest?
3. What are the four state capitals that begin with the same letter as their states?
4. What three state capitals border another state or country?
5. What six (maybe seven) state capitals lie on salt water?

Answers below the jump.

State Curiosities

by Karl Kurtz

A couple of intriguing web sites comparing the 50 states came over the transom (what's the electronic equivalent of that quaint phrase?) over the holidays. The first is the United States of Autocomplete, a site that categorizes the states according to how Google tries to autocomplete your query when you type the state's name. For example, type "Ohio" into Google and it suggests "Ohio State Football." Sports teams (blue on the map) and prominent state universities (green) were the most common types of autocompletes.

Recognizing that these autocomplete results change over time, the host web site, Big Think, carefully specifies that their results are for a certain half hour on Dec. 3, 2010. However, as numerous commenters point out, they don't qualify their results by saying that Google autocompletes vary by the location from which the search is conducted. One reader got wildly different results by conducting searches from the Czech Republic.

Results also vary by your own personal history of searching. In my case, for example, Ohio autocompleted as Ohio Senate ahead of the Buckeyes' football team. The poor Evergreen state, though: the state of Washington autocompletes as "Washington Post" for me just as it did for the authors on Dec. 3.

Another amusing comparative state web site is What's Your State Good At, which compiles #1 rankings for each state in some eclectic (and not always complimentary) categories. This web site also promotes renewable energy, so it adds an evaluation of how friendly policies in each state are toward energy efficiency, renewable technology and solar adoption. The emphasis of this site is on fun rather than systematic comparisons.

A rose from The Thicket to Steve Miller and Christy Delafield.

Don't Fight Civics, Enjoy it

by Karl Kurtz

Our Courts, the online education program about the American court system started by retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, has recently broadened its mission to include civic education in general and changed its name to iCivics. From their About page:

iCivics is a web-based education project designed to teach students civics and inspire them to be active participants in our democracy. iCivics is the vision of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who is concerned that students are not getting the information and tools they need for civic participation, and that civics teachers need better materials and support.

I was struck by the name change because a number of years ago I worked with the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools on an effort to find a new name for those yawn-inducing, so-1950s terms, "civics" and "civic education." The best "brand" that the PR firm the campaign hired could come up with was "educating for democracy." The campaign adopted that term but hasn't had much success in popularizing it--I think because it's not all that much better than civic education, and no one know what it means.

Now along comes iCivics and embraces the old term, adding a twist to make it young and cool. I admire their audacity in doing this. I find it clever despite my objection to the Apple-inspired practice of putting "i" before a word to try to make it contemporary and marketable. This fad (iFad?) has some of the same language laziness as adding -gate at the end of a word to turn it into a scandal.

Thanksgiving Trivia

We are talking turkey on this Thanksgiving holiday. Before you sit down at the dinner table, stuff yourself full of some useful trivia to share with family and friends. Here are a few questions to whet your appetite.

Which state produces the most turkeys?

Which state has a town named after the turkey?

Approximately what percentage of homes eat turkey on Thanksgiving?

And in what state is the Wild Turkey Center located?

For the answers to these questions and even more trivia, head to NCSL's website. You can gobble up all of our facts and impress your guests with your extended knowledge of the holiday!