Political Watch 4th of October

Welcome to the first edition of Political Watch for October 2021. As always we will continue our weekly updates to keep you informed about what the Government is upto. This week was business as usual until Mohn Nash was apparently kidnapped on the 2nd/3rd, we believe he is fine and well, however haven’t been able to obtain a comment on the situation. If you have any information, you can let us know via the Weazel News tipline: http://tinyurl.com/wztipline

Renewed Calls for a Secret Service

Representative’s Nash’s kidnapping has renewed election campaign conversation about establishing a Secret Service, Governor Candidate Justine Stiletto one of many campaign promises was to create a Secret Service to protect and serve Public Officials and with the recent kidnapping of Mohn Nash, it’s serves as a reminder of how many incidents could have been prevented by a protective detail.

The Death of Representative Evan Lee may have been prevented, the kidnapping of Representative Becks Lawson could have been stopped and now the new incident where Representative Mohn Nash was kidnapped could have been stopped. 

Press Secretary for the State Legislature released a statement regarding the kidnapping and the renewed calls for a Secret Service

A Exclusive Weazel News poll found that 72% would be in favour of a Taxpayer Funded Secret Service to protect public officials from acts of crime against them. Out of that 72%, 31% would be happy with a 24/7 security service, while the remaining 41% would prefer an “as required” protective detail arrangement to not waste resources.

State Government News

On Tuesday, Executive Nomination Papers were passed, nominating and confirming Alan Evis to the position of State Public Defender and nominating and confirming Cole Gordon to the position of State Attorney. 

Legislation Watch

H.R. 040 Whistleblower Protection Act of 2021

• H.R. 040 has been jointly introduced by Representatives, Jackson, Lawson, Nark and Nash.
• This bill is designed in a way which protects people who make “good faith reports of suspected fraud, corruption, or other improper governmental activity.”
• It allows of the reporting of these issues to Employers, the Police, the Department of Justice or News Agencies
• The bill also ensure employee protections against unfair dismissal or treatment if they disclosed information which fits into the previously mentioned report criteria.

This bill has not been voted on.

H.R. 041 Amendments to the San Andreas Criminal Code, October 2021

• H.R. 041 has been introduced by Representative Jackson
• The bill amends the criminal code in two sections
  • The first is changing the terminology around marijuana possession from “standard units” to “standard bags” and further clarifies that a standard bag is 5 grams of marijuana. 
  • The second changes the maximum sentence/fine of Possessing Counterfeit Bills, it changes the maximum sentence from 20 bills to 5 bills. With this amendment, every 5 counterfeit bills in a person’s possession would have them charged an additional $250, instead of every 20 counterfeit bills.

This bill has not been voted on.

H.R. 042 Amendments to H.R. 004 – The San Andreas Flight Regulations Act of 2021

• H.R. 042 has been jointly introduced by Representatives Jackson and Nash
• It requires anyone who has a media certification rating to call 311 to inform law enforcement of their plans to follow a police chase or cover a matter involving police.

This bill has not been voted on.

H.R. 043 Amendments to Government Salary and Pay Schedule Act of 2021.

• This bill changes the pay rate of Court Clerks to $40,000 per month as a salary, or $110 hourly.

This bill has not been voted on.

H.R. 039, the Government Salary and Pay Schedule Act was voted on and passed in the third session of the San Andreas Legislature. The government then signed the bill in under 30 minutes of the law passing.

H.R. 034, the Conflict of Interest Act, still being debated and hasn’t been voted on. 

Department of Commerce and Labor Update

The Department of Commerce has updated it’s Business limitations list to include that Cayo Perico businesses are not being processed at this time. It’s also noted blueprints are in the backlog, requests and development of blueprints could take some time.

In a second update, the Department reminds all of the updated tax payment system. Payment notifications will occur on days 7, 5, and 3 before the payment is required. An invoice will be sent 24 hours before payment is required, once the payment is sent the 31 day clock starts counting down and the process repeats.

Remote business licence meetings are now occurring, in this case you won’t need to meet with a DoCL employee, you will just need to file paperwork and communicate via the licencing process.

A business Liaison has been appointed jointly with the Governor, Caster Taylor is taking this role and according to the release the job of business liaison is to “help answer questions and concerns when we are unable to.”