Health Insurance For Minnesota Wisconsin Reciprocity

Concealed Handguns in New York City Backed by 243 in House

((Adds opposition of mayors’ group in 37th paragraph.))

Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- I’ve never touched a handgun and I haven’t been to Florida in decades, yet this month Florida officials mailed me a permit to carry a concealed gun.

If Congress adopts a bill that the National Rifle Association is pushing, Florida’s licenses would apply to 49 states in all -- allowing their holders to carry hidden guns in places such as midtown Manhattan, where the New York Police Department rejects most such applications for “concealed- carry” permits.

Only Illinois and Washington D.C., where residents aren’t allowed to carry concealed handguns at all, would be exempt.

Co-sponsored by more than half the members of the U.S. House, the bill requires any state or jurisdiction that issues concealed-weapons permits to honor permits granted by any other state or jurisdiction. Rules and standards -- including safety- training requirements -- for granting such licenses vary by state. New Mexico requires 16 hours of training. Ohio requires 12, Texas and Louisiana, 10. At least 10 states require none.

“Law-abiding people are not immune from crime just because they cross over a state border,” said Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the NRA. The 4 million-member gun-rights group has lobbied state legislatures to pass concealed-carry laws since the 1980s, and it considers the federal “reciprocity” bill a common-sense approach to the state-by-state patchwork of rules, he said.

‘So Ironic’

The bill “effectively prevents a state from controlling who has guns within the state, which has always been a core police power function of state government,” said John Donohue, a professor at Stanford Law School, who said he thinks it would be held unconstitutional. “It is so ironic that it is the conservatives who are trying to push this encroachment, since they usually are very active in championing states’ rights.

Daily Developments: MN Approves Change to Tuition Reciprocity ...

Under the new agreement, Wisconsin students attending college in Minnesota will have to make up the difference between Wisconsin ’ s and Minnesota’s resident rates—a cost that was previously covered by the State of Wisconsin.

The State of Minnesota on Monday signed a deal previously approved by Wisconsin that preserves an existing tuition reciprocity agreement but includes a change for Wisconsin students attending Minnesota schools.

The Minnesota-Wisconsin Interstate Tuition Reciprocity program allows residents from either state to attend public universities, colleges, and technical colleges in the other state at in-state tuition rates. The tuition charged by the school a student plans to attend in the other state is compared with a similar school in his or her own state, and the student pays the higher of the two rates.

Previously, if the Minnesota resident tuition rate exceeded the Wisconsin resident rate, the State of Wisconsin provided a reciprocity supplement to its residents to cover the difference. But under the change approved by Minnesota on Monday, that difference will now be paid by the student, said Peter Zammuto, grant specialist at the State of Wisconsin Higher Education Aids Board (HEAB).

Students starting in 2012 will have to pay the difference. Currently enrolled students and those who start this fall will not be affected until 2015, at which time no student will receive the supplement. Minnesota students attending college in Wisconsin will not be affected by the change.

More than 10,000 Wisconsin residents take advantage of the reciprocity program each year, according to a Monday press release from Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s office. While all Wisconsin residents are eligible, participation is not automatic. Students must complete an application form to be processed by HEAB.

Women's Health

Men's Health

Cutting for Stone

Water for elephants, a novel

The Case for Christ, A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus