On June 25, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the launch of the California AI-Unemployment Tracker (CAIT), an early-warning system to help the state monitor anticipated AI job losses and trends. The dashboard was developed in partnership with the University of California California Policy Lab and released as part of the Governor’s recent executive order, which was issued to prepare workers, small businesses, and communities for the economic disruption that artificial intelligence will bring.
Earlier this spring, Maine lawmakers passed legislation creating the Maine Center for the Blue Economy, a state-sponsored economic development initiative focused on ocean-centered industry. Its creation stemmed from recommendations of the state’s Blue Economy Task Force, a group of industry, government, and institutional stakeholders. The center, which is expected to launch at the end of the month, aims to leverage Maine’s clean ocean brand to foster jobs, investment, and new business ventures across a range of marine-based sectors. Brian Whitney, the president of the Maine Technology Institute (MTI), will oversee the center.
Rhode Island lawmakers recently approved placement of a $100 million economic development bond on the Nov. 2026 ballot, with $45 million to support the state's life sciences and the continuation of the Rhode Island Life Science Hub (RILSH). Created in 2023 with $45 million in federal pandemic aid funds, RILSH’s funding expires this year. The RILSH created the Ocean State Labs, a Providence-based life sciences incubator built as part of an ambitious public-private effort in collaboration with Brown University.
Legislative attempts to get TBED-related issues on the California ballot this November were mixed. A $12 billion California bond initiative failed to pass out of the legislature in time for voter consideration in this November’s election. The measure would have established the California Science and Health Research Bond Act (Senate Bill 895), which sought to provide funding for health and science research, including at California universities, due to recent funding losses and cuts by the federal government, Voters will, however, get to decide the fate of the California Establish Immunology and Immunotherapy Research Institute Initiative, or Immunology Bond, which will be on the ballot. The Immunology Bond would provide $8.4 billion in state general obligation bonds to fund research into immunology and immunotherapy—earmarking half of the proposed bond to research on cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's disease—and requires funding recipients to sell technology and drugs derived from research in California for 20% below the national average price.
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson signed an executive order on June 25 establishing a 26-member Governor’s Economic Development Council. According to Ferguson, such a council has not been convened in two decades. Leaders from Microsoft, Boeing, Puget Sound Energy, the Washington State Labor Council and the state’s Building and Construction Trades Council are among those who will serve on the panel, as will Lt. Gov. Denny Heck, the lone elected state official, aside from Ferguson.