Arkansas: House revises religion bill. In response to growing criticism that it authorized discrimination against gays, including a call from Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) to modify the bill, the state House of Representatives revised the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to bring it more into line with federal law. The new version passed the Senate and now goes to Hutchinson, who is expected to sign it, reports the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ……. South Carolina: Haley for president? “I was just in Iowa over the weekend,” Gov. Nikki Haley (R) said in a press conference on April 1, “and it was interesting.” Then a reporter asked her what she was doing in Iowa, home of the first presidential caucuses of 2015. “April Fools!” answered the governor ……. Georgia: Deal signs new law on high school diplomas. It used to be that high school seniors who failed to pass a graduation test were not granted a diploma. That law was repealed in 2011, but some 9,000 students who failed to graduate when the law was in force were out of luck. Until now. This week Gov. Nathan Deal (R) signed into law a bill that allowed those students to receive a high school diploma even as if current laws, which do not mandate the test, were in effect …….
