Dillon Carr began Monday as a staff writer for Gongwer News Service with a focus on courts, transportation and more.

Carr joins Gongwer after more than a decade in journalism, most recently as lead reporter for the Ashland Source.

An Ohio State University alumnus, Carr spent prior stints at Trib Total Media in Pittsburgh and served for a year as an adjunct faculty member advising Ashland University's The Collegian during his time with Source Media Properties.

He can be reached at dcarr@gongwer-oh.com.

The next step in Gongwer upgrading its services on our new State Affairs platform will take place this month. All emails that subscribers receive will point to the new enhanced platform instead of gongwer-oh.com, making pro.stateaffairs.com/oh your primary platform for your Gongwer content and services.

State Affairs is poised to deliver countless new features and services in the near future that will further enhance your subscription.

Here are some important details to help you during this transition.

If you have not logged into your new Gongwer account at pro.stateaffairs.com/oh, you should do so today.

Logging in to the Gongwer experience on State Affairs assures that once all emails start coming from State Affairs, you'll have access to all Gongwer stories when clicking on any of the links in the nightly Ohio Report email.

We recommend adding stateaffairs.com to your allowed senders list to make sure important messages get through.

For subscribers who track bills, once this transition occurs, you MUST begin tracking bills at pro.stateaffairs.com/oh to receive alerts when those bills see action.

Gongwer has migrated all your previously tracked bills and groups at gongwer-oh.com to your State Affairs account. Please contact us if you need assistance confirming whether your tracked bills successfully migrated.

Starting later this month, all new bill tracking must occur at pro.stateaffairs.com/oh for you to receive alerts, and tracking on the Gongwer platform will be disabled. After December, we will no longer sync bill tracking from gongwer-oh.com to our platform on State Affairs.

Logging into Gongwer at pro.stateaffairs.com/oh unlocks several new features:

Your access to gongwer-oh.com remains unchanged. And it's still your source for Gongwer's news archives, our elections database and our extensive legislation database.

These services will eventually be added to the State Affairs platform.

We are excited to bring you the future of Gongwer, combining our best-in-class reporting and tracking tools with next generation technologies. Thank you for subscribing.

BOSTON — When thousands of state lawmakers, legislative aides, industry lobbyists and other politicos flock to the newly renamed Thomas Michael Menino Convention & Exhibition Center in Boston next week, it may mark a record-breaking affair.

More than 8,000 people have registered for the National Conference of State Legislatures' annual summit, a tally that is "almost certainly the second-largest legislative summit NCSL has ever held," according to Tim Storey, the bipartisan organization's CEO. Legislative leaders said they expect 9,000 people to travel to Massachusetts for the event.

And as the nationwide organization representing state legislatures across the country celebrates its 50th anniversary, the summit "will make a pretty strong run" at the all-time summit attendance record, which also happened in Boston in 2007.

House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Limachr(59) Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Greenchr(59) Rep. Bob Peterson, R-Sabina will be among those in attendance. They will also be participating in panels, as will John Barron, the chief of staff and general counsel for Ohio Senate Republicans.

Other Ohio lawmakers confirmed to attend are: Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbuschr(59) Sen. Nathan Manning, R-N. Ridgevillechr(59) Rep. Kellie Deeter, R-Norwalkchr(59) Rep. Angela King, R-Celinachr(59) Rep. Roy Klopfenstein, R-Havilandchr(59) Rep. Gayle Manning, R-N. Ridgevillechr(59) Rep. Ty Mathews, R-Findlaychr(59) Rep. Melanie Miller, R-Ashlandchr(59) Rep. Sharon Ray, R-Wadsworthchr(59) Rep. Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hillchr(59) and Rep. Heidi Workman, R-Rootstown, along with another 15 or so House Democrats.

Numerous staff members are also planning to attend.

The three-day conference that begins Monday will touch on many of the biggest issues lawmakers face in Massachusetts and dozens of other states. Panel topics range from artificial intelligence to Medicaid cuts to cannabinoids to name, image and likeness rights.

It will also be, for many attendees, a networking and social bonanza. The first night features a kickoff event at TD Garden, and Olympian and Boston Marathon winner Meb Keflezighi will help host a 5K fun run at Castle Island early Tuesday morning.

More than 1,600 legislators are expected to attend, representing over one-fifth of all state lawmakers across the country, according to Storey, who on Tuesday previewed the summit in a webinar hosted by State Affairs and Pluribus News.

Nine of the sessions will be livestreamed to assist those unable to travel to the convention center. Over the course of the three days, dozens of different discussions and events will take place.

"Gosh, there's so many, man," Storey mused while recounting what he's most excited to see.

Lawmakers will also get exclusive access to one of two speaking programs.

On Monday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker will address Democratic legislators at a closed-door lunch, while Chris LaCivita, the 2024 co-campaign manager for President Donald Trump, will speak to Republican state legislators at a similar event. Attendance is limited only to lawmakers.

Huffman will moderate the conversation with LaCivita. He will also join a panel Wednesday at 10 a.m. for a session called "Federalism in Action: States' Roles in Our Constitutional Framework."

Also on Monday, Barron will serve as a moderator for a discussion about the evolution of legislative staffing levels.

Gavarone will speak as part of a panel about foreign influence in state politics, which will be livestreamed Monday at 4 p.m.

A panel that will include Peterson will discuss historic preservation tax incentives at the same time.

Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka is set to speak at the opening session at 9 a.m. Monday, according to NCSL's agenda. She'll be joined by Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, Utah Senate President Pro Tem Wayne Harper, former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and columnist and radio host Michael Smerconish.

Spilka will also talk at the closing session at 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, where stage actor Leslie Odom Jr. "will perform and inspire," according to NCSL.

Supporters expect the event to be a financial boost to Boston, especially with so many guests from other states heading to town. Spilka on Monday said the event has a projected "positive economic impact" of $11.2 million.

Editor's Note: This story was written by State Affairs Massachusetts, a Gongwer partner organization. Gongwer and its partners will have extensive coverage of the NCSL conference, which lasts from Monday to Wednesday.

Mike Livingston, Gongwer's long-time assistant editor and former staff writer, has been named editor of the Gongwer News Service Ohio Report.

Krista Kano, Gongwer's beat reporter on the state budget and human services issues, has been named assistant editor.

Livingston joined Gongwer in 2015, primarily covering energy and utility issues. He was named assistant editor in 2022. A graduate of Purdue University, he is the treasurer of the Ohio Legislative Correspondents Association and president of the Society of Professional Journalists Central Ohio Chapter. Prior to joining Gongwer, he reported for the Journal & Courier in Lafayette, Indiana. He can be reached at mlivingston@gongwer-oh.com.

Kano joined Gongwer in 2022 after working as a community reporter at the Akron Beacon Journal. She also worked previously at the Record-Courier in Kent and at Chagrin Valley Publishing. Kano graduated from Boston University, where she covered the Massachusetts State House. She can be reached at kkano@gongwer-oh.com.

Joining Gongwer as a staff writer is Paige Fisher, a graduate of Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Communications. Fisher is a former reporter with The Post in Athens and reported for The Portager in Kent. A native of Thornville, she was also editor and reporter of her hometown's The General Idea and a department editor for Southeastern Ohio Magazine. At Gongwer, Fisher will cover several beats, including politics and elections. She can be reached at pfisher@gongwer-oh.com.

Livingston succeeds Kent Cahlander, who has retired from Gongwer after 27 years. He was Gongwer's editor for more than 20 years, covering countless lawmakers and governors, and taking a special interest in state budgets and tax policy.

Gongwer News Service today announced a new feature that lets subscribers keep clients, associates and members informed about legislative activity: automated email scheduling and delivery of bill status reports.

With this new service, subscribers can now schedule their status reports to be automatically sent by email on the days and times that work best for their audience – eliminating the need for manual report generation and sending.

Subscribers can choose which reports they want to send and when. Once schedules are set, there is no need to manually create and send reports.

Scheduled sends can be activated by clicking the Share or Schedule link on the Gongwer Bill Tracking page. Clicking Schedule will launch a page that allows subscribers to pick the Tracking Group they want to schedule, choose the recipients and set the time and frequency of how often updates are distributed.

Whether you're updating clients on legislative developments, keeping association members informed, communicating with constituents or briefing internal teams, this new tool saves time and streamlines your reporting workflow. Simply choose your recipients, set your preferred schedule and Gongwer's system will deliver your reports.

Additional service enhancements are under development. Subscribers are welcome to send suggestions – or request a demo of the new automated send feature – to info@gongwer-oh.com or via this suggestion/tip form.

Gongwer's Statehouse Job Market has been updated. The update is available on the Gongwer website.

Subscribers interested in posting job openings on Gongwer's employment board can send job descriptions and other information to gongwer@gongwer-oh.com.