Washington

HANDS off our clocks! In a dozen states, daylight saving time is under siege.

Some elected state officials in the US are considering legislation to opt out of changing the clocks, either by remaining permanently on daylight saving time or standard time. Standard time is in place from November to mid-March, after which time clocks move one hour ahead to daylight saving time, leaving eight months with later sunrises and sunsets. Time can be quite a controversial issue. In 2005, then-Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, Republican, suffered some political blowback after he pushed hard for the state to universally adopt daylight saving time. Opponents of daylight saving time say that it causes a major disruption to sleep and that the switch is associated with an increase in workplace accidents and other health risks.