News & Topics


  • California Supreme Court: Cities Can Ban Pot Dispensaries
  • The California Supreme Court gave local governments the power Monday to zone medical marijuana dispensaries out of existence, a decision that upholds bans in about 200 cities but does little to solve Los Angeles' struggle to regulate hundreds of storefront pot outlets.




  • Michigan Teachers Opt to Work for Rest of Year -- Even Without Pay
  • The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) recently decided to freeze the district’s April, May and June state aid payments after state officials discovered the district had received $580,000 in state aid for a program for incarcerated youths that the district no longer ran.

  • Solitary Confinement Under New Scrutiny
  • Over the last year, state and federal court rulings have limited the use of solitary units, which prison officials defend. State legislators, meanwhile, have proposed regulating them further.

  • Freedom of '3 Strikes' Law Prisoners Varies by County in California
  • Majorities in every California county voted last fall to scale back the state's Three Strikes law so thousands of inmates serving life sentences for relatively minor third offenses would have the chance to be set free. Five months later, there is no such unanimity among counties when it comes to carrying out the voters' wishes.



  • Georgia Doled Out Economic Incentives Despite Red Flags
  • State officials who awarded hundreds of millions of dollars to lure jobs here sometimes missed critical red flags in vetting the grant recipients.

  • Christie Underwent Weight-Loss Surgery
  • Gov. Chris Christie — whose weight has long been the subject of public worry and late-night talk show jokes — said he underwent lap-band stomach surgery in February.




  • States' Seek Limits on Undisclosed Political Donations
  • States are trying to figure out ways to stem the tide of the secret money that played an unprecedented role in the 2012 election cycle. The first step is to force tax-exempt advocacy organizations and trade associations out of the shadows.


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