Source: Arizona Republic | Arizona |
March 12, 2013
State officials have won a significant legal battle in a long-running saga over a controversial Tucson schools ethnic-studies program, with a federal judge ruling that a law designed to ban it is constitutional.
Thirteen states last year adopted laws that require schools to identify, intervene and, in many cases, retain students who fail a reading proficiency test by the end of third grade. Lawmakers in several other states and the District are debating similar measures.
Source: Des Moines Register | Iowa |
March 12, 2013
The public will never know and authorities can never check to see if applicants in O’Brien or Woodbury counties were honest when they applied for permits to carry weapons.
Many of the state's policymakers and regulators have come from or go straight to jobs in the oil and gas industry they oversee, according to a report that questions the impacts of such a "revolving door" on public policy decisions.
Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his longtime contractor friend Bobby Ferguson were convicted of racketeering and extortion, marking an end to a more than decade-long public corruption investigation.
Opposing certain bills will land Gov. Rick Scott in the doghouse with Republicans and put him at odds with former Gov. Jeb Bush, whose nonprofit foundation has driven Florida's education agenda for more than a decade.
The overhaul raised the retirement age and lowered the benefits for public employees hired as of Jan. 1 of this year. It also changed the way pensions are calculated, which slices into benefits for workers who were on the job before then.
Source: Christian Science Monitor | Nation |
March 11, 2013
A day after the Georgia legislature ended bans on guns in bars, churches, and college classrooms, South Dakota passed the first law in the nation aimed expressly at allowing school districts to arm teachers.
Source: Wall Street Journal | Nation |
March 11, 2013
The epidemic in painkiller-abuse gripping the Southern and Eastern U.S. is tightening its hold on the Western part of the country, having blindsided law enforcement and public health authorities.
Gov. Rick Snyder said the appointment of an emergency manager for Detroit would likely come swiftly if appeal arguments from the Detroit City Council fail to change his mind.
Source: Washington Post | Virginia |
March 11, 2013
In his final push in the General Assembly this year, the governor backed successful bills to reform the state's schools. But on some signature issues, he fell short.