Source: Detroit Free Press | Detroit |
May 9, 2013
Four employees who tested positive for cocaine or high blood-alcohol levels — but faced no disciplinary actions — were among a handful of incidents described in an auditor general’s report.
Source: New Orleans Times Picayune | Louisiana |
May 8, 2013
Act 2, part of Gov. Bobby Jindal's 2012 package of education reforms, diverts money from each student's per-pupil allocation to cover the cost of private or parochial school tuition.
The bill approved was the sixth try in the past three years to pass a stoned-driving limit, which supporters say will give prosecutors a tool to combat an increase in stoned-driving cases.
Presidential budgets are all about theater. But this year’s was more theatrical than most: Its biggest single new proposal — the sin tax to generate $78 billion to fund a preschool education program — vanished almost as soon as Obama announced it four weeks ago.
The bill sets aside $10 million in state money to allow public schools to apply for matching grants to hire police officers for schools that don’t already have them.
Baltimore schools CEO Andrés Alonso tearfully announced his resignation, ending a six-year tenure marked by bold yet often divisive reforms and casting uncertainty on the future of the long-troubled school system.
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.
Three months before a new state law goes into effect requiring police to sell any weapon they receive, Phoenix officials plan to destroy as many guns as residents bring them.
Source: Detroit Free Press | Saginaw, Mich. |
May 7, 2013
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.
Source: AP/Sacramento Bee | California |
May 7, 2013
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.
Pennsylvania's capital, which is under receivership after nearly going bankrupt, is the second municipality or state to get charged with securities fraud this year.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | New Jersey |
May 6, 2013
Amid objections from municipal officials and housing activists, the Christie administration has begun the process of seizing $150 million or more in subsidized housing money from municipalities around the state and is keeping a tight lid on its policy objectives.
Source: Raleigh News & Observer | North Carolina |
May 6, 2013
Over the past 25 years, crisis intervention team training has spread among law enforcement agencies across the country. Now it is being tested in the nation’s prisons, which have become the largest repositories for people with mental health problems.
Is your state ready for Marketplace open enrollment in October 2013?
In a few short months, millions of uninsured Americans will qualify for affordable healthcare coverage either through Medicaid, CHIP or tax subsidies.