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As the partial federal government shutdown stretches into its sixth week, low-income families, seniors and the disabled are facing housing instability and possible evictions.
The Trump administration announced Wednesday it will allow a ministry in South Carolina that only works with heterosexual Christian families to participate in a federally funded foster care program.
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San Diego Assemblyman Brian Maienschein, who has served in the Legislature for six years, announced Thursday that he has left the California Republican Party and re-registered as a Democrat in a move that further shrinks GOP influence in Sacramento.
Former Seminole County elections chief Michael Ertel resigned as Florida secretary of state Thursday after photos emerged of him wearing blackface as a Hurricane "Katrina victim" at a Halloween party in 2005.
It's not the only place where government coffers might have taken a hit.
Several new governors have signed anti-discrimination executive orders. So did Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but his had no mention of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Timely housing assistance is crucial, but it can be tricky to overcome institutional barriers.
The executive order represents the first action by Lee, who campaigned for governor last year pledging to step up state efforts to focus on the state's 15 economically distressed rural counties, a list that includes Grundy, Van Buren and Bledsoe counties.
Eleven states have laws concerning gun locking devices, with Massachusetts being the only state that requires all firearms be stored with locks in place, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
By joining the coalition, Pritzker has pledged Illinois will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 percent by 2025 compared to 2005 levels.
The bill would outlaw abortions as early as six weeks after conception. Kasich vetoed a similar piece of legislation -- House Bill 258, known as the "heartbeat bill" -- last month before he left office. Kasich is now a CNN contributor.
Gov. Newsom said in a news release that Dr. Nadine Burke Harris will focus on combating the root causes of serious health conditions and use her office to reach young families across the state.
After years of seeing efforts to create a state Dream Act blocked by Republicans who controlled the Senate until January, the new Democrat-controlled chamber passed the legislation on Wednesday.
While most states have broad laws calling on anyone who learns of child abuse to report it, mandatory reporters can be charged with a crime for failing to do so.
Pete Buttigieg announced the launch of his exploratory committee in a video message to supporters, pledging a "fresh start" for America.
Income tax collections are down in several states compared to a year ago. Some worry it's a sign of things to come.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors gathered in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to discuss its agenda and tout its members' ability to work across party lines -- even on immigration.
The effort, dubbed “the Death Certificate Project,” has sparked a conflict with physicians in California and beyond, in part because the doctors being investigated did not necessarily write the prescriptions leading to a death.
Cellphone companies often boast about how much of the country they cover. But with billions of federal dollars at stake to expand mobile broadband in rural America, state officials and other groups across 37 states say those claims aren’t always true.
The Democratic governors of Michigan, New York and Washington on Friday asked the Trump administration to let states offer unemployment benefits to federal employees who are working without pay during the partial government shutdown that began nearly a month ago.
The mayor of Washington, D.C., says she is introducing emergency legislation to allow federal District employees working without pay to file for unemployment benefits.
The law that would ban abortions once a heartbeat is detected in the fetus was ruled as "violative of both the due process and equal protection provisions of the Iowa Constitution," according to the court's filings.
The anticipated passage generated passionate debate in the halls of the Capitol Tuesday, where protesters and supporters armed with signs crowded hallways and fired off competing chants and songs.
The Los Angeles teachers union ended its strike Tuesday night, based on overwhelming support for a contract agreement with the school district, union leaders said.
The justices said they would hear the case, New York State Rifle and Pistol Assn. vs. New York, but it will probably be considered in the fall. If so, the court will not issue a decision until early in 2020.
Communities destroyed by natural disaster all want to start over. Somebody has to pay for it.
It’s often used to describe how people live in urban spaces. But it shouldn't be.
It’s getting harder for the people who check up on government to do their jobs.
What's "fair" changes along with the economy.
There are plenty of theories about how they will reshape urban areas. But it’s anybody’s guess.
There are lessons to be learned from New York and Pennsylvania.
After Democrats swept judicial elections last year, Harris County is set to become much less landlord-friendly.
Voters aren’t satisfied with how Seattle is managing its growth, which has largely been driven by Amazon's presence.
The number of Hmong legislators, who came from Southeast Asia as refugees, tripled in the Minnesota state House this year.
Photos and musing from our photographer.
Denver may be the first major city where voters approved a tax increase for mental health services. Others have since followed.
A new program may be a boon to struggling cities -- if it targets the right ones.
In an anti-union era, nurses may have found a model for effectively organizing labor.
In an unprecedented move that will cut costs for low-income households and cut emissions for everyone, the state is paying for some homes to install energy-efficient appliances.
There's a gender imbalance in many African-American neighborhoods. Mass incarceration is largely to blame.
Under the deal, many workers would see their wages rise gradually to a $15 an hour, though some, including those employed by small businesses with five or fewer employees, will have to wait longer.
In his final full day at the helm, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam on Friday granted executive clemency to 23 current or former Tennesseans including four people from Middle Tennessee.
Susan Bucher is the second elections official to lose her job over the November 2018 recounts. Former Broward elections chief Brenda Snipes announced she was resigning only to be suspended by former Gov. Rick Scott in late November.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday signed legislation to give the state more oversight over Illinois firearms dealers, appearing with anti-violence advocates at a West Side elementary school and saying he'll push for further gun control measures.
In October, Jason Van Dyke became the first Chicago police officer in a half-century to be convicted of murder in an on-duty shooting.
The Virginia Senate easily approved state tax incentives of up to $750 million over the next 15 years for Amazon to build a headquarters facility in Arlington.
Without money, many rural hospitals in Texas and other non-expansion states have closed obstetrics units and other expensive services, forcing patients to travel long distances to seek treatment at the next-closest hospital, which is sometimes hours away.
Four of the 20 new governors who took office this month, three Democrats and one Republican, signed nondiscrimination orders that include sexual orientation and gender identity.
Black and white population shifts across the state's metro areas.
In the settlement agreement, filed in Suffolk Superior Court on Wednesday, Rite Aid denied violating any state law or regulation. The company currently has 10 stores in Massachusetts after selling many to Walgreens.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed an executive order forbidding state agencies from asking job applicants how much money they earned in previous jobs, a rule that will likely be extended to all employers in the state by year's end.
Legalizing video poker and slots was supposed to generate billions of dollars for the state. A decade later, that hasn’t happened. Now, legislators want to double down on gambling.
A federal appeals court has lifted a lower court order that blocked Texas from booting Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid, potentially imperiling the health care provider’s participation in the federal-state health insurance program.
In downstate Illinois -- and in cities across the country -- government
policies are keeping racial segregation firmly rooted in place.
Newly created restrictions on early voting and other election-related measures that were part of lame-duck legislation signed in December by outgoing Republican Gov. Scott Walker violate a federal court order issued in 2016 that voided similar restrictions, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
The Department of Labor on Thursday denied a request from Washington's mayor to make more federal employees who are working without pay eligible to collect unemployment benefits, Mayor Muriel Bowser said Thursday.
The latest dust-up between California and the Trump administration happened after the Department of Labor sent an email this week warning the state that federal employees who continue to work during the government shutdown cannot apply for benefits, according to the governor's office.
At every point in her hourlong ruling, Associate Judge Domenica Stephenson endorsed the actions of the police on the night McDonald was shot by Officer Jason Van Dyke, calling the 17-year-old an erratic, armed assailant who ignored commands to drop a small knife.
Indianapolis is rethinking its approach, seeking new efficiencies that will better serve those from disadvantaged communities.
From preventing terrorism to spotting restaurant heath violations, a form of artificial intelligence called natural language processing can help connect the dots.
Unrest over education funding and policy is brewing in several cities and states across the country.
Historically, attorneys general rarely weigh in on health policy or go up against each other in the courtroom over it. Then came the Affordable Care Act.
At two of the three schools, Texas State University and the University of Houston, the football programs spent more money than they earned last fiscal year, requiring other university funds to cover the difference.
In announcing in November that it would not list roughly 200 homes in Israeli settlements, the popular home-sharing platform explained that it was uncomfortable doing business in an occupied territory subject to a historical dispute between Palestinians and Israelis.
A 2018 survey by NASCIO and consulting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP found that only 45 percent of states require that all executive branch employees complete cyber training.
Cities' efforts to get tough on crime can make it harder for low-income residents to find good jobs and housing.
In his 11-page resignation letter, John Engler says he will step down effective Wednesday, Jan. 23.
Decades of local zoning regulations and land-use policies have kept racial segregation firmly rooted in place.
After a more than 15-year long fight, transgender New Yorkers will soon be covered by the state's anti-discrimination laws.
Most of the money will be aimed at increasing housing options for low- and middle-income workers -- workers who "teach our kids in schools, and put out the fires in our houses and keep us alive in the hospital," said Microsoft President Brad Smith.
Over the last week or so, Trump has considered using disaster recovery funds to build a border wall, given that he has not been able to get Congress to appropriate money for one.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected an effort by three major U.S. cities to require the Pentagon to be more vigilant about reporting service members who were disqualified from owning weapons to a national background check system.
The black-white divide is still a major problem. Government policies are partially to blame.
Segregated schools aren’t just the products of segregated neighborhoods. In many cases, predominantly white schools are driving the racial divide.
America has seen little progress in reducing speeding deaths for decades.
Three Hallandale Beach commissioners blasted their colleague for her lack of discretion -- but stopped short of saying they would demand an apology.
UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt will leave her post in two weeks -- months earlier than the timeline she suggested when she announced her resignation Monday.
A judge has ruled the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act doesn't have any legal authority and the city of Birmingham doesn't have to take down its wooden screen placed around a Confederate monument in Linn Park.
Kasich had said he was likely to land a TV deal after leaving office. He now will appear regularly on shows featuring CNN hosts Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo.
On his first day leading the Georgia Senate, new Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said he was not aware the chamber was going to make changes limiting the amount of time an alleged victim can report claims of sexual harassment involving a senator or staffer.
The shutdown has affected about 3,000 Nevadans. Without the deferral, students at UNR face a Jan. 19 deadline to pay fees and tuition. Payments are due at other NSHE institutions soon after.
The city of Denver will cut checks to ease the pain of the federal government's partial shutdown.
State agencies are warning food stamp recipients to carefully budget their grocery purchases once they receive their February benefits weeks earlier than normal due to the partial government shutdown.
A new law in Massachusetts aims to curb short-term rentals, which critics say are limiting the affordable housing stock and turning residential property into unregulated hotels.
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration's plan to put a question about citizenship on the 2020 census, which will help determine U.S. elections, congressional seats and federal funding decisions for a decade.
States are scrambling to figure out how to fund the $4-billion-a-month food stamps program -- and whether to keep cash welfare going. Some say it's "probably not possible."
In a crackdown on political candidates who file campaign reports late or not at all, the Oklahoma Ethics Commission for the first time has filed lawsuits over unpaid late fees.
"This is just one of the many reasons I love my husband, Dan," Gov. Kate Brown wrote.
After years of lagging behind other states, New York radically overhauled its system of voting and elections on Monday, passing several bills that would allow early voting, preregistration of minors, voting by mail and sharp limits on the influence of money.
The Tennessee Court of Appeals on Friday ruled that the Nashville vote that created a civilian board with the power to investigate police was legitimate, rejecting the police union's challenge and clearing the way for the board to begin work.
Vice Mayor Reinette Senum has launched a crowdsourcing campaign called "Goat Fund Me," hoping the online fundraising efforts will garner $30,000 to work with local ranchers on a prescriptive grazing project on city-owned land, including 450 acres of greenbelt.
Local governments may feel disappointed by a recent court ruling which sided with the Federal Communications Commission’s rollback of regulations related to the deployment of 5G communications technology.
President Donald Trump’s warning that the partial federal government shutdown could last “for months or even years” has states, cities and businesses increasingly nervous.
In a 65-page opinion issued the same day the rules took effect, the judge issued a temporary injunction requested by attorneys general in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Legislators are seeking to roll back some of the high-profile ballot measures that voters approved in November. They also want to make it harder for initiatives to pass in the future.
As most Americans struggle with money management, some states are making schools teach kids about personal finance. What's the best age to start?
The Midwest provides a lens for larger patterns of racial division across the country.
Despite calls from protesters — and the previous House speaker — for his resignation, a state lawmaker accused of inappropriate sexual conduct against multiple teens has been named chairman of an education subcommittee.
Netflix has opted to film its upcoming North Carolina-set series OBX, a coming-of-age drama set in a fictional town in the state's Outer Banks, in South Carolina instead due to remnants of North Carolina's anti-LGBTQ House Bill 2.
A recent spree of brazen daylight killings, some of which were captured on video and widely shared on social media, have shaken the population and worried local and federal law enforcement officials who thought they had seen everything in the roiling, populous city of San Juan.
Two days after he took office, Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled sweeping measures to clean up Florida's troubled waters Thursday, including spending $2.5 billion and launching more aggressive policies to address algae choking Lake Okeechobee and polluting the state's coasts.
Urban counties across the country increasingly are withdrawing from the program, even as more conservative suburban and rural areas flock to it during the Trump administration, according to a Stateline analysis of federal and state data.
Houston Airport System spokesman Bill Begley blamed "staffing issues" for the decision Transportation Security Administration made at 3:30 p.m. to close the checkpoint through Monday morning, at the earliest.
In California and the southeast U.S., forest cleanup and fuel mitigation projects, intended to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire, are being postponed.
The regulations, which the Trump administration announced in October 2017, widened the pool of employers that are allowed to claim exemption from providing contraceptive coverage to include nonprofit groups, for-profit companies, other nongovernmental employers, and schools and universities.
Local transit agencies are being hit harder than state highway departments. But the shutdown is only part of the problem for transportation funding.
State Rep. Stephanie Clayton said House and Senate leaders in Kansas scrapped an education plan that had widespread support, leading her to switch parties, a move two other female state lawmakers followed.
Shahid Shafi will retain his role as vice-chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party despite a push from a small faction of precinct chairs to remove him from his post because he's Muslim.
After Gov. Mike Dunleavy's election, chief of staff Tuckerman Babcock asked at-will state employees to submit their resignations.
Former state Rep. Nick Sauer has been charged with 12 felonies for allegedly posting private sexual photos of two people online without their permission, according to the Lake County State's Attorney's Office.
Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled his proposal Thursday at his state budget presentation, which also included more than $2 billion in new funding for housing and homelessness initiatives.
Miami International Airport plans to cut off access to one of its terminals over the weekend in order to send TSA workers to busier checkpoints, a spokesman said Thursday night.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected on Friday to suspend Broward Sheriff Scott Israel and replace him with a former Coral Springs police sergeant with a background in active shooter training.
Unemployment, poverty rates for black and white populations residing in metro areas.
Measures of segregation for different demographic groups, including whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians.
Educators in the nation's second-largest school district are set to strike on Monday. The dispute could impact education policy across the country.
To address sexual harassment, it needs to be reported. State employees have been hesitant to do that.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Bill de Blasio initiated ambitious plans this week to cover drastically more residents, including undocumented immigrants who are not currently eligible for subsidized insurance.
Stefan Ritter, who has been the commission's executive director since 2015, called allegations first reported Monday by the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News "untrue," adding that he had not seen the complaints against him.
Mike Miller, 76, is scheduled to discuss his cancer diagnosis with members of the Senate at 10 a.m. Thursday when the chamber next meets.
The settlement included $280,000 in lost wages and damages, $50,000 to cover law school debt and $20,000 for medical assistance and career counseling, according to the Times.
Mayor de Blasio said Wednesday that he would back legislation to require private employers in New York City to offer at least two weeks of paid vacation annually to their workers, a law he said would be the first of its kind in the nation.
Trump's threat alarmed California officeholders. Politicians from both parties criticized the tweet, though Republicans stopped short of condemning the author and expressed sympathy with his complaints about the state's Democratic governance.
Transportation officials in Oklahoma this week announced plans to delay bids on 45 highway projects worth about $137 million.
The volume of openings first topped the number of jobless people in Midwestern states in early 2017. But in recent months that phenomenon has spread to other regions, particularly the South.
Even as calls for “Medicare for All” grow louder among Democrats in Washington, D.C., at least 10 states are exploring whether to allow residents to pay premiums to “buy in” to Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor.
With signs pointing to a weakening economy, we need to get ready now, and we need to do it right.
Measures of school segregation between black and white students.
How levels of school segregation in Illinois metro areas compare to others.
Bipartisan support for reducing recidivism is driving most states to relax or lift the federal ban on drug felons receiving food stamps or cash assistance. Pennsylvania went the other way.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the so-called Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program would receive funding for February thanks to a legal provision that allows money to be allocated within 30 days of a shutdown.
The legislation, which Gov. Phil Murphy signed Tuesday at a yeshiva in Passaic, adds $11.3 million for security at nonpublic schools 2019-- doubling their level of state security funding from $75 to $150 per student.
The National Science Foundation next year plans to remove more than 150 seismic sensors it installed in Alaska in recent years, closing out a $50 million project that vastly improved the state's limited seismic network, said Mike West, state seismologist.
The goal is to issue at least 30 awards of up to $20,000 each year of the program, which will be funded at $600,000 annually.
The ban "will protect LGBTQ+ youth from dangerous and discredited practices aimed at changing their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression," a city news release says.
The program, dubbed NYC Care, is aimed at providing either insurance or health services to the 600,000 New Yorkers who are uninsured, 300,000 of whom are undocumented immigrants who cannot be insured.
Counting prisoners as residents of their hometowns would, for the most part, boost the legislative representation of Democratic-leaning urban areas with large minority populations while diminishing the power of Republican, mostly white rural areas.
Medicaid health plans are starting to pay for non-traditional services such as meals, transportation, housing and other forms of assistance to improve members’ health and reduce medical costs.
Federal regulations neither require schools to test their water nor have a single health standard for drinking water. The resulting patchwork of state policies can have a big impact on how -- and whether -- they respond to lead found in water.
Segregation statistics for downstate Illinois metro areas.
Retiree health care is one of the fastest-growing line items in government budgets and, in response, some governments are scrapping their traditional health plans.
New Jersey’s minimum wage is at $8.85 an hour, barely changed from when Phil Murphy was elected.
It was the second time a man was found dead at Ed Buck's apartment. Buck is a longtime political donor, a one-time West Hollywood City Council candidate and a well-known figure in LGBTQ political circles.
At issue is whether United Teachers Los Angeles -- in setting the strike for Thursday -- gave the Los Angeles Unified School District a legally required 10-day notice that its members would stop working under the existing contract.
Scott Dozier, the convicted murderer who had all but begged Nevada authorities to execute him for years, was found dead in his death row cell over the weekend, authorities said.
Katie Brennan is seeking damages and emergency relief that bars the state from enforcing a confidentiality order against her as part of a new investigation into her statements that she has felt professional backlash since going public with her rape allegation.
