Archive
Colorado’s decade-long debate over how to manage medical marijuana has produced a tightly controlled approach that more states are starting to emulate.
Hit harder by the economic downturn than either cities or states, counties are feeling pressure from all sides, leading many to reexamine county functions altogether.
Localities from San Francisco to Jacksonville, Fla., are embracing bus rapid transit -- even if not everyone in the transportation community is sold on the idea.
Nearly 60 percent of all new academic programs or training opportunities in 2011 focused on green careers, which are in demand now more than ever.
Louisiana was the first state to embrace “express lane eligibility."
Requiring freshman to “specialize” in particular subjects helped Florida significantly increase its graduation rate and decrease its dropout rate. Georgia is hoping for similar results.
A rapidly spreading rumor about the California city last year offers a cautionary tale for public officials who think social media has little to do with the business of governing.
The concept of sharing unspent dollars with other employees and agencies saves governments money but is often ignored when budgets are the smallest.
How states’ decisions to not require vaccinations and general budget cuts to public health have impacted the nation’s ability to prevent, track and treat disease outbreaks.
Without laws protecting pedestrians and bikers, the goal of having truly livable cities in America remains out of reach.
Public finance departments are significantly less likely than government in general to use social media or see its value in engaging with constituents. It might be time for this to change.
View Internet usage statistics and adoption rates by state.
Chicago Public Schools has agreed to hire nearly 500 teachers so students can put in a longer school day without extending the workday for most teachers.
San Bernardino, the third California city planning to file for bankruptcy since June, voted to stop debt payments, freeze vacant jobs and quit paying into a retiree health fund under a three-month emergency proposal submitted to the city council
Taking aim at a long history of civil rights abuses, corruption and slipshod oversight within the New Orleans Police Department, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu unfurled a bevy of sweeping reforms in the nation's most expansive consent decree to date.
States trying to make it easier for troops overseas to vote have set up voting systems that are vulnerable to hacking when they allow voters to return ballots online, via e-mail, or Internet fax, says a state-by-state report
A commuter tax for the District of Columbia could reappear on the Congressional agenda later this year, but Maryland and Virginia Democrats — typically staunch supporters of the District — feel the same way they did when the issue came up several years ago: They hate the idea.
The percentage of children living in poverty in the U.S. is on the rise, according to the new Kids Count report, which also finds more children living in single-parent homes and with parents struggling to afford housing.
While state and federal law enforcement officials agreed the landmark 2006 law making the crucial ingredient a prescription drug is a success and the number of meth labs in Oregon has sharply declined, members of a House Subcommittee reacted skeptically.
The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to ban all pot dispensaries, while also opening the door to possibly let some remain.
With less than four months to go, the 2012 gubernatorial contests are looking good for the GOP.
A total of 27 cities and municipal agencies have sought bankruptcy protection since 2010. View a map with details on each filing.
It’s one of several bills introduced in the last year that could let states tap into a valuable revenue source.
Voters in three states will decide whether to legalize marijuana for commercial use, while it remains banned under federal law.
There's a new political alignment in Kansas, a new and stronger strain of conservatism that has moved the right more to the right, leaving some conservative politicians looking more like the new center, experts say.
NJ Transit will get $2.6 million in federal funding to move ahead with plans for a "bus rapid transit" route to link South Jersey and Philadelphia.
If any good is to come from the NCAA's harsh sanctions against Penn State, child-welfare experts said Monday, it lies in the $60 million fine mandated for programs to prevent child sexual abuse and assist victims.
The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation of Pennsylvania's new voter ID law, asking the Corbett administration to document its repeated claims that 99 percent of the state's voters have the photo identification they will need to vote in November.
The county's Board of Supervisors will vote on the Safe Drug Disposal Ordinance, which would require makers of drugs sold or distributed in Alameda County to pay for a countywide program to safely collect and destroy unused medications. Currently, residents can discard pills they no longer need at 28 drop-off locations, a publicly funded program that costs an estimated $330,000 annually.
Enrollment in nearly half of the nation’s largest school districts has dropped steadily over the last five years, triggering school closings that have destabilized neighborhoods, caused layoffs of essential staff and concerns in many cities that the students who remain are some of the neediest and most difficult to educate.
Gov. Nathan Deal was cleared of major state ethics violations, effectively ending more than two years of complaints and investigations into Deal's 2010 bid for governor.
Gov. John Kitzhaber made a campaign promise that his "Cool Schools" program would put people back to work doing energy upgrades on classroom buildings. Nearly two years later, it turns out that the program is really a modest expansion of what already existed, only with a catchy new name.
The fight over the future of medical marijuana dispensaries in L.A. draws patients, union organizers and even a priest to City Hall on the eve of a vote on whether to outlaw pot shops.
Talk of teamwork in public agencies is often just that — a lot of talk. Making them work is about getting the framework right.
Charters are building a strong record in Massachusetts, and one city’s failing schools are about to benefit.
A new bill in the state sets up a recovery program that comes complete with an early-warning system to prevent future financial distress.
Alabama is off to a slow start in rolling out its law requiring police to check the immigration status of suspects. But it is ahead of the other states, including Arizona, that approved similar measures.
Christine Ferguson is in charge of what she expects to be one of the nation's first online insurance marketplaces.
With a contentious primary battle and a crowded slate of candidates, the Missouri lieutenant governor's race is shaping up to be one of this year's more unusual elections.
The Aurora, Colo., mass shooting is reigniting a debate over whether tougher gun laws are needed, but congressional legislation is a long shot, especially in an election year.
Even a 0.1 percentage point increase would put poverty at the highest level since 1965.
In May the city adopted a temporary ordinance that will clamp down on protests in dozens of blocks near the Tampa Convention Center.
The South may still lead the nation in cigarette use, more than 200 cities, large and small, across the Deep South have outlawed smoking in bars, restaurants or workplaces in recent years.
Now the city, trying to find the estimated 5,000 Washingtonians who are infected but do not know it, is offering tests in grocery stores and high schools, on corners where addicts gather and even in motor vehicle offices. And it is paying people to take them.
The finances of many of the nation's institutions of higher education are starting to wobble. If they continue to deteriorate, the fallout won't be confined to college campuses.
Pennsylvania becomes the fourth state, after Georgia, Kentucky and New Mexico, to require such reporting, 40 years after the passage of Title IX, the federal law mandating equity in sports and academics at all schools receiving federal money.
A draft state wastewater discharge permit for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District is the first in the U.S. to add this regulatory wrinkle: requiring rooftop plantings and installation of other "green infrastructure" - not sewer pipes or storage tunnels - to collect and absorb storm water.
Gov. Terry Branstad is joining other Republican and Democratic governors nationally in seeking the collection of sales taxes on online purchases.
There are about 25 in the country, most of them in California.
Some states added jobs, but jobless rates increased for most states last month. View updated data for each state.
Citizens in at least 25 states have filed petitions, urging officials to institute key provisions of the Affordable Care Act.
Five U.S. ports should benefit from the president's decision to expedite their approval process.
The sole purpose of the new ID is to help voters who have thus far been unable to get the types of identification the new law requires in order to vote in the fall election.
The number of state hospital psychiatric beds fell 14% nationwide from 2005 to 2010, pushing the mentally ill into emergency rooms and prisons.
The U.S. Health and Human Services Department announced it would grant states waivers to give greater flexibility in their TANF (commonly known as welfare) programs that financially support poor Americans as they look for work.
Youth in 38 states who show signs of concussion will no longer be returned to play without clearance from a health care professional. But which professionals are truly qualified to make that call?
Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's anti-illegal immigration patrols took center stage in federal court as a group of Latinos set out to prove that his deputies racially profiled them as part of a systemic policy of discrimination.
Thirty-three states have passed laws requiring identification for voting. Five have what are called strict photo identification requirements.
Nearly 18,000 cases have been reported, more than twice as many as at this time last year. At this pace, the number of whooping cough cases will surpass every year since 1959.
Some governors, including prominent Republicans, are sympathetic to a federal solution, with reports suggesting that states could bring in billions of dollars in extra revenue with an online sales tax law.
The Georgia Department of Education has determined that the Dougherty County School District is not eligible to receive at least $10 million in federal funds because of concerns that the district has inflated the number of students who qualify for federal meal assistance. The department's move is an extraordinary step, one no one at the department can recall being taken before.
Fourteen people were killed and about 50 were injured early Friday when shots rang out at an Aurora movie theater during a premiere showing of the new Batman movie.
New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority will sell advertising space on the front of MetroCards to make more money.
The governor, who wants to cut Medicaid enrollment after the Supreme Court ruling, proposed a similar plan earlier this year.
Pilot projects are being planned to test technical standards that would allow vehicles to immediately “tell” 911 call centers when there is a crash.
The IT department of Bryan, Texas, has volunteered its time and expertise to help better prepare a local child abduction response team for action.
The annual "Performance Framework" will examine academic achievement, financial performance, and governance in the state's 86 charter schools. Schools will do a self-review, evaluated by the state. Previously, the state simply relied on each school's initial application plan.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed the $8 billion bill to kick off high-speed rail construction and showed no sign he was worried about voters' increasing skepticism for the rail line.
The subcommittee approved the Labor-Health and Human Services appropriations bill on a mostly party-line vote of 8-6. The bill would cut $1.3 billion in funding for HHS.
American women face increasing legal obstacles to obtaining abortions as more states pass laws restricting access, some so stringent they approach a ban on the procedure, according to a report by the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Fifty-four percent overall say Vincent Gray should resign, while 37 percent say he should not and 9 percent have no opinion.
The advocacy group D.C. Appleseed called it “troubling” that recently released D.C. Health Department data for 2010 show slight increases in three measures: the HIV transmission rate, the number of new HIV diagnoses and the proportion of new AIDS diagnoses that had progressed from HIV to AIDS in less than 12 months.
The Federal Communications Commission has opened an inquiry into what prevented Verizon’s Northern Virginia customers from getting through to several 911 emergency centers after the brutal June 29 storms.
The lawmakers tend to view — or fear their constituents will view — the measures as a tax increase. And that just won’t fly in 2012.
Four House lawmakers will introduce legislation requiring most pain drugs to adopt abuse-deterring safeguards, the broadest congressional attempt at curbing the nation's prescription-drug problem.
Hundreds of lawmakers from both parties refuse to release their tax records at at time when Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is being pressured to disclose his tax returns.
Taking aim at what they call an abuse of the taxpayers' money, a growing number of states are blocking welfare recipients from spending their benefits on booze, cigarettes, lottery tickets, casino gambling, tattoos and strippers.
Members of the Rutgers Board of Governors said they were moved by the students who came before them pleading for a tuition freeze at their meeting, But, in the end, the board voted unanimously to raise tuition and fees 2.5 percent this fall for in-state undergraduates.
A Texas man convicted of carjacking and fatally shooting a stockbroker was put to death, becoming the first prisoner in the nation's most active capital punishment state to be executed under a procedure using one lethal drug instead of three.
While Internet adoption has increased, some regions of the country trail others. View charts and data for each state.
A Marion County judge ruled that the state owes IBM $12 million in a dispute over the state's canceled welfare-modernization contract, but the victory falls short of the money IBM had sought.
Merging colleges is usually a last resort. And yet a few states, constrained by the lackluster economy and tight budgets, are reluctantly traveling down that road.
A coalition of civil rights groups, religious leaders and business organizations filed a new request seeking a court order that would prevent authorities from enforcing a rule that requires police to check the immigration status of people they stop for other reasons.
Such a move would see it join a growing number of deficit-hobbled California cities that have used the filing to restructure onerous debt loads.
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the first attorney general in the nation to file a lawsuit over President Obama’s health-care overhaul, wants Virginia to opt of the new federal health law’s Medicaid expansion -- something at least six Republican governors have done.
The office of Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli II refused to sign off on state Board of Health regulations that had exempted current abortion clinics from new, hospital-style construction standards.
Massachusetts lawmakers are considering a bill that ultimately would lower the voting age for municipal elections in the city of Lowell to 17 from 18.
The new Apple operating system won’t include the public transit navigation capability. Apple appears to be banking on third-party developers to fill that gap but they need open data to do it.
A federal judge in Nebraska dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration's contraception mandate because the contraception mandate has not taken effect yet.
A second judge has declared Wisconsin's voter ID law unconstitutional, further guaranteeing that the ID requirement will not be in place for elections this fall.
Facebook users in Washington state will have something else to brag about to their online friends: that they registered to vote on Facebook.
Gov. Sean Parnell's office announced that after studying the project for some time, his administration has opted not to offer a state-maintained website, known as an exchange, where consumers would theoretically be able to view competing health insurance plans and choose one that provides the best value and options.
Almost 70 percent of school districts said they used stimulus money to save or create education jobs, according to a new report.
Mitt Romney's running mate wants to make Medicaid a block grant. How could this controversial proposal affect states?
Study led by government veterans warns of "calamity" for states if federal deficit reduction goes too far.
The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program is a Web-based database that allows agencies to ensure that only those entitled to benefits receive them.
Mitt Romney is expected to soon announce his pick for a running mate, and several governors remain on the short list of possibilities.
Mayor Nutter has created an Office of Grants in response to the nationwide competition for a shrinking pool of federal funds, increasingly doled out based for merit and innovation.
This summer, it’s Gov. Christie, a Republican, who is urging the Democrats who control the Legislature to authorize more spending on one of his priorities: a new income tax credit he wants on the eve of the 2013 gubernatorial contest.
Coursera, which a dozen major research universities are joining, will offer 100 or more free massive open online courses, or MOOCs, that are expected to draw millions of students and adult learners globally.
While campaigning, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo vowed to maintain a transparent administration, but his executive chamber prides itself on leaving few footprints.
He is already juggling roles as governor, surrogate for presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association as well as planning for a potential re-election campaign.
Most states don't pay for any dental care. Now, in Pennsylvania, Republican Gov. Tom Corbett has reduced Pennsylvania's 2 million adult Medicaid patients to basic dental care.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said he plans to introduce legislation addressing President Obama’s decision to waive work requirements in the Temporary Assistant for Needy Families (TANF) law.
Tennessee’s new way of evaluating classrooms “systematically failed” to identify bad teachers and provide them more training, according to a state report.
Janice Daniels has been criticized for her vote to reject $8.4 million in federal grant money for construction of a transit center, a Facebook posting that used the word "queers," and for telling a group of students that "the homosexual lifestyle is dangerous."
Minnesota's attorney general argued that Secretary of State Mark Ritchie was acting within his power when he revised the title of a ballot measure that would amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage.
After a weekend conference in Williamsburg, Va., governors are still trying to figure out what the Supreme Court's ruling means for the future of Medicaid.
The state aims to fight abuse of legal drugs by installing the boxes in police precincts in more than 20 counties.
Nearly 65 percent say the 2005 law -- which allows people who believe they are in grave danger to use deadly force to defend themselves -- does not need to be changed.
There’s been record demand for U.S. Treasury bonds, and the feds aren't taking advantage.
Marlton lawyer Joseph A. Osefchen has filed suits in Glassboro, Monroe Township, Newark, Edison, Stratford, and Woodbridge in the last 10 days contending that motorists were illegally fined for running red lights after municipal traffic officials failed to complete required inspections of the cameras and intersections.
A Brookings Institution study shows jobs are largely inaccessible to the nation's suburban workforce via transit. View data for 100 metro areas.
Arizona is updating its stalking laws to include modern technologies like email and text messaging.
Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay a record $3 billion to resolve charges of illegally marketing certain prescription drugs and overcharging government programs including Medicaid.
The usually united National Governors Association couldn't seem to agree on whether to accept the health-care law's Medicaid expansion at its semiannual meeting this weekend.
A group of Boston public school parents launched a petition drive to oust Superintendent Carol R. Johnson, arguing that she has lost the public’s trust after disclosure that she took no disciplinary action against a headmaster who admitted beating his wife and that she had sent a supportive letter to a judge presiding over the case.
Gov. Sean Parnell sent a letter to acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank, requesting a disaster declaration in the wake of particularly dismal 2011 and 2012 Chinook salmon runs on the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers.
Voters in the 10-county Atlanta region will vote yea or nay on the $6.14 billion list of projects, plus an additional $1 billion for smaller local projects. If the measure passes, residents of each county will pay an additional 1 percent sales tax for the next 10 years.
After loosening their coffers to help families cope during the recession, some colleges now are cutting back on grants and scholarships, aid that students don't have to pay back.
Prosecutors in New York and Connecticut are investigating whether their states incurred losses as a result of interest-rate manipulation by banks.
In a victory for Republicans, the federal government has agreed to let Florida use a law enforcement database to challenge people's right to vote if they are suspected of not being U.S. citizens.
Rick Nolan, a former Minnesota congressman, is one of three DFLers hoping to unseat Republican Rep. Chip Cravaack this year.
Company will be paid $144,000 to help craft marketing plan for municipal property.
The governor has acted on 2,068 clemency petitions since he took office in January 2009.
Traffickers are seeking to use the southwest-most stretches of the massive Eagle Ford shale formation, which stretches from Mexico all the way to East Texas, to their advantage by trying to corrupt truck drivers, contractors and gate personnel.
San Diego’s mayor explains how financial catastrophe provided the seeds for major structural changes that the city needed to continue providing services.
The House Agriculture Committee has moved to block states from imposing their own standards for agriculture products on producers from other states, which could jeopardize California laws to protect chickens as well as one to ban foie gras.
Florida will remain one of only two states that incarcerates people for drug possession without proving they knew what they were carrying was illegal.
Just days before he and other governors are scheduled to meet with Pentagon brass, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad attacked the Defense Department for failing to work with governors on plans to drastically cut the size of the Air National Guard.
The town may ask residents to consider disincorporation to avoid having to file for bankruptcy.
Three Arizona abortion providers went to federal court to try to block an Arizona law that bans most abortions beginning at 20 weeks.
Gov. Tom Corbett, who launched the criminal investigation into Sandusky when he was the attorney general, has faced criticism for the investigation’s length and because his administration approved a $3 million grant to Second Mile, the charity Sandusky ran and used as a way to recruit victims.
Sarah Palin endorsed Florida Republican Rep. Sandy Adams in her Member-vs.-Member GOP primary brawl with 10-term Rep. John Mica. It is the former vice presidential candidate’s first House endorsement this cycle.
There is a gold rush on to hire people who helped implement the Massachusetts plan, the nation’s first and only universal health coverage system six years ago.
Joe Paterno, former Pennsylvania State University president Graham B. Spanier, and other top administrators conspired for more than a decade to keep quiet sex-abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky, according to the findings of an internal investigation
A federal judge blocked enforcement of Mayor Nutter's ban on the distribution of free meals in city parks.
Gov. Jay Nixon today vetoed a bill that would have allowed employers and insurers to decide not to provide coverage for abortion, contraception or sterilization if such procedures run contrary to their religious beliefs or moral convictions.
Secretary of State Scott Gessler has taken his most expansive step yet to identify noncitizens who may be registered to vote, filing open- records requests with jails in 10 of Colorado's largest counties for lists of anyone held on an immigration detainer since 2010.
Oregon, New Mexico and Maine will no longer allow certain food stamp applicants to deduct medical marijuana expenses from their incomes after federal officials threatened the states with penalties.
On the heels of Gov. Rick Perry's declaration that Texas will not expand Medicaid because it is too costly, his health and human services commissioner said that fully implementing health care reform would cost the state about $11 billion less over 10 years than previously estimated.
The state's new web-based system reduces the time it takes to run a background check on potential employees from weeks to mere minutes.
View trends in construction spending data for various types of public infrastructure.
Our northern neighbor is paying for a new international bridge between Detroit and Canada. Is it too good to be true?
Wall Street opposes the idea, but a county in California thinks it can use eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages and restructure them on behalf of homeowners.
Enforcing laws and regulations to collect fines isn’t just good for the bottom line. It’s fairer to honest citizens and businesses.
While health care remains a contentious issue in most state legislatures, the Democratic-controlled Bay State is hard at work on its next phase of reform.
Schools receiving federal improvement grants in 46 states have added learning time to improve student performance, according to a new report.
Pennsylvania has dropped tens of thousands of people from its Medicaid rolls since last summer -- and now the Obama administration wants to know if the state wrongly cut off those benefits.
Noted by Pew Charitable Trust researchers as having the most expensive per-call cost among cities that it recently analyzed -- $7.78 per call -- Detroit ceased operations at its 311 Call Center.
