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Popular former independent Maine Gov. Angus King says he's going to run for the U.S. Senate seat left open by Republican Olympia Snowe's surprise decision not to seek a fourth term.
Iowa Governor Terry Branstad signed a bill that could result in penalties on animal rights activists who pose as employees or attempt to get inside agricultural production facilities in other ways to expose possible animal cruelty.
A coalition of student groups and labor unions supported the demonstration, billed by some as an 'occupy the Capitol' action. The protest reflected discontent over steady hikes in college costs amid budget cuts.
The police union said it would request a temporary restraining order against the release of the report about the use of pepper spray on student demonstrators by UC Davis campus police because, its attorneys contend, it violates state law by identifying officers by name and uses personnel material that should remain confidential.
Forecasting election results based on Twitter, Facebook or other social-media sources is still in its infancy, and skeptics abound.
A Pennsylvania court ruled that Rep. Jason Altmire had enough valid signatures to stay on the Democratic primary ballot with fellow Rep. Mark Critz.
If Senate Bill 458 becomes law, Georgia would join Alabama and South Carolina in barring illegal immigrants from public colleges.
Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed an explosive self-defense bill, saying the lives of police officers could be at risk if citizens are freer to use their guns when they feel threatened.
A federal judge has rejected a request by Tucson families and an expert in a long-standing segregation lawsuit to reinstate Tucson Unified School District's controversial Mexican-American studies courses.
The Colorado Supreme Court upheld an appeals court ruling that struck CU's gun ban, saying the Board of Regents overstepped its authority by banning permitted concealed weapons on campuses, in leased buildings and in any area under control of university police.
Lawmakers forged agreements on Gov. John Kitzhaber's remaining education overhaul bill, added protections against foreclosures and found money for the flood-ravaged Vernonia schools. Then the 2012 Legislature called it good Monday night and adjourned Oregon's first-ever annual session.
House Minority Leader.David Litvack and Senate Minority Whip Karen Morgan both announced they won't seek reelection.
Marysville, Ind., a tiny farm town, has no mayor, no school and no shopping center. And after last week's deadly tornadoes, it has virtually nowhere left to live.
As if gas prices weren't high enough, several states across the U.S. are looking to raise fuel taxes they say are needed to pay for roads and bridges that are outdated, congested and in some cases, dangerous.
The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has created a new mobile app aimed at increasing consumer knowledge about inflation and the use of credit.
Plus: Getting it right on overtime, and more management news
Wall Street banks tried to block the county from declaring the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, a ruled that it can legally do so.
Pilot programs in the Pacific Northwest distinguish between emergency and nonemergency 911 calls.
One big-city public-school system has created its own school of education, and it’s paying off.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed an ordinance in January requiring that actors in adult movies in the city must use condoms in order for producers to get a filming permit, and the rule took effect Monday.
The Justice Department is opposing changes in Florida voting procedures and says it wants a trial in the dispute, a move that could impact the state's August primary elections.
For what could be the most expensive Senate election in Massachusetts history, Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is relying heavily on donations from the financial services and health care sectors while his chief Democratic rival, Elizabeth Warren, is tapping the wallets of lawyers, fellow academics, union members and filmmakers.
Do the highway bills really create more jobs? The answer from a lot of economists is not really.
An Illinois law against recording conversations was ruled unconstitutional Friday, the second time in the past year a judge has struck it down.
A custody battle in Florida between two lesbians could fuel the growing national debate over the definition of motherhood.
The city demonstrated that a comprehensive approach to efficiency could resolve a fiscal crisis while improving service delivery.
They can be heroes of government transformation—or they can be barriers to effective change.
Rural health advocates fear cuts in the president's budget could impede health-care delivery for at-risk populations.
Speaking at the annual AFCEA Homeland Security Conference, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier discussed the importance of information sharing in public safety and the improvements the region has made since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Interviews with voters across the country find that the segment of the GOP electorate that hasn't yet weighed in on the race is torn over wanting the race to end and wanting to have a say in choosing the eventual nominee.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud and GOP state Senate President Kevin Raye are bowing out of the race to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Olympia Snowe.
California is the latest to consider legislation that would establish rules for self-driving vehicles.
New York City's comptroller says he's moving ahead with plans to run for office in 2013, in spite of the recent arrest of his campaign treasurer.
The Iowa House approved two gun-rights measures Wednesday night that sparked Democrats to stage a walkout earlier in the day, stalling action for six hours.
A pair of House Republicans are the latest to raise the alarm about the Frank Gehry project.
Some states have opted to obtain waivers from requirements of No Child Left Behind.
The two former ball boys who accuse a fired Syracuse University assistant basketball coach of molesting them decades ago lobbied Tuesday for a New York state law that would give victims more time to report sex abuse.
Congress has until the end of March to pass a highway bill or extend the current one. How that will happen is anyone's guess.
How did your state's unemployment rate compare to others last year? BLS data shows year-over-year improvements for most states.
Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) took another step forward Tuesday, as two bills passed the House Education and Workforce Committee along party lines, but the political viability of the legislation outside the GOP-dominated House remains in question.
A federal mechanism used to help finance big transportation projects is being viewed as a model.
Legislation moving through Congress could help states and localities finance public works projects.
Governors' recent State of the State addresses provide clues to their priorities. We've compiled speeches and word clouds for each speech.
A new concept called "portfolio school districts" promises radical changes in traditional school-district administration.
Treating district-run schools and charters the same promises to turn traditional education administration inside out.
Kansas’ secretary of state is redefining immigration laws not only in his state, but in Arizona and elsewhere.
More cities are making private deals to save their finances. The results aren’t always good. Plus, a null of financially-distressed localities.
How student test scores are used to evaluate teachers is at the heart of the unresolved issues causing Chicago’s first strike in 25 years.
A new statewide pilot program will allow judges the option of providing jurors an opportunity to contact mental health professionals after experiencing graphic evidence during a trial.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who faces a recall election this spring after one million signatures were gathered by his opponents, will not challenge the legitimacy of those signatures, the Wisconsin State Journal reports.
President Barack Obama Monday urged the nation's governors to invest more state resources in education, saying a highly skilled workforce is crucial for the U.S. to remain competitive with other countries.
After Hurricane Katrina, Latinos moved into the city in record numbers and have transformed the disaster-struck town.
States have received further guidance and additional flexibility for the plans sold on their health insurance exchanges, as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released Friday its first bulletin on the cost-sharing aspects of exchange products.
At a time when many states are making it harder for women to get abortions, Washington state appears headed in the opposite direction.
Reduced revenue and federal funding, combined with unsustainable employee costs, are making it difficult for the Oregon city to stay on top.
This month, a one-of-a-kind permitting system became the most striking casualty of the crackdown on medical marijuana cultivation and distribution by California's federal prosecutors.
Republican governors insist President Barack Obama is vulnerable, but they say they are concerned the prolonged primary race has alienated independent voters and may have badly damaged the eventual nominee.
Democrats are playing defense in governors' races in 2012, protecting eight seats while Republicans are safeguarding just four.
The nation's governors are going to the White House on Monday to discuss ways to bolster job growth and improve their partnerships with the federal government.
Driving the change is the unfounded perception that people misuse public assistance and that cutting off welfare benefits would save states money.
Connecticut’s Rod Bremby is finding novel ways to connect health and human services.
Linking high-risk mothers with caregivers earlier in pregnancy may be a way to save both lives and money.
After being trapped on a train for eight hours with no food, water or heat in the middle of winter, passengers want to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Switching from paper to electronic traffic warrants has reduced backlogs and put more money from previously unpaid speeding tickets in Hawaii’s state coffers.
David Bragdon is responsible for making sure the city meets more than 400 sustainability goals before next year.
As prisoners get older and develop expensive health problems, states are looking for ways to cut costs.
The number of farmers markets has exploded in recent years, and states want to make sure they stay in business.
The movement’s founder says short, surprise occupations and targeted messaging could force officials to address income inequality.
The governor eliminated the state’s redevelopment agencies -- and the way it funds urban revitalization. Now the Golden State must find new money sources.
Form-based codes have emerged as a powerful tool for city planners who want to stop the sprawl that’s resulted from bad zoning rules.
Amid several ethics scandals, the city government has dramatically improved its delivery of services -- even as demand has increased.
State tax codes are filled with a legion of special treatments that could very well lead to a state’s fiscal destruction.
In tight times, governments push for more centralization. But it doesn’t always produce the positive results that are hoped for.
Giving every student a laptop won’t close the achievement gap. Careful policymaking to make sure the tools are used to improve learning might.
Before the U.S. Supreme Court hears the arguments for and against Arizona’s controversial immigration law, the leader of a Senate immigration panel wants to hear the governor’s opinion on the issue.
For the first time in U.S. history, more than 30 percent of Americans 25 years and older have attained a bachelor’s degree, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
A group of Republican state lawmakers proposed a new Vikings stadium plan that would drastically reduce the size of the taxpayer contribution, arguing it was the only way the team's stadium push could make it through the Legislature.
Facing a revolt in their ranks, House Republicans leaders are considering significantly downsizing a bill that was supposed to provide a long-term blueprint for federal highway, transit and other transportation programs.
Nearly 3 1/2 years after citizens and news organizations first requested Sarah Palin's emails, state officials have released more than 17,000 records from Palin's final 10 months in office. They illustrate that the intense scrutiny of her family and work was a financial and emotional drain that forced her to step down as governor.
Scandals and dirty politics have long defined this dusty border town. So when a woman started dancing topless in mayoral candidate Gerardo Hernandez's office, he says it crossed his mind it could be a setup.
A federal appeals court on Thursday struck down a controversial California law that allowed descendants of 1.5 million Armenians who perished in Turkey nearly a century ago to file claims against life insurance companies accused of reneging on policies.
In Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Cory Booker said he was offended by the NYPD's secret surveillance of his city's Muslims.
The Republican leader of the Pennsylvania Senate said Wednesday this year’s primary election would likely be conducted using the existing General Assembly district lines.
Although the governor and secretary of state are against requiring voters to have photo IDs, Republicans want to let the voters decide.
Republican lawmakers on Wednesday declined to re-evaluate the state's contentious electoral maps, meaning a federal trial will begin to determine whether the maps were drawn in compliance with legal restrictions.
Detroit's problematic public transportation system has gotten a new leader and some new buses.
By a 5-4 vote, the court sent the case back to the federal appeals court in San Francisco to consider whether private parties or only the federal government can object to Medicaid reductions.
An Idaho Republican state senator who had been seen as a political riser has stepped down amid sexual harassment allegations.
Lawmakers under pressure from constituents in the months after the Casey Anthony trial have found it's not easy to toughen penalties for parents who don't immediately report missing children.
The Republican-led Michigan Senate has approved a bill that would block unionization efforts by graduate student research assistants at public universities.
A $25 billion settlement with the nation's top mortgage lenders could provide a tempting and timely pot of new money for state lawmakers and governors looking to fill multi-million-dollar budget gaps.
Heath Morrison, Washoe County (Nev.) schools' leader, urges Congress to reauthorize the federal education law.
States are eager to use financial incentives to attract Hollywood productions. But they're less enthusiastic about revealing which films got how much help.
More than 500 state legislators from all 50 states filed a brief with the Supreme Court of the United States this week, defending the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Plus: Tricky tax incentives, and more management news
Outbreaks due to raw milk were 150 times greater from 1993 to 2006.
An embattled Arizona sheriff said that the state's top prosecutor has agreed to conduct a comprehensive independent investigation into allegations made against him and his office.
Unions say they are gearing up to spend more than $400 million to help re-elect President Barack Obama and lift Democrats this election year in a fight for labor's survival.
NEW YORK — The city cannot go forward with a new policy requiring single people to prove they have no other options before they enter homeless shelters, a court ruled Tuesday.
The four Republican presidential candidates still standing will take the stage in Mesa, Ariz., tomorrow -- just under one week before the state's primary.
Community colleges still don't get the dollars of their four-year counterparts, but they're standing very much in the spotlight these days due to their flexibility that allows them train students for fast-growing job sectors.
The state’s Republican party wants to chip away 3 percent from 11 agencies -- a cut that, according to Gov. Mike Beebe’s office, could send at least 76 state workers packing.
The Supreme Court will once again confront the issue of race in university admissions in a case brought by a white student denied a spot at the flagship campus of the University of Texas.
The Supreme Court says the police don't have to read Miranda rights to prison inmates every time they interrogate them about crimes unrelated to their current incarceration.
Attorneys are expected to give their final arguments Tuesday in the trial of two white supremacist brothers accused of bombing a city official in Arizona because he is black.
Critics have called it the train to nowhere and a $98 billion boondoggle. As concerns mount over the practicality and affordability of California's plan to build a high-speed rail system, even many former supporters are beginning to sound skeptical.
Citizen volunteers, properly deployed, can extend government’s reach quickly and effectively.
Connecticut made some bad choices for its schools in the '90s. It seems to be learning from its mistakes.
The federal budget gets all the attention, but it's just part of the story.
As usual, the White House’s spending plan is getting all the attention. What we should be looking at is how we spend across the public sector.
Thinned budgets and shifted energy production for some, Stateline.org reports.
The assembly of the U.S. state of New Jersey on Thursday passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriages, setting the stage for an expected veto by Republican Gov. Chris Christie. Christie and most state Republican lawmakers want gay marriage put to a popular vote.
The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) has named Heath Morrison, superintendent of the Washoe County School District in Reno, Nev., the organization’s 2012 National Superintendent of the Year.
A post office described as a lifeline for residents of a tiny village and hikers traveling the Appalachian Trail is expected to close in May as part of the U.S. Postal Service's attempt to avoid bankruptcy.
As a U.S. Senate candidate from Connecticut, William Tong doesn't have major, statewide name recognition like his two main rivals for the Democratic nomination. But the son of Chinese immigrants has picked up supporters from across the country as the only Asian-American candidate for Senate this year in the continental U.S.
The administration, for the second year in a row, requests cuts to a program that helps poor people pay their heating and cooling bills.
Should parents or the government decide whether children get vaccinated? That’s the question lawmakers in nine states must answer.
The nation's prison population recently declined for the first time in nearly 40 years. View a map and detailed data for your state.
The process of replacing 900 shoulder microphones for firefighters in Montgomery County, Md., is underway, according to public information officer Scott Graham of Montgomery County Fire and Rescue.
DETROIT — Federal prosecutors have added a charge to the corruption case against former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
Gay couples waiting for rights similar to those afforded to married couples got closer on Wednesday to a legislative showdown with Colorado Republicans after a Senate committee approved civil unions legislation after hours of emotional testimony.
Another competitive education grant program from the Obama administration -- this one designed to overhaul the teaching profession -- has state and local policymakers concerned about equity and flexibility.
They are a growing corps, providing sophisticated analysis of the information governments collect to help leaders make better decisions.
Jerry Sanders spoke with Governing writer Ryan Holeywell about how he hopes to turn what's been called "Enron by the Sea" into "ground zero" for pension reform.
Will online poker be the revenue boost states are looking for?
View state totals and incarceration rates for prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities.
One of the bills would require people to show photo IDs to register to vote, another would make people who volunteer to help with voter registration drives complete training, and the other would require people applying to vote to prove their citizenship.
Antonio Villaraigosa is one of the nation’s most well-known Latino politicians, and the Latino vote is expected to be key in this election.
As states prepare to submit more applications for waivers from No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements, the U.S. Department of Education has released recommendations for strengthening their requests.
Once set to rule Super Tuesday, the Texas primaries may now slide into May and out of relevance in the Republican presidential race because of disputed redistricting maps that now has a panel of federal judges demanding compromise.
TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is promising "very swift action" on gay-marriage legislation he opposes if it makes it to his desk.
California Department of Justice employees argued that Gov. Brown only ordered the layoffs as political payback, but the judge disagreed. Now, 81 people will soon be out of a job.
Part 2 of the tale of the overworked social worker.
Arizona and Washington state have both decided to seek waivers from the federal No Child Left Behind law, which mandates every student to be proficient in math and reading by 2014.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A bill inspired by the death of 2-year-old Caylee Anthony is moving closer to passage in the Florida Legislature.
HARTFORD, Conn. — Some state lawmakers are reviving a push to end Connecticut's death penalty, hoping for an easier road this year following the conclusion of two widely publicized trials for a brutal 2007 triple slaying.
The mayor of a Connecticut town embroiled by allegations of Latino bias by police on Monday announced the appointment of an interim police chief to lead a department tainted by charges of false arrests and other forms of harassment.
Medical marijuana is legal in 17 U.S. states, but the industry has a decidedly black-market aspect: It's mostly cash only.
A new report suggests Republicans haven't found the revenue they promised they had.
President Obama sought to address escalating Medicaid costs and states' upcoming implementation of the health reform law in his FY 2013 budget.
Times are tough, but that can be an opportunity for finding better ways to deliver the services people need more than ever.
The president has an ambitious proposal that probably won't be considered seriously by Congress.
View state poverty estimates for 2009-2010, compiled by the Census Bureau.
View 2007-2011 NAEP report card assessments for each state.
President Barack Obama sent Congress a new budget that seeks to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade while increasing spending on areas aimed at giving the economy a quick boost.
