Archive
The rules make it easier for defrauded students to get their federal loans forgiven and they also prohibit colleges from forcing students to resolve complaints through arbitration, rather than going to court.
At least 62 cases have been confirmed in 22 states this year, and at least 65 additional illnesses in those states are being investigated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That number could grow as officials continue to comb through areas that were most severely hit.
Dennis Hof, the flamboyant pimp and Republican nominee who was expected to win a seat in the Nevada state Assembly next month, has died at his signature brothel, according to Nye County officials.
Federal policy, and other factors, are disrupting efforts to improve transit and forcing urban planners to make tough choices.
The city could be accused of policing too much and too little.
A bridge collapse in Italy shows the complexity that arises when private companies manage public assets.
Ironically, it can happen because managers skip steps in an effort to go faster.
The new federal program could lure fresh investment to distressed areas. But the clock is ticking.
Politicians say they want citizens to be involved. But it can make things harder to achieve.
Some say John Kasich is "the first governor who has been able to move the private sector to really participate in health-care reform."
After decades of false starts, turbines are starting to turn in several coastal states.
Unlike most politicians, California's outgoing governor has made planning ahead a staple of his leadership -- even if it means going against his own party.
The Oklahoma city's "Black Wall Street" was one of the richest African-American neighborhoods in the country. Then whites burned it to the ground.
The city, which has more empty and dilapidated houses than most, is making buyers prove that they can afford to purchase a home — and to fix it up.
While some homeowners are now paying nothing in property taxes, businesses and local governments are feeling the pinch.
Uncertainties about resources, and a question about residents' citizenship status, are making localities more nervous than usual about not counting people.
Photos and musings from our photographer.
States and cities are trying to use science to create better policies and programs. New federal foster care rules are complicating their efforts.
It's leading an increasing number of state and local governments to commit to 100 percent clean energy goals.
What sets these outliers apart?
Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia, who is facing fraud charges in federal court and has been served with an eviction notice, announced he will not step down Tuesday morning.
For more than a week, details in the case of a Lakeland city commissioner who fatally shot an alleged shoplifter came mainly from police accounts.
The lead paint industry's efforts to avoid a cleanup bill for more than $400 million has reached the end of the road.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has re-opened voter registration in four South Georgia counties where Hurricane Michael forced their election offices to close last week.
As service taxes gain favor as a way to raise revenue, there's a growing movement to stop them. Voters in Arizona joined it on Tuesday.
Officials at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage said the facility recently halted admissions amid alarm by a spike in staff injuries over a two-week period from the end of September to early October.
A new law is on the books in Pennsylvania requiring those convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence or subject to protective orders to give up their guns within 24 hours.
In the middle of September, Blake Fischer sent an email to more than 100 friends and colleagues recapping his recent hunting trip to Namibia.
The woman, who spoke to NJ Advance Media on the condition she not be identified, said Albert J. Alvarez attacked her during a Rutgers Law Review gathering in the fall of 1999, and that she feels remorse for not reporting it to police.
Approved by voters in 1978, Proposition 13 set state property taxes at 1 percent of the purchase price and capped annual increases at 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower.
The high court issued a rebuke of Scott on Monday, saying the governor "exceeded his authority" when he moved last month to begin the process of naming new Supreme Court justices.
The Walker administration disputed the governor is slow-walking the process, saying the state needs time to iron out the details and blaming delays on the Trump administration.
There’s been a flurry of state legislation to tackle the problem — with radically different approaches that reflect the highly partisan national divide.
This book addresses tough issues that communities face with the challenges of competing historical memory, claims of heritage desecration and the ongoing scourge of racism.
Scott Wagner removed the nearly 3-minute video posted on Facebook, and said he may have used a poor choice of words and that his passion should not be confused with anger.
A jury has awarded $479,500 to a transgender UW-Madison employee and $301,000 to a transgender UW-Madison student after a federal judge found a state ban on insurance coverage for gender reassignment surgery to be sex discrimination.
Since PennDOT announced a voluntary request for authorization to be submitted by self-driving car companies operating in the state, Aurora is the first to receive the authorization.
The 5-2 high court decision vacated a preliminary injunction that required the state place homeless families with recognized disabilities in a motel if available shelters couldn’t accommodate their circumstances and the motel could.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected two last-ditch efforts to save the life of Tennessee death row inmate Edmund Zagorski, apparently clearing the way for his execution despite a delay caused by legal wrangling.
This boom is engulfing the rest of West Texas, too, extending to areas that drilling hasn’t touched before. As communities welcome the jobs and the new business, they’re struggling with an onslaught of problems that include spikes in traffic accidents and homelessness.
The agreements are tentative and must be approved by multiple states and agencies as well as the U.S. government, but they are seen as a milestone in the effort to preserve the river.
In October 1998, when Shepard was killed, only Minnesota and the District of Columbia had laws that covered hate crimes against LGBTQ people. Today, 18 states have hate-crime laws that address sexual orientation or gender identity, and another 12 states address hate crimes based on sexual orientation.
Several civil rights organizations are suing Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp to stop the state from enforcing a law that has put more than 53,000 voter registrations on hold.
After the Florida Democratic Party filed a lawsuit earlier this week seeking a statewide extension of the voter registration deadline, a federal judge has rejected it, saying "there is no justification."
The video clip, in which Schuette appears to attempt to flirt with the camerawoman, was being widely circulated on social media Thursday afternoon after it was published by the pro-Democrat group American Bridge.
The decision comes a little more than a year after the city’s police watchdog agency had taken the rare step of finding the officer at fault and recommending he be fired for using excessive force in shooting Dakota Bright.
The institute will combine the three state universities, Department of Transportation, Department of Public Safety, Commerce Department and companies working on automated cars, trucks and drones, officials said.
Calling the ad "demonstrably false," attorney Glenn Burhans Jr., penned a letter Thursday saying that the campaign "will take all available resources to prevent the spread of the false and defamatory advertisement."
The 5-2 decision from the Arkansas Supreme Court means the law, which requires voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot, will remain in effect in this year’s midterm election.
Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma, an Indianapolis Republican and one of the state’s most powerful politicians, paid a law firm more than $40,000 in campaign funds this year in part to gather unflattering information about the former intern.
Democrats in the Senate, including Stephen M. Sweeney, the Senate president, said in a statement that they were disturbed by the allegations, but did not raise the possibility of legislative hearings.
The brief was filed Wednesday in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco. It was signed by California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, along with attorneys general from Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Washington.
A number of states are blocking web traffic from foreign countries to their voter registration websites, making the process harder for some U.S. citizens who live overseas to vote, despite the practice providing no real security benefits.
Fatal police shootings rarely result in convictions. In Chicago and Texas, they just did.
In a strongly worded decision that faulted the state's use of the death penalty as being "arbitrary" and "racially biased," the Washington state Supreme Court on Thursday abolished capital punishment.
Health insurance premiums in the 39 states that use HealthCare.gov will fall 1.5 percent on average for the most commonly purchased plans in 2019, marking the first time that rates have dropped since the 2010 health care law was implemented.
The Massachusetts State Police's effort to get rid of payroll records was "completely consistent with standard operating procedure" but not something they should be doing amid questions of payroll and overtime abuse, Gov. Charlie Baker said Wednesday.
A Mercedes, jewelry, designer shoes and trips to casinos; the young mayor of Fall River was living the high life, but federal investigators say it was done with stolen cash.
Virtually anyone can send millions of illegal robocalls and frustrate law enforcement with just a computer, inexpensive software and an internet connection, according to a coalition of 34 state attorneys general.
New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal on Wednesday sued the federal government for failing to answer his Freedom of Information Act request seeking why Florida -- but no other Atlantic seaboard states -- was excluded from a plan to expand offshore oil drilling.
Before Hurricane Michael's 155-mile-per-hour winds blasted the Florida Panhandle Wednesday afternoon and eventually knocked out the power to thousands of households, scores of voters watching TV for news of the approaching hurricane were also presented with dark and stormy ads about statewide political candidates.
The revised trade pact keeps the original agreement's free trade zone intact while placing some new burdens on the auto industry.
Since June, six races have shifted in the party's favor.
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said in April that Flint’s water was safe to drink. But here in Flint, where Mr. Snyder’s name is synonymous with villainy for many residents, his declaration has been largely ignored, and the crisis of unclean drinking water in the Great Lake state nicknamed “Pure Michigan” is very much ongoing.
"Hopefully he will never be employed by any [police department] in America," Tamir Rice's mother said during the news conference. "He is unfit to be a police officer, period."
The aggressive gesture drew a gasp from the audience and, judging from her expression, clearly startled Mahlberg. When Quam was done with his rebuttal, he then dismissively tossed the mic back at Mahlberg, again drawing commotion from the audience.
In defiance of threats from the Justice Department, public health advocates in Philadelphia have launched a nonprofit to run a facility to allow people to use illegal drugs under medical supervision.
An Associated Press review of a Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics database shows more than 60 civil asset forfeitures with nearly $200,000 in property taken by state and local agencies under a law that lapsed on June 30.
Double-murderer Edmund George Zagorski, 63, had been scheduled to die Thursday night at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, in an execution he wanted to happen by electrocution.
Dr. Michael Golding compiled a "lengthy, detailed report" that inmate attorneys say contains "serious allegations" that data reported to the court overseeing a long-running case involving medical and mental health care inside California prisons "is inaccurate and has been presented in a materially misleading way," court documents say.
The structure of their tax systems doesn't align with their evolving economies.
As Secretary of State, Brian Kemp is in charge of elections and voter registration in Georgia.
With all the new information governments have available, it's too easy to focus on improving existing processes rather than on better ways to address underlying problems.
Since making landfall on Wednesday as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, the now tropical storm has left thousands of people without power, uprooted trees, turned homes and marinas into ruins and killed at least 2 people.
Legalization measures passed in Michigan but failed in North Dakota.
Suddenly and without warning, news reports saying Chesapeake fines and jails teenage trick-or-treaters have gone viral.
A Cole County judge ruled Tuesday that Missouri election officials can no longer tell voters that a photo ID is required to cast a ballot.
It is not as strict as the leaked version but would still drastically limit what benefits they could use without risking green cards or permanent residency status.
The effort in particular was aimed at locating victims of sex trafficking.
Bill Gates, in a Tuesday blog post, said he would contribute to the Yes on 1631 campaign, vote for the measure and encourage others to do the same.
A new scholarship program made possible by state funding will provide free tuition to University of Illinois at Chicago for high-achieving local students.
Advocates on both sides of the issue say that medical cannabis programs are increasingly functioning as a Trojan horse for de facto legalization in the 40 states where the politics of legalization aren’t quite ripe yet.
The new law, signed Tuesday by Mayor de Blasio and introduced by Council Speaker Corey Johnson, will allow adults born here to change the gender on their birth certificate without a medical professional's approval -- instead letting them "self-attest" their gender.
Two controversies erupted at once Tuesday, one over a state online voter registration system and the other involving the storm's disruption of the last day that Florida residents could become eligible voters in 2018.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to toss out an appeals court order that allows North Dakota to enforce its voter ID requirement during the 2018 elections.
Sen. Bernie Sanders will campaign for Democratic candidates across the country this month at more than 15 planned events in nine states -- including a number of presidential primary hot spots.
Jeff Sessions' announcement came the day after President Donald Trump -- who has repeatedly highlighted Chicago's stubborn gun violence -- suggested the department employ stop-and-frisk policing to battle crime.
When the Legislature passed rules this year requiring emergency power in long-term care facilities, Hurricane Michael was exactly the kind of disaster lawmakers had in mind.
The night's biggest voting rights measure was in Florida, where more than 1 million felons had their right to vote restored.
Last month, the mayor of Hallandale Beach, Keith London, bizarrely accused fellow commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub of profiting from bleaching her sphincter, causing public outrage and series of #MeToo posts on social media. Now, Lima-Taub is the one under fire for apparently comparing the mayor to Adolf Hitler during Wednesday night's regularly scheduled commission meeting.
The fact that some farmers are determined to keep spraying dicamba is putting enormous pressure on others who are farming by the rules.
The minimum security inmates were working in the jail's kitchen when they hid in food waste trash cans taken outside for disposal.
Inmate Abuse: Wisconsin Investigated 132 Sexual Misconduct Complaints Against Prison Staff in 1 Year
The prison staff — including one guard trained in preventing such behavior — are accused of having sexual intercourse and forging romantic relationships with inmates, spanking them and making sexually harassing comments, among other allegations.
LGBT advocates are celebrating the new state guidance, saying it puts New Jersey among the national leaders in protecting transgender students from unaccepting or abusive parents.
Three months after the U.S. Supreme Court's Janus ruling, teachers appear to be sticking with their union, even though they are no longer required to pay dues or a fee in lieu of their dues.
These errors, which include non-citizens, are in addition to the roughly 23,000 registration mistakes disclosed by the DMV last month.
Hurricane Michael was likely to strengthen into a Category 2 hurricane sometime Tuesday, meteorologist Danielle Niles of CBS Boston reports.
The president said he wanted officials to "work with local authorities to try to change the terrible deal the city of Chicago entered into with ACLU, which ties law enforcement's hands, and to strongly consider stop-and-frisk."
In the spring of 2016, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed a bill that gave Virginia a first-of-its-kind loan program.
The man behind the wheel in the deadly New York limousine crash did not have the proper license and the vehicle had failed an inspection just last month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
The state is the latest where voters have weighed in on the debate.
While they likely won't win a majority nationwide, the party is poised to gain control of some chambers. How many depends on the size of the potential blue wave.
A new five-state project funded by the federal government aims to improve vaccination rates among low-income children and pregnant women, using statewide registries intended to track the immunization histories of all residents.
In cities like Detroit, where the vast majority of schools are low-performing, most student transfers have largely negative effects.
From 2001 to 2017, there were 10 slayings at Tennessee schools involving a gun, according to the statistics from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Metro Nashville Police.
Timothy Loehmann was one of two part-time officers recently added to the Bellaire Police Department's payroll, Chief Richard Flanagan confirmed to The Times Ledger.
Strict penalties for possessing marijuana in Texas could soon go up in smoke.
Just this year, at least a dozen US cities -- including San Francisco and Cincinnati -- decided to stop observing Columbus Day and will instead celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday.
Once seen as a useful tool to provide quick election results, voting machines with cellular modems are now subject to fierce debate over how easy it would be to break into them and change the results.
Across the three states hardest hit -- North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia -- the cost to rebuild is staggering.
The Alabama Ethics Commission voted on Tuesday to drop an ethics violation case against Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin.
For all the tech wealth that has flown into this city in recent years, it's also an unnerving time for city builders.
Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke was convicted of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery in the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, marking a stunning end to a racially tinged case that roiled Chicago when police dashboard camera video of the shooting was released three years ago by court order.
Reports of erratic bird activity prompted the Gilbert Police Department to issue a news release Tuesday.
Confederate Avenue and East Confederate Avenue will be renamed United Avenue and United Avenue S.E., respectively, and a third street, Confederate Court, will be renamed Trestletree Court, after apartment buildings that are on the street.
At Beebe Healthcare in Lewes, Gov. John Carney signed what's called "Aiden's Law," which aims to prevent infant deaths by providing mothers and infants the proper care needed after dealing with drugs.
Alex Padilla, California's secretary of state, is taking the "paper" out of paper-pusher – literally.
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has pledged to call a special legislative session to take up a cannabis pact that flowed from weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiation between officials and both sides of the Prop 2 debate.
The team of Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies cruises the 5 Freeway, stopping motorists on the Grapevine in search of cars carrying drugs.
Lancaster shared the photo, which shows a young woman wearing braces and large glasses, adding the comments: "This is the alleged sexual assault victim. Wow."
Florida's attorney general said Thursday she is launching an investigation of potential sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church, making Florida at least the 13th state with an ongoing statewide probe of the church.
Barbara Underwood said Trump's actions in that regard, and his use of the Trump Foundation "for his own personal benefit," justified her request to ban him for 10 years from being involved in any non-profit group.
In Maine, which has a greater share of older residents than any other state, voters rejected a ballot measure that would have provided free long-term care to anyone who needs it.
At a time of low unemployment, both kinds of employers are beefing up their perks.
The state where lawmakers put every justice on trial this year is also the only state where the legislature has no control over the judicial budget. Voters changed that on Tuesday.
It can catalyze government to take risks, move quickly and pay attention to neglected issues.
It's a slight decline from last year but still more than usual.
Lawmakers want to raise taxes on pharmaceutical companies to help pay for the cost of the opioid crisis. But success has been elusive.
If the plan is accepted by the legislature, it would go into effect in 2020 and the governor says financial savings could be seen as soon as fiscal year 2021.
More South Florida beaches closed and fish washed up dead as the toxic algae bloom known as red tide spread north on the state's east coast Wednesday.
The office announced the total number of kits Wednesday after receiving inventories from 208 law-enforcement agencies across the state.
The politically pointed gesture, designed to call attention to Ted Wheeler's stance against immigration enforcement actions, goes as far as to suggest he should temporarily give up his duties as police commissioner.
Inspector General Patrick Blanchard's finding came in a report issued after his office looked into whether Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker's relationship with Assessor Joe Berrios played a role in Pritzker's property taxes being lowered.
In 2008, Missouri had five abortion clinics, according to Planned Parenthood. The Columbia Health Center in central Missouri on Wednesday became the latest to stop providing abortions.
After arguing its case in a federal appeals court Wednesday, Texas will soon know whether its decision to spend $33.3 million less on students with disabilities in 2012 will cost it millions in future federal funding.
The investigation in Decatur, Ga., which opened last month, signals a major development in Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ controversial policies on transgender bathroom access in schools and her handling of civil rights enforcement for transgender students.
After deliberating behind closed doors for just under 2 hours, 20 minutes Tuesday afternoon, the West Virginia Senate soundly rejected removing Supreme Court Justice Beth Walker from office for maladministration.
Jason Kander, citing depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, is dropping out of the Kansas City mayor's race.
From health care and immigration to redistricting and transportation funding, voters decided a long list of policies.
An unpopular governor and a moderate candidate have given Republicans the chance for rare victories in Connecticut and Oregon.
The University of Montana’s fine appears to be one of the highest on record for campus security issues, after the nearly $2.4 million fine levied against Pennsylvania State University, according to a federal database with statistics from 2010 to 2017 and an earlier announcement from the Department of Education.
The Republican said her decision to leave office after just one term largely was prompted by ongoing political infighting over the status of the state superintendent's office, which she sees as "noise" and a distraction from educating children.
Court-ordered rehab is increasingly falling out of fashion in California as Santa Cruz and 18 other counties begin to treat addiction like any other health condition — with the Medicaid program relying on evidence-based practices and trained personnel to make decisions on care.
In May, the Dallas City Council unanimously passed a new comprehensive housing policy, a first for the city. The goal is to build 20,000 new homes — but only in select, pre-approved neighborhoods deemed ripe for revitalization.
Gov. Bill Haslam announced Tuesday that Joseph Hultquist was pardoned for his 1972 and 1973 convictions of unlawful sale of controlled substances.
Gov. Phil Murphy wants New Jersey to utilize one of the most quintessential, lucrative and risky practices of Silicon Valley: venture capitalism.
The announcement by the Department of Taxation and Finance came within hours of a bombshell report in The New York Times detailing dubious tax schemes that Trump participated in with the help and blessing of his late father, Fred Trump, in the 1990s.
In the first midterm elections under Donald J. Trump, whose campaign and presidency included strong appeals to white voters, Republicans have no black or Hispanic nominees for governor in 2018
Using threats of shame or economic harm to coerce a person into having sex will become explicitly illegal in Maryland under one of the hundreds of new laws that take effect Monday in the state.
