Archive
The latest from Florence, plus recent coverage on how states and cities across the country are planning for the next big storm.
While much attention has been paid to the influence of natural gas, nuclear power generation also increased in a number of states where those sources were most dominant.
As hundreds of thousands of people evacuate the coastal areas of South Carolina, more than 1,000 inmates in a Charleston County detention center will hunker down and weather out Hurricane Florence, a spokesman for the sheriff's office said.
As part of an effort to "streamline" the social studies curriculum in Texas, the State Board of Education voted on Friday to change what students in every grade are required to learn in the classroom.
The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit in 2017 on behalf of two Democratic lawmakers, arguing that the state constitution gives legislators the power to set budgets.
The company said it will use the financing to move ahead on permitting, design and engineering on what would be the first high-speed rail in America.
With its pollution and wildfires, climate change should be a central issue to anyone living in Los Angeles — let alone to the man running it.
According to Center for Women and American Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers, 61 women -- 41 Democrats and 20 Republicans -- filed to run in 2018. The previous record was 34 women who filed to run in 1994.
As rain from Florence continued to lash the Carolinas, the region’s swollen rivers were beginning to swamp coal ash dumps and low-lying hog farms Sunday.
Since the Pennsylvania report, several other states have launched investigations into the Catholic Church. But in some of them, laws prevent many child victims from seeking legal justice.
Public advocate and endorsed Democrat Letitia "Tish" James won the Democratic primary for New York State attorney general, making her the favorite to win the seat in the general election in November.
After four years as the Baltimore health commissioner, Dr. Leana Wen is stepping down to take a job as the new head of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Two of those allegations were received just this year — with one case revealed publicly for the first time Thursday in a letter to Catholics from Bishop Oscar A. Solis.
Florida is one of seven states that bar people with a criminal record from receiving victim compensation. The laws are meant to keep limited funds from going to people who are deemed undeserving.
The vote reverses the board's earlier decision and bookends a decades-long fight to remove what some critics have called a racist emblem of California's past.
Julia Salazar, 27, rode the progressive wave, toppling long-term state Sen. Martin Malavé Dilan in a district that includes swaths of Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Cypress Hills.
It's one of 44th President's first forays back into politics as the midterms approach and Democrats fight to regain seats in the U.S. House and Senate.
The storm's worst scenes so far -- still an hour or two before landfall -- have emerged in the besieged town of New Bern, where about 150 people called for help overnight, city officials said.
His statements in back-to-back morning tweets came while millions of Americans were anxiously watching the path of Hurricane Florence as it headed toward the Carolinas.
The Associated Press called the race for Cuomo at 9:30 p.m. EDT, a half hour after polls closed. Cuomo had an early 65.9 percent to 34.1 percent lead with about a quarter of the vote counted.
Just over half of this year's candidates endorsed by Democratic Socialists are advancing to the general election. They could win seats for school boards, city councils and legislatures in 20 states.
The annual National League of Cities report signals potentially more challenging times ahead for many localities.
On his way out of office, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is set to create a task force that would consider whether to make monthly no-strings-attached payments to a group of Chicago families to help them make ends meet.
There will be no straight-party voting option this year in New Mexico.
Nearly one in five Californians still lives in poverty despite the state's vigorous recovery from the Great Recession and its low unemployment rate.
In its bid to start collecting a sales tax on internet purchases, Colorado could run afoul of the Supreme Court's ruling.
Alabama and West Virginia voters preemptively criminalized abortion in case Roe v. Wade is struck down. But voters in Oregon defeated an attempt to restrict coverage.
Oregon voters were the first to directly weigh in on immigration during the Trump era.
Juli Briskman said she plans to run in 2019 as supervisor for the Algonkian District in Loudoun County, where she will face Republican Suzanne Volpe.
Pro-Medicaid expansion advocates who are suing to force Maine to roll-out voter-approved Medicaid expansion have encouraged Mainers to apply for Medicaid expansion this summer. But LePage said the plan is to deny those applications “until they’re funded.”
Four months before widespread problems with the city's lead poisoning prevention program burst into the open, then-Health Commissioner Bevan Baker was warned by a staffer that they would face serious consequences if the public learned just how deep the troubles ran.
For the second time in his political life, Allan Fung, the son of Chinese immigrants and four-term mayor of Cranston, has captured the Republican nomination to run for governor.
Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday started what will be a closely watched process to replace three Florida Supreme Court justices who will retire in January, with the appointments possibly leading to a major ideological shift on the court.
More than a dozen states now offer grants, often called scholarships, promising to help qualifying students pay for some or all of their college education.
The legislation will also mean New Yorkers can change the gender on their birth certificate without a doctor's sign-off -- instead, they will be able to self-attest to their gender identity.
Perhaps no other population is as vulnerable during a hurricane as frail, older adults, especially those who are homebound or living in nursing homes.
A Washington federal court judge on Wednesday ruled the department’s postponement of the so-called Borrower Defense rule was procedurally improper.
Local governments are turning to data-driven tools to meet growing waste management challenges.
Controversial state Senate candidate Julia Salazar said Tuesday that she was sexually assaulted by a top spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has ordered the National Rifle Association to stop selling liability insurance in the state without a license.
The move is intended to turn back a surge in chlamydia and gonorrhea, which have made double-digit increases in the suburban county.
46 states have some version of the program popularized by New York's Kendra’s Law, known in the mental health lexicon as “Assisted Outpatient Treatment,” or A.O.T.
Throughout the campaign, Molly Kelly accused Chris Sununu of "shooting from the hip" too often, sucking up to the Trump administration and embracing an energy policy that's far more friendly to major utilities contributing to his campaign than it is to energy consumers in the state.
State laws boosting wind and solar power have seen remarkable success over the past two decades.
Tens of thousands of low-level marijuana convictions could be erased with the OK of Brooklyn's top prosecutor under a new plan for wiping records clean of offenses no longer being prosecuted in parts of the nation's biggest city.
Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said the newly formed Office of Public Integrity and Accountability will be led by a longtime federal prosecutor with a record of high-profile public corruption convictions.
In a further sign of the sprawling nature of the Justice Department’s effort to collect voting records in North Carolina, prosecutors demanded eight years of information from the state’s Division of Motor Vehicles, according to a copy of the subpoena obtained by The New York Times.
The department's new civil rights head has re-opened a discrimination case against Rutgers University brought by a Zionist group that the Obama administration closed four years ago.
It is 2035 -- the year advocates aim to kill off production of gasoline and diesel powered vehicles.
Almost all those running for promotion to governor lost their party's primaries.
Their purchasing pledge is a small but symbolic step toward reducing greenhouse gases.
A federal appeals court ruling Monday could limit abortion services throughout Missouri, including at a clinic in Kansas City.
Tacoma's public schools will be closed for a fourth day Tuesday as an ongoing dispute over teacher pay creates the state's largest work stoppage of educators.
Three contested constitutional amendments -- one banning greyhound racing, another that would require Miami-Dade County voters to elect a sheriff and one on crime victims' rights -- will be on the ballot despite lawsuits that challenged their language, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.
The new Comprehensive Child Welfare Information Systems rule provides states an opportunity to modernize child welfare systems and enhance outcomes. The Accenture Case Insight Solution can help them get there.
Just over half of the 36 gubernatorial races are competitive.
A school in Hephzibah, Georgia, is drawing national attention after sending consent forms to parents informing them of a new policy of using paddling as a form of punishment for students, CBS affiliate WRDW-TV reports.
County officials say the decision on whether to take the rare step of holding another primary election rests with the judge who's presiding over the case.
Gavin Newsom insisted he wasn't taking his gubernatorial bid for granted by focusing on down-ballot races.
Meth-related deaths in the county nearly doubled from 2016 to 2017, from 36 to 67, while meth ranked among the fastest-growing drugs in fatalities elsewhere in the state.
Obama said in a statement that Nevada has a chance to elect its first Democratic governor in 20 years and Sisolak would fight for “justice, equality and opportunity for all Nevadans.”
State estimates aren’t due until mid-November, but many experts see oil and natural gas drilling, driven by higher prices, as a leading reason.
Hurricane Florence exploded in size and strength Monday, putting the coast of the Southeastern United States on high alert for potentially deadly storm surge, devastating winds and intense, flooding rainfall by Thursday.
Sanders is getting behind Nixon’s running mate, lieutenant governor candidate Jumaane Williams, and the progressive state attorney general candidate who’s running as a Nixon ally, Zephyr Teachout.
All of California's electricity will come from clean power sources by 2045 under legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday, the latest in a series of ambitious goals set by the state to combat the effects of climate change.
U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis resigned from Congress on Monday to concentrate on his campaign for governor against Andrew Gillum, his Democratic opponent.
Advocates say the Federal Transit Administration is sitting on nearly $1.8 billion that’s supposed to help build light rail lines, streetcars and subway improvements. Delaying these projects, they argue, could increase costs for local transit agencies.
The 2018 hurricane season blew into high gear on Sunday.
The board on Thursday unanimously approved a tuition waiver for the state’s foster youth that could help students like Sandoval-Lunn earn a college certificate or degree.
Kenner City Mayor Ben Zahn appeared to declare on Sept. 5, that “under no circumstances” should Nike products or any product with the Nike logo be purchased, WBRZ 2 reported Saturday.
On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, Cynthia Nixon and her campaign supporters are demanding Gov. Cuomo and the state's Democratic Party repent for a mailer emblazoned with her picture and the words "anti-Semitism."
Rep. Ron DeSantis spoke four times at conferences organized by a conservative activist who has said that African Americans owe their freedom to white people and that the country’s “only serious race war” is against whites.
In a move aimed at stopping President Trump's plans to expand offshore oil drilling along the California coast, Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed two laws that prohibit construction of new pipelines that could bring the oil and gas to shore.
The largest health insurance company in Tennessee will stop covering OxyContin prescriptions next year as part of sweeping policy changes intended to combat opioid addiction and make pain pills less valuable on the black market.
Arkansas became the first state ever to implement work requirements, after gaining approval from the Trump administration earlier this year.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Thursday signed an executive order for transferring all remaining U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees out of the city jail and declaring that Atlanta will no longer hold anyone for the federal agency.
A mayor of a small Eastern North Carolina town and his wife were found dead in their home, and police say they have suspects in custody.
The actor has become the voice of announcements on Vancouver's buses and subways.
Massachusetts would have been the second state with nurse-to-patient ratio requirements.
The New York Post reports Julia Salazar filed a defamation suit against the New York Mets legend's ex-wife, Kai Hernandez in 2013.
Lawmakers in at least 10 other states intend to consider opioid taxes in upcoming legislative sessions. Many pin their hopes on the November midterm elections.
The “food is medicine” concept is simple: If chronically ill people eat a nutritious diet, they’ll need fewer medications, emergency room visits and hospital readmissions.
Ken Pimlott, director of the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, said in a letter to legislators that the agency is down to its last $11 million after spending $432 million in July and August alone. The budget year doesn't end until June 30, 2019.
The task of drawing new boundaries for thousands of federal and state legislative districts is still about three years away, yet the political battle over redistricting already is playing out in the 2018 midterm elections.
The biggest sticking point between the competing House and Senate bills has to do with changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, often called food stamps.
The consulting firm Avalere Health and The Associated Press crunched available state data and found that "Obamacare's" health insurance marketplaces seem to be stabilizing after two years of sharp premium hikes.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will meet with state attorneys general later this month to discuss concerns that tech companies "may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms."
A federal judge on Wednesday struck down a Texas law that requires fetal and embryonic tissue from most failed pregnancies be buried or cremated, striking a blow to anti-abortion activists and delivering another defeat to the Texas Attorney General's Office, which defended the law in court.
Tallahassee mayor and Democratic nominee for governor Andrew Gillum announced former primary rival Chris King of Orlando will be his running mate Thursday morning, in a choice that is likely to continue to appeal strongly to progressives who lifted Gillum to victory a week and a half ago.
A federal judge in Texas on Wednesday rejected a request from a group of Republican-led states to suspend the Affordable Care Act, but he extensively quizzed attorneys involved in the latest challenge to the 2010 health care law about which provisions should survive.
A year filled with teacher strikes and sexual harassment scandals has led candidates for governor to talk more about how they would treat their state's workforce.
Bill Pound, the executive director of the National Conference of State Legislatures since 1987, helped preserve bipartisanship among lawmakers.
The Vermont Department of Corrections put out bids earlier this year for a new contract to house inmates that they say do not fit in Vermont's in-state facility.
Mi Familia Vota Education Fund, Hispanic Federation and three other groups say federal law requires Florida to have bilingual voting materials and poll workers available to people who aren't proficient in English.
Miami state Rep. Jeanette Nuñez is to be named Republican Ron DeSantis’ running mate Thursday, the first time a Cuban-American woman has been chosen as a lieutenant governor candidate in Florida.
Some states are turning to emergency or short-term licensure to put more teachers in the classroom.
The reason for the policy change: the Shelby County attorney's office ruled in April that the sheriff's office doesn't have to obey the federal requests to hold these immigrants.
The new requirement, which will be agreed upon formally in a federal court hearing Thursday morning, marks a win for Attorney General Lisa Madigan who had pushed for the new level of documentation as part of her ongoing negotiations with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Tens of thousands of Californians have been registered to vote incorrectly by the state Department of Motor Vehicles, including some who were assigned the wrong political party preference, officials said Wednesday.
Immigration authorities want North Carolina elections officials to turn over nearly a decade’s worth of voting records by the end of the month.
More than 100 public school districts and universities, faced with the prospect that the next attacker may be among their own students, have hired social media monitoring companies over the past five years.
The LePage administration complied with a court order Tuesday and finally submitted required documents to the federal government to expand Medicaid to 70,000 Mainers, but there's a catch. Gov. Paul LePage -- an expansion opponent -- is asking federal officials to deny the application.
Gov. Larry Hogan on Tuesday renewed his call for accountability in Maryland's local school systems, but Democratic challenger Ben Jealous said that what they really need is more funding.
New Jersey has become the first state to regulate its drinking water for a man-made, toxic chemical compound once used in making nonstick cookware and now linked to a variety of health problems.
States are starting to integrate mental health into their curriculum -- whether it's English or biology class.
A patient advisory committee is helping researchers refine study questions and research design.
Federal wildlife officials have opened an investigation into dolphin deaths off Southwest Florida, where a red tide is suspected of killing 41 dolphins in August alone amid widespread fish kills across five counties.
This year alone, 10 counties with large black populations in Georgia closed polling spots after a white elections consultant recommended they do so to save money.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jay Gonzalez has won his party's nomination, and will face off against Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who handily beat far-right primary challenger Scott Lively on Tuesday.
The Republican governor pitched a similar proposal to senior voters when he was running four years ago.
North Carolina's 13 congressional districts will remain in place and so will the Nov. 6, 2018, election, a federal three-judge panel ruled Tuesday.
The court's decisions apply to federal cases in nine Western states, including California. Tuesday's ruling will become a binding precedent unless it is successfully appealed.
Six months after hiring former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani’s consulting firm, Purdue Pharma settled a Florida state investigation that had threatened to expose early illegal marketing of its blockbuster drug OxyContin, company and state records show.
The long national legal war over the Affordable Care Act will resume in a Texas courtroom Wednesday as a federal judge hears arguments in a new lawsuit seeking to wipe out the 2010 law, often called Obamacare.
The IRS has moved to block high-tax states from circumventing GOP limits on tax deductions -- but not in every way possible.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced Tuesday the choice of former Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl to fill the seat of the late John McCain _ but only for the next few months.
Gov. Roy Cooper lost his lawsuit against the General Assembly on Friday, which means two controversial constitutional amendments will appear on the ballot this November -- unless an appeals court rules for Cooper.
Some inmates in Pennsylvania prisons will be part of a four-state pilot program that will track and monitor them upon their release with the goal of keeping them from ending up back behind bars.
The Internal Revenue Service could hand Texas more than $300 million, after a federal court in North Texas ruled that the federal government improperly charged a handful of states millions in state Medicaid program fees that help fund the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
The trial to impeach the entire West Virginia Supreme Court starts this week. It's just one example of a growing trend among unhappy lawmakers.
In a stunning decision, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Tuesday morning that he will no longer seek a third term in office, signaling the end to what has been a tumultuous – and at times transformative – eight years in office.
The Supreme Court nominee's legal vision could empower state governments on some issues but imperil their laws on others.
A federal judge has put a 14-day hold on the first public grizzly bear hunts in Wyoming and Idaho in more than 40 years, as he considers whether the government was wrong to lift federal protections on the animals.
People like Viviana and her family are hit disproportionately when wildfires ignite — because smoke adds another layer of toxic substances to the already dirty air, experts say.
The streets of San Francisco — hilly, curvy, cinematic and, in recent years, a bleak showcase for the mentally ill and economically displaced — have long reflected this eccentric city’s governing priorities and many civic contradictions.
In an emergency petition filed late Thursday, an unlikely assortment of political leaders and advocates argued straight-party voting is no longer allowed under New Mexico law.
At least two people in Tallahassee have received a racist robocall targeting the Democratic nominee for governor, Andrew Gillum, that references a comment made earlier this week by his Republican opponent.
A letter from the Texas Education Agency about funding for schooling in migrant shelters highlights the ongoing push and pull between federal and state agencies.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen said Texas and six other conservative states that sued to block DACA couldn’t prove that allowing the program to continue was causing irreparable harm.
An analysis done by his own Environmental Protection Agency concludes that the plan would lead to a greater number of people here dying prematurely, and suffering health problems.
Employees are the most valuable assets of an organization yet when looking for areas of efficiency and ways to save money, they aren’t always the first to be asked.
The unprecedented legislation implements an automatic statewide process to potentially reduce or dismiss sentences and records for crimes that are no longer illegal under state law. Other states are pursuing similar policies.
People still staying in taxpayer-funded hotels and motels under the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Transitional Shelter Assistance program, commonly called TSA, will be allowed to stay until Sept. 14.
Five years ago, several shocking fatalities pushed the police department to expand its crash investigation squad. Apart from renaming the unit, little has changed.
Of the 31 states and Washington, D.C., that have legalized medical marijuana, at least seven have enacted laws or regulations that allow students to use it on school grounds, in part because doing so could risk their federal funding.
Teachers seeking enhanced education funding also have walked out in recent months in West Virginia, Arizona and Oklahoma.
The Legislature's Government Oversight Committee, in an unprecedented move, sent a letter Wednesday to Gov. Paul LePage condemning his actions at a public meeting last week during which he called a lawmaker, "the most repugnant human being," he's ever seen.
Prosecutors in New Jersey cannot unilaterally decriminalize marijuana possession in their jurisdictions, the state attorney general announced Wednesday, but they are being encouraged to use their discretion with people charged with low-level cannabis crimes.
Gov. Gina Raimondo and the state’s education commissioner took executive action Wednesday to ban all firearms, except those carried by police officers, from public schools and grounds in Rhode Island.
A top Justice Department official is putting cities considering medically-supervised drug injection sites on notice: If you open one, prepare for swift and aggressive legal action.
Is one of corporate America’s savviest companies reconsidering its reliance on subsidies, or is it seeking to avoid further regulation?
In an unexpected decision, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the ballot measure's wording was misleading to voters.
The elections come at a crucial time for health care.
Voters in Connecticut approved a transportation "lockbox." But historically, they do little to address transportation funding problems.
A report published on Monday by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation analyzed hundreds of state webpages, including sites dedicated to business registration, the procurement of fishing and hunting licenses and traffic citation databases.
The new law is a response to the epidemic of overdose deaths from narcotics, which killed almost 2,000 people in the state in 2016 and an estimated 72,000 people nationwide last year.
The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections has placed prisons statewide on lockdown, after a series of incidents in which correctional officers were hospitalized in connection with exposure to an unknown substance.
Republican gubernatorial nominee Ron DeSantis said Florida voters should not "monkey this up" by embracing the agenda offered by Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum.
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is developing new policies around campus sexual misconduct that would enhance protections for students accused of assault while also shielding colleges and universities from liability.
GOP officials from 16 states are asking the Supreme Court to decide that federal civil rights law doesn't protect workers on the basis of gender identity.
