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The Detroit school district is shutting off drinking water to all of its schools after test results found elevated levels of lead or copper in 16 out of 24 schools that were recently tested.
Using a study from a team of independent researchers, officials in Puerto Rico said they're raising the official death toll from Hurricane Maria to 2,975 from 64.
The Tallahassee mayor's win in the Democratic primary for governor is one of the year's biggest upsets. Can a progressive beat a Trump-endorsed candidate in this red state?
The areas’s flood infrastructure is being cleaned up and upgraded in small ways, but systemic overhaul remains years away, as comprehensive studies and hundreds of lawsuits progress.
In 161 cases, schools or districts attested that no incident took place or couldn't confirm one.
Unlike other cities that have created immigrant defense funds since Trump took office, Washington does not use tax dollars to help undocumented adults once they are detained by federal authorities and face deportation.
Tulsa businessman Kevin Stitt has won the Republican nomination for governor.
Analysts believe longtime educator David Garcia will have a better-than-usual chance in the Nov. 6 general election, after the #RedForEd teacher walkout raised doubts about Doug Ducey's dedication to public education.
Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed put the blueprints up for sale. Wilson said Tuesday morning that a few hundred blueprints for guns had already been sold since the judge issued the injunction Monday.
Andrew Gillum, a 39-year-old liberal who with the help of progressive political organizations surged in the last weeks of his campaign to upset a better-funded field.
California will become the first state to let people leave jail before trial without having to post bail, under a law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday.
The last time an on-duty police officer in Dallas County was convicted of murder was in 1973. Oliver could be sentenced to life in prison.
The portfolio of Florida Gov. Rick Scott and his wife, Ann Scott, includes earnings last year of at least $2.9 million in two dozen hedge funds registered in the Cayman Islands, a well-known tax haven for U.S. and foreign investors.
In a year when the Trump administration is dialing back financial regulations, Colorado becomes the 16th state to limit the notoriously high interest rates on payday loans.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) threw its weight behind the National Rifle Association (NRA), filing an amicus brief on the gun rights group’s behalf in its lawsuit against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).
Massachusetts officials are moving to set up an independent audit unit that will oversee the State Police after a series of scandals tarred the law enforcement agency.
A week before the start of the new college semester, more than 30,000 adults had applied for the scholarship according to state education officials.
The state allowed hundreds of residents in two Wichita-area neighborhoods to drink contaminated water for years without telling them, despite warning signs of contamination close to water wells used for drinking, washing and bathing.
Former House Speaker Mike Hubbard was convicted in 2016 on the 12 counts and sentenced to four years in prison. He has been free on bond pending his appeal.
A panel of federal judges turned the tables on North Carolina's upcoming congressional elections Monday by reaffirming an earlier ruling that the state's U.S. House districts stem from unconstitutional, partisan gerrymandering aimed at helping Republican candidates.
Officials said then that a spate of well-publicized voting machine problems — including glitches that left some candidates off of ballots or displayed the wrong slate of ballot choices — only affected a small handful of voters.
A proposal to expand Medicaid in Nebraska moved closer Friday to getting on the November ballot after the state’s top elections official determined there are enough valid signatures to send the question to voters.
A federal judge in Seattle issued a preliminary injunction Monday against a self-proclaimed "crypto-anarchist," blocking the Texas man from publishing downloadable internet blueprints for producing 3D-printable guns.
Maryland House Speaker Michael E. Busch stripped Del. Curt Anderson of his legislative leadership posts Friday after an ethics committee ordered the Baltimore Democrat to undergo sexual harassment training following the completion of its investigation into multiple allegations against him.
Officials of the state Department of Transportation now believe they have removed the last remaining memorials to Confederate President Jefferson Davis from Interstate 10 rest areas in New Mexico.
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Sunday vetoed legislation that would have raised the minimum salary for an Illinois teacher to $40,000 within five years, putting the re-election-seeking Republican at odds with teachers unions once again.
Lawmakers introduced bills in at least 16 states this year to restrict the use by private employers of nondisclosure agreements in sexual harassment cases, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
In Texas, people with unpaid traffic tickets can lose their licenses through two separate state policies.
Gov. Paul LePage was hospitalized at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor over the weekend after experiencing unspecified "discomfort" while visiting family in New Brunswick, according to the governor's office.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, joined by eight motorists across the state who are also plaintiffs, filed a lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Detroit that seeks to have Michigan's no-fault law declared unconstitutional.
Maine's high court ruled on Thursday that Gov. Paul LePage's administration must follow an earlier court order to submit a Medicaid expansion plan to the federal government.
Landlords often reject applicants who use public assistance to help pay their rent.
On Monday, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is announcing a free tuition and fees program for admitted Illinoisans whose family income meets or falls below the state median.
The state Board of Education approved 916 additional emergency certifications at Thursday's monthly board meeting, bringing the current total to a record 2,153.
Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona issued a statement through an aide indicating he will not appoint a successor to Mr. McCain until after what is expected to be nearly a weeklong series of services in his honor — in Arizona, Washington and Annapolis, Md.
As the Trump administration plans to weaken environmental rules, a federal court has said that some Obama-era regulations didn't go far enough.
North Carolina Republicans overrode the Democratic governor to increase some state employees' pay. What led to this unexpected decision?
Foster parents say that even with the coverage they struggle to meet the extraordinary health needs of their children. Part of the trouble is too few doctors accept Medicaid, most notably mental health specialists.
Accusing them of ignorance and bigotry, a federal judge this week excoriated Florida corrections officials for refusing to accommodate a transgender inmate.
The elections consultant who proposed closing most voting locations in a majority African-American rural Georgia county has been fired ahead of a vote Friday on consolidating precincts.
The proposed rule targets legislation in those states that would allow taxpayers to claim a charitable deduction for state and local tax payments above the $10,000 limit set in the tax cuts passed by Congress last year.
As a suburb of Atlanta has shown, the key is creating an army of informed and engaged citizens.
Texas has a system in place to identify people with disabilities who will need extra help during a natural disaster. But it’s unclear whether any of the people described in the emails signed up for or even knew about it.
The public sector shouldn't be on the bleeding edge of innovation. It should focus on integrating proven tools.
Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a bill Wednesday that strengthens insurance coverage for mental health conditions and addiction treatment – a measure that advocates say is one of the strongest of its kind in the nation.
The state’s law enforcement agencies are already required to trace all guns used in crimes in the state.
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley said he was heartened by the archdiocese's willingness to cooperate with his office and permit "a thorough and fair investigation.
A federal appeals court agreed Wednesday with a lower court's ruling that Alabama can't limit a woman's access to second-trimester abortions.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is proceeding with its plans to amend stringent Obama-era rules requiring cities to come up with a blueprint for eradicating segregation in their communities.
The U.S. Department of Education is contemplating allowing states to use federal funds to arm educators in the classroom -- an idea that appears to have been born in Texas.
The state is launching an ambitious effort, along with tech companies, to monitor and remove disinformation on social media that could keep people from voting.
The election defeats come at a time when support for raising teacher pay is at an all-time high.
Nearly 1 in 5 jail and prison inmates regularly used heroin or opioids before being incarcerated, making jails a logical entry point for intervention, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
A group of 22 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia late Monday asked a U.S. appeals court to reinstate the Obama administration’s 2015 landmark net neutrality rules and reject the Trump administration’s efforts to preempt states from imposing their own rules guaranteeing an open internet.
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security team is in Maryland this week to evaluate the state's election systems.
Gov. Ralph Northam has set Aug. 30 for lawmakers to begin hashing out a federal court order to redraw 11 House of Delegates districts -- six of them in Hampton Roads.
For the second time this month, a new state law targeting individual candidates running for office this November has been found unconstitutional.
A gun buyer screening initiative that Nevada voters approved nearly two years ago was fatally flawed and can’t be enforced, a state court judge has ruled.
At first glance, it may seem typical that Lewis Conway Jr. got his name on the ballot for a seat on the Austin City Council — he paid the filing fee and turned in his application before the deadline.
The Cuomo administration issued a subpoena Wednesday to Michael Cohen, a day after the former lawyer to President Trump pleaded guilty on eight felony counts in a tax, bank fraud and elections law case.
What do offshore drilling and vaping have to do with each other? Nothing, except that they appear together on one ballot question in Florida, which appears to be ground zero this year for legal battles over ballot language.
Using a CaaS model, the message is crafted one time, and distributed to all your critical communication channels
'This Will Buy Us Time': Maryland's Plan to Lower Obamacare Premiums, for Now, Gets Federal Approval
State officials plan to announce Wednesday that the Trump administration has approved a federal waiver that is expected to stave off increases in health insurance costs for more than 200,000 Marylanders.
They’re a tempting alternative to raising taxes, but their long-term costs far outweigh the revenue they bring in.
Procurement officers are having to get more active -- and more creative -- to find companies willing to work with the public sector.
Smaller-scale infrastructure projects can pay off in major ways.
Urban transportation planners need to remember who the streets are for.
When it comes to dirty lakes and rivers, governments have learned how to cooperate.
When it comes to transportation planning, Atlanta and Nashville are both at a crossroads.
A panel of Superior Court judges on Tuesday blocked two North Carolina constitutional amendments from statewide ballots.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation on Monday prohibiting individuals from smoking in facilities that provide child care.
Three words separate the thousands of Pennsylvanians who say they were molested as children by Roman Catholic priests from receiving justice and compensation for their suffering: statutes of limitations.
Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday halted New Jersey's annual bear hunt on all state land this year.
Health care clinics that largely serve low-income, uninsured women and college students may have to cut services or absorb losses if Hawaii forgoes more than $2 million in annual federal funding for family planning services.
Some Wyoming inmates housed in a Mississippi private prison will begin trickling back into the state by the end of September, officials said Thursday. But state corrections officials say more inmates will take their place due to overcrowding and staffing issues.
Incarcerated men and women launched a massive strike Tuesday to protest the mistreatment of prisoners nationwide.
Dunleavy won the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary after garnering 62 percent of the vote with 95 percent of precincts reporting, according to The Associated Press. Begich, also previously the former mayor of Anchorage, clinched the Democratic nomination after running virtually unopposed.
Wyoming state Treasurer Mark Gordon won the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary Tuesday, defeating Trump-backed businessman and political donor Foster Friess.
Republican Gov. Doug Ducey faces a tough fight for reelection.
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon will stand trial on charges he caused the deaths of two Genesee County men during the Flint water crisis.
Genesee District Judge David Goggins bound Lyon's case over to Genesee Circuit Court for trial on two counts of involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of Robert Skidmore and John Snyder, who prosecutors say died as a result of Legionnaires' disease, and one count of misconduct in office.
UNC system officials issued a statement Tuesday about the protesters' removal of UNC's Silent Sam Confederate monument, saying "mob rule" won't be tolerated.
A Georgia county has proposed closing seven of its nine polling places on the basis that they are not sufficiently accessible to handicapped individuals, sparking outrage among local residents and activists.
President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday proposed a new set of rules that would give states greater control over limits on pollution from coal-fired power plants -- and likely allow many of those plants to operate longer than they would have under a plan former President Barack Obama had set in motion.
MLS' Columbus Crew is willing to pay for a new stadium in Austin, but is the Texas city really getting a deal?
A Democratic objection to independent Greg Orman's candidacy for Kansas governor says more than 6,000 signatures used to help secure his place on the November general election ballot should be thrown out.
Sixty-four of 159 counties have no pediatrician; 79 have no obstetrician/gynecologist; and nine simply have no doctor.
Environmental activists are using a new strategy to block construction of oil and gas pipelines. It already has worked in New York where construction on the Constitution Pipeline has stalled. Now activists are trying the strategy in Oregon.
Many large companies have employed 'chief privacy officers' for years, but they were rare in state government.
A judge on Monday ordered Amendment 8 stricken from the ballot, calling both the amendment language and the title it would have been introduced under as "misleading."
Gov. Scott Walker’s use of the state airplane has increased since he ended his presidential bid in 2015, public records obtained by a liberal attack group released on Monday show.
A federal judge in Frankfort on Monday dismissed Gov. Matt Bevin's lawsuit against 16 Medicaid recipients, a tool he used to defend his controversial requirements that some enrollees pay co-pays or work to get benefits.
Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker's campaign on Monday unveiled a web video featuring Barack Obama, marking another foray into his home state's politics for the former president.
The once-quiet place reserved for technical experts is increasingly being held hostage in political fights.
The job of a firefighter has changed almost beyond recognition. That, combined with lagging pay and personnel problems, is making it difficult to recruit enough of them.
But the Pennsylvania Turnpike hasn't been completely forgotten.
Rather than going after voters in the middle, both the Democratic and Republican nominees are playing to their base.
In school districts across the country, being held accountable for grades and graduation rates has motivated educators to tamper with results. Some places are starting to crack down on this temptation.
A state appeals court on Friday temporarily blocked Austin's ordinance that would require private employers to provide paid sick leave.
Gov. Kay Ivey announced an initiative today to draw attention to the importance of participation in the 2020 Census.
Richard Cordray and Mike DeWine have done this before.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer will name Detroit political activist Garlin Gilchrist II as her running mate on Monday morning, the Free Press has learned.
School district officials spent the summer hiring officers and working with 34 municipalities to iron out agreements to staff officers in schools, required under a new state law to staff a safe school officer at every school.
An internet security firm says a cyberattack from a Chinese university probed computer networks of Alaska state departments and businesses during Gov. Bill Walker's trade mission to China, an apparent attempt to "ascertain vulnerabilities and gain illegitimate access."
San Antonio joined Austin Thursday to become the second city in Texas to require private employers to provide paid sick leave.
The State Bond Commission barred two of the largest banks in the world from participating in efforts to fund some highway projects in Louisiana because of gun sales policies instituted after recent mass shootings.
Montana Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock said Sunday that he "would" support assault weapons ban, staking out a strong position on the issue ahead of a possible run for president in 2020.
As states reap the benefits of an expanding national economy, at least 39 have reported budget surpluses — leaving joyous but somewhat perplexed state officials to figure out what to do with the unexpected cash.
California could no longer require those accused of crimes to post bail while awaiting trial under a bill to overhaul the bail system that moved forward in the Legislature Thursday.
Trump International Hotel & Tower is endangering fish and other aquatic life in the Chicago River, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan alleges in a new lawsuit targeting the president's skyscraper for multiple violations of clean water laws.
Craig Bessent used to be a bull rider. Now he’s an assistant superintendent who stays on top of school bus schedules and cafeteria complaints.
State Medicaid officials said Tuesday they will ease restrictions on payments for mental health services in the face of widespread concerns about how a new rule would affect some vulnerable Nevada residents.
Rep. Keith Ellison -- deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a candidate for Minnesota attorney general -- has denied allegations that he abused his ex-girlfriend, Karen Monahan.
As one of his first acts in office in 2011, Gov. Rick Scott canceled a $2.4 billion federally funded and shovel-ready bullet train from Orlando to Tampa because it carried “an extremely high risk of overspending taxpayer dollars with no guarantee of economic growth.’’
Chanelle Mattocks remembers everything about that night in 2014, when lead poisoned her son.
A Tennessee appeals court on Tuesday said a key prong of Gov. Bill Haslam's overhaul of the state's probation system was unconstitutional because it violates defendants' rights and encroaches on judicial authority in criminal matters.
A federal judge has struck down as unconstitutional a 40-year-old election law that allowed local moderators in New Hampshire to toss out the absentee ballot of someone whose signature on an affidavit failed to match their completed ballot.
New numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show drug overdose deaths continued to climb in 2017, in nearly all states.
There's a small but growing movement among prosecutors to automatically reduce sentences and expunge criminal records from before the drug was legal.
Health policy experts say that the anticipated proposal could have negative ripple effects across the health-care system.
As states struggle to obtain traditional lethal injection drugs, some are turning to new methods of execution, or reviving old ones, as a backup.
As San Jose has shown, it's as much about having the right people and organizational structures in place as it is about technology.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jared Polis just showed the perks of being rich. The self-funding tech millionaire Wednesday announced his first jaw-dropping television ad buy: $3 million for October.
Two decades ago, Frederick Veazey was drawn to this suburban idyll by the usual things: grass, peace and quiet, good schools. But in choosing where to raise his sons and daughter, the successful insurance broker also wanted something else.
Gov. Charlie Baker has signed a law to improve the way doctors diagnose and care for Alzheimer's patients.
The governors of New York and New Jersey have declared states of emergency in multiple areas following damage from flash flooding over the past few days.
According to a study released Thursday from the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the computerized system streamlined the city's complex high school admissions process in its first year.
Los Angeles County's rail system will be the first in the United States to deploy body scanners that can detect suicide vests and other improvised explosives, transportation officials said Tuesday.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Wednesday sought to deride President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan, saying the nation "was never that great."
Jack Phillips, whose refusal to make a custom wedding cake for a gay couple went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, is back in the news with another discrimination complaint filed against the Lakewood baker.
Several cities and transit agencies have been working with the TSA to test the security devices.
Courts have ruled that access to public figures on social media is a constitutional right.
Louisiana has "stopped the bleeding," but political observers point out that the financially strained state still has several major spending problems.
In the span of five months, the state says it tripled the amount it was saving by privatizing Medicaid.
The beverage industry used a tactic that could become more common with other interest groups.
It's just a block away from the U.S. Capitol.
Babies die at higher rates in the U.S. than in poorer countries like Cuba and Poland.
It’s widely assumed that the Janus ruling dealt public-sector unions a major blow. But the numbers may play out differently.
Former Kasim Reed aide Katrina Taylor-Parks became the second high-ranking Atlanta official to plead guilty in the federal corruption investigation of City Hall Wednesday.
New York is suing Purdue Pharma, the maker of a popular painkiller, for allegedly downplaying the risks and overstating the benefits of its opioid products, whose abuse has fueled a nationwide epidemic of addiction and overdose deaths.
Top computer researchers gave a startling presentation recently about how to intercept and switch votes on emailed ballots, but officials in the 30 or so states said the ease with which votes could be changed wouldn’t alter their plans to continue offering electronic voting in some fashion.
Three consumer groups are suing the Trump administration in an effort to halt the implementation of work requirements in Arkansas' Medicaid program.
The Governor of Florida issued a state of emergency in response to this year’s excessive red tide, the toxic algae bloom spreading across the West Coast of the Sunshine State and leaving beaches covered with piles of dead marine wildlife.
A day after saying she planned to continue running for a state House seat despite revelations that she lied about having a degree from Miami University and went to great lengths to deceive people, Melissa Howard reversed course Tuesday and dropped out of a contest that has received national attention.
Top Roman Catholic leaders in Pennsylvania routinely covered up child sex abuse by hundreds of priests, involving more than 1,000 victims over seven decades, according to a long-awaited grand jury report released Tuesday.
Tony Evers won an eight-way Democratic primary Tuesday, setting up a November showdown between the state's education chief and GOP Gov. Scott Walker.
Jeff Johnson shocked the Minnesota political world Tuesday with a commanding victory in the Republican primary for governor, while U.S. Rep. Tim Walz won a three-way race in the DFL primary, setting up a clash of starkly different visions for the state's future.
In a repudiation of the GOP's nominating process for governor, outsider Bob Stefanowski became the first petition candidate in Connecticut history to win a major party's nomination for statewide office Tuesday, besting the endorsed Republican, longtime Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton.
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison won the DFL primary for Minnesota attorney general Tuesday and will face Republican Doug Wardlow in the November election.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has captured the Republican nomination for governor after edging out Gov. Jeff Colyer in the tightest primary fight in Kansas history.
