Archive
A federal judge in Portland has ruled that allowing a transgender high school student in a small Oregon school district to use the boys' locker room and restrooms doesn't violate the privacy rights of other students who object to sharing the spaces.
Stepping into the land of the Trump resistance, Seema Verma flatly rejected California’s pursuit of single-payer health care as unworkable and dismissed the Affordable Care Act as too flawed to ever succeed.
It's plausible that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was "motivated by discriminatory animus" when he added a question regarding citizenship status to the 2020 census, a judge wrote Thursday, allowing a lawsuit over the question to proceed.
After years of fights between Washington state and the Yakama Nation, the debate is heading to the U.S. Supreme Court.
One official in Pennsylvania wants to make it easier for municipalities to disincorporate.
Facebook will be legally required to end its practice of allowing businesses to block certain groups like blacks, gays and immigrants from viewing ads under an agreement reached with the Washington State Attorney General's Office.
New Jersey 101.5 hosts Dennis Malloy and Judi Franco have been suspended "until further notice" over the duo's derogatory comments about state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.
With the future of Roe v. Wade uncertain, the state is on the verge of repealing its 173-year-old law that criminalizes abortion. Similar efforts are underway in some other states.
The Occupy ICE camp that held ground for five weeks outside the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Southwest Portland is not the first time protesters have camped out for weeks on end in protest of national issues.
After 40 years as a Republican, Lori Stegmann has had a change of heart -- and political party.
An Iowa judge Wednesday issued a temporary injunction barring the state from implementing some provisions of Iowa's new voter ID law.
With Gov. Scott Walker planning to extend a tuition freeze on UWvSystem campuses for another four years if he's re-elected, UW-Stout and UW-Eau Claire officials said Tuesday they hope such a move would be accompanied by an increase in state aid.
It can help policymakers prepare their retirement systems for the next downturn while building long-term sustainability.
The decades-old debate in New Jersey over how to fairly fund public education took another turn Tuesday when Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law the first major revamp of the state’s modern school funding formula since it was enacted in 2008.
After a less-than-flattering portrait of Kingman emerged on Sacha Baron Cohen’s new series, with residents saying black people "aren't welcome" and Muslims create "problems," representatives for the northwestern Arizona city of about 29,000 hit back.
Calling it a "ham-handed" effort to keep young voters from casting ballots, a federal judge Tuesday struck down as unconstitutional an opinion issued by Gov. Rick Scott's administration that barred early-voting sites on college and university campuses.
Students who are defrauded by their schools would have a harder time getting their federal loans erased under new rules proposed by the Trump administration Wednesday.
The online retail giant's new relationship with public schools and agencies raises concerns that the company is cornering the marketplace and costing taxpayers more money.
Marketing is especially important for smaller local governments, and states have a role to play.
There’s a long list of government agencies that have fudged numbers in misleading ways.
Outlying communities and central cities should do more to work together.
It’s not necessarily about traveling far and fast.
The digital currency market is changing so fast that any misstep could be huge.
Two states still allow split-verdicts to send people to prison. That may change soon. But maybe it shouldn't.
They have created fiscal stress for states and municipalities, and exacerbated inequality. A new report offers a simple solution to alleviate those issues.
The Georgia lawmaker who exposed himself and yelled racial slurs during an episode of Sacha Baron Cohen's Showtime series is resigning his seat in the state Legislature, according to House Speaker David Ralston's office.
The Trump administration is resuming Obamacare’s risk adjustment program, just weeks after it abruptly froze billions of dollars in insurer payments citing a court ruling invalidating parts of the program.
California's electric utilities would no longer be automatically liable for wildfire damage caused by the equipment, under a detailed proposal Tuesday from Gov. Jerry Brown.
New Jersey's attorney general immediately halted all municipal prosecutions of marijuana offenses Tuesday, effectively placing on hold thousands of cases across the state that involve possession of the drug while lawmakers continue to debate its legalization.
Montana's Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock on Tuesday said he is suing the Trump administration over its decision to stop collecting information about donors to politically active nonprofit groups.
Gov. Gina Raimondo, if reelected, has pledged to expand the free college tuition program at the Community College of Rhode Island to the state's two four-year colleges at a estimated cost of $35 million.
Nevada voters could soon make history by electing the country’s first female-majority state legislature.
Controversial candidate Brian Kemp won the GOP runoff on Tuesday. He will face progressive Democrat Stacey Abrams in November, who could be the nation's first black female governor.
Rhode Island is using new tactics to hold fossil fuel companies responsible for disaster-related infrastructure damage.
Allegations of sexual misconduct against Kentucky lawmakers have become so common that the statehouse has seemed more like a frat house: Seven have faced accusations, including four who settled secretly with a female legislative aide.
Supporters of Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill have set up a legal fund to defend him against accusations that he inappropriately touched four women at a bar in March.
At the Beech Street School, situated in the most racially diverse census tract of the state's largest city, principal Christine Martin has been unable to find any African-American teachers or support staff to hire.
From banning certain hiring questions to opening up pay discussions between coworkers, states and municipalities are addressing years of inequality.
Congressional hopeful Sylvia Garcia on Monday announced plans to step down from her Texas Senate seat in January, officially clearing the way for voters to elect her predecessor before the Legislature returns for its 2019 lawmaking session.
King County sheriff's detectives are investigating the alleged assault of Burien Mayor Jimmy Matta as a possible hate crime after he reported being attacked Saturday night by an unidentified man apparently angered about Matta's policies supporting Latino immigrants.
The Taos Municipal Schools superintendent said District Judge Sarah Singleton’s landmark ruling that state leaders must find a way to “remedy” New Mexico’s public schools by April has given her and her colleagues a renewed sense of hope.
Location-based apps like Yelp and Foursquare might be exacerbating housing problems in transitional neighborhoods.
U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, a Florida Republican candidate for governor, went off over the weekend on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a liberal Democrat who surprisingly won a Bronx district primary last month.
The Trump administration could move this week to revoke California's decades-old ability to set its own pollution limits for cars, a potential blow to the state's fight against global warming.
Boston police veteran William G. Gross made history yesterday when he was named the city's first black police commissioner -- an appointment that drew cautious praise across the board.
Democratic Chicago mayoral candidate Willie Wilson’s handing out of nearly $200,000 at a recent South Side church event did not break campaign finance laws, the state board of elections ruled.
Russian hackers gained access to the networks of U.S. electric utilities last year, which could have allowed them to cause blackouts, according to federal government officials, who said the campaign is likely continuing, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
With rents on the rise, cities are grappling with a growing population of "vehicular homelessness" -- a way of life considered illegal in many places.
After nearly 38 years, on Jan. 30 Malcolm Alexander walked away from a place he never should have been to begin with: the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
Consumers will be harmed if Gov. Jeff Colyer wins a lawsuit over whether he can take $8 million this year from a state insurance fund, the Kansas insurance commissioner warns in a new court filing.
Three years ago, when New York City banned solitary confinement for inmates younger than 22 and curtailed it for others, Mayor Bill de Blasio held up the policy as a model for reform.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police, political organizers and national law enforcement experts are preparing for huge protests and a massive police presence when the Republican National Convention arrives in 2020.
The Supreme Court confirmation fight brewing in Washington has made abortion a front-burner issue in governors races around the country, as Democrats warn that Republicans could try to ban the practice in their states if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
The National Rifle Association, Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation and two Seattle residents are suing Seattle over the city's new gun-safety law.
Secretary of State Brian Kemp's campaign for governor got a major boost Saturday from Vice President Mike Pence, who called him the best partner for the White House in an hourlong event that cast Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle as mostly an afterthought.
Charlotte won its second national convention in a decade Friday, kicking off two years of planning, fundraising and anticipation.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson called for state Rep. Mickey Gates to resign Tuesday as the Hot Springs Republican faces criminal charges of failure to pay state income taxes.
Dental and vision care benefits will be restored for hundreds of thousands of Medicaid recipients in a sudden reversal by Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin's administration following an outcry over the recent cuts.
Breaking a nearly three-week impasse, lawmakers agreed Wednesday to a $41.8 billion budget that jettisoned dozens of proposed policy changes that had snarled negotiations, including a plan to curb state cooperation with federal immigration crackdowns.
In a victory for Mayor Kenney and his signature programs, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Philadelphia's controversial tax on soda and other sweetened beverages.
The Environmental Protection Agency should have reacted much more quickly and forcefully to the Flint water crisis, even if it meant asserting emergency authority over the Michigan Department of Environment Quality, according to report released today the EPA's Office of Inspector General.
The Trump administration is taking a new step forward on its plan to impose work requirements in Kentucky’s Medicaid program, despite a federal judge blocking the move last month.
Eight months pregnant, the drug sales representative wore a wire for the FBI around her bulging belly as she recorded conversations with colleagues at a conference in Chicago. Her code name? Pampers.
Maryland lawmakers have introduced two U.S. House bills seeking to better safeguard election systems following the disclosure that a state election software vendor had ties to a Russian investor.
The GOP-controlled House on Thursday eliminated new funding for states to strengthen election security, drawing protests from Democrats who said Republicans are not doing enough to prevent Russian meddling.
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker signed a bill that places Massachusetts among a growing number of states making it hard to not be registered.
Smart cities are paying more attention to the fixtures that define their streets, looking to improve mobility and maximize the value of these assets.
Many are tapping into tax revenues, making hospitals help, or adding work requirements and premiums to account for their increasing share of the expansion bill. In some, the debate is so heated that it's ended up in court.
If the Affordable Care Act’s protections for people with preexisting medical conditions are struck down in court, residents of the Republican-led states that are challenging the law have the most to lose.
With the addition of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court could have a conservative majority to strike down bans on semiautomatic weapons in liberal states and to decree that law-abiding Americans have a right to carry a gun in public.
The former top lawyer at the Oklahoma Health Department was accused Tuesday in a criminal charge of sending threatening emails to herself in an attention-seeking ploy.
The state Supreme Court decided Wednesday that California will remain intact geographically, at least for now, while it decides whether the voters can consider a proposal to divide the Golden State into three new states.
President Donald Trump gave Secretary of State Brian Kemp his "full and total endorsement" Wednesday in Georgia's Republican race for governor, dealing Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle a devastating blow in a bitter runoff.
The Cuomo administration has opened an investigation into whether President Trump and his charitable foundation violated state law, two officials confirmed Wednesday night.
Police say three state workers have been taken to a hospital after becoming ill in their Albany office when one of them opened a letter from a foreign country.
The Environmental Protection Agency has changed a rule requiring cleanup of ponds holding coal mining waste to give states more flexibility and postpone the deadline to close facilities that have contaminated the surrounding groundwater.
States are stepping up their election security but face many challenges: a president still skeptical of Russian interference, a lack of money, and reliance on private vendors for voting equipment and software, to name a few.
Governor candidates Jack Bergeson and Josh Svaty accused fellow Democrat Laura Kelly of lacking commitment to expand Medicaid in Kansas.
Gov. Chris Sununu has signed into law a controversial election bill that opponents say will constrain voting by students and other transient residents of the state.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner said Monday that he doesn't see "any reason" for Illinois to end its participation in a controversial multistate voter registration system, which critics have called inaccurate and vulnerable to hackers.
Journalists, researchers and political campaigns that receive voter data must tell California officials if it may have been stolen under a new law Gov. Jerry Brown announced he signed Monday.
A Manhattan federal jury on Tuesday convicted former State Senate leader and Long Island power broker Dean Skelos in his retrial of charges that he used his official power to corruptly secure work for his son, Adam.
Some New Mexico lawmakers expressed support Monday for reining in private prison growth in the state -- or doing away with private prisons altogether -- amid a roiling national debate over housing immigrant detainees.
A federal judge ruled in favor of the Trump administration — and against Planned Parenthood — in a lawsuit over changes to a government-funded family planning program.
The nation's top voting machine maker has admitted in a letter to a federal lawmaker that the company installed remote-access software on election-management systems it sold over a period of six years, raising questions about the security of those systems and the integrity of elections that were conducted with them.
A first-of-its-kind study looks at how local news outlets shutting down impacts cities' and counties' finances.
Connecticut, Maryland, New York and New Jersey argue that new GOP tax policies violate states' rights and unduly punish their populations.
A big crowd gathered in a Tucson church last week, ready to hear candidates' plans for gun-control legislation from people vying to become lawmakers at the state Capitol.
Voters handed Republican lawmakers a victory by passing a new supermajority requirement to raise taxes. But it's debatable whether it will actually curb tax increases.
In a case that has attracted national attention, Massachusetts' highest court ruled Monday that judges in the state have the authority to order people to remain drug free as a condition of probation and under some circumstances order a defendant jailed for violating the drug-free requirement.
Gov. Mike Parson signed on Friday legislation that institutes a minimum age of marriage in Missouri, capping an effort among lawmakers and advocates to crack down on child marriage in the state.
More than 7,000 people on Arkansas’ Medicaid expansion didn’t meet a requirement that they report at least 80 hours of work in June and face the threat of losing their coverage if they fail to comply sometime before the end of this year, state officials said Friday.
Gov. Bruce Rauner turned his attention to gun issues Monday, signing two bills aimed at combating gun violence, but saying he will veto a measure to regulate gun dealers.
The Cuomo administration will launch an investigation into tenant harassment allegations by the real estate company formerly headed by President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
A county Republican Party chairman from Southeast Ohio resigned on Monday, citing President Donald Trump's meeting earlier in the day with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The New York Police Department on Monday said that after four years it is done waiting and will place Officer Daniel Pantaleo on trial in the chokehold death of Eric Garner.
Top California Democratic Party officials jolted four-term incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein with a vote to endorse her November election opponent, fellow Democrat state Sen. Kevin de León.
Maryland officials are investigating a Russian investor's ties to a local software vendor that maintains part of the State Board of Elections' voter registration system, legislative leaders said Friday.
President Donald Trump’s appointment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court has raised the prospect that a new conservative court majority might consider overturning or weakening the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling establishing a nationwide right to abortion.
A federal judge on Saturday ordered the Los Angeles Times to remove information from an article that described a plea agreement between prosecutors and a Glendale police detective accused of working with the Mexican Mafia, a move the newspaper decried as highly unusual and unconstitutional.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Thursday signed a bill that he says will provide both immediate and long-term tax cuts for Missourians.
Members of Russian military intelligence attempted to infiltrate local election administration systems during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, stealing the voter information of 500,000 Americans, according to indictments announced Friday by Rod Rosenstein, the U.S. deputy attorney general.
No mayor has ever sprung directly from City Hall to the White House.
It has become the “deplorables” moment of the Georgia governor’s race.
Chicago police on Sunday released a snippet of video of a fatal police shooting less than a day after it sparked violent clashes between officers and protesters on the South Side.
About 9,000 Metro workers could soon go on a three-day strike.
What if everyone got a paycheck that they didn't work for? It's called universal basic income, and with the help of tech entrepreneurs, Stockton, Calif., is the latest city to test it.
Despite receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer money, Medicaid insurers are lax in ferreting out fraud and neglect to tell states about unscrupulous medical providers, according to a federal report released Thursday.
By the end of the year, the Transportation Research Center in East Liberty will open the first portion of what will be world's biggest autonomous vehicle testing facility.
No tarps, no cots, and less than 200 blue roofs.
Just before a wave of violence turned Baltimore into the nation’s deadliest big city, a curious thing happened to its police force: officers suddenly seemed to stop noticing crime.
An elected state House representative for Arizona’s 5th District, Paul Mosley, bragged to a sheriff’s deputy that he drives at speeds of up to 140 miles per hour, claiming legislative immunity.
Gov. Mary Fallin has signed emergency rules regulating Oklahoma's medical marijuana industry a day after they were introduced by the State Board of Health.
A national trade group representing drug distributors is suing New York in an attempt to block a new law that holds its members financially responsible for the havoc wrought by the opioid epidemic.
“As with every election year, all eyes are on Florida.”
In the 10 states holding races, only one looks competitive.
Just over two weeks since the Janus ruling, about a third of the affected states have taken actions meant to soften its impact on unions' membership and revenue.
Most states don't know how much they spend on extreme weather events.
Louisville is pioneering an approach that aims to make purchasing and contracting a key ingredient in successfully delivering services.
Search and rescue task forces need to deploy at a moment's notice, and they have to be ready for any challenges they may encounter.
The law firms and individual lawyers waging a fierce fight over a secret grand jury report detailing sexual abuse by Catholic clergy across the state have together donated more than $180,000 to the campaigns of the Supreme Court justices now weighing whether to release the report, records show.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk set off a tweet storm on the Flint water crisis Wednesday by suggesting he'd be willing to put some of his fortune on the line to help out families in Flint.
The Trump administration this spring tried to remove pro-breastfeeding language from a World Health Organization resolution. But here at home, breastfeeding has steadily become more accepted and accessible — culminating this year in the 49th and 50th states enacting laws to allow it in public.
Contra Costa County is severing its contract with the federal government to incarcerate undocumented migrants at a jail in Richmond, a pact that had drawn increasing attention and protests as the Trump administration intensified its crackdown on illegal immigration.
Barack Obama says all the voter registration drives and first-time candidates running for office this year are “inspiring” — but that in the existential battle for America he’s been warning about, it's not enough.
Even as Democratic primary challenger Cynthia Nixon criticizes his record on women's issues, Gov. Cuomo picked up the backing Wednesday morning of a leading pro-abortion rights group.
Gov. Kay Ivey took a small step Tuesday toward stopping Alabama from allowing sheriffs to pocket public money allocated to feeding local inmates that they do not spend. But despite some early news reports, Ivey alone cannot and did not end the longstanding practice.
Hours before he was to be put to death, a convicted killer was spared execution Wednesday when a Nevada judge granted an injunction sought by the maker of a sedative that has been at the center of several botched executions.
A weeklong encampment of activists protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and President Trump's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy came to an end early Monday, when nearly 40 people were arrested overnight in San Francisco.
Mayor de Blasio denied illegally crossing the border between the United States and Mexico last month -- ripping U.S. Customs and Border Patrol for the "absolutely ridiculous allegations" he said were designed to distract from President Trump's policies and intimidate his critics.
The state and county have failed to fix the unsanitary conditions for years, and at times threatened to arrest citizens over them. An outbreak of a once-eradicated disease has prompted the United Nations to get involved.
The federal government wants to roll back an Obama-era rule that lets some Medicaid payments go toward unions that represent home health care workers -- one of the fastest-growing and lowest-paid jobs.
Atlantic County Republican Chairman Keith Davis said Tuesday he won’t withdraw his support for congressional candidate Seth Grossman, despite Grossman’s sharing of a racist article from a white nationalist website on social media.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s rulings on federal regulatory power, and his approach to the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, provide the best hints of how he might rule on cases involving states’ rights.
Ofo said Monday that it has pulled its bikes out of Chicago as a result of locking rules which the China-based company said make it too difficult to provide service.
Hawaii has become the latest state to ban bump stocks in the months following a mass shooting in Las Vegas, where the device was used to kill 58 people.
Nevada plans to carry out the first execution using fentanyl, a drug at the heart of the US opioid epidemic, on Wednesday.
The Trump administration is cutting most of the funds previously provided to groups that help people get health insurance under the Affordable Care Act and will push them to promote plans lacking the law’s benefits and protections, a government agency said on Tuesday.
The House version of the food-stamp-to-work program Congress is considering this week would require recipients to enroll in job training programs if they can’t find work — but in many states, those programs won’t be fully available for at least another decade.
Environmental protection quickly is becoming a big issue in the 2018 election as more toxic algae blooms slime estuaries, kill sea life and choke coastal Florida communities with foul air.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order on Monday with the aim of protecting access to contraceptives for women in New York. At the same time, he called on the state Senate to reconvene to pass a bill that would make Roe v. Wade protections state law.
Charlotte, N.C., is using the sporting event as an opportunity to close the investment gaps between businesses owned by white women and people of color.
What would the U.S. look like without Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide?
More people are casting primary ballots than four years ago. But that year, turnout was the lowest since World War II.
Green bonds help governments finance environmental projects. It's unclear whether they help governments' finances.
Instead of making low-income kids travel for meals when school is out, Minneapolis is bringing the food to them.
Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer on Friday backed President Trump's efforts to reach better trade agreements with other countries as the United States launched a trade war with China that has alarmed some farmers.
Fresh off a victory in a Democratic gubernatorial primary in which he campaigned on universal health care, U.S. Rep. Jared Polis tapped a cancer foundation executive and former state lawmaker to be his running mate.
Mayor de Blasio on Monday announced a massive new campaign to definitively figure out once and for all the true scope of the lead paint problem in the city's public housing.
Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, in prepared comments read before journalists Monday morning, said his reputation has been "dragged through the gutter."
