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Longtime Mayor Joseph Migliorini resigned on Monday, citing an incident outside a Florida restaurant in April when he was charged with misdemeanor battery.
The Maine House sustained Republican Gov. Paul LePage's veto of a funding bill for Medicaid expansion Monday, handing him another victory in his long campaign to stifle expansion of the program to another 70,000 Mainers.
A Supreme Court ruling last month that said public sector workers can't be forced to pay fees to unions they don't want to join could squeeze overall union revenue, limiting organized labor's ability to champion a variety of progressive causes that affect private sector workplaces as well, some labor experts say.
A federal judge dismissed the Trump administration's lawsuit against California's "sanctuary state" law on Monday. The decision marks a major victory for California in its ongoing battle with the federal government.
State prisons across the U.S. are failing to treat at least 144,000 inmates who have hepatitis C, a curable but potentially fatal liver disease, according to a recent survey and subsequent interviews of state corrections departments.
Gov. Bruce Rauner this year reported turning a profit from a health care group that services U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers, including facilities that hold immigrant families with children.
It's Curtis Hill against the world.
The showdown between police and the organizers of a march against gun violence culminated Saturday in the shadow of the 76th Street overpass on the Dan Ryan Expressway.
Robert D. Ray, born in 1928 near the campus of Drake University, in Des Moines, took to politics early.
Health insurers warned that a move by the Trump administration on Saturday to temporarily suspend a program that was set to pay out $10.4 billion to insurers for covering high-risk individuals last year could drive up premium costs and create marketplace uncertainty.
In an attempt to avoid pushback states have received on Medicaid work requirements, Mississippi reinstated beneficiary protections into its waiver proposal.
A Medicaid waiver is a state request to the federal government to deviate from various program requirements.
Mississippi is one of several states that has asked the Trump administration for permission to impose work requirements on low-income, able-bodied caretakers otherwise eligible for Medicaid.
It's unconstitutional for the state of Tennessee to continue revoking driver's licenses from people who can't pay court costs, a federal judge determined Monday.
Spending is up on airports but down or flat for schools, highways and prisons.
The American struggle to curb opioid addiction could become collateral damage in President Donald Trump’s showdown on trade.
The day a gunman fired into a crowd of 22,000 people at the country music festival in Las Vegas, hospital nursing supervisor Antoinette Mullan was focused on one thing: saving lives.
Ending a dispute over a proposed net neutrality bill, California Democratic legislators said Thursday they have agreed on a proposal that would provide the strongest protections of open access to the internet in the country in response to last month's federal repeal of similar rules.
Philadelphia police abruptly raided and destroyed the "Occupy ICE" encampment set up by protesters outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Center City on Thursday afternoon.
Hawaii became the first state in the nation to ban sales of sunscreens containing chemicals deemed harmful to coral reefs after Gov. David Ige signed a bill into law Tuesday afternoon at the Capitol Rotunda in Honolulu.
For the first time, transgender people living in New Jersey have the legal right to alter the sex recorded on their birth and death certificates, under new laws enacted Tuesday by Gov. Phil Murphy.
A federal judge upheld the core of California's sanctuary laws Thursday, restricting state and local cooperation with federal immigration agents, and sent a terse message to the Trump administration: Solutions to the immigration impasse must come from Congress, not the courts.
The Supreme Court's decision could weaken unions' collective bargaining power, which has historically benefited women of color more than most.
Work requirements failed their first court test, in Kentucky. The case leaves the legality of other states' policies uncertain, but some of them are moving forward with business as usual anyway.
Few could dispute the importance of literacy. But children have no fundamental right to learn to read and write, according to a federal judge whose ruling in a closely watched lawsuit Friday left some disheartened and others raising questions.
The digital tools are getting better all the time. It's a critical opportunity to improve judgment and decision-making.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner refused to follow Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz’s lead and call on voters of a Chicago-area congressional district to back a Democrat over a declared Nazi candidate in November.
A Prep School Wouldn't Let Its First Black Valedictorian Give a Speech. Then the Mayor Got Involved.
For years, Jaisaan Lovett took classes, studied hard and thrived at a Rochester high school, graduating last month as the school's first black valedictorian, but the principal didn't care one bit, refusing to let the teen speak at commencement ceremonies.
In 2018, at least 26 students have died in five school shootings in America. Two of those deaths came in a shooting at Marshall County High School in Kentucky.
Four women -- a state lawmaker and three legislative staffers -- are accusing Attorney General Curtis Hill of inappropriately touching them during a March 15 party at AJ's Lounge on the final night of the legislative session, according to a story published Monday night by the Indianapolis Star.
New York’s most senior Democratic lawmaker is proposing an end-run around a US Supreme Court ruling that could cost the state’s powerful public-employee unions more than $100 million a year.
As far as Independence Day festivities go, the one in Aspen, Colorado, is as old fashioned as it gets—it is, after all, called the “Old-Fashioned July 4th Celebration.” This year, a parade of vintage cars, American flags, and people dressed in patriotic gear will run through Main Street. There will be a community picnic and a block party, along with live music. Then at night, skies will light up with a spectacular display... but not of fireworks. Instead, spectators will be treated to a dance of lighted-up drones.
A black Oregon state representative says one of her constituents called police on her Tuesday while she was canvassing alone in a neighborhood she represents.
What does the latest digital transformation mean for local governments and for the CIOs who lead their systems and digital solution strategies?
Requiring people to register to vote 20 days before an election doesn't violate their constitutional rights, the state's top court ruled Monday, dealing a blow to good government groups that have argued the cutoff disenfranchises voters.
Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin on Monday filed suit in state court against some of the largest fossil-fuel companies alleging that they knowingly contributed to climate change and seeking to hold them responsible for its impacts on Rhode Island.
The Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded Obama-era guidelines encouraging the use of race to determine admission to educational institutions, instead favoring a race-neutral policy that critics see as a move against affirmative action.
The revenue-raising strategy is more common in blue states. So far, four Democratic-controlled states have passed such a tax.
More Americans who signed up for Obamacare plans are sticking with them.
The White House will permit Annapolis mayor Gavin Buckley to lower U.S. flags to half-staff in remembrance of the mass shooting at The Capital last week after Buckley said it denied his initial request.
U.S. Rep. Andy Barr said Monday he supports Kentucky's ability to determine who receives Medicaid benefits, a day after the Bevin administration eliminated access to vision and dental coverage for 460,000 Kentuckians on Medicaid.
California cities and counties won't be allowed to tax soda for the next 12 years after Gov. Jerry Brown signed fast-moving legislation Thursday.
Hard on the heels of banning plastic bags, states and cities are being pressed by environmentalists to eliminate another consumer convenience — plastic straws. But objections from the plastics industry, restaurants and disability advocates have derailed or delayed some proposed straw bans.
Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday signed a "clean slate" bill that seals nonviolent criminal records after a decade, a move that progressive groups touted as a first for any state and a national model for planned federal legislation.
Every weekday at 2 p.m. a metal door swings open in a Casper courtroom and people wearing shackles and orange jumpsuits shuffle inside. The defendants, mostly men, wait for a judge to call their case and read them their rights.
The CMS is ratcheting up scrutiny of state Medicaid programs.The agency announced Tuesday that it is boosting audits to confirm that Medicaid beneficiaries are correctly identified as expansion or pre-expansion enrollees. States receive higher federal match rates of around 90% for expansion enrollees, while the match rate can be as low as 50% for pre-expansion enrollees.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's upset is a warning for more moderate incumbents like New York's governor, who can't feel safe while the Democratic Party is shifting to the left.
Louisiana officials reported significant decreases in prison populations and prison admissions following the first year of the state's historic criminal justice reforms, said Gov. John Bel Edwards Thursday.
Gov. Chris Sununu used more than two dozen pens Friday to sign his name to sweeping legislation that preserves government-paid health insurance coverage for more than 50,000 low-income adults through 2023.
A federal judge Friday struck down a Trump administration decision allowing states to force low-income adults to work to qualify for Medicaid.
Portland Police declared a riot Saturday after tensions between the right-wing Patriot Prayer group and local anti-fascist activists came to a head and broke out in violence.
Michigan voters who twice delivered the governorship to a Republican computer executive-turned-venture capitalist are again being wooed by a wealthy outsider businessman with no political experience for the top post — this time a Democrat.
In California these days, the start -- and end -- of wildfire season is anyone's guess.
Will President Donald Trump come right out and ask prospective Supreme Court nominees if they would undo Roe v. Wade. the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion?
New Jersey barely escaped its second government shutdown in as many years Saturday, as Gov. Murphy and lawmakers announced a last-minute budget deal that will increase taxes on millionaires and corporations.
In an increasingly competitive environment for talent, governments need to focus on branding themselves as employers of choice.
A long-negotiated grand bargain to raise the minimum wage, add paid leave, and enshrine a sales tax holiday became law today when Gov. Charlie Baker signed off on the compromise that pulls three popular questions off November's ballot.
California consumers will be given sweeping new internet privacy protections beginning in 2020 under a bill hurriedly passed by the state Legislature on Thursday and sent to Gov. Jerry Brown, who promptly signed it.
The Senate passed bipartisan farm legislation that sets up a clash with the House and President Donald Trump over imposing broad new work requirements for food stamp recipients.
President Donald Trump on Thursday said his demands for "fair and reciprocal trade" are a response to past policies that have allowed other countries to take advantage of the United States.
Lots have passed their sell-by date.
A state law meant to hold municipalities accountable for pension payments may actually worsen a coming fiscal crisis.
Our federal system is tied up in knots. We have to try to untie them.
Flashing police cameras may make neighborhoods feel ominous, but they serve a purpose.
Is talent the most important factor? Taxes? Crime? It's a long list.
Instead of scrubbing spray-painted tags, many places are now encouraging murals and other colorful street art.
The Trump administration turned down Massachusetts’ first-in-the-nation request to exclude certain drugs from its Medicaid program to gain bargaining power with pharmaceutical companies over prices.
The families of all but two of the 17 teens and faculty killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland have formed an advocacy organization pushing for school safety, mental health reform and gun control.
What do former Gov. Chris Christie, Germany's shock World Cup exit, and New Jersey's tense budget negotiations have to do with each other?
When Robert Donofrio retired as the longtime superintendent of Murphy Elementary School District in 2004, the small district had a "well-regarded" reputation, he said.
The Boulder County commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved a new policy prohibiting county employees from providing federal immigration agents any records or information regarding residents' citizenship status unless those authorities have a warrant.
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Purdue Pharma, alleging the prescription drug manufacturer broke state law and profited through years of lies about the safety of painkillers like OxyContin.
Wisconsin's caps on medical malpractice awards are constitutional, meaning a Milwaukee woman who lost all four limbs to malpractice will receive only $750,000 for the pain and suffering she endures, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
The Supreme Court dealt a blow to public-sector unions this week. Whether it'll save governments labor costs is debatable.
New York's congressional race wasn't the only one with an upset on Tuesday. An anti-incumbent wave hit two states' legislative elections.
For the first time in five years, New Mexico has fallen to last among states when it comes to the economic, educational and medical well-being of its children, according to a nonprofit that tracks the status of U.S. kids.
A website tied to a candidate for the North Carolina General Assembly says God is a racist white supremacist and that Jews are descended from Satan.
Reluctantly going back on its decision to arm only sworn law enforcement officers with weapons, the Broward County School Board unanimously approved hiring armed, non-sworn guards to protect schools and to comply with a new state law.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, in his first public remarks Wednesday since his wife's sudden death four days ago, gave a grueling account of her struggles with mental illness.
The three Massachusetts State Police troopers charged with abusing overtime shifts allegedly stole between $12,000 and $30,000 each, according to affidavits filed in federal court.
The Kushner family's development firm has filed a nine-count lawsuit against Jersey City, saying the city has forced the delay of its One Journal Square project because of "political animus towards President Trump."
The blockbuster Janus v. AFSCME Supreme Court decision handed down Wednesday is already shaping Bruce Rauner’s legacy as Illinois governor. But it also threatens to end his political career.
Dozens of law enforcement officials from both parties wrote an open letter to top lawmakers on Wednesday urging them to adopt alternatives to the Trump administration’s policy of detaining immigrant families.
Investors are lining up to buy them to fund environmental projects.
Gina Raimondo, a former venture capitalist with blue-collar ties who has made job creation her No. 1 priority, could face a tough reelection.
The retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy increases the likelihood of extreme restrictions passing legal scrutiny.
Some promising signs suggest the city may be turning around its troubled school system. It offers lessons for other struggling districts.
Like many other Sunbelt cities, Music City is trying to figure out what kind of place it wants to be.
It's cheaper, legal and kills more people than opioids. But public officials are much more united in the fight against drugs than alcohol.
The 5-4 decision -- that employees can opt out of paying fees to unions that represent them -- could invalidate laws in more than 20 states and significantly weaken unions across the country.
A federal court ruled Tuesday that the Virginia House of Delegates unconstitutionally packed African-American voters into 11 legislative districts and ordered the General Assembly to draw new district lines by Oct. 30.
A federal appeals court on Tuesday temporarily narrowed the scope of a nationwide injunction against the Trump administration's attempt to withhold grants from so-called sanctuary cities.
Voters in Oklahoma approved a ballot measure making the state the 30th in the nation to allow broad access to medical marijuana.
As expected, Washington's Attorney General Bob Ferguson has challenged the Trump administration in court over its policy to forcibly separate immigrant families, contending in a lawsuit filed on behalf of 17 states and the District of Columbia Tuesday that President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy violates constitutional due-process rights of parents and children and runs afoul of federal asylum laws.
Calls for a state constitutional amendment to restrain the Kansas Supreme Court are growing louder after the justices ruled again that lawmakers are not adequately funding schools.
Two Columbia natives and State House veterans will face one another in the November general election for S.C. governor.
Former NAACP chief Ben Jealous won Maryland's Democratic primary for governor Tuesday, promising to deliver a progressive agenda that makes college free, legalizes marijuana and raises the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour.
The Colorado governor’s race is set: Democrat Jared Polis will face Republican Walker Stapleton in a November election in which President Donald Trump, marijuana and big money are expected to dominate.
Mick Cornett and Kevin Stitt advanced to a runoff on Tuesday for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, while Democrat Drew Edmondson easily secured his party's nod for the general election.
A lawsuit alleges that Washington, D.C., illegally wooed "creative-class" millennials at the expense of longtime residents. Others argue, "this is not a conspiracy. This is capitalism.”
The Louisiana Political Museum may be the only one if its kind.
As more shopping moves online, most places are suffering job losses. But not everywhere.
The state has a history of inspiring environmental movements across the country.
States are making products for women and children -- particularly those in prison or poverty -- more affordable.
The Supreme Court Tuesday upheld President Trump's ban on foreign visitors and immigrants from six nations, ruling that the chief executive, acting on his own, has the power to target foreign nations and block their citizens from entering this country.
Supreme Court justices on Tuesday sided with anti-abortion groups in a case over what information crisis pregnancy centers have to give patients.
Cat Goughnour is pushing several cities to give community members more say in urban design.
A snapshot of the Democratic Party—and national politics—right now: A guy who lost a Senate race two years ago surprised many people on Monday by jumping into a mayor’s race rather than a 2020 White House run. But he still believes he can and will claim a spot in the national conversation from city hall.
A judge on Friday found Arizona’s prisons chief to be in civil contempt of court and fined the state $1.4 million for failing to adequately improve health care for inmates.
Backing businesses over environmentalists, the Texas Supreme Court on Friday said cities like Austin may not ban retailers from providing customers with disposable bags at the checkout counter.
Gov. Rick Snyder on Friday signed a bill requiring able-bodied recipients of the state's Healthy Michigan Medicaid program to work or risk losing health care coverage.
Voters in Maine went to the polls earlier this month to do something they’ve never done before: rank candidates based on preference.
Scores of Lake County residents remained under evacuation orders Monday morning after a wind-driven wildfire ripped across thousands of acres of brush in Northern California, authorities said.
Federal law enforcement officers on Monday notified demonstrators camped outside Portland's Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters that they must begin to vacate federal property.
President Donald Trump traveled to one of his friendliest states Monday to help a supporter, avoid political embarrassment, and talk about himself.
The Texas case involves racial gerrymandering, while the North Carolina case deals with partisan gerrymandering -- something the justices have hinted is unconstitutional but have yet to rule against.
Voters will weigh in this fall on voter registration, campaign finance and redistricting.
Retail employment data for local areas suggests some places are benefiting significantly from e-commerce, while much of the rest of the country is lagging far behind.
Inside the $250,000 fight between Memphis and Tennessee.
The loss of jobs and the opioid epidemic are two of the biggest reasons.
Critics say West Virginia, which is enjoying an explosion of natural gas production and jobs, is repeating the missteps it made with the coal industry.
All-payer health care, the idea of paying hospitals a flat rate, is making a comeback.
Even the return to one-party rule hasn't helped the perennial budget battles in Trenton.
Extinguishing the possibility that Texas could be placed back under federal electoral supervision, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday pushed aside claims that lawmakers intentionally discriminated against voters of color when they enacted the state's congressional and state House maps.
The U.S. Supreme Court won't immediately take up arguments about whether North Carolina Republican lawmakers went too far in 2016 when they redrew the state's 13 congressional election districts to intentionally give their party a 10 to 3 advantage.
The Supreme Court has put off a further decision on whether shop owners who are conservative Christians have a religious freedom right to refuse to provide service or products for a same-sex wedding.
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for the state to launch its medical marijuana program, reversing and dismissing a judge’s ruling that prevented officials from issuing the first licenses for businesses to grow the drug.
Farm legislation that would impose new work restrictions to qualify for food stamps narrowly passed the U.S. House after an earlier attempt failed last month because of conservatives' demands that an immigration vote be held first.
In a victory for privacy in the digital era, the Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Constitution protects tracking data from a cellphone, requiring police to have a search warrant to obtain cell tower records that can show a person's movement over days or weeks.
Bridgette Marshall, the wife of Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, died Sunday morning.
President Donald Trump today made the first of what is expected to be several campaign stops in Las Vegas this election season in support of Nevada's leading Republican candidates.
A spreading wildfire threatened early Monday to cut off access to a rural community in northern California, where authorities ordered the evacuation of around 2,500 residents.
Boston Public Schools Superintendent Tommy Chang will be leaving his post before the start of the new school year, he and Mayor Marty Walsh confirmed Friday. The news comes one day after a coalition of civil rights and student advocacy groups sued the Boston Public Schools to find out how much student information the system shares with federal immigration officials.
Protesters confronted Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi at a showing of a documentary about children's TV host Fred Rogers, and they questioned the Republican's stands on immigration and health care.
At stake are questions about how far the federal government can go to protect an endangered species' habitat, even when the species hasn't been seen there in years.
Flanked by Gov. Jay Inslee, immigrant-rights leaders, state lawmakers and others, Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced Thursday that Washington will lead a coalition of nearly a dozen states that will sue the Trump administration over its "zero tolerance" policy of separating immigrant children from their parents during illegal border crossings.
A delegation of mayors from across the country converged Thursday morning on the border, where they called for the reunification of families who had been separated at the border and comprehensive immigration reform.
Virginia’s governor ordered state officials Thursday to investigate abuse claims by children at an immigration detention facility who said they were beaten while handcuffed and locked up for long periods in solitary confinement, left nude and shivering in concrete cells.
After a federal judge ruled last week that significant portions of Colorado's campaign finance complaint procedures are unconstitutional, state elections officials have adopted a new process under which they will now vet each grievance filed with their office before it can proceed.
New Hampshire, which has one of the lowest legal ages of marriage in the country, has raised the age at which teens can wed.
Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd struck down Kentucky's controversial new public pension law Wednesday and permanently enjoined Gov. Matt Bevin from enforcing it.
El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles has banned his deputies from working off-duty security at the tent facility for immigrant children separated from their parents in Tornillo.
When governors resign because of scandals or promotions, do their replacements run for a term of their own? And if they do, are they successful? A larger-than-normal number of replacement governors is on the campaign trail this year.
Federal law makes it hard for states to capitalize on one of their biggest assets: their highway systems. But that hasn’t stopped state officials from trying.
States across the country are struggling to staff their prisons and jails. The shortages are costing them in overtime -- and lives lost when inmates riot against conditions likely worsened by overworked guards.
The spread of an innovative program piloted in Philadelphia is the result of persistence, rigorous study and evaluation, along with efforts to avoid common pitfalls.
The landmark decision could boost state governments' revenues by tens of billions of dollars a year. But first, they have to decide how to take advantage of it. Some hope the ruling will spur Congress to pass national rules.
The Los Angeles Police Department, roiled more than two decades ago by an infamous police beating video, entered a new era Wednesday, publicly releasing police body camera video in what will be a regular process aimed at increasing transparency when officers use force.
The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously sided with the state against the city of Toledo in a decision that could cost the city millions of dollars if it continues to use stationary traffic cameras.
Houston is one of three cities still in the running to host the 2020 Democratic National Convention after party officials cut the list of potential sites in half.
The elections director for Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach told county clerks Wednesday to comply with a federal court ruling that bans voter registration requirements, reversing preliminary guidance that left the issue in limbo for two days.
Trump administration lawyers and California's attorney general jousted in a Sacramento courtroom Wednesday over a trio of laws designed to limit the state's involvement in enforcing federal immigration policy.
