Archive
It seemed like the politically unthinkable a few short months ago.
Lawyers for Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens contacted St. Louis prosecutors Saturday, proposing that he would resign from office if Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner would drop a felony charge against him.
Republican gubernatorial nominee Scott Wagner will resign his seat in the state Senate next week to focus on his attempt to take Gov. Wolf's job.
Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday signed a law preserving a critical yet controversial part of the Affordable Care Act that President Donald Trump's administration repealed last year.
Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, the leading Democratic candidate for governor in New Mexico, profited from the state’s use of a high-priced health-insurance program for seriously ill patients, even after Obamacare made such programs virtually obsolete.
The Illinois House voted Wednesday night to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment more than 45 years after it was approved by Congress, putting it one state away from possible enshrinement in the U.S. Constitution amid potential legal questions.
A bid to ban abortions after 15 weeks has become law in Louisiana.
Independents have surpassed Republicans to become the second-largest voting bloc in California, according to a firm that analyzes county voter registration information for campaigns.
We look at workforce planning model implementation across California, Washington, Massachusetts.
The Argument for Functionality Over Aesthetics.
Gov. Greg Abbott is asking for more armed teachers, heightened security presence on campuses and better identification of troubled students to make Texans safer as the nation grapples with a terrifying drumbeat of school shootings.
The annual National League of Cities report reveals a shift in the way mayors talk, especially about infrastructure.
New research provides a formula to help cities and counties know what to expect, financially, when drug deaths spike.
The issue will likely be moving to the ballot box this November.
Both major parties in Minnesota are holding their endorsement conventions this weekend. Only one of the front-runners is seeking their party's approval.
A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday became the latest to block President Donald Trump’s administration from prematurely cutting off funding for science-based programs aimed at reducing teen pregnancy.
A little-noticed part of President Donald Trump’s plan to reduce prescription drug prices could change the way Medicaid has paid for drugs for nearly 30 years.
Gov. Doug Ducey signed off on a voter-approved measure to eliminate secret political spending in Tempe elections, but his office also issued a word of caution: the approval is based on current law, not new rules that will take effect in August.
Officials in Puerto Rico say that 64 people lost their lives after Hurricane Maria slammed into the island in September. A new report says that estimate is off -- by about 4,600.
The number of new gonorrhea cases in Alaska increased by 51 percent in 2017 compared to the year before, a statistic that's concerning to public health officials, the state health department said.
Hawai'i Electric Light Co. officials said that some lower Puna customers will be experiencing extended power outages after lava damaged or destroyed more than 400 poles and other equipment in the area.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended the Constitution's privacy protection to include vehicles that are parked on a home's driveway or carport, ruling that police need a search warrant before they may inspect them.
The Supreme Court has refused -- for now -- to block an Arkansas abortion law that could prevent most women there from ending their early pregnancies with medication.
Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens announced Tuesday he is stepping down effective at 5 p.m. Friday in the face of an impeachment effort, an adverse judicial ruling and multiple criminal investigations.
Once again, abysmal turnout in primary elections underlines the need to re-think the fundamentals of how we hold elections.
The Florida city bills itself as a utopia for the environmentally conscious. After decades of planning, people are finally starting to move in.
A Bexar County homeowner did not violate a neighborhood association's restrictions on property use when he rented out his home to short-term visitors, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday.
Facebook and other social media companies should turn over users' public communications to criminal defendants in response to subpoenas, the California Supreme Court decided unanimously Thursday.
Gov. Larry Hogan vetoed three education bills Thursday, calling them "a crude attempt" to dilute accountability in Maryland public schools.
Oregon is serious about recycling. Its residents are accustomed to dutifully separating milk cartons, yogurt containers, cereal boxes and kombucha bottles from their trash to divert them from the landfill.
The FBI warned on Friday that Russian computer hackers had compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and could collect user information or shut down network traffic.
Residents, merchants and officials in Ellicott City on Monday began to examine the devastation wrought by floods that coursed through the historic mill town the night before _ the second time in less than two years.
The Trump administration’s bid to expand offshore drilling sounds like a sweet deal when the oil and gas industry sells it: more jobs, increased local revenue and possibly an energy surplus that could lower home heating costs.
A new survey provides a look at how states and localities are using gig workers.
Photos and musings from our photographer.
Michigan regulators want to eliminate lead service lines by 2040. But water utilities say that would be too costly, unrealistic and maybe even unnecessary.
The only eruption Hawaii's visitor industry had been anticipating a month ago was the possibility that the tourism juggernaut could shatter the 10-million visitor arrivals benchmark this year.
The high cost of housing seemed to sap Americans' taste for coastal cities last year as cities in Texas and Arizona gained more population than New York City or Los Angeles for the first time in a decade, according to census population estimates released Thursday.
On the same day Democrat Nate Boulton suspended his bid for governor, pressure was building Thursday inside and outside of his party for him to resign the Iowa Senate seat he has held since January 2017 in light of sexual misconduct allegations against him.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez has said repeatedly that the national party shouldn’t, and won’t, endorse in primaries. But on Thursday, he stood on a Long Island stage and endorsed Andrew Cuomo, the New York governor who is facing a challenge from actress Cynthia Nixon.
The decision to take no action against the police officers involved in the deadly shootings of Mario Woods and Luis Góngora Pat underscores what legal experts said is the inherently high bar prosecutors face in weighing criminal charges in fatal use-of-force episodes.
As Uber announced it would end its self-driving operations in Arizona, it announced that it would refocus its efforts on the program in Pittsburgh and San Francisco.
Several states are considering exemptions from Medicaid work requirements that would disproportionately impact black and white people.
A new requirement forces states and municipalities to annually report the terms and amount of loans they have taken directly from banks. It's a growing source of financing for many public entities.
With a charge that Democratic Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had brought corruption and shame to New Yorkers while driving the young to seek jobs in other states, Marc Molinaro accepted the Republican nomination for governor Wednesday and asked: "Are you ready to believe in New York again?"
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, as expected, cruised to the Democratic nomination Wednesday, winning 95 percent of the delegates at the state party's convention.
Milwaukee police on Wednesday released footage captured by a body camera that shows Bucks rookie and Maywood native Sterling Brown, 23, being arrested and police using a Taser on him after a parking violation.
The dysfunction -- and possibly burgeoning scandal -- that's paralyzed the Ohio state legislature is worsening. But whether Republicans pay a political price for it in November remains to be seen.
The price of closely watched Obamacare plans will rise 15 percent next year, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday in a new report.
What started with a pained Facebook post by Chief Art Acevedo after yet another school shooting Friday has escalated into a full-on war of words with the nation's gun lobby.
Students who testified in favor of a pay equity bill prohibiting employers from asking prospective hires about their pay history returned Tuesday to the state Capitol to watch that bill be signed into law. They said it was inspiring, that they were hopeful and that they were proud of the achievement.
Lisa Mothee came to Philadelphia Family Court last September confident she'd get the chance to tell her story, and hopeful that the Department of Human Services' case on the youngest of her five kids would be closed.
Gov. Bill Haslam on Monday signed a bill into law that prohibits the marriage of minors under the age of 17 in Tennessee.
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton will step down as the leader of the nation's fifth largest city at noon on May 29 to run for Congress.
The Phoenix City Council voted Tuesday to pursue a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Census Bureau's plan to include a question about citizenship status in the 2020 census.
Comments about "labor peace" during the February hearing didn't attract a lot of attention at the time. But since then, labor protests have spread across the country.
Voters in the Republican primary runoffs stuck with traditional center-right candidates over hard-line conservatives Tuesday in an election night that held the center for the Texas House.
A federal judge on Tuesday sided with a Gloucester transgender student on whether he should have been able to use the bathroom of his choice in the public schools -- with the judge rejecting the Gloucester School Board's bid to dismiss the case.
The Trump administration is taking another stab at controversial hunting regulations for national preserves in Alaska.
After Abuse Allegations, New York Appoints a New Attorney General. For the First Time, It's a Woman.
Acting state Attorney General Barbara Underwood, who took over after Eric Schneiderman resigned in disgrace, will remain in the job for the rest of the year.
Gov. Susana Martinez dined Monday evening with President Donald Trump and four other GOP governors at the White House.
Lupe Valdez defeated Andrew White in Tuesday's Democratic runoff for governor, making political history in a couple of ways.
Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Democrat Jared Henderson each won his party's gubernatorial nomination Tuesday and will face each other in the Nov. 6 general election.
Former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams won the Democratic nomination for Georgia's top office on Tuesday, defeating ex-state Rep. Stacey Evans and advancing her quest to become the nation's first black female governor.
As upset teachers across Kentucky Tuesday tried to flex their political muscle, Rockcastle County High School math teacher R. Travis Brenda narrowly defeated House Majority Floor Leader Jonathan Shell of Garrard County in one of the most-watched races for the state House, according to unofficial results.
It's already stirring anger among corporations, and nearby cities are trying to capitalize on that.
Preempting local laws is no longer a trend in just conservative states.
Brick-and-mortar stores are surviving, but what they’re selling is changing.
Former Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton endorsed Stacey Abrams on the eve of the primary vote, making her the latest in a string of high-profile national figures to back her bid to be the nation’s first black female governor.
Lax building codes and poor enforcement are a big problem in some places.
A change in federal law lets more than just law enforcement agencies collect unused and unwanted pills.
Republicans are split over whether they should move to the middle or embrace their right-wing base.
A network of Democratic donors and operatives are organizing an ambitious effort to elect African-American candidates for governor and Congress in 2018 — politicians who have often been overlooked by the party’s predominantly white leadership in past years.
A power outage in a South Florida city sparked an alert that left residents wondering if they had awakened to the end of the world.
In a move sure to further fuel more speculation of 2020 presidential aspirations -- look, it's happening in this sentence right here -- Gov. Jay Inslee will headline a big Democratic fundraising dinner next month in Iowa.
In the first televised debate of the election season, Democrats running for Maryland governor attacked popular Republican incumbent Larry Hogan and attempted to stand out by highlighting what little differences exist among their campaigns.
The woman at the center of the whirlwind invasion of privacy case against Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens spoke publicly for the first time Monday night, saying she wants "to move on" from this "most difficult, crazy fight."
Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday cancelled a shotgun giveaway contest in his re-election campaign amid controversy after a gunman killed 10 people and injured 13 others at a high school south of Houston.
Maine politics might have a very different look today if a tight 1990 congressional race had ended differently. But then-U.S. Rep. Olympia Snowe kept her seat, and the manager of the near-miss Democratic campaign is now a prominent Republican.
Gov. Bill Haslam on Monday said he is allowing a controversial "sanctuary cities" bill to become law without his signature, arguing it does little in light of current federal policies and the "best thing is to move on."
Hillary Clinton will endorse Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for a third term at the Democratic state convention this week as he seeks to beat back a challenge from Cynthia Nixon, officials said Monday.
There's a better way for governments to focus on effective initiatives.
Some of today's scandals would have gone unseen a couple decades ago.
Studies show they're ineffective and may unequally impact black and Hispanic communities.
The city's first chief design officer comes to the job from the Los Angeles Times.
White residents are either moving back downtown -- or to farther-out exurbs.
States are raising the age of consent to protect children from forced marriage. No state has gone as far as Delaware.
The real money isn't in roads and bridges. It's in people and services.
A growing number of states are limiting access to them.
A new database provides the first-ever national look at evictions. It shows that they happen more often than you think in places you might not expect.
San Francisco just elected its first black female mayor at a time when the number of big-city black mayors has been on the decline. Their leadership style has changed, too.
A few months ago, Kourtnaye Sturgeon helped save someone’s life. She was driving in downtown Indianapolis when she saw people gathered around a car on the side of the road. Sturgeon pulled over, and a man told her there was nothing she could do: Two men had overdosed on opioids and appeared to be dead.
After losing a legal fight over the way Texas handles online voter registration, state lawyers are arguing that fixes proposed by a civil rights group go too far and should be rejected.
Gov. Eric Greitens' office illegally hired two private attorneys to help fend off impeachment, Attorney General Josh Hawley said Friday in a letter to the state auditor.
Colorado is considering allowing political candidates to accept cryptocurrency for campaign contributions.
Blue state lawmakers are waging a preemptive strike against an anticipated U.S. Supreme Court decision that could decimate the power of public-sector unions across the nation.
Mayor de Blasio will tell the NYPD to stop arresting people for public pot smoking -- and launch a new group to officially prepare the city for the outright legalization of marijuana in New York.
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton Saturday vetoed a Republican-backed plan to increase penalties for protesters who clog up traffic.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott demanded swift justice for the gunman who killed 10 at Santa Fe High School while vowing Sunday to come up with ways to prevent more school massacres.
The House voted against the legislation on Friday. But some of the ideas behind it have seen success in the states.
"Pay for success" is changing the way cities confront the problem.
Other legislators aren't so sure.
Gun violence costs lives -- and money. The financial burden can overwhelm governments, especially when they're small or struggling.
Mississippi is about to find out. Decades of neglect have closed hundreds of bridges, putting the state at the forefront of America's infrastructure fight.
When a neighborhood isn't rich -- and isn't poor -- government tends to forget about it.
The American Dream Miami retail theme park won final zoning approval Thursday from Miami-Dade County, clearing a significant hurdle toward building a $4 billion mega-mall on undeveloped land off the Florida Turnpike with enough space for an indoor ski slope and a submarine lake.
“Dear the most highly respected judge and court, I’m writing this because I love my mom. My mom is very important to me. I have no idea what to do without her. Even though my mom’s afraid, she’s not giving up.”
Two state lawmakers got into a fist fight in a downtown Baton Rouge bar just before 1 a.m. Wednesday, both admitted hours later in their respective chambers, apologizing to other members, their constituents and each other.
Amid Hawaii's First Major Volcanic Eruption in Decades, Experts Look to Mount St. Helens for Lessons
The Kilauea volcano on Hawaii's big island erupted Thursday, sending a plume of ash 30,000 feet into the sky after fissures had spewed molten rock into residential neighborhoods for the previous two weeks, destroying dozens of structures and forcing thousands to evacuate.
San Francisco's mayor wants to create a special medical team -- the first of its kind in the nation -- to spread out onto the city's streets and give homeless people a drug that one expert calls "blindingly effective" at abruptly stopping heroin cravings.
California Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia has been removed from all of her committee posts after facing accusations of sexual harassment, with the investigation into her conduct coming to a close Thursday.
The U.S. House of Representatives plans to vote Friday on a new, five-year farm bill that will cost almost $900 billion. It sits on a familiar divide, with most Republicans voting for it and virtually all Democrats voting against it, and prospects in the Senate murky.
Cody Wisniewski made good on his threat Tuesday night to sue Boulder and its council, mounting a legal challenge to the city's ban on assault weapons fewer than 24 hours after it was voted into law.
Harvey, Ill., is facing insolvency thanks to its pension crisis. Some say it won't be the only one.
The Trump administration, though, doesn't appear willing to bring the state to the table when crafting new standards. That puts automakers in a tough spot.
The public sector's workforce challenges won't be solved by the management practices of the past. Employee buy-in is essential.
New tools are being put to use to prepare workers for new trades and match them to a changing labor market.
The federal government's new plan is short on details, but it makes one thing clear: It will ease regulations that burden rural providers -- many of whom are struggling to survive.
Vermont Republican Gov. Phil Scott Wednesday signed legislation making his state the first to legalize importing prescription drugs from Canada, an idea President Donald Trump's top health officials oppose that's also drawn fierce opposition from the pharmaceutical industry.
Diagnoses of sexually transmitted diseases hit a record high in California last year — with sometimes deadly consequences, according to preliminary state data released this week.
Gov. John Kasich long has welcomed immigrants to live and work in Ohio.
Six states this week sued Purdue Pharma alleging deceptive marketing of its drugs, as litigation continues to mount against the Stamford company tied to its role in the national opioid crisis.
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has given the thumbs up to two more state Every Student Succeeds Act plans: Alaska and Iowa.
A federal judge granted a request from states looking to defend ObamaCare in a lawsuit filed in Texas.
President Trump recommended an obstruction of justice investigation into Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf for impeding a federal roundup and criticized Mexico for doing "nothing" to help on its border with the United States as he expressed his sentiments about illegal immigration to a like-minded group of Californians on Wednesday.
Photos and musings from our photographer.
Photos and musings from our photographer.
Photos and musings from our photographer David Kidd.
Idaho Lt. Gov. Brad Little will now face state Rep. Paulette Jordan, who could be the first Native American elected governor of any state. He's the heavy favorite to win.
Nebraska voters set up a November gubernatorial showdown between Gov. Pete Ricketts and State Sen. Bob Krist as both candidates cruised to wins in Tuesday’s primary election.
Lt. Gov. Brad Little seized an early lead Tuesday night and held it as he asked Republican voters for a promotion from Idaho's No. 2 job to its No. 1 job.
A judge ordered a halt Tuesday to California's right-to-die law for terminally ill patients, ruling that it was illegally taken up and passed during a special legislative session devoted to health care funding. Unless a higher court intervenes, the law, in effect since June 2016, will become unenforceable next week.
Four Pennsylvania state House candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) won their Democratic primaries, marking another milestone in the radical left’s march into electoral politics.
Scott Wagner, the Republican Party's endorsed candidate for governor, survived an expensive three-way primary Tuesday to set up a showdown in November with Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.
Gov. Kate Brown cruised to an easy win in the Democratic primary, marking the official start of a re-election campaign she has focused on for more than a year.
The group organizing Wednesday's mass teacher rally in Raleigh says it wants state lawmakers to sharply raise education spending _ including pay raises for all school employees _ and to reverse many of the education changes made in the past seven years.
The normally uneventful election for Broward County School Board has turned into a nationally watched race now that two parents of victims at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High have filed to run.
A top Trump administration says North Korea’s nuclear weapons should be shipped to East Tennessee if that rogue regime makes good on its promise to dismantle its nuclear-testing program.
The Florida supermarket giant Publix has given more money to Adam Putnam's gubernatorial bid than any other candidate since at least 1995 and likely for the entirety of the company's history.
It's the kind of message you don't expect to see on a US election campaign bus: "FOLLOW ME TO MEXICO."
A Vermont health care organization working to keep patients healthier while reducing costs is being closely watched because of its rate of success — it was within 1 percent of meeting its financial target in its first year and has now been expanded to cover about 18 percent of the state's population, officials said.
Federal money already can't be spent on abortions. The Trump administration now wants to keep any funds from going to organizations that support the procedure.
Austin Beutner, the new leader of Los Angeles schools, is the latest big-city superintendent with no education experience. Some say that -- and his ties to charter schools -- are cause for concern.
Baltimore Police Commissioner De Sousa resigns amid federal tax charges
Photos and musings from our photographer David Kidd.
After a weekend of high-stakes negotiations between Seattle City Council members and Mayor Jenny Durkan, the council voted unanimously Monday to tax the city's largest employers to help address homelessness.
Oklahoma’s Republican Governor Mary Fallin vetoed a bill that would have allowed adults to carry handguns without a permit and signed another that permits religious organizations to exclude same sex couples from adoptions, managing to anger both gun and gay rights groups on the same day.
