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Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a statement today about the U.S. District Court's decision to dismiss a federal lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of Alabama's voter ID law.
A panel of federal judges Wednesday effectively upheld Pennsylvania's often-criticized congressional district map, declining to take up a novel challenge that sought to have it declared unconstitutional as gerrymandered to favor the party in power.
Nebraska is now the first Republican-controlled state to launch its own attempt to save net neutrality rules.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
An East Tennessee lawmaker has started drafting legislation that would defund Planned Parenthood operations across the state after a federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the 2014 vote in favor of Amendment 1, a ballot measure that stripped the right to an abortion from the Tennessee constitution.
Gov. Eric Greitens has admitted he had an extramarital affair in 2015, during a time when he was exploring a campaign for governor.
The Trump administration early Thursday initiated a pivotal change in the Medicaid program, announcing that for the first time the federal government will allow states to test work requirements as a condition for coverage.
Our communities face big problems that can't be solved by government, business or nonprofits acting alone.
Hardly any of it is being recycled now. But with California leading the way, there are signs of real progress.
Gov. Tom Wolf took unprecedented action Wednesday in issuing a disaster declaration to combat the heroin and opioid epidemic devastating Pennsylvania families on a daily basis.
Virginia Gov.-elect Ralph Northam, D, announced the last of 15 cabinet picks on Tuesday, assembling what his office says would be the first majority-female cabinet in state history.
New York City delivered a powerful blow to the fossil fuel industry by launching a climate change lawsuit against the biggest oil companies and promising to dump billions of dollars of fossil fuel stocks.
The Louisiana school board that oversaw the removal and arrest of an outspoken teacher from a meeting is now getting showered with death threats.
The Vermont Legislature made history Wednesday, becoming the first in the U.S. to approve a bill put forward by lawmakers to legalize recreational marijuana.
Programs that aid the opioid epidemic, medically underserved areas and at-risk mothers and children also have uncertain futures.
The president has shifted the commission's voter fraud investigation to the Department of Homeland Security. Some see that as a boon to the cause, while others say it could be problematic, especially for immigrants.
Scattered community efforts to help residents lessen the blow of the Republican tax overhaul's limit on a popular deduction are turning into full-fledged rebellion in California and elsewhere across the country.
Indian tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas are suing opioid manufacturers and distributors over the epidemic of addiction and overdoses that racks their reservations.
A panel of federal judges struck down North Carolina's election districts for U.S. Congress on Tuesday as unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders and gave lawmakers until Jan. 29 to bring them new maps to correct the problem.
At least 13 people were killed Tuesday when a rainstorm sent mud and debris coursing through Montecito neighborhoods and left rescue crews to scramble through clogged roadways and downed trees to search for victims.
Two South Florida state senators went public Tuesday to acknowledge their extramarital affair as the Florida Legislature convened under a cloud of sexual impropriety that has distracted lawmakers for months.
A Kansas state lawmaker who made racist statements about blacks and marijuana over the weekend and then apologized resigned his leadership positions in the Legislature on Tuesday.
Lawmakers already shocked by the criminal investigation into former Rep. Brandon Hixon found themselves stunned anew Tuesday by news of the Caldwell Republican's death.
The Trump administration's sudden reversal on Tuesday sparked a backlash among the other state leaders who have voiced opposition to the plan to drastically expand oil and gas drilling off their coasts.
Democrat William M. O'Neill named a Lorain elementary school principal today as his lieutenant governor running mate.
But there's uncertainty about whether the IRS will accept the workaround.
As sexual harassment allegations take down powerful politicians, states and cities are revisiting their training and policies for the bureaucrats who have far less power but keep the government running.
The justices heard arguments on Wednesday in an Ohio case about when it's legal to kick inactive voters off registration lists. It's part of a larger debate about voting rights that has been heightened by President Trump.
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday vetoed a bill that was designed to clear the way for a major overhaul of how the state distributes dollars to public schools, saying issues remain that would prevent about three dozen private schools from participating in a new scholarship program.
Members of the U.S. Supreme Court appeared open to revisiting key legal recommendations in Georgia's long-running water rights battle with Florida on Monday, potentially providing the latter with at least some form of relief.
Idaho will let insurers sell private insurance plans with skimpier coverage, taking advantage of new flexibility to change certain Affordable Care Act requirements, Gov. Butch Otter said Friday morning.
In an emotional and sometimes blistering speech, Rep. Jeff Hoover resigned Monday as Kentucky House speaker following weeks of turmoil over a sexual harassment scandal.
As darkness closed in, one hunter after another stopped at this newly opened game check station, deer carcasses loaded in the beds of their pickups.
An environmental study exploring the viability of high-speed passenger rail service between the Twin Cities and Milwaukee has been shut down after two Minnesota Republican legislators said it was a waste of taxpayer dollars.
A Kansas state lawmaker made racist comments about blacks and marijuana, saying that because of their "character makeup, their genetics" African-Americans had the worst response to the drug.
Last year's devastating floods and fires in California combined with hurricanes and other natural disasters to wreak unprecedented financial damage on the United States, the federal government reported Monday.
The milestones come at a time for New York and San Francisco when the number of traffic deaths nationwide has been on the rise.
Thanks to a generation of underfunding, many big-city school districts now face deteriorating buildings and billions of dollars in maintenance needs.
During his years in the White House, President Barack Obama erected barriers to oil and gas development on the West's public lands. President Donald Trump, mindful of the energy industry's view that those rules were too restrictive, has set his sights on dismantling them.
President Trump's decision last week to pull the plug on his troubled voter fraud commission was partly the result of Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap's effort to force the body to behave in a transparent and bipartisan manner, a struggle that gained intensity Saturday, when Dunlap learned the administration would not be turning over working documents to him as a federal judge had ordered.
The opioid crisis on the East Coast and in the Midwest has fueled a national surge in drug deaths, even as fatal overdoses have decreased or remained stable in parts of the West, new federal data show.
Some states are facing a mid-January loss of funding for their Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) despite spending approved by Congress in late December that was expected to keep the program running for three months, federal health officials said Friday.
The weather wasn't too cold that December morning, so Baltimore City Councilwoman Rochelle "Rikki" Spector put on a light jacket as she headed for her gold Buick.
A federal judge on Friday rejected a request for a new election that might have forced a 50-50 split in Virginia's House of Delegates, calling ballot mistakes cited by Democrats a "garden-variety" problem that doesn't merit federal intervention. Democrat.
The specter of Oso 2014 can't help but loom in the thoughts of those dealing with the potential slide here at Rattlesnake Ridge.
The online ad was pretty blunt: "Dominate [sic] male police officer seeks fun, discreet, sub playmate -- m4w."
If you're like most Americans, you don't have a 529 college savings plan.
Republican Del. David Yancey has won the tiebreaker drawing in the 94th District race.
To churn out more workers with marketable skills, an increasing number of states are offering residents free tuition to community colleges and technical schools.
Former Gov. Brendan T. Byrne, who left an enduring legacy in New Jersey that ranged from enacting the state's first income tax and the legalization of casino gambling to the development of the Meadowlands sports complex and preservation of the environmentally fragile Pine Barrens, died today.
Donna Wall cares for her three adult autistic children at her home in Lewiston, Maine. It’s a full-time job. Sons Christopher and Brandon have frequent outbursts, and the stress of tending to them can be overwhelming
The Department of Labor on Thursday released proposed new rules that proponents say will make it easier for businesses to band together in “associations” to buy health insurance.
Washington's state attorney general sued Motel 6 on Wednesday, accusing the hotel chain of illegally giving information on thousands of guests to immigration enforcement officials who did not have warrants and who scrutinized guests with Latino-sounding names.
With President Donald Trump’s recent endorsement in his back pocket, Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis on Friday will announce he’s entering the governor’s race, a move poised to inject national cash into a campaign already on the 2018 national radar.
In a Fox News interview last week, Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan said he believes they should be charged with crimes. Legal experts say that's likely not possible.
The Trump administration, inviting a political backlash from coastal state leaders, on Thursday proposed to open for exploration the largest expanse of the nation's offshore oil and natural gas reserves ever offered to global energy companies, including waters off the coast of California.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
It is time for local governments across the nation to integrate their municipal websites with an accessibility automation remediation solution for enhanced compliance, without additional workflows.
Jeff Sessions' announcement attracted bipartisan criticism. But some legal experts are skeptical of its impact, and several states have vowed to continue their marijuana markets or plans for one.
Services at the Coachella Valley Church begin and end with the Lord’s Prayer. In between, there is the sacrament.
Six U.S. senators have filed a bipartisan bill that would provide grants to states to help them move from paperless voting machines to paper ballots in an effort to make voting systems less vulnerable to hackers.
The winner of the 94th House District race will be chosen at random by drawing names Thursday in Richmond.
A massive winter storm described as a violent "bomb cyclone" continued to move up the East Coast on Thursday, shutting schools, canceling flights, knocking out power and sparking fears of coastal flooding.
The city of Charlottesville, Va., on Tuesday night chose the first African-American woman to serve as its mayor, less than six months after a deadly white nationalist rally in the city made national headlines.
Gov. Paul LePage had a one-sentence response to a 16-year-old who wrote to him worried about the repeal of net neutrality rules: Read a book.
The state's Medicaid program will cover treatment visits for people struggling with obesity in 2019 with the hopes it will improve health outcomes for Delawareans.
President Donald Trump has dissolved a commission intended to investigate voter fraud after a massive data request by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach led to a backlash from state officials across the political spectrum.
Housing experts predict that the tax overhaul will spur home values and property tax revenues to drop, forcing cities to find new ways to raise money -- or to cut spending.
There's a lot at risk when people in government use their private accounts for public business.
There are a lot of things we could be doing to smooth the ups and downs for today's just-in-time workforce.
More than a dozen cases on partisan and racial gerrymandering are winding their way through the court system. Two cases, in particular, could become two of the most important this decade.
Governor Kate Brown appointed Adrienne Nelson to the Oregon Supreme Court on Tuesday, marking the first time an African American has served on the high court in the state's 158-year history.
Companies will have to disclose additional details about their economic development plans and other information in order to receive city incentives in Nashville following action by the Metro Council on Tuesday.
A central Ohio coalition that seeks to reduce the region's high infant-mortality rate has received a grant of about $991,000 to help 50 pregnant women in extremely low-income areas find and pay for housing.
Gale Dunham, a pharmacist in Calistoga, Calif., knows the devastation the opioid epidemic has wrought, and she is glad the anti-overdose drug naloxone is becoming more accessible.
Western states no longer have to worry about losing millions in energy royalties due to the high cost of the new tax package.
"We gotta take [sanctuary cities] to court, and we gotta start charging some of these politicians with crimes," he said.
Known for his incendiary rhetoric, former Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. took it a step too far over the weekend -- and was briefly banned from Twitter as a result.
Mayor Bill de Blasio is beginning the new year looking to protect pedestrians from potential vehicle attacks in New York City.
A sheriff's deputy was killed and four officers were injured Sunday in suburban Denver when a gunman fired more than 100 rounds in an ambush-style attack.
Ohio’s prison system must produce records about lethal drugs it wants shielded from public view for justices on the state Supreme Court to review privately as part of an open records dispute, the court ruled.
John Delaney is a three-term congressman, stuck low on the seniority totem pole, representing a state packed with other Democrats, deep in a powerless minority.
President Donald Trump dropped his own New Year's ball—in the form of a wrecking ball—with a late Friday afternoon announcement that effectively wipes out plans for perhaps the nation's most crucial infrastructure project.
When 21-year-old Matthew Shepard was punched, pistol-whipped, tied to a fence and left to die in 1998, his killers' attorneys said the attackers were triggered by Shepard making sexual advances toward them.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was sworn in Monday for a second and final term, with the oath of office administered by his progressive political hero Bernie Sanders.
Harry Wilson, a Republican who nearly broke a Democratic hammerlock on statewide office in the 2010 state Comptroller's race, will not run for governor this year, according to the New York Daily News.
The movement that has empowered women across the country to levy sexual assault and harassment allegations against powerful men continues to snowball, causing an uprising in many industries, including state politics.
Supervised injection facilities, which only exist in other countries, encounter roadblocks everywhere they're proposed in the U.S. But as the opioid epidemic rages on, one might open this year.
The Oregon Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld a decision by Oregon's labor commissioner that forced two Gresham bakers to pay $135,000 to a lesbian couple for whom the bakers refused to make a wedding cake.
After Donald Trump appeared to endorse Ron DeSantis’ campaign for Florida governor last week, a handful of the biggest and most influential billionaires in Republican politics threw their support behind the three-term GOP congressman, upending the race in the nation’s biggest swing state.
Republican leaders fired back Friday against Democrat Shelly Simonds' efforts to be declared the winner in a tied Newport News-area House of Delegates race, urging the recount court to reject Simonds' appeals for a new decision and asking state officials to proceed to a planned tiebreaker "as soon as possible."
Two Romanian men have been charged with illegally disabling more than one hundred computers associated with the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in the days just before President Trump's inauguration, according to a police press release.
Mass confusion is erupting in town halls across the country thanks to the new tax law, as tens of thousands of property owners scramble to pay next year’s taxes ahead of schedule — while the governors of their states and the IRS give conflicting signals about whether that’s even allowed.
A federal judge Wednesday denied a request for a preliminary injunction against a controversial conservative group that a lawsuit alleges obtained information illegally from the American Federation of Teachers-Michigan.
All 50 states began the current school year short on teachers. And schools nationwide still are scrambling to fill positions in a range of subjects, from chronically hard-to-staff ones such as special education to usually easy-to-staff grades such as kindergarten.
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the state of Arizona from enforcing a controversial law banning ethnic studies courses, bringing near a close a seven-year battle over teaching about Mexican-Americans in Tucson public schools.
The number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty dropped sharply in 2017, marking the second-lowest toll in more than 50 years.
The two Cambodian refugees living in Northern California had been convicted of crimes years ago and, under the Trump administration's more aggressive immigration enforcement policies, those offenses had placed them on a path toward deportation.
A Bay Area federal judge barred the Trump administration on Thursday from authorizing employers to deny birth control coverage to women for religious or moral reasons, saying the government abruptly imposed the sweeping changes in October with no public notice or input.
Rep. Diane Black announced Wednesday that she plans to step aside as House Budget chairwoman to focus on her gubernatorial campaign.
The cities of San Francisco, New York and Philadelphia filed a sweeping federal lawsuit Tuesday accusing the U.S. Department of Defense of failing to live up to its legal duty to notify the FBI when a member of the military is convicted of a crime that would bar them from buying or possessing firearms.
A federal court judge in Utah has adopted new voting district boundaries in San Juan County which could reverse the historic political domination by whites over Navajos there.
Democrat Shelly Simonds says elections officials didn't follow procedure in a recount that could swing the balance of power in the House of Delegates, and she will ask a court to declare her the winner of the 94th District race, according to court documents she plans to file Wednesday.
A U.S. appeals court in Washington on Tuesday upheld a lower court’s decision to allow President Donald Trump’s commission investigating voter fraud to request data on voter rolls from U.S. states.
There are risks, and there still must be accountability. But some leaders have shown the way.
Any new windfall for states is certain to set off a battle in legislatures about how to spend it.
A major bike share company is rolling out a new service that it says offers the best of both dock-based and dockless systems.
Basic steps to prevent infections — such as washing hands, isolating contagious patients and keeping ill nurses and aides from coming to work — are routinely ignored in the nation’s nursing homes, endangering residents and spreading hazardous germs.
Hawaii's cannabis industry is facing more setbacks as the state struggles with an understaffed program.
Gov. Wolf accepted the resignation of the chairman of the state Board of Education on Thursday after the Inquirer and Daily News reported that a number of women said he had pursued sexual relationships with them when they were teenagers and he was years their senior.
Michigan school employees got an early Christmas present Wednesday from the Michigan Supreme Court, which ruled that the state has to refund $554 million that was taken from them during the height of the last recession.
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley has launched an investigation into whether Gov. Eric Greitens and his staff illegally destroyed public records by using an app that erases text messages.
A day after President Donald Trump said the Affordable Care Act “has been repealed,” officials reported that 8.8 million Americans have signed up for coverage on the federal insurance exchange in 2018 — nearly reaching 2017’s number in half the sign-up time.
Congress averted a government shutdown Thursday by approving a short-term spending bill, but an $81 billion disaster aid bill died in the Senate after winning passage in the House.
Colorado lawmakers on Thursday approved emergency funds to keep alive a health insurance program for children and pregnant women, amid concerns that a short-term extension of the program's funding OK'd by Congress won't arrive soon enough to help.
According to a new report, 2017 will have continued a steady long-term downward trend in crime rates.
Photos and musings from our photographer David Kidd.
Local governments. But they’re not just doing it for the money.
After years of fighting the post-9/11 law that added security standards for ID cards, states seem to be on board. It's going to cost them, though.
In local government, success is defined by what you leave behind.
Photos and musings from our photographer David Kidd.
It makes rational sense, but people find many reasons to be wary -- even high school football rivalries.
It’s already hard to count certain residents. But this time around, it could be particularly difficult.
Photos and musings from our photographer David Kidd.
As rents and demand for renting increase, millions of Americans are being evicted -- sometimes with only a few days' notice.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
Some want to take on the president's politics. Others simply hope to give back to the communities that have become home.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra sued the Trump administration Tuesday for suspending regulations meant to curb emissions of the greenhouse gas methane, the latest front in the state's battle with Washington over climate-change rules for the oil and natural gas industries.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) is mandating training to combat sexual harassment for 30,000 city employees to be completed by February 2018.
Jack Latvala, a powerful member of the Florida Senate and Republican candidate for governor, resigned Wednesday after two reports said he sexually harassed and made demeaning and vulgar comments to female staffers and lobbyists.
The city of Memphis sold two public parks containing Confederate monuments to a nonprofit Wednesday in a massive, months-in-the-planning operation to take the statues down overnight.
Idaho's population increased enough in the past year to earn us the title of nation's fastest-growing state, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The first 50-50 power balance in 17 years for Virginia's House of Delegates rested on a single vote, from a recount, for less than 24 hours. Now it could literally come down to drawing straws.
Mary Norwood has conceded the Atlanta mayor's race to fellow City Councilwoman Keisha Lance Bottoms.
With prospects for reauthorizing the Children's Health Insurance Program this year rapidly dimming, 25 states are expected to exhaust their federal funding to provide coverage for 1.9 million low-income children by Jan. 31, researchers at Georgetown University reported Wednesday.
New York City's CTO has a vision for how technology can make our lives better.
Coastal cities have disproportionately thrived thanks to economic centralization. Yes, the marketplace is to blame, but so is federal policy.
Starting this month, the country's new policy will likely send more recyclable materials to the landfill. But many environmentalists also see it as a golden opportunity.
The rise of sexually transmitted diseases is challenging public health departments.
The debate over who should use which bathrooms led to record turnout in at least two elections last year. Transgender advocates expect more competition this year.
One of them, Paul Posner, who recently died, spent decades advocating for a stronger relationship between federal, state and local governments.
Their citizens' sense of well-being may tell a lot about whether a community is thriving.
Service members are often targeted for financial scams and have a harder time defending themselves. Deanna Nelson is doing it for them.
California has the most people of any state, and yet it doesn't have the country's largest legislature. A ballot measure proposes to change that -- but it's complicated.
In a new book, one of his supporters compares the New York City mayor with other liberal mayors, and says no.
