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Texas House Speaker Joe Straus will not seek re-election, the San Antonio Republican confirmed Wednesday.
Once seen as a laggard in public administration, the state is now a leader.
One of the most expensive infrastructure projects in American history is also one of the most vital. But no one knows how to pay for it.
Voters will weigh in on marijuana, pre-K and taxes next month.
If the ethics fines, the personal scandals, the bribery trial, and his abrupt resignation in disgrace this summer were not enough, the public dressing down that Seth Williams received from the federal judge who sentenced him Tuesday to five years in prison surely cemented 2017 as the worst year of the former Philadelphia district attorney's life.
If it weren't for the tangled clump of power lines on a nearby corner and the partially unhinged stop sign down the street, Tuesday might have seemed like the first day of a normal school year at Julio Sellés Solá School in San Juan's Río Piedras neighborhood.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday steered Senate Republicans toward tax reform and away from health care, pushing off any deal to fund controversial Obamacare subsidies to the end of the year at best.
In the first major legal battle over abortion under President Donald Trump, the federal appeals court in Washington on Tuesday set aside an anti-abortion rule adopted by the administration and cleared the way for a 17-year-old immigrant to end her pregnancy.
Cranston Republican Mayor Allan Fung launched his second run for governor of Rhode Island on Tuesday, armed for battle against Democrat incumbent Gina Raimondo.
Why businesses and employees from around the country have flocked to the desert in Nevada.
If the trend continues, it carries numerous potential implications.
Tulsa, Okla., a conservative oil town, serves as an example of how places can overcome politics to prevent damage and save lives.
Gov. Larry Hogan signed an executive order Monday that requires all firms with state contracts to promise they will not boycott Israel.
The MTA has taken a major step in retiring the MetroCard, beginning a six-year process to replace it with a tap-based system that will allow commuters to use a variety of payment methods, including smartphones, digital wallets or proprietary cards to pay for their rides.
With future federal funding uncertain, states may freeze enrollment in a program that helps at-risk parents care for their newborns.
In response to a letter about sexual harassment that has been reverberating through the Capitol, California Senate Leader Kevin de León -- also a candidate for U.S. Senate -- announced Monday that his house will hire an independent firm to investigate allegations of sexual harassment, rather than handling such complaints internally.
A ballot measure would allow judges to strip pensions from corrupt public servants. But ethics watchdogs say the measure is little more than window dressing.
The 5-year-old girl was found dead in the bathtub with shallow water framing her cherubic face and open eyes.
A Kent man who earlier this year withdrew a lawsuit that helped expose a wider alleged child-sex-abuse scandal that drove Ed Murray out of public office has refiled a legal case against Seattle's former mayor.
David Guice, a top North Carolina prisons leader who oversaw an extraordinarily deadly time for the state's correctional officers, is stepping down from his post.
Here in the heart of one of Colorado’s most expensive cities, Isabel Sanchez bought a mobile home seven years ago for just $6,000. Her four-bedroom bungalow now sits on a lot she rents for $355 a month.
Kentucky's registered sex offenders have the constitutional right to use Facebook, Twitter and other online social media, a federal judge ruled Friday.
Gov. Bruce Rauner kicked off his re-election bid Monday with a campaign video featuring the Republican politician clad in a helmet and black leather motorcycle gear, riding his Harley-Davidson alone past a sometimes-desolate landscape of urban, rural and suburban Illinois.
Thousands of Iowans face paying significantly more for their individual health insurance premiums -- or going without coverage -- after a state effort to win federal waivers of some Affordable Care Act provisions to prop up Iowa's collapsing marketplace ended Monday.
Billing Illinois and Chicago as an "extraordinary opportunity for Amazon" to locate its second headquarters, state and city political leaders entered the nationwide competition to land the online retail giant's 50,000 jobs by offering $2 billion in incentives while hinting they were willing to dig even deeper, sources familiar with the bid confirmed Monday.
She helped craft Mike Pence’s conservative approach to expanding Medicaid in Indiana. Now, the CMS administrator is one of President Trump's top contenders to replace Tom Price.
The Maine member of President Trump's voter fraud commission has written a pointed letter to its executive director, demanding he be given documents and kept informed about the group's activities and charging that there is "a vacuum of information."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday that he's waiting to hear whether President Donald Trump will support a bipartisan health care proposal before bringing the measure up for a vote.
Alex Roth has gotten into the habit of pulling out his cell phone and showing skeptical friends a screen shot of the classes he'll have to take to get his bachelor of science degree from Northern Michigan University.
The latest evolution of bike-share programs is taking its first Colorado foothold in Aurora.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday will make official what had long been expected, formally announcing his plans to seek a second term as the state's chief executive despite turmoil within his own political party.
Medicaid money can now be used in New Hampshire to pay for sex change surgery deemed medically necessary, after a legislative committee voted 6-4 on Tuesday to approve new rules for the health care program that serves low-income households.
A divided federal appeals court delayed final resolution of the case of a 17-year-old pregnant migrant in federal detention who is seeking an abortion, giving the Trump administration until the end of this month to find a private sponsor who can house her and will allow her to obtain the procedure.
Returning to the campaign trail nine months after he left the presidency, Barack Obama laced into Donald Trump's presidency as dismantling the gains of his two terms in office and taking America backward.
Rental vouchers are only helpful if landlords are willing to take them. All too often, they're not. But what if the government made it less risky?
The public approved changes to how future gas tax money can be spent. But it’s largely a symbolic measure unless lawmakers approve a hike in the state’s gas tax.
St. Louis Public Library found out the hard way about the far-reaching impact of technology threats. In 2017, the library’s technology infrastructure was attacked with ransomware, wreaking havoc on all 700 of the library’s computers. The hackers rendered them useless and prevented all book borrowing.
An amnesty at the city’s three library systems will wipe out fines for all children, allowing 160,000 youngsters whose borrowing privileges had been suspended to check out books again.
Even as D.C.’s economy has boomed and grocery stores in gentrifying neighborhoods have proliferated, the dearth of grocery stores in its poorest wards has remained consistent.
In one of the fastest-paced civic construction jobs in recent U.S. history, hundreds of carpenters, operating engineers and iron workers are rushing to complete repairs to the damaged Oroville Dam spillway. The crews are trying to beat a Nov. 1 deadline and the Northern California rainy season, which once again will begin to fill the massive reservoir behind the nation's highest dam.
California tied Rhode Island and Vermont for the most money lost to online identity theft per capita, 44 times the amount per person of those living in South Dakota, and finished third in average loss amount due to fraud.
Thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court decision, New Jersey residents will soon be free to buy the devices for the first time since 1985. New Jersey was one of only five states that enforced an outright ban on stun guns, which are often marketed by their manufacturers as a non-lethal self-defense tool.
Gov. Gary Herbert says it is unethical for the attorney general to represent both him and the legislature when the two are in conflict, as they are currently on whether Herbert overstepped his authority in setting rules for the 3rd Congressional District special election.
A dramatic increase this year in the number of oaks, manzanita and native plants infected by the tree-killing disease known as sudden oak death likely helped spread the massive fires that raged through the North Bay, a UC Berkeley forest ecologist said Thursday.
Alaska has long been overwhelmed by reports of children in danger. Now the state and Alaska tribes are preparing to try something that has never been done before: Turn the responsibility of protecting Alaska Native children over to Native people themselves.
The Maryland Department of Transportation has given conditional approval to Musk’s firm to dig miles of tunnel under state roads to be used for the privately funded project, Hogan spokesman Doug Mayer said.
While congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump have been seeking major cuts in federal funding of Medicaid, 26 states this year expanded or enhanced benefits and at least 17 plan to do so next year, according to a report released Thursday.
A month has passed since Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, and the island continues to operate in emergency mode, struggling to do even the basics: save lives, protect property, provide drinking water, turn on the lights. Time ticks away in a hazy state of permanent disaster, a catastrophe born from the worst storm to cross Puerto Rico in 85 years — and of a slow recovery by the federal, state and local governments.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
The changes simplify the educational requirements and relieve professionals from unnecessary documentation, officials said. The new rules also are mostly compatible with other states' rules so out-of-state clinicians can work in Vermont.
Cut, color and … condoms? More than a dozen St. Louis barber shops and beauty salons have expanded their services to include education on sexually transmitted diseases.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday revealed his seventh budget, and for the sixth time, he is raising taxes and fees, moves he said are needed to keep stabilizing the city's finances and foster economic growth.
A Juneau Superior Court judge's ruling Tuesday could pave the way for Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, an independent, to run in the state Democratic Party's primary and get the party's support for his re-election campaign next year.
A new law ensuring police agencies can find whether new officers have ever been fired from other agencies for misconduct will go into effect in 90 days.
The Ohio Opioid Technology Challenge now is accepting proposals at www.OpioidTechChallenge.com to identify technology that holds the promise of treating pain without painkillers and diagnosing, treating and preventing abuse and overdoses.
General Motors has already begun mapping a site to test the vehicles in Lower Manhattan, according to the governor’s office
Democrat Ralph Northam has led narrowly in most polls, but concerns about his campaign and the ghosts of 2016 have his party feeling anxious.
The last debate between the two major party candidates for governor in New Jersey was heavy on canned attack lines and talking points.
Thousands of residents have lost their homes in a region that has faced some of the worst effects of the state's housing affordability crisis. Now, the number of new families flooding the market is giving rise to fears of widespread displacement and even higher costs.
Gov. Roy Cooper said Wednesday there is a possible path to resolve a lawsuit that originated as a challenge to North Carolina's controversial House Bill 2.
In its war on blighted properties, New Orleans is demonstrating its leadership in the use of data analytics.
Come November, voters will weigh in on a ballot measure that relaxes rules on home equity loans.
As President Donald Trump signals impatience to wind down emergency aid to Puerto Rico, the challenges wrought by Hurricane Maria to the health of Puerto Ricans and the island’s fragile health system are in many ways just beginning.
In rural swaths of West Virginia, getting mental health services is fraught with challenges. But the need is great.
If elected, a Boulder City Council candidate pledges to put every decision to a vote by his constituents.
Promises of sun, fun and beer have come from across the country.
The move from Attorney General Jeff Sessions comes just months after he reinstated the controversial program, which had been ended under the Obama administration.
The 1-minute video and an accompanying digital ad campaign are the clearest signs yet that the GOP governor will seek re-election. An official announcement is expected soon.
Most polls show Ralph Northam slightly ahead in what appears to be a relatively close race.
Thanks to a unique funding process, hospitals in some states are acquiring nursing homes to help cover other costs.
The Arizona Department of Corrections paid nearly $27,000 to import from overseas an illegal drug for executions by lethal injection, but federal officials stopped the shipment at the airport.
After months of often-heated debate, a civilian oversight panel has signed off on a controversial yearlong test of the technology.
The city of Lexington, Ky., carried out a surprise removal of two controversial Confederate statues from the lawn of the former Fayette County courthouse early Tuesday evening.
Governments in recent years have shifted more and more of the burden of health-care premiums on to employees themselves.
Women in state capitols are saying #MeToo.
The new system, which includes light rail and a tunnel below the city's downtown, would be the most expensive project in Nashville history.
A new report says one-third of states will face severe fiscal stress during the next economic downturn.
The start of legal marijuana sales in Colorado may have reversed a rising trend of prescription opioid overdose deaths in the state, a new study set to be published next month concludes.
The Maine Legislature is again wrestling with how to implement, delay or repeal a law passed by voters last November that made Maine the first in the nation to approve a statewide ranked choice voting system for the Legislature, the governor's office and members of Congress.
Dozens of cities and counties around the country require anyone who wants to open a public utility account — lights, gas, water, phone — to provide a Social Security number, government-issued ID or some form of proof they are in the country legally.
In advance of Thursday's appearance by alt-right leader Richard Spencer on the University of Florida campus, Gov. Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency for Alachua County.
The massive data breach could also lead to a state regulatory crackdown on credit reporting agencies, which aren’t currently subject to some of the requirements imposed on other businesses that manage sensitive consumer data, and possibly to tighter controls on that larger universe of businesses as well.
State election officials, worried about the integrity of their voting systems, are pressing to make them more secure ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
An analysis by The Associated Press found that over the past decade, FEMA headquarters has denied appeals for at least $1.2 billion sought by local governments and nonprofit groups to protect or rebuild communities hit by hurricanes, floods, fires, earthquakes, tornadoes or other major disasters.
For the first time in state history, California will legally recognize a third gender option for residents who do not identify as male or female next year.
The state Legislature introduced a pair of bills in the House and Senate earlier this year that would limit local communities’ abilities to set rules and regulations for short-term rentals. It’s just the latest measure that preempts local ordinances, in favor of statewide rules that communities must live by.
City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell and former judge Desiree Charbonnet earned spots in a runoff for New Orleans mayor, guaranteeing the city will elect its first woman mayor in the Nov. 18 runoff.
One week after a storm of wildfires ignited in California’s Wine Country, firefighters on Sunday were finally eyeing an end to the deadly siege as winds settled down and the unrelenting infernos weakened enough for some people in endangered areas to return home.
A state that was struggling with slow construction, soaring prices and rents now must find accommodation for thousands of evacuees from scorched zones.
Voters in three states approved similar ballot measures last year, but critics say it's unnecessary and could gum up the criminal justice system.
If passed, the state would become the 33rd to expand Medicaid and signal support for Obamacare at a time when President Trump is taking major steps to reverse it.
California will extend workplace protections to 2.7 million more people who now will be able to take 12 weeks of parental leave without fear of losing their job.
The U.S. Justice Department is taking fresh aim at a New Orleans Police Department policy limiting inquiries into residents' immigration status, the latest salvo in a running war on so-called "sanctuary cities" by President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Robert Pruett was executed in Huntsville Thursday night, completing the death sentence he received more than 15 years ago in the 1999 murder of prison guard Daniel Nagle.
While Congress has failed to restore funding to the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the Trump administration has made $230 million in excess funds from previous years available to five states and four U.S. territories that were in danger of running out of money the soonest.
A state senator from University City caught criticism on Thursday for the second time since August after she posted another controversial social media message regarding President Donald Trump.
When Jeremy Boutor moved to a master-planned community in Houston’s booming energy corridor, he saw it as idyllic.
The Trump administration Thursday advanced a wide-ranging executive order aimed at expanding lower-cost insurance options, allowing employers to give workers money to buy their own coverage and slowing consolidation in the insurance and hospital industries.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Wednesday became the latest to sue the Trump administration over its move to roll back the Affordable Care Act's birth control coverage mandate.
The federal government will cease crucial federal payments to health insurers that provide coverage to low-income Americans, the White House announced late Thursday in a move that threatens to send health insurance premiums skyrocketing for millions of Americans and destabilize markets across the country.
The story of the iconic race offers a good lesson in how to make room for grand civic ideas.
They need to be nimbler than ever, looking for better ways to leverage local talent and institutions to ensure that their residents are the real winners.
New data shows migration patterns between counties. View updated figures for your jurisdiction.
With no end to the epidemic in sight, the feds are helping some states treat more addicts.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
Gov. Charlie Baker has unveiled what he's calling a "first-in-the-nation set of educational core principles" for social workers on the front lines of the battle against opioid abuse, which has claimed thousands of lives in Massachusetts.
President Donald Trump is trying to do with the stroke of a pen what Republicans in Congress could not — bring about the end of the Obamacare markets.
A series of deadly California wildfires have burned through some 170,000 acres statewide, but heavy smoke from the disaster zones drifted farther still as pesky particles of dust, ash and soot entered the lungs of residents nearly 100 miles away.
Larry Marsh has a history of mental illness and drug addiction. Homeless, he has no place to go. The police in this city have arrested or cited him more than 270 times for trespassing. In December, they got him four times in one day.
In a sweeping victory for the growing number of Kentucky relatives providing free foster care for children, Kentucky must begin paying them — many, grandparents struggling with the costs — the same as they do licensed foster families.
California's health exchange said Wednesday it has ordered insurers to add a surcharge to certain policies next year because the Trump administration has yet to commit to paying a key set of consumer subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.
On the surface, Sara Erin Martin would have seemed well qualified to oversee troubled teens at the Okeechobee Youth Development Center. For three years, she'd worked as a mental health technician at a state psychiatric hospital for adult inmates whose mental illnesses or intellectual disabilities rendered them unfit to be tried or punished.
During the five years Tony Price roamed the streets and dozed in doorways, the emergency rooms of Sacramento’s hospitals were a regular place for him to sleep off a hard day’s drinking.
Massachusetts is deciding whether to keep marijuana tax revenue from anti-pot municipalities, stirring a debate that some states have already settled and others may face in the future.
The party will likely gain power in New Jersey next month, but holding onto the governor's office in Virginia is proving more challenging.
The allegations were straight out of Oliver Twist: Teens said there were maggots in the food -- and barely enough of it. The youths wore threadbare and filthy clothing. They lacked soap, toothpaste, deodorant, socks. The medical care was lousy, toilets overflowed and the buildings were crumbling. Officers choked and punched them.
By law, Chris Christie can't seek a third consecutive term as governor of New Jersey.
Two Baltimore police officers have accepted "minor disciplinary action" for their involvement in the 2015 arrest of Freddie Gray rather than argue their cases before departmental trial boards, as they had been scheduled to do, a police union attorney confirmed Tuesday.
An Oklahoma County judge on Friday threw out a law restricting medication abortions for the second time, again finding it unconstitutional.
The Cook County pop tax is headed for repeal after commissioners overwhelmingly signaled their intent to do away with it, marking a big win for soda companies and store owners after both sides spent millions of dollars to sway public opinion on the issue.
Thousands of firefighters fought the aggressive march of wind-whipped wildfires that raged out of control Tuesday in Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Yuba counties -- and the death toll rose to 17 as authorities began the grim task of excavating for bodies amid up to 3,000 ruined homes and businesses.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dropped one of two challenges it was considering to President Donald Trump’s travel ban policy, declaring moot a lawsuit over Trump’s attempt to block issuance of visas to citizens of six majority-Muslim countries.
It's rare to see a film featuring homeless people as main characters. "The Florida Project" focuses on the ones that few people notice.
Imagine a day when you can renew your car registration, pay your taxes and apply for Medicaid, all by clicking on to one state web portal.
Proposed rules for single-drug executions in California were rejected Monday by a state legal agency, whose decision may soon be nullified by an initiative approved by state voters last November.
Two months ago, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn criticized a draft of a federal review of the department as riddled with errors.
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley is done exploring.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a federal lawsuit Monday seeking to block President Donald Trump's recent revision to the Affordable Care Act that allows insurers and employers to opt out of covering contraceptives in their health insurance plans.
Democrat Ralph Northam and Republican Ed Gillespie slashed at each other for an hour in southwestern Virginia Monday night, looking to gain an advantage in the final weeks of the closely watched campaign to be Virginia’s next governor.
The Trump administration's move to start dismantling the Clean Power Plan rule intended to curb carbon emissions that contribute to global warming will not be a quick process.
A swarm of fires supercharged by powerful winds ripped through Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties Monday, killing at least 10 people, injuring dozens of others, destroying more than 1,500 homes and businesses, and turning prominent wineries to ash.
The rising number of placements into state care is only partially to blame.
A major highway expansion is now on hold because Wisconsin Republicans couldn’t agree on how to pay for it.
D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine will not appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a recent court ruling overturning a portion of the city’s law restricting who can carry a concealed handgun in the District.
The wildfires that tore through over a million acres of Montana this year damaged homes, cloaked communities in smoke, and burned a hole in the state budget.
President Trump's immigration chief ripped into Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday for signing legislation that creates a statewide sanctuary policy, saying the federal government will be forced to "conduct at-large arrests in local neighborhoods and at work sites" of undocumented immigrants.
The Trump administration revealed a sweeping set of hardline immigration demands Sunday night -- including the building of a wall on the southern border and major changes to the legal immigration system -- as tradeoffs for legislation to protect the so-called Dreamers, a move that could kill prospects for a deal to protect roughly 700,000 young people now facing possible deportation.
Several out-of-control wildfires were burning in Napa and Sonoma counties early Monday morning, prompting mass evacuations of many neighborhoods and at least one Wine Country resort as firefighters sought to halt the advance of the flames amid high winds.
The city of Charlottesville is cooking up a plan to block torch-wielding hate mongers from returning after a third and unannounced visit by Richard Spencer’s followers.
New Jersey on Thursday accused Insys Therapeutics Inc of engaging in a fraudulent scheme to boost sales of a fentanyl-based cancer pain drug, as Massachusetts announced a $500,000 settlement with the drugmaker to resolve similar allegations.
Vice President Mike Pence will head to Virginia this week to campaign for Republican gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie.
Local governments and private contractors can't find enough people and equipment to haul away debris.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach urged President Donald Trump to pursue changes to federal voting law to promote proof-of-citizenship requirements, according to documents unsealed Thursday by a federal judge.
What started as a fringe movement has gained steam in recent years.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office filed suit Thursday against Navient, the largest U.S. student-loan servicer, alleging widespread abuses and deceptive acts involving its administration of student loans.
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton will soon leave his post as the leader of the nation's fifth-largest city to run for Congress.
Gov. Pete Ricketts on Wednesday urged the Trump administration to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement with Japan following news that U.S. frozen beef exports to Japan have declined by 26 percent.
A judge in Charlottesville ruled Wednesday that a state law protecting war memorials could apply retroactively to the city's statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch.
State lawmakers, public defenders, corrections officials, community activists and police came together with Governor Gina Raimondo on Thursday to hail a series of new laws as the most historic changes to the criminal justice system in Rhode Island to arise in decades.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions says he will push federal prosecutors to put a more intense focus on prosecuting street criminals, saying the Justice Department needs to focus on rolling back a recent increase in the violent crime rate.
