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Supreme Court justices on Monday cast doubt on a North Carolina law that bans registered sex offenders from using Facebook and other online social media.
Decades of research has largely rejected claims associating immigrants with higher crime. A new Governing analysis finds the same to be true for undocumented immigrants in particular.
Fake news is as old as Bigfoot. But social media and the president have fueled its recent proliferation.
The Department of Justice under President Donald Trump will support Texas officials' claim that the state's voter identification law did not specifically target minority voters, retreating from the federal government's previous stance that state lawmakers intentionally discriminated when crafting the law.
An improving economy and rigid fiscal discipline under Republican Gov. Paul LePage have contributed to an all-time record for Maine state government: more than $1 billion in its cash pool.
Karl Dean is running for governor of Tennessee in an uphill bid to become the first Democrat elected statewide in the Volunteer State since 2006.
Republican governors are split over an Obamacare replacement plan -- just like their counterparts in Congress.
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a city's ordinance banning discrimination based on a person's sexual orientation or gender identity, but it stopped short of saying whether a state law aimed at prohibiting such local LGBT protections is constitutional.
Democrat Stephanie Hansen won the special election for the 10th District Senate seat Saturday, capturing 58 percent of the votes cast and preserving her party's control of the Legislature.
When Anthony Tran took over the District’s public health lab late last year, he had a feeling something was wrong with its testing for the Zika virus.
Before the new laws, utilities let residents unknowingly drink toxic water for months.
The Washington State Patrol and other state agencies will not help enforce federal immigration laws by routinely checking a person's residency status, Gov. Jay Inslee said Thursday.
The California Senate was thrown into chaos and anger Thursday when a Republican member was forcibly removed from the floor for allegedly speaking out of turn during a session.
Prosecutors wrapped up their part of John Swallow's public-corruption trial Thursday, but not before dropping three of the 13 charges the former Utah attorney general faced.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich is among a small group of governors being called upon by congressional Republicans to help craft a solution to the Medicaid expansion conundrum amid the repeal and replacement of Obamacare.
Anyone who legally owns a gun can now carry it in a concealed fashion without a permit from their local police chief, thanks to Senate Bill 12, signed into law on Wednesday by Gov. Chris Sununu.
For Texas state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, requiring people to use the bathroom according to the gender on their birth certificate has always been about public safety.
President Donald Trump's administration said on Thursday for the first time that it will crack down on marijuana sales in states that have approved recreational pot use.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
Most states don't keep track of how much they give to students and their families in tax breaks. That could be hurting their ability to make college affordable for all.
As one Georgia city has shown, it's about getting the right people to address the right issues.
Cities are strengthening civilians' authority over law enforcement officers. But just how far should their power extend?
As authorities closed in on the Dakota Access pipeline protest Wednesday, a small contingent of resisters refused to leave the site where they've stood for almost a year against the construction of the pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
The people of Texas are getting a bit more serious about the feral hogs problem plaguing the state.
The Trump administration Wednesday told public school districts across the nation that they no longer have to allow transgender students to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.
New York state on Thursday announced final regulations requiring banks and insurers to meet minimum cyber-security standards and report breaches to regulators as part of an effort to combat a surge in cyber crime and limit damages to consumers.
Under pressure from Democrats and Republicans including Gov. Rick Snyder, a proposal to gradually eliminate the state's 4.25% income tax was scrapped Tuesday for a plan that would cut the tax to 3.9% over four years and leave it at that level.
Some foreign-born Californians are canceling their Medi-Cal coverage or declining to enroll in the first place, citing fears of a Trump administration crackdown on immigrants.
Ursula Powers walked by her kitchen window when she saw "a wall of water" surge through the trees.
Mainers will vote in November on whether the state should expand its Medicaid program, following the validation Tuesday of a petition to do so.
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean announced his support on Wednesday for South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg to be the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
A federal appeals court upheld Maryland's ban on assault rifles, concluding that the powerful military-style guns outlawed by the measure are not entitled to protection under the Second Amendment.
A federal judge Tuesday blocked Texas officials from ousting Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid health care provider, dealing another blow to Republican-led efforts to enforce stricter abortion-related regulations and policy.
Gov. Eric Greitens took to Facebook this weekend to slam St. Louis aldermen for a bill adding reproductive health decisions to the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance.
They have fewer free-speech rights than private workers, but what counts as a fireable offense is debatable.
California has the most stringent equal pay laws in the nation. But among its own workers, the state is still struggling to close the pay gap between men and women.
Federal Transit Administration has put the brakes on a $647 million grant to help pay for electrification of a commuter train system on the San Francisco Peninsula that was considered a key part of extending California's planned high-speed rail line to the Bay Area.
A federal judge has ordered sanctions against the state of Texas for blowing past deadlines and ignoring a court order to hand over thousands of pages of documents in a lawsuit challenging its voter registration practices.
Former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer picked a symbolic location to launch his bid for governor on Monday -- the Hotel at Old Town -- setting the tone for a community activist campaign contrasting with the small-government philosophy that has dominated Kansas politics during Gov. Sam Brownback's six years in office.
West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner on Monday defended his decision to fire 16 longtime employees upon taking office in January, an action that has resulted in wrongful-termination lawsuits being filed against him.
A controversial Florida law that restricted doctors from asking patients about firearm ownership violates medical professionals' constitutional right to free speech, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
Gov. Doug Burgum was asked to leave the Senate floor this week for wearing jeans.
Public agencies keep finding creative ways to leverage its power for service delivery.
Brooklyn, N.Y., has one of the most innovative courts in the country -- not just for its approach toward defendants but also for its success in reducing recidivism.
States are increasingly investing in community health workers to improve their residents' health.
Few families use them -- and even fewer put enough money away to matter. Advocates, however, say the programs are too young to judge.
When state laws drive so-called "debt traps" to shut down, the industry moves its business online. Do their low-income customers follow?
Arizona was the poster child for Tea Party politics. Now the state's Republican leaders are focusing instead on core establishment issues. The shift there could signal what's to come across the country.
State employees will continue to be paid in full after a downstate judge Thursday opted to keep checks flowing during Illinois' historic 20-month budget stalemate.
A Bergen County judge has decided there is probable cause for an official misconduct complaint to proceed against New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in the Bridgegate scandal.
Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a former national Democratic Party chairman, on Thursday endorsed South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the current campaign for the job.
Women do not have to follow a state law requiring them to see a doctor 24 hours before having an abortion, the state Supreme Court made clear Thursday in a ruling that upholds a lower-court decision blocking the law from going into effect.
A Richland, Wash., florist who refused to provide flowers to a gay couple for their wedding violated anti-discrimination law, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
The District will soon offer the most generous paid family and medical leave in the country after Mayor Muriel Bowser on Thursday declined to veto legislation that was approved by the D.C. Council in December.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
A federal judge this week rejected an effort by a group of residents and former Gov. Pat Quinn to force the city to adopt an elected school board.
In a moment he described as “historic,” Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday signed a sweeping piece of legislation that mandates insurance coverage for up to six months of substance abuse treatment, imposes the nation’s strongest limit on initial opioid drug prescriptions and requires education for patients and doctors about the risks associated with the drugs.
Making Texas the first state to throw its weight behind President Donald Trump's embattled travel ban, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday filed a brief of support with a federal appeals court saying the immigration order is lawful.
Democratic state lawmakers on Wednesday gave Maryland's attorney general broad authority to bypass the governor and sue the federal government on a range of issues, an unprecedented expansion of power for the office.
While Congress continues to struggle with how to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, the Trump administration today unveiled its first regulation aimed at keeping insurers participating in the individual market in 2018.
House Republicans voted to rescind a federal rule making it easier for states to offer basic retirement savings plans to millions of workers. As International Business Times reported last week, the chief sponsors of the bill have been heavily supported by campaign cash from the finance industry, which has lobbied against the plans.
Reorganizing a government's agencies and services -- whether consolidating them or breaking them up -- isn't easy. There are some important things to keep in mind.
Changes are likely on the way, and they could damage budgets.
The state revamped its procurement system so that it's not missing out on smaller, innovative firms anymore. The new process is already catching fire in other states.
Governors are slowly realizing that they need someone to take on the things they don’t have time for.
People with mental illness are far more likely to commit suicide in the months after a hospital stay.
Moving a long-running political battle into the courtroom, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's school board sued Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Illinois State Board of Education on Tuesday, accusing the state of employing "separate and unequal systems of funding for public education in Illinois."
Federal emergency officials approved California Gov. Jerry Brown's requests to pay for winter storm damages and to support California's unfolding response to the emergency at the crumbling Oroville Dam, the White House announced Tuesday
Republicans determined to cut Medicaid may first have to pour more money into it, to keep the peace between Republican governors who expanded health care for low-income people under Obamacare and those who resisted.
Humana Inc., one of the nation's largest health insurers, will stop selling Obamacare health plans next year, the company announced Tuesday. The move threatens to rattle jittery insurance markets and further complicate Republicans' push to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
While Michigan faces no potential dam collapse disasters like the worsening situation in Oroville, Calif., the Great Lakes State has thousands of dams that are aging, under-maintained and pose localized risks.
State Rep. Bill Lant was accused of "unprofessional and racist behavior" by a House colleague after he cut off testimony by the president of the Missouri state conference of the NAACP during a hearing Monday night. The president of the NAACP conference also asked Tuesday for Lant, R-Pineville, to be removed as chairman of the House Special Committee on Litigation Reform.
The story starts with a trip to Scandinavia.
Legislators in several states are looking to crack down on illegal immigration in one of the few ways they can: by requiring businesses to more thoroughly verify that applicants are authorized to work in the U.S.
The Seattle City Council voted unanimously Monday to offer city employees up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave, rather than the four weeks they are offered now.
The GOP-controlled S.C. House of Representatives approved a 935-word resolution Tuesday urging new Gov. Henry McMaster to expand Medicaid, a basic tenet of Obamacare.
New Hampshire state officials and operatives on both sides of the aisle are fighting back after White House Senior Policy Adviser Stephen Miller renewed false claims over the weekend that there was widespread voter fraud in the state.
President Donald Trump's order barring people from seven predominantly Muslim countries from the U.S. for 90 days suffered another blow after a Virginia judge ruled it likely violates the rights of state residents.
Potentially catastrophic problems with both the primary and emergency spillways at the Oroville Dam appear to have been caused by flaws that either had shown up in inspections or were flagged to state and federal officials going back more than a decade, an expert in infrastructure failures said Monday.
In an effort to save money, some governments are unpaving roads.
The laws about public records differ from one government to the next and are further complicated by some technologies, like police body cameras.
Governors can affect their states’ employment picture, but not in the way -- or with the speed -- that most people think.
It's a counter to the "not in my backyard" mentality that has led to housing shortages in some cities.
In many places, they're trying to like never before.
Portland, Ore., is one of the nation's first cities to fully consider how environmental policies impact minority communities.
The places that treat the poorest and sickest often fail to meet safety standards. Some say the penalties need to be adjusted.
If signed, the executive action would put green-card holders in danger of deportation and could burden state and local agencies.
As voters head to the polls in Connecticut, Delaware and Washington, Democrats are hoping to ride some voters' discontent with President Trump to victory.
A federal appeals court on Thursday ordered Pennsylvania prisons to abandon a policy that automatically kept former death-row inmates in solitary confinement, in some cases for years after their capital sentences had been vacated.
In early January, a capacity crowd filled the Mission Mill for a Salem City Club presentation on health care. It was politics at its most grass-roots, full of wonky detail about capitation rates and coordinated care organizations.
Gov. Chris Christie signed into law on Friday a measure that for the first time establishes statewide regulations for ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft.
A few days after moving into the White House, President Donald Trump put the third-largest city in the country on notice.
The Trump administration has found a nationwide injunction it can live with.
Tens of thousands of residents in Northern California were ordered to immediately evacuate Sunday afternoon after erosion at the emergency spillway at Lake Oroville threatened to flood downstream towns.
Ask anyone about their health care and you are likely to hear about ailments, doctors, maybe costs and insurance hassles.
Several states have already passed right-to-work laws this year -- and their reach may finally expand into the Northeast.
It’s time for a history lesson.
U.S. politics isn't all poisonous. You just have to leave Washington to realize that.
Hip restaurants have helped revive cities. But is the boom fizzling out?
The state’s lawmakers have a history of ethics and legal problems -- yet their constituents don’t seem to care.
Two new governors have surprised their states by keeping many of the previous administrations' cabinet members.
But the days of having lawyers regulate their own conduct are numbered in California. The question now is whether that will prompt others to end the controversial practice.
After fighting his own battle over where to house his Star Wars stuff, he let the cities duke it out.
There's a striking pattern among the states, and it suggests that we need to take a new look the systems that govern public workers.
Even though Denver and Austin came up just short in the federal technology competition, both are moving forward with their ideas.
Some policy experts think Minnesota has one, but it could be a tough sell for lawmakers in other states.
Sales are lagging in the proving ground of California. But maybe it's too early to be keeping score.
Several states are preparing to offer a retirement plan that helps private-sector workers -- and taxpayers -- save money.
Gov. Kate Brown on Thursday issued an executive order that forbids all state agencies and employees from helping federal immigration officials locate or apprehend undocumented immigrants.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey's office said Thursday she isn't taking the pay raise that comes as part of a package state lawmakers approved earlier in the day.
State lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Thursday to override Gov. Larry Hogan's veto of a bill to increase the use of renewable energy in the state.
Younger Americans don't much like what's happening in our elections. But they're not turning out to cast their ballots.
A guard at a Delaware prison was killed sometime during a nearly 24-hour standoff that began Wednesday between prisoners and police, authorities said today.
To compete with the private sector for talent, public-sector organizations need to transform the ways they manage and develop their workforces.
Gov. Dennis Daugaard on Thursday signed House Bill 1069, effectively repealing a voter-approved campaign finance and ethics law set into statute as Initiated Measure 22.
Republicans in the Hawaii House of Representatives on Wednesday ousted minority leader Rep. Beth Fukumoto over her criticism of President Donald Trump, including calling him a bully at last month's Women's March in Honolulu.
Most recessions, he said, are self-inflicted.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
For the first time ever, the annual conference is focusing on finding private solutions to public problems. We're reporting straight from the scene.
As Congress weighs repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the home state of Vice President Mike Pence Tuesday sought to keep its conservative-style Medicaid expansion under the federal health law.
President Donald Trump threatened to withdraw federal funding from the University of California at Berkeley over its decision to cancel an event at which Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos.
Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday made good on a promise to cut off state grant funding for Travis County criminal justice programs over Sheriff Sally Hernandez's new policy of refusing to cooperate with all federal immigration detainers.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is awarding $2.6 million to create a network of five trauma recovery centers aimed at helping victims of violence recover and access the services they need.
As the mayor of a tiny McKinney suburb, Jess Herbst imagined the worst after she came out as a transgender woman at this week's council meeting.
In his third State of the State address, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan spoke of a need for bipartisanship in Annapolis and pressed the Democratic-controlled General Assembly to approve his most ambitious legislative agenda yet.
Inmates at the largest state prison for men in Delaware took four corrections department workers and fellow prisoners hostage Wednesday in a stand-off with authorities that had yet to be resolved more than 20 hours later on Thursday morning, forcing prisons across the state to enter lockdown.
With announcements of placements in residencies expected in March, medical education groups and hospitals say they’re unsure how to proceed.
Following on the heels of last’s week threatened retaliation against Florida ports that sign agreements with Cuba, Gov. Rick Scott has tucked another anti-Cuba provision into his proposed state budget that is even more far-reaching.
San Francisco sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, charging that its crackdown on sanctuary cities violates the state rights provisions of the U.S. Constitution.
Speaking to reporters in New Jersey for the first time since the George Washington Bridge lane-closure trial, Governor Christie said Tuesday that the media "conveniently misinterpreted" his words on the lane realignments and that sworn testimony that he knew of his staff's involvement was "a lie." He also issued a rare public critique of President Trump, calling his executive order on immigration well-intentioned but too broad and its roll-out "terrible."
Attorney General Mark Herring and Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced Tuesday that the state is bringing legal action against President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration.
The New Jersey Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an attempt by Gov. Christie to reopen the landmark Abbott v. Burke case that directed resources to urban school districts, denying his administration the power to freeze funding and break union contracts.
Gov. Greg Abbott detailed his vision for Texas on Tuesday, imploring lawmakers to approve "emergency" legislation on child protection, ethics and so-called sanctuary cities, ordering a hiring freeze for most state agencies and proposing a budget that would cut business franchise taxes by $250 million.
Democratic lawmakers are trying to make sure women have affordable access to birth control and abortion -- regardless of what Congress and the Trump administration does.
They're least prevalent in the South and places with right-to-work laws. See how your state compares.
Amid uncertainty about the expected repeal of the Affordable Care Act, Gov. John Kasich's final two-year budget proposal maintains Medicaid health coverage for 3 million poor and disabled Ohioans, including the 700,000 childless adults added to the rolls under Obamacare.
State Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a federal lawsuit Monday seeking to invalidate key provisions of President Trump's executive ordertemporarily barring all refugees and immigration by citizens of seven majority Muslim countries.
ohn F. Long, often called the "Father of the West Valley," sat in the library of an elementary school named after him, in the Maryvale neighborhood he developed to share breakfast with a group of students.
President Donald Trump is personally urging Florida Gov. Rick Scott to challenge Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in 2018 — and the loyal Trump ally looks increasingly likely to take the leap.
With the state flush with new general government revenues, Gov. Bill Haslam on Monday night unveiled a $37 billion annual spending plan, urging lawmakers to adopt his recommended gas tax increases to pay for better roads and reject temptations to dodge it by turning to burgeoning revenues in other non-transportation areas to fund it instead.
After striking down Wisconsin's legislative maps as unconstitutional two months ago, a federal court Friday ordered Gov. Scott Walker and lawmakers to redraw the districts by Nov. 1 to ensure their use in the fall 2018 elections.
In state capitals around the country, lawmakers are trying to block voter-approved policies. Critics say it's "lawlessness" that represents the new political climate.
The new regulation requires states to help parents in poverty avoid debt and incarceration.
A federal judge Friday blocked Texas from requiring that fetal remains to be buried or cremated.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said his office will provide legal counsel for immigrants detained in New York airports and announced a hotline for families unsure if loved ones are detained.
Could the 2018 race for governor come down to former health care executive versus former health care executive?
With protesters' chants echoing through arrival halls and beyond, confusion prevailed Sunday at airports across the United States amid seemingly contradictory signals from the Trump administration over a hotly contested executive order blocking U.S. entry to refugees and nationals of seven Muslim-majority nations.
