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Memphis and Nashville cannot legally enforce new civil fines for small amounts of marijuana, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slattery III said in an opinion issued Wednesday.
Republican governors have a surprising message for President Barack Obama: We'll miss you.
S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley and Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster are contenders for positions in President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet.
Slow growth. Tax cuts. Sound familiar?
A new NASBO report cites a volatile stock market and modest national economic growth for the slowdown.
Author Bill Bishop, who has spent years studying America's urban-rural divide, discusses what it means for politics and progress.
Turnover in the field has reached crisis levels in some places, forcing them to figure out how to hire and keep the right people.
Democratic state Assemblyman John Wisniewski announced Tuesday he is running for governor, hoping to succeeded Gov. Chris Christie, the man whose political career he rocked by spearheading the investigation into the Bridgegate scandal.
State and federal officials plan to unveil a comprehensive strategy to address fentanyl and heroin abuse, prescription opioid misuse and violent crime.
Clay Mayor Beverly Whaling has resigned from her position after her comment on a racist Facebook post about Michelle Obama made national headlines Monday, according to a town council member.
With President-elect Donald Trump promising to crack down on "sanctuary cities" that aren't helping federal authorities apprehend undocumented immigrants, some mayors warn they're ready to do battle with Washington on the issue.
Idaho's Republican electoral college electors have been getting a lot of phone calls both from Idahoans and from other states who are trying to get them to change their vote, and some of the calls are "crossing into what could reasonably be considered harassment," according to the Secretary of State's office.
Putting more fuel-efficient vehicles on the road is universally seen as a good thing, but those gas-sipping hybrids and electric cars crisscrossing Colorado are contributing less and less in terms of the gas tax revenues that pay for badly-needed road and bridge repairs across the state.
State Medicaid Chief John McCarthy, who oversaw Gov. John Kasich's overhaul and expansion of the health-insurance program covering nearly 3 million poor and disabled Ohioans, is resigning.
A top Wall Street credit-rating agency downgraded New Jersey once again on Monday, warning that the state’s fiscal health will deteriorate quickly unless it launches new reforms.
Invoking the historic mistreatment of Native Americans, the Obama administration said Monday it will continue to withhold a final permit for completion of the controversial Dakota Access pipeline while it conducts further analysis of concerns that the project will damage sacred tribal sites and water supplies.
Rep. Kristi Noem will not seek a fifth term to the U.S. House in 2018, she announced Monday, and will instead make a bid to become the first female governor in South Dakota history.
An official at a Clay County agency lost her job Monday after publishing a racist Facebook post criticizing first lady Michelle Obama.
Vice President-elect Mike Pence is embroiled in a legal challenge stemming from his decision to withhold information from a public records request in a case local Democrats say raises the specter of the Indiana governor shielding all of his emails from public view.
Republicans gained power in several states last week, clearing the way for some to more easily restrict abortion and roll back other reforms.
Even with Donald Trump as president, the future of America belongs to the urban laboratories of democracy.
These eight people know that public service isn’t about casting blame. It’s about working together to forge real solutions to real problems.
And just like that, it was over. The two Oregonians who proposed a ballot measure asking Oregon to secede from the union have submitted paperwork to withdraw their petition.
Amid a national push for greater police accountability, voters in several major cities have approved measures to create or strengthen civilian oversight of law enforcement.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle personally ensured her controversial new penny-an-ounce pop tax passed Thursday by breaking a rare tie vote among commissioners.
With the GOP poised for one-party control in Washington, Gov. Scott Walker has a new political mission: keeping Republicans in power in the states.
Joining other cities around the country, Chicago is pledging to remain a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants, an act of defiance in the face of Donald Trump’s past promise to cut off those cities from federal funding.
An unusual haze, much thicker than traffic smog, hung over Atlanta on Wednesday.
President-elect Donald Trump named Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, the vice president-elect, to head their transition team, abruptly replacing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Friday amid increasing signs that the effort to prepare the next White House is off to a rocky start.
We rated races for president, governor, state legislature and attorney general.
Ending a streak of thin electoral margins, Harris County — the biggest battleground in ruby red Texas with a population larger than 25 other states — turned solidly blue on Tuesday with the largest presidential margin of victory in more than a decade.
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency has declared a state of emergency In response to the continuing drought Thursday evening.
Philadelphia remains a "sanctuary city," despite a threat to its future status from President-elect Donald Trump, Mayor Kenney said Thursday.
A federal judge has ordered state officials to deliver bottled water to Flint residents who can't easily go to distribution stations to pick up their own water and don't have properly installed and maintained water filters.
A third consecutive day of anti-Trump demonstrations turned violent Thursday night, as protesters began with a march and chanting but eventually smashed cars at a dealership and rampaged through the Pearl District shattering business windows.
As one successful experiment has shown, giving educators the discretion to perform is key.
As most of America was still absorbing the news that Donald Trump had won the presidency, Republican Corey Stewart had already declared it rocket fuel for his 2017 bid for Virginia governor.
They have a powerful influence. But unrealistic, unreachable goals can produce unethical behavior.
We broke down results of state and local races and ballot measures around the country -- and what they mean for the future.
Republicans in many states are now free to pursue their agendas on taxes, labor and social policies without Democrats standing in the way.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
Financial analysts at one Wall Street rating agency on Wednesday dropped Chicago Public Schools credit rating again, less than a week before the district is expected to sell hundreds of millions of dollars in long-term bonds.
In a blow to Atlantic City elected officials, New Jersey's Local Finance Board voted 5-0 Wednesday to grant its director, Timothy Cunningham, far-reaching governing powers over the beleaguered city.
Overnight, it seemed, Gov. Christie's fortunes reversed.
Millions of low-income Americans on Medicaid could lose their health coverage if President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress follow through on GOP proposals to cut spending in the state-federal insurance program.
Ilhan Omar made history Tuesday night as the nation's first Somali-American legislator, with a commanding win in a state House race.
Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election sparked protests across the nation Wednesday, with crowds marching through city streets, rallying at college campuses and staging walkouts at schools in an open disavowal of the president-elect.
The GOP successfully defended its majorities in most chambers and also picked up chambers in Kentucky and Iowa, giving the party full control of those states.
The first-ever environmental impact bond gives an agency some of its money back if its idea doesn't pan out.
Despite the Trump tide, voters at the local level approved new taxes on soda and bond measures for housing and transportation. They also ousted several tough-on-crime prosecutors, as well as Trump ally Joe Arpaio.
Judicial elections weren't a clear sweep for either party.
It was a lesser-noticed but important downballot trend from election night.
Democrats managed to flip the Vermont LG seat blue -- even as the state governorship flipped red.
Most races for states' attorneys general maintained the status quo, but one seat switched to Republican control.
With one election likely headed for a recount, Democrats have lost power in three states, including traditionally blue Vermont.
A communications expert reveals the most effective ways, and the results may surprise you.
Republican officials in Maine warned voters to “come out to vote in order to secure their ballot from misuse.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says a federal jury's conviction Friday of two former aides in a political payback scheme involving the George Washington Bridge does not reflect poorly on him and confirms what he thought when the scandal erupted in January 2014.
The Justice Department will deploy 500 personnel to polling stations on Election Day to help protect voters against discrimination and intimidation, down from 2012 as the result of a Supreme Court ruling that gutted part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
In January, Lucia Guzman hopes to do what she's done each of the last three times she's been elected to the Colorado Senate.
Federal judges in North Carolina and Pennsylvania have turned down Democratic Party requests for orders barring their Republican counterparts from harassing voters at the polls.
Powered by a historic number of early voters, many in Democratic strongholds, Florida's pre-election turnout hit a record 6.4 million Monday, more than any other state and equal to half of the state's nearly 13 million voters.
The costs of Oregon's most contentious campaigns continue to rise in the final days before the election.
The fifth strongest earthquake to hit Oklahoma came Sunday night about 7:44 p.m., rattling people's nerves and shaking buildings across central Oklahoma.
The week-long work stoppage that sidelined subways, trolleys, and buses and threatened to complicate a closely contested presidential election ended in the pre-dawn hours Monday as SEPTA and leadership for the Transportation Workers Union Local 234 reached a tentative five-year agreement on a new contract for 4,738 transit personnel.
A federal judge has rejected a bid by the Pennsylvania Republican Party to legalize a call from presidential nominee Donald Trump for supporters to serve as itinerant Election Day poll watchers.
A federal judge Friday ordered three North Carolina to restore names to voter rolls that were part of a recent mass purge.
The Supreme Court cleared the way for Arizona Republican leaders to enforce a new state law that makes it felony for anyone other than family members and caregivers to deliver mail-in ballots to polling places.
Our final pre-election predictions for the Electoral College, gubernatorial, attorney general and legislative races.
A federal jury found two former aides to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie guilty of conspiring to misuse Port Authority of New York and New Jersey resources to cause tremendous traffic problems near the George Washington Bridge in September 2013 as part of a scheme to punish a local mayor.
Meanwhile, state employment has changed little.
Voters in the state approved ballot measures that would, among other things, let unaffiliated voters participate in primaries.
Gov. Wolf signed into law Wednesday a package of bills intended to curb the epidemic of opioid abuse in Pennsylvania.
The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the Department of Corrections to temporarily delay Thomas Arthur's execution as they review his pending appeals.
While top city officials were on retreat at a Poconos resort, FBI agents executed a search warrant at Paterson Mayor Joey Torres’ City Hall office Thursday evening, capping a daylong hunt for documents in a fraud investigation involving the use of federal funds for a controversial prison-reentry project, city officials said.
Big-money corporate lobbying has reached into one of the most obscure corners of state government: the offices of secretaries of state, the people charged with running elections impartially.
The offices were filthy. Not enough phones; not enough computers. Just overwhelming caseloads, and not enough hours to handle them. As a result, some courtrooms, according to one attorney, became guilty-plea assembly lines.
Worried that California might legalize recreational marijuana, the state's third-largest city by population has voted to ban pot sales ahead of Tuesday's election.
Democrats have lost control of 20 legislative chambers since Barack Obama took office. But with the president's help, they should gain some back on Tuesday.
The ballot measure to make the state’s electric utility compete for business was backed by a group of heavy hitters in Nevada politics.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
Americans' support for capital punishment has been waning, but you wouldn't know that by looking at Tuesday's election results.
"Most places don’t like to think about teens having sex." But that's not the only reason.
Getting rid of paper applications speeds up the hiring process, but it can lead to the wrong people making the cut.
Democrat Roy Cooper has continued to outraise and outspend Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in what has become the most expensive gubernatorial race in North Carolina history.
Libertarian candidate for Indiana governor Rex Bell of Hagerstown was taken to Reid Health after he suffered a medical incident Wednesday night.
The Montana Supreme Court says citizens have a right to trial by jury before the state can take private property in civil forfeiture cases, a ruling that bolsters a law that state legislators passed last year to limit police seizures.
Voters will have many options at the polls Tuesday. Taking a selfie of their ballot won't be one of them.
When she votes this fall, veteran Miami Republican lawmaker Anitere Flores might not be able to vote for herself.
West Virginia Supreme Court unanimously reversed Wednesday a ruling that favored state education unions, in a case stretching back to 2011 and dealing with whom is defined as a "teacher."
New Hampshire and Vermont, one of Hillary Clinton's strongest states, are the GOP's best chances to increase their gubernatorial numbers this year.
The 2015-2016 state supreme court election cycle has attracted big money from outside groups.
New data shows some public-sector workers are suffering fewer injuries and illnesses, while others aren't experiencing any improvement.
Montana’s new campaign disclosure law has survived its first test, with a federal judge rejecting arguments that it unconstitutionally interferes with the free speech of groups that want to influence elections without revealing where they get their money or how they spend it.
The superintendents and elected school boards of 11 Texas districts — including Dallas, Houston and Fort Worth — have been ordered by the state education agency to attend two-day training programs to learn how to fix their failing schools.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel's campaign Tuesday said the mayor won't return a $50,000 campaign contribution from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
State officials on Tuesday rejected Atlantic City’s five-year fiscal recovery plan that city officials had spent the previous 150 days designing, setting the stage for a likely court battle — and perhaps ultimately a state takeover of the beleaguered city’s finances.
For many women in California, a new law that was supposed to make getting birth control easier has been a little disappointing.
Guns cannot be carried onto school property unless someone is picking up or dropping off a student, the state's top court ruled Monday.
An explosion and fire at a pipeline that delivers about one-third of the gasoline used on the East Coast is expected to raise prices at the pump and shows the fragility of a delivery system that is relied upon by tens of millions of people.
Unlike the gubernatorial races, Republicans are the ones playing defense.
As other states launch similar plans to improve education, Georgia is back to the drawing board.
Republican Phil Scott said Monday he generally supports abortion rights, but if he's elected governor he could imagine signing bills barring some late-term abortions or restricting minors' access to the procedure.
The New Mexico tax department has agreed to stop automatically withholding income tax refunds from many foreign nationals without Social Security numbers who file under alternative identification numbers provided by the IRS, a New Mexico state senator said Friday.
They questioned each other’s business experience and acumen, tossed in some jabs about politicking and pandering, but the men who would be New Hampshire’s next governor were united during a Halloween debate in their appreciation of “The Walking Dead.”
A federal judge has rejected the settlement of a lawsuit stemming from the New York Police Department’s surveillance of Muslims, saying the proposed deal does not provide enough oversight of an agency that he said had shown a “systemic inclination” to ignore rules protecting free speech and religion.
A shorthanded Supreme Court on Friday entered the bathroom wars, as justices agreed to consider a transgender student's access rights.
Tens of thousands of Facebook users across the U.S. have been falsely "checking in" at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota after a viral message claimed that investigators were tracking protesters on Facebook.
Gov. John Kasich, who had vowed not to vote for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, voted Monday by absentee ballot.
Despite last-minute negotiations and a visit from Democratic heavy-hitter Congressman Bob Brady, 4,738 transit workers walked off the job Monday night, beginning a strike that halted subways, trolleys and buses in Philadelphia.
Voters in three states approved "Marsy's Law," which ensures victims and their families are informed of developments in a criminal case.
Voters rejected a controversial measure that pit environmentalists versus electric utilities.
With nine days until the general election, almost 22 million people have already voted, through early voting and absentee ballots. In many states, the number of early voters is lower than at the same point in the 2012 cycle.
The city measure seeks to raise $3 million a year for a public college fund to give all the city’s public high school graduates and GED recipients tuition for at least the first year of community or technical college or the equivalent toward state public university tuition.
Two longtime Salem lawmakers are battling for the office of secretary of state in what has become the most hotly contested and bitter race in the state, with each candidate accusing the other of hitting below the belt.
Miami-Dade County has never seen a mayoral race quite like the one unfolding this fall between incumbent Carlos Gimenez and challenger Raquel Regalado. After narrowly missing an outright win in the August primary, Gimenez became the first incumbent mayor forced into a November runoff since the position was given executive power in 1996.
A divided federal appeals court has upheld Arizona's law that bars any person from collect the voted or unvoted ballot of anyone else, finding the state's need to hold orderly elections outweighs any unproven impact it might have on minority voters.
Within states, rural areas often face higher premiums than their urban counterparts. Yet two of the most rural states saw some of the lowest premium increases this year.
A New York group seeks to show that a health coach who is also a neighbor can help patients and save money.
Pennsylvania House transportation committee chairman John Taylor implored union representatives and SEPTA negotiators to talk all night Sunday into Monday, if necessary, to avoid a strike that could bring subways, buses, and trolleys in Philadelphia to a halt Tuesday.
Attempting to stem the flow of youths into prison, King County, Wash., court officers are hailing their first juvenile felony case to be handled through restorative justice, rather than traditional prosecution.
A federal judge blocked two laws today that would have restricted abortions in Alabama, including one that would prevent clinics from operating within 2,000 feet of public schools.
When a program is dysfunctional, the problem is often in the pipes and valves it flows through.
A 9-year-old girl, misdiagnosed with the stomach flu, died after a doctor failed to communicate to her Vietnamese-speaking parents that the drug he prescribed for her could have dangerous side effects.
Law enforcement officials have arrested scores of protesters at the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, lessening the chances of another full-scale demonstration early Friday.
The two executive councilors battling to become the next governor went right after one another over their resumes and their differing views on key issues during a debate Wednesday night.
Workers in California’s hospitals and doctors’ offices may be less likely to get hit, kicked, bitten or grabbed under workplace standards adopted by a state workplace safety board.
In January, Vermont will become the first state in the nation to move to a voluntary all-payer accountable care organization model, the CMS announced Wednesday.
After earlier surviving a court challenge filed by some of the largest lobbying organizations in the state, the Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act was disqualified Thursday by the state Supreme Court in a ruling on a lawsuit supported by the backer of a competing ballot measure.
Lawsuit settlement, litigation and insurance costs for large U.S. cities.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
This much is clear after two days of early voting in Texas: Legal wrangling over the state’s voter identification law is stirring confusion at the polls.
Alabama, not surprisingly, is throwing its legal weight behind Florida in an attempt to keep Georgia from using too much of the Chattahoochee River.
Surviving a shooting or stabbing in a poor New York City neighborhood is often a prelude to a long battle for help.
Gov. Nathan Deal and lawmakers this year promised 200,000 teachers and state employees that they’d get 3 percent raises, their first substantial increase since before the Great Recession.
Moving to quell widespread criticism, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter on Wednesday ordered the Pentagon to suspend efforts to claw back enlistment bonuses improperly given to thousands of California National Guard members during the height of the Iraq war.
Rigged elections. Vigilante observers. Angry voters. The claims, threats and passions surrounding the presidential race have led communities around the U.S. to move polling places out of schools or cancel classes on Election Day.
Like most state legislators in America, Minnesota's were in charge of their own pay -- and yet, they haven't had a raise in 20 years.
Democrats have a chance at winning in five states that voted against Barack Obama in 2012.
Democrats are looking to narrow the GOP’s historically large hold on gubernatorial seats. Here's our state-by-state analysis of each election.
In an anti-debt climate, voters in the two states cleared the way for spending on major economic development projects.
The executive overseeing Google Fiber said on Tuesday that the service will suspend plans to expand its fast gigabit fiber Internet service into other cities, including San Jose, and will reduce staffing.
Delaware’s gubernatorial candidates, U.S. Rep. John Carney, D-Delaware, and state Sen. Colin Bonini, R-Dover South, were in fierce agreement during most of a town hall discussion Tuesday at Delaware State University which covered issues affecting African-Americans.
They took turns portraying Indiana as a state on the move or a state in decline. They touted job opportunities for the disabled, agreed that drug enforcement must focus on rehabilitation for users and prosecution for dealers, and talked up their own dedication to public service.
Over the last year, when companies announced plans to grow their footprints in North Carolina, state leaders have presented them with an unusual gift: An oak bowl carved from wood from the state capitol grounds.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was officially charged Tuesday with criminal contempt of court when a federal judge affixed her signature, a formality that throws the lawman’s political and personal future into a level of crisis never before seen in his 23 years in office.
President Barack Obama has told the Defense Department to expedite its review of nearly 10,000 California National Guard soldiers who have been ordered to repay enlistment bonuses improperly given a decade ago, but he is not backing growing calls for Congress to waive the debts, the White House said Tuesday.
