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The Maine Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday announced a new rule to ban food stamps for major lottery and gambling winners.
A Mississippi county has had enough of the creepy clown phase.
The state’s highest court has ordered safeguards against long-term solitary confinement to prison inmates who are placed in segregation for administrative reasons, such as for their own protection, in a ruling that prisoners’ rights advocates hope will reduce unnecessary isolation of prisoners.
The California National Guard told the state's members of Congress two years ago that the Pentagon was trying to claw back re-enlistment bonuses from thousands of soldiers, and even offered a proposal to mitigate the problem, but Congress took no action, according to a senior National Guard official.
The Virginia Board of Health voted Monday to scrap hospital-style building codes for all abortion clinics, saying that they were unconstitutional under a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
The cost of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act is expected to rise an average of 22 percent in 2017, according to information released by the Obama administration Monday afternoon.
The Justice Department has replaced the New York team of agents and lawyers investigating the death of Eric Garner, officials said, a highly unusual shake-up that could jump-start the long-stalled case and put the government back on track to seek criminal charges.
Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane was sentenced Monday to 10 to 23 months in jail for orchestrating an illegal news leak to damage a political enemy, capping a spectacular downfall for a woman once seen as one of the state's fastest-rising stars.
As Congress and legislatures stall on the issue, voters are doing what they can to keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous people.
The victors in down-ballot races could determine what approaches states take toward fixing up rundown roads and infrastructure in the years to come.
November's presidential election is the first in more than 50 years in which the federal government won't send a full complement of specially trained observers to monitor elections in states, like Mississippi, with long records of discriminatory voting practices.
Jim Justice, a coal billionaire running for West Virginia governor, owes millions in back taxes to some of Appalachia’s most impoverished counties, including one in Kentucky that is struggling to pay the debt on a new rec center and has turned the lights off in its parks and reduced hot meals for senior citizens.
The health care insurer Cigna has ended its policy of requiring prior authorization before its clients can get medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said Friday.
The two Minneapolis police officers involved in the November 2015 fatal shooting of Jamar Clark will not face discipline because an internal investigation found they did not violate the department's use-of-force policy.
Almost 28,000 Virginia residents registered to vote after the deadline was extended this week, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory is desperate to talk about his economic achievements after a year mired in contentious debate over social issues, including the state’s transgender “bathroom law.”
President Barack Obama will make a late splash into races for state senate and assembly over the next week, endorsing roughly 150 candidates across 20 states.
Alaska is the latest state to adopt a system in which residents will be automatically registered to vote.
When it comes to career development and job benefits, millennials, Generation Xers and baby boomers have different priorities.
Technology is boosting the idea of a zero-waste framework in which everything is used, reused and recovered.
Ballot measures in several states would change the rules in dramatic ways. It's a challenge to "politics as usual."
The political ramifications of Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano's arrest Thursday on federal corruption charges could start with next month's competitive State Senate elections and stretch into next year's races for nearly all county and Oyster Bay town offices.
After a five-year drought, chocolate and strawberry milk are making their way back into public school lunchrooms in Los Angeles.
Peggy Wall, a family nurse practitioner at a local community health center, treats many women in their 40s, who already have a family and find themselves confronting an accidental pregnancy.
It is understandable that some S.C. voters might be considering casting a write-in vote for president this year -- whether for Nikki Haley, Bernie Sanders, Mickey Mouse or their mom.
Most states have no laws regarding guns in polling places, because for the most part, they haven't really needed to make them. The confluence of firearms and polling places isn't something America has been concerned about on a national scale — until now.
A federal judge has blocked a Mississippi law that banned the state's Medicaid program from spending money with any health care provider that offers abortions.
The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday that cities such as Louisville and Lexington do not have the authority to raise the minimum wage.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
They took steps to repeal the Citizens United ruling, limit campaign contribution limits and create publicly financed elections.
The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday sided with Pocomoke City's former police chief and two other black officers alleging race discrimination, filing a motion to intervene in a lawsuit they brought.
Standing together Wednesday in Pasco — where police last year shot to death a Mexican man who was throwing rocks — neither of Washington’s candidates for governor would commit to changing how state law treats police shootings.
Clarifying an earlier ruling, a federal judge in Fort Worth said Wednesday that his injunction barring the Obama administration from enforcing its school directive on transgender bathrooms applied to every state in the nation.
A Vermont Public Radio poll released Wednesday shows Sue Minter and Phil Scott locked in a statistical tie as the gubernatorial election enters the final weeks.
The California Department of Justice is investigating Wells Fargo & Co. on allegations of criminal identity theft over its creation of millions of unauthorized accounts, according to a search warrant sent to the bank's San Francisco headquarters this month.
Will Medicaid expansion save the country money as people stop using expensive emergency rooms for primary care?
Facing unprecedented warnings of a "rigged" election from Donald Trump, state officials around the country are rushing to reassure the public, and some are taking subtle steps to boost security at polling places because of the passions whipped up by the race.
Voters in two states rejected measures that would have raised taxes -- either for consumers or corporations.
In less than a month, our Electoral College handicapping went from indicating a narrowing presidential contest to one that is widening.
After fighting a property tax lawsuit for five years, Princeton University, the third-wealthiest endowed university in the country, has agreed to an $18 million settlement with neighbors who claimed the university’s tax-exempt status unfairly made their property taxes higher.
West Virginia is taking steps to clamp down on the proliferation of prescription opioids, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin announced Tuesday.
Hours after his wife pleaded guilty to misdemeanor pot-possession charges connected with 2 pounds of the drug found at their house, Utah's Democratic candidate for governor pushed Tuesday for the legalization of medical marijuana.
A new report by a think tank at Georgetown University calls for greater oversight in the use of emerging facial recognition software that makes the images of more than 117 million Americans — a disproportionate number of them black — searchable by law enforcement agencies.
Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and Democrat Roy Cooper sparred over taxes, House Bill 2, coal ash and even hurricane relief Tuesday night in the final debate of their gubernatorial campaign.
Faculty at 14 Pennsylvania state universities went on strike Wednesday morning, affecting more than 100,000 students, after contract negotiations between the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and the faculty union hit an impasse.
Harvard and Bloomberg Philanthropies have teamed up to offer what they say is the first major effort to formally educate mayors about how to be more effective.
Without a job, recipients risk losing their benefits. But states aren't spending much to help them get and stay employed. See how your state's welfare funding is being spent.
Charles Wasko's days are numbered as West York mayor, and it's a pretty low number: four, after West York's borough council voted unanimously on Monday to accept his resignation.
With three weeks until Election Day, Hillary Clinton's team is stepping up its coordinated campaign efforts, sending an additional $6 million to seven battleground states with competitive Senate races.
In a setback for Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Baton Rouge judge refused Monday to order Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry to approve state contracts that protect gays and lesbians from workplace discrimination.
The Florida Supreme Court ruled Friday that Florida's revamped death penalty law is unconstitutional, declaring that death sentences must be determined by a unanimous jury and triggering the potential re-sentencing of hundreds of inmates on Death Row.
Nevada gaming leaders, lawmakers and laborers who supported legislation that provides public funding for an NFL-ready stadium cheered as Gov. Brian Sandoval signed the bill into law this morning.
Gas prices in New Jersey will go up Nov. 1 by 23 cents a gallon after Gov. Chris Christie signed the largest gas tax increase in state history on Friday.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich is barring Wells Fargo & Company from participating in future state debt offerings and financial services contracts initiated by state agencies under his authority.
The industry spent millions of dollars to keep voters in California from passing a first-in-nation law that was meant to cut the soaring cost of prescription drugs.
Calling existing rules “obscene” disenfranchisement, a federal judge in Tallahassee declared late Sunday that Florida must provide a method for voters to fix signature problems that might arise when they vote by mail in the presidential election.
Detroit taxpayers have been fully paying for the living expenses of the city's CFO and his chief of staff -- including high-end downtown apartments and weekly flights to their out-of-state homes -- since at least March, despite claims that the expenses were partially funded from a grant, the Free Press has learned.
One of the oldest environmental groups in the country threw its support behind Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sue Minter on Sunday, calling a vote for the former transportation secretary "an installment in a down payment for our clean energy future."
Gov. Paul LePage affirmed his statement Friday that two advocates of a state ballot question to increase the minimum wage should be jailed, saying they are guilty of the "attempted murder" of senior citizens because of the alleged impact of a wage increase.
Families of pediatric medical marijuana patients were joined by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy at Connecticut Children's Medical Center Thursday for a ceremonial signing of legislation to expand the state's medical marijuana program to include children.
A county Republican headquarters in Hillsborough, N.C., was firebombed overnight Saturday, an attack that a party official called "political terrorism."
A focus on making data accessible across the enterprise is the basis for organizational wisdom.
America's most successful companies have learned a lot about keeping their customers happy. The public sector can join that revolution.
There are many factors that go into staffing decisions -- some of which fail to take agencies' actual workloads into account.
At least five people have contracted Zika virus from mosquitoes in Miami's Little River neighborhood, Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced Thursday, identifying a one-square-mile zone where the disease is spreading.
Texas has a record-breaking 15 million people registered to vote ahead of the November election, the Secretary of State’s office announced Thursday.
With a record 73 million people enrolled in Medicaid, most states next year will tighten controls on spending to battle swelling budgets in the public health insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans, according to a report released Thursday.
Hours earlier, he was a happy 4-year-old who loved Ironman and the Hulk and all the Avengers.
A federal judge on Wednesday extended Florida's voter registration deadline through next Tuesday because of widespread disruption caused by Hurricane Matthew that could result in people not being able to register in time to vote.
The FBI will launch a pilot project early next year to begin collecting use-of-force statistics nationwide and create the first online national database on both deadly and nonfatal interactions the public has with law enforcement.
A judge in Fort Lee, N.J., has found probable cause that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie committed official misconduct as part of the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal.
But cities are still dealing with slow revenue growth and rising costs, according to a new report.
The ballot measure, which was meant to curb pollution, had even divided environmentalists.
The right to die has been slow to gain momentum, especially among voters. In Colorado, they defied the odds.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
Ripping the Division of Motor Vehicles for giving out inaccurate information, a federal judge said Wednesday he would order Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's administration to make changes to how it treats people who seek voting credentials but was unlikely to suspend the voter ID law.
Tumult ensued on the steps of Portland City Hall as police pepper-sprayed and arrested protesters in the aftermath of an unruly demonstration Wednesday over a newly approved contract for rank-and-file officers.
State Sen. Rick Gudex of Fond du Lac died early Wednesday of apparent suicide at 48, leaving Democrats and his fellow Republicans alike mourning his sudden loss.
A Utah prosecutor plans to file a misdemeanor drug charge next week against the wife of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Weinholtz for allegedly mailing marijuana to the couple's home for use in treating her arthritis pain.
The Indiana State AFL-CIO kicked off a Protect Hoosier Jobs tour at Laborers' Local 41 headquarters on Tuesday, aimed at defeating what it calls the "Pence-Holcomb agenda."
In an effort to attract self-driving car researchers to the state, the Iowa Department of Transportation has hired a tech company to create detailed and real-time maps of road conditions on Interstate 380.
To many residents in this tiny town in southern Vermont, the last-minute offer of cash was a blatant attempt to buy their votes.
A six-month investigation of the San Francisco Police Department by the U.S. Justice Department, prompted by the killing of Mario Woods and other fatal police shootings, concludes that the department does a poor job of tracking and investigating officers' use of force, has ineffective antibias training and shields its disciplinary process from public view.
GOP lawmakers in the state have been trying to pass a voter ID law for a decade. They finally got their way.
Donald Trump has divided the GOP. Democrats are hoping to use that as an opportunity to rebuild their ranks in state legislatures.
New rules are forcing states and localities to calculate how much revenue they’re losing to business deals -- and whether they pay off. It’s something Washington state has been doing for a decade.
Washington, D.C.’s Metro has many daunting problems, partially because of the unique way it’s funded and managed. Its new management
team is tasked with fixing all of them.
The Dallas police chief was hailed as a national leader, yet his own cops wanted him to quit.
Municipalities spend more than a billion dollars a year on settlements and claims from citizens. Some are trying hard to rein in those costs.
Even though most polls are working with decades-old machines that lose or miscount votes, states and the federal government are largely ignoring the problem.
Yuba County, Calif., is just the latest government to join the craze.
Chapter 9 bankruptcies and debt defaults have driven a surge in monitoring -- and the localities seem to appreciate it.
It’s nearly impossible for incumbents to lose a primary. So when they do get the boot, what happened?
Americans want to live more sustainable lives. Can governments keep up?
A new study suggests outsourcing government services can disproportionately impact low-income users' finances, health and safety.
With most newborn screenings still done on paper, there’s a born-again push to improve and speed up the process for detecting health problems.
The site of a long-gone but still-criticized public housing complex in St. Louis is being redeveloped. Will history repeat itself?
It’s part of a new philanthropic approach to improving neighborhoods.
The federal government is closing them, but that doesn’t mean states will.
According to our state-by-state projections, Democrats have their best chance since 2010 to take back control of some chambers.
Phil Scott and Sue Minter have made affordability a central part of their gubernatorial campaigns.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Weinholtz said Tuesday that Donald Trump has a long history of mistreating women and that Gov. Gary Herbert only dropped his support for the Republican candidate to save himself from political fallout.
In a hard-hitting and wide-ranging debate, Republican Pat McCrory and Attorney General Roy Cooper sparred over House Bill 2, their own records and the two major presidential candidates.
Kansas lawmakers have set aside money for 10 extra days in their legislative session next year, expecting it to run 100 days.
Jurors deliberating in the murder trial of two officers who shot and killed homeless camper James Boyd were not able to agree on a verdict.
More than a dozen police officers violated city policy Tuesday when they appeared in a short video tweeted by GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, officials said.
Last month police in Charlotte, North Carolina, shot an African-American man and then sat on the footage from their body and dashboard cameras, refusing to release it until protesters’ demands that the footage be shared turned violent.
Both candidates have vowed to reform the tax code. But neither has said how their plans would impact states and localities.
The city is installing sensors that could reveal a lot about the best way for governments to use smart technology.
John Hickenlooper hopes to recruit high-level talent for the next generation of public officials.
Understanding how some cities have transformed shows why focusing on the little things can help struggling places survive and thrive.
They still share a border, but the cities along it differ in nearly every way possible.
They’re stepping down in cities across the country, opening up opportunities for major change.
They vow to rev up the local economy all the time, exposing their misunderstanding of cities and political office.
As the waters from Hurricane Matthew recede, coastal residents from Florida to the Carolinas may have something else to worry about: Zika.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is still supporting Donald Trump for president even though he was "disturbed," "disappointed" and "embarrassed" by a video released last week revealing the Republican nominee, then a reality television star, bragging about groping women.
Same-day voter registration will be available in Illinois for the Nov. 8 election after a federal appeals court Friday denied an attempt to expedite a case challenging the law.
The staff of Clinica Sierra Vista, which has health centers throughout the Central Valley, screened its mostly low-income patients last year for mental health needs and determined that nearly 30 percent suffered from depression, anxiety or alcoholism.
The three candidates for North Dakota governor debated one final time Monday before the November election.
Gov. Pete Ricketts’ political team has pulled the plug on a Tuesday fundraiser that was set to feature GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, according to two Republican sources in Nebraska.
In the final debate between Democrat Gov. Steve Bullock and his Republican challenger Greg Gianforte on Saturday, the rules went by the board at times as some of the candidates' exchanges grew testy.
Phil Scott and Sue Minter offer competing visions of how to make Vermont more affordable as the gubernatorial campaign heads into the final weeks.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Sununu will not revoke his endorsement of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump and says party members need to stand behind the nominee, despite the release of a videotape in which Trump is heard bragging about groping and otherwise sexually assaulting women.
The Chicago Teachers Union reached a tentative contract agreement with the school board minutes before a midnight strike deadline Monday, meaning schools will be in session Tuesday morning.
A judge on Monday extended Florida's voter registration deadline by one more day, through Wednesday, because of Hurricane Matthew, calling it "irrational" for the state to reject the idea.
The remarks Donald Trump made in 2005 about groping women have divided Republican leaders at the national level. It's also driving a wedge between Republicans here in Washington state.
A judge has thrown out the federal civil case accusing Attorney General Ken Paxton of securities fraud, giving him his biggest legal victory yet since the allegations surfaced more than a year ago.
Gov. Rick Snyder today signed legislation -- approved by the Michigan Legislature last month -- that would require schools to hold back third-graders who are more than a grade level behind in the subject.
The leading Republican in the Vermont House of Representatives withdrew his support for Donald Trump on Saturday night in the wake of a newly uncovered recording in which Trump made lewd and sexually aggressive comments about women.
President Barack Obama signed a new disaster declaration for Florida, freeing up additional federal funding and resources to help with clean-up and recovery efforts after Hurricane Matthew.
The after-effects of Hurricane Matthew hit North Carolina hard and will be felt for the rest of the week as the state's eastern communities brace for downstream flooding.
"Participative management" is big in the private sector. Government leaders need to recognize its value.
Even though the federal government has repeatedly rejected certain health-care requests, many Republican-led states keep asking for them.
Embattled former Gloucester police Chief Leonard Campanello will be allowed to retire early next year after the city and its former top cop came to an agreement yesterday that will put an end to termination proceedings that would have dragged on for months, attorneys for both sides say.
Uber and Lyft, the major ride hailing app providers in Philadelphia, has not decided whether they will abide by a judge's demand that they stop operating their popular ride sharing services in the city.
Visitors to the Detroit Zoo have one less option if they get thirsty walking the grounds.
The federal government on Wednesday issued guidance to national security agencies and local police departments on how they can diversify their ranks as part of a significant new effort to ease racial tensions across the country.
Florida rejected a request Thursday from Hillary Clinton's campaign chief to extend the state's voter-registration deadline due to Hurricane Matthew.
A New Jersey Transit train gathered speed in the moments before it slammed into a barrier at the end of tracks in Hoboken terminal last week at 21 mph, federal investigators said Thursday.
Business leaders and Republican legislators want to make laws that limit the power of labor unions permanent. In one state, they just did.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
Shoestring budgets and bureaucratic hurdles are preventing some of the state's top researchers and forensic experts from identifying hundreds of the remains found on or near the Texas border, members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission said Wednesday.
The two major candidates for governor battled Wednesday night over their personal backgrounds in business and on topics ranging from the minimum wage and the economy to gun control.
Hearing oral arguments Wednesday in an appeal by Texas death row inmate Duane Buck, U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared unswayed by the state's contention that Buck's death sentence should stand despite a psychologist's testimony at his trial that black men are more dangerous than whites.
Police officers throughout New Jersey will be required to take continuing-education courses aimed at reducing deadly confrontations with blacks and other minority group members, Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino said Wednesday.
Powerful Hurricane Matthew slowed its deadly northwest trek out of the Caribbean and across the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, giving South Florida a few extra frenzied hours to prepare for the Category 3 storm.
Starting Nov. 1, Kentuckians will have to use the federal health exchange to shop for coverage rather than kynect, the highly praised state health exchange launched under former Gov. Steve Beshear.
Americans continue to spend more on almost everything, but money habits vary widely across the states.
