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The backlash against Alabama over its passage of the country's most restrictive abortion law has begun with threats by Democratic officials in other states calling for boycotts and divesting from the Yellowhammer State.
The attorneys general of Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, West Virginia and Wisconsin are separately filing their complaints, which accuse the company of deliberately misrepresenting the risks and benefits of OxyContin, its top seller.
While loss of the money poses a potentially devastating hit to the project, state officials said, no immediate construction changes are planned because the federal government's action could be reversed in future legal action.
President Trump on Wednesday pardoned former GOP Assemblyman Pat Nolan, who spent more than two years in federal prison after pleading guilty in 1994 in an FBI sting operation looking into corruption in the Legislature.
Sisolak said that more than 1 million Nevadans live with pre-existing conditions and could face increased health care costs if the ACA were repealed.
Disputes over SB 50 revealed deep divisions among Democrats who dominate the Legislature over solutions to California's longstanding housing affordability problems.
The bill, dubbed the "Blueprint for Maryland's Future," will direct $850 million in extra state spending to public schools over the next two years. The money will start flowing to the schools in July 2020.
A report identified 41 child deaths due to neglect or abuse that were investigated by the agency's inspector general between 2014 and 2018.
The short-term effects haven't been as bad as predicted, but local governments are still worried about the long term.
Rep. Larry Inman, R-Traverse City, was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Grand Rapids, court records show.
Some are boycotting Georgia after it passed a "heartbeat" bill last week. Others argue there are better ways to protect abortion rights.
As they start to roll in, some say the tobacco settlement offers a cautionary tale.
The Justice Department issued a legal opinion that could lead to more executions in the U.S. by easing the availability of drugs used to carry out lethal injections.
De Blasio has been flirting with a White House bid for half a year, laying the groundwork for a 2020 campaign over the last few months.
“We know there’s something going on, so how do we come together and deal with that?” said Frank Klipsch, a two-term mayor who said taking a stance on climate change could be “divisive.” “Let’s not try to label it. Let’s not try to politicize it. It’s just a matter of something is changing.”
Experts who study public lands say low-intensity, controlled fires are a crucial tool for reducing wildfire risk — particularly as more people move to forested areas and climate change fuels hotter, drier summers.
The conclusion of the Cal Fire probe marks a milestone in the recovery from the worst wildfire in modern California history.
The shelters in Las Cruces, N.M., have been inundated with migrants and asylum seekers since April 12, New Mexico governor's spokeswoman Claudia Tristán said.
The Catholic Diocese of Dallas has not been forthcoming in sharing information about priests accused of sexually abusing children, police said Wednesday.
Kemp, in his veto statement, said he supports expanded recess for students but that he is a "firm believer in local control, especially in education."
An innovative apprenticeship program is working to bring some of Los Angeles' neediest residents into the city's workforce.
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Ald. Proco "Joe" Moreno was taken into Chicago police custody Tuesday night on an arrest warrant, police confirmed.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of North Dakota that aimed to hold big pharma accountable for the impact of the opioid epidemic has been dismissed by a Burleigh County District Court Judge.
Gov. Gavin Newsom struck a deal with lawmakers over the weekend.
The vote sends it to Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, who could sign it into law.
Donald Trump’s reluctance to address climate change is set to cost his business empire millions of dollars in fines levied by New York City due to the amount of pollution emitted by Trump-owned buildings.
The recent report into Russian election meddling released by special counsel Robert Mueller indicated that federal authorities suspected one county had been hacked.
The legislation also will force city departments to disclose what surveillance technology they currently use -- and seek approval from the Board of Supervisors on any new technology that either collects or stores someone's data.
So unpopular was the program that Georgia lawmakers unanimously voted on a measure earlier this year to dissolve it and Gov. Brian Kemp, who campaigned on a promise to round up illegal immigrants in his pickup truck, signed it into law without a public statement.
Georgia Insurance Commissioner Jim Beck was accused Tuesday by a federal grand jury of stealing more than $2 million from his former employer.
Gov. Jared Polis on Monday signed House Bill 1280, setting aside $100 for all Colorado kids born or adopted between 2020 and 2040.
Sununu, a 44-year-old Newfields Republican, made the announcement Tuesday night on social media after he and his wife had discussed his future.
Well-run retirement plans are an important reason why talented employees join the public sector workforce. In a 2018 Accenture survey of 2,800 public and private employees, 78 percent said pension benefits are critical to accepting employment and 73 percent stay with an employer because of the retirement benefits offered.
In Colorado, Republicans are trying to oust a dozen Democratic state legislators. It's the latest example of a political party using once-rare recalls as a way to gain control.
The 5-4 ruling is both a win for the California Franchise Tax Board and a victory for the conservative principle of state "sovereign immunity."
Many rural, often conservative, residents of large Democratic-controlled states are tired of being overshadowed politically, culturally and economically by big cities.
Newsom adopted a policy of his predecessor, former Gov. Jerry Brown, to use his state constitutional authority to issue pardons to shield immigrants targeted by federal immigration officials.
Bullock has managed to win several statewide elections in predominantly rural Montana by running as a moderate who also embraces some liberal proposals.
In his veto letter to Secretary of State Laurel Lee, he said municipalities that prohibit plastic straws have not "frustrated any state policy" or "harmed the state's interest."
In a ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley ruled the law is unconstitutional because it restricts a woman's constitutional right to an abortion before the fetus is considered viable, at around 24 weeks.
Those Florida counties have, essentially, been running English-only elections: voter registration materials, guides, instructions, ballots and other materials were only provided in English.
For the 7,800 people of Fort Scott, about 90 miles south of Kansas City, the hospital’s closure was a loss they never imagined possible, sparking anger and fear.
Tim Storey, who will take over as NCSL's executive director, has pledged to maintain the organization's bipartisan approach.
The Trump administration is pulling some federal funding from California. But that project and others like it are quickly moving forward.
It turns out that the same lethal drug that has been driving the nation’s spiraling opioid epidemic is also causing an historic surge in overdose deaths among cocaine users.
The bill continues the program, which began in 2016, and provides health insurance to about 95,000 low-income adults.
The law faces an almost certain court challenge, likely backed by the state's largest teachers union, the Florida Education Association.
On Friday, the state's Republican governor, Doug Ducey signed a bill removing nunchucks from a list of prohibited weapons that includes bombs, gun silencers and automatic firearms.
Over the past few decades, as a manufacturing decline left homes vacant and storefronts dark, New York’s upstate cities opened their doors to refugees.
HB 1050 reclassifies possession of up to a half ounce of marijuana by adults 21 and older as an infraction punishable by no jail time and a maximum fine of $1,000.
Garner was killed July 17, 2014, as police in Staten Island tried to arrest him for selling loose cigarettes.
The 20 drug companies engaged in illegal conspiracies to divide up the market for drugs to avoid competing and, in some cases, conspired to either prevent prices from dropping or to raise them, according to the complaint by 44 U.S. states, filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut.
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For years, hundreds of cities and counties have been saving money by letting their employees use cheaper drugs from other countries.
The administration raised the possibility of changing the poverty calculation in a notice published this week in the Federal Register.
This week the Arizona Senate approved a measure urging the state to prevent exposure and addiction to porn, drawing criticism from some experts who say the approach is misguided and poses risks.
The Senate abruptly removed a rape and incest exception from the bill without allowing a roll call vote on that decision.
"This homeless issue is, rightfully, top of mind for people all across the state that are outraged by it," Newsom told reporters during a news conference at the state Capitol.
The policy, added to the code in 1976, was recently scrutinized when a teacher at a San Francisco school had to cover the fees for the person subbing for her while she undergoes breast cancer treatment.
Rounding out the top 10 counties identified in the study as most at-risk for a measles outbreak are: Los Angeles; Miami-Dade; Queens, N.Y.; King, Wash.; Maricopa, Ariz.; Broward, Fla.; Clark, Nev.; Harris, Texas; and Honolulu.
Even with these bills' passage, Washington still is projected to fall short of the emission targets set by state law.
Warwick Public Schools had said it would serve sunflower butter and jelly sandwiches to students whose families are in arrears beginning Monday, sparking a public backlash and upsetting the mayor, who asked the school committee to reconsider.
Houston firefighters are getting what they wanted. But it's coming at a cost.
In turning its bail system around, New Jersey has shown a capacity for evidence-based policy innovation that's likely to serve as a national model.
Most Americans live in states where marijuana is legally available in some form. But most banks don't want anything to do with money from the cannabis industry for fear it could expose them to legal trouble from the federal government, which still considers marijuana illegal.
More than two years into the Trump presidency, California has embraced its role as chief antagonist -- already suing the administration more times than Texas took President Obama to court during eight years in office.
The Democratic-led Senate approved the bill, 39-22, largely along party lines. It now goes to the overwhelmingly Democratic state Assembly, which plans to discuss the measure on Monday.
About 110,000 low-to median-income students will qualify for help each year, including adults who never got a degree and want to go to school. There will be no more financial-aid wait lists.
After closing an early vote deficit Tuesday night and early Wednesday, final unofficial results posted late in the afternoon showed a reversal of fortune -- with Initiative 301 set to pass narrowly with 50.6 percent of the vote.
Schools are not required to implement the framework; they are merely recommendations for teachers and administrators. Students can opt-out from lessons about sexual health.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted in 2015 to remove federal immigration agents from county jails but also wanted then-Sheriff Jim McDonnell to continue the department’s cooperation with ICE.
Critics say the move will serve only to embarrass children whose parents struggle to afford school meals.
Democratic and Republican secretaries of state agree that more money is needed to improve voting systems, but they disagree on how that federal funding should be spent.
The number of asylum-seeking families that federal officials are releasing in Tucson has been fluctuating greatly. In the past few weeks, they've overwhelmed the city's existing network of permanent and temporary shelters run by area nonprofits.
Public health officials describe the proposed reallocation of state dollars as a well-meaning initiative that nonetheless would have “dire consequences” to core public health services.
Nationally, 53% of the citizen voting-age population voted in 2018, a 12-point bump from the previous midterms, according to new U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
They're fed up with overcrowded classrooms and a lack of support staff, including school nurses and mental health counselors.
Tennessee House Democrats have also demanded the resignation or removal of Republican House Speaker Glen Casada.
Nearly four years after Sandra Bland was found dead in a Texas jail cell, a newly uncovered cellphone video offers a new perspective into the controversial arrest and has led her family to call for a new investigation.
Assemblyman Tyrone Thompson, a champion for education and homelessness initiatives, died Saturday morning in Carson City. The North Las Vegas lawmaker took ill in the capital midweek. He was 51.
Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock confirmed late Tuesday that eight students had been shot during the bloody attack and one of them had died.
The city is the latest government to be targeted by hackers and forced to decide whether to pay to restore vital public services.
A growing body of evidence shows that "alternative investments" may be lowering returns and costing state and local governments more.
All but one of America's presidents between 1976 and 2004 were governors. Since then, state leaders have barely stood a chance at the Oval Office.
Gov. Brian Kemp signed one of the strictest abortion laws in the country Tuesday, setting Georgia up for what is likely to be a lengthy _ and costly _ court battle.
The Trump administration is refusing to release records behind a policy change that hides the donors to nonprofits, New York Attorney General Letitia James charged Monday in a federal lawsuit.
The the economic losses laid out in the study would represent the loss of one-third of the country’s total trade trade with Mexico over a three-month period.
Attorney General Xavier Becerra sent a letter to all 12 dioceses on Thursday requesting that church officials retain documents relevant to allegations of clergy sex abuse and mandatory reporting.
Initiative 300, a first-of-its-kind ballot measure that even divided advocates for the homeless, failed on Tuesday by an overwhelming margin.
Gov. Steve Bullock signed a school safety bill Thursday that would let schools offer a new tax specifically for school safety costs, and to use existing funding streams for safety upgrades.
Nashville teachers are sick of their low pay, so hundreds have called out sick.
Judge Myron Thompson's 210-page opinion summarizes the circumstances of 15 men who took their own lives in ADOC prisons over 15 months from late 2017 to this year.
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation, published Monday, found that Hoschton Mayor Theresa Kenerly withheld the job candidate from consideration for city administrator because he was black.
It would still be illegal to possess the mushrooms even if the initiative passes, the measure would not apply to Colorado as a whole, and sales would still be considered a felony.
ICE framed the new program as a countermeasure to “sanctuary cities” across the United States that acting director Matthew Albence said “undermine public safety” by adopting policies of non-cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Less than half of the states where the drug treatment is legal protect patients from employment discrimination. Courts have generally sided with employers -- until recently.
The lawsuit claims the administration’s rule will restrict access to contraception, abortion, HIV treatment and a host of other medical services.
The new safety changes were sought by the industry but fiercely challenged by environmentalists.
The bill now heads to the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Democratic lawmakers begged him Friday to veto the bill.
Washington state led the nation in economic output growth for a third year in a row between 2017 and 2018, growing its state gross domestic product by almost 6%.
Tribal banishment is a permanent ban from the reservation, and violations are punishable by law with fines or even jail time.
A steady drumbeat of staff departures at the National Governors Association (NGA) raised red flags among the group’s top leaders, setting off a two-month standoff that ended recently with the ouster of the group’s executive director.
The upper Mississippi was inundated with massive amounts of rain earlier this week, exacerbating the already high river level.
After the veto signing, Sununu said he believes in the death penalty as a matter of sound public policy and that he would have vetoed a repeal whether or not the state had an inmate on death row.
Minnesota has long allowed people who rape their partner to escape penalties if they meet certain conditions, a law Gov. Tim Walz called "antiquated and shameful" before repealing it Thursday.
A federal three-judge panel has struck down Ohio's congressional district map as a partisan gerrymander, giving Democrats hope of making inroads in a state where they failed to pick off any seats last fall.
The Obamacare opponents hope to persuade the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to uphold U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor's ruling late last year striking down the law.
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin is a presidential phone-buddy and White House regular who’s become one of President Donald Trump’s loudest surrogates.
The city and a private contractor, Securus Technologies, had charged inmates 50 cents to make a call, plus 5 cents for each minute on the phone, amounting to $8 million a year -- $5 million of which went to the city.
The lawsuit against McKesson alleged that the company failed to appropriately monitor the distribution of painkillers to pharmacies around the state, exacerbating the drug epidemic in some of West Virginia's most vulnerable regions.
The bill is believed to be the first time in recent decades that Florida has adopted legislation cracking down on illegal immigrants.
The $1.8-billion cost increase covers bridges, viaducts, trenches and roadbed from Madera to Wasco, a distance of 119 miles.
Gov. Sisolak's cannabis advisory panel is in the process of determining rules to regulate the new industry, including the formation of a Cannabis Control Board.
Gov. Bullock signed the bill Tuesday creating a reinsurance program to help reimburse insurers for high-cost claims so those costs aren't included in determining individual marketplace premiums for the following year.
On Tuesday, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill into law that establishes new regulations for “personal delivery devices” like the delivery robot Amazon unveiled earlier this year.
From Boston to Miami, coastal cities are changing where and how developers can build in order to protect homes and property from future flooding.
Baltimore Mayor Catherine E. Pugh resigned Thursday, apologizing for the harm she has caused to the city’s image and the mayor’s office amid a growing scandal over her sales of a self-published book series.
There's a growing movement to, but some say it's a misguided policy.
On Monday, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed the nation's first "public option" health insurance bill. Other states aren't far behind.
It marks the second recent change to execution-day procedures in the nation’s busiest death chamber. Earlier this month, Texas also stopped letting clergy inside after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the execution of a man who wanted his Buddhist spiritual adviser with him.
Baltimore County's Del. Adrienne A. Jones was unanimously elected the next speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates on Wednesday, making history as the first woman and African American to hold the position.
Thousands of teachers in the Carolinas left their classrooms Wednesday and headed to their state capitols to pressure lawmakers to invest more in education, joining the swell of teacher activism that has swept the country since last year.
Tennessee's strategy for reforming its workforce practices has produced a culture of continuous improvement.
It takes effect on Jan. 1, 2020, and will ban businesses including convenience stores, restaurants and grocery stores from selling or distributing Styrofoam products.
How a lawyer with deep connections to Democratic politicians in New Jersey helped to dole out hundreds of millions of dollars in state tax credits.
Fifteen people appointed by former Gov. Scott Walker are back in their state positions following a decision Tuesday by the state Supreme Court in a lawsuit challenging action taken by Republican lawmakers to limit the power of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
Bullock, who will finish his second term as governor in 2020 and be ineligible for a third term, reportedly plans to enter the crowded field the week of May 13, sources familiar with his plans told the news outlet.
Mueller’s description of Russian interference designed to help the Trump campaign was a reminder of how far many state and local officials have come in securing election infrastructure, but also of how stark the threat remains to the nation’s 8,000 election offices.
North and South Carolina teachers rallied this week. Educators in Sacramento, Calif., and Oregon could strike later this month.
Photos and musings from our photographer.
The debate is likely dead until next year.
The Sacramento City Teachers Association, embroiled in a labor dispute with the Sacramento City Unified School District, announced Tuesday that it will hold its second strike on May 22.
A bill making it a crime for a doctor to perform an abortion passed in the Alabama House of Representatives Tuesday 74 to 3.
The morning after Mohamed Noor became Minnesota's first law enforcement officer to be convicted of murder while on duty, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey acknowledged that trust in his police force needs to be shored up.
The front lines in a bitter debate between Israel’s defenders and critics now lie in an unexpected place: state capitals across America.
States are receiving mixed messages from the federal government and have unanswered questions about their plans to lower drug prices.
Roughly 1,800 of the 3,000 inmates at the South Mississippi prison in Leaksville are locked in their cells 23 hours a day and haven't been allowed visitors in at least three months.
The unanimous ruling partially overturns an April 2018 Appeals Court decision that highlighted the challenges of mediating battles between parents who differ on how to handle kids exploring their gender identities.
He declined to sign a bill establishing redistricting criteria for the process and rejected a proposal that would allow for redistricting outside of the census process.
De Blasio announced the executive order, which includes all future advertising contracts or contract renewals, citing a study that exposure to alcohol advertisements can increase the likelihood of alcohol consumption.
UNCC Police Chief Jeff Baker confirmed that a suspect, who had been armed with a pistol, was taken into custody, but would not identify the alleged shooter
A Virginia judge has ruled that statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson in Charlottesville are war monuments that the city cannot remove without permission from the state.
Two states are seeking to intervene on the side of the federal government after four conservation groups asked a judge to immediately halt drilling, mining and other activities to protect habitat for a ground-dwelling bird in seven Western states.
A handful of states are requiring doctors to give or at least offer a prescription for the overdose rescue drug to patients taking high doses of opioid painkillers.
Roads and bridges get most of the attention, but America’s public housing is crumbling too, advocates told Congress on Tuesday.
Gov. Phil Murphy took aim at New Jersey's dubious distinction as first in the nation in foreclosures Monday when he signed into law a package of bills intended to help remove the state from the crisis' grip.
Pennsylvania is now the 23rd state to sign on with the U.S. Climate Alliance, as Gov. Tom Wolf on Monday announced the release of the new Pennsylvania Climate Action Plan.
