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Employers seeking to get workers to join wellness programs and provide medical information can set financial rewards – or penalties – of up to 30 percent of the cost for an individual in the company’s health insurance plan, according to controversial rules finalized by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Monday.
More than six decades after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” has no place in the nation’s public school system, a federal court has ordered the schools in a small Mississippi town to finally integrate.
Fiscal and competitive pressures are leading state universities to admit a lot more out-of-state students. That doesn't sit well with a lot of people.
It depends on how governments use the results.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday that outside lawyers hired by the Ohio Attorney General's office can attempt to collect debt from Ohioans using letters on Attorney General letterhead.
A bill that will reduce the number of consecutive months families can receive welfare was signed Monday by Gov. Sam Brownback, who says it will help push people out into the work force faster.
Her intense focus on the minutia of the streets confuses cause and effect and virtually ignores infrastructure.
Bolstered by the federal health care law, the number of lower income kids getting health coverage continues to improve, a recent study found.
California voters this fall will likely wade through the longest list of state propositions since Bill Clinton was president, a sizable batch of proposed laws that is likely to spark a record amount of campaign spending.
Nearly two weeks after dropping out of the 2016 presidential race, John Kasich says he remains undecided whether he will back Donald Trump, and thus still has no interest in becoming the presumed GOP nominee's running mate.
After watching Donald Trump gain traction on the campaign trail with talk of border walls and mass deportations, Indiana lawmaker Mike Delph decided it was time to take action in his state.
The Constitution protects the right to buy and sell firearms as well as the right to own them, a federal appeals court said Monday in reviving a lawsuit challenging an Alameda County ordinance banning gun shops within 500 feet of a residential neighborhood or a school.
Nearly 1,000 nonviolent drug offenders will be eligible for early release from Iowa prisons over the next five years as part of a sentencing reform bill that Gov. Terry Branstad signed into law Thursday.
Hawaii has filed the first state lawsuit against Japanese manufacturer Takata Corp. and Honda Motor Co. Ltd. alleging they intentionally sold cars that were made with dangerous air bags.
A federal judge has struck down some of Kentucky's judicial conduct rules meant to keep nonpartisan judges and judicial candidates out of organized politics.
Anti-abortion advocates have allegedly found stealthier ways to shut down clinics.
One of the first things Chinese immigrant Sau Fung Lam did upon arriving in Chinatown 24 years ago was go to the local grocery store to try to buy an apple.
A federal judge in Arizona has ruled that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio intentionally violated the judge's orders to end profiling of Latinos 19 times, a decision that raises the possibility he could face criminal charges.
Gov. Robert Bentley Thursday signed two bills restricting abortion clinic locations and banning an abortion procedure.
Kansas public employees who go out into the community will be allowed to carry concealed weapons on the job starting in July.
Republican activists chose party unity over “never Trump” resistance Saturday, with party leaders in one state after another pressuring their members to fall in line behind the presumptive nominee — and even punishing those who refused.
As the editor in chief of The San Francisco Chronicle, Audrey Cooper has overseen countless stories on homelessness.
Cities are learning to mine this trove of information to predict the impact of future events and significantly improve operations.
We know that we could save a lot of money in the future by spending a little now. But we hardly ever do it.
California's schools are going to have to answer for more than just test scores, by the year after next. The state may also judge them on suspension rates, graduation rates, attendance and the rate at which students who are still learning English are becoming proficient.
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday issued a ruling upholding the state’s public school funding system as constitutional, while asserting that the state’s more than 5 million students “deserve transformational, top-to-bottom reforms that amount to more than Band-Aid on top of Band-Aid."
With mosquito season weeks away, Pennsylvania officials on Thursday announced how they would confront the Zika virus, including responses to infections picked up in the Caribbean, a scenario that has not mattered so far because there have been no mosquitoes present to carry the virus.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday finalized a new set of rules aimed at battling climate change.
Wading further into a spreading national debate, the Obama administration will tell all public school districts across the nation Friday that they should allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity.
The Montana Supreme Court has barred state officials from reporting the immigration status of people seeking state services, striking down the last piece of a voter-approved law meant to deter people who are in the U.S. illegally from living and working in Montana.
State election officials ordered the results of Baltimore's primary election decertified Thursday and launched a precinct-level review of irregularities.
House Republicans won Round 2 in a potentially historic lawsuit Thursday when a federal judge declared the Obama administration was unconstitutionally spending money to subsidize health insurers without obtaining an appropriation from Congress.
Disgraced ex-Republican Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, one of Long Island's and New York's most powerful politicians until his sudden fall in a family-affair corruption scandal last year, was sentenced Thursday to a shorter-than-expected 5-year prison term.
Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a bill to close a loophole in the state's open records act that allowed public officials to use private e-mail accounts to avoid scrutiny.
While Nashville has now seen a second group cancel its planned national convention next year over Tennessee's new law letting therapists reject LGBT patients, Chattanooga officials say they have yet to see any impact.
California’s health insurance exchange estimates that its Obamacare premiums may rise 8 percent on average next year, which would end two consecutive years of more modest 4 percent increases.
A special session to enact the 2016-17 state budget will begin next week, despite a lack of consensus in the Legislature on how to close a $270 million budget shortfall, the governor's office announced Monday.
Michael Slager, the former North Charleston white police officer charged with the fatal shooting of an unarmed African-American man, was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday.
Forty-four states and the District of Columbia have laws on the books requiring health insurers to cover autism treatments.
<i>The Week in Politics</i>: A $50 Million High School Stadium, an Assault Victim's Victory and More
The most important election news and political dynamics at the state and local levels.
Top-of-the-ticket insurgents like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders often show little interest in helping other like-minded candidates win lower offices.
The fiscal problems that afflict Detroit's schools and Illinois' pensions show what happens when elected officials wait too long to act.
To tackle the problem of vacant properties, Memphis is acknowledging that it needs help.
They move more often than most and tend to rent rather than own.
Over the past decade, legislators in several states have sought to expand or reduce the number of justices on their highest courts. In some cases, they admit their intent to tilt the ideological balance.
An ongoing, two-monthlong shutdown of the only fuel pipeline between Milwaukee and Green Bay has pushed more fuel tanker trucks onto main highways and prompted Gov. Scott Walker to declare an energy emergency.
Jim Justice -- coal operator, resort owner, political newcomer and West Virginia's richest man -- won the Democratic primary for governor Tuesday, riding a campaign message of optimism and personal business success, fueled by millions of dollars of his own money.
Kansas is suspending its work on a plan for complying with federal regulations meant to combat climate change by reducing carbon emissions from power plants.
Advocates say a new Maryland law will place the state at the forefront of efforts to require insurance plans to offer birth control at no out-of-pocket cost, expanding access to women and men who want to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell on Monday kicked off a contest to design a medical bill that is “simpler, cleaner, and easier for patients to understand.”
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick continued his attack on Fort Worth school leader Kent Scribner over his transgender bathroom policy, saying the superintendent is not a "social engineer" and should focus on education.
Nowhere are tax incentives more complicated -- and some say pointless -- than in Kansas City.
The Hoosier State is the latest to use behavioral science or "nudge" experiments to improve outcomes in human services programs.
California's historic drought is bound to come to an end. But the conservation efforts that have become habit for many after four dry years aren't likely to go away -- the governor is making sure of that.
A Miami-Dade judge has ruled that Florida's death penalty is unconstitutional because jurors are not required to agree unanimously on execution, a decision certain to spur more legal wrangling over Florida's capital punishment system.
Donald Trump's announcement Monday that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a friend and early endorser, will head his transition team puts Christie back at the center of national politics -- and gives him a lead role in shaping a potential Trump presidency.
Alaska's House of Representatives has filed an appeal in state Supreme Court to halt Medicaid expansion by Gov. Bill Walker's administration.
The day he was sworn in as Ferguson's new chief, Delrish Moss said that his pursuit of a high-ranking position in a police department had a personal motivation: He wanted to fire bad cops like the ones who abused him.
The Justice Department sued North Carolina on Monday to stop what it called discrimination against transgender individuals, raising the stakes in a cultural and legal battle that has ramifications for other states and the 2016 election.
The city is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to help keep certain neighborhoods affordable. But it might be making things worse.
Shrinking competition has many states worried about rising insurance prices. California has the tools to handle it better than most.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that private prearranged discussion of public business, whether in person or electronically, is a violation of the Ohio Open Meetings Act if the discussion involves a majority of a public body's members.
The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday upheld an Oregon law setting a $3 million cap on the amount of damages that injured people can collect in lawsuits against the state or its employees.
The Judicial Inquiry Commission Friday charged Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore with violating ethical rules, over his attempt earlier this year to stop probate judges from issuing same-sex marriage licenses.
Seeking to beat back a chronic staffing shortage, the head of the state prison system announced a $10 million-a-year plan Thursday to raise wages by 80 cents an hour for thousands of workers, with some of them temporarily receiving more than that.
Long-awaited federal rules announced Thursday that will ban e-cigarette sales to minors and require safety reviews for vaping products were greeted with outrage from the industry and applause from many, but not all, health advocates.
The hunt for loyal delegates to the Republican National Convention — for weeks, a shadow primary that threatened to wrest the nomination away from Donald Trump — appears to have come to an end.
With the workforce and workplace changing rapidly, human resources needs to become a strategic partner.
The economy added the fewest jobs last month since September. But there is a bright spot in the report.
A spirit of bipartisanship dominated Gov. Mike Pence's appearance with predecessor and former Sen. Evan Bayh on Thursday at Indiana State University, but reporters didn't let them leave the stage without addressing presidential politics.
In a surprise change of heart, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez dropped her opposition Thursday to a special prosecutor in the killing of Laquan McDonald and said her office would withdraw from the bombshell case.
Florida's new death penalty law went on trial Thursday in the Supreme Court as a Death Row inmate asked for a life sentence, the state called for his execution, and a justice who's often part of a five-member court majority questioned the law's constitutionality.
As this fading gambling mecca reels on the edge of bankruptcy, its finances scrutinized by a host of auditors, some objectionable expenses have bobbed to the surface. But none have drawn such broad resentment as the realization that Atlantic City pays about $1 million a year to provide pensions for retired lifeguards.
Transgender students across Oregon should be able to use the bathrooms, names and pronouns they want, according to unprecedented guidelines released Thursday by the Oregon Department of Education.
Gov. Jack Dalrymple called on state agency heads Wednesday to craft budgets for the 2017-19 biennium at 90 percent of the spending levels approved for the current biennium while making exceptions for the departments of corrections and human services.
In the last couple of years, the number of sex offenders living on the streets of Milwaukee has skyrocketed, from 16 to 205.
Ride-hailing companies argue it's not, which is why they refuse to do it and are backing out of cities that try to make them. But security experts and public officials think otherwise.
The most important election news and political dynamics at the state and local levels.
It's important to know when overtime is a smart financial decision and when it's better to send employees home.
An Austin judge temporarily blocked the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services from issuing a childcare license to an immigration detention center in Dilley on Wednesday.
President Barack Obama had a straightforward message Wednesday for Flint residents: "I've got your back."
A Flint city worker, one of three people criminally charged in connection with the Flint water crisis, has reached a plea agreement in the case.
California will raise the smoking age to 21 and regulate popular vaping products the same as cigarettes under sweeping antitobacco legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday.
U.S. Justice Department officials repudiated North Carolina's House Bill 2 on Wednesday, telling Gov. Pat McCrory that the law violates the U.S. Civil Rights Act and Title IX _ a finding that could jeopardize billions in federal education funding.
With Donald Trump's Tuesday victory in Indiana, he now looks like a sure bet to become the 2016 Republican presidential nominee.
A philosophical Gov. John Kasich suspended his 10-month campaign for president on Wednesday.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
They have a long way to go for a full recovery.
The day after the state Legislature passed its latest budget bill, the international bond-rating agency Moody's dropped Kansas' credit outlook from "stable" to "negative."
College baseball teams from Minnesota won't have a chance to advance to two national tournaments.
Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson came to Philadelphia on Tuesday with a big ask: Persuade Mayor Kenney to flip the script on Philadelphia's status as a "sanctuary city."
Documents from the department show that a March inspection of the Karnes center, operated by the GEO Group, uncovered six deficiencies ranging from insufficient mulch levels on the playground to unclear labeling of children's' allergies and health conditions in their files.
Gov. John Hickenlooper signed the state's $25.8 billion budget Tuesday afternoon praising the Colorado penchant for hammering out bipartisan balanced budgets through a somewhat unique process that puts the 581-page bill in the hands of six lawmakers on the Joint Budget Committee
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed legislation Tuesday that would allow college students to carry concealed guns onto campuses after lawmakers defied his personal request for changes that would exempt child-care centers and make other exceptions to the gun rights expansion.
Los Angeles County on Tuesday approved sweeping restrictions on the use of solitary confinement for juvenile detainees, joining a larger movement against a practice that some consider cruel and unproductive.
Metro’s long history of deficiencies — including poor maintenance, a loose safety culture, a blindness to potential hazards and a chronic failure to learn from previous disasters — all contributed to last year’s deadly smoke crisis in a Yellow Line tunnel, federal officials said Tuesday in a report that reads like an indictment of the beleaguered transit agency.
Disgraced ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was sentenced to 12 years in prison for corruption Tuesday by a judge who said she hoped the idea of "living out his golden years in an orange jumpsuit" would keep other politicians on the "straight and narrow."
Ohio Gov. John Kasich was the last man standing Tuesday night after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz dropped out of the race for the Republican party's presidential nomination -- other than the front-runner who's almost certainly going to be the nominee.
The Obama administration has agreed to temporarily keep some federal Medicaid money flowing into Texas to help hospitals treat uninsured patients, a relief to health care providers that feared losing the funds over state leaders' refusal to provide health insurance to low-income adults.
Throughout the day Monday, state governor Nathan Deal made the rounds in various communities in the Peach State, signing the new fiscal year budget.
Moda Health will exit Alaska's individual insurance market next year, the company announced Monday, leaving only one health insurance provider in the state's market that, so far, has been defined by drastic annual rate increases for consumers and big losses for insurance companies.
In the days before Hillary Clinton launched an unprecedented big-money fundraising vehicle with state parties last summer, she vowed “to rebuild our party from the ground up,” proclaiming “when our state parties are strong, we win. That’s what will happen."
When patients in South Dakota seek help for serious but manageable disabilities such as severe diabetes, blindness or mental illness, the answer is often the same.
When the House and Senate gavels came down for the final time on Friday, the Legislature had sustained a dozen of the governor's vetoes, killed one bill by sending it back to committee and overridden the rest.
The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday struck down Longmont's fracking ban.
Gov. Bill Haslam said Monday he is allowing the guns-on-campus bill to become law without his signature.
A Supreme Court justice on Monday blasted California's slow-moving death penalty process, but that was not enough to save convicted murderer Richard Delmer Boyer.
Shouting chants of "No pay, no work" and "enough is enough," hundreds of Detroit teachers rallied outside the Fisher Building today calling for a forensic audit of Detroit Public Schools and a guarantee they would be paid for their work.
Federal investigators have subpoenaed Detroit's Auditor General's office requesting records related to the use of federal funds in the city's massive demolition program, the Free Press has learned.
Provoked by legislators, online retailers have filed a lawsuit against the state that could have taxing consequences nationwide.
Less competition typically means higher prices for consumers. But that isn’t necessarily true in the case of health insurance exchanges.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence threw his support behind U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz Friday afternoon, just days before Indiana's critical Tuesday primary.
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday struck down Houston's air quality ordinances, ruling the city overstepped its authority to police polluters and handing industry advocates a major victory.
The first officially reported death Friday in the United States from Zika-related complications, a 70-year-old man in Puerto Rico, intensified a partisan battle on Capitol Hill over $1.9 billion in emergency funds blocked for two months by Republicans.
Texas can continue enforcing its voter ID law while a lower court considers its constitutionality, the U.S. Supreme Court said Friday, a win for Republican state officials that nonetheless came with a time limit.
Administration officials moved Thursday to improve low Medicaid enrollment for emerging prisoners, urging states to start signups before release and expanding eligibility to thousands of former inmates in halfway houses near the end of their sentences.
A top Los Angeles County sheriff's official has resigned amid mounting criticism over emails he sent mocking Muslims, blacks, Latinos, women and others from his work account during his previous job with the Burbank Police Department, the Sheriff's Department announced Sunday.
Many state capitols were designed to inspire with soaring architecture. The view from the top offers a unique perspective.
The City Council on Tuesday made it illegal for anyone to use a public bathroom that doesn't align with the gender they were born with.
Gov. Mary Fallin signed into law Thursday a bill saying judges may award attorney fees to people whose assets were unjustly seized by law enforcement.
Gov. Jay Nixon kept his end of the bargain.
Thousands of Iowa felons will have an easier time applying to win back their voting rights after changes to the application form were announced Wednesday.
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx stepped up his pressure on Metro to improve its safety performance Thursday by replacing three members of the transit agency’s board with experienced transportation-safety professionals.
The director of licensing and regulatory oversight at the Oregon Department of Human Services is stepping down amid criticism over how the agency manages foster care providers.
St. Paul, Minn., wants its urban areas to welcome everyone -- whether they're 8 or 80 years old.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
As the movement slows, policymakers have the opportunity to explore whether school choice has improved education overall.
A sweeping Medicaid change has the potential for states to address the dangerous shortage of doctors outside urban and suburban areas.
He’s not the governor. He’s not a lawmaker. But thanks to the way he runs his state’s pension plans, David Bronner may be the most powerful man in Alabama.
The city has made real progress in its battle against homicide, but a recent rise in crime puts it all into question.
After a population explosion and building binge led to haphazard and random growth, Miami became the nation's first big urban area to adopt a citywide code based on looks.
The most important election news and political dynamics at the state and local levels.
PTSD is common among those who respond to disasters and other emergencies. It's hard to deal with, but there are ways to help them.
Bad press has blurred the fact that not all public pension plans are underfunded and overly generous.
Two Montgomery County residents won the Democratic and Republican primaries for Pennsylvania attorney general Tuesday and will face each other in the fall for the right to succeed Kathleen Kane, the embattled incumbent who opted not to seek re-election.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser announced Wednesday that he's retiring on July 31 after nearly 18 years on the high court -- including some of its most turbulent -- and four decades in public life.
Gov. Paul LePage has vetoed a funding fix that the Maine Legislature approved for the Maine Clean Election Fund.
A former Oklahoma volunteer sheriff's deputy who said he mistook his handgun for his stun gun when he fatally shot an unarmed suspect last year was convicted of second-degree manslaughter on Wednesday.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam on Wednesday signed into law a controversial bill that allows therapists and counselors with "sincerely held principles" to turn away lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender clients among others.
Skeptical Supreme Court justices probed the definition of "official act" here Wednesday, searching for the line between politics and corruption that is so crucial to the bribery case against former Gov. Bob McDonnell
Ten percent of 911 calls involve mental health situations that most police aren’t prepared to deal with, leading to sometimes tragic outcomes.
As the city prepares to debut new streetcars, here’s a last look at their old ones.
Alarming infection rates bring more attention to treatment in communities of color.
To further their causes, Democrats are bypassing lawmakers and turning to voters.
A bipartisan group of public officials, called the 20/20 Club, is working to translate the energy of the movement into meaningful legislation on law enforcement and criminal justice.
Seattle’s struggle to attract riders reveals what makes a bike-share program thrive -- or in the Emerald City’s case, barely survive.
In Crystal City, nearly every public official is facing criminal charges. But it’s not the region’s only place plagued by corruption.
States are passing laws that -- they hope -- will lead to lawsuits that land the issue before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Gov. Sam Brownback said Tuesday he is withdrawing Kansas from the federal government's refugee relocation program because of security concerns.
