Archive
Gov. Kate Brown abruptly fired Oregon Lottery Director Jack Roberts on Tuesday, adding to a list of state agency leaders who've moved on since Brown took office last year.
The enormousness of the task facing Terri McDonald was clear.
Georgia can give state money to "pregnancy resource centers" that offer medical and other services to pregnant women while discouraging them from getting abortions, under legislation signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Nathan Deal.
State Sen. Catherine E. Pugh narrowly defeated former Mayor Sheila Dixon in the crowded Democratic primary for Baltimore mayor -- a race many called the most important in a generation with the city still recovering from the rioting of last April.
Just in time for the election season, the Supreme Court has strengthened legal protections for the nation's 22 million public employees against being demoted or fired for supporting the wrong political candidate in the eyes of their supervisors.
Donald Trump stacked up five more wins Tuesday, sweeping the East Coast primaries in a decisive showing that moved him significantly closer to capturing the Republican presidential nomination and avoiding a bruising fight at the party's convention this summer.
Six states don't give their governors line-item veto power. It's an imperfect tool, but it's the easiest way to start getting spending under control.
The latest task force report isn't the first to suggest major reforms to the Chicago Police Department, but it might be the first to result in real change.
If the IRS gets its way, it may be harder for special districts to issue tax-exempt municipal bonds.
It’s one of the hottest trends in the public sector, but it’s not easy to succeed with data.
Millions of disabled, sick and elderly people rely on medical transportation that can leave them stranded for hours in times of need.
Tax increment financing has been used to build stadiums, libraries and parks.
The shift from a manufacturing-based economy to a technology- and services-based one hasn’t been kind to the middle and working classes. That won’t change anytime soon.
In D.C., above and below ground, historic and vital infrastructure is in bad shape. There’s plenty of blame to spread around for that.
There’s a common perception that the Establishment is disappearing. In fact, it died decades ago at all levels of government.
Two members of President Obama's cabinet went to a North Philadelphia community center Monday to publicize the administration's latest effort to help men and women who are getting out of prison get their lives together.
Blanche Carney first set foot in a jail in 1994.
Virginia has established a revolving loan fund to help homeowners and businesses make changes to their properties in anticipation of sea-level rise -- a step the program's advocates say no other state has taken.
A Franklin County employee making a gender transition might have saved for months or years before coming up with enough money to pay for a mastectomy or sex reassignment surgery.
Women in Florida will no longer be required to wait 24 hours before having an abortion -- at least for now.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday signed into law a measure releasing $600 million for Illinois public universities and community colleges, money that lawmakers hope will keep campuses open through the summer while the broader budget battle continues.
A 21-year-old man was shot and killed in the city's Cedarbrook section Sunday afternoon just after speaking with a state House candidate about volunteering on his campaign, according to officials.
The head of the Cleveland rank-and-file police union says the family of 12-year-old Tamir Rice should use money from a $6 million settlement to educate children about the use of look-alike firearms.
Thousands of demonstrators descended on the state capitol Monday for the first day of the North Carolina General Assembly's short session. The flashpoint: House Bill 2.
A federal judge has upheld North Carolina's voter ID law in a ruling posted Monday evening.
How people in Austin, Texas, vote next month on background checks for ride-hailing drivers could have big consequences for cities across the country.
With more cases cropping up by the day, local governments have to act quickly -- and without help from the federal government.
A Texas appeals court delivered a big loss on Thursday to a group of home health agencies and parents of children with disabilities who sued the state over payment cuts to in-home therapy providers.
Bruce Springsteen canceled a concert in North Carolina, and Sharon Stone scrapped plans to film a movie in Mississippi.
A federal wiretap that reportedly recorded Mayor Martin J. Walsh when he was head of the Boston Building Trades pressuring a developer to use union labor is part of a broader probe that, according to Walsh's spokeswoman, "has little to do with the Walsh Administration."
When Emma Quintero moved into her modest, bright blue house eight years ago, she'd watch neighbors pass by on their way to fish the murky waters of two sprawling reservoirs and irrigation canals that reach into the Rio Grande Valley like tentacles, delivering water to fields of citrus and vegetables.
Three officials responsible for maintaining safe water in Flint tinkered with evidence, tweaked testing and misled county and federal officials, helping to set in motion the contamination of the city's drinking water with lead, according to criminal charges filed by Michigan's chief law enforcement official Wednesday.
The decision by Virginia's Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, to reinstate the voting rights of almost a quarter of a million convicted felons could reverberate into the general election.
In the latest effort to upend Republican front-runner Donald Trump's bid for the presidential nomination, the campaigns of rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich announced Sunday night that they would join for a divide-and-conquer strategy in three states as they scramble to seize remaining delegates in a rapidly dwindling primary season.
Congress rejected the president's proposal for tuition-free community college, so his administration is instead helping regions launch the program themselves.
Republicans currently dominate the office that holds significant power over elections.
The nation’s only state-owned bank reported about $130.7 million in net income, cruising past the $111 million reported for 2014.
Texas Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Chris Traylor plans to retire at the end of May after 11 months on the job, according to sources briefed on the decision.
Gov. John Bel Edwards will require thousands of non-working, childless adults who receive food stamps to participate in job search and skills training programs to continue getting the assistance.
The Alabama Legislature overwhelmingly passed a budget that calls for spending $6.3 billion from the Education Trust Fund on K-12 schools, community colleges, four-year universities and other programs, 5.6 percent more than this year. Lawmakers also voted to give teachers and most other education employees a 4 percent cost of living raise.
Richmond’s fraud app allows residents to report government waste, fraud and abuse. Though fraud apps can cost thousands to develop, auditors say the money they help recover can more than outweigh their costs.
The Virginia Legislature accepted Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s plan to hire pharmacies to secretly supply the state with execution drugs, joining three other states with similar laws.
A 2014 law requiring all New Jersey municipalities to outfit new police patrol cars with dashboard cameras is unconstitutional because it does not provide an adequate funding source, according to a state board ruling.
Uber has agreed to pay up to $100 million and make several policy concessions to settle a pair of major class-action lawsuits in two states that will keep its drivers independent contractors instead of employees, both sides announced Thursday night.
Nebraska will allow thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children to work in at least 170 professions that require state licenses after lawmakers overrode Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts' veto of the measure.
Suicide in the United States has surged to the highest levels in nearly 30 years, a federal data analysis has found, with increases in every age group except older adults. The rise was particularly steep for women. It was also substantial among middle-aged Americans, sending a signal of deep anguish from a group whose suicide rates had been stable or falling since the 1950s
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that states can draw legislative districts with slightly different populations in an effort to benefit minority groups, even if the results help one political party over the other.
Our state, local and federal governments need to ramp up the sharing of technology and data beyond their enterprises.
Technology has a role in moving toward a goal of zero waste, but so does the "soft" infrastructure of citizen activism and effective policies.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
A wildfire in Shenandoah National Park nearly doubled in size on Tuesday, thanks to strong winds and low humidity. The National Park Service says the blaze, named the Rocky Mount fire, has charred 4,000 acres.
A new federal study finds Oregon's child welfare system is failing across the board when it comes to keeping thousands of children in state care safe and healthy. According to the report, caseworkers are still taking too long to check on allegations of abuse and neglect.
Republicans and Democrats on Thursday will announce a plan for a Colorado presidential primary that would allow the state's unaffiliated voters to participate. More than one-third of Colorado voters — the largest bloc — are not affiliated with a party.
The Illinois Department of Revenue discovered that since 2014 it has doled out more than it should have to 6,500 local governments, thanks to an error in how it calculated the disbursements they receive each year to make up for their lack of power to tax businesses. Now it wants the $168 million back.
Gov. Sam Brownback plans to take more money from the state's highway fund, cut higher education spending and scrutinize other options in order o close a widening $290 million budget gap.
A statewide teachers group filed a lawsuit Wednesday in an attempt to block the state from implementing a controversial system that for the first time ties assessments of educators to student performance on standardized tests.
The state’s child welfare agency faces a $40 million budget shortfall, a critical shortage of good homes for foster children and overwhelming caseloads for staff, agency leaders told state lawmakers at a hearing on Wednesday.
Georgia's big plan to invest billions of dollars in new road projects may be about to get a giant thumbs up after Gov. Nathan Deal said preliminary results from an independent review show the effort could boost the state's economy and reduce traffic delays.
The U.S. Department of Justice has informed state officials that it is investigating Connecticut's "motor voter" program -- under which citizens can sign up to vote at the Department of Motor Vehicles -- and has found "widespread noncompliance" with federal laws.
Los Angeles workers would be able to earn at least six paid sick days annually -- twice the state minimum -- under a proposed law that the city council backed.
Five former New Orleans police officers involved in the Danziger Bridge shootings after Hurricane Katrina, or the coverup that followed, pleaded guilty in federal court in New Orleans on Wednesday, taking reduced sentences and avoiding another trial after their previous convictions were thrown out.
By showing what's possible, a Tennessee child-services provider has built a national reputation.
Term limits were billed as a way to get more women to run for office. It hasn't worked out that way.
Parents and voters are coming around to the idea that pay and job security ought to be related to performance in the classroom.
The most important election news and political dynamics at the state and local levels.
The majority of employee complaints result from weak managerial skills. What's being done to address it?
States are divided on whether the U.S. Supreme Court will help or hurt them when it rules on whether the country can go forward in bestowing some legal status to undocumented immigrant parents.
The ruling by the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals could shape the fight over House Bill 2 in North Carolina.
With three new confirmed cases of the disease, Miami-Dade is the hardest-hit county in the nation's hardest-hit state.
The new regulations may be the strictest in the nation.
The Michigan attorney general is set to announce felony and misdemeanor charges against as many as four people in state and local government connected to water contamination in Flint.
The special elections on Tuesday for the seats formerly held by Dean G. Skelos and Sheldon Silver, the two state legislative leaders who were forced to depart Albany after being convicted on corruption charges last year, were supposed to be a test of how long a shadow corruption could cast on a race.
The insurance provider, one of the nation's largest, will only operate in "a handful of states" for 2017.
Citing concerns about potential voting irregularities during the most consequential presidential primary in years, the New York City comptroller said that his office would audit the city’s Board of Elections in part to determine if tens of thousands of Democratic voters were improperly removed from voter rolls.
As major oil-producing states face budget shortfalls, a new report calls on states to rethink how they’re collecting and spending severance tax revenues.
For more than two decades, the Missouri Department of Transportation has divvied up millions of federal dollars each year to cities and urban areas. This year it might keep the money for itself.
Lawmakers have already exceeded the voter-approved 90-day limit on legislative sessions, but the governor wants them to stay in Juneau to keep working to address the state's multibillion-dollar budget gap.
Dozens of categories of business transactions are not subject to the state sales tax in Louisiana, thanks to a special kind of tax break granted with increasing frequency in recent years by lawmakers. The tax breaks cost the state anywhere from $320 million to $920 million per year.
The state would be the first to file suit against Washington over the intake of refugees from Syria and elsewhere.
Until the last six months, the Democrat-controlled Legislature largely had kept its hands off the project, but a new proposed measure would set additional reporting requirements for the $64-billion bullet train project.
Snyder's actions followed developments last week, when the governor encouraged Flint residents to start using more filtered tap water instead of bottled water and was told by a state official that Flint residents wanted him to start drinking the tap water first.
Growers of fresh fruit and vegetables will be subject to food safety regulations for the first time under the federal Food Safety Modernization Act. States will start to decide this year if they will enforce the law or leave it to the federal government.
After a deluge of up to 16 inches in some places, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a disaster declaration for nine surrounding counties.
The governor talks about what it's like to juggle chemotherapy with the business of running a state.
The American Independent Party is the state's third-largest political party. But a new investigation suggests many voters may have registered with the ultraconservative group by mistake.
Indianapolis' longtime mayor worked hard at crafting a big idea for his city, and it paid off handsomely.
Assisted living facilities have become more popular in recent years, but abundant closures and lax state regulations have led to more calls for new regulations.
Like some other states, Connecticut is facing a budget shortfall. And in part because of its shrinking finance sector and dependence on personal income taxes for revenue, state lawmakers, a majority of whom are Democrats, are finding themselves in a fiscal pickle.
The state health agency warned hospitals about the outbreak in January, but didn't inform the public until March.
Ten months into the state's ongoing budget stalemate, Illinois Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger said she plans to delay monthly paychecks for lawmakers and statewide officials. There isn't enough money to pay the state's bills, and other services should come first, she said.
The justices will weigh in on whether the president had proper authority to grant temporary work permits to about 4 million immigrants in the country illegally.
Hundreds of cheering families, legislators and patients watched Gov. Wolf sign a medical marijuana bill into law Sunday afternoon, many hopeful at last for relief from pain, seizures and other medical conditions.
Washington is the latest state considering the move, intended to discourage the use of carbon fuel like coal and oil by making them more expensive.
The large gubernatorial class of 2010 has until recently been scandal-free.
As efforts to evaluate housing programs illustrate, it's difficult to make precise comparisons. But it's worth the effort.
A first-in-the-nation bill would regulate loans made to small businesses by alternative lenders mostly found online.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
House Republicans told the leaders of the capital’s beleaguered subway system on Wednesday that they would not “bail you out,” soundly rejecting pleas for more federal funds to support it.
After years of cutbacks, many of the nation’s state parks are facing similar situations to Wyoming's, forced to cut programming, reduce hours of operations, and sometimes shut their gates. The shrinking budgets have prompted park officials to look for new sources of funding.
The most important election news and political dynamics at the state and local levels.
Texas prison inmates shouldn't be allowed to have active social media accounts, even if friends or family on the outside actually run them, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has decided.
Facing a potentially bruising ballot fight over real estate development next year, Los Angeles' political leaders announced Wednesday that they will seek a sweeping update of the plans that govern the size and density of new buildings that go up in scores of neighborhoods.
New Jersey’s transportation funding system is in disarray, and neither the governor nor state legislators has a plan for how to plug a financing gap that tops $2 billion, administration officials and Assembly members said Wednesday at the first budget hearing of the season
A federal judge Wednesday issued a preliminary injunction barring Los Angeles police and sanitation officers from seizing and destroying homeless people's property without sufficient notice, and ordered the city to segregate and store impounded belongings where they can be recovered.
For the first time ever in Louisiana, a governor took formal action to protect transgender state workers and transgender people seeking state services from discrimination. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards issued an executive order Wednesday that protects state workers and state contractors from being fired, discriminated against or harassed based on their gender identity as well as their sexual orientation.
Missouri's treasurer says 529 programs are only one piece of the college puzzle.
New Mexico is holding on to more than $4 million in tax refunds from thousands of undocumented immigrants. They're suing the state to get their money back.
A Seattle area transit agency got into trouble when it tried to gauge voter's attitudes.
A new study highlighting racial and socioeconomic disparities in license suspensions is the latest call for states to make reforms.
Debates over LGBT rights have helped define differences between red and blue states.
District officials plan to announce on Wednesday a new hotline for the city’s crime victims. With the new D.C. Victim Hotline, the District will become one of the few jurisdictions with a one-stop number for people affected by any crime, whether it’s mugging or murder. The number is not meant to summon emergency responders, but it can be used for services needed in the immediate aftermath or much later.
Thirty years from now, downtown Las Vegas could be brimming with trees and parks strategically placed near many more residential buildings, markets and transit hubs. That's the much-simplified vision of a new downtown master plan that's aimed at making the city's inner core a better place to live and work by improving mobility, economic opportunities and aesthetics.
In a city where mass transit is synonymous with broken promises and disappointment, downtown Miami's Metromover has been the little engine that could. The junior-sized, fully-automated trains ferry nearly 10 million passengers around the downtown and Brickell neighborhoods each year. But now the free Metromover rides are at risk. Miami-Dade County Commissioner Barbara Jordan is pushing to charge Metromover riders, arguing it's unfair that Metrorail and bus riders pay $2.25, while Metromover passengers pay nothing.
Philadelphia has been awarded a $3.5 million MacArthur Foundation grant to fund an aggressive plan to reduce its prison population by 34 percent over three years while addressing racial bias across the criminal justice system.
Many states don’t publish records of their short-term and contract hires. Even states that do have to do a little research to determine how that share of the state workforce may be changing over time and why. A small but growing body of research suggests that work arrangements other than full-time jobs are more common across the economy, including in government. It’s hard to tell, however, how much states contribute to the so-called 1099 economy through their hiring and contracting.
The Chicago Police Department must acknowledge its racist history and overhaul its handling of excessive force allegations before true reforms can take place, according to a scathing draft report from the task force established by Mayor Rahm Emanuel following public unrest over the Laquan McDonald video.
Lawmakers in Prince George’s County voted unanimously on Tuesday to ban hydraulic fracking, becoming the first local jurisdiction in Maryland to prohibit the extraction of natural gas within its borders since the state’s moratorium on the practice went into effect.
Waller County, Texas, needs a new jail, local officers need body cameras to record their activities and the sheriff's office needs to promote civility, a study committee formed after the death of Sandra Bland said Tuesday. The county came under national scrutiny in July when Bland was found hanged in her jail cell three days after being arrested for assaulting an officer during a contentious traffic stop.
A task force appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder to investigate the Flint water crisis told lawmakers Tuesday that the situation in Flint was a failure of leadership in the state, a clear case of environmental injustice and a reason to change the state’s emergency manager law. But that there is no single piece of legislative action or a bill that could have prevented the crisis in Flint.
A recent document leak revealed that four states were targeted by a Panamanian law firm to hide assets.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is directing state agencies not to ask about candidates' criminal history in initial job applications.
As the city attorney considers whether to bring charges against an officer who shot a homeless man last year, the atmosphere in Los Angeles demonstrates the growing pressure that prosecutors now face to move aggressively against officers who kill civilians.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is spreading its latest grants across 19 communities to support an outdoor office, a carpentry-based workforce program and more.
The U.S. Congress is considering a bill that would add farmers to the list of occupations that qualify for a federal program that forgives student loans for public service workers, such as teachers and police officers. In the meantime, some states are already rolling out their own forgiveness programs.
New Jersey lawmakers raised doubts Monday about the Christie administration's efforts to rein in fiscal excess in Atlantic City since it installed a monitor in 2010 to oversee the city's finances, suggesting there was little evidence to justify a proposed takeover of the local government now.
California workers who need to take time off to care for a newborn or family member will receive up to 70 percent of their pay after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Monday to expand the benefit.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been charged in federal court with allegedly misleading investors in a technology company.
The model of care is proven to improve health outcomes and save billions of dollars, but it hasn't been widely embraced. A new initiative could change that.
A foundation is promoting the use of evidence-based prevention programs to help young people in low-income, urban neighborhoods.
Twenty years ago, four children died and more than 700 people were sickened in a deadly E.coli outbreak linked to undercooked hamburgers sold by Jack in the Box restaurants.
Abuse victims could obtain confidential mailing addresses from the state, under one of several bills signed by Gov. Scott Walker on Monday to help those affected by crime.
The city will pay settlements in two cases in which men died after being arrest by police.
Public officials who use private email accounts to conduct official business cannot conceal their personal email addresses when releasing public information, a state appeals court ruled Friday.
Moving into a realm usually reserved for health care regulators, the California health marketplace Thursday unveiled sweeping reforms to its contracts with insurers, seeking to improve the quality of care, curb its cost and increase transparency for consumers.
Cecelia Greene came into the South Dade courthouse last Monday ready to go to trial.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a school funding bill meant to satisfy a state Supreme Court ruling with potentially dire consequences.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is using his executive office powers and calling on the state's Republican-controlled House and Senate to take an exact opposite approach to nondiscrimination protections that lawmakers recently have passed in North Carolina and Mississippi.
Police aren't thought of as first responders who supply a medical remedy. However, in many cases, an ambulance or EMTs aren't yet in the area.
Gov. John Kasich's administration projects tens of thousands of poor Ohioans will lose Medicaid coverage while taxpayers save nearly $1 billion under a plan to charge new fees for the government health coverage and impose penalties on those who miss payments.
Claiming Indiana's newly passed abortion law is a violation of privacy and a violation of the First Amendment, Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Northern Kentucky as well as the ACLU of Indiana filed a lawsuit over House Bill 1337 Thursday morning.
In a long-awaited ruling, a federal judge has sided with plaintiffs who argued it was unconstitutional for Los Angeles County supervisors to place a Christian cross on the county seal.
The real problem is this: Public management doesn't have the kind of authority that's taken for granted in the private sector.
Wyoming has launched an investigation tied to the massive data leak of the so-called "Panama Papers" that has drawn headlines and sparked outrage around the world.
The city's former mayor, who was forced to resign a few years ago, is no longer the frontrunner.
The most important election news and political dynamics at the state and local levels.
The criminal case against former Gov. Rick Perry was officially dismissed on Wednesday, weeks after Texas' highest criminal court ordered that it be dropped.
This week's weather may justify a "cooler & warmer" slogan for Rhode Island, but our readers continue to answer our query: "Think you can do better?"
Gov. John Kasich presented a case in support of his Ohio record--but played it safe by dodging presidential politics and not proposing major policy initiatives--as he delivered his sixth State of the State address Wednesday evening.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio filed suit Wednesday against Secretary of State Jon Husted, arguing that he is illegally removing eligible voters from voter registration rolls.
When the oil and gas industry tanked and plans for gambling crapped out, this conservative town of ranchers and roughnecks found salvation in an unlikely place.
