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Their State of the State addresses offer a window into their to-do lists for the new year.
The most important election news and political dynamics at the state and local levels.
Nationwide, state legislators are increasingly looking at the opportunities and problems associated with technology.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner used his executive powers Wednesday to pull an end run around Democratic lawmakers, signing an order that directs the state's economic development agency to work with a not-for-profit corporation the administration formed to recruit businesses to Illinois on the state's behalf.
Officials from Detroit's teachers union blasted Detroit Public Schools on Wednesday after the district blocked the union's environmental experts from investigating possible mold growth, water damage and other problems inside nine schools.
Alabama voters can now register to vote online.
Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday gave cities and counties more time to develop local regulations on the commercial growing of medical marijuana, amid concern that a March 1 deadline had many rushing to ban cultivation.
The state of Texas' sustained campaign against Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics affiliated with abortion providers appears to have led to an increase in births among low-income women who lost access to affordable and effective birth control, a new study says.
As fears of the virus rise in America, public health departments are ramping up their efforts to educate the public and eradicate the mosquitoes that spread it.
Just a few blocks away, your neighbors may be expected to live 20 years longer.
An aggressive plan to remove Flint's lead-contaminated pipes from the water distribution system was announced Tuesday by city officials who said the city will first target the homes of high-risk populations, including children and pregnant women.
One day after the Chicago Teachers Union rejected a contract proposal from Chicago Public Schools, district officials said they would slash school budgets and stop paying the bulk of teachers' pension contributions -- moves CTU's president quickly blasted as "an act of war."
For the second year in a row, criminal exonerations in the United States have reached a record level, with more than one in four stemming from Harris County drug convictions, a survey released Tuesday reveals.
Dallas County health officials on Tuesday confirmed a case of Zika infection through sexual transmission, the first confirmed case of locally acquired Zika in the U.S. during the current outbreak.
The phone rang at 1 a.m. on Tuesday at the home of Gary Gelner, the Democratic chairman of Iowa's Hancock County. State party officials wanted the results from two caucus precincts in his rural swatch about 100 miles north of the state capital.
Republican lawmakers in Illinois last month pitched a bold plan for the state to seize control of the Chicago public schools, becoming one of a growing number of states that are moving to sideline local officials — even dissolve locally elected school boards — and take over struggling urban schools.
The FBI is now investigating the contamination of Flint's drinking water, a man-made public health catastrophe, which has left an unknown number of Flint children and other residents poisoned by lead and resulted in state and federal emergency declarations.
There are more than 7 million lead service lines nationwide, and replacing them isn't easy or cheap. But Flint on Tuesday pledged to join the few cities that have gotten rid of the dangerous infrastructure.
Mayor Nutter is no stranger to the national cable news networks, but typically he's the focus of the headlines.
The World Health Organization declared Monday that explosive growth of the mosquito-borne Zika virus _ which has been spreading rapidly in the Americas and may be linked to birth defects _ constitutes an international public health emergency, signaling an new phase in the global effort to battle the virus.
The contamination crisis in Flint, Mich., has thrown a harsh national spotlight on the problem of lead in drinking water, especially in poor and minority communities. Yet the issue is hardly new _ Washington, D.C., had its own infamous lead scandal in 2004, among other communities that have seen lead spikes.
Campaign aides for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said Monday night that the Democratic Party did not collect the results of 90 Iowa precincts, which is about 5 percent of all votes cast in the state, because the party had failed to properly staff the precincts.
Martin O'Malley, the former Maryland governor who had always acknowledged his campaign for president would be a long shot, ended the effort late Monday night after a disappointing finish in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses.
The U.S. Justice Department promised an "exhaustive and transparent" review Monday of the San Francisco Police Department in the wake of the Mario Woods killing, focusing on possible use-of-force issues and racial disparities in how officers treat suspects.
After years of research, law enforcement leaders recently released recommendations for reforming how and when cops use their weapons.
Just as proposals to increase gas taxes to pay for roads have failed in most states, Obama's latest pitch to tax oil companies is likely dead on arrival.
The states most dependent on oil tax revenues have different ways of dealing with the industry slowdown.
At 10 a.m. on Wednesday, the 11 students in Carol Jussely’s “Essential College Skills” class were talking about sex.
Illinois will not expand the list of conditions that qualifies people to get medical marijuana, Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration announced Friday.
On the eve of the caucuses that kick off the presidential nominating process, Iowa's popular governor gave New Jersey's Gov. Christie a tacit nod of approval by introducing him to voters here as a "great friend of mine" who had helped the GOP expand its power across the country.
Most schools aren't meeting the CDC's recommendations for teaching students about sex, and the curriculum is far worse in some states.
A Texas appeals court ruled Friday that the Texas Film Commission acted within its authority when it decided after the release of the film "Machete" to deny its producers state incentives.
Republican legislators have struck a deal with Gov. Terry McAuliffe to maintain concealed-carry permit deals with at least 25 states, and to take guns from domestic violence offenders who are under permanent protection orders.
Officers Sean Campbell and Steven Sautkus were patrolling their quiet beat on Chicago's Southwest Side in April 2014 when they saw the driver turn without flashing his signal early enough.
Two of the three inmates who escaped from an Orange County jail were booked early Sunday morning into the Santa Ana detention facility from which they had fled, marking the end of an eight-day manhunt by federal and local law enforcement officials.
Gov. Mark Dayton was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul on Sunday after he fainted at a political event, and he was expected to be hospitalized overnight for observation, officials in the governor's office said.
Gov. John Kasich will enter the crucial final days of the New Hampshire Republican presidential campaign with less money to spend on TV advertising than key GOP contenders he is trying to finish ahead of in the Feb. 9 primary.
Most political polls are still conducted over the phone, but they're becoming more problematic and less accurate. That's why online polls have emerged.
As New York City replaces payphones with high-tech hotspots that deliver targeted ads, some concerns are being raised.
Dozens of other countries force their citizens to participate in elections.
America's power grid has gotten a lot of attention, but water utilities are increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks.
Statistics on motor vehicle, pedestrian and cyclist traffic fatalities for each state.
It takes a lot of energy to get elected. But that's the time to think about how to accomplish things once in office.
Employees are often overworked and undertrained, putting themselves and the inmates they're supposed to protect at risk.
Mark Zuckerberg has ushered in a new form of philanthropy that has the potential to bring about positive change
When government lets the market fix policy problems, it often fails.
It shouldn't take a budget crisis like the one Kansas is dealing with to force a government to look for more ways to save taxpayer money.
The sharing economy is challenging the demand for land-use regulations, but they're still necessary.
We don't always have to build up to fit more people into a city. Vancouver and Seattle offer alternative solutions.
Unlike a generation ago, today’s urban renaissance often displaces people and businesses.
Instead of waiting to help until kids get in trouble, Los Angeles County is using data analytics to help them before. So far, it's proving successful.
In Seattle, a new private library -- the first of its kind in a century -- is based on the throwback idea of having a quiet place to read.
Despite their important-sounding titles, many of the growing number of “chiefs” in government don't have much actual authority.
To fulfill a campaign promise, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe stocked his new digs with egg-laying chickens.
Like most rural areas, Alaska suffers from high rates of mental illness and a deficiency of mental health providers. The state may have a solution.
Massachusetts launched a website that details not just the effects of climate change but also how people can help.
Veteran homelessness has dropped sharply, thanks to cities’ efforts and new funds from the Obama administration. But most people living on the streets aren’t veterans.
The explosion of online health-care apps and providers has forced states to face tough questions -- many of which they have yet to find an answer to.
As states and localities have tried to modernize the way they attract and retain public workers, some best practices have emerged.
Chief financial officers used to be concerned with just balancing the books. But today’s CFOs have taken on a higher role.
After years of going down, road-related fatalities went up last year. There's two big reasons for that.
The FBI released video Thursday that shows law enforcement during a traffic stop this week fatally shooting one of the armed men who occupied an Oregon wildlife refuge.
A 44-year-old woman who allegedly aided three inmates who made a daring escape from Orange County's largest jail was arrested Thursday, officials said.
A member of the Ohio Senate's GOP leadership team is drawing fire after questioning whether his opponent, a woman with young children, could handle being away from home while serving in the state legislature.
Providence mourned the death yesterday of its beloved rascal, former Mayor Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci Jr., the wisecracking political rogue who was widely credited with revitalizing the city during two stints in office that were cut short by criminal charges and a prison sentence for corruption. He was 74.
After the open enrollment period ends on Sunday for buying coverage on the health insurance marketplaces, people can generally sign up for or switch marketplace plans only if they have certain major life changes, such as losing their on-the-job coverage or getting married. Following insurance industry criticism, last week the federal government said it will scrutinize people’s applications for such “special enrollment periods” more closely, including one of the most commonly cited reasons — relocating to a new state.
In January 2015, when state officials were telling worried Flint residents their water was safe to drink, they also were arranging for coolers of purified water in Flint's State Office Building so employees wouldn't have to drink from the taps, according to state government emails released Thursday by the liberal group Progress Michigan.
The declines are happening mostly in places that enacted anti-union laws or had job cuts in heavily unionized industries.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
After two decades of “tough on crime” policies, many states are taking a hard look at the way people are charged, how much time they serve, and what happens when they are released from prison.
Medical marijuana is back on the Florida ballot.
Gov. Jerry Brown is putting his weight and likely his campaign war chest behind a November ballot initiative that would allow inmates to get out of prison earlier and require judges, not prosecutors, to decide whether to charge juveniles as adults.
The most important election news and political dynamics at the state and local levels.
Utah has never been stronger and should serve as a model for the rest of the nation, Gov. Gary Herbert boasted in his annual State of the State address, while calling on lawmakers to do more to address health care for low-income residents, to improve air quality and to help provide opportunities in rural Utah.
A day after the arrest of armed occupiers of a national wildlife refuge turned deadly, authorities surrounded the isolated outpost as a final band of holdouts broadcast vows to fight to the death.
Fifteen dump trucks from Florida headed out Wednesday to snow-covered Washington, D.C. wrapped with sunshine yellow messages that feature a hitchhiking Florida-bound snowman.
The proposed agreement, negotiated over the course of months and behind closed doors, provides broad principles under which police officers should operate: Build community trust. Increase transparency. Strengthen accountability.
Under mounting pressure to rip out and replace lead pipes that connect an estimated 15,000 or more customers to main water lines, Gov. Rick Snyder said at a news conference Wednesday that the state first intends to make the existing pipes safe by rebuilding a protective coating between the lead and the water.
South Carolina Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster endorsed Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday.
Gov. Bruce Rauner used his second State of the State address Wednesday to urge lawmakers to cast aside months of political and ideological gridlock and use "mutual respect" to move Illinois forward.
Despite recent growth in jobs and economic prosperity, a new report finds most low-income workers haven't benefited.
Lyft drivers suing for employee status have agreed to remain independent contractors under the terms of a settlement agreement reached late Tuesday night with the ride-hailing company.
Some states have millions in savings that they don't know when or how to use. A new report suggests ways to better manage their money.
So when New Jersey's governor asked whether he should grab a mop and head back to the Jersey Shore to help with the cleanup was he was just kidding?
Gov. Phil Bryant, facing the specter of sluggish revenue collections throughout the current fiscal year, announced cuts to various state agencies totaling $39.8 million.
In a sweeping victory for federal authorities, a jury wasted little time Tuesday before convicting John Bills on all 20 counts, finding that the former Chicago city official took up to $2 million in bribes and gifts in return for steering tens of millions of dollars in red light camera contracts to an Arizona company.
Gov. Matt Bevin called for $650 million in "cuts across the board" in his first state budget proposal to the General Assembly on Tuesday, with the details, including possible layoffs of state employees, to be left to his cabinet secretaries.
For weeks, law enforcement had kept their distance from the isolated wildlife refuge. They wanted to avoid a massacre out in Oregon's high desert.
Back from the campaign trail, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced a plan Tuesday for the state to take control of Atlantic City's finances.
Kansas Sen. Mitch Holmes, the Republican committee chairman who set off a barrage of criticism last week with his rule against low-cut blouses and mini-skirts for women, issued an apology Tuesday.
Taking aim at a new Texas law making it a state felony to harbor undocumented immigrants, a national civil rights group announced Monday that it is suing the state.
A Wisconsin political science professor told a federal judge Monday that if North Carolina legislators were worried about voter fraud, he thought they would have focused more attention on the process for casting absentee ballots.
Former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has been tapped as an adviser for a Department of Homeland Security committee.
Residents can't use their tap water for drinking or bathing because of lead-contamination fears, but the city continues to bill them for it monthly.
A distant but loud and familiar voice is chiming in on the Flint water crisis: Ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who from his prison cell in Oklahoma is using social media to blast politicians about the ongoing water fiasco, claiming he knew about Flint's troubles when he was mayor, and that plenty others did, too.
A grand jury investigating allegations of misconduct against Planned Parenthood after the release of covertly recorded videos about the use of fetal tissue from abortions has instead indicted two anti-abortion activists who made the videos, authorities said Monday.
View numbers of businesses and minority ownership statistics for hundreds of U.S. cities.
With the worst-funded pension system in the country, Kentucky offers a glimpse of what could be in store for other states.
Hundreds of inmates serving life without parole for crimes committed as juveniles in Pennsylvania, Missouri and other states could get a second chance at eventual freedom under a Supreme Court ruling Monday.
The escape from Orange County's largest jail probably took only a few minutes.
Anthony Foxx wants to tear down infrastructure that isolates communities and overhaul the way federal transportation funding is distributed to states and cities.
The Kansas Court of Appeals on Friday left in place a lower-court decision blocking a first-in-the-nation state law that would have banned a procedure common in second-trimester abortions.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Sunday that a Chicago native once passed over for top cop will return to help guide civil rights reforms in the Chicago Police Department.
Gov. Bill Walker called on lawmakers Thursday night to plug the hole in Alaska's sinking financial ship by approving the three major pieces of his budget plan: budget cuts, new taxes, and spending some of the Permanent Fund's earnings.
Former Gov. Rick Perry has endorsed Ted Cruz for president, Politico reported early Monday.
Two of the most vexing problems facing the state, the Flint water crisis and the financially struggling Detroit Public Schools, were the subjects of bills introduced by lawmakers in Lansing last week.
The nation's food and farm industries are mounting a furious, last-ditch push against mandatory labeling of foods made with genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, with dozens of Minnesota businesses backing the effort as part of a national coalition.
One of the fiercest blizzards to strike the eastern United States in decades moved offshore Sunday, leaving a trail of record snowfalls in major cities, heavy flooding up and down the coast, and at least 27 people dead.
View individual income tax and net corporate tax revenues by state.
View annual state migration rates and net migration totals through 2016.
We should use technology to improve what the institution does, building societal value and public support.
Even though every cop will likely wear a recording device in the not-too-distant future, a new report reveals there's little consensus about how to use them.
Wichita's marijuana ballot initiative has been struck down by the Kansas Supreme Court.
Forecasting his second year in the Corner Office, Gov. Charlie Baker stood by his vow to hold the line on taxes even as storm clouds gather for the state's finances, offering a series of proposed tweaks to state government -- and reminders of his nuts-and-bolts approach -- in his first State of the Commonwealth address last night.
California needs to stay focused on building a reserve fund for an inevitable recession and anticipate that new taxes will be needed to pay for crumbling roads and bridges, Gov. Jerry Brown said in a State of the State speech Thursday that was big on chores, short on glamour.
First Lady Michelle Obama urged the nation's mayors Thursday to redouble efforts to ease homelessness among military veterans in a speech that both highlighted progress and underscored the magnitude of the problem.
Having a marijuana pipe or rolling papers won't be a crime in Maryland any longer.
With an epic blizzard virtually certain to pummel the Washington area this weekend, Metro threw up a white flag Thursday, announcing that it will shut down the nation’s second-busiest subway and all bus service Saturday and Sunday in a move that apparently is unprecedented in the transit system’s 40-year history.
Getting on Medicaid has never been so easy.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced in an emergency order Thursday that it plans to take over lead sampling in Flint, Mich., after sharply criticizing local and state officials in the handling of the city's water crisis, saying repeated delays and a lack of transparency continue to pose "an imminent and substantial" danger to residents.
A federal court has declined to put President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan on hold, meaning Kentucky and other states that sued to block it must comply with it until the legal challenges are resolved.
The most important election news and political dynamics impacting states and localities.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
The presidential candidate wants America to create a single-payer health system -- something no U.S. state has done before.
Gov. Kate Brown on Wednesday had harsh words for the federal government's handling of a 19-day occupation at the Malheur National Wildfire Refuge -- calling the response too slow and saying it's left neighbors in Harney County lacking as tensions worsen.
Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, spent his eighth and final State of the State address Wednesday highlighting his accomplishments while in office and calling for increased education and mental health spending.
Gov. Nikki Haley asked S.C lawmakers to put more attention on fixing K-12 schools, rather than spending more money on the state's colleges, during her State of the State address Wednesday.
Detroit Public Schools is seeking a temporary injunction against teachers after a sickout closed 88 schools in Detroit today -- the largest in a string of teacher protests.
During a meeting of hundreds of city leaders this week at the White House, two Midwestern mayors who govern populations worried about their drinking water discovered similarities in their challenges.
Gov. Rick Snyder's staffers worried in September that the issue of lead in Flint's drinking water was being politicized and that the state's responsibility for the crisis was being exaggerated.
By linking environmental sustainability and economic growth, Charlotte is showing the way.
The Supreme Court restored death sentences Wednesday for three Kansas murderers by an 8-1 vote, undercutting predictions by some that a majority of the justices is ready to strike down capital punishment nationwide.
Teacher absences forced 88 Detroit schools to close today, the largest in a string of recent sick-outs meant to call attention to large class sizes, dilapidated buildings and other problems in Michigan's largest school district.
Republican legislative leaders in Illinois on Wednesday proposed a state takeover of Chicago Public Schools and permitting the troubled district to declare bankruptcy to get its finances in order, billing the controversial ideas as a "lifeline" and not "a state bailout."
Participating in daily fantasy sports amounts to illegal gambling in violation of Texas law, according to an opinion released Tuesday by Attorney General Ken Paxton.
A new GASB rule affecting cities that are part of state cost-sharing retirement plans will be painful, but it's a step forward.
Gov. Susana Martinez on Tuesday set forth a sweeping agenda for the short 2016 legislative session, calling on lawmakers to get tough on crime, further stiffen DWI penalties, implement her education and economic development proposals and to finally pass a Real ID driver's license bill that has been a touchstone of her gubernatorial tenure.
Seeking to rehabilitate his sagging standing in the state, Gov. Scott Walker pledged Tuesday to spend more money on public education using savings from changes to state employee health plans.
The Republican governor of Iowa urged Tuesday that his state defeat Ted Cruz in the crucial Iowa precinct caucuses in less than two weeks, blasting the Texas senator for opposing federal support for ethanol.
Gov. Christie on Tuesday acted on more than 100 pieces of legislation, vetoing bills that would ban firearms for certain criminals, raise the smoking age, and preserve nonprofit hospitals' property-tax exemption.
Exactly three weeks before the nation's first presidential primary, Ohio Gov. John Kasich became the first GOP candidate not named Trump to reach 20 percent in any independent poll of New Hampshire this year.
Facing the biggest crisis of his five years as governor, demands for his resignation and even calls for his criminal prosecution, Gov. Rick Snyder accepted major responsibility for the Flint drinking water catastrophe in his State of the State address Tuesday and set out short-term plans and long-term promises to put things right.
President Barack Obama met Tuesday with Flint Mayor Karen Weaver to discuss high concentrations of lead found in her city's drinking water, offering continued logistical and technical support for efforts to address the crisis and dispatching an official from the Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate federal response.
Most of the city's problems, the mayor argues, are out of his control. Will voters blame and oust him anyways?
The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to decide the legal fate of President Barack Obama's sweeping immigration program and rule on whether he has the power to offer "lawful presence" and a work permit to more than 4 million people living here illegally.
California Highway Patrol officers arrested 25 demonstrators after the group used the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Monday to chain themselves and their vehicles across all five westbound lanes of the Bay Bridge, bringing traffic to a standstill as they demanded racial equity.
On the surface, the notion seems preposterous: Hand out Samsung computer tablets to dozens of Sacramento County Main Jail inmates.
Beleaguered by fundraising doubts and attacks from organized labor, two former California officials said Monday they are backing off plans to place a measure on the November ballot intended to curb public pension benefits.
When Tameika Isaac Devine was elected to the city council in Columbia, South Carolina, the city already had a long history of programs designed to help residents’ afford homeownership through subsidized, low-interest loans.
Gov. Rick Snyder took a verbal beating from Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders during the latest debate Sunday night and fought back on social media.
