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Lake Calhoun is back on the map.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick declares marijuana bill 'dead in the Texas Senate'
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The economy is strong, and the job market is plentiful. That’s a good thing, right? Well, not if you are a government employer competing for talent with the private sector and other municipalities around you.
Federal tax reform and the economy are boosting state coffers -- for now.
I-1000 repeals Initiative 200, a measure approved by Washington voters 20 years ago. I-200 blocked the government from giving preferential treatment to, or discriminating against, people and groups on the basis of sex, ethnicity, color, race or national origin.
Steve Stenger lied in public statements and took other actions to cover up the crimes, prosecutors said.
In the legislative session that just wrapped up, Arkansas lawmakers sent voters a proposal that would rework the term limits on House and Senate members for the second time in the past several years.
Arpaio was found in contempt of court in 2017 because he continued to make immigration arrests after he was ordered to stop.
Marc Edwards is fighting with Flint activists and Michigan scientists. He said they're exaggerating the danger of city water, which has met federal standards for two years. They said he's unwilling to entertain new research.
One in every 11 Floridians is a noncitizen (according to the Census Bureau’s own American Community Survey, which does ask about citizenship).
Newsom announced his support after the 14-member California Legislative Jewish Caucus made an urgent request for $15 million to be budgeted this year for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which only provided $500,000 last year.
Legislation on Medicaid work requirements died in West Virginia and Wyoming in February and in Iowa in March at virtually the same time a U.S. district judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that work requirements in Medicaid in Kentucky and Arkansas were illegal.
Texas Secretary of State David Whitley has agreed to halt an investigation into the citizenship status of registered voters in a settlement agreement that will end three lawsuits filed by civil rights groups and naturalized citizens.
Los Angeles Fire Department officials said their response to the massive Woolsey fire was complicated by requests from local politicians, according to a document reviewed by The Times.
Days after a judge and court officer were arrested on charges they helped a man evade immigration authorities, advocates are filing a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement's practice of arresting people at local courthouses.
President Donald Trump is targeting his home state on Twitter, encouraging the National Rifle Association to leave New York over "oppression of sorts."
After many votes and multiple vetoes, Massachusetts lawmakers have finally lifted the "cap on kids," which denies additional welfare benefits for children born while a family is already receiving welfare.
Mississippi, consistently among those most impoverished states, spent 7.2 percent, or $8.6 million of its welfare funds on these direct cash payments to poor families in 2017.
Gov. Jared Polis’ signed a bill Thursday preventing people accused of many low-level offenses — such as petty, traffic or most municipal charges — from being jailed because they can’t pay their cash bail.
For opponents of the plan, the issue boils down to a clear-cut principle: How can a public hospital that has been a leader in women’s health care and medical services for the gay and transgender community partner with a private system that not only denies such services but also casts them as immoral?
On April 2, the Department of Justice issued a horrifying report on Alabama’s prisons, with graphic accounts of prisoners who were tortured, burned, raped, sodomized, stabbed and murdered in largely unsupervised dorms.
Texas has had the anti-boycott law regarding Israel on its books since 2017.
Kansas' long, bitter fight over abortion entered an intense new phase Friday after the state Supreme Court ruled that women have the right to end a pregnancy.
The Denver initiative is the latest front in a campaign advocates for homeless people have been waging at the state level for years.
With the stroke of a pen, Gov. Kevin Stitt has ensured that cities and counties in Oklahoma will not be allowed to regulate plastic bags and auxiliary containers.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, an East Lansing Democrat who took office in January, has not proposed resuming state funding for bottled water amid ongoing donations from Nestle.
Edinburg Mayor Richard Molina and his wife, Dalia, were arrested Thursday by the Election Fraud Unit of the Texas attorney general's office and accused of running a vote-harvesting scheme.
A lawsuit challenging Wisconsin's rule denying Medicaid coverage for medically necessary transgender surgeries has become a class action that could benefit hundreds of affected residents.
Trying to stop a measles outbreak from spreading, health officials announced Thursday that more than 200 students and staff members at UCLA and Cal State L.A. who have been exposed to measles are being asked to stay home.
Nationally, an estimated 30,000 people are in such association health plans, a type of health insurance seeing a nascent resurgence following an initial drop-off after the ACA took effect in 2014.
A federal judge in Yakima on Thursday blocked new Trump administration rules that could cut off federal funding for health-care providers who refer patients for an abortion.
Biden officially launched his campaign Thursday, after months of speculation.
Gov. Larry Hogan is calling on Baltimore's embattled Mayor Catherine Pugh to resign Thursday, a few hours after federal investigators raided her home and other locations including City Hall.
A Massachusetts judge and court officer were indicted for helping an undocumented immigrant escape a courthouse via a back exit to avoid being arrested by immigration authorities.
Democrats are pushing legislation to require presidential candidates to release their tax returns. The same rules don't apply for most statewide elections -- but that could change.
The money Sisolak donated went to the Department of Education's Education Gift Fund.
New Mexico’s 40-member Complete Count Commission will have $3.5 million to encourage participation.
Hawaii was the first state to pass a full ban last year. Now California, Oregon, New York and Connecticut are trying to do the same.
Pugh has been facing mounting calls for her to resign over a scandal that involves the sale of her children’s books to entities that do business with the city.
The current configuration of the district, spanning parts of six counties, was drawn in the 2012 legislative session.
The 71-45 vote sets up a potential dispute with the state Senate over whether court fines, fees and restitution should be required before felons can vote.
That Bridget Anne Kelly was sentenced to prison came as little surprise -- she'd already been sentenced once, but an appeals court ruling necessitated a new hearing.
Middle-income seniors are a group that Beth Burnham Mace, one of the study’s authors, said has been often overlooked when policymakers and legislators think about housing and care for aging Americans.
If states changed where and how we select candidates, turnout would soar and we'd learn a lot more about what voters really think.
An Alabama sheriff's deputy is on leave after making anti-LGBTQ comments on a Facebook post about a 15-year-old who died by suicide.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker, his wife M.K., and his brother-in-law are under federal investigation for a property tax break that netted the billionaire governor $331,000 in tax relief, Chicago Public Radio station WBEZ reported Wednesday.
The cap on some monetary awards given to injured people is unconstitutional, Oklahoma's high court ruled Tuesday.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) signed legislation on Earth Day Monday banning single-use plastic bags in New York, making the Empire State the third in the nation to pass such a law.
New Jersey workers can’t be fired if they flunk a drug test because they are medical marijuana patients, a state appeals court has ruled.
The bill also would create a standardized "threat assessment" tool for schools to keep records of students they feel may pose a "behavioral threat" to themselves or others.
Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed Monday scientifically challenged legislation that would require doctors to tell women taking an abortion pill that the medication's effects can be reversed.
The highly contested and litigated controversy hinges on the contents of five tapes of recorded phone conversations inside the South Bend police department and allegations that the tapes contain racist comments made by a group of officers about former Police Chief Darryl Boykins, who is black.
Oregon is one of 20 states and the District of Columbia that challenged the Trump administration's changes to the Title X family planning program in U.S. District Court in Oregon, along with Planned Parenthood affiliates and the American Medical Association.
McKean who was elected to the Iowa House in 1978, said there was no single issue that precipitated his move, but cited the election of President Donald Trump in 2016 and a Republican Party he found "very changed."
"People have asked me to give this some serious thought, and I think I owe it to them to give it serious consideration," Gov. Larry Hogan said of challenging Trump.
It is a politically charged dispute over how to conduct the once-a-decade count of the U.S. population, and the justices sounded sharply split along familiar ideological lines.
In California, where the soda industry spends millions on lobbying, a bill to tax sugary drinks has been shelved. Lawmakers in four other states proposed one this year.
About one in five Americans now lack regular access to local media coverage. Studies show this is bad for politics, municipal debt -- and even the environment.
The population experiences homelessness at disproportionate rates.
Under current New Hampshire law, registered voters must only prove “domicile” rather than permanent residency, according to CNN.
The bill won’t require schools to teach the material, but will add it as an encouraged curriculum item for middle schools, junior high schools, and high schools. T
The 18.1 million hours of overtime recorded last year by the state's workforce marked a 3.4 percent increase in overtime pay — $25.7 million — from 2017.
The footage, widely shared through social media, has drawn a public outcry. It shows two deputies take a boy down, bang his forehead into the pavement and repeatedly punch him in the head.
In Texas, the HHSC uses an automated system to detect income changes in households with children on Medicaid several times a year.
Renewable energy was a centerpiece of Sisolak's 2018 campaign for governor in which he touted solar projects undertaken during his tenure as chairman of the Clark County Commission.
A handful of states, cities and counties are experimenting with ways to house former inmates while protecting the public.
State and local officials are striking long-term deals with private companies to upgrade airports, college campuses and prisons.
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) says he’s likely to sign off on a bill that would abolish Columbus Day from the list of state holidays and replace it with Indigenous Peoples Day.
Washington is just a governor's signature away from becoming the first state in the U.S. to legalize the "natural organic reduction" of human remains, colloquially known as "composting."
Teachers are already stressed. But along with testing standards, parent relationships and growing class sizes, teachers and school staff in the post-Columbine era increasingly worry about keeping their students -- and themselves -- safe from shootings and other violence.
The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 Wednesday the state is violating the U.S. Constitution when it sentences juveniles convicted of aggravated murder.
Jail time for groping. Flagging college students who are expelled for sexual assault. Money to test forensic evidence in thousands of “rape kits” to resume stalled investigations.
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico has demanded that Lujan Grisham and New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas investigate the militia organization, United Constitutional Patriots. Some of the group's members are armed.
Tom Miller, as the state's chief legal officer, joined six lawsuits in 2018 that were initiated in other states seeking to block many of Trump's policies.
Some cities are hiring people to share locals' stories and change the traditional narrative surrounding the place they call home.
Mayor Bill de Blasio issued the order last week that would require unvaccinated people living in four ZIP codes in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to receive the measles vaccine in response to one of the largest outbreaks in decades.
The charges stem from more than 350,000 illegal prescriptions written by 60 medical professionals -- 31 doctors, seven pharmacists eight nurse practitioners and seven other licensed professionals -- across Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama and West Virginia.
Kamala Harris, who has made her prosecutorial record a centerpiece of her presidential bid, said she now has misgivings about a California law she championed that punished parents of habitually truant schoolchildren.
For months, the governor has said that he would only support the legislation if lawmakers also invested in initiatives to bolster safety and law enforcement on the state’s roads.
The bill would create new criminal and civil penalties for infanticide, specifically for situations in which a baby survives an abortion procedure.
The three-judge panel refused to block the centerpiece of the sanctuary package -- a law that prohibits police and sheriff's officials from notifying federal immigration authorities of the release dates of immigrant inmates.
The Republican shift has altered the trajectory of state legislative efforts to change the federal system.
Spurred by a measles outbreak that has sickened 74 kids in Washington this year and the biggest national resurgence of the disease in at least five years, the Washington state Senate late Wednesday voted to remove parents' ability to exempt their children from a vaccination for personal or philosophical reasons. But the stricter rules would apply only to one vaccine -- the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination.
The S.C. Senate took a major step Wednesday in the fight against oil drilling along the S.C. coast, agreeing overwhelmingly to block the petroleum industry from establishing refineries, pipes and other infrastructure needed to support drilling.
Though it faced a near death in the Senate Rules Committee, a contentious bill aimed at banning so-called "sanctuary cities" is headed to the Senate floor.
Data showing domestic migration and international migration for U.S. counties.
More communities are training police officers to draw drivers’ blood at police stations or in vans.
Before now, Arkansas law said 16-year-old girls and 17-year-old boys could get married with the consent of both parents. However, there was an exception.
The death of a Florida teenager who authorities say was obsessed with the Columbine school shooting and may have planned to carry out her own attack in Colorado did not end an investigation into the 18-year-old, authorities said.
The move comes as privacy concerns are increasingly trumping lottery groups' wishes to publicize winners to boost sales and show that the games are fair.
Gov. Tony Evers said Wednesday that electronics maker Foxconn Technology Group is unlikely to employ 13,000 workers in Wisconsin as it has said it could and that the state's deal with the company may need to be "downsized" as a result.
Licensed therapists in New Jersey have been prohibited since 2013 from engaging in reparative or conversion therapy for minors.
Newly confident red states are passing some of the strictest prohibitions the country has ever seen. Blue states are enacting ever stronger protections, like ones for later-term abortions in New York and Virginia.
Former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe announced Wednesday night that he's not running for president and is instead focusing on making sure Virginia Democrats win the House and the Senate.
In preparing for a disaster and recovering from one, residents and businesses need to know that their voices will be heard.
Tax breaks likely aren't enough to lure investors to low-income communities in rural areas. There are ways they can become more attractive.
Without enough volunteers to respond to emergencies, some fire departments are cutting services or even shutting down. Most are changing the way they recruit.
New places are emerging as destinations for people on the move.
Louisiana district attorneys oppose a bill that would prohibit prosecutors from putting sexual assault and domestic violence victims in jail in order to compel them to testify in criminal cases against their perpetrators.
Workplace wellness programs have become an $8 billion industry in the U.S. But a study published Tuesday in JAMA found they don’t cut costs for employers, reduce absenteeism or improve workers’ health.
Arkansas will join 33 other states that offer the presumption that cancer is linked to a firefighter's duties and will provide a disability benefit, according to the First Responder Center for Excellence.
Kansas will be taking steps toward allowing farmers to grow hemp for industrial use under a measure Gov. Laura Kelly signed into law Monday.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a sweeping oil and gas bill on Tuesday as Boulder County officials and lawmakers celebrated a bill that will give local governments more control over drilling and mandate state regulators emphasize public safety
Mississippi Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signed a bill Tuesday to give teachers and assistant teachers a $1,500 pay raise during the year that begins July 1.
Yuma is the first border city in the U.S. to declare a state of emergency as part of its response to the latest surge in the number of migrant families reaching the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum.
A desire to live near nature is embedded in California's ethos, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday as he explained why he doesn't want to block home building near forested areas at high risk for wildfires.
A few years ago, Denver civic leaders and city officials started to brainstorm a partnership with employers and building owners that, they hoped, would bring rents in good-quality, market-rate housing within the reach of more workers.
Dozens of people have asked Unified Police of Salt Lake County to keep them, including some whose loved ones have been shot by police.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday signed into law a bill that bars local governments from establishing so-called right-to-work zones, another rebuke to his Republican predecessor, who blocked similar legislation as he battled with Democratic lawmakers over his pro-business, union-weakening agenda.
Nebraska's conservative lawmakers are again expected to reject a measure calling for highly regulated medical marijuana, but that likely won't be the end of the issue
The issue centers on the state’s sovereign-immunity law, which limits how much government agencies can be forced to pay in lawsuits, and how the liability limits should apply when multiple people are killed or injured in incidents.
The governor’s spokeswoman confirmed that the state’s top politician will steer clear of graduation ceremonies throughout the commonwealth this commencement season.
Midwestern states have been battered with intensive flooding since mid-March. Rain and warm temperatures melted the snow from an unseasonably cold and snowy winter in some areas, but the frozen ground couldn’t soak up the water.
Trump allies scoffed at Bill Weld's announcement and claimed he has no real shot.
More than a quarter of the population still lives at or below the poverty line, compared to the national average of around 14 percent.
A new study confirms that the less teachers are paid, the more likely they are to protest. Only a few of the lowest-paid districts have yet to see a strike.
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An overview of the current state of technology in the public sector, new technologies finally making their way into the space and the numerous benefits that the sector will realize.
The president wants to release detained immigrants in cities where local leaders oppose his immigration policies.
A generation ago, most Democrats and Republicans backed capital punishment. But in New Hampshire, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle just voted to abolish it, reflecting a nationwide trend.
The tornado hit Monroe County on Saturday night, said CNN meteorologist Gene Norman. It was one of about six tornadoes to hit the state this weekend. One person in Monroe was killed and 10 people were injured.
Maine’s Constitution says the governor has the sole power to grant reprieves, pardons and commutations, so former Gov. Paul LePage did not break the law, but he broke with tradition.
Investigators at the S.C. Department of Corrections will send their findings to the state Attorney General's Office and the local solicitor in the next week, prisons Director Bryan Stirling said in an interview with The State Wednesday.
If he emerges from the increasingly crowded field of Democratic candidates, the former Rhodes scholar and veteran of the war in Afghanistan would become the first openly gay nominee from a major party.
Gov. Jared Polis signed House Bill 1177 on Friday at the state Capitol, after nearly two months of contentious legislative hearings marked by a familiar partisan divide over the issue of gun control.
Gov. Phil Murphy signed the Medical Aid in Dying bill Friday, making New Jersey the eighth state to allow terminally ill patients to request prescriptions from their doctors for medication to end their lives.
In 11 states, higher-education appropriations have not recovered at all from the worst years of the Great Recession, according to a report by the association of State Higher Education Executive Officers.
Some say the rush to pass these bills is about lawmakers competing to get their particular state's law before the Supreme Court. The state that helps overturn Roe v. Wade would go down in history.
In an attempt to retaliate against Democrats, President Trump and White House officials reportedly plotted to release detained immigrants into sanctuary cities.
Gov. Mike DeWine signed the "Heartbeat Bill" on Thursday, after eight years of the controversial measure falling short of becoming law. The action was met with applause and shouts of "thank you, governor!" by the crowd of about 30 proponents invited inside the governor's ceremonial Statehouse office.
Last week, corrections officials faced a backlash after banning nonprofit groups from mailing used books to prisoners. This week, their math is raising eyebrows.
The city's law department filed a civil complaint on Thursday in the Circuit Court of Cook County "that pursues the full measure of damages allowed under the false statements ordinance," a spokesman said in a statement to The Times.
Kentucky officials announced Wednesday their plan to take advantage of what's called "rapid DNA" technology in which machines analyze a forensic sample and can produce a DNA profile within about two hours.
Former Douglas County prosecutor David Emadi, who started his new job Monday, also said his office will soon decide whether to prosecute the campaigns of Atlanta mayoral candidates.
The bill, introduced by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, however, would exempt safety, sensitive security jobs and those tied to a federal or state contract or grant from the policy.
High-paying blue-collar jobs lifted incomes in West Virginia, New York and Illinois last year, even though the states lost residents.
The United States is almost alone among industrial countries and other democracies in putting most of the onus of registering to vote on individual voters.
Parents of students killed and injured in the 2018 mass murder at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have filed more than 20 lawsuits, alleging negligence by the Broward Sheriff's Office, the Broward County School Board and Henderson Behavorial Health and "willful and wanton negligence" against former BSO school resource officer Scot Peterson and campus monitor Andrew Medina.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little approved legislation Tuesday adding work restrictions and other conditions to the voter-approved Medicaid expansion initiative.
Despite scores of protesters both outside and inside the legislative chambers Wednesday, Ohio lawmakers approved what both sides are labeling the strictest abortion law in the nation.
Building anything anywhere is a short-sighted approach to fixing the affordability crisis.
As the idea of "free college" gains popularity, Virginia and Iowa are instead focused on career and technical education.
The way governments are measuring results is becoming kinder -- and more effective.
How housing shortages, NIMBYism and traffic are reshaping America.
Its problems didn't start with Trump, but he ironically may be helping to turn some of them around.
Well-run governments must have clear lines of leadership. Just ask Pueblo, Colo.
The part of the 2017 law that high-tax states are battling in court is likely helping them lower their debt -- at least in the short-term.
Protecting providers from competition is the enemy of efficiency and integrated mobility. It's an issue that New York City's congestion pricing will address.
Students in Indiana's Elkhart School District are served breakfast and lunch at school, but may go hungry on nights and weekends. So, the school joined forces with an innovative nonprofit to ensures kids in need have enough to eat.
The action removes a barrier for doctors, manicurists, home inspectors and just about anyone else who needs a license to do their job.
The Justice companies owe more than $4 million to the federal government, according to a new Ohio Valley ReSource analysis of federal data.
