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Several states limit the topic of their legislative sessions every other year to money, and Louisiana voters rejected a ballot measure to add corporate giveaways to that conversation.
School choice, including controversial tax credit scholarships, tops a lengthy list of public education issues Dan Patrick has asked state senators to study ahead of the 2017 legislative session.
The signing of a new privacy bill was celebrated by privacy advocates and major technology companies alike.
Johns Hopkins University launched an initiative to fill more jobs with residents from distressed Baltimore neighborhoods, boost the use of minority contractors and vendors from those areas. Other hospitals across the country also have shown a greater inclination to address poverty in their communities.
With slim near-term prospects for additional state or federal funding, the project needs billions of dollars in private investment to supplement government funding as it tries to complete its first passenger-carrying segment.
The initiative comes from state legislation this year this year that allows pharmacists, working with doctors, to fill naloxone orders to caregivers and others in their communities without a prescription.
Oregon sues Propylon, an Irish company, for breach of contract. The company is still working with the Kansas Legislature, however.
Year after year, private companies dependent on Medicaid funding don't pay their employees. Mental health agencies, home health care companies and group homes accounted for more unresolved wage payment cases than any other single industry in North Carolina.
Reproductive health clinics run by abortion opponents moved immediately to head off enforcement of a bill signed Friday by Gov. Jerry Brown that would require the clinics to inform patients that abortion services are available elsewhere.
Capping a year dominated by uncommonly personal and emotional debates in the Capitol, California Gov. Jerry Brown ended his work on legislation Sunday by banning the use of "Redskin" for school mascots, refusing to bar Confederate names on public buildings and declining new access to experimental drugs for the gravely ill.
A federal appeals court has blocked a major Obama administration clean water rule, handing an early victory to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and other states trying to drown it in court.
The Montana Board of Pardons and Parole has adopted a policy on how it will implement a new law that allows the governor to grant clemency to prisoners even if the board recommends against it.
Georgia still hasn’t lived up to its part of an agreement with the federal government to shift severely mentally ill residents out of state mental hospitals and into community settings, the Justice Department said in a scathing letter that demanded a corrective action plan by November.
Stephanie Douglas signed up for health insurance in January with the best intentions. She had suffered a stroke and needed help paying for her medicines and care.
State officials say the opiate epidemic is a reason more children are landing in foster care.
Although larger practices have the resources to provide benefits to patients through better care coordination or access to new technologies, these practices’ greater market power may enable them to charge higher prices.
Voters in majority-black Memphis on Thursday elected the city's first white mayor in 24 years as City Councilman Jim Strickland's message of change propelled him over incumbent A C Wharton.
The state said it had filed an eminent domain action against the City of Margate to gain access to city-owned beachfront easements needed for the state's dune project.
As more states legalize either medical or recreational marijuana use, members of Congress are being asked to take positions. The results are often cringe-worthy.
The Baker administration has bounced the state's longtime ad agency after a Herald investigation revealed it got $20 million from a hidden, taxpayer-funded account created by former Gov. Deval Patrick to skirt the budget ax.
Following in the footsteps of Harris County and the city of Dallas, the state announced Thursday it is suing Volkswagen in connection with the German automaker's admitted use of software that allowed its vehicles to circumvent emissions limits.
There have been so many problems in carrying out executions in Oklahoma that it's hard to say whether the death penalty can continue in this state, Gov. Mary Fallin said Thursday.
Every city inmate must receive a "bill of rights," and jail guards' use-of-force policies must be publicly disclosed under legislation that Mayor Bill de Blasio signed Wednesday at City Hall.
Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday signed 23 new environmental bills into law, banning tiny plastic beads in cosmetics that scientists say are polluting the ocean and San Francisco Bay, toughening oil pipeline laws and requiring the state's massive pension funds to sell off their coal stocks.
President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into law the Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees Act, legislation introduced by U.S. 2nd District Rep. Brett Guthrie.
A lawsuit could force the city to review what "displacement" means under the California Environmental Quality Act.
It's the first municipality to center an awareness campaign around intrauterine devices, the most effective form of birth control that few women choose. Will others follow?
City officials are taking a new, less subjective look at their roads and how to fund them with a capital acceleration plan and a laser-equipped van geared toward removing guess work and saving money.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
How Utah, passed a bill by the GOP-controlled Legislature that raises the existing 24.5 cents per gallon state gas tax by about 5 cents to pay for state infrastructure projects.
GOP presidential candidates point to the city's tough gun laws and high rates of gun violence as proof that the problem cannot be legislated away. But the truth is more complicated.
In a major blow to Gov. Wolf's agenda, the state House on Wednesday soundly rejected his proposal to increase funding for Pennsylvania schools through tax hikes, creating more uncertainty about how or when the state's 99-day budget impasse would be resolved.
The Michigan Senate today passed legislation that will make it tougher for law enforcement agencies to seize private property and also require police to better document how and why they took the property.
Portland is officially in a housing emergency. But what that actually means for the city's more than 1,800 people living on the street is still unclear.
The Ohio Attorney General's Office filed suit Tuesday against the city of Toledo, asking a judge to declare invalid several key sections of the city's new "Sensible Marihuana Ordinance."
Ending Medicaid expansion in Arkansas could have a “substantial cost” for the state, according to a consultant’s report.
By the end of 2030, half of California's electricity will come from the wind, the sun and other renewable sources under a new law that sets one of the country's most ambitious clean-energy targets.
Denied by banks, small business owners are increasingly turning to alternative lenders for help. But many hide the real cost of doing business.
Migration rates are near historic lows, but some places are still attracting large numbers of new residents. View data for every county.
A roundup of public-sector management news you need to know.
While other cities try to regulate or ban panhandlers, Albuquerque, N.M., offers them an income and social services for the day.
Installed on the Capitol grounds in 2012, the monument has been the source of friction. On Monday night state workers took it down.
Police officials here said the implementation of the technology isn’t far off from previous practices. It’s not a major change given the use of vehicle dashboard cameras and audio recorders for years, they said.
The report contained 30 recommendations for improving the department, which has more than 500 employees and a $10 billion budget and is characterized as "slow to change" and "beset by apathy."
The Illinois Department of Public Health will no longer provide testing of sexually transmitted infections for dozens of county health departments and other facilities, saying resources must be shifted to more complicated testing to identify disease outbreaks and biological threats.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has filed a lawsuit against Volkswagen asking that the German automotive company be forced to provide state consumers a refund after it admitted to cheating U.S. emissions tests.
Recent heavy rains and floods across South Carolina that broke multiple dams and destroyed hundreds -- if not thousands -- of homes have turned a spotlight on the state's dam safety program.
A new California law, described as the toughest equal-pay measure in the nation, puts the state on the forefront of the women's rights movement, supporters said Tuesday.
Jennifer Roberts easily turned back incumbent Dan Clodfelter in Tuesday’s Democratic mayoral runoff and now faces Republican Edwin Peacock in an election that will guarantee Charlotte its fifth different mayor in less than three years.
Ohio seems to have taken a page from Lake Wobegon, where all the children are above average.
The justices will hear cases this month on collective bargaining, juvenile justice, water rights and more.
The Hardest Hit Fund was established by Congress in 2010 to provide mortgage relief and other assistance to struggling homeowners as part of a wider effort to bail out the nation's economy. Florida's performance has lagged well behind other states because of a lack of federal oversight,
The state's notoriously overcrowded prisons are finally seeing some relief. But it wasn't the state that catalyzed the change -- it was the voters.
The service is useful for patients in rural areas, but right now the financial benefits are just theoretical.
Governors and other state officials are traveling to Cuba to forge business ties with the island nation.
Almost a year into their new job, most have been largely successful. But some are struggling to lead.
Texas border cameras show that there's been a decline in smuggling interdiction amid a huge manpower surge.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Saturday intended to reduce racial profiling by police officers.
President Obama has withdrawn his nomination of former MBTA chief Beverly Scott to the National Transportation Safety Board, abruptly ending her controversial bid to the $155,000-a-year post, the Herald has learned.
The only gun store in San Francisco is shuttering for good, saying it can no longer operate in the city's political climate of increased gun control regulations and vocal opposition to its business.
Chronically ill people enrolled in individual health plans sold on the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges pay on average twice as much out-of-pocket for prescription drugs each year than people covered through their workplace, according to a study published Monday in the Health Affairs journal.
The District would become the most generous place in the country for a worker to take time off after giving birth or to care for a dying parent under a measure supported by a majority of the D.C. Council.
The federal government on Monday announced the details of a record $20 billion civil settlement with the British oil company BP over the 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.
The rally, which mostly bewildered passersby, was organized by the creator of the Instagram account Renoir Sucks at Painting, who wants the the museum to take its Renoirs off the walls and replace them with something better.
Some states have created ombudsman offices to handle the deluge of complaints between residents and homeowner associations.
The California governor has signed legislation to allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of drugs.
The state ended the fiscal year in June with an estimated $43 million in fire fee money left over.
The issue has reached courts and legislatures in many states, but there's no national consensus on the legality of taking a photo of a completed ballot and posting it on social media.
Following an outcry from dozens of state lawmakers, Texas’ top health agency announced Thursday it will make less drastic cuts than originally planned to a therapy program for children with disabilities.
Problems have plagued the roll out of Obamacare. Three million more people than expected have signed up for Medicaid in California. Other states have also witnessed surges far beyond initial projections, including Kentucky, Michigan, Oregon and Washington State.
Cincinnati, Atlanta; Buffalo, New York; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Indianapolis; Louisville, Kentucky; Pittsburgh and York, Pennsylvania; Springfield, Massachusetts; Toledo, Ohio; and Washington, D.C. have all made serious efforts to desegregate.
When Jamie Fox joined the Christie administration last fall as transportation commissioner, he sought to accomplish something that had eluded policymakers in Trenton for years: securing a long-term plan to fund New Jersey's road, bridge, and rail projects.
For University of Texas at El Paso professor David Smith-Soto, the fight against allowing guns in his classroom began with a quiet act of civil disobedience this summer.
A slow-moving storm produced historic floods Sunday after dumping more than a foot of rain in parts of Columbia.
The New Mexico secretary of state, who oversees campaign finance reporting and once bemoaned a "culture of corruption" in the state, has been accused of using her election fund as a personal piggy bank at jewelry stores, ATMs and casinos.
The Senate passed legislation on Thursday intended to protect small and midsize businesses from increases in health insurance premiums, clearing the bill for President Obama’s expected signature.
The New York education commissioner whose tenure was a flashpoint in the state's education wars is about to lead the nation through its own rocky education reforms.
The ways we calculate pay scales for labor on government projects dramatically inflate the costs.
Interim DeKalb County CEO Lee May calls the special investigative report he ordered “salacious” and angrily denies wrongdoing.
Since its inception 50 years ago, Medicaid has become one of the nation's biggest government programs. But most states don't treat it as such.
After Alabama put into effect a tougher voter ID law, the state shuttered 31 driver's license offices due to a budget crisis. The closures will cut off access to one of the few types of IDs accepted.
While most California school districts offer sexual education courses, participation is currently voluntary. Under the new mandate students can only avoid the classes with parental consent. It will also update instruction relating to HIV and require educators talk about a range of gender identities.
The fund will join OhioCheckbook.com, a state website designed to promote financial transparency.
The New Jersey governor opposes federal legislation that would require New Jersey to recognize carry permits from other states, but said he would consider a bill to change New Jersey’s “illogical” law to recognize permits from other states if the Democrats who control the Legislature send him one.
Jeffery Beasley, inspector general of Florida's Department of Corrections, said Thursday that he is stepping down to assume another role at the embattled agency.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, already facing a host of criminal charges for allegedly leaking confidential information and later lying about it to a grand jury, was charged Thursday with a new felony count of perjury.
In one of the deadliest of a series of school shootings that have become violently familiar across the U.S., a gunman opened fire at a community college in southwestern Oregon on Thursday morning, killing at least 10 people and injuring at least seven more before dying in an exchange of gunfire with police.
Chicago Public Schools lowered four years of inflated high school graduation rates to account for a higher-than-advertised dropout rate, another blow to a district beset by financial and professional turmoil.
The hits began early and kept on coming Wednesday for a new plan from Republican state legislators to place an indefinite freeze on Ohio's clean-energy standards, with the governor and many others saying the proposal is a bad idea.
Volkswagen is about to learn just what it means to mess with Texas. Harris County, home to Houston, is suing the car giant for more than $100 million in what officials are calling the “first” local government suit against VW following its emissions scandal. Here’s county attorney Vince Ryan, via a press release from his office.
The U.S Environmental Protection Agency adopted a stricter smog limit Thursday that will force states to reduce emissions over the next decade, improving respiratory health for millions of people through pollution controls that will cost industry billions of dollars.
Giving up on the gridlock at the federal and state levels, progressives are turning their attention to local ballots to get their ideas passed. But policies that sell well in cities won't always work statewide.
The bill, which failed, would have banned local governments from regulating employment and housing practices.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
The state's 5,000 free overdose prevention kits will include instructions on how to use Narcan nasal spray to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose as well as steps to help victims survive until emergency medical responders arrive.
States are clamping down on “price optimization,” the practice of tying insurance rates to policyholders’ tolerance of price increases.
The execution of convicted murderer Richard Glossip has been stayed by Gov. Mary Fallin, who said in a news release the state received a drug for his execution it is not authorized to use.
An Iowa judge upheld a state law that disqualifies felons from voting but said the state Supreme Court needs to sort out the confusion it caused last year when it ruled not all felons are automatically disenfranchised.
If zombies attack Gov. Sam Brownback plans on escaping Topeka and heading to his parents' farm in Parker for safety.
Starting Thursday, it's legal to buy marijuana in Oregon.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson, the first governor to travel to Cuba since the reopening of diplomatic relations with the U.S., said Tuesday that his trip to the country is intended to put Arkansas in the "top tier" for trade.
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Obama administration’s first major regulations on hydraulic fracturing.
Municipal finances look stable on paper, but cities still struggle with slow revenue growth and rising costs, according to a new report.
Texas used to force many elected officials to live in the state's capital city. Voters repealed that rule Tuesday.
New data shows how much people have spent each year on health care, housing, transportation, education and retirement since 2004.
It will soon be illegal to discriminate over sexual orientation or gender identity in terms of housing, employment and public accommodations in the city.
A recent audit found more than 25,000 families living in public housing nationwide that made more than the income limit to qualify for rent subsidies. Of those, 1,056 live in Texas.
The new checks will be done on about 5 percent — or about 500 — of the approximately 10,000 social workers licensed in Wisconsin.
Among the 10 largest cities in the country, the city has highest deep-poverty rate.
The U.S. Department of Education awarded Ohio the largest "Charter School Program" grant -- $71 million -- even though the data submitted to get that grant may have been inaccurate.
Peter Shumlin chief of staff sent a memo to state officials instructing them to reach out to the governor’s press secretary before calling reporters, conducting interviews or writing opinion pieces for newspapers.
Many wouldn't be incarcerated at all if they could afford bail.
Most incumbents are safe bets for re-election, but races remain unpredictable in several big cities.
While some may see them as felons in jumpsuits, California residents of cities affected by threatening wildfires know inmate firefighters as the "angels in orange."
The Missouri Senate will continue investigating Planned Parenthood even though the state attorney general found no evidence suggesting the organization sold fetal body parts in the state.
Kelly Gissendaner, convicted of murder nearly two decades ago, was put to death early Wednesday morning.
Rep. Jud McMillin, a rising star in the state's Republican Party, abruptly resigned Tuesday.
Attorneys for Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis say the pope met privately with her and her husband, Joe, during the pope's visit to the United States last week.
Buffeted by a series of high-profile child abuse cases, Governor Charlie Baker pledged Monday to replace a patchwork of policies at the state’s Department of Children and Families with a clear, standardized playbook aimed at protecting children from violent crime at the hands of those closest to them.
Carrizo cane sprouts along the banks of the Rio Grande, providing easy cover for smugglers and drug mules. A new state law says it should be eradicated, and the governor requested $10 million to do the job. But lawmakers neglected to set aside any money for razing cane.
As the number of companies testing self-driving cars on public roads rises, nonprofit Consumer Watchdog says the public should have more information about the crashes those vehicles are getting into.
In 1986, Washington's Legislature decided police officers shouldn't be prosecuted for killing someone in the line of duty as long as they acted in good faith and without malice, or what the law calls "evil intent."
Prescriptions for birth control pills typically have to be renewed every 30 or 90 days, potentially resulting in women missing scheduled pills. The yearlong provision will begin in 2017.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez said he'll push for measures to expand the regular taxi force by ditching restrictions on how many cabs can operate in Miami-Dade and who can drive them.
Is the country—along with the aid groups that help in resettlement and local communities that receive refugees—ready for an increase in arrivals? And where will the new arrivals go?
The company that sold the amphibious Ride the Ducks vehicle involved in last week's deadly crash on the Aurora Bridge says it had "no reason to believe" that the Seattle firm that bought it had not made a safety fix to the vehicle that was recommended two years ago.
Gov. Christie said Monday that he wouldn't consider raising the state's tax on gasoline unless lawmakers pared back other levies, though he didn't endorse a specific plan.
Before she was sentenced Monday for her role in helping two killers escape from Clinton Correctional, Joyce Mitchell sobbed through a statement expressing remorse and fear of going to state prison.
Facing insolvency, the co-op health insurance plan operating under the state's Obamacare health exchange is being shut down.
Pennsylvania's chief justice declined Monday to join calls by other elected state officials for embattled Attorney General Kathleen Kane's resignation saying that is a purely personal decision for her.
This is one national ranking Tennessee officials are not likely to boast about any time soon.
In the absence of federal laws to address the stubborn pay gap between women and men, some states are stepping in with legislation.
State elected officials and candidates receive perks and spend millions of dollars in campaign cash on car repairs, football tickets, male-enhancement pills, and overseas trips.
In Guadalupe, one of the state's smallest towns, residents try to combat persistent poverty.
Louisiana voters approved a ballot measure to let local governments tax property in their borders that's owned by another government.
The college celebrates 50 years as an independent institution.
A new long-term blueprint from San Diego planners puts skyways and light-rail stations in some of the county's beach communities, making it possible for people who want to get to the ocean to make the trip without getting behind the wheel.
The foreign-born make up 14 percent of the nation's population today. They are projected to be 18 percent of the population by 2065.
On the flight back to Rome, he was asked if he supported individuals, including government officials, who refuse to abide by some laws, such as issuing marriage licenses to gays.
Shell was counting on offshore drilling in Alaska to help it drive future revenue, but results from an exploratory well backed by billions of dollars in investment and years of work were disappointing.
The National Transportation Safety Board found the duck boat that crashed Friday did not have an axle repair that was recommended in 2013.
The case of a corrections officer who injured an inmate and lied about it, but who an arbitrator found could return to work after a 120-day suspension, illustrates a broader problem.
Federal prosecutors looking into Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s marquee program to revitalize Buffalo’s economy have been examining how the government-funded projects were awarded, and whether state elected officials played a role in choosing who would benefit from the infusion of funds.
A new report offers several recommendations for changing sentencing laws and other policies on state and federal levels.
An ethics complaint says Mortimer Downey’s paid work for contractor Parsons Brinckerhoff was improper.
The most powerful political offices can sometimes come from surprising and seemingly insignificant places.
He said he's going to stay in Madison and is still considering whether to run for a third term as governor in 2018.
A total of 55 employees received a layoff letter this week because the state's contracts with labor unions requires it. Most of the affected employees work in the Department of Health and Human Services.
The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, asks a judge to order the mayor to comply with a state Freedom of Information Act request from the Tribune and release communications about city business conducted through private emails and text messages.
