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New research shows that having affordable health insurance can improve people's health -- but only if a state’s health-care system actually works.
Oklahoma’s Republican attorney general sues the federal government -- and even other states -- every chance he can get. Will his legal battles change the future of American politics?
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis told lawyers that the Supreme Court "didn't give me a lot of discretion" when it ordered him to review a map passed by lawmakers in a special session.
Davidson County Chancery Judge Claudia Bonnyman said Wednesday that 33 death row inmates didn't prove that the state's proposed one-drug method would lead to a painful and lingering death.
In a 6-0 decision, the high court ordered new hearings before New Jersey family judges to determine whether or not it was in the “best interest” for three immigrants to stay in the United States.
The state Supreme Court yesterday unsealed hundreds of pages of records connected to the looming criminal trial of state Attorney General Kathleen Kane, including pornographic emails that were sent and received by a former state prosecutor.
A new study offers the best data to date on how much the tax exemption on municipal bonds, which are often used to finance sports stadiums, saves state and local governments.
Back at the Governor's Mansion that put him on a national stage, Rick Perry on Wednesday brushed off suggestions that his second bid for the White House, dogged by financial woes, is in peril.
Time is running out for Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis to resume issuing marriage licenses in Kentucky.
Every now and then, the people must call upon the wisdom of the American judicial system to answer the urgent questions of our time.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane blames two former state prosecutors for the criminal case against her, saying they "corruptly manufactured" the investigation to cover up the fact that they had viewed pornography on state computers.
A Topeka judge has denied a move by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to quash a lawsuit challenging the state's two-tier voter registration system and said Kobach has exceeded his authority with the way he runs elections.
President Barack Obama is visiting Alaska next week, where he's expected to argue climate change is an urgent problem that requires international action.
CIOs need to develop better ways to measure how technology is affecting government outcomes.
The owner of the Washington Capitals and Wizards makes urban planning predictions.
Politics and funding have often stymied the legislative push to pay employees forced to take time off to care for newborns or sick family members. But attitudes about work-life balance are shifting.
The confusion caught the media off guard and some didn't realize they were photographing the wrong sister until after Kathleen Kane was inside the courthouse for a preliminary hearing on charges of criminal obstruction.
Jen Henderson, 23, is the only registered voter living within one community improvement district; she is the sole person who would vote on a half-cent sales tax increase for the district.
The four judges who make up the Milwaukee district of the Court of Appeals are, for the first time in Wisconsin, all women.
Reed Hall announced Tuesday he is retiring as CEO of the troubled Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.
Hundreds of districts have reported that they are covering all or some of the pension contributions that teachers, by law, are required to make.
Calls reporting possible child abuse and neglect have increased 25 percent since January at the state's child-welfare agency, leading to a 41 percent increase in opened cases, that agency's new director says.
A panel of federal judges saw problems with Alabama's legislative district map and where it places minority voters.
A judge on Tuesday approved New Jersey's controversial $225 million settlement with ExxonMobil Corp., following a decade of litigation over the oil giant's pollution of more than a thousand acres in the northern part of the state.
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday sought to rewrite a wide-ranging measure aimed at curbing heroin use, eliminating a requirement that the state's Medicaid health care program for the poor pay for medication and therapy programs to treat addiction.
For years, state and local governments have attached additional fees and costs to everything from speeding tickets to parole supervision.
Eight months after the Justice Department announced new curbs on racial profiling, Maryland became on Tuesday the first state to follow suit, with guidelines aimed at severely restricting law enforcement officers from singling out suspects based on traits including race, ethnicity and sexual orientation.
The recent bankruptcy rulings in California and Michigan protected retirees’ pensions. But at what expense?
In Roanoke, Va., Facebook, Twitter and all their social-network cousins have a home in every government agency.
Government agencies can learn a lot from tracking and analyzing grievance claims.
Some states are looking to prevent more derailments and spills, but the freight industry doesn't want more regulation.
Governing followed efforts to turn around one Tennessee high school in this year-long, four-part series that reveals the potential and perils of education reform.
As states around the country embrace Tennessee’s turnaround model, the experience of one Memphis high school shows policymakers about its potential and perils.
The state will not to appeal a judge's ruling blocking a proposed reduction in the annual benefit adjustments in the Montana Teachers Retirement System.
Senate Bill 725 allows students who’ve fulfilled all other graduation requirements to receive diplomas. Thousands of high school seniors were left in limbo after the July test was canceled because the state's contract with the provider had expired.
Gov. Greg Abbott's many redactions and unilateral decisions to withhold information — along with all the exceptions written into disclosure laws each year by the Texas Legislature — are leaving the public less and less informed about the activities of the government they pay for, transparency experts said.
The $37 million program, Texas Fitness Now, primarily gave money to schools to buy sports and gym equipment from 2007 to 2011. Four years later, kids are just as fat.
A data breach that involved the accidental release of the Social Security numbers and salaries of more than 1,000 Illinois Department of Corrections staffers was the result of human error, officials said Friday.
Gov. Jack Dalrymple announcing Monday that he will not run for re-election next year drew a range of reactions from local state legislators and other leaders.
A Washington wildfire grew to be the largest in state history Monday as tens of thousands of firefighters battled to get the upper hand against dozens of large blazes across the West and Northwest.
A federal appeals court on Friday revived Obama administration regulations that guarantee overtime and minimum wage protection to nearly 2 million home health care workers.
Ahead of a major new municipal reform law taking effect this week, the municipal court in Ferguson announced sweeping changes on Monday.
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign has gotten commitments from four Democratic state parties, including the one in crucial proving ground of New Hampshire, to enter into joint fundraising agreements to begin raising money now, while the nominating battle is underway.
Havana has a complex Uber-like system that might be worth imitating in U.S. cities.
Drugs, crime and the social ills long associated with urban areas have migrated to rural America, and it's having a profound effect on the economy.
The National Rifle Association, along with the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the Second Amendment Foundation, filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court on Monday accusing the city of violating a state law that prohibits local municipalities from regulating firearms.
The San Francisco company's lobbyists are pushing lawmakers to exempt its drivers from obtaining commercial licenses before they can ferry passengers.
Republican governors in several states have announce a cutoff of Medicaid funds to the group's clinics. But it's not clear politicians have such power under federal law.
View state revenue generated by alcohol, tobacco and gambling tax collections.
In many ways, Colorado Springs and other cities have rebounded. But things aren’t as good as they seem.
The region's coastal marshes are disappearing, making it even more vulnerable to storms like Katrina. Municipalities want to make the state’s biggest industry pay for the damage.
Less than 62 percent of Ohio children 19 to 35 months old have all the vaccines recommended by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Can the state's new day-care and preschool vaccine law make a difference?
As early as the spring of 2016 the city may have 350 bicycles at 35 stations in the downtown area.
Nearly half of all adults in the city lack the basic skills necessary to obtain good jobs.
As Florida legislators dissolved their two-week redistricting session Friday without agreement on a congressional map, they acknowledged they were ready to repeat something they had done only once before in state history -- turning over the complicated task of drawing maps to the courts.
Gov. Nikki Haley said Thursday she will fight any plans to move Guantanamo Bay detainees to a Naval brig outside Charleston.
Gov. Rick Snyder met Thursday with House and Senate leaders from both parties as they tried to pick up the pieces from another failed attempt to strike a long-term funding deal to repair Michigan's faltering roads and bridges.
Nearly two years after residents in the city of SeaTac narrowly passed a historic law bumping the minimum wage up to $15 an hour, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the law applies to workers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport as well.
State Labor Commissioner Mark Costello was stabbed to death Sunday night at a northwest Oklahoma City restaurant in what sources say was an attempted reconciliation gone bad with his son.
More than 2 million people with coverage on the health insurance exchanges may be missing out on subsidies that could lower their deductibles, copayments and maximum out-of-pocket spending limits, according to a new analysis by Avalere Health.
With everything increasingly connected, there is a growing awareness of new vulnerabilities.
As the use of contract and temporary workers grows and millennials move into government, the public sector will need to adapt.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage has become so unpopular with lawmakers that many Democrats and Republicans have united against him. What does that mean for the next three years?
The challenges that the nation's capital faces to provide accessible and affordable transportation for people with disabilities reflect a nationwide struggle to live up to the ADA's promise.
Hillview, Kentucky, population 8,000, found a way to put itself on the map.
The U.S. may not be the next Greece, but it must face up to some hard decisions.
When cities try to regulate them, they find themselves in a legal minefield.
As more states make medical and recreational marijuana use legal, they increasingly are grappling with what constitutes DUID, or driving under the influence of drugs, and how to detect and prosecute it.
With more than 70 percent of California now classified in a state of "exceptional" or "extreme" drought, Uncle Sam is floundering.
In 2010, Florida passed a tougher law regulating pain-management clinics. A new study indicates the law resulted in "modest decreases" in the use of drugs like Vicodin and oxycodone.
On Thursday, Illinois became the fourth state — after California, New Jersey, and Oregon — to ban conversion therapy for people younger than 18.
The state of Texas should have done more to protect the safety of drinking water for two small border communities in Webb County, defense lawyers argued Thursday in the criminal trial for two former water treatment plant employees.
Gov. Wolf on Thursday announced a series of small benefits upgrades for all families with coverage though the Children's Health Insurance Program, effective Dec. 1.
A lawsuit filed against the Kansas Secretary of State's Office in federal court alleges that Assistant Secretary of State Eric Rucker fired a woman because she would not attend a Christian religious service.
The young women approach tourists in Times Square and pose for photos, wearing nothing but a thong and a feathered headdress, their bare breasts painted with patriotic colors in a thin simulation of a bikini top. Then they ask for a tip.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Wednesday he is open to continuing to accept federal funding for Medicaid expansion if the federal government grants the state increased flexibility in shaping its health-care programs.
Ohio prisons officials, scrambling to find drugs for the next execution just five months away, had the door slammed on obtaining them from foreign sources.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
Kansas is among the states seeking to counter shrinking population in rural counties with tax incentives and other programs.
A Florida Department of Law Enforcement audit finds 7,877 items, including 19 guns and 44 caches of seized narcotics, have gone missing from Sweetwater, Fla. evidence rooms since 2010.
From car pools to practices, a growing number of families using ride-booking services to schlep kids to and from school, after-school activities and other destinations.
The killing of an 18-year-old black man by St. Louis police in the city's Fountain Park neighborhood ignited protests once again Wednesday, with an angry crowd disputing police accounts of the incident.
The state’s beleaguered child welfare agency — grappling with the death of a 2-year-old girl at an Auburn foster home — has seen the number of staffers handling “crisis-level” workloads more than triple over a recent 18-month period, statistics show.
Down in the polls, Governor Christie used an education summit in New Hampshire to push his New Jersey success stories and take shots, first at a teachers union that partnered with him, then at rival Jeb Bush, who said earlier in the day that he couldn’t work with the union in his state.
The state's Office of Open Records has ruled that government agencies are not permitted to charge fees if people requesting public records wish to use their smartphones to photograph the records they are examining.
The floor of the Central Valley is sinking at a record pace as drought-gripped farmers pump out the groundwater beneath them, new satellite data show.
Burlington, Wash., was a small city fighting what seemed like a local lawsuit.
Texas Supreme Court ruled the city council must reword the language because the vote should be on whether to affirm the ordinance, not repeal it.
Anomalies in the tax code flummox consumers and retailers and drive state tax departments to issue complicated rulings _ all in the name of clarifying things that on the surface seem incongruous.
The job prepares politicians for the next level. But not many use it as a stepping stone.
The Best and Brightest Scholarship has come under heavy criticism, including from some of the lawmakers who approved it this summer.
Citing the high costs of specialty drugs as well as pent-up demand among the newly insured, the state's largest insurer -- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan -- received permission to raise its premium rates 11.4% for individual policies in 2016. And its Blue Care Network health maintenance organization will raise individual rates 9.7%. Both entities combined cover 310,000 people.
The changes signed by Chris Christie last week are considered progressive in their approach to handle juvenile offenders, focusing more on rehabilitation instead of severe punishment.
Some states still have barriers for married gay couples looking to adopt from foster care, despite the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage.
Minorities are underrepresented in nearly every large law enforcement agency in America. Some police agencies are now looking to change that.
Incompetence, local politics, lack of resources — all have been blamed for the foul tap water that periodically streams from the faucets of about 8,000 residents in two small border communities.
The drought is costing California about $2.7 billion this year, according to a new UC Davis study, although the statistics suggest the state's overall economy can withstand the impact.
The Alaska Legislature on Tuesday said it would sue Gov. Bill Walker to block his move last month to expand the public Medicaid health-care program without lawmakers' approval.
The National Labor Relations Board on Monday dismissed a union election petition from Northwestern University football players, halting a push to organize college athletes.
Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday he would scrap President Barack Obama's signature health care law on his first day in office and replace it with a health insurance system that relies on refundable tax credits based on age instead of household income to help individuals pay for health coverage.
While Congress remains stalled on a long-term plan for funding highways, state lawmakers and governors aren't waiting around.
A new report shows how many young people found jobs and the industries where they worked.
Tennessee may join the handful of states that charge citizens for seeking public information from the government -- a practice that opponents say hinders transparency.
The Environmental Protection Agency and a slate of state and local players have worried for decades about the poisonous waste and polluted water bequeathed to Cement Creek by the rich mining history.
The LA County jail's version of democracy, inmate councils, have changed life for inmates.
For technology to meet its potential to transform health care, many barriers must be overcome.
Beginning next year, state officials want to fold a $2 billion program for children with severe illnesses or birth defects in Medi-Cal managed care. But many families and children’s advocates are strenuously opposed.
Gov. Bruce Rauner approved a measure requiring families seeking a religious exemption to complete a certificate explaining their objection on religious grounds before kindergarten, 6th and 9th grades. That certificate also must include the signature of a doctor.
Ironically, the duties of City Commissioners Chairman Anthony Clark require him to serve on the Board of Elections, which oversees city elections.
Does he want to end the war on drugs or escalate it?
Gov. Larry Hogan's top housing official said Friday that he wants to look at loosening state lead paint poisoning laws, saying they could motivate a mother to deliberately poison her child to obtain free housing.
On the evening of April 21 in Building 21 at the Fishkill Correctional Facility, Samuel Harrell, an inmate with a history of erratic behavior linked to bipolar disorder, packed his bags and announced he was going home, though he still had several years left to serve on his drug sentence.
Arkansas and Utah are the latest states to target funding for Planned Parenthood, making five states in total trying to restrict money from the women's health group.
California lawmakers from both parties are calling for more stringent oversight of a clean jobs initiative after an Associated Press report found that a fraction of the promised jobs have been created.
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis may continue withholding marriage licenses to local couples for now, a federal judge ruled Monday.
The White House Office of Drug Policy said Monday that $2.5 million will be spent on a new initiative designed to combat the use and trafficking of heroin in 15 states, including Connecticut, by linking public health and law enforcement agencies with the goal of emphasizing treatment over punishment.
Many of the country’s 2,300 rural hospitals are struggling. Can joining with other hospitals help them survive?
The U.S. Department of Transportation began requiring in May 2014 that railroads inform states of large shipments of crude oil after a series of derailments with spills, fires, explosions and evacuations. But some railroads said the reports should be exempt from disclosure under state open records laws.
The Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, S.C., is the only other military base department officials are considering as they prepare to send Congress a detailed proposal to shutter the detention camp.
Taxing alcohol, tobacco and gambling isn't a good long-term revenue source. But states do it anyway.
Gov. Mike Pence announced today that he is authorizing the department to hire more family case managers, at a cost of about $7.2 million.
Detroit Public Schools will close its Office of Inspector General. Some wonder what will happen with pending investigations.
Over the last four years, about one of every four recommendations from the Auditor General was repeated from a previous audit because the problem wasn’t fully addressed.
Even in Massachusetts, where a 2012 health care cost control law requires that hospitals and doctors provide patients with the price of a test, exam or treatment within two business days of the request, it's still pretty hard to figure out how much a visit is going to cost patients.
When state lawmakers return to the Capitol from their summer recess on Monday, awaiting them will be elements of a potential megadeal that could resolve three of the major issues they must tackle in the month that remains before adjourning for the year.
Despite higher-than-expected enrollment of Ohioans newly eligible for Medicaid, overall costs of the tax-funded health-insurance program in the most-recent fiscal year were nearly $2 billion below original estimates.
The state has decided not to move ahead with a plan to get the federal government to provide more Medicaid funding for an experimental program aimed at helping Grady Hospital and struggling rural hospitals.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley is expected to endorse John Kasich for president this morning, a move that the Ohio governor's supporters say illustrates three key facts.
President Barack Obama's climate change plan will be challenged in in the courts this fall, when lawyers for at least 15 states join the coal and power industries to block the carbon-reducing rules before they take effect.
Far more than the public realizes, innovators are making extraordinary efforts in communities across America.
By making better use of the data they already have, governments could dramatically improve service delivery.
Hispanic babies born in rural enclaves are more likely to be impoverished than those in the city. And it’s harder for them to receive help from federal and state programs, such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Consistent health care also is hard to come by
Empowered consumers and data analytics are driving cities to re-think how they protect health and safety.
Months later, the finances of Gov. Walker's trips to Israel and Western Europe are still a mystery.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the sheriff , whose Phoenix-area department has been aggressive in trying to deport immigrants in the country illegally, did not have standing to sue the Obama administration because he couldn’t show he was being directly harmed by the immigration policies.
Katrina hit Aug. 29, 2005, breaching canals in dozens of places and leaving 80 percent of the city flooded, survivors riding rooftops, and the dead in attics or tangled in tree branches. It's come back, but only so far.
Jon Husted said that the courts already had decided this issue, and that only the state has the authority to regulate oil and gas activity in Ohio.
The court agreed to a sped-up briefing cycle that will lead to oral arguments in November.
Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed into law a measure setting statewide standards for use of the cameras, expanding police officer training to include topics like use of force and requiring an independent investigation of all officer-involved deaths.
California has taken the most proactive stance in the nation in enforcing laws to ensure people with mental illnesses have fair and timely access to care. But even there, it’s proving difficult to ensure mental patients truly have equal access to treatment.
A U.S. District Court judge on Tuesday struck down the state law banning "ballot selfies," calling the prohibition "a content-based restriction on speech that cannot survive strict scrutiny."
Prodded by a $100,000-a-day fine, Gov. Jay Inslee and legislative leaders plan to dive back into the school-spending dispute Monday after the latest state Supreme Court repudiation of Washington's chronic underfunding of public schools.
Michael B. Ross wanted to die. He'd wanted to die for years, but the state of Connecticut couldn't manage to kill him.
The undercover videos purporting to show officials of Planned Parenthood bargaining over the sale of fetal tissue have made the promise to defund the organization one of the most popular refrains on the Republican presidential campaign trail.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services warned Alabama on Thursday that its cancellation of Medicaid contracts with Planned Parenthood could violate federal law.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is leading 16 other state attorneys general in a legal action against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,accusing it of illegally invalidating the individual air quality protection plans in those states.
A rundown of the most important tax-related measures facing voters this November.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
Parents who still refuse vaccination are required to sign a form in which they "acknowledge that I may be placing my child and others at risk of serious illness should he or she contract a disease that could have been prevented through proper vaccination."
