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Historic snowstorms brought the city's buses and trains to a standstill for weeks. Is new leadership enough to get the agency back on track?
Fiscally and politically troubled states can solve some of their money problems by increasing cigarette taxes, but it’s no long-term solution. Here's why.
Even before Obama released his rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, dozens of cities pledged to become carbon-neutral. But how they will achieve that isn't always known.
Can rewarding doctors for taking risks lead to better outcomes and cheaper costs?
By 2030, $69 billion in coastal property could flood at high tide.
The city began offering such benefits in 2013, when gay marriage was illegal in N.C. and most other states. But the it could have faced questions as to why it didn't offer the same benefits to the unmarried partners of heterosexual employees.
Before Detroit, many thought general obligation bonds were ironclad. Now they know better.
A second financial ratings agency has downgraded Chicago Public Schools' debt rating to junk status, reinforcing Wall Street's dim view of the district's finances.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has rejected a last ditch attempt by the state to keep a Ten Commandments monument next to the Oklahoma Capitol.
Christy O’Donnell may not get the death she had hoped for — one that right-to-die advocates say she deserves.
LaGuardia Airport was born of controversy after Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, miffed that his city did not have its own airport, refused to exit a plane that had landed at Newark Liberty International Airport in neighboring New Jersey.
After days of waiting for the seas off Block Island to calm, Deepwater Wind on Sunday finally installed the first foundation for the five-turbine wind farm it's building in waters off Block Island.
Communications within city government broke down during the riots of April 27, as officials desperate for information exchanged rumors and subordinates questioned city leaders, emails and other documents released by the city Monday reveal.
Chris Christie, Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal all get disapproving marks from the majority of their constituents.
In the last decade about 47,000 fewer couples have tied the knot in the city. That's a 37 percent drop and a loss of $1 billion annually.
In a press conference barely an hour before the USOC board of directors had a Monday conference call to discuss the Boston bid, the city's mayor said he would not commit to signing the host city contract that would make Boston the financial backstop for any Olympic Games losses.
A growing number of states are replacing full-time toll collectors with electronic systems.
In some of the country’s most expensive cities to live, economists worry increased incomes will put even more pressure on housing markets.
There's been no national conservative organization pushing states to adopt their ideas about programs for the poor -- until now.
With so many governors running for president, new attention is being given to how out-of-state political trips are funded.
Latinos Salud is an advocacy group that has provided rapid HIV testing, safe sex education and free condoms since the South Beach AIDS Project shut down.
Grace Cannon, head of the Office of New School Models, is the fourth leader to leave the district since the school year ended.
Shofars sounded amid the chanting and cheering, clapping and crying as about 100 people crowded together on a strip of sidewalk in Eastern Market today to pray and protest the Satanic Temple's plans to unveil a Baphomet monument in Detroit later tonight.
A month after a black police chief was fired amid allegations of racism, Justice Department officials traveled to Pocomoke City, Md., to meet with local leaders about the chief’s termination.
The city council in Richmond, California, voted last week to cap how much rent landlords could charge tenants in the San Francisco Bay Area city where rents have increased an estimated 30 percent over the last four years.
They spend taxpayer dollars for vital tasks such as uncovering contaminated foods and stemming the spread of deadly diseases.
Hundreds of wildfires are continually whipping across this state this summer, leaving in their wake millions of acres of charred trees and blackened earth.
Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana called for tougher gun laws in other states on Sunday, breaking his silence on the issue three days after a gunman with a history of mental illness and violence opened fire in a movie theater in the state’s fourth-largest city.
A Cook County judge on Friday overturned the city's changes to two pension funds, declaring them "unconstitutional and void."
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the Houston City Council must repeal or put up for public vote a 2014 ordinance that extended protections to gay and transgender residents.
A state appeals court on Friday ruled against one of two counts in the indictment against former Gov. Rick Perry.
In delivering social services and other programs, measuring effectiveness is critical.
For the first time in more than a decade, the House and Senate have passed bills to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law and give states more freedom in education.
The Texas Water Development Board has approved nearly $4 billion in financing for dozens of projects to increase water supplies across the state, and a handful to promote conservation.
In the critical days leading up to Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's election last fall, his campaign handed out thousands of $25, $50 and $75 gift cards to people helping get the vote out for him.
The federal influence-peddling investigation of former Gov. John Kitzhaber and his partner Cylvia Hayes has largely gone silent since February, but outside of the public's view it continues.
When Sandra Bland was booked at the Waller County Jail, she told the staff she had attempted suicide before — a staff, it turns out, who had not been sufficiently trained on how to safeguard the well-being of inmates who are mentally ill, suicidal or pose a risk to themselves.
Lawmakers voted Thursday to cut funding for cities and towns that refuse to comply with federal immigration laws as they debated how to respond to the fatal shooting of a young woman in San Francisco in which the suspect had been deported to Mexico five times.
Lancaster's effort to build a seamless, integrated energy infrastructure points the way to long-term robustness and sustainability.
A historic measure to raise the District’s hourly minimum wage to $15 is headed toward next year’s ballot after city officials released a ruling Wednesday approving a voter initiative that places the nation’s capital at the center of a wage fight taking place in cities across the country.
Low-end University of California workers and contract employees will be getting a pay raise to $15 an hour by late 2017, with an initial boost to $13 on Oct. 1.
Even in a state that helped defeat the Confederacy, legacies of the Civil War era are raising tough questions in the state capitol today.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
Gov. Scott Walker says he supports dismantling and replacing the state’s independent elections and ethics board, ratcheting up Republicans’ calls for change to a board that helped investigate Walker’s 2012 recall campaign.
Some analysts who have looked at health insurers’ proposed premiums for next year predict major increases for policies sold on state and federal health exchanges. Others say it’s too soon to tell.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday asked a federal district judge to dismiss a lawsuit that claims a state agency violated the U.S. Constitution by denying birth certificates to U.S.-citizen children of immigrant parents.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio dropped a proposal to cap the growth of ride-hailing service Uber after the plan ignited a backlash from the company, its allies, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and even model Kate Upton.
Fast food workers in New York state were all but assured a major raise Wednesday when a state Wage Board recommended increasing the state's minimum wage for fast-food workers to $15 per hour.
At least 38 states that authorize the collection of medical fees from inmates.
An analysis of crash data in 12 Texas cities with cellphone rules found no consistent reduction in distracted driving wrecks after cities enacted bans. And that follows equally mixed reviews found by scientific studies on statewide bans on texting or handheld cellphone use while driving in other states.
Andre Anderson, a black U.S. Army veteran who previously oversaw criminal investigations for police in Glendale, Ariz., will become Ferguson's interim police chief.
Gov. Scott Walker joins governors in six other states in calling for National Guard members to be armed.
Each state gets two statues in the U.S. Capitol. Is it time to get rid of the one honoring Edmund Kirby Smith, a Confederate general who surrendered the last military force of the Confederacy in Galveston, Texas?
In the time since the Aurora shooting case got underway, Gov. John Hickenlooper has made it his policy that no one in Colorado will be executed as long as he is in office.
By running its own charter school for inmates, the San Francisco sheriff's office is making a big dent in recidivism.
Gov. Sam Brownback on Tuesday called for an investigation into whether any Kansas facility is selling remains of aborted fetuses.
Gov. Doug Ducey ordered state health officials to immediately put into effect “emergency rules” to ban the illegal sale of tissue from aborted fetuses.
A 52-minute video of the arrest of a black woman who later died in the Waller County Jail includes a screaming match between the woman and a state trooper, who yells at her: "I will light you up!"
Even if California voters legalize cannabis in 2016, it will take "many years" of patience to figure out how to tax and regulate a multibillion-dollar industry that's forever been largely underground.
It should have been a standard conversation, right out of the human resources playbook: Adam Skelos, a new employee, had regularly skipped work in his very first week, logging about one hour during the previous four days.
More than three years ago, Rod Blagojevich stood with his family on the steps of his Chicago bungalow and vowed to dozens of supporters to fight to overturn his conviction on corruption charges and his 14-year prison sentence.
Nevada and North Dakota, once at the bottom and top of unemployment rates, are now seeing their situations reverse.
Florida and Virginia (and possibly two other states) have to redraw their unconstitutional voting maps for the 2016 election. Similar legal challenges are only likely to increase in coming years.
A surprising look at who owns and who benefits the most from tax-exempt debt.
For all of its advantages, cost isn't always one of them. But there are ways to keep them down.
The media often ignores legislation related to government management, so we tracked down some of the year's highlights.
In their recent proposals for reforming the system, the Democratic president and Republican governor who wants to be president have found common ground in three major areas. But does it even matter?
The water planning agency called the drought disappearance “big news” Monday in its weekly drought report, but also offered a reminder that the national monitor “favors soil conditions” and that “reservoirs are still low in West, Far West, and South Texas.”
The state has lowered estimates for cash reserves less than a month into new fiscal year.
Almost a month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton quietly conceded a case against the federal government over medical leave benefits for certain same-sex couples.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage could result in a financial windfall of up to $184.7 million annually in state and local tax revenue, as gays and lesbians head to the altar, creating a boom in the wedding industry and in the taxes that accompany the revved-up business.
For John Kasich, launching a bid for the Oval Office boils down to three questions: Can he raise enough money to be competitive?
Republican presidential hopeful Gov. Scott Walker on Monday banned abortions in Wisconsin after 20 weeks of pregnancy -- a law that is sure to curry favor with conservative voters but could be successfully challenged in court.
Chicago next year will once again have the highest sales tax rate of any major U.S. city, according to a new analysis from a tax policy research organization.
California was just one Mississippi away from dead last in a new national ranking of the economic well-being of children, an indicator of poverty and financial instability of families.
Knowing why employees quit might keep others on the job, something governments struggle to do.
Urban planners have historically had to do their jobs with only the dimmest understanding of what’s going on. Now they have more information than they can handle.
The California governor will travel to the Vatican for a symposium on climate change and human trafficking, along with several mayors. They're making the trip one month after Pope Francis issued an encyclical on the environment.
Mayor Mike Duggan apparently allows city employees to use Gmail accounts for city business, - a practice that concerns open records experts.
The $2-per-pack fee is helping Philly schools, but the tax revenue will decline starting in 2016.
Gov. Brue Rauner and the Illinois house speaker, Michael Madigan, have hit a wall on the state budget.
The healthcare law helps the sickest Americans — depending on their state.
Gov. Jack Markell has vetoed a controversial bill that would allow parents to pull their kids out of Delaware's standardized test.
Gov. John Kasich signed today a controversial bill that drastically changes how the state can step in to run "failing" school districts by creating a new CEO position, allowing mayors to appoint school board members and giving the CEO power to override parts of union contracts.
John Kasich has a resume seemingly tailor-made for a serious run for the Republican nomination: blue-collar upbringing, congressional budget hawk, Fox News commentator, investment banker, successful two-term governor of Ohio.
Public agencies in Missouri that don't respond in three days to requests for public records under the state Sunshine Law give up their right to block the release of the records requested, a judge says in a lawsuit over the release of the pharmacy name in Missouri's executions.
The isolation cells were about the size of a walk-in closet, freezing cold in winter and sweltering in summer. Locked inside for 23 hours a day, some prisoners shouted through the door constantly, desperate to hear an answering voice.
The 10 Freeway is shut in both directions near the eastern side of Joshua Tree National Park after rain from the weekend's unusual storms washed out a bridge in Desert Center on Sunday.
Gov. Bill Haslam on Sunday ordered a review of security policies at Tennessee National Guard recruiting stations and armories following last week's assault on two U.S. military facilities in Chattanooga that left four U.S. Marines and a sailor dead.
The people who deliver services directly to the public know a lot. Denver is setting the pace for tapping that resource.
It's not enough to simply deliver services efficiently. The goal should be to create a sense of place.
Not that long ago, we hardly ever used or even knew the term. What changed?
Republicans may have a supermajority in the legislature, but they can't seem to win statewide offices.
In the decade since the storm, the federal government's involvement in disaster relief has risen -- and so have tensions with localities.
Wealthier people often move to gentrifying neighborhoods for the mom-and-pop stores, but their presence is driving the shops away. Can cities save them?
The Obama administration's digital divide crusade is expanding through a program called ConnectHome and is expected to initially reach more than 275,000 households through increased broadband access, technical training and digital devices.
Under new legislation, Vermont Student Assistance Corporation will set aside $250 for post-secondary education for every child born to Vermont residents, or $500 for children born into families earning less than 250 percent of the federal poverty level.
The city is paying rates that approach 8 percent on the $743 million in taxable debt sold Wednesday. Chicago's borrowing costs have risen dramatically relative to other borrowers as its credit rating has deteriorated.
Philadelphia, with 80,000 low-income tenants, is the largest city in the country to enact such a prohibition.
Gov. Bill Walker said Thursday he would use his executive power to expand the public Medicaid health-care program to newly cover as many as 40,000 low-income residents.
Arizona's legal team came to Pasadena on Thursday to defend the state's refusal to issue driver's licenses to so-called Dreamers, and found that one member of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was in no mood for legal maneuvering.
The Maine Legislature on Thursday shut the books on a roller coaster of a session that stretched to become the longest in recent memory.
Workers whose job is to monitor whether their employer complies with standards and regulations are not barred from whistleblower protections under a state law designed to prevent retaliation against employees who speak out, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
The Colorado Board of Health voted 6-2 — amid shouts, hisses and boos from a packed house — not to add post-traumatic stress disorder to the medical conditions that can be treated under the state's medical marijuana program.
Fifteen years after Hawaii legalized medical marijuana, the state plans to begin licensing pot dispensaries.
Dealing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker a victory just as his presidential campaign gets underway, the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a sweeping decision Thursday ruled the governor's campaign and conservative groups had not violated campaign finance laws.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
Four of the state's 17 federal judges have retired or moved to part-time status, but the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, under GOP control, has taken no action on three pending nominations backed by New Jersey's Democratic senators.
Cody, Wyo., conspiracy theorists insist the body of the frontier celebrity is buried somewhere atop Cedar Mountain, outside the town he founded, and not really in Colorado.
The city attorney's office has filed charges against only 27 of the 323 protesters arrested _ fewer than 9 percent _ and has formally rejected charges against 181.
After many places failed to enforce parts of the 1968 Fair Housing Act, the feds are trying again. But this time, they're offering agencies more help.
The action came after the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen voted July 8 to go out on strike unless the president formed the board, which has 30 days to recommend ways to resolve the impasse.
The ad campaign indicated that finding out "a marginally good-looking girl" later is "chatty," "clingy" or "your boss's daughter" were signs that a man has had too much to drink.
After two days of backroom talks, state senators struck a bipartisan deal Wednesday and approved $250 million in public subsidies for a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to extend highway and transit funding through Dec. 18, in contrast with Senate Republicans, who want a longer extension.
Democrats who control the General Assembly were unable to corral enough votes to completely override Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's vetoes of a new state budget on Wednesday, leaving the state without full spending power as the political stalemate that threatens to shut down portions of state government showed no signs of dissipating.
California regulators on Wednesday ordered Uber to pay a $7.3 million fine and hand over required information about safety and accessibility -- or shut down in the ride service's home state.
During its annual public meeting, the state's Parole Board on Wednesday unanimously passed proposed changes to Department of Corrections regulations, including rules on who is allowed to attend parole hearings largely kept secret from the public.
California and Oregon will be the first states in the nation to allow women to get birth control pills and other hormonal contraceptives directly from their pharmacists – without a doctor’s prescription.
The Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission has signed a deal to digitize and automate the license renewal process state wide.
At least 39 states now use the technology.
To Republicans, the boom in app-based services is welcome, unbridled free-market competition. To Democrats, consumers are navigating a marketplace without important government protections.
Rusk County's Joyce Lewis-Kugle is the first Texas elected official to quit office rather than abide by the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage.
Secretary of State Doug La Follette sued Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday, arguing the budget signed Sunday violates the state constitution by interfering with his ability to maintain state records.
Oregon embraces free community-college tuition at some schools ahead of other states, and outpacing the president's proposal.
The governor - his eye on the 2016 race - has frozen step pay. The unions are hitting back.
The new examination costs more and can only be taken on computers. Only 30 percent of those taking the online test have passed,
From the presidency down, each party is more likely to win elections at certain levels of government. Whether that’s good or bad depends on your political views.
After an anti-abortion group on Tuesday released an undercover video showing an executive at Planned Parenthood discussing how to preserve an aborted fetus’s organs for medical research, Gov. Greg Abbott announced an investigation into the alleged practice.
Gov. Kate Brown signed legislation Monday aimed at curbing profiling by police.
A state committee that oversees Washington's prepaid college tuition plan is considering refunding some, or even all, of the money parents and relatives poured into the plan in recent years.
Just one month before classes start, dozens, and possibly hundreds of Missouri college students are suddenly finding out their tuition is about to more than double because of a rule change passed by Missouri lawmakers.
Gov. Scott Walker's health secretary sued federal officials Tuesday in an attempt to allow the state to screen people with drug tests if they seek food stamps.
With the ink still drying on a second chance society initiative endorsed by black community leaders in Connecticut, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was recognized Tuesday for his work by President Barack Obama at the NAACP's national convention in Philadelphia.
Whether a state's economy is recovering or imploding, fairness and excellence are still the issues.
As Illinois's gridlocked government stumbles toward a shutdown, the very rich governor sends cash to his party's lawmakers and bankrolls statewide TV ads vilifying Democratic legislative leaders who oppose his agenda.
Richard Rose, the president of the Atlanta chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, says the carving of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson is a "glorification of white supremacy."
At least 28 states _ spread across five lawsuits _ seek to derail what was initially known as the "Waters of the United States" rule, which is intended to strengthen and clarify the Clean Water Act.
As research shows how ill-prepared most working Americans are for retirement, pressure is mounting for states to step in.
Under a bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, cities and counties can't issue fines for improper "lawn maintenance" during droughts.
The city is 44 percent black, but only the overwhelming majority new hires in the police department have been white.
Gov. Rick Scott cut millions in aid to the state's disabled community, but the Florida Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act will allow the disabled to say save more of their own money.
The governor's early June veto of Senate Bill 359 caught many of the measure’s proponents off-guard. The legislation had sailed through the House and Senate with little debate and only a handful of negative votes.
The Senate president and the speaker of the House said Monday that when they reconvene, they'll wrap up what little work remains on their calendars, due to a unusual legal fight with Gov. Paul LePage, and formally end legislative work.
As the nation's largest health insurer turns 50 this month, a leading Medicaid expert tells us about the program's biggest challenges and how to overcome them.
State data measuring the length of unemployment shows the extent to which workers have been looking for work over the long term.
Upset that the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage last month, the Dent County Commission voted Monday to observe one year of "mourning."
The Rev. William Barber, head of the NAACP and an architect of the high-profile protest movement challenging much of the Republican agenda in North Carolina, has spent two years dogging key legislative leaders and the governor about sweeping changes to the elections law.
The state Parole Board voted in a special meeting Monday to adopt policy changes including new deadlines for parole revocation hearings and greater use of alternative sentencing.
Almost a year after Eric Garner's controversial death, New York City settled a case brought by Garner's relatives, agreeing Monday to pay $5.9 million.
