Archive
A state Supreme Court ruling this week freed Gov. Chris Christie from having to fully fund public pensions.
Diving into an issue that continues to polarize the country, Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a requirement that Florida women visit a doctor and wait at least 24 hours before having an abortion.
State marriage licenses issued to gay couples last year are just as valid as those issued to their heterosexual counterparts, a Pulaski County circuit judge ruled Tuesday as Arkansas waits for a higher court to decide the question of whether same-sex couples have a right to marry.
Democrats who control the New Jersey Legislature say they are planning a new budget that still makes a full pension-fund payment that's no longer required by law, setting up another showdown with Gov. Chris Christie.
The New York City Council approved a new package of disability pension benefits on Wednesday for police officers and firefighters in what union representatives and some council members described as a surreptitious process.
Red-state Kentucky’s broad embrace of Obamacare has been a comforting success story for the White House. But now the Affordable Care Act is the central issue in the state’s off-year governor’s race, and a Republican victory could be a portent for 2016, when GOP presidential contenders will run on a renewed vow to repeal the act.
Nine of 10 Democratic-sponsored bills vetoed by Gov. Paul LePage triggered lopsided rebukes of the governor in both the House and Senate.
Gov. Bill Haslam ceremonially signed the Individualized Education Act on Wednesday in Nashville, allowing the families of children with special needs additional educational options.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said the administration will work with states to help mitigate the consequences for consumers if the Supreme Court ruled against federal subsidies.
Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Chicago are among a host of places attempting to process data within the same framework as water or any other natural resource — and it seems to be working.
Between 2002 and 2012, of the 29 inmates who escaped from New York state prisons, none of the escapees lasted longer than three days before being recaptured,
Miami-Dade County school district announced Wednesday that Alberto Iber had been removed as principal after going online to defend Texas cop who waved a gun at black teens while responding to a call about an unruly pool party.
On July 1 Jay Shue will leave office the office he created.
Former Gov. Deval Patrick's administration secretly diverted $27 million in public funding to skirt the state Legislature and evade state budget cutbacks during the recession.
The state is issuing a first-of-its-kind anonymous “engagement survey” to measure how much employees care about their work and how connected they feel to what they do.
The highest-charging U.S. hospitals are for-profits institutions concentrated in Florida.
To Gov. Greg Abbott, signing a sweeping, multimillion-dollar border security bill hundreds of miles from the Rio Grande made sense.
Gov. David Ige on Monday signed into law four energy bills, including one that strengthens Hawaii's commitment to clean energy by directing the state's utilities to generate 100 percent of their electricity sales from renewable energy resources by 2045.
Gov. Peter Shumlin's surprise announcement that he won't seek a fourth term opens a Vermont gubernatorial field that could turn into "a bit of a circus," in the words of one potential candidate.
Virginia’s top Republican easily withstood a tea-party primary challenge Tuesday, signaling that a deeply fractured state GOP may be finding its footing at a crucial time when national Republicans are preparing for the 2016 presidential race.
The likelihood of Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III being ousted just got a lot smaller.
A federal appeals court has turned down legal challenges filed by Murray Energy and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey over the Obama administration's proposed rule to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
The police officer whose aggressive response to an unruly teenage pool party ignited a national controversy resigned Tuesday, leaving critics relieved and supporters disappointed that an officer they considered a hero had been forced out.
States and localities are embracing the promise of big data. But just how good is the information they’re collecting in the first place?
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state can require abortion clinics to meet costly ambulatory surgical center standards,
The New Jersey Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that public workers do not have a legally enforceable contract to greater pension funding, handing Gov. Christie a significant victory in a yearlong battle with public-sector unions.
The Department of Revenue unveiled an interactive revenue and expenditure model Saturday. By downloading the Revenue and Expenditure Model, users can change the lines on future budgets by adjusting dozens of revenue and spending assumptions.
By a 23-6 vote, the council authorized the council attorney to file a suit to nullify the $32 million no-bid contract with California-based Vision Fleet on the grounds that it was signed illegally.
Republican Susana Martinez remains committed to the controversial standards introduced five years ago to measure student proficiency in mathematics, language arts and literacy.
An executive order by Gov. Steve Beshear raises the minimum wage for employees of the executive branch of state government from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour.
The federal government plans to expand the use of a web-based tool nationwide after a pilot of the system showed good results.
A dose of outsourcing could go a long way toward fixing some of the Boston-area transit system's problems. But a state law makes that practically impossible.
Gov. Paul LePage on Monday made good on a previous threat to veto all Democrat-sponsored bills if the Legislature rejected his constitutional amendment to kill the income tax.
Students who picked up a smoking habit during their first year of college won't be buying cigarettes if they're home for the summer in Upper Arlington.
Millions of Americans could soon lose health insurance when the Supreme Court decides the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act this month, but states have made few plans to deal with the potential fallout, and they may get little help from Washington, President Barack Obama warned Monday.
The white South Carolina police officer whose shooting of a fleeing, unarmed black man was captured in a chilling cellphone video earlier this year has been indicted on a murder charge by a grand jury.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a case pitting Maine Gov. Paul LePage against the federal government that could have resulted in thousands of low-income young adults losing their health care coverage.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected efforts by gun owners and the National Rifle Association on Monday to halt San Francisco's enforcement of a 2007 ordinance requiring residents to keep handguns locked when stored at home.
A new report from the Volcker Alliance shows how states regularly get around balanced budget requirements with accounting gimmicks.
Who killed the State House and Senate's top energy bills? Their autopsy evokes the names of T. Boone Pickens and Koch Industries and involves plenty of squabbling between the chambers.
Starting in the fall, about 250,000 low-income Missourians may have access to dental care for the first time in a decade.
Michigan is one of only 11 states that does not require home-schooling parents to register with the state or have any contact with officials.
Jerry Brown wants to keep the budget under control, but other Democrats want to spend.
Businessman Hasan Harnett says he can expand the Republican party's appeal to minorities.
Some cash-strapped cities shut down their 311 services during the recession. But they can actually save cities money.
The governor of Illinois has called the Chicago proposal a "kick-the-can-down-the-road" approach.
The massive manhunt for two escaped killers from Clinton Correctional Facility entered its second day Sunday, with state officials saying the prisoners could be anywhere in New York state, Vermont or Canada.
Both chambers of the Louisiana Legislature have now approved medical marijuana legislation that seeks to give certain patients who need it access to the drug. The House of Representatives OK'd the measure Thursday (June 4), by a vote of 70-29.
On the eve of the 39th birthday of Carl E. Heastie, then a little-known assemblyman from the Bronx, his campaign paid a $270 tab for “food” at Happy Valley, a Manhattan nightclub that did not sell food but was popular for its throbbing dance floor and caged go-go dancers.
Shortly before former Gov. Rick Perry officially launched his second presidential campaign in Dallas on Thursday morning, his successor ended a long-criticized initiative from Perry’s tenure.
The Kansas Legislature rapidly pushed through a bill Saturday to avert a midnight government shutdown, with Gov. Sam Brownback signing it despite concerns about its legality.
Many people who care for the elderly and disabled aren't paid enough to cover their bills.
The water rights enjoyed by about 4,000 farmers, companies and public agencies _ some dating back to the Gold Rush _ are the latest casualties of the historic drought.
Gov. Rick Snyder is expected to sign a $54.5 billion state budget.
The state's leave payouts in the event of shutdown because of budget problems would likely exceed the budget stalemate amount.
Car shares are often too expensive for lower-income people, so a nonprofit in Buffalo, N.Y., started its own. But insurance problems might spell the end of it.
There are times when transportation and other infrastructure work just as they should. Smart cities look for ways to make that happen all the time.
Launching his presidential campaign Thursday in a sun-soaked airport hangar here, Rick Perry worked hard — sweating profusely in the process — to tell supporters who exactly he is: the proud son of Paint Creek, Texas; an Air Force veteran who has never forgotten what the military taught him; the longest-serving governor of one of the biggest states.
Under a proposed initiative filed Thursday for the November 2016 ballot, voters would decide on pension benefits offered to government workers in California.
Colorado voters will be asked in November whether the state can retain an estimated $58 million in recreational marijuana taxes that have been collected this fiscal year.
A second state has announced a backup plan in case the Supreme Court rules against ObamaCare this month.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon Thursday vetoed a controversial "right-to-work" bill, calling it a threat to unionized workers and wages.
Hillary Rodham Clinton positioned herself as a crusader for voting rights Thursday, calling for an overhaul of election laws so that every citizen would automatically be registered to vote on their 18th birthday.
His hometown paper has offered nothing more than wire reports and a stinging editorial suggesting that his bid will give Rhode Island a bad name.
During the Great Recession, the cash-strapped state borrowed billions to fund unemployment insurance. It's still paying for it.
The bill discourages undercover investigations of farm and workplace conditions. The State House also delayed an override vote on an anti-gay marriage bill.
Many expected the insurance exchange, or marketplace, established under the Affordable Care Act would reduce the number of uninsured patients the clinic sees. The opposite happened.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
It finally stopped raining this week in Oklahoma and Texas, where a nearly nonstop series of storms resulted in deadly flooding and made for the wettest month in both states' recorded history.
Gov. Wolf this week formally proposed setting up a state-based insurance marketplace, potentially protecting hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania residents from the consequences of a Supreme Court decision that could gut Obamacare later this month.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders launched his White House bid on the lakefront of the city where his political career began. Florida Sen. Marco began his quest in Miami, surrounded by friends and family. If former Rhode Island Gov. and Sen. Lincoln Chafee takes the White House, history will show that his quest started a few metro stops away, on a college campus in Virginia _ and that he mused about an American "rapprochement" with the Islamic State.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York has made no secret of his dislike for Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman. Now, Mr. Cuomo’s office has begun to solicit the opinions of others.
Governor Pete Ricketts' plan to begin executions again in Nebraska hit a road block when state senators abolished the death penalty.
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval has signed a wide-ranging collective bargaining overhaul bill that received support from both businesses and unions.
The bill would end the requirement that couples obtain marriage licenses from probate judges prior to a wedding. Instead, marriages would be a legal contract, witnessed by a clergy member, attorney or notary public, and filed with the state through the probate office.
New data suggests education spending remains below pre-recession levels in most states. View charts and maps showing trends for each state.
New rules from the Texas Medical Board could make it a lot harder for people to get antibiotics through telemedicine. In response to the board’s restrictions, Teladoc, the largest telemedicine provider in the U.S., has filed a lawsuit that accuses the medical board of artificially limiting supply and increasing prices.
Zionsville can now reorganize and take over Perry Township.
Some argue it can be traced back to how departments evaluate their officers.
Presidential hopefuls court local officials in states like Iowa.
Nate Bell has dropped the Republican Party and is now an independent.
The Nevada Senate concurred on a $1.5 billion omnibus tax plan the Assembly passed Sunday, sending Gov. Brian Sandoval a historic measure to bolster education funding by more than $600 million in the next two years.
In a state where public schoolteachers have marched on the state Capitol and staged walk-ins to protest pay and policy reforms, the N.C. Court of Appeals issued a ruling Tuesday that buoyed the spirits of the rallying educators and struck a blow to the Republican education agenda in North Carolina.
One morning in March, commercial trash hauler Adam Williams Jr. sent a text message to a Baltimore Department of Public Works employee at the city-owned Quarantine Road Landfill that read, "N. The. Gum."
Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed two bills on Monday, including one aimed at encouraging people to call 911 during drug overdoses, even if they are in possession of illegal substances themselves.
Last year, Texans saw Greg Abbott on the side of a traffic-choked highway in the Dallas area, promising to put billions more toward transportation if elected governor.
With the lunch hour near and the temperature in the 80s, the only souls in sight outside the courthouse here were two men taking turns aiming a pressure washer’s nozzle at the steps of the building.
One concern about the new law is the lack of a requirement for people registering to provide identification.
State Attorney General Brad Schimel is creating an office to help the public obtain government records more quickly and consistently.
The state can now collect nearly half a billion dollars more in revenue.
Improving state oversight of nonprofits is just one way that accessible, computer-friendly data could make governance better.
State senators also approved a bill restricting abortions.
The Campaign for Accountability filed complaints with the attorney generals of Montana, Utah and Arizona alleging that Utah state Rep. Ken Ivory defrauded taxpayers funds by telling them the federal government can be forced to transfer public lands to the states.
Another budgetary storm is brewing in Oregon's public pension system, according to figures shared Friday with the pension system's board and the five-member citizens panel that oversees its investments.
Hundreds of aging earthen dams in Ohio are in disrepair and many are unsafe. Thousands of people downstream could be in the path of floodwater if those dams fail.
Gov. Bill Walker said Monday he's still hoping for a budget solution from the Alaska Legislature but that without one he has no choice but to move forward with planning for a shutdown of unfunded government agencies.
House and Senate committees met separately but simultaneously to discuss Medicaid expansion on the first day of the special session.
A current member and former member of the state House of Representatives pleaded guilty Monday to corruption charges, bringing to three the number of Philadelphia Democrats convicted in the resurrected "sting" case.
Offering what he said would be "healing and hope for children who are afflicted by relentless seizures caused by epilepsy," Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation Monday legalizing low-THC cannabis oils as treatment for certain medical conditions.
Some cities have started equipping them not just to cops but also other government employees who often encounter confrontation.
The measure had been adopted in 2006 by the state's voters, and it said judges may not release on bail persons who have "entered or remained in the United States illegally" and were arrested for "serious felony offenses." The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the law last year. The court said it would not hear the appeal.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said it's time to stop finger-pointing and assigning blame for the recent violence.
Six months after its president announced that its football program would be eliminated to save money, UAB is set to bring it back.
Promises to enact tough immigration legislation remain unfulfilled.
Gov. Sam Brownback said his plan to exempt the lowest-wage earners from the income tax and raise the sales tax would close the current $400 million budget deficit and leave a reserve of about $75 million for 2016.
Amid a federal criminal investigation into a no-bid contract, Chief Executive Barbara Byrd-Bennett has announced she's leaving.
What makes a legislative session epic, or at least interesting, is peril: a Legislature facing some sort of crisis.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Friday signed into law all bills passed during the special session, including measures to authorize a bond issue for an economic-development project in southern Arkansas and move the state primary elections to March.
Tennessee's biggest health insurer helped ensure its own profits remained healthy last year by selling its stake in an IT company to offset extra taxes and higher-than-expected medical claims from its new Obamacare health plans.
Three federal judges have unanimously struck down an Idaho law that banned abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The world is filled with stormy relationships. North and South Korea. Dez Bryant and the Dallas Cowboys. Texas and Washington.
Sixteen years ago, then-City Councilman Martin O'Malley chose the intersection of Harford Road and The Alameda in Clifton Park to announce his candidacy for mayor of Baltimore.
Pat McCrory won't sign a bill that would have allowed magistrates to opt out of performing weddings if they have religious objections.
For the first time in over a decade, the feds proposed new regulations for the fast-growing world of privatized Medicaid.
After a few high-profile setbacks, the state that's been a model for others interested in public-private partnerships is tempering its enthusiasm for them.
The New Jersey governor eyes developing state standards, despite two years ago saying he and other governors were "leading the change" in support of Common Core.
State lawmakers propose funding police body cameras with a $5 fee on traffic tickets.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
With the death of a bill that would have created a statewide texting-while-driving ban, the measure’s author said Thursday that legislators “have not done our job as lawmakers to protect the life and safety of all Texans.”
Lawmakers on Thursday released some 40 topics they plan to study before the General Assembly returns to the Statehouse in 2016.
The state of Alaska is instituting a hiring freeze Friday across much of state government as a result of the Legislature's inability to approve a fully funded budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
Five years ago, it seemed unimaginable that a tax on plastic bags would spread from socially conscious San Francisco to cities including Los Angeles, Dallas, and Washington D.C. But it did—and early findings suggest that there have been reductions in plastic bag use.
Supporters of former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley announced the formation a super PAC on Thursday to raise money to help his expected presidential campaign.
Lawyers for the Obama administration said Wednesday that they were refocusing their legal strategy in an effort to restart the president's plan to grant temporary legal protection to millions of illegal immigrants.
More than a quarter of the coal-fired plants in the state have already shut down, because cheap natural gas is flooding the market.
In March, Gov. Pat McCrory voiced concerns about a bill to allow magistrates to opt out of performing marriages and said he won't sign it. He stopped short, however, of saying he would veto it. The governor can allow bills to become law without his signature.
A federal appeals court decided this week that states can only limit campaign contributions if they can somehow prove that they lead to corruption.
George E. Pataki ambled his towering frame into the center of this quintessential New England town Thursday to announce he is running for president, prompting many here and around the nation to ask: "Who's he?"
The measure would allow motorcycles to travel between cars at speeds up to 15 mph faster than the flow of traffic, up to a speed of 50 mph.
A Philadelphia County grand jury has recommended that Priscilla Wright be charged in connection with the contract awarded to Murphy's Transporting and several subcontractors, all who were owned by either Wright's friends or her relatives.
Curtis Thompson, then Brookins' chief of staff, was arrested in February 2014 after prosecutors alleged he had accepted the bribe at the alderman's holiday party two months earlier from an FBI mole posing as a real estate developer in need of a liquor license for a new convenience store.
For the second time in two months, Gov. Rick Scott's administration has acknowledged it inadvertently released confidential personal data of private citizens, prompting the state to offer free credit monitoring services to protect people from being victims of identity theft.
Florida regulators said they expect to provide access to a limited strain of non-euphoric marijuana for medical purposes by the end of the year after a Tallahassee judge on Wednesday dismissed the final challenge to the long-awaited rule.
Climate change is taking a toll on Texas, and the devastating floods that have killed at least 15 people and left 12 others missing across the state are some of the best evidence yet of that phenomenon, state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said in an interview Wednesday.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a judge’s ruling that struck down most of an Arkansas law that sought to ban most abortions at 12 weeks or later into a pregnancy.
In a climactic political showdown, Nebraska's lawmakers overrode a veto and banned the death penalty Wednesday.
The White House on Wednesday finalized a rule intended to strengthen and clarify the Clean Water Act, setting up a clash with Republicans in Congress and the agriculture industry.
In most states where Democrats and Republicans split control of the legislative chambers, getting anything done has been a struggle this year. But there is at least one exception.
The Brutalist structure in Goshen, N.Y., was completed in 1971. Now preservationists and officials are fighting over whether or not to demolish it.
The governor's planned cuts to address a billion-dollar shortfall are proving unpopular, even among many Republicans.The final outcome of a struggle over the next few weeks will define the governor's image and could help determine whether he has any chance at all at the White House.
If Keith Cooper's request is granted _ and his felony record is erased _ legal experts say it will mark the first gubernatorial pardon they can recall in the state's history based on a claim of innocence.
Research and development may be one of the best ways to boost local economies, yet states (and the feds) have slowed spending on it.
While job growth mostly got off to a slow start, some states have fared well in recent months.
Nebraska had a good idea: Do away with the costly duplication of bicameralism.
The state's governor stepped up his criticism of what he called the Senate's "Obamacare Expansion Plan" and accused his fellow Republicans of trying to impose higher taxes on Floridians.
Friday officials said the state agreed to let Washington be the conduit to health coverage while Hawaii Heath Connector gets its act together.
The Supreme Court is heading into the final month of its annual term and will issue rulings on many cases important for state and local government.
One Maryland county is testing a unique public-private partnership that would not only save money but also help the environment and local economy.
Federal monitors will begin closely watching the activities of Cleveland's beleaguered police department under a settlement announced Tuesday in response to a string of high-profile, racially inflamed incidents that have rattled the community.
As the clock struck midnight, the failure of an anti-abortion initiative — dear to the hearts of the far right — marked the end of a tumultuous day on the floor of the Texas House that saw the passage of sweeping ethics reform and a version of legislation allowing concealed carrying of handguns on college campuses.
