Archive
New Census Bureau data shows which counties are gaining and losing residents.
Mobile technology has made a belated but much needed debut in human services.
Even though states spend more on payroll than anything else, many governors no longer look to human resources for advice on their workforce.
Services like Uber and Zipcar could radically change city streets.
It seems America has forgotten that air travel is supposed to serve the public.
Legislators in a few states are fighting the rules.
Although scores of public and private groups support the proposal, many say the requirements don't go far enough.
Even after controlling for age, race, marital status and children in the home, males in nursing out-earned females by nearly $3,900 in hospitals.
Facing a $338 million unpaid bill for Medicaid, Texas lawmakers voted Tuesday to help pay for it with a $102 million cash infusion that came from the feds under the Affordable Care Act.
The "Smoothie Lady" can celebrate: Some of Alaska's strictest municipal regulations on marijuana got rolled back Monday night in light of concerns that they could violate state law.
The Indiana Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that public schools are not constitutionally required to bus students to and from school.
Dr. Sheila Pinette has resigned as the state's chief health officer a month after taking the job, hastening an organizational shakeup at the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.
Every eligible Californian would be automatically registered to vote under legislation Secretary of State Alex Padilla is exploring.
Warning of a liquidity crisis though 2015 and a situation "a lot more severe" than they had anticipated, Atlantic City's emergency management team has recommended $10 million in budget cuts, hundreds of layoffs and mediators appointed to negotiate with casinos and unions.
A top Homeland Security Department official intervened to help projects backed by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Sen. Harry Reid in a program aimed at attracting foreign investments in exchange for U.S. residency, the agency's internal watchdog said.
While many Republican states have made efforts to repeal the education standards, Wyoming appears happy to move forward. How has Common Core thrived in such a solidly GOP state?
The growing role of federal waivers suggest the answer isn't simple.
Over the past few decades, it’s become easier to convict public officials for corruption but harder to know who’s really guilty of it.
In a bid to give more jobs to residents of Akron, Ohio, Mayor Don Plusquellic wants to create a private entity to help the city build $1.4 billion in sewer improvements.
Bill Walker appoints conservationist for a position usually held by sportfishing interests.
Columbus and Dayton both turned their traffic cameras off at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, but Dayton announced Monday it would resume issuing camera citations because of the Toledo decision.
Massachusetts is the latest state to settle a legal battle over the failure of its welfare offices to meet federal voter registration requirements.
The New Jersey governor will make a decision in "late spring or early summer."
There are only 59 blacks among the 1,134 Michigan state troopers.
Gov. Doug Ducey, who campaigned on a promise to repeal Common Core, said the state is staying with the standards, at least for now.
Gov. Christie on Monday conditionally vetoed legislation that would have repealed the mandatory suspension of driver's licenses for first-time drunk drivers and instead required them to install devices that would be able to detect alcohol and stop cars from starting.
Inmates on Utah's death row can now be executed by a firing squad, under new legislation signed into law by Gov. Gary Herbert on Monday.
A long-awaited U.S. Justice Department report on police shootings in Philadelphia concluded Monday that there is "significant strife between the community and the department," and recommended wholesale changes in procedures and training.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge to Wisconsin's voter identification law, restoring the measure it had dramatically blocked ahead of last November's election but not in time for the April 7 ballot.
Eight years out of college, Gregory Jackson Jr. had ascended swiftly in the world of Washington politics — to swing-state director for President Obama in 2012, then to national field director for electing House Democrats.
In a Dallas Hilton conference room last summer, a few dozen state lawmakers from around the country gathered for a closed-door presentation about an all-American industry under threat.
In partnership with a theater company, Minnesota towns are staging on-the-go plays to tell their history.
Adopted in 1913, it took the job of electing U.S. senators away from state legislatures.
Most cities already freely share ideas with others, but some are starting to sell their best practices to other local governments.
The nationwide pushback against the education standards hasn't been very successful.
Residents of Whittier, Alaska, have to take the elevator or stairs wherever they go in the wintertime.
Republican governors who want to make more people eligible for the low-income health insurance program face daunting obstacles nationally and in their GOP-controlled legislatures.
Bloomberg Philanthropies and other organizations have poured an unprecedented amount of money into making cities more innovative and collaborative. What happens when the money runs out?
Rhode Island’s first female governor won support for her leadership during historic snowstorms, but it’s unclear whether courts or lawmakers will side with her on major pension and budget issues.
For the first time in more than a century, Arkansas is completely controlled by Republicans. But the new governor has slowly and deliberately built bipartisanship in the legislature.
America's prison population has aged significantly, increasing the costs of incarceration. These four inmates show just some of the challenges older inmates bring.
Alaska lawmakers look to once-forbidden sources for money.
Homicide clearance rates don't always mean what they seem to mean.
Philadelphia School District had a great fear of leaks.
A recent diabetes study shows great benefits of the Affordable Care Act.
A new state law effective today will allow hunters to use suppressors on guns; permit Ohioans to buy rifles, shotguns and ammunition from any state; and implement a more-rigorous background check for concealed-carry permits.
A federal judge on Friday struck down a Wisconsin law requiring doctors performing abortions to get hospital-admitting privileges, concluding that the measure was enacted to bar women from getting abortions.
Gov. Rick Scott has denied reports that he unofficially banned the terms “climate change” and “global warming” from state reports and in official documents, but Florida Division of Emergency Management director Bryan Koon isn’t taking any chances.
Colorado is preparing to issue rebates to taxpayers for the first time in nearly 15 years.
Eleven days before federal agents searched state Auditor Troy Kelley's Tacoma home on March 16, they demanded records related to a state employee and longtime business partner of Kelley's whose name appears in an acrimonious lawsuit tied to Kelley's past business dealings.
Horror fiction writer Stephen King thinks Maine Gov. Paul LePage to "man up and apologize" after the Republican governor issued factually incorrect comments about the author's taxes.
A new report covering the national capital area could serve as a template for other regions to engage the public and deal with funding gaps.
By training 100 mid-level staffers as 'Data Fellows,' New Jersey's child-welfare agency has found a formula for improving outcomes.
Earlier this month South Miami passed a resolution to separate southern from northern Florida, because of climate change.
Boeing is the biggest winner of state and local tax incentives, receiving more than $13 billion of them, according to a nonprofit watchdog group that tracks the subsidies.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
A computer attack during testing delayed some exams in the Colorado Springs school district.
This reverses a circuit court decision last year finding that the law gave too much power to the Department of Correction to decide what drugs to use for lethal injections and how to administer them, in violation of the separation-of-powers doctrine.
Cylvia Hayes is now being represented by two federal public defenders in the influence-peddling investigation by the FBI and the IRS.
A Dane County judge declined to issue a temporary injunction Thursday that would have put Wisconsin's new right-to-work law on hold, finding that there wasn't adequate proof that unions would suffer irreparable harm without the injunction.
Gov. Bobby Jindal unveiled a two-prong plan Wednesday that he said will rid the state of Common Core.
Tesla Motors can go back to selling its luxury electric cars directly to consumers in New Jersey as Gov. Chris Christie Wednesday signed legislation that allows the car maker to do so at up to four locatio
The arrest and injury of University of Virginia student Martese Johnson sparked more of the “black lives matter” protests that have become familiar in the wake of police actions against unarmed black men in Ferguson, Mo., and beyond. In the wake of protests that drew more than 1,000 students, Virginia's Gov. Terry McAuliffe has asked state police to launch an independent investigation into what happened outside an Irish pub during St. Patrick's Day celebrations.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has begun an aggressive campaign to block President Obama’s climate change agenda in statehouses and courtrooms across the country, arenas far beyond Mr. McConnell’s official reach and authority.
Despite months of news coverage, most people say they have heard little or nothing about a Supreme Court case that could eliminate subsidies helping millions of Americans afford coverage under the federal health law, according to a poll released Thursday.
State land management coordinator Barton Bibler was forced to undergo a psychiatric evaluation after he refused to scrub mentions of "climate change" from the official minutes of a department meeting where he says climate change was a major topic of discussion.
The controversial sheriff ignored a federal judge’s orders to stop detaining people simply because of a suspicion they may be in the country illegally.
President Obama has a good idea: End the use of tax-exempt bonds to finance stadiums.
On Wednesday Georgetown’s municipal utility unveiled plans to abandon traditional electricity sources like coal and gas power plants and instead use wind and solar energy to meet all power needs.
Three weeks before hackers infiltrated Premera Blue Cross, federal auditors warned the company that its network security procedures were inadequate.
Virginia's governor has ordered an investigation into a black University of Virginia student's arrest after photos and video of the student's bloodied face went viral on social media.
The state of Texas is suing the Obama administration for giving medical leave benefits to certain same-sex couples, according to an announcement Wednesday from Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Ads attacking U.S. military aid to Israel were posted on Muni buses in San Francisco this year without incident. But Seattle's public transit line rejected the ads after threats of violence, and on Wednesday a divided federal appeals court upheld its decision.
Acknowledging that California's water conservation efforts are falling short as the state descends into a fourth year of punishing drought, the administration of Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday imposed new mandatory water conservation rules that will affect millions of people -- from how homeowners water their lawns to how restaurants and hotels serve their guests.
The University of Maine System trustees voted Monday to freeze in-state tuition for a fourth straight year, pending approval of the governor’s proposed 1.7 percent increase in state funding.
At a time when Obama is calling for free community college and governors want better-educated workforces, some states are considering big cuts to higher education.
Senate Democrats are pushing for a four-year extension of the program, but the House's bipartisan plan would cut that in half.
One of the most successful investments in the history of the Alaska Permanent Fund grew out of a chance conversation by two men waiting in line at Boston's Logan Airport for a flight to Seattle. A friend introduced the president of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to a portfolio manager for the Alaska Permanent Fund.
Even as assisted reproduction has become more common, neither the U.S. nor state governments do much to oversee the multibillion-dollar industry.
Declining federal reimbursements for hospitals under the Affordable Care Act are the principal reason for closures. The law reduced payments to hospitals for the uninsured on the assumption that states would expand their Medicaid programs.
House Republicans called it streamlining, empowering states or “achieving sustainability.” They couched deep spending reductions in any number of gauzy euphemisms.
The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the city of Atlanta's plans to help finance the new $1.4 billion Falcons stadium, allowing the city to move forward with issuing $200 million in bonds toward the project.
Gov. Bill Walker announced Tuesday that he would try to expand the public Medicaid health care system through a new bill, after the Republican-led Alaska Legislature rejected his efforts to expand the program using the state’s annual budget legislation.
Only a day after being announced as an aide to Gov. Scott Walker’s political operation, Liz Mair told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she was resigning. Mair took considerable heat for her frank Twitter criticism of Iowa’s early role in the presidential nomination process.
Failures in the hiring and supervision of San Diego police led to a series of misconduct cases, but the Police Department remains "progressive, sound and very effective," according to a federal review released Tuesday.
Thousands of people arrested in Connecticut for marijuana possession now have the right to get their convictions erased after the state Supreme Court ruled Monday that the violation had been downgraded to the same legal level as a parking ticket.
Americans are required to register if they want to vote; as of this week, Oregonians will have to register not to.
Thirty-nine states added jobs in January, while half recorded declines in their unemployment rates. View data for each state.
Republicans on Capitol Hill are trying to protect the Washington, D.C., school voucher system, a GOP pet program championed by Speaker John A. Boehner and others with no impact on the rest of the country.
A roundup of public-sector management news you need to know.
Four months after the Denton, Texas, historic vote, top state lawmakers don’t appear to be scratching their heads. Petroleum is winning hands down, and local control appears headed for a beating.
The state now expects that earnings from the Constitutional Budget Reserve in 2016 will be about $357 million. How long the account might last after that will depend on oil prices, state spending and tax policy.
In many hospitals and clinics around the country, oncologists and surgeons simply tell cancer patients what treatments they should have, or at least give them strong recommendations. But in some hospitals doctors and patients are working together to make choices about care.
People can type in their names at illinoistreasurer.gov to see what they may have lost. Starting Monday and ending Friday, anyone can click on the "Unclaimed Property Auction" link on the website to bid on the forgotten items.
Rahm Emanuel and Jesus "Chuy" Garcia engaged in a contentious first debate Monday night, as the mayor accused his challenger of having no plans to deal with the city's financial problems while Garcia contended Emanuel served only "the rich and powerful."
In what Gov. Pat McCrory hailed as a historic decision, a three-judge panel Monday unanimously ruled in his favor in a landmark challenge to the General Assembly.
In a frenzied countdown to midnight, West Virginia lawmakers tried to tie up loose ends Saturday before wrapping a 60-day session under Republican leadership for the first time in more than eight decades.
A total of 16.4 million non-elderly adults have gained health insurance coverage since the Affordable Care Act became law five years ago this month – a “historic” reduction in the number of uninsured, the Department of Health and Human Services said Monday.
As the nation's largest private health care provider, Hospital Corporation of America owns 155 hospitals, 112 surgery centers and three psychiatric facilities across the country.
A new report tallies federal grants and tax credits across more than 100 different programs.
Sheltered from the scrutiny of the state courts, the municipal courts are a system run by municipalities and lawyers that often serve to enrich municipalities and lawyers.
Lobbyists don’t have to report the names of the legislators they are entertaining unless the expenditures go over $114 per day.
Alaska is staring down a $3.5 billion deficit. Investment income from state savings has shown remarkable resiliency and has overtaken oil-production taxes in their value to the state. But the deficits will require the Legislature to spend down those savings accounts.
Two former county sheriffs convicted of misspending public money are cited as examples of what not to do in a state training manual for sheriffs.
The state Supreme Court, citing the burden imposed on poor defendants by uncollectable court fees and fines, has reiterated that judges must ask about a defendant’s ability to pay so-called “legal financial obligations” (LFO), and not impose them if they can’t be paid.
Too many consumers have learned the hard way that their credit rating can be tarnished by medical bills they may not owe or when disputes delay insurer payment.
A powerful new surveillance tool being adopted by police departments across the country comes with an unusual requirement.
Identity thieves are growing more sophisticated this year, filing phony tax returns that closely mimic those of legitimate taxpayers and then depositing refunds onto prepaid debit cards that are difficult to trace, state tax authorities and fraud investigators said Thursday morning.
Advocates say the state's counties need to shore up care for their remaining uninsured residents.
An infusion of $2 billion into Texas' state water plan — once a little-known wish list of water projects — has highlighted the role of private engineering and consulting firms, which play a big role in writing it.
The information is out there somewhere. Now, can governments find and use it?
A growing number of cities, counties and states are trying to tackle traffic problems by improving the way lights are synchronized.
The prison radio program and a partner newspaper, the San Quentin News, represent a burgeoning media enterprise produced by inmates in the home of California's death row.
In the 22 states that haven't expanded Medicaid -- most of which are controlled by Republicans -- many lawmakers will only agree to it if hospitals pay the price.
A roundup of money (and other) news governments can use.
A Governing analysis shows how a new accounting rule dramatically changes some plans' pension liabilities and will likely force many states to finally face their obligations.
Early signs are positive for the latest crop of big infrastructure public-private partnerships.
With confidence in Congress at an all-time low, governors' distance from D.C. politics could help them win over some voters in the presidential race.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's opposition to raising the income tax and proposal to slash the state budget have Democratic lawmakers pushing more than a dozen other tax hikes as they try to bring in more money to save social service programs that are on the chopping block.
Two bills that New Mexico Republicans call their "right-to-work" package are probably dead after a Senate panel blocked them Tuesday night.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Wednesday said he was willing to work with Republicans on a plan to expand the state's Medicaid program and even offered endorsements for conservative ideas that have drawn reproach from some health advocates.
Fourteen states are joining in the push to salvage President Barack Obama's plan to grant legal protection to millions of people in the U.S. illegally _ even if it's only revived in their parts of the country.
Suffice it to say there is no love lost between Howard Dean and Rahm Emanuel.
That's what a new report proposes as states limit potentially life-saving but expensive new drugs. But some say that would be surrendering to drug makers.
Legislators approved a bill on Wednesday to establish a state-run registry for convicted white collar criminals to combat Utah's high level of affinity fraud, which occurs predominantly among Mormons.
Legislators are wondering why Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration has such a policy in place.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled that if the attorney general is in active opposition to the state, as Janet Mills is over health care policy, she loses her right to oversee the use of outside counsel. But it's a limited victory for Gov. Paul LePage
Here's the latest chapter in the complicated tale of Kathleen Kane's legal problems.
Employees from Florida’s transportation, health and water agencies have approached reporters to confirm that they, too, were pressured to drop any references to the man-made phenomenon in official communications.
Massachusetts' film incentives cost taxpayers a lot and don't deliver much in jobs or local spending. The new governor wants to do away with them.
A lawyer for the state faced skeptical questioning from Illinois Supreme Court justices Wednesday as she defended a landmark pension reform law by arguing that benefit cuts to public workers were a response to a financial emergency tied to the Great Recession.
Utah lawmakers and Mormon church leaders celebrated a landmark moment Wednesday night, when a bill banning discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people passed the state’s Republican-controlled legislature.
The new executive director of Get Covered Illinois is Karin Zosel, a former CIA intelligence officer and college director, the group said Tuesday.
A controversial powdered alcohol product called Palcohol, intended to be mixed into drinks, has gained approval from a federal agency.
Police Chief Thomas Jackson resigned Wednesday, saying he always wanted to do what's best for his community and realized that now meant leaving it.
Two St. Louis County police officers were shot outside the Ferguson Police Department during another night of protests in the troubled Missouri city, police confirmed early Thursday.
Timely disclosure of financial information could save states and localities a lot of money.
Republican Gov. Sam Brownback may be open to it, but the legislation faces daunting challenges.
The state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the governor's Council on Affordable Housing wasn't effective.
Scott Walker now has at least two dozen staffers or consultants associated with his gubernatorial election committee and Our American Revival, his PAC.
Obamacare’s tenuous toehold in Montana appears to be growing no firmer. Despite a hearing crowded with supporters of the Democratic governor’s Medicaid expansion bill, Republican legislators have dealt the measure a likely death blow.
Turn on the faucet. Fill a glass with water. Drink it. Acts so commonplace you perform them without thinking twice.
Marijuana legalization got a boost on Capitol Hill on Tuesday as a trio of rising stars in the Senate launched an effort to rewrite federal drug laws.
Legislators have approved removing from a bill a mandatory repeal of the state's Common Core standards -- following great opposition from state education officials, who said the legislation could disrupt West Virginia's entire K-12 system, cost more than $100 million and threaten federal funding.
Ferguson city manager John Shaw, the city's most powerful official, resigned Tuesday night.
As another Marketplace Fairness Act hits the U.S. Senate, supporters are urging the House speaker -- one of the idea's biggest roadblocks -- to do whatever necessary to pass it through Congress.
Human error and outdated technology have miscalculated thousands of prison sentences and cost some states millions of dollars.
