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Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday blasted Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms over her decision last year to bar the city jail from holding federal immigration detainees.
Doh! Turns out there's a hole in NJ Transit's operation of a train station near Trenton.
Mississippi on Thursday became the latest state to sign into law a ban on most abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, usually about six weeks into pregnancy, despite criticism from opponents who called the move cruel.
The passed amendment requires that a tribe's ballot box must be accessible to the county auditor via a public road.
Another highly selective specialized school, the Bronx High School of Science, made 12 offers to black students this year, down from 25 last year.
The "truth in labeling" bill was filed about a month ago, and almost half of the states have entertained similar legislation that regulates the labeling of some food products, including foods called meat that are derived from plants or lab-grown cells of beef, pork or poultry.
The ruling coincides with an aggressive push by President Donald Trump's administration to open more public lands to energy development.
The Indiana State Teachers Association has called for additional consideration regarding educator and student safety amid active shooter drills following the January training session, highlighted in testimony before state lawmakers this week, that rattled school staff.
Unlike state rules for accident victims, which uniformly require first responders to take severely injured patients to the most advanced trauma unit available, state policies for stroke patients vary widely.
In a rebuke to Republican legislators, a Dane County judge on Thursday blocked enforcement of laws enacted in December that curtailed the powers of the incoming Democratic governor and attorney general.
State transportation departments are often criticized for being too highway-centric. Here are some suggestions for changing that.
The SAFE Banking Act passed a congressional committee on Thursday, meaning it’s already made it farther in the legislative process than the previous version.
Mary Mancini, re-elected by the state party's executive committee in January to her third two-year term as its leader, says she chose the wrong words while discussing the state of politics in Tennessee during a recent tour to visit local county Democratic parties.
As of Tuesday, only five employees remain on staff, including dispatchers who are redirecting calls to neighboring emergency and law enforcement agencies, Tulsa World reported.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and NYPD officials said on Tuesday they support banning repeat sexual offenders from the subway system.
The source of the attack is still unknown, but it was discovered around 6 a.m. Monday, leading to the entire computer network being shut down out of precaution.
Bevin told WKCT, a station in Bowling Green, Kentucky, that his children were "miserable," but they "all turned out fine."
Attorneys who represent victims of sexual abuse by priests have released what they say is the most comprehensive list yet of Catholic clergy with ties to Illinois who have been accused of misconduct against children.
Andrew Gillum, the Democrat who narrowly lost his bid for Florida governor last year, said Wednesday he's getting back in the political arena for 2020.
The strategy: Use Medicare reimbursement rates to recalibrate how they pay hospitals. If the gamble pays off, more private-sector employers could start doing the same thing.
Socrates had it right: Dealing with the problems public leaders face requires knowing how and what to ask.
A new study shows the depth -- and the root causes -- of the public sector's workforce problem.
This marks the third time Gwinnett County has rejected a plan to expand the city's public transit. But advocates hope the defeat is only temporary.
The report found 14 states to be in violation of federal Medicaid law as it pertains to abortion coverage.
Jamal Trulove accused four San Francisco police officers of framing him for a 2007 killing at the city's Sunnydale public housing complex.
The inmates' nearly seven-year lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice argued that Native American spiritual beliefs regard hair as an extension of the soul, and that hair should only be cut when in mourning.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has prioritized fixing the bail system this session, but he has focused more on making it harder for dangerous defendants to get out of jail.
Rep. Brian Ellis resigned effective immediately just days after a woman filed an official complaint with the state's Republican caucus, accusing him of sexually assaulting her in 2015 while she was incapacitated.
Water submerged large swaths of those states, as well as parts of Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota and Wisconsin, ravaging farms and swamping homes. At least four people have been killed and hundreds of others have been displaced.
The lawsuit alleges that the diocese knowingly employed admitted sexual abusers, hired priests without performing adequate background checks, hired priests credibly accused of sexually abusing children and hired lay employees without performing adequate background checks.
The repeal efforts, which in most cases would replace the death penalty with sentences of life without parole, reflect a steep two-decade decline in executions nationwide, as well as growing overall opposition to the practice.
Lawmakers in California and at least seven other states want to provide state income tax credits for families that need help with home caregiving.
The nation’s largest police force has developed a first-of-its-kind algorithm to track crimes across the city and identify patterns. Privacy advocates worry it will reinforce existing racial biases.
Minnesota prisoners with chronic hepatitis C infections must be provided with highly effective but costly antiviral drugs following a class-action lawsuit settlement.
The Illinois Supreme Court decided Tuesday in a 4-to-2 vote that it will not order a new sentencing for Jason Van Dyke, rejecting an unusual bid from prosecutors that could have meant a much harsher prison term for the former Chicago police officer.
A national group says its campaign to convene an unprecedented U.S. constitutional convention to balance the federal budget has a new leader: former Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
The biggest issue is difficult to debate, and it's not "Medicare for all."
Climate change discussions must not ignore the impacts that local governments and extreme weather have on one another.
We often use it in ways not intended. Most of the time, that’s a good thing.
Local governments are using internet surveys to better gauge residents’ needs.
A decade after the Libor scandal, a new approach to interest rates could help U.S. states and cities -- if they change their thinking.
They take mixed-use development to an extreme with buildings that residents may never need to leave.
Under the new policy, each prison is coming up with a plan to provide crafts that could include origami, making bookmarks and other art projects.
Citing a “serious and complex family situation,” Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski announced Monday that she won’t run for re-election in 2019, leaving a wide-open race to fill the city’s top slot.
Under current law, the city's roughly 100 school police officers are allowed to carry their guns while patrolling outside schools before and after class hours. But they are required to store their weapons in a secure location during the school day.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/18/election-districts-based-race-divide-supreme-court-virginia-case/3203133002/
DeSantis insisted that lawmakers repeal the state's ban on smokable medical marijuana by last Friday, or he would drop the state's appeal of an ongoing lawsuit over the ban.
Abortion opponents trumpeted the bill as a victory for the unborn, but abortion-rights advocates decried the law as unconstitutional, promising to sue the state.
The latest forecast indicates “significant” flooding will likely occur in coming weeks along the Red River, which borders northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota and flows north into Canada.
Ohioans who are covered by the expansion of Medicaid will soon have to get a job, go to school or get an exemption.
The smart city model has been around for years. It's got a lot of learning to do.
Is the strong job market hiding a growing skills gap?
States are starting to address the jurisdictional issues that leave so many of these cases unsolved.
Las Vegas is taking a new, more tolerant approach to helping the homeless.
Pundits keep predicting the religious group's decline as a political force. But they may actually be gaining influence.
The biggest school reform movement in the past decade is taking some hits.
Washington state, which gave Boeing $1 billion over the past four years, has a well-established system to evaluate tax deals. Many governments don't.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has signed legislation that delays the state’s new photo voter identification requirement until the 2020 elections.
The ruling paves the way for the families to subpoena internal documents on how the gun companies have marketed the AR-15.
The tense public meeting featured heated back-and-forths between board and community members. As board members announced their "yes" votes, people in the audience shouted "shame."
Officials from the Economic Development Corporation, the agency charged with delivering upon the mayor’s plan, called New York Works, say it is “impractical for the city to track specific jobs created,” in documents reviewed by The New York Times.
Following the lead of Arkansas and Florida, white male conservative lawmakers are spearheading legalization drives in Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee.
The message prompted swift rebuke from the Kansas Republican Party, which directed criticism at Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat who has struggled to find compromise with GOP leaders in the Legislature since taking office in January.
The National Popular Vote Act makes Colorado part of a multi-state compact -- but it only takes effect if and when enough states join to control 270 electoral votes.
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Local governments that have not begun the process of assessing their ADA compliance should start now.
Numbers of construction permits by city, jurisdictions permitting the most new units.
At least 10 Kentucky school districts were forced to close several times since Feb. 28 after so many teachers used their sick days that officials could not find enough substitutes to cover classes.
Under current law, people who have been convicted of one of 61 Class D felonies can have their criminal records cleared once they complete their sentences, wait five years and pay a $500 fee.
Lawmakers in Arkansas and Utah sent their governors legislation Wednesday banning most abortions 18 weeks into a woman’s pregnancy, moving the states closer to enacting bans that could be among the strictest in the country.
When asked the governor's position on the bill, spokeswoman Amelia Chasse said the governor "will consider any legislation that reaches his desk."
The collection of more than 1,000 pages of contracts, emails, manuals and other materials shows some California law enforcement departments have granted ICE unfettered access to the personal data of drivers and that federal officials are using it to track and locate immigrants.
Former Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order in 2017 that lifted the drought emergency in most of the state, leaving some breathing a sigh of relief. But he cautioned Californians to keep saving water as some parts of the state were still suffering from extreme drought.
The meeting brought together two candidates representing sharply contrasting approaches and ideologies.
How will it achieve both goals when half of the property tax revenue goes to schools?
Why are they breaking norms and eyeing city hall instead of Capitol Hill?
In one of his first moves as governor, Gavin Newsom is taking some cities to court for failing to address the affordable housing crisis.
Mayor Mike Duggan has pledged to spend $130 million to help revive neglected neighborhoods in the city.
Photos and musings from our photographer.
Former Maryland Gov. and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and former Indianapolis Mayor Steven Goldsmith talk about how tech can change the public sector.
At least 95 have closed their doors since 2010, and roughly a quarter of the ones left are at risk of shuttering.
Plus, where renting is gaining in popularity the fastest.
The president's 2020 proposal would slash domestic spending by nearly 10 percent and increase defense spending by 5 percent.
Many states don’t allow hemp CBD to be sold to the public at all, whether as an oil, pills or mixed into smoothies.
In a statement Sunday night, Councilwoman McElhaney said her son's death represents the "beginning of a new chapter in this reoccurring circle of violence."
Mr. Hughes, a reserved Eastern Shore native whose 1978 Democratic primary victory was one of the great upsets in Maryland political history, led an administration that was widely credited with restoring integrity to state government after an era of rampant political corruption.
The idea for state-run pot shops comes from a trio of GOP state senators who broke with local Republican Party orthodoxy to embrace legal marijuana with a decidedly big-government approach that would have the state directly oversee most sales.
Nevada will join the U.S. Climate Alliance, a group of states and territories committed to the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement to combat climate change, Gov. Steve Sisolak announced.
Former state lawmaker Margy Conditt is "thrilled" a federal appeals court supported a law she jointly sponsored that defunds Planned Parenthood in Ohio.
The governor is weighing "overhauling" the commission, including making a management change, as the state prepares for the upcoming wildfire season.
In codifying its innovative operation into law, New York City has provided a useful guide for other localities.
As once-eradicated diseases return, more and more states are debating legislation that would make it harder, or easier, for parents to not vaccinate their kids.
Georgia state Rep. Dar'shun Kendrick is floating the idea that if men can legislate women's reproductive rights, women should have a vote on what men do with their bodies.
State health leaders are pressing lawmakers for a one-year reprieve to allow time to overhaul a public health system now facing a financial crisis.
Ten states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational marijuana, and as lawmakers elsewhere consider their own laws, they seem intent on not repeating what they see as other states’ mistakes.
The practice of keeping inmates shackled during childbirth was once common around the United States, but that's gradually been changing after women began speaking out, with 22 states passing laws against it over the past two decades.
So far, physical security measures are garnering the lion’s share of dollars in legislative spending proposals.
"I do not believe that a civilized society can claim to be a leader in the world as long as its government continues to sanction the premeditated and discriminatory execution of its people," Newsom said in a statement accompanying an executive order.
The scheme, which began in 2011, centered around the owner of a for-profit Newport Beach college admissions company that wealthy parents paid to help their children cheat on college entrance exams and to falsify athletic records of students to enable them to secure admission to elite schools.
In the past decade, there was a 43 percent increase in renters over the age of 60. The trend brings with it new challenges -- and benefits -- for cities.
After making racist, anti-Semitic or homophobic comments, elected officials often stay in office, either by apologizing or attacking their opponents. But public servants may have a harder time keeping their jobs.
Since Freddie Gray’s death in 2015, violent crime has spiked to levels unseen for a quarter century.
Creating more inclusive and accessible cities was the focus for one panel of experts during a morning panel at South by Southwest in Austin March 8.
At the start of 2019, more than a quarter of Vermonters lived without service that meets the federal government's definition of broadband: at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds.
New York lawmakers are planning to introduce a bill that would allow children as young as 14 to get vaccinated without their parents' consent.
It’s the first time that either chamber of Congress has passed a measure endorsing D.C. statehood.
Infectious diseases — some that ravaged populations in the Middle Ages — are resurging in California and around the country, and are hitting homeless populations especially hard.
The new inquiry, by the office of the attorney general, Letitia James, was prompted by the congressional testimony last month of Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, the person briefed on the subpoenas said.
Milwaukee will host the Democratic National Convention in 2020, bringing a trove of tourism dollars to Wisconsin while showcasing one of the swing states likely to decide the presidency.
A Colorado agency is using the approach in an unusual way: to orchestrate the efforts of service-delivery partners.
In many cities, new homes are popping up twice as fast as normal.
The state-owned China Railway Rolling Stock Corp is building rail cars for some of America's biggest cities, prompting cybersecurity concerns and bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Senate.
Fargo, North Dakota’s most populous city, faces the threat of flooding nearly every spring. It’s taken a lot of creativity and cooperation to agree on a solution.
One black lawmaker refused to retreat when her white, male colleagues moved to cut off debate on a bill that would let Arkansas residents use lethal force as the first line of self-defense if they felt threatened.
California recently made waves with the passage of comprehensive consumer data protection rules — rules the private sector has sharply criticized for adding to an already hard-to-navigate national patchwork.
The bill has been a priority for gun control advocates, who argue the measure merely closes a loophole in state law and will help keep weapons out of the hands of people barred from owning firearms.
As part of the deal, the women agreed not to pursue legal action against the Legislature and other named defendants. The labor agency also agreed not to pursue its case against the Legislature.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio may be thinking of running for president, but many of those closest to him aren’t on board.
President Donald Trump on Saturday continued to swipe at California Gov. Gavin Newsom, comparing taxpayers' expense on newly built shelters for asylum-seekers to the state's scaled-back high-speed rail project.
The tourism and travel industry contributed more than $15 billion to Kentucky’s economy in 2017, according to a report from Kentucky’s Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet.
The Republican tax overhaul signed by President Donald Trump more than a year ago provides plenty of perks for the rich. But not all well-off folks are treated alike under the law.
For the fifth year, a group of mayors at the South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas, played 'shark' as they judged a handful of civic-minded startups that sought to solve hard city problems.
Embattled Lewiston Mayor Shane Bouchard resigned on Friday but not before blaming the media for his troubles.
The Utah House passed legislation on a 41-32 vote, repealing the 1973 misdemeanor crime of fornication, or sex between people who are not married, Fox 13 reported.
The bill doesn't change the class of convictions, such as a Class B felony, but proponents argued judges needed more leeway in sentencing offenders.
Less than two months after taking office, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker embarked on a new and potentially bruising political campaign Thursday by seeking to win public approval of a graduated-rate income tax that he contended would raise $3.4 billion.
Several states have passed legislation in recent years to stop what supporters of the measure often refer to as "passing the trash."
In some cases, Abbott appointed judges who have lost multiple elections to Democrats.
Former Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel is challenging his suspension in a petition filed Thursday in Broward County Circuit Court, alleging that Gov. Ron DeSantis exceeded his legal authority when he ousted him from office.
The number of kids enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) — two government health plans for the poor — fell by nearly 600,000 in the first 11 months of 2018.
For the first time since the Great Recession, most states have restored their education cuts. But the places where protests have erupted still have a long way to go.
The bill, House Bill 2384 and Senate Bill 1295, will prohibit anyone from using or distributing the tobacco products on a school bus, on school property, and at on-site and off-site school-sponsored activities.
In Washington state, child welfare workers are shifting to a digital approach. Beginning in April, people who’ve browsed websites on foster care will see recurring online ads espousing the joys of foster parenting — haunting the prospective parent from site to site like a new car or pair of boots.
The outbreak has also raised questions about how officials dealing with public health concerns can undermine detainees’ legal rights.
Republican members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives are drawing scrutiny for wearing pearl necklaces while gun control activists shared their own experiences with gun violence at a recent hearing.
Nearly 17,000 registered Wisconsin voters — potentially more — were kept from the polls in November by the state’s strict voter ID law, according to a new survey of nonvoters by two University of Wisconsin political scientists.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee is investigating allegations of voter suppression in Georgia under Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who has since become governor.
Cities and local governments in several states said they will continue to use a Canadian company to offer employees prescription drugs at a highly reduced price, even though federal officials raised safety concerns about the practice last week.
In a ruling released Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg said that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had failed to justify his decision to include a citizenship question in the upcoming census.
This form of pay inequity, referred to as salary inversion, is making it difficult to fill supervisor positions in the public sector.
The Republican governor told reporters on Tuesday that the measure is supported by a vast majority of Kentuckians. The measure won final approval from state lawmakers last week. Its supporters include the National Rifle Association.
Murphy, a Democrat elected in 2017 to succeed Republican Chris Christie, has argued that a so-called “millionaire’s tax” would help lift the middle class by providing funding for priorities like education.
"In this most difficult of circumstances, I have been treated respectfully by the prosecutors and investigators," he said. "And I have no one to blame for this but myself in this situation."
State funding for public K-12 schools remains lower than before the recession in a number of states, including five where teachers have gone on strike in the last year.
More than six years of legal battles between Lakewood's Masterpiece Cakeshop and the state will end after baker Jack Phillips agreed to drop his lawsuit alleging the Colorado Civil Rights Commission was harassing him for refusing to make LGBTQ-themed cakes.
Michael Bloomberg is confident he'd beat President Trump in 2020 -- but he's not going to try.
The subpoena was served late Monday on the company, Aon, one of the largest insurance brokerage firms in the world, as part of an inquiry by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
Some states can revoke your job license if you fall behind. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio introduced legislation that would outlaw that practice.
New research shows that it's not rare for companies to lower their job promises after accepting tax incentives from the government.
George Kaiser and other wealthy residents help fill holes in the state’s budget, but at a cost, experts say.
An extensive analysis of monitoring data found unsafe levels of toxic pollutants were present in groundwater at 91 percent of the nation's 242 coal-fired power plants that filed reports.
