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alan-greenblatt

Alan Greenblatt

Editor

Alan Greenblatt — Editor. He is the coauthor of a standard textbook on state and local governments. He previously worked as a reporter for NPR and CQ and has written about politics and culture for many other outlets, print and online. He can be found on Twitter at @AlanGreenblatt.

Never before have policymakers faced such daunting questions on regulating and legislating the growing impact of digital technology. We pick the most important issues they will grapple with this year.
Once hailed for innovation and transformation, the tech industry is in the midst of a backlash. With growing public concern over privacy and the threat to existing jobs, expect to see more government regulation.
The voting meltdown in Iowa has increased mistrust in the traditional American election system. Support is growing for new ways to cast ballots, including ranked choice and approval voting.
Growth is increasingly concentrated in a small number of cities. That creates problems within those metro areas and threatens to deprive most of the country of prosperity.
For too long, tech has been someone else’s problem — something policymakers didn’t believe they needed to think about or even fully understand. It’s time to define what we want from a revolution that’s affecting everything.
For more than a decade, the feds have been pushing states to modernize their Medicaid management information systems so they could report comparable data. The effort is starting to pay off.
Political attention this year will largely be focused on the presidential race, but at the start of a redistricting cycle both parties are pledging to spend record amounts on state elections.
State legislatures will have a lot on their plates. They’ll deal with issues in wildly differing ways. We set the context for the 2020 session with an overview of abortion, election security, housing, immigration, net neutrality, pensions, pre-emption, recession fears, redistricting, vaping, and workforce.
Democrats rely heavily on urban voters for support, but the states that hold the first caucuses and primaries don't have really big cities. That tends to leave them off the campaign agenda.
Why are some lawmakers calling each other ‘bastards’ and ‘bat shit crazy’? Because governors in a dozen states now face legislatures controlled by the other party. While some can reach compromises, policy fights and angry words are common.