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Russell Nichols

Russell Nichols

Staff Writer

Russell Nichols is a GOVERNING staff writer. He is a former city reporter for the Boston Globe and has written stories on business, education, health, arts and religion for numerous publications including the Los Angeles Times and Sacramento Magazine.

Despite the popular picture of states divided by red and blue lines, researchers found that most citizens share a diverse range of liberal and conservative beliefs.
With a budget deadline approaching, California lawmakers can learn a thing or two from the Nevada Legislature on finding common ground.
Shortchanged foster parents in California are expected to receive long-overdue raises in payment rates, no thanks to the state Department of Social Services.
California schools use control over spending decisions to plug budget holes, special programs suffer, study finds.
Across the country, the process of drilling for natural gas has created an explosion of controversy around the rules of disclosure.
Inmates in cramped cells and lawmakers outside of them feel the pressure of funding shortage.
California education cuts may be less severe then originally thought. But overall, schools still need help.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to demolish California’s wall of debt can’t get around GOP’s wall of doubt.
Even though states may not have the data to know how well their transportation investments fared, they still need to consider options that could maximize the value of any transportation spending.
To get a bigger fence along the border with Mexico, lawmakers propose online donations and prison labor.