Governor Mike Beebe has split up his state's huge health and social services agency after a painful two-year experiment with consolidation.

State and local interest groups don't wield the clout they once had in Washington. But there's crucial work for them to do.

It will cost Texas $500 million or more over the next two years, but a class-action lawsuit that has been hanging over its Medicaid program for 14 years has been settled. Under the agreement, Texas must fix the program--making sure regular check-ups are offered to children and providing Medicaid mothers with adequate information about guaranteed services.

It happens like clockwork. As soon as a magnanimous stock market boosts pension assets to high-water marks, pension raiders lurk around--they can't wait to get their hands on the "overfunded" portfolio.

A push is on in state legislatures to ease the serious shortage of organ donors. With more than 94,000 Americans waiting for a liver, kidney, cornea or other organ, many states are looking at the uniform organ donation laws they adopted in 1968 and debating an update.