News

The smallest amount of municipal-bond issuance in Michigan in 10 years is threatening to derail the state’s economic comeback, showing how Governor Rick Snyder underestimated the fallout from Detroit’s bankruptcy.

The federal government has denied the state's request to waive No Child Left Behind testing requirements for students in elementary and middle school, the Texas Education Agency announced Monday.

The long, hard battle over the state’s right-to-work law appears headed to the Indiana Supreme Court.

As services take over the economy, the traditional sales tax has become less helpful to state revenues. Despite several states' failed attempts to tax services, Massachusetts is trying it again.

Musician Stevie Wonder, who is blind. Some states, including Iowa and Wisconsin, have no visual restrictions for gun permits, allowing blind people to own and carry firearms.

Vice President Joe Biden highlighted the facility, which, among other winners of recent TIGER grants, has seen a jump in business thanks to booming auto exports.

The portion of Democratic voters that say they'll likely vote for Bill de Blasio to be New York City's next mayor in today's election, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. He needs 40 percent to avoid a runoff.

The biggest question they face is whether the Legislature can muster enough votes to override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a contentious bill that would cut state income taxes for the first time in nearly a century.

The fate of tighter gun control measures and restrictions on oil fracking could hang on a mad dash of political maneuvering and deal-cutting in the Legislature this week, when lawmakers have just four days left to act on about 400 bills.

Hundreds of congregate living facilities across Florida escape any state scrutiny because no agency regulates them.

Unlike its 49 counterparts, Hawaii has been living with a strict employer mandate for nearly 40 years.

West Virginia was the last state to break off from another. Now, 150 years later, a 49-year-old information technology consultant wants to apply the knife to Maryland’s five western counties.

The Minnesota Legislature will convene in special session today to approve about $4.7 million in disaster relief funds. By agreement with Gov. Mark Dayton, lawmakers will only be in St. Paul for one-day and will not vote on anything besides state help for communities damaged by recent storms. The House and Senate are expected to begin floor sessions at 10 a.m. Despite that iron clad agreement that no ancillaries issues will be approved, legislators are expected to use the one-day session in St. Paul to rail against other issues. Chief among them: new business taxes approved this year. Republican lawmakers, among them Rep. Kurt Zellers and Sen. Dave Thompson who are running for governor, have said that the Legislature should have used the special session to repeal the new taxes. Dayton has said that he approved but does not support the taxes but lawmakers would have to come up with cuts or cash to fill the hole in the budget rescinding the taxes would create. After several negotiating sessions this summer, Dayton and lawmakers could not agree on repealing any taxes during today's session so those issues are expected to wait until next year.

Gov. Pat Quinn is among several governors taking a taxpayer-funded trip to Japan to participate in a conference aimed at increasing trade between that country and Midwestern states.

Advocates for the disabled and Iowa law enforcement officers disagree over whether it’s a good idea for visually disabled Iowans to have weapons.

The AFL-CIO for the first time on Sunday will open its quadrennial agenda-setting convention to non-labor voices, in a frank acknowledgment by the largest U.S. federation of unions that it needs new partners and new ideas.

It’s tough to find the money and political support to provide public workers with safe, clean places to do their jobs. Tennessee went the privatization route, and the results look promising.

The system connects a rural Colorado community to Aspen, 40 miles away.

It's generally true that if things are good in state, than things are good for the governor. There are some exceptions, though.

As the recovery drags on, state and local government payrolls aren't expanding.

Facing an unsustainable rise in retirement fund costs, the Pennsylvania city monetized its water and sewer system, raising millions for pensions and other needs. But the deal has its critics.

The so-called Cadillac tax on expensive health insurance plans, which many state and local governments offer, could spur public employers to cut back their rich benefits.

Dan McKenna, who lives in Maine and is part of the push to repeal the state's adoption of Common Core education standards, which some view as a federal government takeover of schools.

The cap on pot production in Washington state, one of two states where recreational use of the drug is legal.

As Republicans celebrate Charles D. Baker’s decision to run for governor, Attorney General Martha Coakley is edging closer to joining the Democratic gubernatorial race, turning to the state party’s leading political strategist to help assemble a potential campaign team.

In a week that brought Gov. Pat McCrory stinging defeats, with lawmakers from his own party overriding his first two vetoes, the Republican governor Wednesday responded by criticizing legislators and throwing up roadblocks to the new laws that he had opposed.

At least four abortion clinics in rural Texas and possibly three more are preparing to close, hobbled by a state law that requires the clinics to meet tougher medical standards.

San Antonio's leaders on Thursday approved anti-bias protections for gay and transgender residents, over the disapproval of top Texas Republicans and religious conservatives who packed a City Council hearing and occasionally shamed supporters for comparing the issue to the civil rights movement.

The Louisiana National Guard won't process benefits for same-sex couples because the state Constitution does not recognize gay marriage, a spokesman confirmed Wednesday. The directive directly contradicts a Pentagon policy issued Tuesday requiring the military to honor such benefits requests.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency has been ordered by a federal arbitration panel to reimburse New Orleans for more than $10 million in wages paid to city emergency personnel after Hurricane Katrina.