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South Dakota state Rep. Kadyn Wittman, of Sioux Falls, regarding the legislative proposal to increase the legal marriage age in the state to 18. The House State Affairs Committee rejected the bill and let current law stand, which allows 16- and 17-year-olds marry if they have the consent of a parent or guardian. Between 2000 and 2020, 838 minors got married in the state and 81 percent were minor girls being wed to adult men. (Associated Press — Jan. 30, 2024)
Urban downtowns are navigating a “doom loop” of office vacancy, retail decline and lower transit ridership. Things look both a bit different and somewhat similar in the suburbs.
Legislatures and governors are not afraid of undermining — or even downright repealing — citizen initiatives that win at the ballot box.
Long-term financial incentives for investment success are commonplace in the private sector, but tricky to design in public retirement plans. The implementation challenges are structural, operational, methodological and, yes, political.
The Ogallala Aquifer, which spans eight states along the Great Plains, is the only reliable water source for parts of its region. Farmers have pumped its groundwater for decades and, as it dwindles, rural towns need to preserve their sole water source.
In 2022, Cook County, Ill., became the first local government to partner with the nonprofit group RIP Medical Debt to use private donor funds to buy up and forgive patient debt. Since then, seven local governments, including NYC, have joined the program.
Since Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore’s surprise announcement that he will step down in late February, the department has been looking to fill the position. The search has revealed that few women have the requisite experience to fill it.
During the first 22 days of this year, 17 people died in road crashes across the state. Legislators have proposed legislation to lower the blood alcohol level for arrest to .05, down from the current .08.
Honolulu, Hawaii, Mayor Rick Blangiardi, expressing frustration with poor communication from his police force, including his having to find out about a lawsuit through the media. (Honolulu Star-Advertiser — Jan. 26, 2024)
Swatting — falsely reporting a serious emergency to provoke aggressive police response — is on the rise. Fighting this dangerous and distracting trend remains challenging, both legally and technologically.
Public universities are under siege in too many places as elected officials move to install new leaders and limit what can be taught. Educational institutions should be safe for learning and as incubators for democracy.
Between 2002 and 2018, the state had one of the lowest turnover rates of any state legislature in the nation. In the past four election cycles, the average number of legislators who did not run for re-election has nearly doubled.
Metro Atlanta is now the sixth-largest market in the nation for data centers. But data centers have huge energy demands, so Georgia Power wants to add more electricity capacity, most of which would be powered by fossil fuels.
A Review Board will review five death cases within San Diego County jails, two of which involved inmates who were wrongfully jailed. The sheriff isn’t required to adopt or implement any recommendations from the board.
State Sen. Scott Wiener has proposed legislation that would require new car models to come equipped with technology to prevent drivers from exceeding a road’s speed limit by more than 10 miles an hour.
Eliana Trillo, a Venezuelan woman who was sleeping in the unsanctioned tent camp outside of a New York City migrant shelter. The migrant shelter on Randall’s Island will house some 3,000 migrants on any given night, but as the number of immigrants continues to grow, the shelter has run out of housing space. Trillo slept in the tent camp last week, during some of the most frigid nights of the year. (Associated Press — Jan. 25, 2024)
Nationally, K-12 schools enacted 3,362 book bans during the 2022-2023 school year as part of a growing surge in censorship. Florida school districts accounted for more than 40 percent of those bans.
To house everyone who needs shelter, the nation will need an estimated 7 million more homes built across the nation. But, as of the end of November, there were 459,000 job openings in construction, the highest since 2000.
The Maryland county has handed out more than 200 Chromebook laptops as part of a program that aims to bridge digital and Internet access gaps. In total, the county will give out 7,000 laptops from 16 public library locations.
Last year’s 17 percent decline in homicides and 10 percent drop in nonfatal shootings contributed to a decrease of about 3 percent in reported violent crime overall. However, both property crimes and auto thefts did increase.
New York Mayor Eric Adams, in his State of the City address. New York City has become the first major city to designate social media as a “public health hazard.” (The Hill — Jan. 25, 2024)
Last year was one of the Missouri Legislature's least productive sessions in decades. Meanwhile, the Assembly speaker in Wisconsin faces a recall attempt.
Fifteen states are not participating in a program to provide meals to school-age children over the summer, due to administrative costs or ideological opposition.
There are 42 homeless shelters in Maine with a total of about 1,170 beds run by various nonprofits throughout the state.
There’s a big audience for it. But people listening to police radio creates serious privacy challenges. They can also hamper law enforcement.
The state’s Flood Resiliency Blueprint will be an online tool that compiles research and data about flooding in North Carolina in one place. This can be used to inform future plans.
Critics argue that schools are spending too much on administrative costs at the expense of instruction. One group found that administrative spending increased 6.3 percent from 2016 to 2021.
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