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Local leaders say changing directives and confusing guidance from state officials are hampering efforts to comply — even as potentially heavy penalties await them if they don’t.
Virginia is one of just two states in which legislative control is divided between the parties. Then, what makes special elections so special, Pennsylvania Democrats' struggle to maintain control and attorneys general keep getting in trouble.
Nearly half of all Americans now live in a jurisdiction where it’s legal to smoke weed. But for some workers, including bus drivers and train operators, drug-testing protocols make legalization irrelevant.
It once was widespread in the U.S. We should try it again, at least in a limited way. The advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
The state opened the school year with 3,584 teaching vacancies, almost a 20 percent drop from the previous year, but many of the new hires are less qualified. There’s been a 51 percent decrease in the last decade in traditional teacher preparation program enrollment.
Mayor Jacob Frey’s 2024 budget includes millions set aside over the next two years to comply with court orders to end racist and unconstitutional policing in a plan for new spending and new positions.
Only eight states have enacted legislation to sustain the three-digit crisis phone number through phone fees. Some have budgeted for short-term funding but many have not made any long-term plans to provide support.
The plan is the largest EV charging incentive program in the country and the rebates for charging equipment can cover 50 percent of a project’s costs or up to $100,000. The state aims to have 250,000 public chargers by 2025.
New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan, regarding the fact that he will not invoke an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to block former President Donald Trump from appearing on ballots in the state next year. Others have made claims that Trump is ineligible to run for president again under a rarely used clause of the 14th Amendment that prohibits those who “engaged in an insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution from holding higher office. (Associated Press — Sept. 13, 2023)
The percentage of teachers at one of the schools in the Clark County, Nev., school district that...
Three years after the first-in-the-nation law was passed, a record number of opioid overdoses, bad press and a growing homelessness crisis could slow the movement to treat addiction as a public health matter.
The state Supreme Court dismissed two lawsuits, ending legal challenges against the use of 2022 congressional district maps previously deemed unconstitutional. The move could benefit both parties, especially three Democrats who won competitive races last year.
Many sites across the state that were important during the modern civil rights movement have met the 50-year threshold for historic consideration in recent years, but finding the money to save the crumbling buildings is a challenge.
The state Assembly voted 53-14 to give employees on strike access to state unemployment insurance benefits, despite concerns about an indebted and poorly structured fund. The Senate will consider the bill next.
The top 10 counties with the largest population gains grew 10 times faster than the national average, impacting school resources, farmland prices and more.
The gap between wage growth and inflation was at its widest in the third quarter of 2022, but, since May, pay has been rising faster than inflation. However, workers’ wages aren’t set to recover their loss of purchasing power until the end of next year.
Kentucky Chief Justice Laurance B. VanMeter, regarding his decision to not seek re-election for another term of the state Supreme Court in 2024. VanMeter won election to the state’s highest court in 2016. (Associated Press — Sept. 12, 2023)
A first-of-its-kind school construction project will save a Maryland school district hundreds of millions of dollars — and create exceptional learning environments.
An issue that seemed settled has returned, with states considering whether to loosen child labor laws. There might be some argument for revisiting them, but there’s evidence of growing abuse of existing laws.
A task force has recommended making cash payments to the descendants of American slaves to address over-policing, mass incarceration, housing discrimination and health disparities. But a majority of voters oppose the idea.
The state law that went into effect on July 1 enacts a series of immigration-related restrictions, which has deterred many undocumented workers from assisting in the debris clearing and rebuilding after a storm.
School officials are implementing new rules to prevent bullying and improve the mental health of teens. But some of the new policies, like a cellphone ban, are controversial. In 2021, 16 percent of high schoolers said they had been cyber bullied.
Nationally, heat was the underlying or contributing cause of about 1,670 deaths last year, making it the highest heat-related death rate in at least two decades. Substance use, the housing crisis and an aging population contribute to the problem.
Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen, regarding his avowal to not enforce an emergency order from New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to temporarily suspend the right to carry firearms in public in and around the city of Albuquerque. The firearms suspension was issued as an emergency public health order and Lujan Grisham told reporters that she expected legal challenges and that the state police would handle enforcement. (Associated Press — Sept. 11, 2023)
Randy Clarke, the general manager of the Washington Metro, is a public-transit superfan with lots of support in D.C. How long will it last?
Whatever communities can do to nurture “social infrastructure” — places like movie theaters, libraries and swimming pools where people gather to form social bonds — can have a profound impact on addiction and overdose death rates.
There’s much that state lawmakers can do to prevent it from undermining democracy. Some states are already putting stronger safeguards in place, and more should do the same.
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