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Since Vermont lifted its residency requirement for dying with medical assistance in May 2023, at least 26 people have traveled to the state to die. In Oregon, the other state that allows the practice, 23 travelers have done it.
An anonymous tip on Jan. 3, 2023, alerted Kentucky corrections officials that prisoners had hacked state-issued, for-profit computer tablets and spent nearly $88,000 of fraudulent money on digital media products.
State Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin has issued major changes to how police officers should handle situations involving barricaded individuals after several instances in which people experiencing mental health crises have been shot.
Workers in some states, such as Florida, Montana, New Hampshire and Vermont, have seen sharp increases in earnings, especially where there are scenic areas and labor shortages.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, concluding that while some signatures for independent presidential candidate Cornel West were gathered fraudulently or included inaccurate, incomplete or illegible information, West still submitted a sufficient number of valid signatures to appear on Maine’s presidential ballot. (Maine Morning Star — Aug. 21, 2024)
Her poll numbers mean down-ballot Democrats have more hope than they would have under President Joe Biden. Democrats will also be supporting abortion ballot measures in at least eight states.
The median Detroit household spends 1 out of every 7 dollars earned on car insurance. In 2019, Michigan passed a law to improve the situation—but the state’s Black neighborhoods still paid the highest prices.
Despite free speech challenges, state legislators have continued passing laws that age gate websites or override platforms' terms of service. Experts say there are ways to protect users without drawing First Amendment lawsuits.
As surveys old and new show, support for it falters when it comes to speech that goes against people’s values or beliefs. But the First Amendment was intended to protect unpopular speech.
The state’s largest current fire has encompassed nearly all 41,000 acres of the Ishi Wilderness, which hadn’t seen significant fire since 1990. No one from Cal Fire has been able to set foot in the wilderness area since the Park Fire began.
Nine schools on the city’s Upper West Side are installing laundry machines for students in need; in 2022, 119 schools across the city had washer-dryers. A lack of clean clothes often hurts students’ attendance.
A study found that earthquakes before 2017 in Texas’ Delaware Basin originated at shallow depths that correspond to where wastewater from fracking was disposed. Nearly 2,000 earthquakes hit West Texas in 2021.
Lindsey Miller, director of strategic research at Informing Democracy, a nonprofit that focuses on vote counting and certification, on a plan by five Pennsylvania Republicans who joined an alternate slate of electors for Donald Trump in 2020 to serve as presidential electors in this year’s contest. (Vote Beat — Aug. 16, 2024)
Minneapolis just unveiled a $60 million water tunnel to help the city manage runoff. But what about the state’s small rural communities?
They personify the misinformation inundating the political system, targeting Democrats and Republicans alike and reaching tens of millions of people. There doesn’t seem to be much that can be done about them.
Getting a driver’s license used to be a huge teenage milestone. But just under 40 percent of teenagers aged 16 to 19 had their license in 2021, a 24 percent decline since 1995.
After the state took over management of the district in June 2023, some parents became concerned about stringent reforms, plummeting morale and cookie-cutter lessons that didn’t account for individual students’ needs.
The Los Angeles Superior Court system has more than 125 court reporter vacancies, which raises due process concerns for people in child custody disputes, divorces, conservatorships and other proceedings.
A Florida startup has installed about 7,500 lights, at least half of which are in Tampa Bay neighborhoods, and estimates they have prevented around 2.6 million pounds of carbon emissions.
Sheep farmer JR Howard has a booming business selling sheep to do “lawn maintenance” at solar farms in Texas. His biggest sale yet is 6,000 sheep for a single “agrivoltaics” project. (Canary Media — Aug. 16, 2024)
Heath Grimes won national recognition for serving the growing Hispanic student population in Russellville, Ala. Then the district showed him the door.
Automated external defibrillators are safe and easy for just about anyone to use, and they could save the lives of thousands of cardiac arrest victims every year. Making them available in public spaces is a job for state and local policymakers.
The “top-down” system will unify and streamline the state’s voter registration lists and allow for real-time checks on Election Day. If someone tries to vote in two counties, “we’re going to know right away,” says Elko County Clerk Rebecca Plunkett.
The record-breaking 2023-24 investment in small diverse businesses and veteran businesses increased by $129 million from the year prior.
Tribes in the Lower 48 states need about $1.9 billion over the next 50 years for climate-related infrastructure needs. But as oceans warm, rise and acidify, Indigenous communities across the coast are especially vulnerable.
Palo Alto County, Iowa, has 83 new cases of cancer on average each year. For the community of 8,996, the impact is outsized, especially as national concerns grow about the connection between farm pollutants and cancer.
A resident of Cheyenne, Wyo., at a mayoral campaign meet-and-greet, asking a question of “VIC,” an artificial-intelligence-powered chatbot that mayoral candidate Victor Miller vows he would use exclusively to run the city, making use of what he sees as the untapped potential of AI in government. AI experts say Miller’s pledge is a first for U.S. political campaigns. (Washington Post — Aug. 19, 2024)
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