State and Local Politics and Policy
It’s especially hard to get low-income Americans living in multifamily buildings across the digital divide. But states and nonprofits are finding ways to do it.
Only a few states require judges to sit out cases involving their campaign contributors. The Wisconsin Supreme Court's new liberal majority has expressed support for strengthening recusal rules. Will other states follow its lead?
For many years, Latinas in the U.S. have voted at higher rates than men. But in 2020, more than 2.7 million eligible Latina citizens were not registered. Poder Latinx hopes to bolster Latina power and women’s political presence.
COVID is far from the only explanation for the United States’ dismal trend line. Other diseases, along with drug overdoses, were also contributors, along with politics, policies and inequality.
The sheriff’s office in Washington County is tackling concerns about equity in policing by partnering with an advisory committee of Latino community members.
New Mexico and Minnesota are the two most recent states to allow people previously convicted of felonies to vote upon leaving prison, following 21 other states. Ten more states are considering similar legislation.
Millennial and Gen Z Americans will be the majority of the electorate in 2028. But predicting which party will benefit will be challenging. These young voters care more about policy than party, according to experts.
The ability of the new generation of generative artificial intelligence systems to create convincing but fictional text and images is setting off alarms about fraud and misinformation.
Trains are getting longer. Railroads are getting richer. But these “monster trains” are jumping off of tracks across America and regulators are doing little to curb the risk.
A new law that will go into effect on July 1 will allow permitless concealed carry, which means no training will be required. Many instructors hope that gun owners will seek training anyway.
But first, researchers need to figure out a good, consistent way to extract the minerals used in electronic devices and develop a supply chain that supports the operation. That's going to take time and money.
The right has appropriated and weaponized the term. Progressives shouldn’t let them. Banning the teaching of our true history casts a chilling effect on the debates we must have. We need more Americans to be woke.
A $70 million effort is trying to put a third party on the 2024 presidential ballot. Meanwhile Democrats present a short target list, crime doesn't pay and more.
Everyone in the criminal justice system — sheriffs, prosecutors, judges, parole boards — has enormous discretion. Some lawmakers believe that authority is now being abused.
Population loss creates a challenging fiscal environment for local governments. But there’s no good reason for places to be struggling while tens of millions of people want to move to the U.S.
Thousands of local officials arrived in Washington last week for the National League of Cities’ annual Congressional City Conference, including a lone city councilman from South Dakota.
Currently, the state’s Medicaid coverage only covers two months after childbirth. But a bill would extend coverage for a full 12 months postpartum. In 2021, 23 percent of women ages 19-64 were uninsured in the state.
Pledging greater efficiency, lots of governors (and candidates for the job) want to reorganize their states’ administrative structures. Sometimes they pull it off, but usually the reforms don’t last.
The bill will require physicians to provide care to infants “born alive” during abortion procedures and then report data to the state. The bill has enough support to override a governor’s veto.
In a new report, the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute shows that civic infrastructure affects how long and how well we live.
It's worked before. During a 10-year prohibition, researchers calculated that the risk of a person in the U.S. dying in a mass shooting was 70 percent lower during the period in which the assault weapons ban was active.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline received more than 371,000 calls, texts and chats in December 2022. New funding has meant more calls are getting answered. Better tech could make it more accessible.
The unanimous vote means that the public will soon be able to see the 114-page agreement between the city and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, which restricts a number of aggressive police tactics.
Accidents like the one that spilled toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio, are all too common. It’s time to update rail infrastructure and safety technology while bringing stronger regulation to bear.
The Republican-dominated state Assembly has quickly overridden Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto on a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for trans youth. The override passed with a 29-8 vote; just one Republican voted against.
Nearly half of all state and local public health employees left their jobs between 2017 and 2021. An additional 80,000 workers are needed to provide a minimum set of public health services to citizens.
Jeff Brown is labeling himself as the anti-politician ahead of the May 16 primary for Philadelphia’s mayoral race. If elected, he will be the first person in a century to become mayor without having worked in government.
Gov. Greg Abbott sees a statewide school voucher program as a way for educational freedom while others argue that it would have detrimental impacts on rural communities.
Since Jan. 31, 10 bills have been signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and several more are awaiting her signature. Though the speed was breakneck, the process wasn’t always pretty and most new laws had little public vetting.
A cloud of misinformation has led a half-dozen states to abandon the most powerful tool available to combat voter fraud across state lines.
The two bills come as the centerpiece of the state’s efforts to crack down on progressive criminal justice policies in Texas’ big cities. The bill would go after officials who won’t prosecute cases related to abortion or gender-affirming care.
