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.
Millions of worn-out K-12 educators and workers are wondering if their compensation is enough to justify the risk they are taking to teach kids during the pandemic. Vaccines will help, but it may not be enough.
State legislatures and Congress are ill-suited — and too partisan — for the task of weighing evidence when elections are contested. Judicial supervision of these disputes is the norm in most democracies.
What began locally a year ago, has grabbed the attention and support of the national Republican Party, national conservative leaders, and according to state records, more than 240 people from outside California.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration continue to claim complete transparency when it comes to the state’s COVID data and response, but many researchers are unable to get any kind of robust look at the state’s numbers.
They’ve been in the spotlight over the last 12 months as Washington bucked responsibility to the states. Now many of them are facing harsh critics and challenges to their power.
After years of leading through intimidation, New York's Democratic governor faces sexual harassment allegations and charges of covering up thousands of deaths.
The bill would force Apple and Google to keep products from Minnesota developers in their app stores even if the developers use their own payment systems. The tech companies take a 30 percent commission on app purchases.
The Texas electric power market is designed to give energy companies incentive to sell electricity at the lowest possible cost. That focus helps explain why it collapsed during a historic cold wave.
It was clear health-care workers and nursing home residents would receive the COVID-19 vaccine first. Then priorities became muddled. California has 61 vaccine priority lists and local officials are allowed to deviate.
Gov. Ned Lamont says the state’s new distribution plan will focus on speed and equity. But skeptics are concerned that the plan’s eligibility guidelines, which are almost entirely by age, will keep vulnerable groups waiting.
New mayors will be elected this year in New York, Seattle, Boston and other cities. Given problems with budgets and crime, why would anyone want the job?
Lawmakers should ensure that cumbersome state and local regulations and review processes don't prevent providers from building out and upgrading the infrastructure that high-speed, reliable connectivity requires.
Five members of ERCOT, all of whom live out of state, will resign after the historic winter storm caused mass blackouts. ERCOT covers 75 percent of the state and manages 90 percent of the state’s electrical power load.
Data shows that the low administration rate in Clark County has been caused by a shorting of vaccines from the state. The county has received 3 percent fewer doses than similarly sized Spokane County.
Access codes that were intended to provide California’s vulnerable neighborhoods with a COVID vaccine priority have been used by non-eligible residents in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, exacerbating the existing inequity.
When a president leaves the White House, he enters one of the most elite clubs. A book by two of America’s leading journalists looks at what binds these individuals together, given their personalities and politics.
With the feds leading the way, states are reopening their health-care exchanges to uninsured and eligible residents as part of the latest COVID relief plan. But not all enrollment windows are the same.
With COVID-19 vaccine in short supply, more people are turning to social media for useful information as they scour the Internet for available immunizations. And they are getting it.
California awarded the contract for a 65-mile segment of the bullet train route to a company that promised $300M in savings. Now, the cost-saving designs have been changed and the project will run $800M over budget.
Tennessee has only tested 0.02 percent of the state’s positive COVID tests to see if they’re the variant strains. But to increase the testing, assistance from community partners and more funding is needed.
With an offshore wind turbine complex under construction, the state has set up a unique training school for future technicians, who are learning their trade in an old mill town in need of revitalization.
The Cuomo administration is being investigated for mandating that nursing homes accept residents released from the hospital even if they tested positive for COVID-19.
Licensing requirements preventing physicians from practicing across state borders have been relaxed during the pandemic. Utah's approach points the way to a more sensible permanent licensing regime.
The widely praised law mandated that a 22-member committee meet by Monday, Feb. 15 to discuss law enforcement use of facial recognition technology. As of Tuesday, the committee had yet to be established.
Millions of Texans are without power as temperatures dropped into the single digits across much of the country. To prevent future outages, states may need to speed their shift toward renewable energy sources.
Cities have always gotten less than their share from states. As they've become wealthier and more Democratic, they've come increasingly under attack.
The route to trust in our institutions is through candor, competence and a clear sense of mission. Two examples, from Indiana and West Virginia, show how trust can be rebuilt one careful step at a time.
When far-right and far-left politicians get most of the media attention, it hurts democracy.
It's an important tool for evidence-based decision-making and program management. Asking agency leaders one simple question can start the process of building it.
People of color are receiving the COVID vaccine at disproportionately slower rates across North Carolina’s counties. Black residents receiving vaccines are underrepresented in 77 percent of counties, Hispanics in 93 percent.
