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.
Every state has a law allowing unwanted infants to be surrendered, but the laws lack uniformity, there is no standardized training and there are no data-driven best practices. The result is a chaotic system.
Following the release of a report from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation about police technology risks, experts shared insights into what is hype and reality with new policing tools.
Data collected from the 35 states with the highest average annual snowfall suggests that while more schools are using remote learning days instead of canceling classes, the traditional snow day is far from extinct.
The state Senate passed two bills on Thursday, Jan. 12, just moments after they were introduced, giving the public only seconds to review them. Many are concerned the Republican majority is abusing their constitutional power.
The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules voted along party lines to strike down the rule that labeled conversion therapy as an unprofessional intervention to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Kim Phuong Taylor, the wife of Woodbury County Supervisor Jeremy Taylor, was arrested on Jan. 12 for providing false information in registering and voting, as well as fraudulent registration and voting; she pleaded not guilty.
Counties across the state have been challenging the accuracy of the federal Internet expansion map ahead of a Friday deadline. Westmoreland County alone identified 14,527 sites that don’t appear at all on the address maps.
Former New York county elections commissioner Jason T. Schofield pleaded guilty to 12 counts of voter fraud charges, admitting to fraudulently filing absentee ballots in 2021. Schofield will be sentenced in May 2023.
So far, nine Democrats have officially declared their intention to run for the mayorship. Meanwhile true bipartisan leadership exists at the state level, Ohio's attorney general does double dipping and more.
Some state DOTs and conservatives in Congress thought it prioritized Biden's newly passed infrastructure bill to emphasize spending on highway maintenance, not expansion. In fact, the memo didn't change how the funds can be used.
As the president honored 14 ordinary Americans who defended democracy, Republicans in Congress engaged in a silly game to elect a speaker of the House. The contrast could not have been greater.
The bills and five proposed constitutional amendments cover a range of topics, including establishing Filipino American History Month, blocking low-level marijuana conviction records from public view and repealing ranked-choice voting.
Our attention to attacks on political figures fades quickly as we move on, seeing them as the isolated acts of deranged individuals. But we need to face up to the deep problems they reflect in our society.
State lawmakers convene this week and will tackle a variety of issues this session, including amending the state’s near-total abortion ban, relieving urban traffic congestion and gender reassignment surgery.
Lawmakers across the country are preparing to make election changes ahead of next November. Republicans are looking to give more prosecution authority to state officials while Democrats want to expand voting access.
Two Democratic U.S. Senators from Nevada want the state’s broadband office and other entities to verify and submit more accurate data, to better represent the state’s broadband connectivity.
A lawmaker’s change of heart could make North Carolina the 40th state to expand Medicaid.
Nineteen states have never had a woman as chief executive, and only a few have had more than one. What made Arizona such an outlier?
A quarter of adults with health care debt owe more than $5,000. And about 1 in 5 with any amount of debt said they don’t expect to ever pay it off. The country's health care system is pushing patients into debt on a mass scale.
Diversity in who is elected governor is important. In a time of decreasing trust in democracy, women governors send a message to all Americans that their government is representative of all its people.
After increasing in the past two midterm elections, last year’s Latino voter turnout decreased and just 36 percent of Latinos registered to vote and only 25 percent of those cast a ballot.
While the pandemic continues to impact people’s health, economic security and ability to work, a study found fewer Hawaii residents are willing to take precautions and more people now perceive COVID-19 as an inconvenience.
Cassandra Albaugh was elected to a seat on the Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District Board of Trustees in Sonoma County, Calif., after running unopposed. Albaugh will serve a four-year term.
Nabeela Syed and Brad Fritts will be sworn in as state representatives this month and both will be just 23 years old, marking the advent of Gen Z into the Legislature. Syed is a Democrat and Fritts is a Republican.
City Council leaders announced they will study Mayor Adams’ push to make a Medicare plan the only cost-free health insurance option for retired city workers. But thousands of retirees are against the mayor’s proposal.
From public health to climate change to immigration, there will be plenty of challenges for our federal system to contend with. But the tensions will be more about social policies and regulation than about money.
Illinois is the latest state where voters have supported employees’ efforts to organize and bargain collectively. Across the country, unions enjoy record high approval, and research shows they’re good for economic growth.
The state’s one Democratic and seven Republican members are also focused on local issues, such as a new Veterans Administration facility in Baton Rouge, reallocating infrastructure funds to traffic reduction projects.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill, which guarantees the right to repair, protecting consumers from anticompetitive efforts to limit electronic device repair options. The law is the first of its kind.
The nation's longest-serving attorney general was denied an 11th term. In an exit interview, he reflects on how he and other state AGs changed the way tobacco, tech, drug and finance companies operate.
