Policy
This coverage will look at how public leaders establish new policies in a range of crucial areas of government – health, education, public safety, for example – and how these policies impact people’s lives through better services, effective regulations and new programs. This will include stories examining how state and local government approaches policymaking around emerging areas, including artificial intelligence.
The state will spend $75 million moving more people with mental illness from jails to treatment facilities. “You’re not coming out better after three years at our jail,” said one sheriff.
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.
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.
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.
On July 19, the Los Angeles Superior Court detected a security breach that forced it to temporarily close for two days, postponing trials and other essential courtroom work. The public deserves a thorough report on what happened.
The state is just one of 13 in which prosecutors can try children as adults without getting approval from a judge. Only 10 percent of the more than 20,000 children tried as adults in Florida were given juvenile sanctions from 2008 to 2022.
The pandemic wrought a nationwide crisis in school attendance. How did Governor Daniel McKee get Rhode Island students back in the classroom?
Gun rights groups spent a total of $33.2 million in the 2020 election to re-elect Trump; the NRA alone spent more than $16 million. Gun control groups also spent $23.5 million in 2020 to boost Democrats.
Since COVID, there's been an increase in the number of parents not getting their kids vaccinated for diseases such as chicken pox, measles and polio.
Several GOP-led states have already banned the voting method. A November ballot measure in Missouri got the green light from a judge who said its language regarding non-citizen voting was not misleading.
Bills addressing retail theft and car break-ins represented an attempt by Democrats to sway voters ahead of a ballot initiative that would stiffen penalties further. Some progressives objected.
The FDA has approved a test that can help identify pre-eclampsia, a leading cause of maternal mortality that also threatens the health of the fetus. Georgia has increased Medicaid funding to allow access.
As many states move to dismantle their diversity, equity and inclusion programs and politicians turn the term into an insult, we need to keep sight of these efforts’ potential for good.
Gov. Brian Kemp warned that the tort reform rewrite will spill into next year, but it remains atop his list of priorities. The package pits corporate leaders, medical organizations and the insurance industry against trial lawyers who oppose the changes.
Monica Márquez is the first Latina and openly gay chief justice in the state. She inherits a system rocked by various scandals, high turnover among judges and continuing growing pains from the switch to virtual court.
JusticeText aims to improve the efficiency of legal defense by using automated transcription services and case management tools to streamline case evidence organization. The software is only available to public defenders.
A June 2023 audit found tens of thousands of potentially fraudulent or inaccurate ticket records within the state police system. Federal investigators found most mistakes were unintentional, though some officers may face discipline.
A study found that Chicago’s white families have the highest median net wealth ($210,000), while typical Black families report no wealth and U.S.-born Mexican families have just 19 percent of a typical white family’s wealth.
In the 1970s, Black students organized protests and a boycott that cost local white businesses money. Today, many families who could afford private school still choose Thomasville’s public schools.
Long Beach, Calif., has launched a digital rights platform that consists of data privacy notices for city-deployed technologies. Residents can find out what personal data is taken, how long it’s stored and whether it's shared or encrypted.
Approximately 8,500 fewer students were evaluated for a disability than during an earlier two-year period. That means thousands of students may not be getting the accommodations they need.
Legislators enacted more than a dozen new laws related to education, including changes to testing curriculum and classroom behavior.
It’s a combination of factors ranging from corruption to unbalanced taxation to unfunded liabilities to lack of an entrepreneurial tradition. But the state also has many strengths it could build on.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in the Chevron case empowers the levels of government most trusted by Americans to have more impact on issues that directly impact their economies and communities.
Between 2018 and 2022, the Sunshine State saw more than 26,000 emergency room visits and 5,000 hospitalizations for heat-related illnesses. In Miami, there were 46 days of heat index temperatures above 100 last summer.
Lawmakers are proposing hundreds of measures to micromanage and control this emergent technology. A complicated regulatory framework could devastate America’s technology businesses and global competitiveness.
A new law extends the state’s sexual assault evidence protections to cover DNA samples. But getting justice in hundreds of cold cases will require more than just testing, survivors say.
