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.
A number of red states are moving to weaken child labor laws. Sponsors say they just want kids to be able to work, but critics complain companies are already exploiting vulnerable populations.
Laws in Texas and Florida that prohibit the platforms from removing content run afoul of the First Amendment and will make things worse. The Supreme Court should strike them down.
The City Council abandoned an ordinance that allows the demolition of homes smaller than 3,000 square feet within a Landmark District to “address substandard structures.” The rule disproportionately impacted Black, brown and low-income neighborhoods.
Legislators continue to stall on proposed and already-enacted laws that aim to promote small-business development in minority and low-income communities. At the end of last year, the state’s Black unemployment rate was nearly 3 percent higher than the overall average.
Experts say that most crime data is too unreliable to pinpoint specific policies as the primary drivers of crime rates. Yet politicians often draw a straight line between bail laws and crime rates, potentially misleading voters.
A new public health campaign aims to train about one-third of the county’s population in how to do the procedure. In 2021, only 8 percent of those who suffered cardiac arrest in the county, outside of a hospital, survived.
A bill would require each county to offer a treatment option as an alternative to the traditional court process for veterans and active military members. About 8 percent of the state’s corrections system population served in the military.
Under a new ordinance, Internet providers can’t provide better service to wealthier neighborhoods. A 2022 investigation found that households in L.A.’s poorest neighborhoods paid high prices for slow service.
Companies, nonprofit organizations and other groups spent a record amount to influence the state’s General Assembly last year, with Kentucky Merchants and Amusement Coalition topping the list with $483,324 spent.
Ten states have yet to expand eligibility under the Affordable Care Act. Doing so would save lives, improve financial well-being, save states money and support regional economies.
They should. Charters schools aren’t magic, and plenty of them are worse than the average public school. But on average, charters are superior.
The 2023 legislation establishing the grant program also includes new equipment for rural sheriffs.
The rising number of gun deaths in Texas has inspired a $3 billion industry of active shooter training, consultants, surveillance technologies and safety infrastructure. Some experts aren’t certain the touted strategies are effective.
Assessments and additions that would make a home more climate-friendly also have significant price tags, driving up housing costs. Local officials in Lacey, Wash., are trying to reconcile competing goals.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis hasn’t just used Georgia’s RICO law to prosecute Donald Trump. Schoolteachers and rappers have also been charged, and the state has used the law to go after protesters. Shouldn’t these tools be reserved for the kinds of prosecutions they were intended for?
State Attorney General Kris Kobach wants to amend state law so that death warrants may be obtained by district judges, instead of the Kansas Supreme Court, and wants the state to allow executions by hypoxia.
To try to further discourage Spring Breakers from coming to the city, the city will charge a flat $100 parking rate in city garages and parking lots, close sidewalk cafes on Ocean Drive, host a sobriety checkpoint and limit beach access.
The state has required all schools to develop an emergency plan since 2001, but some public schools still don’t have one or their plans don’t meet updated requirements.
A conservative coalition is hoping to make private school choice universally available in half the states by the end of 2025.
The state’s red flag complaint law went into effect on Tuesday. It will allow residents to seek temporary removal of firearms from at-risk individuals by obtaining an extreme risk protection order.
Is our criminal justice system so infallible that it should green-light actions as irrevocable as taking another person’s life? Hardly. Very few people of means go to death row.
Headlines obscure the reality that many cities welcome immigrants for the economic and social benefits they bring. The tools of architecture offer ways to assess the resources needed to accommodate and integrate these populations.
The legislative attempt to mandate worker heat protection standards would help train employers and employees on the signs of heat illness and would require supervisors to provide water and a 10-minute break every two hours.
A reporter requested a keyword search of emails as part of an investigation into nitrates in the state’s drinking water from the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy. What she got was a $44,103 bill for the state to begin the search.
The arguments over border sovereignty have never died away in more than two centuries of American life. Now they are coming to the forefront again.
State budgets are on track for modest growth even as federal fiscal recovery funds wane, pension underfunding persists and AI promises (or threatens) to change everything.
What you need to get up to speed in terms of how state lawmakers are addressing education, energy, health, housing and even international affairs.
The overdose reversal medication is only required in larger high schools under current law. The bill is a response to rising opioid-related deaths among young people.
They’re a complex tangle of technology and services with multiple stakeholders, so regulation is messy. There is a particular decision-making process that could help.
Tens of billions in federal funds are on the way to spread high-speed Internet across the countryside. States should structure their grant programs to make sure markets are competitive.
