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.
Governments are paying out billions to settle thousands of claims. There is no substitute for justice, but keeping the abuse from happening in the first place would be far more cost-effective.
At least 92 children have died or narrowly escaped death since the reform raised thresholds for removal from parents. Legislators are weighing policy changes to prevent further tragedies.
The new Education Freedom Scholarship provides $7,295 per student, compared to $7,023 through the state’s public school formula.
With the new law, patients and providers can opt into experimental treatments with reduced legal risks, access services via telehealth and e-consent, and secure pretreatment court protections.
One of the hurricane's most important lessons isn’t about storm preparations — it’s about injustice. Communities should build disaster resilience across the entire population, focusing aid where people need it the most.
With federal EV tax credits ending and emissions rules nullified, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state agencies are preparing new subsidies, incentives and regulations to keep climate goals on track.
About 478,000 inactive voters, making up 6 percent of the state’s rolls, face removal this week under Georgia’s “use it or lose it” law, raising concerns some eligible voters could be swept up.
In 2025, lawmakers in 25 states have introduced 67 bills ranging from licensing and insurance to testing mandates as driverless vehicles take to the streets in more cities.
It’s happening more and more. But while the initiative process could use some reforms, it's a legitimate element of the democratic process.
State policymakers must ask: Is our system creating real value for students? A growing number of states are pointing the way.
This would be the first coal leasing application accelerated thanks to the new federal law, which aims to cut red tape for energy production.
Educators and health officials say legalization has lowered perceived risk among teens, making prevention and enforcement in schools more challenging.
The city’s movement toward free care for kids up to age 2 could be a gamechanger with national implications. And it’s a sign of the growing political strength of working parents.
Montana’s law empowers residents with control over sensitive neural data, building on Colorado and California's legislation amid growing concerns over consumer neurotechnology.
Groups focused on food security are scrambling following the cancellation of federal programs supporting purchases from local farmers.
An agreement with federal agencies shields early-childhood programs from immigration status screening, avoiding potential closures and preserving services for more than 4,700 vulnerable children.
Under the One Big Beautiful Bill, states must decide whether to participate in the nation's first federally backed school voucher program or reject federal dollars amid partisan and fiscal concerns.
Supervisors say the move is about transparency and civil rights, but federal officials warn it could compromise agent safety and operational security
Legislators on both sides of the aisle have moved to regulate these kiosks, which allow customers to purchase cryptocurrency and send it to a digital wallet.
Our universities’ real problems have little to do with DEI or antisemitism. Genuine reforms would encompass expanding access and equity and confronting a history of institutional racism.
Under new federal law, states must verify millions of enrollees’ employment status. Some officials are worried about the administrative burden.
Officials said the program’s cost ballooned to over $24 million in 2024, which they attributed in large part to parents committing fraud.
Miserable conditions are bad not only for the incarcerated but staff who are severely stressed. There is a better way.
Despite warnings that the law criminalizes low-risk behaviors, the state remains one of just five that impose lengthy sex offender registration requirements after conviction.
An economist who helped convince the Biden administration to spend more on research bemoans the deep cuts proposed by President Donald Trump.
Oversight may be inevitable after millions of dollars in fraud, but legislators are arguing about how far accountability measures should go.
In the absence of national policy, at least 28 states have set standards on cheating, safety and responsible AI use in schools.
Over recent decades we’ve moved toward a much more effective and humane system to deal with youth crime. Evidence and research, not hyperbole and hysteria, should be guiding today’s debate.
The city has a goal of hiring 4,000 more officers by 2029. Recruiting classes are starting to increase thanks to higher salaries and other expanded hiring efforts.
Although thought of as an urban problem, food deserts are most likely to occur in rural states, including places where crops are grown right down the road.
James Hochman has resumed prosecuting even low-level crimes, but the number of felony charges hasn’t increased compared with his reform-minded predecessor’s count.
