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.
As high schools rethink graduation requirements, a growing number are moving away from requiring all students to pass a comprehensive test.
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.
Despite recent cutbacks to the insurance program, more states now pay for access to doulas, who provide support during pregnancy and childbirth.
Educators will not be allowed to use a model called “three-cue-ing” – which teaches kids to read using context clues – as their primary method of reading instruction.
The state asked the high court to lift a lower-court judge’s temporary block on enforcement of the law, which makes it illegal for an undocumented immigrant to enter or re-enter Florida.
Its ideals, expressed by New York’s Democratic mayoral nominee, have seen plenty of success around the world. Maybe it’s time for a third party that would unapologetically stand for working- and middle-class Americans.
Under a state law enacted this year, individuals can face additional penalties if they’re caught wearing a face covering while committing a crime.
Proposed statewide standards would cover everything from transporting young people to arresting their caregivers.
After more than 1 million deaths, opioid mortality is dropping fast.
Phone lines that provide mental health support to tens of thousands of Californians say they are on the verge of shutting down or dramatically scaling back as a result of cuts in the state’s new budget.
A narrow majority of justices found that by regulating abortion, legislators had "impliedly repealed" the state's near-total ban on the procedure. Dissenters called the ruling pure policymaking.
Universities were already facing a grim future due to demographic changes. Then along came Trump.
Senators voted 99-1 to strike the ban from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It would have blocked state and local governments from regulating AI for a decade.
States should remove barriers to building, siting and competition to unleash electricity.
States are spending 15 percent of their home-generated revenue on the program, seeing their largest cost increases in 20 years.
Like some other states, Indiana is moving away from criminal justice reform efforts, imposing new penalties for homicide, fentanyl and other crimes.
The state is seeing a larger decline in residents 18 and younger than any other state. It’s also getting older and seeing losses in its working-age population.
The court ruled that states can deny Medicaid payments for medical screenings and other services at the abortion provider. The decision reverses prior policy allowing any qualified provider to be paid by Medicaid.
