Governing: State and local government news and analysis
Are community colleges prepared to train the workers a technology-based economy requires? Joseph Fuller of Harvard Business School talks about findings from a multiyear research project that finds they have far to go.
The excesses of the American dream fill 50,000 storage facilities across the country. This material overflow results from crisis, indecision, laziness and selective forgetfulness.
Their votes were influential or outright decisive in several close races won by Democrats, such as Nevada’s senate election. Their turnout could signal a possible shift — or exception — in voting trends.
The massively popular platform owned by the Beijing-based company ByteDance, has already been banned on government-owned devices in several U.S. states because of security concerns.
Investment company becomes significant backer in Governing's parent company.
A pilot program has gradually amassed more than $100 million in Federal Transit Administration grants, which are laying the groundwork for land use projects that promote mobility and affordability.
A new report from experts at NYU and Harvard law schools outlines the ways state attorneys general can protect communities and workers as the country builds a clean energy economy.
A trash truck or a streetlight has a basic function, but in a digital age they can be so much more, adding value outside of their core purposes.
We need to move toward a lower-energy future, but we can’t present it as a punishment.
Combining recycled plastic with asphalt could cut costs and waste as long as microplastics don’t leach into waterways. At least a dozen states in the past few years have started pilot programs to test plastic roads.
After years of construction problems, safety issues and the pandemic, the last section of a 23-mile commuter rail project is complete, connecting the region's international airport and outer suburbs with Washington.
Georgia’s efforts to discourage voters had an impact in the state’s Senate runoff. Fairness and justice still won out, but we should be making it easier — not harder — for people to register and vote.
Nearly 1,700 state and local entities purchased tech targeted under the FCC’s ban between 2015 and 2021. A new rule lets existing tools stay, but reduces future availability, potentially leading to costlier procurements in the name of national security.
Approximately 20 percent of households have some amount of medical debt, and they are disproportionately Black and Latino. A few local governments have teamed up with a nonprofit to unburden their residents’ finances.
Public-sector technology work is a force multiplier for improving the lives of residents nationwide. That's important to keep in mind, especially in the face of news like unrelenting cyber attacks and workforce woes.
With his unprecedented call for the termination of the U.S. Constitution, Donald Trump seems to ignore the lesson of Andrew Jackson, another aggrieved presidential aspirant who lived to fight – and win – another election.
Cyber incidents have hit state courts in Alaska, Georgia and Texas in recent years. Court leaders and CIOs at the NCSC eCourts conference this week shared what happened and what they learned from the experiences.
With action at federal, state and local levels, along with surging demand for EVs, the energy transition accelerated remarkably in the last 12 months.
Metro Transit just opened the fifth bus rapid transit line in the Twin Cities. Advocates are hoping for many more.
Women made a strong showing in legislative races across the country in this year's midterm elections. Meanwhile, polarization is a renewable resource, Krasner's complaint and annals of election denial.
With its weak-mayor form of government, the capital city’s top job only has so much power. But the issue of housing affordability has consumed the race, which will end in a runoff between two Democrats next week.
Excess-mortality statistics show that the U.S. fared worse than other wealthy countries, and that places with low vaccination rates were hit the hardest. There could be 465,747 more Americans alive today if we’d done as well as New Zealand.
Come January, eleven states and Washington, D.C., will allow children without permanent legal status to enroll in Medicaid or CHIP. The change is costing states millions of dollars.
The old buildings that housed multiple sellers under a single roof were more than just places to shop. They were community-making institutions.
Federal legislation requiring machine-readable reporting has its critics, but it would go a long way toward modernizing how data is collected, used and shared. It also could lower borrowing costs for states and localities.
Proponents of the voting method argue it leads to better representation of voters’ viewpoints and more collegial campaigning while eliminating the need for costly runoff elections. Opponents say it’s too complicated.
Too often, our policy responses are guided by fear rather than evidence.
Inflation is pressuring state and local employers to grant big cost-of-living increases. But they’ll need to keep in mind the prospect of diminishing revenues in coming fiscal years.
Amid a call to incorporate tribal knowledge in environmental protection, a state agency has set a standard for authentic consultation. A history of fights over water in Owens Valley embodies the tension between growth and stewardship.
We’ve tried several approaches, and all have their strengths and weaknesses. But one relic of the Progressive Era is on the way out.
