Governing: State and local government news and analysis
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has announced several upcoming changes to the Department of Workforce Solutions to improve technology capabilities in handling unemployment insurance claims and reducing fraud.
Braddock, Pa., is where Andrew Carnegie first mass-produced steel. The city, now one-tenth its former size, is home to a new kind of industry: robotic farms that grow greens inside buildings.
Big tech companies could soon be facing down new antitrust rules if a suite of five bills from the U.S. House gain enough support. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have voiced interest in reining in tech monopolies.
With the final CDC eviction moratorium set to expire at the end of June, three Texas families recount their experiences facing their own housing struggles over the past year.
Are the election law changes proposed in statehouses across the country really as bad as some say? An election law scholar cuts through the yelling to take a sober look at the new voting landscape.
While wealthy cities have managed to grow transit ridership, overall numbers have dropped by nearly 50 percent since 1970. The decrease in riders makes it harder for officials to support future transit investments.
Civil debate about American democracy is possible if it’s grounded in civic literacy. The new president of the Center for Civic Education says civics and constitutional education offers a chance for special unity.
Without federal help, cities in the Northeast and Midwest face heavy cost burdens to upgrade aging roads, bridges and water systems. Younger municipalities in the South and West are beginning to have similar problems.
Road reformers want to demolish aging center-city freeways to make up for old racial harms. It’s a bit of a stretch, but it may be an effective argument.
As the coronavirus pandemic forced Americans outside, states are now investing some of their federal aid in updating park infrastructure to keep up with the record crowds.
Billions in federal aid give state and local governments the opportunity to leverage evidence-based approaches to help disproportionately impacted communities and address long-term systemic challenges.
A bipartisan group of senators proposed the gas tax should be indexed to inflation to help pay for new infrastructure spending, an approach Biden calls ‘regressive.’
In the public sector, customer service can easily devolve to “our way or the highway.” The head of the Arlington, Texas, planning department is transforming its service culture into a place where your “dream comes true.”
State and local leaders should prod Washington for the funding that can close the digital divide, protect utilities from cyber criminals, build smart cities and shape incentives for high-tech manufacturing.
The idea has come up again and again, and now there’s a flurry of experimentation. But it never seems to take hold.
A new book makes a multi-generational examination of the origin stories of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin to understand how they were shaped and by whom – their mothers.
The pandemic made it easier to get—and keep—food assistance. In some places, those expanded benefits are drawing to a close.
When the rush for unemployment insurance crashed government websites in 2020, we learned how to navigate traffic surges in a crisis. So why weren’t sites prepared to handle vaccine appointments?
The state’s eviction moratorium is coming to an end June 30. Since the earliest days of the pandemic, housing analysts have worried about a wave of evictions whenever the state lifts protections for renters. Carolina Reid, associate professor of city and regional planning at the University of California, Berkeley, has been tracking vulnerable renters throughout the pandemic. She says the state could help renters facing eviction — if enough money gets to them in time.
North America’s largest subway system is run by a board that’s disproportionately controlled by state government. A city-run system has merits, but so far only one mayoral candidate is interested in changing the status quo.
The primary to succeed Bill de Blasio will be held on Tuesday. No one from the huge field has emerged as a clear favorite, with Andrew Yang fading fast.
Dissatisfied voters targeted election administrators in 2020. Accustomed to working behind the scenes, many were cast as villains and now fear for their personal and professional safety.
Congress and state legislatures dealt with dozens of bills on voter identification and other legislative measures aimed at more full election integrity — but there is no agreement on what a more perfect voting process would look like.
Texas and 19 other states had challenged the Affordable Care Act. For the third time, the nation's highest court upheld it.
Any community’s civic culture has deep and stubborn roots in local history. But with the right sort of leader, new and innovative attitudes and practices can emerge.
Public officials need the private sector to step up and use its moral and financial clout to counter the right-wing extremists who are bent on ending the American republic.
America’s largest city has a transit system under stress, and an ongoing battle between cars, bikes and pedestrians for control of the streets. Yet mayoral candidates are saying little about the transportation problems.
Stockton emerged from bankruptcy years ago, but a culture of caution lingered that wasn’t conducive to growth. Harry Black, its new city manager, aims to speed resurgence and innovation through data-based plans and programs.
“No industry should feel entitled to use up a human body.”
Housing and crime round out top urban concerns and mayors are scrambling to use much-needed federal funding as austerity issues recede, according to the latest State of the Cities report from the National League of Cities.
