Politics and Elections
Covering topics such as governors, legislatures, local government, redistricting and voting.
All city technology agencies will now operate under the Office of Technology and Innovation, overseen by Chief Technology Officer Matthew Fraser. Fraser took over the CTO position earlier this month.
Deputies from the Alabama county’s sheriff’s office often fasten monitors on about 25 people weekly and many of those haven’t been convicted of anything. Some say the monitors are financially and emotionally burdensome.
The bill would require private companies to allow medical, religious and “natural immunity” exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine and it would allow unvaccinated employees to instead get weekly testing.
Public health, social work and public works employees under SEIU Local 521 will walk off the job on Jan. 25 in response to poor-faith bargaining. Council officials expect the strike to delay or entirely shut down some departmental operations.
Experts worry that social media apps that have positioned themselves as right-winged alternatives, like Parler and Gab, may promote disinformation about the upcoming midterm elections, which could incite violence.
Mayor London Breed’s two-part proposed ballot measure would ask residents to vote on broadened police access to live feeds and allowing police camera access in “public safety crisis areas,” which would include privately owned cameras.
The Summit County city has the most charging stations per capita in the county and officials are hopeful that the installation of four electric vehicle recharging posts will help attract EV drivers and business.
State legislatures will have a lot on their plates. They’ll deal with issues in wildly differing ways. We set the context for the 2022 session with an overview of everything from abortion to taxes.
State and local governments are still trusted more than Washington, though they’re having their own brushes with incivility and polarization. But they’re still the best bet for preserving our traditions of governance.
Legislation that would have enacted minimum standards for wages, working hours and work conditions across the fast food industry fell short of passing the state Assembly last year by just three votes. Some hope the bill becomes law during this year's legislative session.
Ohio’s new redistricting process, which is being used for the first time after voters approved it as a state constitutional amendment in 2015, is totally untested.
Thousands of people are protesting the state’s Board of Health for a plan to round up unvaccinated people and force them into quarantine facilities. But the plan isn’t real. It was created entirely from misinformation.
The New York City mayor has appointed his younger brother, Bernard Adams, as the head of his security detail, a step back from earlier proposals to give him a high-ranking NYPD job. Many are worried about the ethics.
The New Jersey governor declared a new public health emergency just as the previous orders were set to expire. Reinstating the emergency orders will allow current safety measures to stay in place.
The Colorado county election official must agree to the county’s election security protocols before she can resume her duties. Tina Peters has been a supporter of the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen.
Despite heavy precipitation across the state recently, many experts are still advising water conservation in preparation for drier seasons to come. The past water year was the state’s driest in a century.
