In The States

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's veto of a bill aimed at transgender health care puts the state in the middle of a national fight, but with more immediate consequences as the state's looming election offers an early test on... Read More

ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — Powerful tornadoes tore through the Deep South on Friday night, killing at least 23 people in Mississippi, obliterating dozens of buildings and leaving an especially devastating mark in a rural town whose mayor declared, “My... Read More

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In Florida, Republican lawmakers have introduced a bevy of new legislation that will, if passed, restrict certain health educational materials used in state schools. One such bill, House Bill 1069, would limit children below sixth grade from... Read More

RAVENSWOOD, W. Va. — Like a lot of communities in America’s heartland, Jackson County, West Virginia, was built on natural resources. Timber and energy wrought from the ground helped sustain and grow its population, and the arrival of manufacturing in... Read More

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina barbecue chain known for its pro-segregation stance in a landmark 1960s case and its embrace of the Confederate flag in 2000 is facing allegations of racism and sexual harassment by the fired general... Read More

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A Medicaid expansion deal in North Carolina received final legislative approval on Thursday, ending a decade of debate over whether the closely politically divided state should accept the federal government's coverage for hundreds of thousands of low-income adults.... Read More

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina is inching ever closer to a presidential bid in 2024, scheduling his latest swing through early-voting states before returning home afterward to give donors a “political update." According to an invitation... Read More

WASHINGTON — A group of Washington, D.C., voters is suing to overturn a new local law giving noncitizen residents a right to vote. They say the law infringes on American citizens’ right to self-government and dilutes the value of their... Read More

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Teri Patrick bristles at the idea she wants to ban books about LGBTQ issues in Iowa schools, arguing her only goal is ridding schools of sexually explicit material. Sara Hayden Parris says that whatever you... Read More

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida election officials have been slapped with a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s 2005 “wet signature” requirement. Since 2005, Florida has required individuals registering to vote to submit their application with an “original signature.” In a lawsuit... Read More

BOISE, Idaho — Students in Idaho are suing the state after Republican Gov. Brad Little signed a bill into law that removes student ID cards as an acceptable form of voter identification at polling places. In a complaint filed in... Read More

ATCHAFALAYA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, La. (AP) — Stacks of valves, networks of pipes and hulking, two-story-tall tanks litter parts of the swampy landscape of Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin, rusting relics of sites where oil wells were drilled in the 1970s, an... Read More

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Doctors in California who mail abortion pills to people in other states would be protected from prosecution under a new bill to be unveiled Friday in the state Legislature. The bill would not let California extradite... Read More

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – The Oklahoma Senate is poised to consider a bill that would have state elections take place under different rules than federal contests if Congress were to mandate national election guidelines the state found onerous. The legislation,... Read More

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho is a signature away from removing a student ID issued by a high school, college or university from the list of acceptable forms of identification to vote in elections in the state. Last week, the Republican-controlled... Read More

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Hundreds of union supporters filled the halls of the Michigan Capitol on Tuesday as Senate Democrats voted along party lines in support of repealing the decade-old “right-to-work” law in a state long considered a pillar of... Read More

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The state of Ohio filed a 58-count civil lawsuit against Norfolk Southern Tuesday, seeking to hold the Class 1 railroad financially responsible for the Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine that caused the release of an estimated... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO — Uber, Lyft and other companies with ride-sharing apps can continue to treat their drivers as independent contractors, a California appeals court ruled Monday, overturning a lower court decision. At issue was California’s Proposition 22, which state voters... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder, a pioneer for women’s and family rights in Congress, has died. She was 82. Schroeder's former press secretary, Andrea Camp, said Schroeder suffered a stroke recently and died Monday night at a... Read More

WASHINGTON — Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and House members including Reps. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., and Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., were among those crying foul on Monday after the Biden administration approved ConocoPhillips’ Willow oil-drilling project on public land on... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is approving the major Willow oil project on Alaska's petroleum-rich North Slope, according to two people familiar with the decision. The decision revealed Monday, one of President Joe Biden’s most consequential climate decisions, is... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is scheduled to testify Monday before a Manhattan grand jury investigating hush-money payments made on the former president’s behalf, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.... Read More

DOVER, Del. — For the second time in two years, the Delaware House on Thursday approved a bill that would effectively create a recreational cannabis marketplace in the state, despite the legislation’s almost certain veto by the state’s governor. Aside... Read More

An African serval cat that was found with cocaine in its system after an escape at a traffic stop now calls the Cincinnati Zoo home, much to the delight of social media users still amused by the recent release of... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has been invited to testify before a New York grand jury that has been investigating hush money payments made on his behalf during his 2016 presidential campaign, according to one of his lawyers. Trump attorney Joseph... Read More

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to strike down a proposed Washington, D.C., criminal reform bill. The senators, like members of the House days earlier, said it is too soft on crime. They also said it calls into... Read More

WASHINGTON — In yet another sign that the COVID crisis is largely over, DC Health announced Friday that it will be closing the COVID Centers it opened around the city during the pandemic on Friday, March 31. The decision to... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Brundy, an alfalfa grower in California's Imperial Valley, thinks farmers reliant on the shrinking Colorado River can do more to save water and use it more efficiently. That's why he's installed water sensors and monitors to prevent waste... Read More

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Emergency crews in California scrambled Wednesday to shuttle food and medicine to mountain communities stranded by back-to-back winter storms that have dumped so much snow some residents can barely see out their windows. In San Bernardino County east... Read More

HONOLULU (AP) — In a case that reflects Hawaii's nuanced and complicated relationship with race, two Native Hawaiian men are scheduled to be sentenced Thursday for a federal hate crime in the brutal beating of a white man who tried... Read More