In The States

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order Wednesday establishing the state's first high-speed internet office. The new office will coordinate and advance the state’s efforts to ensure that every home and business in Michigan has access to an affordable, reliable high-speed connection that... Read More

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy on Wednesday awarded 11 grants totaling over $4.7 million for watershed management projects that will benefit wetlands, lakes and streams. Each grant will reduce sediment, nutrients and other contaminants to help... Read More

AUSTIN, Texas — In response to Texas Democrats' quorum-breaking walkout in opposition to overhauls of the state’s elections near the close of the session over the weekend, Gov. Greg Abbott announced he would convene a special session this summer. “We... Read More

Vaccination rates, which reached a peak of 3.38 million shots per day in April slowed to fewer than 2 million doses per day in May. In response on Wednesday, President Joe Biden announced a “month of action” to urge more... Read More

Democrat Melanie Stansbury claimed a decisive victory Tuesday night in a contested special election for Congress in New Mexico, easing fears in some corners of her party that a close result could have been a sign of disaster to come... Read More

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Republicans pressed ahead with their push for tougher election laws Tuesday, vowing to ensure Democrats' weekend victory over one of the most restrictive voting measures in the country would only be temporary.  GOP Gov. Greg... Read More

The NewDEAL Forum launched a Broadband Task Force on Tuesday to identify major obstacles limiting access to high-speed internet, develop state and local solutions, and advocate for a strong federal-state-local partnership. Chaired by Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, Florida State Sen. Loranne Ausley,... Read More

ATLANTA (AP) — Jennifer McClellan remembers her parents' recounting life as Black Southerners enduring segregation and the trauma and triumph of the civil rights movement.  It showed her that government can be "a powerful force for improving people's lives" but... Read More

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — It had been eight years since a Republican candidate even stepped forward to challenge Democrat Roxanna Moritz as the top elections official in Scott County, Iowa. Running unopposed in 2016 and 2020, Moritz had become,... Read More

Voters in New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District will go to the polls on Tuesday to choose a replacement for Deb Haaland, the former Democratic representative for the district who left Congress to become President Joe Biden’s secretary of the Interior.... Read More

WASHINGTON — Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., unveiled legislation that would up the scale of controlled burns to mitigate the effects of severe wildfires nationwide. The bill, entitled the “National Prescribed... Read More

Twenty-Five states and the District of Columbia have fully vaccinated at least half of their population, the Centers for Disease Control said Tuesday. From a political perspective, 21 of those 25 states and the District of Columbia are blue states,... Read More

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A majority of California voters say they would vote for Gov. Gavin Newsom to keep his position in a recall election, a new survey finds. The survey, conducted earlier this month by the Public Policy Institute of... Read More

The Biden administration is opening up the northern and central coasts of California to the first commercial scale offshore wind farm projects in the region. The first location, called the Morro Bay 399 Area, is roughly 400 square miles off... Read More

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — There's no road trip, no soul searching. No beard or blogging. But Beto O'Rourke is making a political life decision again. Three years after becoming Democrats' breakout star out of Texas, and a year removed from... Read More

PALM BEACH, Fla. - It’s not a good time to be a state or federal official with oversight over South Florida’s long abused plumbing system. In just the past several days, a coalition of environmental groups has called on Gov.... Read More

A majority of voters in five rural Oregon counties on Tuesday said they’d rather leave their state than continue to be a Republican minority in a decidedly blue place. Instead, residents of Sherman, Lake, Grant, Baker, and Malheur counties endorsed... Read More

North Texas’s 6th Congressional District will be the next battleground in which Republicans are asked to choose between the party’s traditions and a more Trumpian future. The state has scheduled a special runoff election on July 27, between Susan Wright... Read More

AUSTIN, Texas - Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law on Wednesday a bill that not only bans abortions in the state before many women know they are pregnant, but, in a unique twist, gives private citizens the right to... Read More

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Normally conservative Alabama has become the latest state in the union to approve the use of medical marijuana in at least some circumstances. Gov. Kay Ivey signed the legislation Monday, a week after the state House of... Read More

Voters in Pennsylvania appear to have handed the state’s Republicans a significant victory on Tuesday, approving two constitutional amendments that would give the legislature more power to block emergency declarations by the governor. Though votes will likely continue to be... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear an abortion case next term that could dramatically alter abortion jurisprudence. In 2018, Mississippi enacted a law that banned abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. It was one of a wave... Read More

OKLAHOMA CITY - State lawmakers in Oklahoma this past week came to bipartisan agreement on a new legislative map to be used in upcoming state House and Senate races. And in something of the rarity in this hyper-sensitive time, the... Read More

The nonpartisan Princeton Gerrymandering Project has launched what it is calling the "Great American Map-Off," a contest challenging the public to draw redistricting plans for seven crucial states – Wisconsin, Colorado, Ohio, Illinois, Florida, North Carolina and New York – in anticipation... Read More

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The first court test of whether local governments can ban police from enforcing certain gun laws is playing out in a rural Oregon county, one of a wave of U.S. counties declaring itself a Second Amendment... Read More

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Environmental groups and scientists with two universities want U.S. wildlife managers to consider reintroducing jaguars to the American Southwest. In a recently published paper, they say habitat destruction, highways and existing segments of the border wall... Read More

JACKSON, Miss. - The Mississippi Supreme Court on Friday overturned a voter-approved ballot initiative to legalize medical marijuana, holding that the election law governing ballot referendums is out of date. The decision, which could halt other citizen-led efforts to amend... Read More

HARRISBURG — Mark Nordenberg, a former University of Pittsburgh chancellor, will chair the committee in charge of drawing Pennsylvania’s legislative districts, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court announced this week. The appointment means Nordenberg, a former dean of Pitt’s law school, will... Read More

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Protests over George Floyd's killing at the hands of Minneapolis police were raging across the country last June when a Democratic lawmaker took to the floor of the Pennsylvania Senate to argue for greater protections against... Read More

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson announced Tuesday he is ending participation in all federal pandemic-related unemployment insurance programs to address workforce shortages across the state. Parson, a Republican, said they will end at 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, June 12. "From conversations... Read More