Local Government

WASHINGTON — Hoping to speed the development of energy and infrastructure projects, members of the National Governors Association are touting a bipartisan plan they say will dramatically streamline the permitting process while maintaining the integrity of reviews. In a joint... Read More

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — “Don't say gay.” Regulation of books and classroom discussion. Teachers, parents and school librarians all navigating new and uncertain ground. LGBTQ+ rights under attack. A very public spat between state government and Disney. And at the... Read More

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Conservative Nebraska lawmakers are expected to have just enough votes to pass a bill Friday that combines a ban on gender-affirming care for minors with a 12-week abortion ban. The mood in the Nebraska Capitol since... Read More

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Daniel Cameron won the Republican primary for Kentucky governor on Tuesday, becoming the first major-party Black nominee for governor in the state’s history and setting up a November showdown with Democratic incumbent Andy Beshear. Cameron, the... Read More

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democrats maintained their narrow Pennsylvania House majority Tuesday by winning a special election and along with it continued control over how the chamber will handle abortion, gun rights and election law legislation. Heather Boyd won a... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — From the outside, the residential high-rise on Manhattan's Upper West Side looks pretty much like any other luxury building: A doorman greets visitors in a spacious lobby adorned with tapestry and marble. Yet just below in... Read More

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Off-year elections on Tuesday in Kentucky and Pennsylvania could send early signals about the mood of voters ahead of next year's races for the White House and Congress. The Kentucky governor's race is a table-setter for what should be... Read More

SAYREVILLE, N.J. (AP) — Nicole Teliano used to play games on her phone in the mayor’s office while her mother worked down the hall several evenings a month, tending to the tedious, often acrimonious task of serving in local government.... Read More

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Abortion bans in deeply conservative Nebraska and South Carolina each fell a single vote short of passing in their legislatures amid heated debates among Republicans, yet another sign that abortion is becoming a difficult issue for the GOP. As the... Read More

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama and Mississippi closed most government offices Monday for Confederate Memorial Day as efforts have stalled to abolish state holidays that honor the old Confederacy. Legislation has been introduced in the ongoing Alabama legislative session to... Read More

North Dakota’s Republican Gov. Doug Burgum signed a bill into law that restricts transgender health care in the state, immediately making it a crime to give gender-affirming care to people younger than 18. Gender-affirming care for minors has been available... Read More

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' appointees on Wednesday began trying to reshape Disney World's governing body with proposals to eliminate a planning board and prohibit mask mandates and COVID-19 vaccine requirements in an evolving showdown between the... Read More

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The second of two Black Democrats who were kicked out of the Republican-led Tennessee House followed his colleague back to work at the Capitol on Thursday, a week after their expulsion for participating in a gun... Read More

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nashville officials are poised to vote Monday to reinstate one of the two Black Democratic lawmakers expelled by Republican colleagues for their gun control protest on the Tennessee House floor after a deadly school shooting — essentially, sending him back after a... Read More

CHICAGO (AP) — Brandon Johnson, a union organizer and former teacher, was elected as Chicago's next mayor Tuesday in a major victory for the Democratic Party’s progressive wing as the heavily blue city grapples with high crime and financial challenges. Johnson, a... Read More

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A Democrat in the North Carolina state House switched to the Republican Party on Wednesday, giving the GOP veto-proof control in both chambers of the legislature and handing Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper a setback in trying... Read More

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A liberal Milwaukee judge and a conservative former state Supreme Court justice won Tuesday’s primary to face off in a pivotal Wisconsin Supreme Court race that will determine majority control with major issues looming. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden put the punctuation mark on what by all accounts was a highly successful National Association of Counties Legislative Conference at the Washington Hilton. In all, nearly 2,000 elected and appointed county officials registered for the... Read More

State lawmakers around the country introduced thousands of bills to change the way elections are run after former President Donald Trump falsely blamed his 2020 loss on voter fraud. Hundreds became law. Even with proponents of Trump's election lies roundly defeated during this year's midterms,... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot will be asking voters for a second term leading one of the nation’s biggest cities. Republicans will try to take full control of the Virginia Legislature. Governors’ mansions are up for election in... Read More

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. (AP) — The November elections saw Californians continue to embrace progressive leadership, but voters in one of the state’s most populous counties are so frustrated with this political direction that they voted to consider seceding and forming... Read More

Democratic candidates for the Michigan House and Senate won a majority of votes this year, translating into their party winning control of both legislative chambers. That may seem like a natural result, but it hasn't been in previous elections. While Democrats... Read More

ESTANCIA, N.M. (AP) — Republican county commissioners in this swath of ranching country in New Mexico’s high desert have tried everything they can think of to persuade voters their elections are secure. They approved hand-counting of ballots from the primary election... Read More

WASHINGTON — Thousands of policymakers and their aides returned to their jurisdictions from the National Conference of State Legislatures summit in Denver earlier this month with the 1914 Christmas Truce top of mind. Because, if the tale about the miraculous... Read More

WASHINGTON — All over Capitol Hill, the hullabaloo of the return to almost pre-pandemic normal was everywhere in evidence. Under a bright blue late afternoon sky, mobs of rambunctious school children were being corralled on the Capitol steps for class... Read More

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a state law that effectively eliminated abortions in Kentucky after the state’s two remaining clinics said they couldn’t meet its requirements. The decision by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings was... Read More

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday asked the Legislature to repeal a law allowing Walt Disney World to operate a private government over its properties in the state, the latest volley in a feud between the... Read More

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Monday that forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, a policy that has drawn intense national scrutiny from critics who argue it... Read More

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Republicans responding to the myth of widespread voter fraud are turning to a new tactic to appease voters who believe the claims: election police. The efforts to establish law enforcement units dedicated to investigating election crimes... Read More

WASHINGTON — A new report from a Washington-based nonprofit offers a blueprint for how states and cities can most effectively address inequities in access to high-speed Internet with funding newly made available by the federal government. Published by the NewDEAL... Read More