School voucher supporters say they have the votes to get a bill across both the Texas Senate, led by Patrick, and the House, which has repeatedly blocked such proposals.

Arizona voters have approved letting local police arrest migrants suspected of illegally entering the state from Mexico.

The same Michigan voters Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris needs in the critical swing state will also determine whether her party maintains its foothold on state government two years after pulling off a historic sweep.

Voters in nine states are deciding next month whether to add the right to abortion to their constitutions.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a law aimed at preventing gas prices from spiking at the pump.

The examination of Deloitte’s existing contracts comes after it failed to catch red flags in a company’s application for a loan to build or upgrade power plants in the state.

The new list includes many right-wing priorities, and would escalate Republicans’ wars against diversity, equity and inclusion programs and review laws to keep noncitizens off voter rolls.

With ballot deadlines approaching, Nebraska and Missouri courts are weighing whether amendments on abortion will go before voters.

Texas Republicans have been trying to reduce the state’s high property taxes for years, but some acknowledge eliminating them would be too expensive.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has upheld a 2023 state law that restores voting rights for felons once they have completed their prison sentences.

Wisconsin Republicans are asking voters to take away the governor’s power to unilaterally spend federal money, a reaction to the billions of dollars that flowed into the state during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Democrats in the state legislative majority have rebuffed calls by New Mexico’s governor to address the “dangerous intersection” of crime and homelessness.

Utah’s Supreme Court has ruled in favor of opponents of redistricting that carved up Democratic-leaning Salt Lake County among four congressional districts that have since elected Republicans by wide margins.

All over Florida, arts groups are scrambling to plug large budget gaps after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unexpectedly vetoed $32 million in arts funding.

Parents and medical providers of transgender adolescents sued Texas, challenging the constitutionality of a restriction on puberty blockers and hormone therapy.

The California Supreme Court has removed a measure from the state’s November ballot that would have made it harder to raise taxes.

The committee’s chair also raised concerns about the state’s possible departure from a federal system to share data about maternal deaths.

An anti-abortion group in South Dakota has filed a lawsuit to block an abortion rights measure from the November ballot.

Other cities have passed similar measures, but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued to block them from going into effect.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has signed legislation overhauling access to the state’s public records, likely making it harder for the public and media to access some documents, according to critics.

Vermont has become the first state to enact a law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a share of the damage caused by climate change after the state suffered catastrophic summer flooding and damage from other extreme weather.

Youth services and civil rights groups are suing to block a new Washington state parental rights law that is set to take effect next month.

Some Kansas lawmakers see a chance to lure Kansas City’s two biggest professional sports teams across the Missouri border.

Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Deanne Criswell says “our heart aches for the loss of life” in tornadoes that left four dead and about 100 injured in Oklahoma.

A proposed ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors in Kansas has died.

Some public school teachers could gain new powers to bring concealed guns into Tennessee schools.

Abbott made the remarks as he recounted the story of a male teacher in North Texas who wore a pink dress for his school’s spirit day earlier this year.

Supporters of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota are welcoming federal legislation that would help cover the construction costs of the library and to showcase artifacts of the 26th president.

Unlike recent years when there was an LGBTQ+ ally in the Louisiana governor's office, nothing stands in the way this year of legislation hostile to transgender people.

A new voting rights law in New York is already having a dramatic effect, with lawsuits in several local communities seeking to reverse decades of minority voter disenfranchisement.

Examining charitable bail organizations and banning Delta 9 were also among Patrick’s priorities in the next legislative session.

Nebraska’s Republican governor is calling on state lawmakers to move forward with a “winner-take-all” system of awarding Electoral College votes.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a bill passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature that would have banned high school transgender athletes from competing on teams that align with their gender identity.

As Kansas prepares to ban gender-affirming care for minors, students at the state's largest university taking action.

A high school teacher and two students are suing Arkansas over the state's ban on critical race theory in public schools.

California wants to pay doctors more money to convince them to see more Medicaid patients.

New Mexico’s State Land Office will withhold lease sales indefinitely on its most promising tracts for oil and gas development in the Permian Basin as it seeks approval by the state Legislature to increase top-tier royalty rates.

South Dakota’s Republican-controlled Legislature has approved the creation of a video to outline the state’s abortion laws and to clarify when health care providers are legally allowed to intervene.

South Dakota's Legislature has made it easier for the city of Sioux Falls to find new homes for more than 150 taxidermy animals of its arsenic-contaminated collection.

Wisconsin’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, has signed new legislative district maps into law that he proposed and that the Republicans who control the Legislature passed to avoid having the liberal-leaning state Supreme Court draw the lines.

Wisconsin’s GOP-controlled Legislature has passed legislative maps that were proposed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

Nebraska state Sen_ Loren Lippincott is touting a bill that would give the Nebraska State Patrol $200,000 to hire “an ethical hacker.”.

Senate Bill 4 bumps the minimum sentence from two years to 10 years for human smuggling or operating a stash house.

Wisconsin Democrats are inching closer to overturning Republican-drawn legislative maps that the GOP have used to grow their majorities and advance their agenda over the past 13 years.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ lawsuit against the Republican-controlled Legislature arguing that it is obstructing basic government functions.

New Jersey's Democratic-led state government is considering legislation that would eliminate out-of-pocket costs for abortion.

Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has promised to veto a redistricting proposal that the Republican-controlled Assembly passed and that largely mirror maps he proposed, but with changes that would reduce the number of GOP incumbents who would have to face one another in November.

Hawaii lawmakers are opening a new session of the state Legislature vowing to address glaring problems laid bare by the deadly wildfire that destroyed the historic town of Lahaina in August.

Hawaii lawmakers are due to convene this week for the first time since the burning of historic Lahaina awakened the state to the deadly and costly threat posed by wildfires in an age of climate change.

Louisiana’s newly inaugurated lawmakers are set to convene for a special session during which they will discuss items that could impact how the state conducts elections.

A federal judge has ordered a new legislative district for two Native American tribes who successfully challenged North Dakota’s 2021 redistricting map as violating the Voting Rights Act in diluting Native American voters’ strength.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly is more aggressive and openly political in pushing to expand Medicaid in Kansas as the Republican-controlled Legislature prepares to open its annual session.

Texas lawmakers passed and voters approved several property tax bills last year. Those bills will be due at the end of the month, and it will save some hundreds of dollars.

The liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court has overturned Republican-drawn legislative maps and ordered that new ones be created.

New York’s highest court just gave Democrats a chance to redraw the state’s congressional districts, a major victory as the party tries to flip seats in the state to win control of the U.S. House next year.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request from North Dakota's secretary of state to delay a federal judge's ruling that found the state's 2021 redistricting map violated the Voting Rights Act in diluting the voting strength of two Native American tribes.

New York’s highest court has ordered the state to draw new congressional districts ahead of the 2024 elections.

Louisiana lawmakers now have until the end of January to draw and pass new congressional boundaries to replace the current map that a federal judge says dilutes the power of the state’s Black voters.

A federal judge has ruled that North Dakota’s 2021 legislative redistricting plan violates the rights of two Native American tribes because it dilutes their voting strength.

The legislation, which Republican lawmakers have been trying to pass since 2021, offers no exceptions for doctors’ offices, clinics or other health facilities.

Rep. Frederick Frazier was indicted over a year ago on two charges of impersonating a public servant. But the case has not gone to trial yet, partly because Frazier has been able to delay the case until the Legislature concludes its work.

Donald Trump has Pennsylvania’s voting rules in his sights, and it's a familiar target.

A ruling by North Dakota’s Supreme Court has jeopardized funding for major parts of the state government.

Accusations that New Mexico’s Democratic-led Legislature unfairly diluted the vote of a politically conservative oil-producing region with its redistricting map have gone to trial.

Democrats in the Pennsylvania House will keep their one-vote majority after winning a Pittsburgh area seat in a special election.

California lawmakers have finished their work for 2023.

Oregon has taken an unprecedented step in offering psilocybin, also known as magic mushrooms, to the public.

Nearly 1 million California workers would win major salary increases under a pair of bills in the state Legislature.

The Florida Supreme Court must decide whether to overrule broad abortion rights protections provided for decades under the state constitution and instead uphold a law signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that bans the procedure in most cases after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Even before the newly elected justice who gave liberals a one-seat majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court has heard a case, Republican lawmakers are talking about taking the unprecedented step of impeaching and removing her from office.

Record-breaking oil production in New Mexico is likely to provide state government with a new multibillion-dollar surplus during the upcoming budget year.

Construction began in June on the Theodore Roosevelt presidential library planned for the Badlands of western North Dakota.

South Carolina's newly all-male Supreme Court has reversed course on abortion, upholding a ban on most such procedures after just weeks of pregnancy.

Tennessee lawmakers are convening a special session this week that highlights the divergent response states are taking to a spate of mass shootings.

State officials backing Senate Bill 12 have said they want to protect children from seeing sexually explicit performances. But new legal challenges say the law is so broad and vague that it criminalizes constitutionally protected expression.

The Iowa Supreme Court says Gov. Kim Reynolds can appeal a temporary block on the state’s restrictive abortion law.

Maine will soon expand abortion access, joining a half dozen states that leave it to doctors and patients to make the decision without restrictions on timing.

After months of debate, Texas lawmakers announced a deal Monday for a record-breaking $18 billion property tax cut to homeowners.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ partial veto that attempts to lock in a school funding increase for 400 years drew outrage and surprise from his political opponents.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has signed off on a two-year spending plan after gutting a Republican tax cut and using his broad veto powers to increase school funding for centuries.

North Dakota higher education officials are deeply worried about losing students and revenue in 2024 when neighboring Minnesota makes tuition free for thousands of its residents at public colleges and universities.

Legislators also passed bills that will provide foster kids entering the troubled system with duffel bags or backpacks and those aging out of the system with help setting up bank accounts.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called state lawmakers into a second special legislative session with no talks of border security and immigration on the agenda.

A new California law aimed in part at increasing salaries for fast food workers has been delayed.

The bipartisan legislation was long sought by advocates for disabled voters, including some of the governor’s own allies.

The bill by State Representative Jarvis Johnson aimed to use the registry to help with a cure and treatment for sickle cell disease in Texas, but Governor Abbott vetoed it, writing it “would force hospitals to share reams of sensitive health information … putting the privacy of patients at risk.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom is proposing an end to public disclosure of investigations of abusive and corrupt police officers.

A federal judge is blocking much of Indiana's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors from taking effect as scheduled July 1.

Wisconsin's top elections official is nearing the end of her term, and uncertainty looms over who will hold the position through the 2024 presidential election.

So-called environmental, social and governance policies are often adopted by companies to reduce their carbon footprints. The new Texas bill aims to stop insurers doing business in Texas from using ESG criteria, but it doesn’t include penalties for violations.

New York would create a commission to consider reparations to address the lingering, negative effects of slavery under a bill passed by the state Legislature.

The bill, recently signed by Gov. Greg Abbott and set to take effect Sept. 1, does not restrict pandemic rules by private entities.

Before Abbott can review the budget that will direct the state’s spending for the next two years, the comptroller has to certify that it doesn’t spend more money than the state expects to bring in.

Louisiana is poised to become the latest state to enact laws targeting the LGBTQ+ community.

The bills will give owners of natural gas power plants incentives to build more capacity, but they don’t go as far as originally proposed to change how electricity is created and sold in the Texas market.

The governor stands behind his support of the Texas House tax plan despite Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s insistence that the Senate has a better deal for homeowners.

Texans across the state are affected by declining water supplies, water infrastructure disruptions and flooding in their communities.

Minnesota’s governor has legalized recreational marijuana for people over 21 starting in August.

As the 88th Legislative Session came to a close, longstanding divisions between traditional conservatives and party’s far right came into focus.

Emotions often ran high over a proposal to limit young adults’ access to some firearms. Lawmakers have largely prioritized school safety measures, but there was still progress for some gun-related legislation.