LEGISLATURE

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Minnesota’s governor has legalized marijuana for people over 21.

The political divide affecting the United States is hitting Oregon hard.

California legislative committees in the Assembly and Senate blocked two big climate bills Thursday.

Two Republicans and an Independent in the Oregon Senate are now disqualified from reelection as a walkout has stalled hundreds of bills and triggered a constitutional amendment aimed at stopping the boycotts.

Kansas’ governor and top state lawmakers plan to consider a proposed legal settlement between the state and the owner of a Wichita fitness studio forced to shut down during the first months of the coronavirus pandemic and then operate under restrictions.

Rare momentum in the Texas Capitol for a tougher gun law has flickered out, days after a mass shooting near Dallas left eight people dead.

Republican state representatives' head-turning votes are helping advance a bill in the Texas House that proposes raising the purchase age for AR-style rifles.

The Michigan House has further advanced legislation that would outlaw companies from retaliating against employees for receiving abortions following its passage in the state Senate in March.

Two decades after New Hampshire’s famous Old Man of the Mountain crumbled, the state is paying tribute to the granite profile that symbolizes its independence with new geological research, poetry, a song, and a scavenger hunt.

A state lawmaker in Tennessee has resigned suddenly for an ethics violation.

Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed legislation that protects providers of abortions from prosecution or extradition attempts by out-of-state interests.

Abortion-rights supporters in Republican-leaning Kentucky thought they had finally achieved a breakthrough when voters in November defeated a measure aimed at denying any constitutional protections for abortion.

GOP lawmakers in states with abortion bans already in place are pushing to make them more restrictive, while blue state officials are trying to expand abortion access.

For exactly 50 years, Oregon’s farms and forests have been protected from urban sprawl by the nation’s first statewide law creating urban growth boundaries.

The tax-cutting trend is going full force in states even as some are raising concerns about a slowing economy.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he wants state regulators to decide whether to impose the nation's first penalty on oil companies for price gouging.

Oregon's Legislature is considering a bill that experts say would create the nation’s most comprehensive law against paramilitary activity.

Florida lawmakers will meet Monday to complete a state takeover of Walt Disney World’s self-governing district and expand a migrant relocation program, key conservative priorities of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ahead of his expected White House run.

The future of the nation's nearly $900 billion trucking industry could be shaped in California.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont has announced a series of proposed gun laws in a state already considered one of the strictest for firearms ownership.

Florida would make every student eligible for vouchers to attend private school with taxpayer money under proposed legislation House Speaker Paul Renner said Thursday will be a priority for the session that begins in March.

Republican Greg Abbott is starting a record-tying third term as Texas governor promising safer classrooms.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is calling for new gun control laws and greater accountability for firearm manufacturers while denouncing recent drive-by shootings against politicians in Albuquerque and what she called a national scourge of violence.

The pay raise plan that gives Illinois lawmakers an 18% annual salary hike started in the governor's office.

Newly released documents from the House Jan. 6 committee show that the former Wisconsin Republican Party chairman testified that U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson spoke to him weeks before Joe Biden assumed the presidency about having the state’s GOP-controlled Legislature, rather than voters, choose Wisconsin’s presidential electors.

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz is pledging to make the largest investments in public education in Minnesota history as he begins his second term.

The election contests of 2022 may have been held and decided, but Ohio’s political maps remain far from settled.

Federal proposals that would have significantly boosted security funding for election offices and heightened penalties for threatening their staff failed to advance this year.

California could become the first state to fine big oil companies for making too much money.

Florida’s top lawmakers are considering changes to a law to clear the path for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to run for president without giving up his post.

Election wins for abortion rights and Democrats could translate into abortion protections in some states.

Two Republicans who control the board in a rural southeastern Arizona county now want to withdraw a lawsuit they filed two days ago seeking to force their own elections director to hand-count all the ballots cast in-person on Election Day.

Illinois voters have approved an amendment to their state constitution that guarantees the right to bargain collectively.

Abortion rights supporters won in the four states where access was on the ballot.

Voters in reliably red Kentucky rejected a ballot measure aimed at denying any state constitutional protections for abortion while voters in battleground Michigan enshrined abortion rights in their state’s constitution.

Oregon voters are being asked to decide whether the state should be the first in the nation to amend its constitution to explicitly declare that affordable health care is a fundamental human right.

Local election officials across the United States are bracing for a wave of confrontations on Election Day in November.

Years before he became Mississippi governor, Tate Reeves served as the state's treasurer and had a hand in delaying funds for water system repairs in the capital city of Jackson.

Public school advocates who oppose a massive expansion of Arizona’s private school voucher system have filed enough signatures to block it from taking effect.

A federal judge in Phoenix has blocked enforcement of a new Arizona law restricting the filming of police.

Seventeen states that tie their vehicle emission standards to rules established in California must decide whether to follow that state’s strict new rules.

Hundreds of thousands of people have signed initiative petitions for ballot measures in several states that would expand voting access, ensure abortion rights and legalize recreational marijuana.

The utility that oversees California’s last operating nuclear power plant is taking steps to seek federal approval for an extended lifespan, just hours after the Legislature opened a pathway for a run that could last through 2030.

New Mexico's governor has signed a new executive order that pledges $10 million to build a clinic that would provide abortions and other pregnancy care.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers is proposing a $600 million annual tax cut, an election year proposal that Republican legislative leaders are rejecting as a “vote-buying ploy.

An Arizona judge is considering whether to allow the state to enforce a near-total ban on abortions that has been blocked for nearly 50 years.

Primary elections are being held in six states on Tuesday.

New Mexico’s governor says direct spending by production companies on films, TV series and other media has never been higher in the state, topping $855 million in fiscal year 2022.

Physicians and researchers are urging New Mexico legislators to allow the use of psychedelic mushrooms in mental health therapy aimed at overcoming depression, anxiety, psychological trauma and alcoholism.

Wisconsin’s conservative-controlled Supreme Court handed Republicans their newest weapon to weaken any Democratic governors in the battleground state.

Arizona’s Republican attorney general says that a pre-statehood law that bans all abortions is enforceable.

The Supreme Court's decision to end the constitutional right to abortion likely will lead to legal battles as already divided states grapple with the new landscape of abortion access.

North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum’s expensive effort to influence the GOP primary and reshape the Legislature with more people who support his spending and policy goals was a mixed bag.

Louisiana's Democratic governor says he'll call the state's Republican-dominated Legislature into special session to draw up new congressional districts.

An Arizona judge has declined a request by the state Republican Party to block most mail ballots for the 2022 election, preserving the voting method used by the overwhelming majority of voters.

The mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, are again putting the focus on gun control measures such as waiting periods to buy firearms.

The New York Legislature has approved a milestone environmental measure designed to tap the brakes on the spread of cryptocurrency mining operations that burn fossil fuels.

New York’s political landscape for the next decade is being quickly retooled by a rural judge and out-of-state expert after a court ruled Democrats controlling New York's legislature bungled the job.

Kansas’ highest court has upheld a Republican redistricting law that improves the GOP's chances of flipping the state's only congressional seat held by a Democrat.

A court-appointed expert released a draft of new congressional maps for New York that are more favorable to Republicans than the original gerrymandered political maps drawn by Democrats.

The Supreme Court’s apparent intention to abolish a nationwide right to abortion, spelled out in a draft opinion leaked this week, will not be the final chapter in the nation’s most pitched culture battle.

Frustrated Indiana conservatives fell short in several primary races in their drive to push the Republican-controlled state Legislature further to the right and saw one of their movement’s leaders lose his reelection bid.

New York’s highest court has rejected new congressional maps widely seen as favoring Democrats.

North Dakota’s longest-serving state senator says he'll resign following a report that he had traded scores of text messages with a man jailed on child pornography charges.

Voting rights groups have sued Florida over a congressional map drawn by Gov. Ron DeSantis and passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature.

The Arizona Supreme Court says the state’s voters do not have the right to reject a massive income tax cut approved by the Republican-controlled legislature last year.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has adopted Republican-drawn maps for the state Legislature, after initially approving maps drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

Election security experts for years have urged states to replace outdated voting machines.

Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who is up for reelection in November, has vetoed a package of bills passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature that would have made a series of changes to the battleground state’s election laws.

Abortion rights supporters have scored a surprising victory in Nebraska, derailing a bill that would have automatically outlawed abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court ever overturns its Roe v.

Kansas officials face two lawsuits over a Republican redistricting law.

South Carolina remains one of only two states without a hate crimes law, and proponents worry that efforts in the Legislature are stalling to increase penalties for crimes committed against minorities and others victimized by prejudice.

California’s more than half-million fast food workers would get increased power and protections under a first-in-the-nation measure approved by the state Assembly.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made clear in his State of the State speech that he likes teachers, first responders and freedom and he doesn’t like Dr. Anthony Fauci, critical race theory, abortion, illegal immigration and Burmese pythons.

There are two things the Legislature must tackle during its annual 60-day session: pass a massive state budget and redraw political maps.

Current and former Black state lawmakers in Detroit have announced a pending lawsuit to block Michigan’s newly drawn congressional and legislative districts, contending they illegally dilute the voting strength of African Americans.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he wants to empower private citizens to enforce a ban on the manufacture and sale of assault weapons in the state.