LEGISLATURE

The Arkansas House on Wednesday passed a bill that would ban public schools from allowing transgender students into bathrooms that do not correspond to their biological sex.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ overall spending proposal is nearly $115 billion, but is only a recommendation. The Legislature will approve a final budget during the annual session that begins next month.

The Legislature and DeSantis dissolved Reedy Creek last year amid Disney’s dispute with the governor over the “don’t say gay” bill.

Prisha Mosley, who is detransitioning back to a woman, gives her take on Utah becoming the first state to ban transgender care for kids on "America Reports."

Pointing to a need to move quickly, the Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Board of Governors on Tuesday chose Tim Cerio to become president and CEO of the state-backed insurer.

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

Utah's Republican governor, Spencer Cox, on Saturday, signed a bill banning minors from receiving gender-affirming surgery unless they've been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

The New York legislature passed a constitutional amendment enshrining anti-discrimination rules for abortion and gender identity into law.

The South Dakota House has approved a $200 million housing infrastructure fund, with the spending package now going to Republican Gov. Kristi Noem for final approval.

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

South Dakota lawmakers rejected a proposal for a constitutional amendment banning ballot measures from reconsideration if they failed in the previous election cycle.

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.

Florida’s top law enforcement agency said Wednesday it is months away from rolling out its new tracking system statewide for rape kits that will give rape survivors easier access to information about their cases.

Residents said much beach restoration work remains to be done, more than two months after the second storm hit.

The Montana legislature is considering a proposal that would interpret the state’s constitutional right to privacy to mean that it does not protect the right to an abortion, a move that would echo others in several states to severely restrict or ban abortion. Sen. Keith Regier, the proposal's sponsor, argued during a committee hearing Tuesday that the phrase “individual privacy” in the state Constitution should also refer to unborn babies that are individuals who have rights that should not be infringed upon. State efforts to regulate abortion became more urgent after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June — in the Dobbs v. Jackson case — to leave abortion rights up to the states.

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

Republican Wisconsin lawmakers on Tuesday rejected calls from Gov. Tony Evers and other Democrats to ask voters whether the state should continue to ban abortions, opting instead to advance a ballot question on welfare eligibility. The advisory referendum on welfare proposed by top Republicans is nonbinding, meaning it wouldn't change state law, but supporters said they want the public's feedback on the issue. Democrats argued that Republicans were just trying to increase GOP turnout for a pivotal state Supreme Court race that will determine the ideological balance of the court and is also on the April ballot.

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.

Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs wants to undo a massive expansion of a school voucher program championed last year by her GOP predecessor and other Republicans that lets students apply to use public money for private-school tuition and other education costs. In releasing its budget proposals Friday, the governor’s office said the expansion is siphoning money from underfunded public schools and would cost $1.5 billion dollars over the next decade. Hobbs staffers estimated the move would save the state $135 million next fiscal year.

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed his first bill of the 2023 legislative session Thursday, which focused on simplifying tax filing and more broadly providing tax relief.

When a group of unhinged extremists call themselves a "freedom" caucus you can be sure they believe in just the opposite.

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.

The former chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party said Republican 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, according to newly released documents from closed-door testimony to the House Jan. 6 committee. Johnson, in a statement Tuesday, said he had no recollection of the conversation with Andrew Hitt and accused the committee investigating the 2021 Capitol insurrection of attempting to “smear" him by selectively releasing text messages. Hitt, who resigned as state party chairman in July 2021, testified before the Jan. 6 committee on Feb. 22.

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.

An upheaval affecting the intersecting worlds of Florida government, politics and lobbying is forcing officials to choose: They could hold onto their positions in elected or appointed offices. Or they can keep their careers, or future career plans, as paid lobbyists.

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

The petition—which asks SCOTUS to hear the case— challenges the Kansas Supreme Court’s May 2022 decision upholding that state’s congressional redistricting plan. On June 21, 2022, the Kansas Supreme Court overturned a state district court’s decision that had found that the state’s congressional district boundaries were unconstitutional. Klapper ruled on a case that resulted from the consolidation of three lawsuits challenging congressional district boundaries that were enacted when the legislature overrode Gov. DREW ANGERER/BALLOTPEDIAOn April 25, 2022, Wyandotte County District Court Judge Bill Klapper struck down Kansas’ enacted congressional map. “Therefore, the judgment of the district court is reversed, and the permanent injunction ordered by the district court is lifted,” Stegall said in the order.

Gov. Ron DeSantis says he wants the Legislature to pass a law that would prevent teachers from having union dues deducted from their paychecks.

Guam’s Legislature has passed a bill prohibiting most abortions

Gov. Ron DeSantis defended the property insurance bill he signed into law on Friday, which bails out insurers but doesn’t provide immediate relief for policy holders, saying it will create more choices for the consumers.

The Republican leader of the Wisconsin Senate said Thursday that he opposes spending any state money to help Madison bring a passenger rail line that would connect the capital city to Milwaukee, joining the state's other top GOP legislative leader in opposition to the project. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu told The Associated Press that he opposes state funding for the project but had not been briefed by Madison city leaders on what they were attempting. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos was blunt last week when asked about it, saying only “No state funding.”

The Republican-led Legislature approved a bill Wednesday that lawmakers say will prop up Florida’s crumbling property insurance market but without immediate relief for homeowners.

A statewide grand jury this week called for the Florida Legislature to expand a law targeting people who smuggle undocumented immigrants into the state.

Insurance companies and trial lawyers are already sharpening their arguments ahead of the year's second special legislative session on property insurance next week.

California lawmakers will begin working on a proposed penalty against oil companies that saw supersized profits from record-high gas prices.

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

A “resign to run” law requires state officeholders to commit to leave their positions if they run for federal office.

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 Republican board members of a rural Arizona county who initially demanded their election director to count midterm ballots by hand are now withdrawing their lawsuit.

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.

A Montana judge has temporarily limited the number of wolves hunters can kill near Yellowstone Park. Each hunter can now only kill five instead of 20.

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

Republicans in Minnesota were decimated by a Democratic blue wave, conceding full control of the state government to Democrats for the first time in eight years.

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

The ballot measures came months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion it guaranteed to women.

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.

Idaho Republicans are confident they will retain statewide elected offices this election. Meanwhile, Democrat Stephen Heidt is running a relatively low-key campaign for governor.

A Florida orchid grower has filed a lawsuit accusing the state Department of Health of violating the state Constitution by delaying the issuance of nearly two-dozen medical marijuana licenses.

Pennsylvania's high court says officials aren't allowed to count votes from mail-in or absentee ballots that lack accurate, handwritten dates on their return envelopes.

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.

Kansas voters are being asked to give their legislators greater power to overturn regulations written by state agencies and boards.

A judge ruled that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration did not comply with public-records law concerning the migrant flights.

A federal judge on Thursday refused to issue a preliminary injunction to block a 2019 law that bans workers gathering petitions for ballot initiatives from being paid based on the number of signatures they collect, saying plaintiffs waited too long to ask for the law to be put on hold.

Broward schools forged a path to give $26 million to the victims of the Parkland shooting — turning a negligence case into a civil-rights dispute, newly released documents reveal.

Until 2016, Florida law allowed trial judges to impose a death sentence if a majority of the jurors agreed. But now, anything less than 12-0 means an automatic sentence of life without parole.

This story was originally published by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.

Vertol Systems has until the end of next June to run through the $12 million approved by the Legislature to move migrants.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration wants to prevent the release of documents to plaintiffs in a lawsuit over the redistricting plan.

Former President Donald Trump wants the Supreme Court to weigh in on his legal battle against the Justice Department over documents the FBI seized during a search of his Mar-a-Lago home. Scott MacFarlane explains.

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

The situation with the poll watcher had gotten so bad that Anne Risku, the election director in North Carolina's Wayne County, had to intervene via speakerphone. “You need to back off!” Risku recalled hollering after the woman wedged herself between a voter and the machine where the voter was trying to cast his ballot at a precinct about 60 miles southeast of Raleigh. The man eventually was able to vote, but the incident was one of several Risku cited from the May primary that made her worry about a wave of newly aggressive poll watchers.

If the property insurance system in Florida fails, the cost will be passed on to all homeowners, not just those who suffered damage.

On Friday, a judge in Arizona decided to reject a plea from abortion rights groups to suspend an earlier ruling that banned abortions as they intend to formally appeal the decision.

Years ago, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves claimed to have helped block money to fund water system repairs in the capital city.

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.

Years before people in Jackson were recently left without running water for several days, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves claimed to have helped block money to fund water system repairs in the capital city. The city’s latest water troubles are far from its first, and they have stemmed from decaying infrastructure beyond one water treatment plant. As Reeves climbed Mississippi's political ladder, he cited his opposition to financially helping the capital as evidence of his fiscal conservatism.

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.

Wisconsin Republicans on Wednesday rejected Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' call to allow voters to get a chance to repeal the state's 1849 abortion ban. Evers called Wednesday for a special session of the GOP-controlled Legislature to pass a measure creating a way for voters to repeal the 173-year-old law. It’s the latest move by Evers to put pressure on Republicans over abortion and keep the issue in the spotlight ahead of the election.

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.