Safety Concerns Fail to Curb Roadside Memorials
Flower wreaths, white crosses, weathered photographs and other roadside memorials are pitting families mourning victims of fatal traffic accidents against state highway officials who are concerned...
View ArticleStates in Forefront of Agricultural Biotech Debate
States took the lead in debating regulation of genetically modified food and the agricultural biotechnology industry in 2001-2002, with 158 bills introduced in 39 states, a new report finds. Despite a...
View ArticleState Revenues Hit By Bush Tax Bill
Despite doling out $20 billion in fiscal aid to state governments, President Bush's $350 billion tax cut bill will drive down total state tax collections by at least $1 billion and as much as $3...
View ArticleStates Get Leeway to Meet Education Law
The Bush administration has allowed the states some wiggle room to meet the sweeping federal No Child Left Behind education requirements, including tactics that may help schools avoid being dubbed...
View ArticleTax-Cut Cash Won't Fix Medicaid, States Say
The one-time $10 billion boost from the federal government to state Medicaid programs might avoid cuts for now, but the money is only a stopgap measure that falls far short of providing a long-term...
View ArticleKempthorne Says He'd Accept EPA Post If Offered
If President Bush asks Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne (R) to become the new head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Kempthorne said Thursday (6/19) it would be his responsibility to take the job.
View ArticleGovernors Kick Off Fire Season with Call to Action
A group of Western governors attending a forest health summit in Montana called on Congress for immediate action to protect high-risk communities from wildfires in Western states.
View ArticleReading-Test Scores Remain Mixed
The nations fourth-graders have improved their reading skills since 1998, but test scores for eighth-graders remained flat and 12th-graders declined over that same period, according to a new report...
View ArticleBudget Cuts Paint Dreary Picture for State-Arts Funding
Amid an ongoing state fiscal crisis, arts agencies have fallen on hard times, with state lawmakers cutting arts funding more than 20 percent over the past two years and further cuts planned this year,...
View ArticleStates Weigh Tuition Breaks for Illegal Immigrants
State legislation plays an important role in determining who goes to college - and at what price. For the tens of thousands of undocumented students living in the United States, the equation is complex.
View ArticleHigher-Education Groups Welcome High-Court Ruling
Organizations representing state colleges and universities praised the U.S. Supreme Court for upholding use of affirmative action in college admissions. These decisions enable our institutions to...
View ArticleStates Scrutinize Wage Policies
A handful of states are debating raising their minimum wage beyond the federal rate of $5.15 an hour, but just as many states are acting to block grassroots efforts to force government contractors to...
View ArticleMonkeypox Outbreak Reveals Gaps in State Laws
State public health and wildlife officials were surprised by the recent outbreak of monkeypox in the Midwest. They say it shed light on the mishmash of state laws that regulate exotic pets and is...
View ArticleRepublican Governors Buck Anti-Tax Reputations
Even as Republican lawmakers in Washington, D.C., pass one tax cut after another, many GOP governors are proposing and signing into law major state tax increases. These governors, a group that includes...
View ArticleState Governments Growing in Reverse, Report Finds
For the first time since 1983, state government spending is expected to shrink from one fiscal year to the next, with 19 states predicting negative growth in state government for the fiscal year that...
View ArticleNew Statutes Kick In July 1
Effective today, new state laws will let people drink more but will impose harsher penalties for drunken driving.
View ArticleStates Woo Biotech Firms
From miracle drugs that cure cancer to genetically-modified foods, the multi-billion dollar biotechnology industry is hot, and states are doing their best to get a piece of the action. Nine governors...
View ArticleNightclub Fire Prompts New Fireworks Laws
As Americans prepare to marvel at Fourth of July fireworks displays, a handful of states are considering laws to regulate indoor fireworks and pyrotechnics shows. Prompted by the fire that killed 96...
View ArticleStates Court Boeing for Airliner Project
State governments across the country are aggressively courting the Boeing Co. as the countrys largest airplane builder shops around for an assembly site for its proposed new commercial airliner, the...
View Article'No Child' Law Could Spawn State Lawsuits
States are likely to face more lawsuits as a result of the Bush administrations sweeping No Child Left Behind education law, the National Conference of State Legislatures said in a memo released July 9.
View Article
