A growing number of Democratic-dominated states are extending health care coverage to a limited number of immigrants who otherwise wouldn’t be eligible for public insurance because of their legal status.| Stateline
U.S. Supreme Court justices debated whether a federal law about emergency medical treatment encompasses abortion care even in states with strict abortion bans, with no clear indication of how they may ultimately rule.| Stateline
Kentucky is one of three states, along with Colorado and Nebraska, with school choice questions on the ballot this fall.| Stateline
Oregon could become the first state to increase the minimum tax on large businesses and send the cash to all residents, guaranteeing them a minimum income.| Stateline
In November, Californians will vote on Proposition 33, a proposed repeal of the state’s restrictions on local rent control.| Stateline
Florida and Texas now require hospitals to ask patients about their immigration status when they seek medical care.| Stateline
Fortified with work authorizations and a new freedom, Haitian immigrants are moving out of their longtime strongholds in Florida and New York, often finding good jobs while remaining wary of how they will be received in new places in the Midwest and South.| Stateline
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris offer starkly different plans for the future of the 11 million people who live in the United States without legal status. Growing populations of new and first-generation citizens in the swing states — with the power to sway elections — are transforming demographics and voter concerns.| Stateline
This year’s presidential election won’t be decided by a margin of millions of votes, but likely by thousands in the seven tightly contested states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.| Stateline
Measures that would protect abortion access are on track to appear on the ballot in 10 states in November, but abortion opponents are engaged in last-ditch legal maneuvering to try to prevent voters from weighing in on the proposals. In Republican-dominated Missouri, for example, the state Supreme Court ruled this week that a constitutional amendment […]| Stateline
GRAYLING, Mich. — Clairene Jorella was furious. In the northern stretches of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, the Crawford County Board of Canvassers had just opened its meeting to certify the August primary when Jorella, 83 years old and one of two Democrats on the panel, laid into her Republican counterparts. Glaring, she said she was gobsmacked […]| Stateline
In their ongoing quest to lower prescription drug prices, some states are forcing drugmakers to continue to sell cheaper medications to thousands of pharmacies through a federal drug-discount program.| Stateline
Helping a pregnant minor travel to get a legal abortion without parental consent is now a crime in at least two Republican-led states, prompting legal action by abortion-rights advocates and copycat legislation from conservative lawmakers in other states.| Stateline
Michigan's part-time clerks, who are trained every four years and have limited resources in running elections, are at a breaking point.| Stateline
The presidential race gets the hype, but thousands of contested state legislative seats could reshape power dynamics and future policymaking in a handful of states.| Stateline
The Medicaid “unwinding” led to fears that the number of people without insurance would spike. But it also coincided with moves in more than a dozen states to expand health coverage for lower-income people, including children, pregnant women and the incarcerated.| Stateline
In Maine, people in prison retain their right to vote, making the state one of just two in the nation — along with Vermont — where that is the case. Emphasizing the importance of being able to vote while incarcerated, advocates inside and outside prisons have long spearheaded campaigns to spread the word and help those behind bars access this right.| Stateline
BERNALILLO COUNTY, N.M. — Bianca Quintana was just taking a walk in the early morning dark near her mother’s house on South Coors Boulevard. There, the city streets of Albuquerque give way to feed stores and irrigation ditches, and the sounds of chickens and crickets mingle with high-speed traffic noise. Quintana, a 31-year-old mother of […]| Stateline
Lawmakers in some states are setting up new regulatory programs to protect wetlands that lost federal oversight after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year. Other states see the federal rollback as an opportunity to eliminate their own standards.| Stateline
Amid what many are calling a mental health crisis, an increasing number of states are trying to address the problem by allowing social workers to practice across state lines.| Stateline
No state illustrates this year’s flurry of ballot measures to cut property taxes better than Colorado. There, the results of two likely voter questions could reduce funding for schools, roads, emergency responders and other local government services. Colorado’s ballot measures are just two of nearly a dozen upcoming questions dealing with property taxes in states across the country.| Stateline
A new, permanent summer grocery program will help nearly 21 million kids across 37 states get enough to eat this year while school’s out. But 13 states with Republican governors have opted out of the federal program.| Stateline
A jobs boom in the last five years has been dominated by Texas, Florida and other lower-cost states as high-cost states have dropped from the top 10 to the bottom of the heap in job creation.| Stateline
Some states are pulling out of the election-verification program ERIC.| Stateline
Responding to a post-pandemic spike in disruptive incidents and discipline problems in schools, several states have enacted or considered new laws that clear the way for more and longer suspensions, among other tough punishments. This is a reversal from recent years, when many districts replaced “zero tolerance” policies with restorative justice and counseling.| Stateline
All 50 states have enacted laws designed to lower prescription drug costs by curbing the power of pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. But a federal law called the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, means that doesn't apply to Americans covered through so-called self-funded health care plans. That could change if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a law enacted by Oklahoma.| Stateline
A document inadvertently uploaded to the U.S. Supreme Court’s website on Wednesday appears to indicate the court will send a case regarding emergency abortion care in Idaho back to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rather than make a decision, according to reporting from Bloomberg Law.| Stateline
Democrats are hoping that increased engagement on the issue of in vitro fertilization will translate into voter turnout at the polls in November. Republicans have dismissed warnings of IVF bans as politically motivated scare tactics. Meanwhile, reproductive rights groups are seeing a surge in new advocacy.| Stateline
As congressional sessions have passed without any new federal artificial intelligence laws, state legislators are striking out on their own to regulate the technologies in the meantime.| Stateline
This year’s presidential election will be the first since generative AI — a form of artificial intelligence that can create new content, including images, audio and video — became widely available. That’s raising fears that millions of voters could be deceived by a barrage of political deepfakes.| Stateline
In the waning days of 2021, a grass fire broke out in Boulder County, Colorado. Fueled by extreme drought and high winds, the fire swept through the communities of Superior and Louisville. Within hours, it had destroyed more than a thousand structures—making the Marshall Fire the most destructive in the state’s history. The December fire […]| Stateline
Last year, conservative Republicans in the Missouri legislature took a run at blocking Medicaid funding from going to Planned Parenthood, a frequent and prominent target of anti-abortion activists and politicians. But in the fine print of their measure, those Republicans revealed that their ambition wasn’t only to target a familiar abortion foe. They were going […]| Stateline
Property insurance companies have sustained major losses as natural disasters intensified by climate change have caused billions in damages. As property insurers pull out of certain markets, some state leaders are loosening regulations to try to entice them to stay.| Stateline
