A federal judge Wednesday removed a major obstacle to executions in Arizona, ruling that the state's lethal-injection procedure is similar to one approved by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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The faltering national economy is taking its toll on Texas kids. More parents are making their child support payments from unemployment checks and asking judges to lower their financial burdens.
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Gov. Mike Beebe gave a vote of confidence to the state prison director and Board of Corrections on Wednesday, a day after members of a legislative panel questioned the leadership of the prison system.
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Colorado's overall crime rate dropped last year for the third time since 2005, and property crimes continued to fall in the state despite a persistent recession.
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Iowa is joining the rest of the nation in giving individual citizens the right to sue in consumer fraud cases. The new law took effect yesterday, July 1st, and Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller says it replaces a law that originated in the Middle Ages.
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The number of inmates in Iowa prisons is dropping, but corrections officials expect that trend to change over the next decade. This week, Iowa's prison population dipped to 8,454 inmates. That's the lowest inmate count since October 2007, when Iowa had a record 8,840 men and women behind bars.
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Investigators raided the home and office of the Cook County regional schools superintendent Wednesday, carting out laptop computers, cell phones and boxes of files, sources said.
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Samuel Golden admits he wants to keep his 53-year-old daughter, who functions at the level of a 2-year-old, in what some critics would label a large "institution." Her life, he said, would deteriorate if she were forced to move into a smaller group home that couldn't provide adequate therapy and daily activities.
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Indiana's 2008 Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor has surrendered to authorities the day after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest.
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By The Associated Press, The Topeka Capital-Journal
DODGE CITY, Kan. — Three community colleges have sued the Kansas Board of Regents claiming unequal funding for some of their vocational and technical programs.
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A developer who wants to build 4,300 homes in a rural part of Allegany County and the county's elected commissioners have filed suit against Maryland's environmental and planning agencies, accusing them of illegally blocking the project.
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At least 62 convicted sex offenders, including 40 from Metro Detroit, were erroneously released from Detroit prisons last week and on the loose for days before the mistake was noticed and they were taken back into custody.
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The state paroled Michael W. Ford Sr. today, 31 years after he began serving his sentence and nearly five years after a governor commuted it.
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The Missouri Supreme Court yesterday rejected two petitions filed on behalf of Dale Helmig and directed his lawyer to file claims for the convicted murderer in two separate circuit courts.
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The Montana Pro Life Coalition on Wednesday submitted three proposed constitutional initiatives for the 2010 ballot defining embryos and fetuses as persons with rights, measures that if passed and upheld in courts would effectively ban abortion in Montana.
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A consent agreement allowing the Justice Department to monitor state police in New Jersey could be dissolved under a bill that would shift the responsibility to the state Attorney General's Office. The monitoring began a decade ago in an attempt to eliminate racial profiling.
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A state appeals court today is expected to issue a ruling on evidence in the case of former Assemblyman Neil Cohen, who was indicted last December on charges of child pornography possession and official misconduct.
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Couples getting a divorce can bypass judges and use mediators to determine who gets custody of their children, the state Supreme Court said yesterday.
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A new law that could expand the number of drivers using alcohol-detecting devices in their cars is among various measures that took effect Wednesday in New Mexico.
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By Ken Ritter, The Associated Press, Nevada Appeal (Carson City)
LAS VEGAS — A federal judge has refused to throw out a lawsuit by a former cocktail waitress who accuses Gov. Jim Gibbons of accosting her outside a Las Vegas restaurant in October 2006 and of orchestrating a cover-up when she went public.
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By David Andreatta, Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester)
The state Office of Court Administration moved Wednesday to address lapses in court filing practices across the state, instructing judges from Westchester to Buffalo that they, and not lawyers, are responsible for ensuring that case files available to the public are complete and accessible.
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A California financial company on Wednesday agreed to repay $2 million to New York state's giant public pension fund after one of the company's former partners was implicated in paying a kickback to secure investment deals from the fund.
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Parents who are suing Planned Parenthood over an abortion clinic's alleged negligence in allowing a teenage sexual-assault victim to obtain an abortion will not get access to clinic records on other patients, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
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When you agree to allow a stranger into your home to perform repairs or upgrades, you better know who they are and what you're getting. A law going into effect today, July 1, intends to better arm consumers against fraud, forcing contractors to register with the state and report any previous wrongdoing.
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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to hear legal arguments from a pharmaceutical company about whether a Texas law firm whose founder donated $91,000 to Gov. Ed Rendell's campaign can continue to represent the state in a lawsuit against the drug manufacturer.
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Lawmakers introduced at least 14 bills dealing with sex offenders this session. With the General Assembly in recess, five have made it through either the House or Senate, but not both.
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Weeks after legalizing the sale of marijuana to sick people, lawmakers have voted to explore how much Rhode Island might collect in revenue if it were to make all sales of marijuana legal and impose a "sin tax" of $35 per ounce.
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Gov. Mark Sanford left the Governor's Mansion without a security escort 38 times in 2008. In the first six months of this year, he left the mansion without security 39 times.
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By Lucas L. Johnson II, The Associated Press, The Tennessean (Nashville)
A lawyer for plaintiffs suing to stop a law that allows handguns to be carried in Tennessee bars and restaurants that serve alcohol says the legal action is necessary to maintain a safe environment for patrons.
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A group of five public pension funds, including state funds in Ohio and Texas, have won the right to lead investor class-action lawsuits against the Bank of America Corporation over its acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Company.
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WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
The federal government and 35 states have the death penalty: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming
Prodeathpenalty.com Death penalty advocacy group that provides capital punishment statistics and weekly news updates.
Product Recall Clearinghouse Web site maintained by office of Missouri attorney general with detailed information on recalls.
Statescape's BillFinder BillFinder helps users find any bill eligible for consideration in the current calendar year using either keywords and phrases or bill numbers.
The Justice Project The Justice Project is a nonpartisan, national criminal justice reform organization that works to address unfairness and inaccuracy in the criminal justice system, with a focus on the capital punishment system.
The National Center for Victims of Crimes The nation's largest victims' rights organization, NCVC advocates laws that protect crime victims and provides legal assistance and public policy information.
Tobacco settlement funds and smoking cessation A coalition of health care groups, led by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, concludes that only three states are devoting adequate money from the 1998 tobacco settlement toward efforts to keep children from smoking. The report includes assessments of each state.
The Stimulus and the States Follow how states are managing the stimulus money and which programs are receiving funding as part of the recovery effort using Stateline.org's stimulus special section.
Access Stateline.org’s resources wherever you go on the web. The free and customizable toolbar includes the latest state news, search tools, important events, links to key players, and more.
Stateline.org has put together a list of state data organized by issue. Here, you will find useful links to essential information from government, academia, and think tanks. If you have a link to add, please email us.
The Pew Charitable Trusts applies the power of knowledge to solve today’s most challenging problems. Pew's Center on the States identifies and advances state policy solutions.
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