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Disabled workers can be paid less than the minimum wage. Some states want to end that.
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — High-fives, fist-bumps and hugs come with the ice cream at the Golden Scoop. Tucked into a shopping center in suburban Kansas City, the shop employs 15 people with developmental disabilities. While customers first come for the sweet treats, many are drawn in by the Golden Scoop’s mission and friendly environment.
Deadly fires from phone, scooter batteries leave lawmakers playing catch-up on safety
For a decade, Illinois state Sen. Sue Rezin has recognized the technological and economic potential of lithium-ion batteries. Rezin, a Republican who serves in a district that is a major chemical and energy industry hub southwest of Chicago, also recognizes the possible dangers. In June 2021, a Morris, Illinois, warehouse in her district with roughly […] The post Deadly fires from phone, scooter batteries leave lawmakers playing catch-up on safety appeared first on Stateline.
Few states cover fertility treatment for same-sex couples, but that could be changing
Elizabeth Bauer was working out at the gym one morning last August when she got a phone call from her fertility nurse. It was a call that Bauer and her wife, Rebecca, had long been waiting for. Elizabeth dialed in Rebecca so they could listen together: They were pregnant. The...
HIV is no longer a death sentence. But states still have laws targeting people who live with it.
This article originally appeared on The 19th. The morning of Feb. 4, 2007, started off like any other for 25-year-old Lashanda Salinas. She got up and made the 20-minute commute to her job as a front desk clerk at a Nashville hotel where she greeted guests and checked them in. Hours later, her life changed. […] The post HIV is no longer a death sentence. But states still have laws targeting people who live with it. appeared first on Stateline.
School voucher proponents spend big to overcome rural resistance
AUSTIN, Texas — In rural Texas, public schools are the cultural heart of small towns. People pack the high school stadium for Friday night football games, and FFA classes prepare the next generation for the agricultural life. In many places, more people work for the school district than for any other employer. For years, many […] The post School voucher proponents spend big to overcome rural resistance appeared first on Stateline.
Fearing political violence, more states ban firearms at polling places
Facing increased threats to election workers and superheated political rhetoric from former President Donald Trump and his supporters, more states are considering firearm bans at polling places and ballot drop boxes ahead of November’s presidential election. This month, New Mexico became the latest state to restrict guns where people...
Taxpayers were overcharged for patient meds. Then came the lawyers.
Stateline’s Shalina Chatlani examined the health care system in Mississippi as a part of The New York Times’ Local Investigations Fellowship. In 2018, when Mike DeWine was Ohio’s attorney general, he began investigating an obscure corner of the health care industry. He believed that insurers were inflating prescription drug prices through management companies that operated […] The post Taxpayers were overcharged for patient meds. Then came the lawyers. appeared first on Stateline.
To boost Trump, GOP attorneys general charge into battle over state election rules
With less than six months before voting begins, the legal jousting over the rules for the 2024 election is already underway. And former President Donald Trump’s campaign is getting support from allies who have stayed mostly under the national radar: red-state attorneys general. In court filings made in recent months, these chief state legal officers […] The post To boost Trump, GOP attorneys general charge into battle over state election rules appeared first on Stateline.
As feds stand down, states choose between wetlands protections or rollbacks
For 200 miles, the Wabash River forms the border between Illinois and Indiana as it meanders south to the Ohio River. On the Illinois side, lawmakers are scrambling to pass a bill that would protect wetlands from development and pollution, in order to safeguard water quality and limit flooding. But in Indiana, state policymakers hastily […] The post As feds stand down, states choose between wetlands protections or rollbacks appeared first on Stateline.
Texas’ new immigration law is blocked again
This article first appeared in The Texas Tribune. A federal appeals court late Tuesday night stopped a state law allowing Texas police to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the Texas-Mexico border — hours after the U.S. Supreme Court had allowed it to go into effect. Earlier in the day, the high court had allowed […] The post Texas’ new immigration law is blocked again appeared first on Stateline.
States rethink ambitious projects as tax revenues shrink and pandemic aid ends
From health care for immigrants in California to universal school vouchers in Tennessee, states are being forced to rethink expensive projects as tax revenues decline and federal pandemic aid ends. State tax revenue fell last year by 4%, according to a Stateline analysis of U.S. Census Bureau estimates released this month. Revenue is still up […] The post States rethink ambitious projects as tax revenues shrink and pandemic aid ends appeared first on Stateline.
‘Tough-on-crime’ policies are back in some places that had reimagined criminal justice
Fueled by public outrage over the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer and other high-profile incidents of police violence, a seismic shift swept across the United States shortly afterward, with a wave of initiatives aimed at reining in police powers and reimagining criminal-legal systems. Yet less than half a decade later, […] The post ‘Tough-on-crime’ policies are back in some places that had reimagined criminal justice appeared first on Stateline.
Working-class people rarely have a seat ‘at the legislative table’ in state capitols
In her first few months as a Minnesota state legislator in 2021, state Rep. Kaela Berg often wondered: “What the hell am I doing here?” A single mother and flight attendant without a college degree or prior political experience, Berg now had a seat at the legislative table, shaping policy decisions in her home state. […] The post Working-class people rarely have a seat ‘at the legislative table’ in state capitols appeared first on Stateline.
New way for states to cover pricey gene therapies will start with sickle cell disease
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration late last year approved two breakthrough gene therapies for sickle cell disease patients. Now a new federal program seeks to make these life-changing treatments available to patients with low incomes — and it could be a model to help states pay for other expensive therapies.
Two women needed to end their pregnancies. Only one got to do it on her terms.
Editor’s note: This is the third installment of an occasional States Newsroom series called When and Where: Abortion Access in America, profiling individuals who have needed abortion care in the U.S. before and after Dobbs. The first installment can be found here, and the second installment is here. Jennifer Vollstedt and Ariel Cavanaugh-Okhah have never met, […] The post Two women needed to end their pregnancies. Only one got to do it on her terms. appeared first on Stateline.
If schools won’t ban kids’ cellphones, some lawmakers say, they will
At David H. Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri, the rule is that students must keep their cellphones out of sight during class. In reality, the teachers tasked with enforcing the rule are no match for teenagers’ “almost compulsive” need to be on their phones all the time, said science teacher Noelle Gilzow. Gilzow confiscates […] The post If schools won’t ban kids’ cellphones, some lawmakers say, they will appeared first on Stateline.
Deep red Utah wants to keep voting by mail
When it comes to voting by mail, Utah is not your typical deep red state. In 2020, when many states scrambled to implement mail-in voting so voters had a safe way to cast a ballot during the pandemic, Utah already had a system. Republican conspiracy theories questioning the integrity of voting by mail in the tumultuous aftermath of the […] The post Deep red Utah wants to keep voting by mail appeared first on Stateline.
Facing public backlash, some health care companies are abandoning hospital deals
Worried about hospitals closing and higher costs for patients, state lawmakers are increasingly tangling with hospitals over potential health care mergers, in some cases derailing deals they think don’t serve the public interest. Financially strapped hospitals often look to merge with or be acquired by other systems. After a...
Allowing more juice to flow through power lines could hasten clean energy projects
If the thousands of proposed solar, wind and battery energy projects got built, they would more than double the amount of electricity that is currently produced nationwide and get the U.S. much closer to its clean energy targets. But there’s one big problem: America’s power lines can’t carry that much...
Fluoride in public water has slashed tooth decay, but some states may end mandates
Kentucky state Rep. Mark Hart has been drinking fluoridated water his entire life. In 1954, five years before Hart was born, his home state mandated adding or adjusting levels of the mineral, which occurs naturally in water, in drinking water systems of populations larger than 3,000. But after hearing from a constituent a few years […] The post Fluoride in public water has slashed tooth decay, but some states may end mandates appeared first on Stateline.
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