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State Lawmakers Facing Redistricting, Budgeting
On top of their normal work load, lawmakers in nearly every state must redraw their Congressional and legislative districts this spring, making the upcoming statehouse sessions the busiest in recent memory. In 2001, legislatures will convene in every state, with all but six starting work this month. In addition to redrawing their political maps, most […]
States In South, West Big Winners In 2000 Census
The historic movement of Americans away from the northeastern states to the west and southwest continued over the last decade, the Census Bureau reported Thursday, and as of 2003, the make-up of the U.S. House of Representatives will be adjusted to reflect the population shift. At a press conference that included the unveiling of a […]
Mayors Release Report On Hunger and Homelessness
Requests for emergency food jumped 17 percent in 2000, while the need for emergency shelter climbed 15 percent, the annual survey of hunger and homelessness by the U.S. Conference of Mayors has found. The increases in demand for both services were among the highest the survey has recorded in the past decade. Every year, the […]
Index of ‘Caring’ Puts Minnesota On Top
Because of its clean air, low unemployment, generous heal insurance coverage and student achievement in math and reading, Minnesota ranks as the most caring state in the nation, according to a report released last week by the United Way. In the first report of what it says will be an annual series, the United Way […]
Presidential Nail Biter Puts Focus on Electoral College
Thanks to an almost forgotten American institution — the electoral college — the tightest presidential race since the Kennedy-Nixon squeaker of 1960 has turned into the strangest contest since Benjamin Harrison beat Grover Cleveland. Many Americans are recalling for the first time since high school that the actual choice of who serves as president of […]
Voters Decide Initiatives Ranging From Gambling to Gun Control
Holding to a traditional pattern, voters appear to have rejected just over half the citizen initiatives put to them Nov. 7, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Voters in 42 states faced a total of 204 ballot measures, some written by legislators, but many — including the most controversial — spawned by activists […]
Low Voter Turnout Spurs Efforts To Open Process
As fewer and fewer voting-age Americans opt to cast ballots, the states and the federal government are increasingly experimenting with new ways to open the process to more people. In the past few years, more and more states have loosened their election rules. They have made it easier to register and are allowing early voting […]
States Benefit From Threat To Close Medicaid Loophole
A compromise with the federal government will let several states continue to reap hundreds of millions in extra funds from a federal Medicaid account despite attempts by some members of Congess to stop the flow of money. Several states, particularly New York and Illinois, had cried foul over a Clinton administration plan to close a […]
Midwest Elections Likely To Hinge On Turnout
If cutthroat political races offering clear choices constitute voter heaven, then Midwesterners this fall have found paradise. Besides their role in the presidential race — likely to be crucial — voters in the nation’s midsection will settle other close contests this November between well-known and well-financed opponents. With the biggest prizes of California, New York […]
Housing Squeeze Tightens Around Low-Income Families
In San Francisco, the nation’s most expensive housing market, apartment rents have risen so quickly and to such heights that they are simply out-of-reach for low-income families, a new report has found. And while San Francisco represents the national extreme, high housing costs are pinching low-income families in nearly every city and town in the […]
Four States Share Bonus For Curbing Out-of-Wedlock Births
Four states and the District of Columbia have bucked the national trend and are reporting dips in their rates of births to unmarried mothers, the Department of Health and Human Services reported Friday. While the percentage of out-of-wedlock births in the nation as a whole climbed slightly for the two years from 1997 to 1998, […]
Bush Rx Plan Would Give Responsibility To States
One of the central issues of this year’s presidential election campaign is how to provide prescription drug benefits for the elderly. Al Gore and George Bush both have plans to address the issue. But evidence suggests states are not eager to take on this responsibility. As part of a sweeping overhaul of the federal health […]