Economy
Converting offices to housing is hard. These changes could make it easier.
Read more Stateline coverage of how communities across the country are trying to create more affordable housing. PORTLAND, Ore. — Stroll around America’s vacant downtowns, and a seemingly obvious solution emerges to the housing shortages and homelessness problems in many states: Why not turn all those unoccupied offices into living spaces? Especially in cities such as Portland, […]
Cities shrink but immigrants help stem population losses
Continuing a pandemic trend, Americans are moving to the South and Southwest and from cities to the suburbs in search of more space and homes they can afford, recent government data indicates. But immigration, which is starting to bounce back from pandemic lows, has helped mitigate population loss in major cities. A Stateline analysis of […]
Top State Stories: Missouri self-defense laws criticized in Ralph Yarl shooting
MO: Missouri self-defense laws criticized in Ralph Yarl shooting kansascity.com Anger among Missouri lawmakers has been building in the wake of the shooting, in part because of a sense among Democrats, gun control activists and some residents that the state’s gun laws have contributed to an atmosphere where residents feel too comfortable pulling the trigger. Republicans, […]
States Feel Budget Pinch Amid Darkening Revenue Projections
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct a reference to personal income in Washington state. After two years of record tax collections, budget writers in some states are starting to feel a revenue pinch created by a slumping stock market, banking and tech layoffs, slower consumer spending and lower energy prices. Buoyed by […]
A 4-Day Workweek Gains Lawmaker Support in Some States
The Original Oyster House, billed as Pittsburgh’s oldest restaurant, found itself in crisis during the pandemic. Down to seven employees — including owner Jen Grippo and her mother — the staff worked six or seven days a week to keep up with orders. Grippo closed the Oyster House entirely in January 2021, determined to give […]
States Debate Whether to Restrict — Or Invite — Crypto Mining
SEATTLE — As cryptocurrency mining draws increased scrutiny on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., some state legislatures are considering proposals to restrict the industry over growing concerns about its energy use. Other states, though, are advancing bills to protect cryptocurrency miners from such crackdowns, citing the economic potential of hosting mining operations. Last year, New […]
Governors Push Faster Construction to Meet Housing Needs
Read more Stateline coverage of how communities across the country are trying to create more affordable housing. PORTLAND, Ore. — Dick Anderson, a Republican state senator from coastal Oregon, has a chart and a readymade joke to illustrate the housing crisis facing his state. Up until 2006, his figures show, home building was on an upward trajectory […]
Top State Stories 3/16
AR: Arkansas House sends public school bathroom bill to governor’s desk arkansasonline.com Arkansas House Republicans approved a bill that would limit transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice at public schools. Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ spokesperson said earlier this week that Sanders “believes that schools are no place for the radical left’s […]
China Owns Little US Farmland, But Many Lawmakers Are Worried
WASHINGTON — Nearly a third of states have laws prohibiting certain foreign businesses and governments from buying agricultural lands within their borders, and more states are looking to join them. The efforts in at least 11 states are pitched primarily by Republicans as another security front in the nation’s ongoing propaganda battles, primarily with China […]
As Supreme Court Considers Student Loan Forgiveness, States May Expand Their Programs
As the U.S. Supreme Court mulls the constitutionality of President Joe Biden’s broad student loan forgiveness plan, lawmakers in many states are looking to expand their own student debt repayment programs. Every state but North Dakota has at least one loan forgiveness plan. The catch is that most of the 129 state plans are tailored […]
Urban Areas Are Adding People and Gobbling Up Land in Most States
The percentage of residents living in areas the U.S. Census Bureau calls “urban” grew in 36 states between 2010 and 2020, led by booming cities and suburbs in the South, Southwest, Midwest and California, according to a new Stateline analysis. Among urban areas with populations of at least half a million, the Texas capital city of Austin grew the […]
West Warms to Geothermal Energy as a Path to Clean Power Goals
NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY, Colo. — In Colorado’s quest to transition to renewable energy, the state’s leaders want to take an old-school approach: Drill, baby, drill. They won’t be prospecting for oil, though, but instead mining the Earth’s underground heat to power geothermal electricity plants. Other Western states are paying close attention. “Anything we can […]