Next Monday, April 30, civic-minded coders will join forces near Washington, D.C., to build new applications that help voters get the information they need on Election Day. The event, co-sponsored by the Pew Center on the States, The Sunlight Foundation, and Microsoft will focus on the tools and data provided by the Voting Information Project (VIP), which answers common questions including “Where is my polling place?” “Who is on my ballot?” and “How do I navigate the voting process?”

This November, Foursquare users will be able to receive an "I Voted" badge when they visit their polling places. In addition, voters in 37 states will have an easier time finding election information via social media and mobile devices, thanks to the Voting Information Project (VIP), an initiative of the Pew Center on the States, Microsoft, AT&T, Foursquare, Google, state elections offices, media partners and others.

If you've opened a checking account, chances are you've skipped reading the mile-long account agreement that comes with it. Thanks to the Safe Checking Project from the Pew Charitable Trusts, those lengthy documents are starting to get shorter.

Two years after regulators gave Americans more power to manage overdrafts of their checking accounts, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is reviewing bank practices to determine if the crackdown went far enough. more

Another big bank has joined the “simple checking disclosure” movement advocated by an arm of the nonprofit group Pew Charitable Trusts. more

In an era of persistent budget deficits, at least a dozen states are moving to adapt and implement a cutting-edge tool for policy research and analysis, beginning with criminal justice policy and eventually expanding to other areas. States are under increasing pressure to ensure that scarce resources are invested in programs that yield the best results. In addition, many policy makers are looking for information that would allow them to target cuts more strategically, rather than making across-the-board reductions that treat effective and ineffective programs alike.

Most states are doing a poor job tracking whether their tax breaks for businesses are actually spurring job growth, including some that have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into corporate incentive programs.

It’s clear that prepaid debit cards — cards that you load with cash, spend down and then reload — are hot. more

How do people let this happen? That is the question we so often have when we read about child abuse and neglect cases. Whether it is a sensational national story such as the Penn State scandal or a local story about children found in horrible or dangerous conditions, we wonder why someone did not step in to prevent these crimes and situations.

Every new mother has so many questions: Is my baby growing well? Is she reaching her developmental milestones? Why does she cry so much and what can I do about it? To get answers, moms can turn to one other for advice or save up their questions for the next pediatrician visit, which could be months away.

Georgia passed a bill that will reform the state’s criminal justice system by seeking to defer more nonviolent offenders into rehabilitation and accountability courts.