Arrested and convicted a third time for drug possession, Charles Canion was locked up for two years at an average cost to the state of $51 per day. Canion may never have gone to prison under proposed reforms backed by Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, one of many Republicans across the country looking to reduce state corrections spending by softening sentencing laws.

More Americans are turning to the emergency room for routine dental problems — a choice that often costs 10 times more than preventive care and offers far fewer treatment options than a dentist’s office, according to an analysis of government data and dental research.

A study being released today by the Pew Foundation found that 83,000 emergency department visits in California in 2007 were due to preventable dental problems. That rate of dental emergencies is likely growing quickly.

The grinding truth about poverty is the more time you spend at the bottom, the more likely you'll stay there. And the tug of poverty remains, even for those who escape. According to the Economic Mobility Project, a third of Americans are "downwardly mobile," making less than their parents.

There are few people further apart on the issue of new voter photo ID requirements than Laura Murphy and Hans von Spakovsky. She's director of the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office. He's with the Heritage Foundation and a former Justice Department official under George W. Bush.

With Iowa still feeling the negative impact of the Great Recession, many of the state’s policy makers and business leaders rank increasing Iowa’s competitive business climate as a top priority. We know if we bolster our commitment to education, reinforce our long-term workforce development, and control our tax burden by using scarce resources wisely, Iowa will be well positioned to compete in the global marketplace.

You want an argument against American exceptionalism? Take a look at how the nation votes. According to a new report by the Pew Center for The States, the U.S. voting system remains “plagued with errors and inefficiencies that waste taxpayer dollars, undermine voter confidence, and fuel partisan disputes over the integrity of our elections.”

Last month, Human Rights Watch released staggering figures on the human and financial costs of the growth of aging persons behind bars in America. According to their report, from 2007 to 2010 the number of prisoners over age 65 increased by 63 percent, even as the total number of inmates grew by less than one percent.

Nevada's active voter rolls include some very inactive dead residents, people registered to vote in more than one state, and thousands who have moved and never bothered to tell election officials. Nationwide, up to 24 million active voter registrations are no longer valid or accurate, according to a report released today by Pew Center on the States

One in eight voter registrations in the United States is no longer valid or is "significantly inaccurate," a situation that could breed distrust of the democratic process, according to a study released today by the nonprofit Pew Center on the States.

Oregon will start sharing voter registration information with seven other states as part of an effort to improve a voter data system around the country that is riddled with errors, officials announced Monday.

Some 24 million voter registrations in the United States contain significant errors, including about 1.8 million dead people still on the rolls and many more approved to vote in multiple states, according to a report released Tuesday.