Stateline Headlines

States Under New Affirmative Action Attack

Hopes, and fears, that anti-affirmative action laws passed in California and Washington State would trigger a national tidal wave haven't materialized. However, ripples of discontent flowing out of Florida indicate that it could be next. California's Proposition 209, passed in 1996, forbids gender or race as a consideration in state contracting, employment and higher education. Washington voters approved a similarly worded Initiative 200 in November. In the meantime, affirmative action foes are working hard to bring other states into the fold. Read more about states' affirmative action initiatives in this stateline.org special report.

Policy Makers Walk Political Tightrope In Dealing With Sprawl

As state legislatures pause today, however briefly, to observe the twenty-ninth anniversary of Earth Day, government action on controlling growth and suburban sprawl has produced mixed results in the 1999 legislative sessions so far. In this report, stateline.org examines how policy makers in Utah, Colorado, Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina have dealt with the issue.

New Federal Organ Transplant Policy Runs Into Resistance

Current U.S. transplant policy states that body organs harvested locally are first offered to local residents awaiting a transplant. If the federal government gets its way, the system will be overhauled to increase sharing across state lines. Fighting the regulation, which is to go into effect Oct. 21, is the government contractor that oversees the current allocation system, nearly a dozen states, most organ transplant centers and many concerned doctors and patients. They say the current system works, and the effort to change it is due to heavy lobbying from large transplant centers who would gain financially from the federal changes.

States Face Up To Realities Of Police Racial Profiling

As four men, three black and one Latino, made their way down the New Jersey Turnpike toward a North Carolina university where they were planning on trying out for the basketball team in April 1998, they had no way of knowing that three of them would end up at a hospital with police inflicted bullet wounds before they reached the state line. Their attorneys, bolstered by an outraged public, argue that the young men were stopped because they were minorities - a practice known as racial profiling. Read this stateline.org report to learn what states are doing to battle this practice.

State Input Missing From White House Youth Violence Summit

Spurred by the massacre at Colorado's Columbine High School, President Clinton brought Cabinet members, parents, students, entertainment world luminaries like singer Gloria Estefan and gun manufacturers' representatives to the White House this week for a closed-door gabfest on the problem of youth violence. News reports before and after the session noted the absence of top officials of the National Rifle Association, an arch-foe of gun control. But the White House also failed to invite any governors or state legislators, who are arguably on the frontlines of the battle to stop school shootings. Click on

Critics Question Safety Of Hepatitis B Vaccine

Five-week old Lyla Rose Belkin died within 16 hours of her hepatitis B vaccination in 1998. Nurse Betty Fluck has severe physical exhaustion and uses leg braces and crutches due to chronic joint and leg pain she believes is caused by the same vaccine. Lindsay Kirshner, 16, has daily headaches, nausea, joint pain, dizziness, fatigue and seizures which started the day after a hepatitis B shot she received in 1997. Critics point to tragedies like these as evidence that the vaccine is not as safe as it should be. Yet it is currently mandatory in 41 states and the District of Columbia for children entering daycare, kindergarten, sixth grade, high school or college.

Utah Boy Mows State Capitol Lawns, Grows Organ Donor Awareness

Coming to a state capitol near you soon is "Lawn Mower Boy." Fourteen-year-old Ryan Tripp from Parowan, Utah - also known as Lawn Mower Boy - is out to set a new Guinness Book World Record by cutting the grass at each state capitol. But setting records is second to his desire to increase awareness about organ and tissue donation around the country. Lawn Mower Boy started his mowing marathon June 1 in his home state accompanied by Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt. He has since mowed a portion of lawn at the capitols in Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. His last stop will be in Hawaii on Monday, Aug. 9. For more about Tripp's unusual odyssey, click on

California Legislators Duck Euthanasia Debate

The emotionally freighted issue of physician-assisted suicide has turned conventional political wisdom on its head in California. Despite overwhelming public support, a bill in the state Assembly that would let doctors prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients so they could take their own lives has stalled for the year. Although the measure narrowly survived two committee votes, its chief sponsor, Berkeley Democrat Dion Aroner, has put off further action for the moment because "the public is farther ahead than the legislature."

Doctors Call For Moratorium On Hepatitis B Vaccine

An Arizona group of physicians has called for a moratorium on controversial hepatitis B immunizations for schoolchildren pending further study of possible dangerous side effects from the vaccine, and accuses school districts that require the shots of "practicing medicine without a license." In a separate development last week, the U.S. Public Health Service and the powerful American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that the first dose of hepatitis B vaccine be postponed from birth until two to six months of age because it contains the mercury-based preservative thimerosal, which can be toxic if small infants receive too much of it. For more information, go to

States Lack Comprehensive Policies For Elderly, Experts Say

A stateline.org sampling indicates that none of the 50 states has a comprehensive plan for dealing with elderly issues, despite projections that the ranks of older Americans will swell in coming years as Baby Boomers reach retirement age. New Jersey, Washington, Oregon, New York, Ohio and Florida each shines in dealing with certain areas, but no state ties it all together.

Telemedicine Spans States, But Policy Slow To Follow Suit

A 21st Century doctor's house call might consist of a "virtual" consultation between you and your physician via computer or videoconference. Instruments that already exist such as digital gloves or electronic stethoscopes could transmit data electronically, so that medical conditions could be diagnosed without ever setting foot in a doctor's office. But the practice of such futuristic medicine is not yet the norm. Issues such as medical licensure, liability and health insurance reimbursements muddle the field of telemedicine, where technology is moving faster than the policy to support it.

States Show No Improvement In Curbing Out-of-Wedlock Births

Four states and the District of Columbia have cut their rates of illegitimate births to such an extent they will receive bonuses of $20 million from the federal government. But the declines only served to offset increases in out-of-wedlock births in 39 other states. For the U.S. as a whole, the rate of births to unmarried mothers has not changed.

Missouri Legislature Overturns Veto, Massachusetts, Wisconsin Minus Budget

Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan became only the third Missouri governor this century to have a veto overridden after the state's House voted 127-34 and the Senate 27-7 to override his veto of a controversial abortion bill. Carnahan's veto of the Infant Protection Act created the most bitter political fight in the state in years.

States Grapple With Late-Term Abortion Bans

Nearly three decades ago, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in the landmark case Roe v Wade that women had a constitutional right to abortion. But in the last five years, the U.S. Congress and 30 states have bumped heads with that 1973 decision by passing bans on a certain type of late-term abortion, the so-called "partial-birth" method, which involves partial delivery of the fetus. Maine became the latest state to participate in this constitutional tug-of-war. On Nov. 2, voters there defeated a measure that would have banned the procedure by a vote of 55 to 45 percent.

Vermont Gov Skirts Gay Rights in State of State Speech

Amid beefed up security at the State House, Gov. Howard Dean delivered his yearly "state of the state" address to the Vermont General Assembly Tuesday and appeared to downplay one of the most controversial issues of the coming session -- gay rights. But he repeatedly expressed his commitment to state sponsored health care programs.

Newborn Hearing Tests A Growing State Trend

New York is the latest of a growing number of states requiring hospitals to screen newborn babies for hearing impairment. Gov. George Pataki signed the bill into law December 22 in a move that coincided with the launch of a national campaign urging all states to have such tests. Research indicates that when a baby is tested in the first six months of life and found to be hearing impaired, there is time to eliminate deafness with modern technology and get the child on a normal learning schedule.

Vermont Panel Foreshadows Outcome of Gay Rights Debate

Most Americans regard Vermont as a placid rural state with good skiing and lots of cows, but this year it's the arena for a ferocious political battle over gay rights that has national implications. The Vermont Supreme Court set the stage for this late last year when it ruled that all the rights and benefits of marriage must flow to same sex couples. The court left it up to the legislature to decide how, and the course the lawmakers will follow is now clear.

States Addressing Abandoned Newborn Problem

Bills that would reduce or remove the threat of criminal prosecution against parents who leave their newborn infants safely in the hands of designated caregivers are a new trend in state legislation. Born of a mixture of horror and compassion, they are typically authored by lawmakers moved by stories of desperate parents abandoning or attempting to kill their infants by leaving them in unsafe places. Unofficial national estimates, based upon surveys of newspaper articles, place the number of abandoned infants at more than 100 per year.

States Giving Anti-Growth Measures High Priority

Sprawl is a fast-growing blip on the radar screens of governors and state legislators, pushing once low-priority land use legislation near the top of many states political agendas for 2000.

States Consider Mandating Contraceptive Coverage

States are heeding the call of women's health advocates, who say coverage of contraceptives should be required if health insurance benefits cover prescriptions of the anti-impotence drug Viagra. Nine states -- California, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina and Vermont -- all enacted laws last year mandating contraceptive coverage, and the legislative trend continues this year.

Gay Rights 'Civil Union' Nearing Reality In Vermont

If a bill currently headed toward passage in the Vermont legislature is signed into law as expected, gay and lesbian couples in the Green Mountain State soon will be able to do something that they can't do elsewhere in the United States: they'll be able to stroll into any town hall, get a "civil union" license, have it approved, and then enjoy all the rights and benefits of traditional marriage.

Births to Teenagers Drop in Every State

Teen birth rates continued to decline in 1998 and have hit their lowest level since 1986. Births to women age 15-19 fell significantly in every state and the District of Columbia, the Centers for Disease Control reported Tuesday.

Debate Continues Over Abortion Waiting Periods

Four state legislatures are debating whether to follow the lead of 14 states that impose a waiting period on women who want an abortion, but pro-choice opponents blocked the measure in Colorado, Iowa and Virginia this year. States where controversial legislation remains an issue are Alabama, Alaska, Delaware and Minnesota.

States Get New Funds To Care For Poor With HIV-AIDS

More financial help is on the way for poor and uninsured Americans with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. As of this month, states are eligible for $794 million in new federal grants to improve primary care and access to medicine for low-income, underinsured and uninsured HIV-positive people.

States Slowly Erasing Word 'Squaw' From Maps

Detailed maps of the United States like those produced by the U.S. Geological Survey show more than 1,000 different geographical features from towns to mountains to creeks and reservoirs that have "Squaw" in their names. But by January 2001 there will be about 25 fewer with the word for woman that Native Americans find offensive, thanks to legislation enacted in Maine earlier this month.

Experts Encouraged By Decline in Child Abuse

The tidal wave of child abuse and neglect that has cascaded across the United States over the past 15 years is ebbing and because states are now taking a more aggressive approach to the problem, there is reason to hope the declines will continue, experts say. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that cases of neglected and abused children fell for the fifth straight year in 1998.

Vermont Politics, Tradition Helped Civil Unions Pass

Vermont is the first state in the Union to establish a means to legally recognize gay and lesbian partnerships. On April 26, Gov. Howard Dean signed a "civil union" bill that grants homosexual couples all the rights of heterosexual couples short of marriage. An unusual combination of circumstances led to passage of this groundbreaking new law.

UPDATE: More States Decriminalize Safe Baby Abandonment

In February, Stateline.org reported that seven states were considering abandoned baby laws; that number has now climbed to at least 23. Since mid-April alone, Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Louisiana, Minnesota, and West Virginia have enacted abandoned baby or "safe haven" laws, often in response to tragic stories of infants left in dumpsters, alleyways, shallow graves, public restrooms or parking lots. For an in-depth report on this policy trend, click on

Internet Changing Face of State Government

Ever wanted to tour the New Hampshire State House? Rather stroll through the Colorado governor's mansion? Perhaps you wouldn't be happy until you hear the cry of a loon as it glides over Minnesota's lakes region? Or maybe you're considering making a movie in Mississippi and would like to investigate the area and its resources? All this is possible with just a few mouse clicks thanks to the magic of the Internet.

New Report Details State Growth Strategies

For a growing number of governors, the conversion of open space to suburban houses and office parks illustrates a lesson that fictional Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella first learned in the film Field of Dreams: If you build it, they will come. But the lesson is more complicated for governors because it is less about "if" than "where" to channel the growth that they recognize is inevitable.

Fighting Sprawl: A View From The Trenches

The growing pains of a small rural New England town offer a microcosm of the debate about sprawl. The writer of this report, a veteran newspaper and television newsman, provides a first-hand perspective of the complexity of managing growth amid competing interests even in tiny Durham, Maine.

Long Neglected, Poor Dads Now In Policy Spotlight

In and out of jail, often unemployed, sometimes drug-addicted, they are the nation's least respected: the young, absent fathers of children on welfare. For decades, policy makers have either ignored or scorned them, treating them as social misfits unwilling to hold a steady job and support their children. Now, poor, unmarried dads are finally getting attention. With the support of the Republican Congress, the Clinton Administration and the states are starting to devote significant, albeit still limited, resources to understanding and helping these young men.

Minnesota Tops For Kids, Report Finds

Because of its low poverty rate and success in keeping teenagers in school, Minnesota is the best place to be a kid, a national report has found. In its annual survey of the well-being of children in the 50 states, the Annie E. Casey Foundation ranks Minnesota number one, displacing last year's winner, New Hampshire. The Granite State, which has ranked in the Kids Count top ten every year since 1990, slipped to second place.

Theme Park Accidents Hasten Calls For Reform

While designers find new ways to make amusement park thrill rides faster and more exhilarating, a new analysis of ride-related hospital emergency room admissions shows a troubling upward swing in the number of injuries. The report has drawn attention to wide disparities in state ride inspection and safety regulations and breathed new life into stale legislation that would restore jurisdiction over park safety to the federal government. It was farmed out to the states under President Reagan in 1981.

Media Accused Of Marketing Violence To Kids

A new government report says motion picture, music and electronic games companies unscrupulously market products that promote violence to children under 17-years-of-age. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found evidence in marketing and media plans that "expressly target children under 17" and promote the products in outlets frequented by youngsters.

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 over the two years from 1997 to 1998, it fell in Alabama, Arizona, Illinois, Michigan and the District of Columbia.

Housing Squeeze Tightens Around Low-Income Families

High housing costs are pinching low-income families in nearly every city and town in the United States, according to a report, released Wednesday by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). "In no city, in no state is there a capacity for a person working on the minimum wage to be able to come close to affording a two-bedroom home," said Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, at a Capitol Hill press conference.

Jaunts Across the Border Best Rx for High Drug Prices?

Treks into Canada or Mexico to buy cheap prescription drugs have long been the norm for many U.S. citizens. However, during the 2000 campaign season new faces have been showing up for these rides: Political candidates.

Alabama Voters To Decide Fate Of Miscegenation Ban

On Nov. 7, Alabama voters will decide whether to remove language in the state's constitution that bans mixed marriages. Attorney General Bill Pryor is keen to erase the anti-miscegenation provision -- other state politicians shrug the provision isn't enforceable anyway.

Civil Unions Law A Factor In Vermont Voting

Ever since last April 26, when Vermont Gov. Howard Dean signed a first-in-the-nation gay rights bill into law, this usually serene and beautiful mountain state has been racked by bitter feuding. The fight came to a head on election day when more Vermonters went to the polls than in any other election in Vermont history.

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.

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.

State Policymakers Chart Untested Waters Around RU-486

Abortion has long been a bitterly divisive political topic in the United States, and debate on the issue promises to intensify this year as state lawmakers confront the latest element in the philosophical and moral divide: a drug that ends an unwanted pregnancy. Known in this country by the brand name Mifeprex and the chemical compound name mifepristone, the drug is frequently referred to as RU-486, a term derived from its creator, French pharmaceutical giant Roussel Uclaf.

States Make Strides on Medical Marijuana Programs

The U.S. Supreme Court's first-ever opinion on medical marijuana two months ago hasn't put a dent in state efforts to help seriously ill patients, as critics hoped it would. State medical marijuana programs in Alaska, Hawaii and Oregon are moving ahead despite the ruling.

Census Releases Data on Homeless

Census-takers counted more people sleeping in homeless shelters in California and New York last year than in any other state. Nationally, 170,706 people were in emergency and homeless shelters on March 27, 2000, according to a controversial Census Bureau report released last month. (10/30).

Few States Count Homeless

U.S. Census Bureau and homeless advocates figures on homelessness are as wildly different as a penthouse in New Yorks Trump Tower is from the Rescue Mission at Los Angeles Fifth and Wall Streets.

Virginia Agency Under Fire Over Home Loan Rules

In a move that has angered conservatives, the Virginia Housing Development Authority wants to give unrelated adults and nonmarried couples including homosexuals the opportunity to grasp the American dream: the dream of owning a home.

States Start Shaping Up Schools, Kids

Obesity is not just a problem of personal appearance for young people but a very serious health risk, the US Surgeon General says -- and at least two states are adopting policies to deal with it.

State Officials Uneasy With Bush's Welfare Changes

Alabama, Michigan and the District of Columbia split $75 million in extra federal welfare funds last year for achieving the largest decreases in out-of-wedlock births and abortion rates between 1996 and 1999. But the program that brought this windfall may soon disappear because President George W. Bush's welfare reform reauthorization plan does away with bonuses to states that do the best job of reducing illegitimacy and medically terminated pregnancies.

States Fret About Child Care Needs

Only 12 percent of families eligible for child care get the help they need. But President Bushs welfare reform reauthorization plan doesnt have any new money for child care, which concerns advocates for the poor and some state lawmakers.

State Policymakers Push Marriage Education

A divorced California state senator thinks lovesick couples should know what theyre getting into before they tie the knot. So State Sen. Bill Morrow, now remarried, wants to cut the cost of the marriage license if altar-bound couples take a marriage education course before saying I do. Such measures are also under discussion in at least 18 other states.

How Ballot Questions Fared

Voters rejected universal health care and looser marijuana laws as America weighed in on more than 200 ballot measures Tuesday.

'Choose Life' Car Tags Spark Debate

Legislators in seven states Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina have authorized specialty license plates bearing the slogan "Choose Life," an action that has sparked controversy and several lawsuits. Though supporters say "Choose Life" is not a political message and is intended to promote adoption, the plates have been challenged by abortion rights groups whove gone to court to try to block them.

Same-Sex Couples Seek Marriage Rights

The battle over legal benefits for same-sex relationships will be fought in at least seven state legislatures next spring with supporters and foes of recognizing gay relationships planning to introduce opposing legislation.

States Play Key Role in Abortion Debate

Three decades after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in the landmark decision Roe v. Wade, the impassioned and often-bitter debate over abortion rights still tops state legislative agendas.

Massachusetts' High Court to Rule On Same-Sex Marriage

Massachusetts' highest court this week took on the controversial question of whether the state should become first in the nation to give same-sex couples the full rights and legal status of marriage.

Medical 'Pot' Bills Advance in Maryland, Vermont

Three of the eight medical marijuana measures introduced in state legislatures this session have been snuffed out, but bills that would ease restrictions on therapeutic use of the drug are advancing in Vermont and Maryland.

ERA Backers Out to Revive 1972 Amendment

Twenty years after the presumed demise of the Equal Rights Amendment, political activists who believe the U.S. Constitution should protect women better are working to resurrect the ERA. They face an uphill battle.

Fetal-Homicide Laws Stir Abortion Debate

State laws that criminalize killing a fetus, such as the California statute applied in the Laci Peterson murder case, are a strategic issue in the abortion debate. Twenty-seven states have such laws, but they differ widely. Idaho and Nebraska enacted fetal homicide laws last year, but no state has adopted one this year.

Massachusetts High Court Weighs Gay Marriage Ruling

National attention is focused on Massachusetts highest state court, which is expected to render a decision any day now that will decide whether the state will become the first to allow gay and lesbian couples to legally wed.

Keystone State Extends Same-Sex Benefits

Pennsylvania recently became the sixth state to allow gay and lesbian employees to use family or sick leave time to care for their domestic partner. The provision allowing use of sick leave, which had been on the table in union negotiations for more than a decade, was included in a four-year contract between the state and 13,000 unionized workers.

Idaho's First Lady Advocates for Children

First Lady of Idaho Patricia Kempthorne says that if being the governors spouse had a job description, hers would read ambassador for families and children.

Gay-Marriage Ruling Puts Lawmakers on the Spot

The Massachusetts Legislature has 180 days to decide how to make state law conform with a Supreme Judicial Court ruling that it is unconstitutional to deny gay and lesbian couples the right to marry. A lawyer for seven gay couples who brought the court action that prompted Tuesdays ruling said lawmakers have no alternative to legalizing gay marriage other than amending the states constitution, which takes at least two years.

Gay Marriage and Death Penalty Rulings Roil States

Americans traditionally turn to the courts to settle battles over divisive social issues, from segregation and civil rights to abortion and assisted suicide. But debates over changing social mores almost always bubble up from state capitals, where even today governors and legislators are confronting such difficult questions as whether to sanction gay marriage or to end capital punishment.

New Year Rings in Hundreds of New Statutes

The new year brings more than just a change of calendars. Hundreds of new state laws are taking effect from coast to coast, covering such diverse matters as the creation of a highway fast lane, determining who pays for birth control pills and dictating how you can split your tongue to resemble a snakes. And thats just in Illinois!

Massachusetts Ruling Stirs Gay-Union Backlash

Ohio is expected to lead a state government backlash against gay marriages by adopting a law forbidding its agencies to grant marriage-like benefits to same-sex couples. Supporters predict the ground-breaking prohibition will win easy final passage in the Ohio legislature as early as this month.

Bush Defuses Some Medicaid, NCLB Complaints

The Bush administration appears to have backed down in disputes with the states over Medicaid and education just as the nations governors converged on Washington, D.C., for the National Governors Associations four-day winter meeting.

Massachusetts One Step Closer to Gay-Marriage Ban

Massachusetts lawmakers Monday approved a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage but legalize civil unions. By including the latter provision, lawmakers hoped to please citizens eager to define marriage as a union between man and woman in the wake of a pro-gay marriage state high court ruling and at the same time provide some of the benefits and rights sought by same sex couples.

Battle Over Gay Marriage Goes to Voters

The nations turbulent gay marriage battle is moving to the ballot box this November in at least five states and potentially a half dozen or so more where voters will be asked to decide whether to amend their state constitutions to ban same-sex marriage. Oklahoma's Legislature became the most recent to put a gay marriage amendment on the November ballot in an overwhelming vote Thursday, April 22.

Marital Bliss or Legal Chaos Facing Gay Newlyweds?

History is being made as Massachusetts becomes the first state in the nation to legalize marriage between two individuals of the same sex. But once the wedding is over, gay couples face a barrage of legal uncertainties as they try to seek recognition of their nuptuals in other states or apply for spouse's benefits under laws written for heterosexual couples.

Medical Pot Pits States Against Federal Government

Vermont just became the tenth state to vote to legalize medical use of marijuana. Proponents hope a growing acceptance by states of doctor-prescribed "pot" for pain relief will help snuff out federal drug enforcers' efforts to crack down on the practice. The U.S. Supreme Court may be called in to referee federal-state disagreements over whether all marijuana use is illegal.

Petition Drives to Ban Gay Marriage Succeeding

A state-by-state push for constitutional bans on same-sex marriage has met with success in Arkansas, Michigan, Montana and Oregon, where ballot initiative groups appear to have collected more than enough signatures to place amendments before voters in November. If validated by state election officials in these states, the number of states that will vote on constitutional gay marriage bans this fall will increase to 11.

2004 Sessions: Talk, Little Action in Most Legislatures

As many statehouses wind down for the year, Stateline.org takes a look at the major issues dominating the 2004 legislative session. For the first time in four years, states fiscal picture is brightening. Most legislatures opted not to tackle many social issues, such as gay marriage, passing the buck for voters to decide this fall.

Democrats Say Kerry Would Bring Better Times for States

If John Kerry is elected president, Democrats foresee a new partnership between the federal government and states. The U.S. senator from Massachusetts accepted his party's presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention Thursday night, and he and his supporters said a Kerry White House would pursue new strategies to create jobs, lessen health care costs and boost state economies.

'My truth is that I am a gay American'

Following is the full text of the resignation speech given by New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey, transcribed by Stateline.org.

Florida Lawyer Seeking Gay Marriage Limelight

Ellis Rubin might seem an unlikely crusader for gay rights. In the 1970s, he was singer Anita Bryants lawyer in her widely publicized fight to overturn a Dade County, Fla., gay rights ordinance. Now, claiming a change of heart, Rubin is racing from courthouse to courthouse in Florida in a push to legalize marriage for same-sex couples.

Hot-Button Social Issues Cram State Ballots

Voters this November will tackle controversial issues that many statehouses couldnt resolve, including whether to ban gay marriage, boost the state minimum wage or have a lottery. Californians will have the longest list of ballot questions with 16.

Alaska Ballot Measure Would Treat Pot Like Liquor

Like a stoned driver crisscrossing the center line, Alaska has veered left and right on the issue of legalizing marijuana. On Nov. 2, voters will be asked to take Alaska further than any other state toward liberalizing use of marijuana, over the objections of state and federal officials.

Ohio Leaders Fight Anti-Gay Marriage Initiative

Leaders of Ohios political establishment, including Republican Gov. Bob Taft, are urging a no vote on a ballot initiative that would write a ban on gay marriage into the state constitiution. Taft and other opponents say the proposal could have an adverse impact on the state economy, an assertion supporters challenge.

Voters Decide Policy Issues

The American electorate that so narrowly divided over the presidential race swung many ways on a raft of ballot initiatives ranging from legalizing pot in three states to banning same-sex marriage in 11.

50-State Rundown on Gay Marriage Laws

Six months after gay and lesbian couples began legally marring in Massachusetts, opponents of same-sex marriage swept Election Day, with voters in 11 states approving constitutional amendments codifying marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution.

Gay Marriage Milestone Marks Widening Divide

November 18 marks the first anniversary of the landmark ruling that opened the door to same-sex marriage in Massachusetts but also fueled a conservative backlash of anti-gay marriage measures that continues to gain momentum one year later.

Court Weighs Legality of Federal Pot Charges

Chronically ill individuals in 10 states that permit marijuana use for medicinal purposes could be affected by a U.S. Supreme Court case that will determine whether the federal government can preempt state law on marijuana use.

New Year Rings in Many New State Laws

New state laws that go into effect on Jan. 1 will mean fatter paychecks for minimum wage workers in five states. But some rowdy sports fans had better beware, and skateboarding kids in New York will have to don helmets.

Utah Considers Rights for Same-Sex Couples

It was no surprise when voters in socially conservative Utah overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment last Election Day to ban same-sex marriage. So it may shock some Utahns to learn that a conservative state senator who voted against gay marriage plans to introduce legislation that would grant same-sex couples some of the same rights as husbands and wives.

50-State Rundown on Gay Marriage Laws

Gay and lesbian couples may currently marry in one state Massachusetts. Forty states have adopted laws that define marriage as solely a heterosexual union. Seventeen states have enshrined this definition in their constitutions.

New York Court Upholds Same-Sex Marriage

A New York state judge ruled Friday that same-sex couples must be allowed to marry but suspended her decision for 30 days to allow city officials to appeal. The ruling embroils New York in the contentious gay marriage debate set off in 2003 by a Massachusetts high court ruling legalizing same-sex weddings in the Bay State. Also see Stateline.org's 50-state rundown on same-sex marriage laws.

Evangelical Law Firm at Front of Culture War

A conservative Christian advocacy group called the Alliance Defense Fund is an increasingly powerful player in America's culture wars, taking on progressive groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union on gay rights, school prayer, abortion and other issues. Now, Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature have invited the group to represent them in a legal battle over state employment benefits.

High Court Splits on Ten Commandments

Click image to enlarge What will happen to religious symbols on public property across the states in the aftermath of two Ten Commandments rulings by a divided U.S. Supreme Court? Expect court battles to continue, legal experts say. At least four state capitols and cities and counties in at least 41 states have plaques, monuments, murals or architectural details that depict the Ten Commandments.

Abortion Foes Intensify Efforts at State Level

More than 500 bills that would restrict abortion were introduced in state legislatures this year as opponents of the controversial medical procedure continued to chip away at Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision giving women the right to terminate a pregnancy.

Trend Reversed, Gay Rights Law Upheld

Stateline.org has compiled a quick guide to issues on the Nov. 8 ballot in Maine with reliable sources to click on for in-depth information. Now updated with election results.

Voters in Seven States Weigh Ballot Measures

Voters in California, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas and Washington will vote on 39 statewide ballot measures Tuesday (Nov. 8)—the same day that New Jersey and Virginia will hold gubernatorial and state legislative elections.

States Seek Nursing Home Alternatives

As Medicaid budgets balloon, states are coming up with innovative ways to help senior citizens live longer at home, saving millions that otherwise would be spent on costly nursing home stays. Vermont is a leader in a nationwide effort to give elderly consumers the kind of care they want by balancing Medicaid spending between nursing homes and community-based care. Kentucky, Georgia, Pennsylvania and other states hope to follow Vermont's lead.

'Morning-after Pill' Splits States

While the Food and Drug Administration delays a decision on whether to allow the "morning-after pill" to be sold over the counter, officials in several states are mounting efforts to make the emergency contraceptive easier to get.

Texts of Governors' Greeting Card Messages

Stateline.org has compiled the following inscriptions from each of the 46 governors sending greeting cards this season.

Legislative prayer stirs church-state issues

Indiana lawmakers are testing the line between invoking divine guidance on their deliberations and breaching the constitutional wall between church and state. In the process, they are discovering, as legislators around the country before them have, that the simple ceremony of opening legislative sessions with prayers can be tricky.

States eye stem cell research economics

Click image to enlarge Public funding for embryonic stem cell research is expected to top several state legislative agendas this year, promoted by governors on both sides of the aisle in the name of economic progress and job creation. But few laws are expected to pass by year's end, industry lobbyists say.

Abortion foes split on state bans

In defiance of the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, lawmakers in at least five states are proposing bills to immediately ban all abortions, except when the woman's life is in danger. The bills' sponsors say the time is right to test the new alignment of the U.S. Supreme Court. But some pro-choice activists fear the strategy could backfire.

Job Benefits for Gay Partners Targeted

A second front in the battle over same-sex marriage is opening over whether public employers should offer spousal benefits, such as health coverage or family leave, to partners of gay workers. Wisconsin and Alaska are among a handful of states where courts and legislatures are wrestling with whether to go beyond banning same-sex marriage and also bar employee partnership benefits.

Wages, Gay Marriage Could Tilt '06 Ballots

What's on the Election Day menu of ballot initiatives in 2006? Banning same-sex marriage and increasing the minimum wage are likely to be part of the main course.