The Pew Charitable Trusts

As states across the country struggle to find new solutions to water shortages in the continuing drought, governors of three Southern states - locked in a battle over a Georgia lake - turned to Washington, D.C., in search of a truce. Other states' policymakers also are responding to parched conditions.

Florida law enforcers give inmates playing cards featuring photos of homicide victims and missing persons in hopes of cracking cold cases. Tennessee gets tough on prison visitors who wear "arousing undergarments." Nebraskans with alcohol-related convictions wear Lindsay Lohan-style ankle bracelets. In case you missed any of those stories this week, "Worth Noting" fills you in.

A handful of states are trying to draw clearer distinctions between sexual predators and young offenders who pose less of a risk, such as those involved in consensual sexual encounters.

The governors of Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia have declared official awareness periods to highlight the beginning of what forecasters say could be a dangerous hurricane season.

Florida's school children next fall will be part of a trend reversal in which state lawmakers are starting to bring back physical education classes to combat childhood obesity.