Texas Democrats have fled the state in an effort to keep Republicans from approving a new U.S. House map that could boost their slim congressional majority next year.

Colorado medical providers will need to get patients’ prior consent before medical students can perform pelvic exams on them while they are unconscious for a procedure under a bill signed into law.

Authorities say the suspect who made threats against California's Capitol on Thursday shot a gun from his vehicle while driving through two Sacramento suburbs the night before.

First lady Jill Biden will represent the U.S. at the coronation of King Charles III next month, President Joe Biden told the royal during a Tuesday call, the White House said.

Colorado teachers flooded into the state Capitol to press for better protections for students and school staff after a 17-year-old Denver student shot two administrators, fled to the mountains and killed himself.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has overturned a portion of the state’s ban on abortion, ruling women have a right to an abortion not just in a medical emergency.

New York lawmakers began a special legislative session seeking to limit the proliferation of firearms in public after the Supreme Court gutted the state’s century-old handgun licensing law.

Thousands of teachers and other school workers have walked out in Sacramento.

For the second year in a row, COVID-19 policy will be front and center in the State Capitol.

Kathy Hochul has become the first female governor of New York.

Texas Republicans are pressing ahead with their push for tougher election laws after Democrats' defiant weekend walkout stopped one of the nation's most restrictive voting measures.

A Tennessee Republican has falsely declared that an 18th century policy designating a slave as three-fifths of a person was adopted for what he called “the purpose of ending slavery.”.

In state legislatures across the country, lawmakers of color are seizing on the nation’s reckoning with racial injustice.

About two dozen protesters turned out near Augusta National to object to Georgia’s new voting law during the third round of the Masters.

Georgia’s Republican governor has stepped up his attack on Major League Baseball’s decision to pull this summer’s All-Star Game from the state in response to a sweeping new voting law.

Local governments in Florida will be severely limited when issuing emergency orders in the future under legislation moving quickly through the State Capitol.

FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo, armed men stand on the steps at the State Capitol after a rally in support of President Donald Trump in Lansing, Mich. But the question of whether guns should be allowed in capitol buildings remains political and states are going in opposite directions. – In the past year, insurrectionists have breached the U.S. Capitol and armed protesters have forced their way into statehouses around the country. But the question of whether guns should be allowed in capitol buildings remains political, and states are going in opposite directions. “What they said is that weapons, guns, bullets are still welcome in our state Capitol as long as we can’t see them.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida’s pension plan would be no more under legislation that cleared a Senate Committee at the State Capitol Thursday morning. Some call the plan underfunded, but there are fears that ending the defined benefit plan could make it harder to hire critical workers. The state pension plan isn’t just for state workers. Starting next year, State Sen. Ray Rodrigues wants to force all new employees into a 401(k)-type investment plan. If no changes are made, the state will continue putting $373 million a year into the plan.

In Florida, more than 47,000 eviction notices have been filed, and a handful of bills filed at the State Capitol seek to keep people in their homes. Every day in Florida, 180 new eviction notices are being filed. In Florida legislation has been filed to require courts to send tenants and landlords to mediation. The CDC’s national eviction moratorium has been extended through the first of April. AdThe national moratorium has kept most cases from going to court, but this year’s session begins March 2 and runs through April 30, a full month after the national moratorium is set to expire.

On Monday, Florida state senators spent an hour behind closed doors for a classified security briefing. “And our Senate President was dead serious when he said they would keep us safe, and I felt very good walking out of that security briefing,” said State Senator Janet Cruz. State Senator Linda Stewart said the security briefing included tips for when senators were not in the Capitol as well. Lawmakers themselves won’t be at the Capitol over the weekend, nor next week, when the chances of violent protests are greatest. Flags at the State Capitol are currently at half staff in honor of the two officers who died as a result of last week’s protest at the U.S. Capitol.

In the latest annual report on clerical sex abuse, dioceses and other Catholic entities reported paying out $281.6 million during the year for costs related to allegations, including payments for cases reported in previous years. There has been a huge overall surge in allegations over the past three years as dioceses faced unprecedented pressure to address the decades-old problem of clergy sex abuse. It is the 17th abuse report issued since 2002, when the U.S. bishops established and adopted a comprehensive set of procedures to address sex abuse allegations. Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which advocates for survivors of clergy sex abuse, expressed concern about a section of the report indicating that only 60% of parishes nationwide were performing safety audits on their own. Every single sitting attorney general should be investigating cases of clergy abuse in their state, identifying enablers and removing them from power, and ensuring that hidden abusers are made known to their communities.

Circuit Court of Appeals on June 17, 2020, upheld a federal judge's ruling that said dinosaur fossils are part of a property's surface estate in an ongoing battle over ownership of millions of dollars of fossils unearthed on an eastern Montana ranch. Dinosaur fossils worth millions of dollars unearthed on a Montana ranch belong to the owners of the lands surface rights, not the owners of the mineral rights, a U.S. appeals court ruled. The surface rights where the fossils were found are owned by Mary Ann and Lige Murray. In the meantime, the 2019 Montana Legislature passed a bill stating that dinosaur fossils are part of a property's surface estate unless they are reserved as part of the mineral estate. In a 4-3 ruling last month, the Montana justices said dinosaur fossils are not considered minerals under state law.

Yet state statistics also show hospitalizations are up since early April, which has some health officials worried. Some people are trying to stay 6 feet (2 meters) apart, as required under state orders, but others aren't. Leaders in Republican-controlled, deeply conservative Alabama, like many states, are stuck between trying to revive a lagging economy and prevent the spread of disease. As of Friday, more than 13,400 people had tested positive for the coronavirus in Alabama, and 533 had died. Alabamas jobless rate jumped to 12.9% in April during the economic shutdown linked to the coronavirus pandemic, the worst in nearly 38 years, the state said.

Barbers and hair stylists are protesting the state?? (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)LANSING, Mich. Police ticketed seven people for cutting hair during a protest outside the Michigan Capitol, where about a dozen barbers and hair stylists defied stay-at-home orders to give free hair cuts Wednesday. At one point, about 300 people attended the demonstration that was organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition to oppose the measures imposed by Gov. Angela Rigas, of Caledonia in western Michigan, said she was ticketed after refusing three times to stop cutting hair. I will not stand down, said Karl Manke, a 77-year-old barber who cut hair at the demonstration.

Families gather at State Capitol to remember missing childrenPublished: November 22, 2019, 11:18 pmTALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Each year at this time, families of missing children gather at the State Capitol, many knowing they’ll likely never see their loved ones again.