The signs, text messages and mailers promise cash, quick sales and a seamless means of unloading unwanted homes. But advocates say the business of buying homes for cash can confuse vulnerable homeowners and rob them of home equity. And now, many states are cracking down.

Voters in nine states will weigh changes to their criminal legal systems and drug policies this fall. The Nov. 3 ballot measures include questions about pretrial release, fentanyl and human traffickin...

The mistrial in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial earlier this month places her future in doubt, three years after she killed her three children in Duxbury, Massachusetts. But one potential outcome is a s...

The Trump administration’s top wildlife official issued a directive last week that expands a recent rollback of endangered species protections much further than the feds had told the public. Individuals and industries may kill endangered animals and plants in the course of logging projects, developments and other activities, it said — so long as the activity’s purpose isn't killing species.

Four in 10 pediatricians reported kids in immigrant families are avoiding coming in for healthcare out of concerns around immigration status, according to a new survey published Tuesday.

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The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, transformed how American intelligence and law enforcement agencies collect, share and analyze information. Twenty-five years later, that infrastructure has mer...

Women on parole report higher rates of housing instability, poor health and serious mental health and substance use disorders than men on parole and than women who weren’t on parole, according to a ne...

The country’s two largest school districts — New York City and Los Angeles — banned most student use of artificial intelligence in classrooms for this school year as anxiety over AI’s effect on learning intensifies.

On a rural stretch of land in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, an open meadow filled with bright wildflowers, a memorial grove of trees and a giant boulder marks the spot where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11, 2001.

A team is conducting a prescribed burn on a forested ridge in central Washington, above a small town, Roslyn, that was nearly wiped out by a wildfire just a few years ago. The specter of wildfire is o...

When young children and teenagers get into trouble, the question often comes quickly: Where were their parents? That question is again shaping public policy in communities across the country, as state...

As school districts make decisions on which artificial intelligence tools are safe and worth spending thousands or millions of dollars on, some officials feel overwhelmed by the array of choices. Some states and districts have begun offering guidance for vetting AI purchases, but educators and experts say districts are still carrying much of the burden on their own. Billions of dollars are at stake.

On June 11,  ICE agents trailed a car into the parking lot of Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore. For the family riding in that car, an everyday school drop off quickly devol...

Federal immigration agents are employing new tactics — from arresting academics at airports to setting up a checkpoint at a popular creek in a National Forest — to boost their arrest numbers, leading to more arrests in July than in any previous month of the Trump administration. Though it is striving to fulfill the White House’s demand for more […]

Anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers routinely offer free ultrasounds, but there is little oversight. OB-GYNs, state lawmakers, government officials, reproductive health advocates, and current and former pregnancy center staffers told States Newsroom – as part of our ongoing series, Billion Dollar Baby Bump – that internal protocols are likely not enough to ensure all centers are offering high-standard health care to girls and women potentially unsure what to do about their pregnancies or facing difficult circumstances.  

Three states this year became the first ones to enact laws restricting companies from using personal data such as browsing history or shopping habits to set individualized prices on goods and services...

As millions of acres burn across the western United States, some wildland fire veterans are fearful that aggressive fire suppression tactics ordered by the Trump administration — coupled with extreme,...

Independent autopsies have often emerged from a deep distrust of official systems — particularly in cases involving Black victims killed by law enforcement, where families have questioned whether inve...

Independent autopsies have often emerged from a deep distrust of official systems — particularly in cases involving Black victims killed by law enforcement, where families have questioned whether investigators treated their loved ones’ deaths with the scrutiny they deserved.

WASHINGTON — Federal asylum officers can deny interviews to asylum seekers and send them immediately to an immigration judge, speeding up deportation proceedings, under a rule U.S. Citizenship and Imm...

The number of preteens — ages 8 to 12 — who die by suicide in the United States each year is relatively small. But the total in 2025 was 194 — the most since at least 2001, according to preliminary da...

From hijacked freight shipments to tampered gift cards hanging on store racks, states are responding to new forms of organized retail crime with a fresh round of legislation.

Since President Donald Trump has gutted much of the federal government's consumer protection work, state attorneys general are increasingly left to fight high prices and investigate businesses themselves. The change follows Trump’s dismantling of the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau and persisting concerns about the high prices of housing, groceries and fuel.

Crime rates continued falling across a sample of large U.S. cities in the first half of 2026, with homicide rates dropping enough to put the nation on track for another historic low in killings.

A federal judge in Virginia ruled Thursday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not sufficiently justify restrictions imposed in 2023 on a drug used to terminate early pregnancies, adding an...

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Seeking to stop a “flood” of court cases freeing immigrants from mandatory detention, the Trump administration is asking an appeals court to put three immigrants back in detention.

The Trump administration is removing protections from the key places where endangered species live, saying states can keep the areas safe. But experts say states aren’t equipped for the task. Earlier this month, the Trump administration finalized a major change to the Endangered Species Act, rolling back protections for the forests, wetlands, deserts and other critical habitats that many plants and animals rely on.

Under previous Virginia law, tenants had five days to pay overdue rent before landlords could begin eviction proceedings.  A new law, House Bill 15, by Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News, extends that gra...

Following a string of special election victories, Democrats have a path to flip several Republican-held legislative chambers and break GOP supermajorities in states across the country this November. High prices and overall voter dissatisfaction with Washington have put control of the U.S. House and Senate in play this year — a dynamic that has trickled down, with heightened Democratic enthusiasm in many state contests.

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, issued an executive order Tuesday that puts a moratorium on the construction of large-scale data centers. The pause, which will last up to a year, is the nation...

As state and federal officials work to identify the source of the recent outbreak of the intestinal illness cyclosporiasis, Michigan health officials have identified lettuces or salad greens as one potential culprit. “Early information has shown lettuce as a common product that regularly comes up during the investigation,” said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, chief medical executive […]

Consumers are unlikely to see any relief in gas and electric bills as utilities proposed more than $18 billion in rate hikes across the country over the first half of the year. The consumer advocacy group PowerLines reported that utilities asked regulators for a record $9.2 billion in cumulative rate increases during the second quarter of this year. Those requested rate increases could affect more than 56 million U.S. customers.

A teenager charged with the same crime can face dramatically different consequences depending on where they live. More states have passed new laws reshaping their juvenile legal systems, with some adopting measures to divert more young people from incarceration, and others imposing stiffer penalties and expanding authority to pursue adult charges. 

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a July 2 panel decision requiring bond hearings for immigrants held under the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy.

Firearm homicides in the United States fell sharply in 2024, but gun suicides reached a record high, according to a new analysis of federal mortality data by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

Fifteen states on Friday sued the Trump administration to prevent millions of dollars in cuts to school-based mental health funding. The new lawsuit is part of an ongoing legal battle between Democratic-led states and the U.S. Department of Education over a mental health grant program that Congress established following the 2018 school shooting at Marjory […]

Democrats are seizing the mantle of states’ rights to oppose the agenda of President Donald Trump, who has sought to reset Washington’s relationship with the states.

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U.S. Supreme Court rules law enforcement searches for the location history of cellphones near crime scenes are covered by the Fourth Amendment

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Democrats are seizing the mantle of states’ rights to oppose the agenda of President Donald Trump, who has sought to reset Washington’s relationship with the states.

As communities prepare for crowded July Fourth celebrations, cities and towns across the country have revived juvenile curfews and increased police patrols in response to an apparent uptick in large teen gatherings and fights organized through social media.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday kept in place state laws banning transgender athletes from participating on women’s and girls’ sports teams.