The Federal Reserve intended for today’s interest rate cut of 0.5 percentage points to stimulate the broader economy, but this shift in monetary policy also represents a subtle but important change in the operating environment for state budgets. Interest rates affect every aspect of government finance, from revenue to infrastructure projects, and although the effects on state and local budgets will be gradual, the first rate cut in four years sends a message.

In 2022, residents in Chama, New Mexico, a Rocky Mountain village with less than 1,000 people near the Colorado border, seemingly overnight found their water taps had stopped working. The state responded by sending in gallons of bottled water to prevent catastrophe. A subsequent investigation revealed that an unaddressed leak...

This commentary was originally published by The Conversation. The burden of supporting asylum-seekers with food and housing often falls to cities, creating severe budget crunches. But Denver is piloting a new approach designed to integrate immigrants into the workforce faster. The Denver Asylum Seekers Program offers six months of rent-free...

In yet another example of how all things related to the pandemic have become political, nearly all of the country’s Republican governors have expressed their staunch opposition to a World Health Organization agreement about how nations should collectively prevent, prepare and respond to future global public health emergencies. While...

A bipartisan group of state and local elections officials are sounding the alarm about whether the U.S. Postal Service can handle the expected influx of absentee ballots in the coming weeks. Leaders of the National Association of State Election Directors, the National Association of Secretaries of State and 29 local...

This week marks one year since the Pretrial Fairness Act went into effect in Illinois, making it the first state to abolish cash bail. In the year since, people in Illinois have avoided countless time away from their jobs and families because their bank accounts no longer determine their freedom. This was a groundbreaking move to take money out of justice, and it’s time for the rest of the country to follow.

This story was originally published by West Virginia Watch. An annual naloxone distribution event that started in 2020 with two West Virginia counties will expand to more than 30 states when it’s held this year on Sept. 26, but a co-founder of the event is most hopeful about what will happen in the days after that.

One promise of President Joe Biden’s signature infrastructure law was to create a nationwide network of electric vehicle chargers, so that motorists traveling across the country wouldn’t have to worry about finding a place to refuel. Congress left the job of building that network to the states. Now,...

As of Monday morning, 55 large active wildfires were blazing throughout the West, burning more than 2 million acres and displacing tens of thousands of people. Wildfires have ravaged more than 7 million acres so far this summer—the largest acreage to have burned through early September since 2018, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Now, to get a handle on the growing problem, some governments are turning to AI.

This story was originally published by KFF Health News. With the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest—and strictest—plan to minimize the risk of Americans drinking lead-contaminated water on the horizon, the debate over whether the rules go too far or not nearly far enough is reaching a tipping point.

You're reading Route Fifty's State and Local Roundup. To get the week’s news to use from around the country, you can subscribe here to get this update in your inbox every Saturday. In the meantime, be sure to read to the end as we've rounded up headlines from the week.

Students at the University of North Carolina can now use their digital student identification card to vote. But the plan almost didn’t happen, as it divided the State Board of Elections and troubled observers who worried about the privacy risks ahead of November’s election. The board voted 3-2...

This commentary was originally published by The Conversation. A mobile team offering medication treatment to people with opioid use disorder showed promise in getting patients in Philadelphia to return for follow-up visits, according to a peer-reviewed study I co-authored that was released in the September 2024 issue of the Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment.

This story was originally published by Reasons to be Cheerful. Among the kosher markets, eateries and synagogues of Brooklyn’s Borough Park neighborhood, a quiet transformation is underway. On a recent overcast Saturday, the intersection of 37th Street and 12th Avenue looked like any other intersection in the area, surrounded by single-family homes and parking garages. But an important measure to mitigate mass flooding was implemented here last month, when New York’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) began to install seven miles of permeable pavement along curb lines.

This story was originally published by the Oregon Capital Chronicle. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide or a mental health crisis, call or text 988 for free, immediate support 24/7. The prevalence of firearms in the U.S. – not mental illness – is driving...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom this week ran into another obstacle to his plan for lowering the state’s gas prices: the governors of two neighboring states. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat like Newsom, and Nevada Gov. Joseph Lombardo, a Republican, sent the California governor a letter Tuesday protesting proposed rules that would require refineries to stockpile extra gasoline to prevent price spikes caused by shortages.

This story was originally published by Stateline. At 43, Sharon Reese is a housing market refugee — forced to return to her Ohio hometown after 18 years in Las Vegas, despite a successful career training dancers for nightclub acts. “If you don’t have between $600,000 and $800,000, you’re not...

This story was originally published by the Oregon Capital Chronicle. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum is leading a bipartisan campaign with 41 state attorneys general who are prodding Congress to require a U.S. surgeon general warning for young people on social media platforms. Rosenblum, president of the National Association of...

Two years into the nation’s most ambitious industrial policy in decades, the pieces needed to restore the U.S. as a leader in chip manufacturing and development are slowly falling into place. Since President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law in 2022, the nearly $53 billion...

BOZEMAN, Mont. — When developers proposed a five-story apartment complex in midtown Bozeman, they made the city a promise: Half of the 111 units would be earmarked for affordable, below-market-rate housing. Called the Guthrie, the proposed project took advantage of a city policy allowing developers to deviate from height...