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An election year like no other puts voters on edge
WASHINGTON — Widespread anxiety and confusion around voting, compounded by the pandemic that has spread to millions of Americans, including President Donald Trump. A vastly underfunded and decentralized electoral system that could take days and possibly weeks to certify results. Attempts to suppress voting, interfere with elections and cast doubt on the integrity of mail-in […]
‘Extremely frustrating’ mail delays for prescriptions hit veterans, rural areas
Jan Stowe, a Vietnam War veteran from Traverse City, Mich., says she was unable to move her head and neck for several days last month after going without medication to treat extreme muscle spasms. Stowe, a Department of Veterans Affairs patient who receives her medication through the U.S. Postal Service, said in an interview with […]
Pendley’s nomination may be scrapped, but he’s still in charge at BLM
President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Land Management will continue leading the agency even after his nomination is withdrawn, leading the diverse conservation groups that opposed him to call for his removal from office. The Trump administration said last weekend it would pull the nomination of William Perry Pendley when the Senate […]
Rosen, Senate Dems face uphill fight against Trump public lands pick
Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen is among the Democrats hoping to thwart President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, a man she says is unfit to head the agency because of his record in favor of aggressive oil and gas extraction on public lands. Trump nominated William Perry Pendley to lead […]
House passes bipartisan public lands bill; next stop president’s desk
WASHINGTON — Major environmental legislation sailed through Congress Wednesday while the nation’s political leaders were stuck in intense negotiations over the contours of a fifth coronavirus relief package. The bill would provide $9.5 billion over five years to pay down the National Park Service’s maintenance backlog and provide permanent funding at $900 million per year […]
Delays in COVID-19 relief funds threaten upgrades to tribal health care
Part of the federal funding sent to Native American tribes for COVID-19 relief could be used to build long-sought health infrastructure, though conditions placed on the federal aid and delays in its arrival threaten tribes’ ability to capitalize on it. The $2.2 trillion CARES Act Congress passed in March included $8 billion directly for tribes […]
From call center workers to national guard, states recruit contact tracers
As states seek to loosen wide-ranging restrictions imposed to constrain the novel coronavirus, they’re also looking to deploy a huge new fleet of workers to keep cases under control. Enter the contact tracers. With interpersonal contact certain to increase as states lift COVID-19 restrictions, tracing the who infected people had contact with — and then […]
Can lessons from the Great Recession help states avoid budget disasters?
As they face massive budget shortfalls due to the COVID-19 pandemic, states are looking for federal money to help stave off the kind of drastic cuts they enacted during the last economic downturn. State budget officers and economists generally agree that cuts to state spending worsened the Great Recession in the years following 2008. Layoffs, […]
Pandemic fuels state feuds over gun rights
COVID-19 has ignited the debate over gun rights as states grapple with whether to allow gun sales while other retailers are forced to shutter. Stores selling guns and ammunition remain legally open in 45 states that include sellers and manufacturers as essential services that are exempted from orders shutting down most commercial activity or have […]