Teen drug use during the summer often goes unnoticed. It’s when school starts and students nod off in class, exchange pills in the hallways and fail tests that the truth becomes apparent.
Pew Charitable Trusts
How to bring the ballot to aging Americans
Mobile polling allows bipartisan pairs of election officials to bring ballots directly to long-term care facilities, where they can assist when needed and register new voters if deadlines allow. This system of voting is allowed in 23 states, but laws vary on whether state or local governments are responsible for administering it.
Make money from pot? Then forget about a federally subsidized loan
A new Small Business Administration policy could force some entrepreneurs to choose between serving cannabis clients and getting a federally subsidized loan.
Why this state thinks engineers can save pedestrians’ lives
The number of pedestrians killed on U.S. roadways is up — by a lot. Nearly 6,000 pedestrians were killed in 2016, up from 4,100 in 2009 and the highest toll since 1990, according to the Governors Highway Safety Administration. The number of deaths held steady between 2016 and 2017 — but that was cold comfort.
Why most states are struggling to regulate Airbnb
Some big cities, such as New York, saw the short-term rentals as a threat to the rental market based on long-term leases, as well as to traditional hotels. New York last year allocated extra funding to enforce a state law restricting rentals for fewer than 30 days unless the host is present and there are no more than two guests.
Companies in foreign trade zones await more details on Trump tariffs
Manufacturers that operate in foreign trade zones may be able to evade President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, trade experts say. But there are a lot of unanswered questions about how the tariffs — which were justified on rarely-used national security grounds — will be applied in zones.
Stalled effort to ban ‘bump stocks’ illustrates challenge of changing state gun laws
In the wake of the Las Vegas concert massacre last fall, lawmakers in at least 30 states introduced legislation to ban “bump stocks,” which convert semiautomatic guns into automatic weapons and which were used by the gunman. Only two of the bills passed.
Overdose deaths fall in 14 states — including Alaska
New provisional data released this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that drug overdose deaths declined in 14 states during the 12-month period that ended July 2017, a potentially hopeful sign that policies aimed at curbing the death toll may be working.
How voters with disabilities are blocked from the ballot box
Many people with disabilities cannot mark paper ballots without assistance, so they rely on special voting machines that are equipped with earphones and other modifications.
As Trump attacks the federal health law, some states try to shore it up
Nationwide, premiums for average-priced policies — according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis — offered on and off the health insurance exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act rose by more than a third compared with 2017.