The Supreme Court’s ver­dict on national health insur­ance reform could impact legislation to set up a health insurance exchange in Alaba­ma.

Alabama prison officials are trying to avoid a mass release of state inmates in 2012 because the state’s prisons are jammed with almost twice the number of inmates they were designed to hold.

The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled a date to discuss whether it will consider former Jefferson County Commissioner Larry Langford’s appeal of his 2009 conviction on bribery, fraud, money laundering and conspiracy charges, according to the court’s online docket.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, other survivors of the Tucson shooting rampage and numerous others will come together in the close-knit southern Arizona city on Jan. 8 to commemorate the one-year mark of that tragic day and remember those who died.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case involving the state’s immigration law.

The state Supreme Court named a Columbia law professor and political scientist Friday as a special master to supervise the drawing of new congressional districts. Democrats and Republicans concurred on the choice, while sharply disagreeing on what factors should shape the new map.

Conservative states across the South have altered their approach to criminal sentencing in recent years by replacing the tough-on-crime mantra with a “smart on crime” philosophy that supporters say saves money and could even cut repeat offenses.

Gov. Butch Otter on Friday announced the appointment of Molly Huskey of Middleton to replace retiring Judge Gregory Culet. Huskey’s chambers will be in Caldwell.

WASHINGTON — Mike Sackett remembers what he thought when he saw the eye-popping fines of more than $30,000 a day that the Environmental Protection Agency was threatening to impose on him over a piece of Idaho property worth less than one day’s penalty.

Illinois has long been a pioneer in juvenile justice, creating the nation’s first juvenile court as long ago as 1899. But in recent years, Illinois hasn’t looked so much like a pioneer anymore. The wooden wheels have been coming off the covered wagon.

The new year is likely to be anything but a happy one for Rod Blagojevich.

The Indiana Tax Court has ordered an Indianapolis man to pay the legal expenses the state incurred opposing his repeated claims that his income was not subject to taxation.

Ninety-nine times over the last six years, Kansas legislators have changed the law to make sure that crime doesn’t pay.

The state is asking the Louisiana Supreme Court to reverse a Baton Rouge judge and uphold the legality of a 2010 law that lets school districts seek four-year waivers from some education laws and rules in an effort to improve student achievement.

Sure, state courts in Louisiana will award you damages against government agencies that do you wrong, but hold off on the champagne. If they refuse to cough up, as they frequently do, there is nothing you can do about it.

A year ago in my year-end column, I predicted that the Jefferson Parish corruption probe would be breaking wide open any day now. It’s a good thing predictions don’t come with expiration dates.

A decade after revelations of clergy sex abuse rocked the Archdiocese of Boston, survivors still come to Cardinal Sean O’Malley in search of healing.

More than a half-century after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation in public education, a court will decide if Maryland is doing enough to support the state’s historically black public colleges and universities.

Nathan A. Chapman Jr., the once-prominent money manager whose fraudulent investments in his own companies caused a scandal for Maryland’s public employee pension system, is scheduled to be released from federal custody Friday after serving 41/2 years.

The Michigan Court of Appeals lifted this afternoon a lower court order which had temporarily blocked implementation of new time limits on the receipt of state welfare benefits.

The Montana Supreme Court restored the state’s century-old ban on direct spending by corporations on political candidates or committees in a ruling Friday that interest groups say bucks a high-profile U.S. Supreme Court decision granting political speech rights to corporations.

She needed to pack, but her calendar was full. Work came first. The governor’s office was calling to talk transition. Friends were on another line wishing her well. The empty boxes would have to wait.

Under Gov. Chris Christie’s newest initiative to battle criminal recidivism, New Jersey’s volunteer drug court program could become a sentencing option for judges even if a defendant would rather head to state prison.

A Senate panel will consider confirming Jeff Chiesa as the next state attorney general on Thursday, about three weeks after he was nominated by Gov. Chris Christie.

A New Mexico lawmaker wants to eliminate the state’s statute of limitations for second-degree murder and extend time limits for prosecuting other felonies.

An investigation by state Inspector General Ellen Biben’s office concluded that oil and gas regulation in western New York became a bit too much of a family affair for an official at the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

“I bounced his head off the back (expletive) wall,” said the aide, frustrated that a resident of the Valley Ridge center for the developmentally disabled was acting out — again.

The Oregon Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s pension system can collect $156 million in overpayments to retirees.

Just before midnight Sept. 18, 2010, Justin and Christina Neidel’s home caught fire.

Hundreds of new laws are going into effect in Oregon with two of them specifically aimed at intoxicated drivers and another one clamping down on drivers and cellphone use.

Starting today, Oregonians are going to pay a lot more if they choose to drink and drive — and the effect will last longer than a hangover.

A governor’s ability to change lives by granting pardons is not lost on Gov. Dennis Daugaard.

South Dakota drivers already pay fines for speeding, but the worst repeat offenders might soon face the loss of their drivers’ licenses.

A year ago this fall, driving back from Sioux Falls to her home in Worthing, Tasha Rouse discovered a resolve within herself at the intersection of life and death.

A subcommittee of state legislators meets today to sort out allegations that Republican leadership and the Legislative Research Committee broke confidentiality policies earlier this year and shared confidential information on proposed legislation to House leadership.

The Missouri River flooding that forced thousands of South Dakota residents from their homes and caused millions in damage ranked as the state’s top news story of 2011, according to a vote by Associated Press newspaper and broadcast members.

Tennessee’s Supreme Court justices soon must wrestle with the thorny issue of whether, and to what extent, the state’s legislature can overrule its high court.

Civil rights attorneys in Nashville and Washington, D.C., appear to be laying the groundwork for legal challenges to Tennessee’s new voter identification law.

Should there be a moral component to the immigration debate?

When is a biological father not a father? A Circuit Court judge, citing state law, ruled early last year that an unmarried man who donated sperm to his longtime girlfriend had no parental rights after the couple split. The father, Billy Breit of Virginia Beach, hasn’t seen his daughter in 16 months. But the Virginia Court of Appeals, in the first case of its kind in the state, last week overturned the lower court’s decision, calling it “a manifest absurdity.”

A proposal that would allow more Virginia localities to exclude prisoners when drawing voting districts may be approved in the coming General Assembly session.

Victor Ramos Guzman and his brother-in-law noticed a Virginia state trooper pull up beside them as they traveled on Interstate 95 near Emporia, Va., in November. “A police car drove by in parallel, looked at our faces and on no more than that decided to stop us,” Mr. Guzman said in a sworn affidavit.

Both sides in the lawsuit by the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant’s owners against the state say a federal judge’s decision is expected soon — possibly this week.

Wisconsin residents have overwhelmed the state Justice Department with so many concealed weapon permit applications agency officials say they probably won’t meet deadlines for issuing approvals this month despite pulling dozens of employees from other tasks to help.

The state of Wisconsin has filed a court motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by residents who are challenging the constitutionality of a 2010 state law that resulted in an order for the Berlin School District to drop its Indian nickname and logo.

It was clear even before 2011 ended that Patrolman Brian Lightner of the Charleston Police

Scott Cosco, manager of government affairs for Frontier Communications Corp. in West Virginia, believes state legislators will strengthen anti-theft laws in the upcoming session.