Arizona has no toll roads, but that hasn’t stopped a pair of state lawmakers from introducing a bill that, among other things, would let the state impound the cars or suspend the licenses of toll evaders.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has issued 545 layoff warning notices to employees, including 140 correctional officers.

The state’s top judge lost a political battle Monday when the state Assembly voted to shift key budget decisions from the state Judicial Council that she heads to local trial courts, some of which have complained about the panel’s handling of money.

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has spent more than a quarter-million dollars on outside attorneys to fight the long-running union paid leave battle with the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, spokeswoman Lynelle Jolley said in an email to The State Worker.

The Assembly rejected legislation today that would have placed before voters a measure to alter California’s “three strikes” criminal sentencing law.

State Rep. Laura Bradford apologized to her House colleagues Monday amid questions about whether she invoked legislative immunity to avoid a drunken-driving arrest following a happy hour at a Colfax bar.

Five underage girls were plied with drugs, threatened with violence and driven to hotels across Colorado for men to pay them for sex, according to details from an indictment of 14 people allegedly involved with the child-sex ring.

It was a dramatic moment — or at least it looked dramatic when I watched the replay on YouTube. Rep. Laura Bradford went before her House colleagues Monday morning to apologize for what we’ll call “the incident” and what she called “traffic violations.”

Two citizens have challenged a 10-year Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control permit for use of state-owned sand in the replenishment of a half-mile stretch of private beach at Sea Colony in southeastern Sussex County.

A delegation of law-enforcement and social-services officials is heading to North Carolina next week to learn more about a program being touted for its ability to reduce crime.

State attorneys are appealing a judge’s order that favored five fathers who are targeting Georgia’s practice of jailing parents who don’t pay child support.

Idaho’s House of Representatives agreed Monday to ask Congress for a long-needed third federal judge, but only after some Republican members said they wouldn’t support asking a Democratic president to make that appointment.

Idaho is getting $625,000 in the settlement of a lawsuit with a prescription drug maker accused of selling products at false or inflated prices.

A Franklin Circuit Court judge plans to rule by the end of today on whether to extend the filing deadline for legislative offices while he considers arguments on whether the new districts approved earlier this month are constitutional.

The legal guillotine may soon fall on Beacon Hill, as nervous politicians await potential indictments in the Probation Department patronage scandal. “People are apprehensive,” said state Rep. Charles A. Murphy (D-Burlington). “Nobody knows. … There seems to be a rumor every day, and you take it with a grain of salt.”

We’re not in the habit of cheering for tighter campaign finance laws in this state which already has a very strict system, particularly when the underlying problem may not be widespread. Still, undocumented bags of cash seems like a reasonable place to draw the line.

Citing a report that found more people are overdosing on prescription painkillers than heroin and cocaine, two state senators and a South Shore prosecutor plan to announce new legislation Tuesday targeting the state’s prescription drug abuse problems.

New York has strict gun laws for those seeking a concealed weapons permit. Maine, by comparison, has relatively moderate laws. However, because of loopholes in gun laws, a resident of New York can come to Maine and apply for a nonresident concealed weapons permit. If the permit is granted, that person can bring it back to New York, where the permit often is recognized.

The 13 Minnesota counties with the highest combined totals of alcohol-related traffic deaths and serious injuries will see increased drunken driving patrols in coming months, according to the Department of Public Safety.

Attorneys on both sides of the battle over former Gov. Haley Barbour’s pardons are criticizing each other for distracting from the central constitutional issue with unimportant, unsubstantiated claims.

A convicted killer pardoned by former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour was in Wyoming with his fiancee and initially drove off when he was located Sunday by investigators seeking to serve him with a court summons, authorities said Monday.

Dozens of powerful, popular websites went dark for a day recently, in an unprecedented protest against two bills aimed at stopping the illegal downloading and streaming of TV shows and movies online.

New Jersey’s new attorney general is reorganizing the enforcement arm of the state’s Division of Consumer Affairs to crack down on crimes involving prescription drugs.

Gov. Chris Christie said today he was aware of the civil settlement reached last month between federal authorities and the liquor store run by the family of state Supreme Court nominee Phillip Kwon.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Monday that Gov. Chris Christie’s nomination of Phillip Kwon to the state Supreme Court was endangered in the wake of a report that federal authorities had reached a $159,629 civil settlement with a wine and liquor store run by his family.

In 2005, President George W. Bush had a key slot on the Supreme Court to fill. He could have chosen from thousands of top-notch legal minds, including that of a guy who had a coffee blend named for him at the shop just up the block from The Star-Ledger office in Newark.

Phillip Kwon, who was nominated last week to the state Supreme Court, must explain the financial improprieties of his family’s business if he hopes to win confirmation by the Senate.

In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, in the depths of this winter of discontented voters, amid the vicious, venal attacks launched in the name of good government, a bright spot beams from Massachusetts.

Gov. Susana Martinez’s nomination of Gregg Marcantel to be secretary of the Department of Corrections apparently hit a snag Monday when Sen. Linda Lopez, who chairs the committee responsible for investigating appointments, said a background check of Marcantel revealed potential problems.

A federal judge’s ruling to set the congressional primaries for June 26 has turned New York’s election calendar on its head, making it almost impossible for the state to meet the deadline without changing laws.

The number of homicides in New York dropped last year to the lowest level in decades to roughly 750, or about one-third of the killings in 1990, the deadliest year on record, officials said Monday.

Ohio Supreme Court justices won’t be making the trip to Steubenville to hear Gov. John Kasich’s State of the State address next Tuesday.

The Ohio State Bar Association ranked state Supreme Court Justice Robert R. Cupp as “highly recommended” while giving “recommended” ratings to former Ohio Appeals Court Judge William O’Neill and Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Fanon Rucker.

The fight over Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon’s 2008 compensation appears to be winding down.

In recent years, some of the state’s more high-profile violent crimes have happened far from Oklahoma City or Tulsa.

The speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Monday asked a federal judge to rule that the state legislative district maps in place for the past decade are unconstitutional and may not be used for elections.

Michael C. Potteiger, of York County, will be the new chairman of the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole.

In a much anticipated court decision, Superior Court Judge Sarah Taft-Carter ruled Monday that the city of Providence cannot — at least at this time — break a contract provision with former city workers which promised them lifetime health coverage.

It has taken Jolene Loetscher more than 15 years to come to terms with a rape she says she endured as a teenager in Wayne, Neb. According to state law at the time, she waited too long to seek punishment for the man she accuses of stealing her childhood in the back of the store where she worked.

South Dakota drivers won’t get points for speeding tickets after a bill on traffic violations failed to pass the House on Monday.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — A federal appeals court panel Monday upheld the conviction and sentence in the hacking of Sarah Palin’s email by a Tennessee student in the 2008 election year.

A federal judge in Burlington dismissed a class action lawsuit filed against Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. that alleges accounting fraud, but left the door open for the plaintiffs to re-file their lawsuit within 30 days.

The Republican running to be the state’s chief lawyer was not licensed to practice law in West Virginia until last week, according to records from the West Virginia State Bar.

All adult West Virginians would be required to report suspected sexual abuse to the police under a bill working its way through the Legislature.