A study released Tuesday says Alabama’s new immigration law — which is called the toughest in the country — will cost the state billions of dollars because of income lost by illegal immigrants who will have to leave, lost tax income and related costs.

The Alabama immigration law will cost the state billions in lost production and tens of millions in lost state sales and income taxes, according to a new study by the University of Alabama Center for Business and Economic Research.

Arizona legislators say they’d like to restrict the use of restraints on pregnant inmates in Arizona.

Now that the state Supreme Court has delivered the Republican Party a 7-0 smack-down, California can proceed with a key piece of its ongoing political reform.

Although it squeaked by in the Assembly this week, controversial legislation to revamp budget decisions for state courts has been shelved for the immediate future in the Senate.

Roughly 700 state workers covered by SEIU Local 1000 will receive back wages from an furlough lawsuit agreement between the union and Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration.

Legislation to create a tiered sex-offender registration system designed to focus attention on violent criminals was killed Monday by the Assembly.

The saga of state Rep. Laura Bradford made a dramatic about-face Tuesday when Denver police apologized to her publicly for accusing her of invoking legislative privilege to get out of a potential drunken-driving arrest.

For several days, Rep. Laura Bradford has been excoriated for seemingly being above the law when she was pulled over — but not arrested — last week on suspicion of drunken driving.

The House is advancing a $69.2 billion no-new-taxes budget that increases college tuition by 8 percent, cuts payments to hospitals and nursing homes and eliminates 4,700 more state jobs, many from the closing of six prisons.

As a divided Senate struggled for a second day over a prison privatization plan, its biggest critic was stripped of a chairmanship and an “extremely disappointed” Gov. Rick Scott twisted opposing senators’ arms to no avail.

Allowing resort casinos in Miami-Dade County would lead to a spike in crime — from rapes to burglaries — an anti-gaming group charged on Wednesday.

A federal appeals court has upheld a Florida constitutional amendment imposing new rules on how congressional districts are redrawn. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a Miami federal judge that voters have the power through a referendum to control how the districts are designed.

Gov. Terry Branstad has named 30 people to a panel that recommends candidates to become new district court judges.

The Senate today approved an $8.5 million bill that will primarily funnel money into correctional facilities across the state to maintain staffing levels.

Legislation aimed at informing and protecting residents of nursing homes and residential care facilities from sex offenders living among them got its first hearing in a House subcommittee this morning.

Iowa prison and parole supervisors who were laid off under former Gov. Chet Culver’s administration have been paid nearly $500,000 in back pay and counting after a state panel ruled their firings were improper, records show.

A new survey shows physical violence among Idaho students is down from 2009, but more teens report they’ve seriously considered suicide.

Indiana’s top elections official signed documents showing he was living at an address different than one he listed on voting records, witnesses testified Tuesday as prosecutors began building their case in a trial that could cost Secretary of State Charlie White his job and his freedom.

NOBLESVILLE, Ind. — Indiana’s top elections official committed voter fraud to preserve his political clout and protect his finances, a special prosecutor said Tuesday during opening arguments of a trial that will determine if Secretary of State Charlie White keeps his office — and his freedom.

Indiana House lawmakers sent a limited statewide ban on smoking to the Senate for consideration Tuesday afternoon.

The Indiana Senate voted 50-0 Tuesday to cut off a rapist from a child created by his crime.

Gov. Sam Brownback will speak on “Ending Human Trafficking” at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Kansas University Union Ballroom.

Kentucky’s deadline for legislative hopefuls to file for election has been postponed for a week while a judge weighs the constitutionality of newly drawn district boundaries.

A judge ruled in favor of the state Monday in a legal battle over the state’s “rainy day” fund. The ruling by state District Judge Kay Bates is good news for the Louisiana Legislature. A ruling in favor of the plaintiffs, who include former state Rep. Ron Gomez, could have blown a $150 million hole in the state operating budget.

As part of a settlement agreement signed in December, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry agreed to help people with limited English understand their rights and protections as migrant workers after an unsuccessful attempt by such workers to complain about repeated exposure to pesticides.

A Cambridge activist who says he’s sick and tired of living in a state whose official seal depicts a sword hanging over a Native American’s head has launched the most aggressive effort to date to force the Bay State to redo the 132-year-old image — but Indians and other advocates are distancing themselves from his audacious $24 million lawsuit.

Maryland’s second-largest foster care provider failed to track background checks, training and other requirements for its foster parents, putting the children at risk, according to state officials who are moving to suspend new placements in its homes.

PORTLAND, Maine — An appeals court on Tuesday upheld the state’s campaign disclosure law that requires a national anti-gay marriage group to release its donor list, but the group plans to take the fight to shield the list to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Last November, a day before Justin Crowley-Smilek was shot and killed by police, the 28-year-old Farmington native and U.S. Army Ranger who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder appeared before a judge.

Drivers with three unpaid parking tickets would not be able to renew their driver’s licenses under legislation approved by the Senate today.

The Minnesota Health Department says it will begin destroying newborn blood samples to comply with a recent court ruling.

CLAYTON, Mo. – Missouri state representatives Timothy W. Jones, a self-described “conservative attack dog,” and Mike Colona, a progressive, are often on the opposite ends of key issues.

The Mississippi Supreme Court has decided to take up the legal challenge to former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s end-of-term pardons.

In another twist in the often confusing aftermath of pardons granted by then-Gov. Haley Barbour on his way out of office, Mississippi corrections officials said Tuesday that victims’ relatives were given bad information by the state that fanned their outrage.

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

A researcher testified Tuesday that a Cumberland County prosecutor in Marcus Reymond Robinson’s 1994 murder trial was three times more likely to dismiss black potential jurors during jury selection for capital cases than people of other races.

A state House committee has unanimously recommended that the full House kill a bill that would have expanded the death penalty to include murders which are considered “especially heinous, cruel, or depraved.”

Buffeted by questions from Senate Democrats about the qualifications of his two state Supreme Court nominees, Gov. Chris Christie Wednesday ramped up a campaign to trumpet their achievements and called for swift hearings.

NEWARK, N.J. — When Ahiezer Ortiz was in kindergarten in 1996, said his mother, Gladys Lorenzo, she knew he needed extra help by the way he paused for an unusually long time before answering questions. It turned out he had attention-deficit disorder and a learning disability.

Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa today announced Christopher Porrino, a litigator from the private sector, as the new director of the Division of Law in the Attorney General’s office.

Despite the concerns of Senate Rules Committee Chairwoman Linda Lopez about Corrections Secretary-designate Gregg Marcantel, the state Senate on Wednesday confirmed Marcantel for the job.

Noe “Lil Loco” Torres, a fugitive suspect in a fatal 1995 drive-by shooting of a 10-year-old boy in Clovis, thought he might get help from Gov. Susana Martinez. He thought wrong.

A new lawsuit is challenging the latest personhood initiative that seeks to ban abortions in Nevada. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in state court in Carson City argues the “prenatal person” initiative is confusing and doesn’t adequately explain to voters the effect it would have on birth control or other medical procedures.

Tough-on-crime lawmakers, seeking to expand the collection of DNA from people convicted in New York State, point to cases like that of Raymon McGill, who was linked to a rape and two murders after being arrested in 2004 in Schenectady in an attempted robbery.

Expanding the state’s DNA database cleared the state Senate on Tuesday but it may be impeded by a dispute about whether the change will do enough to help the wrongfully convicted.

After seven years of trying to move puppy-mill legislation through the Ohio Senate, Sen. Jim Hughes yesterday got a 30-0 vote.

Many ” pill mills” are gone, and some doctors who ran them are headed to prison.

A 6-1 majority on the state Supreme Court is not enough for Ohio Republicans.

Ohio’s attorney general would have the power to investigate “grandparent scams” and other cases of cyberfraud as crimes under legislation approved yesterday by the House.

With most state employees and public school teachers not getting a raise for several years, it would be inappropriate for lawmakers to allow a 6 percent pay increase for judges and statewide elected officials to take effect, Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman said Tuesday.

As the Oregon Legislature convened Wednesday for the start of a month-long legislative session, key lawmakers proposed spending much of a $56 million dollar legal windfall to avoid cutting services for the sick and needy.

Oregon Attorney General John Kroger said Wednesday he will sign on to a multistate pact settling wrongful foreclosure charges against the five largest loan servicers.

The owner of a diner near the Pennsylvania Capitol claims in a lawsuit the state health secretary tried to block him from getting a state contract after they argued over the freshness of an egg sandwich.

This could be Bill DeWeese’s toughest election ever. Twelve Dauphin County jurors will vote, maybe as early as today, on this question: Does DeWeese, at 61, continue his 36-year roller-coaster career in the state House, possibly seeking a return to Democratic leadership with the winds of vindication at his back?

When top Penn State officials Tim Curley and Gary Schultz testified before a grand jury in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse investigation, both men apparently thought they had an attorney.

The Republican speaker of the state House of Representatives has filed a suit in federal court, seeking to prevent elections this year from being held under what he argues are now-unconstitutional boundaries set in 2001.

State Sen. Jane Orie asked an Allegheny County judge to sequester the jury in her upcoming retrial, fearing jurors may hear about a grand jury investigation of her sister, state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin.

Saying it would be unfair to ask Centre County residents to hear a case with major ties to Penn State University, prosecutors on Tuesday requested an out-of-county jury for the child sex abuse trial of retired Nittany Lions football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

State police pored over reports in hundreds of cold cases across the state dating back decades before zeroing in on DNA evidence they say points to a suspect in the slaying of a Beaver County woman more than 32 years ago.

Pennsylvania prosecutors say they’ll tell Jerry Sandusky the names of the 10 young men identified as victims of sex abuse allegedly at his hands by the end of the week.

Greene County Recreation Director Jake Blaker, a long-time backer of state Rep. Bill DeWeese, told a jury this morning that he still believes in the integrity of the lawmaker and one of his aides, even though that aide, Sharon Rodavich, has pleaded guilty to corruption charges,

A Rhode Island lawmaker is due in court following his second arrest on marijuana possession charges. Court spokesman Craig Berke says an arraignment is set for Thursday for state Rep. Robert Watson.

Lawyers for the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, which won the Cranston High School West prayer case, on Tuesday asked the U.S. District Court to award them $173,000 in fees.

Jessica Ahlquist, an 11th grader at Cranston High School West in Rhode Island, has endured verbal abuse because, as an atheist, she objected to the “School Prayer” that has been on the school’s auditorium wall since 1963.

State police in South Carolina are moving cautiously as they investigate whether new machines showing up in stores and bars are illegal gambling devices.

A newly amended bill that would introduce a “hope card” system related to protection orders in South Dakota is making slow progress in the House.

A measure seeking to ban texting while driving has been rejected by a South Dakota House panel.

A South Dakota House panel is looking at a measure that would ban texting by drivers in most circumstances.

Three key measures in Gov. Bill Haslam’s public safety plan sailed through a subcommittee Wednesday, including unfunded mandates that would force counties to pay to lock up repeat domestic violence offenders.

A state House bill that would allow law enforcement to check someone’s immigration status if pulled over or detained has been put on hold for the moment.

Tennessee counties will be expected to pick up about a $9 million tab for housing domestic abusers under the governor’s plans to punish repeat offenders with mandatory minimum jail sentences.

A lawsuit challenging a state law that invalidated Metro protections for gay and transgendered individuals is facing a dismissal in Davidson County Chancery Court.

A staffing analysis of Bexar County Jail, recently completed by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, supports Sheriff Amadeo Ortiz’s contention that the jail is understaffed, officials said in a news conference Tuesday.

Utah lawmakers are again making noise about taking over federal lands in the state, with one proposal calling for a court battle to control almost all such lands.

A bill would strengthen the state’s law against criminals who would profit from their crimes.

Despite concerns that legislation criminalizing the possession of graffiti tools would infringe on personal liberties, the Senate gave preliminary approval to SB107 Wednesday.

The Virginia House of Delegates on Wednesday passed a repeal of the state’s 18-year-old one-handgun-a-month law before advancing to its final reading a bill that would stop localities from preventing employees from storing lawfully possessed guns and ammunition in locked cars.

Football coaches, day camp counselors, college professors and others who may work with children could be added to the list of people required by law to report suspicions of child abuse, and may also face new criminal penalties for failure to do so, under proposals making headway in the General Assembly.

The Virginia Senate on Wednesday approved a bill that would require a woman seeking an abortion to first have an ultrasound, virtually assuring the measure will become state law.

Rather than wait for a Richmond Circuit Court and a federal court in Alexandria to rule on Democratic challenges to the recently passed GOP-backed congressional redistricting plan, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is taking it straight to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Virginia Supreme Court has denied a petition from Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II seeking to invalidate a lower court’s ruling in a redistricting lawsuit brought against the state.

State lawmakers are exploring a plan that could limit how governments respond to requests for public documents, allowing them to get a court order if they can prove that a request creates a “significant burden.”

Reacting to recent alleged child-abuse cases, including the Penn State scandal, state lawmakers are considering legislation that would expand the pool of people required to report suspected abuse to authorities.

A legal deadline could trump any evidence in deciding the fate of a 55-year-old man whose DNA was recently linked to the 1989 rape of a 12-year-old girl.

Women’s advocates want to expand protective orders to victims of stalking and sexual violence and to make it a crime to prevent a victim from calling 911.