Gov. Robert Bentley called Tuesday night for new economic development legislation and spe­cial tax credits for teachers, while promising to protect Public Safe­ty, the Department of Corrections and the Department of Human Resources from potentially steep cuts in the state’s General Fund.

Opponents of Alabama’s law on illegal immigration are planning a Valentine’s Day demonstration at the Statehouse in Montgomery.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers in the State House vote-buying case this morning quizzed potential jurors about their views on gambling, rich people, lobbyists and witnesses with plea deals.

The Alabama State Bar today called on state lawmakers to fully fund the court system in the budget expected to be approved during the legislative session that begins Tuesday, according to a release.

The first day of jury selection in the State House vote-buying retrial was slow-moving as lawyers quizzed a panel of 27 potential jurors.

Secretary of State Mark Martin, the lone Republican on a panel that redrew legislative districts last year, said today the law firm of a former GOP congressman and gubernatorial candidate will represent him in a lawsuit that contends the new boundaries dilute the black vote in an eastern Arkansas Senate district.

A state senator pleaded no contest today to charges that he fled from a sheriff’s deputy who tried to stop him for speeding.

WASHINGTON – Arizona is one of a handful of states that have not yet agreed to a potential $25 billion mortgage settlement for suffering homeowners, but the state hopes to join soon, officials said.

The House has approved so-called “Caylee’s Law” bill inspired by the Casey Anthony case in Florida.

The state House unanimously approved legislation Monday to require parents to report their missing children despite bipartisan concerns that all it will do is cause problems for unwary adults.

A judge has struck down an Arizona law that increased the amount state employees must contribute toward their pensions as unconstitutional.

Opponents and backers of gay marriage in California are caught in a waiting game. As the battle over California’s Proposition 8 gay-marriage ban continues to make its way through the courts, the state may not have a final verdict until 2013.

Gay marriage already has become an issue in the presidential race. The major Republican candidates, except Ron Paul, have signed a pledge saying they are committed to an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning same-sex marriage.

This nation still has a long way to go to overcome one of the great remaining barriers to full equality and fairness, but a federal appeals court panel brought it a big step closer with a well-grounded ruling on Tuesday striking down a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage in California.

SAN FRANCISCO and LOS ANGELES — A federal appeals court has declared California’s 2008 voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, concluding that the prohibition served no purpose other than to “lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians.”

Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown is far more likely to allow the release of paroled killers from prison than either of California’s two previous governors, newly released records show.

A federal appeals court Tuesday struck down California’s ban on same-sex marriage, clearing the way for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on gay marriage as early as next year.

California Gov. Jerry Brown pardoned 21 people in his first year in office and rejected parole for 71 first- and second-degree murderers who had been recommended for release by the parole board.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has a hard-won reputation for issuing sweeping, precedent-setting and liberal rulings that are often overturned by the more conservative U.S. Supreme Court.

A federal appeals court is expected to decide Tuesday whether California’s ban on same-sex marriage violates the federal Constitution, a ruling that could reach the U.S. Supreme Court next year.

Two of the legislature’s most conservative lawmakers are sponsoring a bill that critics say would criminalize abortion and establish “personhood” status for a fetus.

Probationers in Colorado may not use medical marijuana, even if they have a medical-marijuana identification card authorizing them to do so, the Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled.

Gov. John Hickenlooper appointed Public Defender David Lobato to the Pueblo County bench Tuesday.

Speaker Frank McNulty said he might reinstate a Mesa County lawmaker as chairwoman of a House committee if an ethics panel dismisses a drunken-driving-related complaint against her.

An attorney for majority Democrats in the General Assembly on Monday asked the state Supreme Court to adopt the congressional map recently proposed by a court-appointed special master.

The decision by the Delaware Court of Chancery to establish what some see as a “secret court” for business has set up a showdown between the court, the national media and top business interests.

HIGH POINT, N.C. — Wilmington seems to already have most of the building blocks it needs to deploy the crime-reduction strategy that has helped this city break up open-air drug markets and cut gang violence, officials here told a Delaware delegation Monday. “It may be just a matter of connecting those resources,” said Wilmington Police Chief Michael Szczerba.

A former Fort Lauderdale politician who is the only elected official charged in a major federal public corruption probe of Tallahassee’s “pay-to-play” politics has decided to plead guilty to tax-evasion offenses. Mandy Dawson, who served in the Florida Legislature for 16 years, signaled her intention to change her plea in court papers filed this week.

As state lawmakers consider a massive expansion of prison privatization, one number dominates the debate: 7 percent. That’s how much savings the legislation requires of private prison operators compared to state-run prisons.

Scott Makar, who has been Florida’s lawyer arguing cases before the state and U.S. Supreme Courts for the last few years will join the First District Court of Appeal, Gov. Rick Scott announced Monday. Makar, 52, will replace Paul Hawkes, who resigned in the face of a judicial inquiry into how the court got the funding to build its new courthouse.

Former Broward state Sen. Mandy Dawson plans to plead guilty in a federal case that accuses her of income tax evasion, according to court records filed Monday.

ATLANTA — The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a law aimed at controlling assisted suicide was unconstitutional, a decision that is likely to help shape the national debate over the practice.

The leader of the Senate Republican minority is pushing to reinstate a limited death penalty in Iowa for any adult who kills a minor in the commission of a rape or kidnapping.

Iowa health officials said Monday they are appealing a Polk County court decision that orders the state to list both members of a same-sex marriage as the parents of a child who was born two years ago.

The Idaho Supreme Court’s efforts to repeal obsolete laws offered a trip down memory lane, to the days when passenger trains sped across the Snake River Plain and the telegraph let people quickly communicate over the West’s vast distances.

The Idaho Transportation Department is partnering with the Idaho State Police and other law enforcement agencies across Idaho to make highways safer by funding high visibility seat belt patrols February 7th – February 20th, 2012.

The Idaho Supreme Court will hear arguments in several cases this week, including an appeal in a lawsuit over the death of 100 dairy calves.

A gun-rights group has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal judge in Illinois ruled against allowing people to carry firearms on the street.

The Indiana Supreme Court has turned down a request by Democrats to have convicted Republican Secretary of State Charlie White replaced by their 2010 candidate for that office.

The Indiana attorney general’s office says it will object to a legal move by Democrats to put their 2010 secretary of state candidate in office following Republican Secretary of State Charlie White’s conviction on voter fraud charges.

A federal appeals court last week reinstated a lawsuit charging that the way some Indiana high schools schedule girls and boys basketball games violates federal law, and its outcome could affect public schools well beyond those named.

More sexual, violent and drug offenders will likely be required to register with the state under the current version of amendments to the Kansas Offender Registration Act.

A bill introduced in the Kansas legislature last week would provide further protections for victims of stalking and domestic violence.

Kansans who were denied pardons by Gov. Sam Brownback in 2011 ranged from convicted murderers to alleged traffic law violators.

After several years of budget cuts, Kentucky’s court system is in urgent need of money for upgrades in several areas, including technology, Chief Justice John Minton told a legislative panel Tuesday.

The Kentucky secretary of state was ordered Tuesday not to implement newly redrawn legislative districts because a judge found that they don’t meet constitutional muster.

Gov. Steve Beshear stood shoulder-to-shoulder with legislators from both political parties as well as medical and law enforcement officials and other government leaders Monday to show a united front in support of legislation to fight prescription drug abuse.

Prescription drug abuse deserves the same level of attention in the Kentucky legislature as some other issues that have captured most of the headlines over the past month, Gov. Steve Beshear said Monday.

Kentucky’s filing deadline to run for legislative seats became a moving target again on Monday when a judge did not immediately rule on a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of newly redrawn district boundaries.

Gubernatorial pardons would be abolished if lawmakers approve and voters adopt a proposed change in the state Constitution filed Tuesday by a Louisiana House member from New Orleans.

Disgraced former House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi could testify before a federal grand jury hearing evidence of corruption in the state Probation Department any day now — but his onetime pals on Beacon Hill are said to already be “on pins and needles” waiting for indictments to hit.

Civil rights advocates are fuming over a Beacon Hill lawmaker’s plan to slap a “scarlet letter” G on gang members’ driver’s licenses, claiming the push to mark gangbangers’ IDs tramples on the U.S. Constitution — but one streetworker says Boston’s hoods will just see it as a badge of “honor.”

The state’s anti-hazing law is a toothless tiger with no state oversight that leaves families of tormented kids “in the dark” about how widespread the scourge of sick locker room antics has become, say officials and victims demanding reforms. As lawmakers call on bullying to be tracked statewide, the same is not being proposed for hazing.

Former Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi has been transferred from a federal prison in Kentucky to one in New York City.

Maryland lawmakers want to enable police to pull someone over if they are talking on a handheld cell phone while driving.

Barry H. Landau, the once-esteemed collector of presidential memorabilia, admitted in federal court Tuesday that he stole thousands of documents regarded as cultural treasures from historical societies and libraries in Baltimore and up the East Coast.

Sen. Ulysses Currie (D-Prince George’s) appeared before a Maryland legislative ethics committee for more than four hours Monday, amid signs that the panel is moving toward a recommendation in his case.

A defense lawyer asked a Baltimore judge Monday to throw out election fraud charges against veteran political consultant Julius Henson, arguing that Henson was exercising his right to free speech when he composed a misleading Election Day robo-call.

A proposed bill would enable Mainers who believe a Medicaid provider or recipient is defrauding the program to sue them to recover money for the state and get a cash award from the court for filing the lawsuit.

LUBEC, Maine — Prescription drug abuse and addiction is epidemic, not only in Washington County, but throughout Maine and the country, Maine Attorney General William Schneider said Monday.

Inspired in part by a Dec. 15 courthouse shooting in northern Minnesota, the Legislature is revisiting the state’s right-to-carry laws.

One of the largest companies that provided home foreclosure services to lenders across the nation, DocX, has been indicted on forgery charges by a Missouri grand jury — one of the few criminal actions to follow reports of widespread improprieties against homeowners.

Frances McDonald of Bay St. Louis turned to her elected official when she believed her friend was wrongly convicted of murder.

A state House committee voted Tuesday to push forward a bill that would cut Attorney General Jim Hood’s authority, turning down Hood’s request to speak to the group before it voted.

A state House committee voted Tuesday to push forward a bill that would cut Attorney General Jim Hood’s authority, turning down Hood’s request to speak to the group before it voted.

A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the execution of a Mississippi inmate who killed two men after committing two robberies in 1995.

Montana’s Highway Patrol is boosting the number of troopers assigned to the eastern part of the state to handle growing law enforcement demands created by the region’s oil boom.

Public Service Commissioner Brad Molnar was correctly fined $21,000 for violating ethics laws by using state government equipment for re-election campaign work, a judge said in an order filed Tuesday.

A Helena judge said Monday that Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s vetoes of some local infrastructure spending were unconstitutional.

Two more candidates officially filed Monday to run for attorney general.

Montana’s governor is requesting the extradition of two suspects being held in North Dakota to face charges in the kidnapping of Sidney teacher Sherry Arnold.

Child sexual abuse is one of the few crimes in which the penalty outlives the sentence.

Race may have been an unconscious factor, but it was never a significant one in jury selection, said a former prosecutor testifying at a death row prisoner’s hearing challenging his punishment.

A pair of lawsuits challenging North Carolina’s new Republican-drawn boundaries for congressional and legislative seats can move forward, a three-judge panel said Monday.

People convicted of smuggling cigarettes, money or cellphones to Nebraska inmates would find themselves behind bars for up to a year, under a bill approved by the Legislature.

Representatives of the state’s major hospitals fought a proposal that could pave the way for a for-profit cancer facility to come to the state at a hearing Tuesday that was notable for the absence of the company that was the impetus for the legislation: Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA).

EnCap attorney Eric Wisler paid $8,000 a month to keep former state Sen. Wayne Bryant “in his pocket,” providing public loans and changing state laws for his clients, a government lawyer said Tuesday.

A state appeals court has upheld the authority of the state Election Law Enforcement Commission to enforce New Jersey’s campaign finance laws.

Two Republican senators today criticized the release of confidential questionnaires completed by two state Supreme Court nominees, and called on Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) to investigate the source of the disclosure.

Legislation designed to expand employment opportunities for some ex-convicts in order to aid in their reentry into society was unanimously approved by the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee Monday.

More than four months after an ethics committee cleared Assemblyman Scott Rumana (R-Passaic) of the “appearance of impropriety,” a state Superior Court judge today threw out the decision and left it to the panel to take up again.

After conducting criminal background checks on more than 5,000 school board members and charter school trustees, the state Department of Education today announced it has disqualified 17 people from the volunteer positions because of criminal convictions.

One nominee has logged long hours in the courtroom, and the other has rarely appeared before a judge. One has a $3.5 million real estate portfolio, while the other owns less than $1 million worth of property.

Environmentalists filed a lawsuit Tuesday against wildlife managers over their decision last summer to lift a trapping ban in southwestern New Mexico where the federal government is reintroducing Mexican gray wolves.

The New Mexico Supreme Court on Tuesday waded into a political dispute over legislative redistricting that could influence elections for the coming decade and may help determine whether Republicans can win a majority in the state House of Representatives for the first time in a half century.

Rebeca Ferreira knows firsthand about the isolation of being an immigrant victim of domestic violence, and she knows firsthand how the lack of data about such crimes is handcuffing agencies serving those women.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman abruptly called off a news conference at which he could have provided a crucial endorsement of a proposed settlement with some of the nation’s biggest banks over shoddy foreclosure practices.

A key Republican lawmaker on Monday tore into Gov. Andrew Cuomo administration’s agreement to give employees of the Inspector General’s office access to tax returns of state workers who are under investigation, saying it set a dangerous precedent and could open the door to abuses.

The cost to Ohio for prisoner medical care last year topped $222 million, leading state prison officials to seek ways to bring it down.

Leaders of the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations will not drop a water rights lawsuit they filed against the state of Oklahoma last year until a “reasonable resolution” has been reached.

The state Supreme Court without comment Monday denied hearing a lawsuit that challenged whether a three-member board acted properly in approving a modified settlement of a federal class-action lawsuit that accused the state Department of Human Services of harming children in its foster homes and state shelters.

Gov. John Kitzhaber and legislative leaders are about to try to cage state prison spending, an 800-pound public policy gorilla threatening to stomp through the state budget.

Jim Huffman, the Republican candidate in Oregon’s 2010 U.S. Senate race, has been fined by the Federal Election Commission for campaign finance violations involving $1.3 million that his wife made available to his campaign.

It was dubbed the “flash mob” bill when it got a hearing Monday at the Oregon Legislature — a proposal to make it a felony to summon people by Twitter or email to commit a crime at a designated place.

The Pennsylvania attorney general asked a judge to require that Jerry Sandusky remain inside his home, except to seek medical treatment, as the former Pennsylvania State University football coach awaits trial on child-sex-abuse charges.

In a response to Jerry Sandusky’s request to visit with his grandchildren and travel outside his home while on house arrest and awaiting trial on child sex abuse charges, prosecutors have said that there have been several complaints made against the former Penn State assistant football coach by his neighbors.

Gov. Tom Corbett is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit three Harrisburg community leaders filed in December challenging the state’s right to appoint a receiver for the financially-troubled Capitol city.

State Rep. Bill DeWeese, once one of Pennsylvania’s power-brokers, is headed for what promises to be a very hard fall after his conviction Monday on multiple corruption charges.

State Sen. Jane Orie fabricated claims of animosity between her family and that of Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr., prosecutors contend in a court filing arguing that her attorney should not be allowed to mention the claims at the Republican’s upcoming retrial.

No one is above the law. With Rep. Bill DeWeese’s conviction on Monday, we see yet again an influential state leader’s career ruined as he potentially faces prison time.

For the second year in a row, the state Senate has responded to the public uproar over the potential release, 12 years early, of convicted child killer Michael Woodmansee by approving legislation to disqualify murderers, rapists, child molesters and other violent criminals from early-release from prison for “good behavior.”

Governor Chafee is filing a legal brief with the state Supreme Court in support of Providence’s efforts to overturn a lower court’s ruling preventing the city from moving its retirees into Medicare.

Lawyers on both sides of a legal battle over a prayer banner at Cranston High School West have agreed on conditions for the display while city officials decide whether to appeal an order requiring its removal.

South Carolina’s suit against the Department of Justice over the state’s new voter ID law comes amid a big to-do in the state over whether hundreds of “dead” voters cast ballots in past elections.

Ernest A. Finney Jr., the first African-American chief justice of the SC Supreme Court, will be inducted into the SC Hall of Fame during a Feb. 13 ceremony at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center.

The U.S. Justice Department was wrong to block South Carolina from requiring voters to show government-issued photo identification to vote, the state’s top prosecutor argued in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Thirteen state agencies are trying to keep portions of their budgets secret because, they say, releasing the information could compromise criminal investigations or invade people’s privacy.

South Dakota’s Senate will move a bill to the House that adds a definition of strangulation to the state’s aggravated assault law.

Two proposals in Pierre designed to toughen penalties for impaired drivers who hurt or kill someone in an accident failed in committee Tuesday. South Dakota lawmakers said drunken drivers don’t automatically belong in the same legal category as rapists or robbers

A South Dakota House panel has decided to table a bill that would have created a “hope card” in an effort to expedite the process of checking to see if a protective order is on file.

A House committee on Monday rejected a bill that would have eliminated the time limit for victims of childhood sexual abuse to file civil lawsuits against perpetrators or institutions, despite emotional testimony from victims during a two hour hearing.

A House committee will not push forward a bill that removes time limits on a victim’s ability to open a civil lawsuit against a perpetrator or institution involved in childhood sexual abuse.

A Davidson County grand jury will hear the case against State Rep. Curry Todd who was charged with driving drunk while carrying a loaded handgun and refusing a breath test.

MOUNT PLEASANT, Tenn. — Gov. Bill Haslam’s plan for writing the state’s judicial selection system into the Tennessee Constitution survived a challenge Tuesday from a fellow Republican in the state House.

Tennessee lawmakers moved toward removing the Occupy Nashville encampment from the state Capitol with a pair of votes Tuesday in which they also amped up the threat of jail time.

A federal judge in Nashville has ruled in favor of Tennessee’s Green and Constitution parties’ joint lawsuit which claimed state laws violated the Tennessee constitution by making it unreasonably hard for third parties to get their names on the ballots.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and one of the main plaintiffs’ groups suing the state in a redistricting case agreed to a compromise set of maps Monday, an arrangement that Abbott said should allow for primary elections to take place in April.

A federal court overseeing a Texas redistricting lawsuit rejected a proposal presented Monday, saying the plan did not have the support of all parties involved, a requirement outlined in an earlier order.

The Texas attorney general has reached an agreement with some minority groups on a plan aimed at resolving a stalemate over redistricting and minority representation in the state.

California, New York, Nevada, Florida and Massachusetts are among the states that haven’t signed off on a settlement with banks over foreclosure abuses, according to state officials and two people familiar with the talks. The holdouts include some with the highest rates of foreclosures.

State lawmakers across the U.S. have started 2012 with a controversial message to their judges: keep foreign laws out of our courtrooms.

A proposed mortgage settlement in the works for more than a year will move forward with more than 40 states joining the deal before a Monday deadline, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said in a statement.

The Utah House on Tuesday unanimously passed a measure Tuesday that would allow some people stuck on the sex-offender registry for the least egregious crimes to petition their way off the list.

A Utah lawmaker wants to do away with roadblocks that law enforcement uses to crack down on drunken drivers, saying they are ineffective and infringe on civil liberties.

The state’s highest court is now considering whether a middle school lunch lady accused of having sex with a teen boy should be allowed to waive her right to a jury trial and, despite protest from prosecutors, have her case heard by a judge.

Utah’s Supreme Court on Tuesday considered what it means to “parent” and whether a sperm donor contract is proof that a man wanted to be father, even after his death.

Some pregnant women who are inmates in Virginia’s jails have been forced to go through labor and even delivery in handcuffs and shackles.

The Republican-controlled House of Delegates killed a bill that would have required the state to study ways to limit the use of solitary confinement in state prisons, especially of those who are mentally ill.

On a 21-19 vote, the Virginia Senate passed legislation Monday to allow the purchase of more than one handgun a month, foretelling what is likely to be one of the most significant changes in Virginia’s gun laws in 20 years.

The Virginia Senate on Monday voted to repeal the state’s nearly 20-year-old law limiting handgun purchases to one per month, delivering a long-sought victory to advocates of gun rights and the Second Amendment.

Hundreds of Washington state employees are paid to stay home every year during investigations for possible misbehavior or crimes such as theft or harassing co-workers.

Democratic officials are traveling across the state to talk about the ongoing investigation into former close aides and associates of Gov. Scott Walker when he served as Milwaukee County executive.

A staffer who worked for Gov. Scott Walker when Walker was the Milwaukee County executive is expected to plead guilty to charges of posting pro-Walker messages online on work time.

Democratic officials are traveling across the state to talk about the ongoing investigation into former close aides and associates of Gov. Scott Walker when he served as Milwaukee County executive.

State Sen. Herb Snyder hauled a hefty piece of 1,800-strand copper wire phone cable with him to the Senate chamber on Tuesday.