Wisconsin is now expected to have $1.5 billion more in surplus after its current budget cycle ends on June 30, 2027, after new estimates were announced by the state’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau. That would mean the state would have $2.3 billion in surplus, lower than the $4 billion heading into this budget but well above the $800 million surplus that was previously projected. The group said that the surplus would be the result of nearly $1.4 billion in increased tax collections and $104 million in additional departmental non-tax revenues. Both…
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There’s a lot happening in New York health right now — from universal child care plans and the New York City nurses’ strike to rising health care premiums and continued flu. Let’s jump right in. Last week, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a joint plan to bring truly universal child care to New York City and extend it across the state. Why this matters Access to high-quality child care has been shown to benefit children’s and parents’ health and well-being: It’s important to note that the quality…
Colorado Democrats plan to file legislation this session that would ask voters for permission to raise the state spending cap by billions while also increasing funding for education. The idea, brought to lawmakers by the Colorado Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, is the most recent proposal to retool the state’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights. TABOR, as it’s known, limits the state’s revenue growth, making it hard to spend more money on schools and other priorities. CEA President Kevin Vick said the measure would be placed on the 2026…
Democrats shoot for the stars Defense is the main goal for congressional Democrats in Ohio this year. But they’re trying to make the case that they’re also going on offense. This week, two Democrats formally launched their campaigns in Republican-held territory: Kristina Knickerbocker in Ohio’s 10th Congressional District and Brian Poindexter in the 7th District. The campaign behind Knickerbocker, a first-time candidate, stands out as a potential measure of how far Democrats can stretch the political battlefield this year. The district is on the outer bounds of what’s really competitive,…
States are passing laws to prevent artificially intelligent chatbots, such as ChatGPT, from being able to offer mental health advice to young users, following a trend of people harming themselves after seeking therapy from the AI programs. Chatbots might be able to offer resources, direct users to mental health practitioners or suggest coping strategies. But many mental health experts say that’s a fine line to walk, as vulnerable users in dire situations require care from a professional, someone who must adhere to laws and regulations around their practice. “I have…
Shanghai ranked first nationwide in overall science and technology innovation performance, according to the China Regional Science and Technology Innovation Evaluation Report 2025. The top ranking reflects the steady strengthening of Shanghai’s innovation ecosystem in recent years, underpinned by sustained increases in funding. From 2022 to 2025, the city’s fiscal spending on science and technology grew at an average annual rate of more than 20 percent, while investment in basic research increased by 85 percent. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), R&D expenditure as a share of GDP rose to around 4.5…
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday morning to send the military into Minnesota to stop protests, following another shooting by immigration agents that injured one person, seven days after an agent fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis. Writing on his own social media platform, Trump said he would invoke the Insurrection Act, a 19th-century law empowering the government to deploy the military domestically to “repress insurrections and repel invasions.” “If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking…
In a massive win for Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Florida Supreme Court Thursday ended its reliance on the agency in charge of accrediting law schools. This ends Florida’s more than three-decade dependence on the American Bar Association, the state’s sole accrediting body. Because the ABA does not serve Floridians’ “best interest,” five of six justice agreed, Florida will reach out to alternative accreditors, effective Oct. 1. This comes just one day after DeSantis bashed the ABA as a left-wing organization undeserving of being the “arbiter of legal education,” and months…
Maj. Gen. Stephen Osborn, the adjutant general of the Iowa National Guard, began his 2026 Condition of the Guard address Thursday by honoring the loss of two Iowa National Guard service members. Osborn’s remarks come just over a month after Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard of Marshalltown and Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar of Des Moines, were killed in Palmyra, Syria, during an attack by a lone gunman associated with ISIS. Three other Iowa National Guard members were injured, and another U.S. civilian was killed in the Dec. 13, 2025 attack. “We…
A new poll of Texas’ Senate primaries shows state Rep. James Talarico leading U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett by 9 percentage points among likely Democratic voters, marking a significant shift from a December survey that found Crockett leading by a similar margin. In a sample of 413 statewide voters conducted earlier this week, Talarico, D-Austin, led Crockett, D-Dallas, with 47% to 38%. Another 15% were undecided ahead of the March 3 primary. The poll, conducted by Emerson College, comes about a month after a Texas Southern University survey found Crockett leading…