What We're Reading: Top State Stories 5/3
US: Migrant children kept from enrolling in school
Hundreds of unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in 14 states have been discouraged from enrolling in schools or pressured into what advocates and attorneys argue are separate but unequal alternative programs — essentially an academic dead end, and one that can violate federal law.
CO: Colorado Supreme Court rules state law trumps local bans on fracking
The Colorado Supreme Court blocked a push by two cities to limit oil and gas development near people, ruling state power to promote industry trumps local bans.
ND: Outgoing North Dakota governor to request reduced budgets
For the first time since 2002, North Dakota’s governor will ask state agencies to propose smaller budgets for the next biennium as uncertainty looms over how soon the oil and farm sectors that drive the state’s economy and tax revenues will rebound.
KS: Kansas Legislature votes to let public employees carry concealed weapons
Lawmakers sent Republican Gov. Sam Brownback a bill that says Kansas’ cities and counties cannot forbid their employees from carrying concealed weapons while on duty out in their communities. The bill also says school districts must open school grounds to air rifle clubs.
AK: Another health insurance provider leaves Alaska exchange
Modal Health will leave Alaska's individual health insurance marketplace in 2017, leaving 14,000 customers in the lurch. In 2017, Premera Blue Cross will be the only company serving the individual market.
SD: South Dakota wrongly puts thousands in nursing homes, U.S. Justice Department says
The U.S. Justice Department said thousands of South Dakota patients with serious but manageable disabilities such as severe diabetes, blindness or mental illness were being held unnecessarily in sterile, highly restrictive group homes.
GA: Georgia budget with raises for 200,000 teachers and workers gets governor’s OK
Republican Gov. Nathan Deal signed a $23.7 billion budget that includes money to give 200,000 Georgia teachers and state employees their first substantial raises since the Great Recession.
TX: Texas, feds agree to renew short-term Medicaid funds
The Obama administration has agreed to temporarily keep some federal Medicaid money flowing into Texas to help hospitals treat uninsured patients, a relief to health care providers that feared losing the funds over state leaders' refusal to provide health insurance to low-income adults.
TN: Tennessee governor allows guns on campus bill to become law
The bill, which Republican Gov. Bill Haslam said he would allow to become law without his signature, allows full-time faculty, staff and other employees of Tennessee's public colleges and universities who have handgun-carry permits to carry their guns on campus.
AL: U.S. Supreme Court rejects appeal over long hair in Alabama prisons
The justices let stand an appeals court ruling that said Alabama’s prison system could keep in place its policy that requires male inmates to cut their hair short.
