Minnesota House approves same-sex marriage
The Minnesota House of Representatives on Thursday voted to permit same-sex marriage, clearing the way to add Minnesota to a string of states that have recently made it legal for gay and lesbian couples to wed.
Illinois sets election to replace Jesse L. Jackson Jr.
CHICAGO — A special primary election to replace Jesse L. Jackson Jr. in Congress will be held in February, Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois announced Monday, as numerous potential candidates were already floating their names in public, calling leaders in search of financial and political backing, and sizing up the competition.
Opponents of Wisconsin governor deliver recall petitions
Critics of Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin submitted to the state on Tuesday more than 1 million signatures, nearly twice as many as required, on recall petitions against Walker to force a new election.
Tensions in Iowa town at the heart of the eggs recall
CLARION, Iowa — The conversation at the weekly gathering of local ladies at a coffee shop here turned uncharacteristically tense.
As states shrink budgets, concern over trimming prison populations
In the rush to save money in grim budgetary times, states nationwide have trimmed their prison populations by expanding parole programs and early releases. But the result — more convicted felons on the streets, not behind bars — has unleashed a backlash, and state officials now find themselves trying to maneuver between saving money and maintaining the public’s sense of safety.
An Abortion Provider’s Killing Sways a Colleague to Step In
The national battle over abortion, for decades firmly planted outside the Kansas clinic of Dr. George R. Tiller, has erupted here in suburban Omaha, where a longtime colleague has taken up the cause of late-term abortions.
Revelations by Senator from Illinois Cause Concern
Several Democratic lawmakers from Illinois said Monday that they were troubled by revelations about Roland W. Burris, the state’s newest senator and a fellow Democrat. And at least one called for Burris to come before the state Legislature and explain himself.
For Controversial Detroit Mayor, This Crime May Be Too Much to Forgive
This city has forgiven Kwame M. Kilpatrick, its towering, charismatic, next-generation mayor, before.
Ex-Northern Illinois University Student Slays Five Students, Wounds 16 Others
With minutes left in a class in ocean sciences at Northern Illinois University on Thursday afternoon, a tall skinny man dressed in black stepped out from behind a curtain on the stage of the lecture hall, said nothing, and opened fire with a shotgun, the authorities and witnesses said.
Campus Birth Control Expenditures Increase
In health centers at hundreds of colleges and universities around the country, young women are paying sharply higher prices for prescription contraceptives because of a change in federal law.