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The Court is moving toward verifying a doctrine that gives state legislatures near-unilateral authority over election laws.

New York’s prison agency is interpreting key provisions of a landmark parole reform law to keep more people locked up. A lead sponsor of the legislation calls it ‘appalling.’

by Eli Hager

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week.

Across the Southwest, states are reconsidering how they approach welfare, with several legislatures enacting or considering new laws to ensure that more assistance is made available to low-income families struggling to afford rent, child care, groceries and diapers. The moves follow months of ProPublica reporting on punitive and outdated welfare policies in this part of the country and come amid a yearslong surge in the region’s cost of living.

In New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Wednesday signed into law a budget that will allow an estimated $6.96 million in child support to go directly to children instead of to the government. Until now, the state had intercepted these dollars as reimbursement for the custodial parent previously having received welfare, as ProPublica reported in September.

All of that money will now go to kids in poverty.

In Arizona, lawmakers introduced a bill in February that would, among other provisions, increase the amount of cash assistance available to poor parents and keep adjusting it for inflation going forward. The legislation would also extend the limit — currently the shortest in the nation — on the number of months that these families can receive aid.

Advocates said the potential reforms were directly informed by ProPublica’s reporting on a mom in Phoenix named Arianna Bermudez who was cut off from welfare assistance that she desperately needed to be able to afford child care — only to have welfare funding instead be used to help pay for an investigation of her parenting. (Her son was removed from her care for more than six months, even though she was not accused of of child abuse or neglect.)

And in Colorado, a bill was introduced late last month that would make several similar changes, including removing restrictive barriers to accessing cash aid and increasing monthly payments, in part to reflect how rents and prices have been increasing in that state, as they have been around the Southwest.

The New Mexico policy shift is the most dramatic one, and it has been in the works since last year. Making sure that the child support is actually going to children is an administration initiative, according to Nora Meyers Sackett, the governor’s press secretary.

ProPublica’s investigation of this issue found that single mothers applying for public assistance in New Mexico, which has one of the highest child-poverty rates in the U.S., first have to reveal under penalty of perjury who fathered their kids and the exact date when they got pregnant, among other deeply personal details. The state then uses that information to pursue child support from the dads — and pockets much of the money it collects, sharing a large portion with the federal government.

The 1996 welfare reform law signed by then-President Bill Clinton encouraged states to recoup money spent on public assistance in this way, and most states still do it.

It may take several months for the change to take effect, likely until July, according to Jodi McGinnis Porter, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Human Services Department. The fixes that still need to be made, she said, include updates to the state child support computer system and informing the federal government that the new policy is in place.

Arizona, for its part, has been a national outlier in its punitive approach to applicants for public assistance. Only 6% of families in poverty in the state are able to access cash aid, and if they do get help, the amount — $278 a month for a family of three — is one of the lowest in the country.

That’s partly because, during the Great Recession over a decade ago, Arizona started redirecting the majority of its welfare funding to its Department of Child Safety, which investigates parents and in many cases removes their children. Often those under investigation are poor and could have better supported their kids if provided cash assistance.

But the new legislation, which would aim to increase benefits back to pre-Recession levels, is unlikely to pass the Republican-led, fiscally conservative state Legislature. No lawmakers have explicitly come out against the bill yet, but in the past, efforts to expand government programs for the poor have routinely failed in Arizona.

Meanwhile, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox was asked at a December news conference about the restrictive welfare policies that ProPublica investigated in his state. Our reporting found that the Utah Department of Workforce Services has an agreement with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to count a percentage of the church’s charitable work as the state’s own welfare spending, as a way of spending less state money on public assistance.

The department does not appear to have proposed any changes to that policy and did not respond to a request for comment.

About 1-2 inches of snow is forecast to fall in the St. Louis area before noon Friday, the National Weather Service said. Springlike temps will follow on Sunday.

A couple of months ago I replaced my Surface Pro 7 with a Surface Pro 8. Hope springs eternal, after all. But it's turned out to be a waste of money: As near as I can tell, performance is about the same as the 7. The bezel-less screen probably seemed like a good idea to ...continue reading "A progress report on the Surface Pro 8 tablet"

Listen to an episode about Miriam Coste Senseney on our Here’s History podcast with KDHX. Do you have a 5-second rule in your house? That when you drop food on the floor, you can pick it up and eat it if it’s within 5 seconds? What about expiration dates? Will you drink milk after it’s …

Continue reading "St. Louis’s Food Safety Crusader"

The law would allow citizens to get issues placed on a school board agenda under certain conditions.

The proposal also would remove the prohibition on the carrying of firearms in churches and other places of worship by a person with a valid concealed carry permit.

Sarah Heyen of Wilsonville, IL joined the Real Rock Army today

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Repair work is underway right now in Maryland Heights after a force main break.

The man told police he had just been robbed and shot by two men who drove off in a black Chevrolet Impala.

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. -- Gavin Alfred has been a St. Louis firefighter for three years. He was working on a medic unit Wednesday when he requested to leave work because his own apartment unit was on fire. The two-alarm fire was at the Laurel Park Apartments on Jacobi Avenue in north St. Louis County.

Thursday kicks off a series of events in honor of 314 Day, which organizers say gets bigger and better each year.

ALTON - Daniel Strohbeck of Case Management is Alton Memorial Hospital’s Employee of the Month for March. He was presented with the honor March 9 by AMH President Dave Braasch and his manager, Meredith Parker. The nominations said that “Daniel is an inspiration to me. Every day he comes to the campus of Alton Memorial Hospital to work and does not complain. Each morning he flies through the halls in his electric wheelchair while he greets people on the go. He has an attitude ready to tackle each problem tenaciously. He is compassionate, respectful, and cares about each of his patients. "He desires for each of them to have a safe discharge plan and assists them as needed. He communicates with each patient and/or family, case managers, and doctors in order to help each patient obtain their goals. His hard work and commitment does not go unnoticed!” Congratulations, Daniel!"

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"I put my life on the line over there for one year. He's had his life on the line ever since he started helping the US."

We now know what led up to the shocking story of a toddler who wandered alone out of his Belleville daycare.

GODFREY - Lewis and Clark Community College students and team members showed their support of Ukraine during the Rally for Ukraine: Standing for Peace event Wednesday in The Grove on the college’s Godfrey Campus. After an introduction by President Ken Trzaska, Political Science Adjunct Mario Love spoke about the situation facing the Ukrainian people. Students were given the chance to express their thoughts on the situation. The rally was hosted by Trailblazers Give Back and L&C Student Activities. For more information on Trailblazers Give Back, contact (618) 468-4730 or abunjan@lc.edu. Learn more about L&C Student Activities by contacting (618) 468-6400 or jhenning@lc.edu. Photo by Jan Dona, L&C Marketing/PR

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A decade ago, we discussed how the pressure brought against Russia to more greatly enforce copyright laws was a mistake. A mistake mostly because of how Russia would choose to enforce those laws, namely by applying them only against critics of the state or undesirables, whether actual infringement was occurring or not. While Russia’s misuse […]