Michael Corkery

Officials say the state’s improved electric infrastructure can withstand surging demand, but they’re asking Texans to limit energy use.

Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, hopes to counter homelessness, crime and widespread public use of fentanyl that she says threatens the state’s largest city.

Even in liberal San Francisco, the district attorney is preparing to investigate fentanyl deaths as homicides. Defense lawyers call the prosecutions misguided.

Clearing the debris from the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge will be a complex but urgent task, officials said. And rebuilding it may take several years, they cautioned.

Officials are moving to increase enforcement and change laws in response to the rise in counterfeit or expired plates, which exploded during the pandemic.

A longstanding practice of using a child’s federal survivor and disability benefits to defray the cost of foster care is under scrutiny in Congress and statehouses.

Montana’s suicide rate has been the highest in the U.S. for the past three years. Most of the deaths involved firearms. But suicide rarely registers in the national debate over guns.

With heat indexes forecast to reach 110 degrees in western Pennsylvania, about 6,700 people were still without power after damaging wind and rain storms earlier this week.

Across the country, copper and other valuable materials have been stolen from streetlights, statues and even gravesites, costing millions to repair.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s declaration urging cities to clear homeless camps met its strongest opposition in Los Angeles.