• Johnny Melton was successfully sued for nearly $20,000 after a 15-month stint in prison — and forced into a homeless shelter.
• One inmate was sued for nearly $175,000 after he won a $50,000 lawsuit against the state’s corrections department for not appropriately treating his cancer.
• Another inmate was sued for more than $450,000 for his time in prison after serving nearly 20 years.
Funding cuts for mental health care across the country are turning jails into asylums for the mentally ill.
Minimum Wage in Five States Could Look Vastly Different After Election Day
Voters in 42 states on Election Day will decide an assortment of ballot measures, also known as initiatives or issues, that cover various largely polarizing political issues. Voters in five states—Alaska, Arkansas, Illinois, Nebraska, and South Dakota—will decide ballot measures to increase those states’ minimum wage. Each measure would increase the minimum wage above the federally mandated minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, but how far above that threshold and the timeline for the increases vary by state.
Voters Will Decide Minimum Wages in Four States Tuesday
Polls, while not comprehensive, suggest the proposals are likely to pass, even though the four states in question (Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota) are strongly Republican and Republican officials have tended to resist minimum wage increases. There is no recent public polling in Nebraska. In the other three states, a higher minimum wage leads by a wide margin: by 61 percent to 33 percent in Alaska and 68 to 24 in Arkansas, according to September polls from Public Policy Polling, and by 60 to 28 in South Dakota, according to an October SurveyUSA poll.
Senate Democrats have long awaited the 2010 tea party wave to splash back on Republicans during the 2016 election cycle. That moment is almost here.
Political groups that took advantage of loosened campaign-finance rules spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the 2012 U.S. presidential election. This year, they're cropping up in state and local races as well.
If Republicans take back the Senate, Mr. McConnell stands to achieve his dream of becoming majority leader. But first he must defeat a Democratic upstart half his age.
Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn is battling to survive against Bruce Rauner, a wealthy businessman Republicans are banking on to exploit the state's deep economic problems and reputation for cronyism. If he wins, the victory would help complete a near-sweep of the Midwest by the GOP.
There's simply no ad time left in New Hampshire.
Passages of local paper pieces credited to Republican Iowa U.S. Senate candidate Jodi Ernst appear to have been copied word for word from templates sent as guidelines to Republican members of the Iowa Senate.
The final SurveyUSA poll conducted for four Kentucky media outlets shows Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell with a 5-point lead over Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, 48 percent to 43 percent.
A jump in support from independent likely voters in the Florida governor's race leaves Democrat Charlie Crist with 43 percent, inches ahead of Republican incumbent Gov. Rick Scott with 40 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll
Republican Charlie Baker has climbed to a 3-point lead over Democrat Martha Coakley in the race for Massachusetts governor.
With a week to go before Election Day, a poll indicated that the election for New Hampshire governor could be closer than previously thought.
U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, the Republican challenger in the Colorado U.S. Senate race, leads U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, the Democratic incumbent, 46 - 39 percent among likely voters.
Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker leads Democratic challenger Mary Burke 50% to 43% among likely voters in the latest survey by the Marquette University Law School.
Incumbent Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie was soundly defeated in the state's Democratic primary, results showed on Sunday, in an election that came as the state was cleaning up from one powerful storm and preparing for another.
The Democratic Senate primary in Hawaii was too close to call Sunday morning, with the incumbent clinging to a slight lead and residents in a pair of storm-ravaged precincts yet to cast their ballots.
Thousands of miles from the U.S-Mexico border, three Republicans vying for their party's nomination for U.S. Senate in Alaska clashed on immigration Sunday night in a televised debate ahead of the Aug. 19 primary.
As one of the nation's most competitive governor's races picks up, voters in Illinois are hearing a whole lot about a British territory thousands of miles away in the Caribbean.
Looking to make inroads with the rising number of Hispanic voters, conservative activists are offering English classes, health checkups and courses to help Spanish-speakers earn high school diplomas. Picking up part of the tab: Charles and David Koch.
