Californians voters going to the polls in November will again decide the fate of the death penalty.

Gov. Brian Sandoval and Internet sales giant Amazon announced an agreement Monday to allow the state to start collecting sales taxes on the company's Internet sales to Nevada customers beginning in 2014.

Gov. Chris Gregoire signed more than $1 billion in public works spending into law Monday, including money to refurbish state-run living quarters for the developmentally disabled that the governor had planned to veto until the last minute.

As Detroit heads into a state-enforced restructuring under the oversight of a financial-advisory board, the Cobo Center's turnaround offers an example of what can happen when the city collaborates with regional and state officials.

GLASGOW, Mont. — As the Bakken oil boom and its accompanying population influx and crime problem makes its way into Montana from North Dakota, learning from the state's neighbors to the east could help lessen the blow, law enforcement experts said Monday.

Maryland is set to become the first state with a tool to prevent children's identity theft.

Sporting a tan, lighter (but not gray) hair and five pounds more muscle, Rod Blagojevich hasn't found prison too cruel, his onetime lawyer says.

Senate Democrats are making plans to force a floor vote on legislation that would invalidate Arizona's controversial immigration statute if the Supreme Court upholds the law this summer.

MetLife Inc, the largest life insurer in the United States, will pay nearly $500 million to settle a multistate investigation into unpaid claims for dead policy holders, state regulators and the company said on Monday.

The Cuomo administration is strongly considering relinquishing some of the state's oversight and monitoring responsibilities over vulnerable populations, and giving that power to a nonprofit advocacy group, a top administration official said Monday.

SAN DIEGO — There are accusations of conspiracies, illegal secret meetings and double-dealing. Embarrassing documents and e-mails have been posted on an official Web site emblazoned with the words "Fact vs. Fiction." Animosities have grown so deep that the players have resorted to exchanging lengthy, caustic letters, packed with charges of lying and distortion. And it's all about water.

A state proposal to ban civil unions and domestic partnerships is roiling North Carolina, but the president is not expected to touch the subject when he appears in Chapel Hill as part of a two-day campaign trip to build support among young voters.

When Paul Clement walks into the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday he's going to try to convince at least five justices that Arizona has an inherent right to enforce federal immigration laws.

In a landmark ruling, a North Carolina judge on Friday vacated the death penalty of a black man convicted of murder, saying prosecutors across the state had engaged in deliberate and systematic racial discrimination when striking black potential jurors in death penalty cases.

New Jersey has dropped out of a lawsuit challenging the White House decision to bypass strict ozone standards that the EPA had recommended as necessary to protect human health.

Nebraska will not surrender its supply of a controversial execution drug to the Food and Drug Administration because it believes the court order requiring it to do so is flawed, the state Attorney General's office indicated in a letter to the federal agency Friday.

As a legislator, attorney general and governor, Robert F. McDonnell has said he opposes abortion in all but one instance: if continuing the pregnancy would put the woman's life in danger. But McDonnell, a possible vice presidential candidate, recently said through his spokesman that he would also allow it in cases of rape or incest.

Planned Parenthood ended nonsurgical abortions at its Wisconsin clinics Friday because of a new state law that subjects doctors who perform abortions but don't follow certain procedures to criminal penalties.

Florida's top two foreign trading partners and the Florida Chamber of Commerce are sounding alarms about a new state law banning governments from hiring companies with business ties to Cuba.