THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Council of State Governments supports federal government efforts to provide the personnel, assets and other resources needed to lower drug-related violence in Puerto Rico and USVI.

Attendees joined state and federal emergency management and homeland security officials for a discussion on policy and technology developments related to preparing for and ensuring emergency communications to coordinate disaster response.

A significant cyberattack in this country is inevitable, so states should take steps now to mitigate, manage and recover from it. Otherwise, officials will be caught unprepared while still being expected to successfully handle both the attack and its consequences, which could include everything from grounded air transportation to a compromised electrical grid, from faulty water treatment plants to unworkable ATMs. 

Voters in Maryland and Montana will consider very different immigration-related ballot measures when they head to the polls next week. Here’s a look at what the measures would do.

While states have had the authority to license emergency medical services personnel since the 1970s, the EMS industry has changed considerably in recent years.  It is becoming increasingly more common for EMS emergency services personnel to cross state lines to provide services in non-declared states of emergency, meaning in some instances EMS professionals are practicing medicine without a license.  While there have been limited efforts to address the problem—notably border states entering into memorandums of understanding to allow EMS personnel to work across state lines—a more permanent and wide-reaching solution has not been found. One possible way to solve this growing problem may be the formation of an interstate compact, which would allow member states to self-regulate the existing system for licensing EMS personnel.

Viviette Applewhite has voted in every presidential election since she cast her first ballot for John F. Kennedy in 1960.

But the 93-year-old Philadelphia resident’s streak may end this year.

“I’m going to miss this one, though, because I don’t have any ID,” she explained in a video statement aired at a May 1 news conference at the Capitol. That’s because of a new Pennsylvania law that requires her to present photo identification at the polls.

Almost 60 years of federal record-keeping passed before this country reached its highest number of major disaster declarations, 81 in 2010. It took only one more year to shatter that record, with 99 in 2011. State emergency management handled the growing number of events even as the average operating budget slid for the second year in a row. While Congressional scrutiny over federal spending persisted in Washington, D.C., state emergency management showed the initiative and proposed a substantial restructuring of related federal grants, one that promotes flexibility and accountability. The backdrop to all of this is national elections, which can turn every issue—including better preparation for the next disaster in order to save lives and protect property—into a political football.