TALLAHASSEE — Secretary of State Kurt Browning has asked a federal court to approve Florida’s new election law, sidestepping the U.S. Justice Department on the most controversial portions of the voting overhaul approved by the GOP-dominated legislature in May. Critics of the new law say it is designed to make registering to vote and casting [...]

Gov. Rick Perry on June 17 signed into law a new concussion bill that will be known as Natasha’s Law. This bill will help make sure certain athletes of Texas charter and University Interscholastic League schools are fully recovered before returning to the playing field following a concussion. Natasha’s Law is named after Natasha Helmick, [...]

JEFF JACOBY’S assertion in his July 17 op-ed, “How many lawmakers does it take to. . . ,’’ implies that the 2007 federal energy efficiency law will ban incandescent light bulbs. This is actually not the case, and is a common misunderstanding of the legislation. With this law consumers now have more choice than ever [...]

Ten years after Michigan made it much easier for its citizens to get a license to carry a concealed gun, predictions of widespread lawless behavior and bloodshed have failed to materialize. Today, nearly 276,000 — or about four out of every 100 eligible adult Michiganders — are licensed. That’s more than twice the number predicted [...]

With just days until the nation hits its debt limit, rattling the American economy, President Obama is under mounting pressure from some members of his own party to invoke an obscure Civil War-era constitutional provision that they say would allow him to unilaterally raise the debt limit. The notion that the president could cite Section [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Six Ohio law enforcement officers died in the first half of 2011 from injuries suffered in the line of duty amid an increase in such deaths nationwide, according to a tracking group. A police union attributes the increase to downsizing among forces. There were 98 officer deaths nationwide in that period, up [...]

Islamists lobbied for the establishment of Sharia law in Egypt as tens of thousands of demonstrators packed Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday demanding swift reform. Several Islamist political groups arranged transportation for supporters to gain a voice in the formation of a new government. They were largely sidelined during the country’s revolution. Egypt’s leading Islamist [...]

New requirements for women seeking an abortion will soon be in place after Republican state lawmakers successfully defeated a veto issued by Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue. The Senate voted 29-19 in favor of the legislation, which would force women to wait at least 24 hours before getting an abortion and view state-approved materials on abortion [...]

A federal judge has declared Florida’s drug law unconstitutional, potentially throwing thousands of criminal cases into jeopardy. U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven of Orlando issued a ruling Wednesday that struck down the state’s Drug Abuse Prevention and Control law, saying it violates due process because it doesn’t require that prosecutors prove that a person knew [...]

In an eleventh hour appeal for political compromise, President Obama urged Congress today to find a bipartisan solution to avoid default, saying the stalled GOP House bill “has no chance of becoming law.” “The time for putting party first is over. The time for compromise on behalf of the American people is now,” Obama said [...]