Nwexx

A collection of signs advertising cash for homes is shown earlier this month at an event in Kansas City, Missouri, celebrating a new state law regulating real estate wholesalers. Critics say these businesses can be predatory, especially for poor, minority and older homeowners. (Photo by Kevin Hardy/Stateline) WE BUY HOUSES. CASH 4 HOMES. FA$T CA$H. The signs, text messages and mailers promise cash, quick sales and a seamless means of unloading unwanted homes.  But advocates say the business of buying homes for cash can confuse vulnerable homeowners and rob them of home equity. And now, many states are cracking down.  Wholesalers often solicit directly, calling or door knocking looking for sales. But they’re best known by the signs lining curbs and utility poles. Real estate wholesaling operates distinctly from the traditional real estate market of listings, showings and agents. Wholesalers look to get unlisted homes under contract at a discount and then sell or assign that contract...

Fourth graders sit at their classroom tables in Oklahoma City. A new government watchdog report raises concerns about oversight of education spending and absenteeism data. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice) The U.S. Department of Education’s suspension this year of a comprehensive monitoring process puts billions of K-12 dollars at heightened risk of undetected waste, fraud and abuse, according to a new report by the nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office. The congressional watchdog’s report also raised concerns about the reliability of federal absenteeism data, noting that absenteeism rates were reported above 100% in some schools. Officials from the Department of Education told GAO the department suspended its consolidated monitoring of Elementary and Secondary Education Act requirements while it develops a new approach. But as of August, the department had not provided a timeline for resuming the reviews or details on an alternative for making sure states co...

A sign outside a hospital's maternal-fetal medicine department sets aside parking for patients. The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine issued guidance earlier this month encouraging physicians who care for high-risk obstetric patients in states with abortion bans to establish systems of care and build agreements between providers and healthcare administrators to provide the highest level of care. (Photo by Kelcie Moseley-Morris/Stateline) As physicians continue to navigate care for patients with complex pregnancies in states with abortion bans, a group of maternal-fetal medicine specialists has developed new guidelines to help providers in those states navigate legal risks for themselves and medical challenges for their high-risk patients.  Maternal-fetal medicine specialists handle some of the most high-risk pregnancies, including patients with high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, fetal anomalies or other complications. In states with abortion bans, those conditions can becom...

Students leave William H. Wells Community High School at the end of the school day in Chicago. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest national survey of high school students focuses on diet, physical activity, sleep, digital behavior and mental health. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) For more than 35 years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has surveyed American high school students every two years about their health and behavior. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, established in 1991, draws a nationally representative sample of students in grades 9 through 12 at public and private schools. Over the years, it has tracked a broad range of issues affecting teenagers, from substance use and sexual behavior to violence, mental health and other health risks. But the CDC’s latest national report, a full-color publication with photos, graphics and high school success stories, offers a markedly different portrait of adolescent health than the one i...

In this 2020 photo illustration, the TikTok app is seen on an Apple iPhone. The company and Alabama settled a lawsuit on Friday that requires the company to prevent children from having access to its site in the evenings starting at midnight. (Photo Illustration by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) The Alabama Attorney General’s Office and TikTok Friday reached a settlement over a state lawsuit that alleged the social media platform addicted children and lied about the safety of its platform. The settlement, coming about a month after the social media platform settled a similar lawsuit with the federal government, requires TikTok to install features that prevent teens from accessing the platform from midnight to 6 a.m. The agreement also requires TikTok to pay $116 million in restitution to the state and establish a $183 million fund for contingency payments, to be released depending on whether other states enter settlement agreements. The consent decree, issued by Montgomery Circuit Judge ...

Police officers exit a polling station in New York City. Voters in nine states will decide on 11 ballot measures this fall addressing a variety of criminal justice and drug policies. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Voters in nine states will weigh changes to their criminal legal systems and drug policies this fall. The Nov. 3 ballot measures include questions about pretrial release, fentanyl and human trafficking penalties, immigration enforcement, traffic cameras, drug cartels and marijuana regulation. The measures reflect a recent increase in ballot proposals that would expand criminal penalties or limit opportunities for pretrial release, according to Ballotpedia, a nonpartisan election research organization. From 2012 through 2020, measures proposing to reduce penalties or bail restrictions outnumbered those proposing increases, 11 to five.  Since 2022, all 16 statewide measures in those categories have moved in a more punitive direction, according to Ballotpedia’s analysis...