It has taken nearly a decade for St. Louis’ Civilian Oversight Board to find the footing needed to effectively investigate ...

A Democratic candidate who railed against Elon Musk and his spending cuts flipped an ancestrally Republican district in ...

Update (March 29): Louisianans on March 29 rejected Amendment 3, the measure that would have paved the way for more children to be moved to adult criminal courts, by a large margin of 66 to 34 percent ...

The decision by Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs to resume capital punishment aligns with a larger trend of death penalty states hiding key details about executions.

Faced with popular initiatives to protect abortion rights and other measures they dislike, state Republicans are passing new bills that local advocates say will hollow out direct democracy. Organizers ...

Prisons across the United States run on incarcerated labor. People behind bars cook food, sew clothes, clean facilities, manufacture goods, and even work in dangerous industries like agriculture and ...

Editor’s note: The Utah governor signed House Bill 300 into law on March 26. An old-fashioned, four-legged polling booth is on display in the lobby of the Salt Lake County clerk’s office. Its metal ...

In the early evening on Feb. 19, two Chicago police officers arrested a 40-year-old man in the Englewood neighborhood. According to their report, the officers cited an odor of “raw cannabis emitting ...

Bolts is a digital publication that covers the nuts and bolts of power and political change. We are focused on two areas where local governments play an outsized role: criminal justice and voting ...