Five years from now, New Jersey residents getting a driver's license will be required to consider becoming organ donors, under a law signed yesterday by acting Gov. Richard Codey. The law, known as the NJ Hero Act, also makes New Jersey the first state in the country to incorporate organ donation education into the high school curriculum, beginning in the 2009-2010 school year.

Attempts to publicly fund certain legislative campaigns next year were dealt a blow Tuesday by a legal opinion that says components of the program are likely unconstitutional.

Rutgers University made a secret deal allowing the head football coach to walk away from his contract without penalty if it did not complete a major expansion of its football stadium by 2009.

More than 300 workers could lose their jobs at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey as part of an effort to plug a $49 million hole in next year's budget, the university's president said.

There were cuts all around, yet New Jersey's arts leaders celebrated yesterday when the state Council on the Arts awarded $18.7 million to the state's theaters, museums and dance troupes. It could have been much worse.

WOODBRIDGE, N.J. -- Look for more yellow construction equipment working on the Garden State Parkway after New Jersey Turnpike Authority officials approved a total of $29.18 million for four construction and design projects Tuesday, including $5 million for emergency replacement of the Lacey Road overpass, damaged by a too-tall truck last month. The authority's board of commissioners approved the $5 million emergency contract with George Harms Construction Co., which began work on the site one day after the accident to allow Lacey Road to be reopened to traffic. The company is prequalified to do such emergency work. "You'll notice today that all the steel is gone," said Richard

WOODBRIDGE, N.J. -- The people who collect your quarters and dollar bills on the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike will receive wage increases up to 3.5 percent under new four contracts approved on Tuesday with two unions.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine raised more than $112,000 from others this year for his 2009 reelection campaign, but not much of that has come from New Jersey, according to campaign finance reports released Tuesday.

Democrat Barack Obama holds a commanding 14-point lead over Republican John McCain in New Jersey, but more than half of likely voters say they are "not comfortable" with views expressed by religious leaders who have been close to Obama.

People who feel they were wrongly denied documents they requested under New Jersey's Open Public Records Act must act quickly if they want to use the courts to force governments to release them, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

Attorney General Anne Milgram yesterday urged internet service providers to "take the next step" in fighting child pornography by blocking access to websites that offer it.

FREEHOLD, N.J. -- A Burlington County man whose sexual assault of a 12-year-old boy in a restroom at the Garden State Parkway's Monmouth Service Area sparked a drive for tougher laws was handed a seven-year prison sentence Friday.

A Newark man who the State Police say rammed his head through the window of a troop car after being arrested last week for walking along Route 287 died yesterday at Morristown Memorial Hospital.

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency told the Bush administration that by law California should be able to set air-quality standards tougher than federal law, but President Bush rejected the advice and made clear he wanted a single national standard, a former EPA official said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON -- The White House said Wednesday that President George W. Bush has dropped his opposition to the housing package. House and Senate leaders have largely hammered out a compromise deal on a mammoth package that would permit the government to bolster Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in an emergency, overhaul supervision of the housing-finance giants and allow the government to insure up to $300 billion in refinanced mortgages.

The hundreds of thousands of fight videos online, running the gamut from fake fights to bullying to gang warfare, have parents, educators, and lawmakers around the world grasping for solutions. They want popular social-networking websites to do more to block or remove such content.

Speculation is swirling that presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain is about to name his choice for vice president - and that choice may well be Mitt Romney.

Drivers are buying less gasoline, draining the federal Highway Trust Fund and jeopardizing thousands of major road and transit projects around the country.

As state lawmakers gather in New Orleans this week for a policy conference, they’ll be reminded often of what can  happen if public works are allowed to deteriorate.

AMBER Alerts have become less frequent, and state officials say that's not a bad thing.

The mosaic of laws passed by state legislatures this year reveals a country grappling with threats, from a faltering economy and record-high gasoline prices to global warming and lead-tainted toys from China.

Despite a tough economic year, several states are attempting to hold the line on college tuition — or at least not let increases get out of control — by avoiding deep cuts to higher education, an area that states have been quick to slash in past years when funds were low.

PHILADELPHIA — Improving the nation’s crumbling bridges, roads and sewage systems is a $1.6 trillion problem that governors intend to explore in the next year.

While 70 current and former governors hobnob and reminisce in Philadelphia July 11-14 during the National Governors Association's 100th anniversary celebration, the sitting governors also plan to strategize on how to influence the next president on policies ranging from energy to health care.

At a time when the presidential candidates are feverishly trying to flip red and blue states, a group of governors is finding that switching a state’s partisan leaning is no easy matter.

(Updated 5:38 p.m. EDT, July 17, 2008)

For many states, 2008 will be remembered for record numbers of home foreclosures, $4-a-gallon gasoline and the beginning of a slide into new fiscal woes after two years of overflowing coffers.

Stateline.org’s annual state-by-state look at legislative accomplishments, covering 39 states so far, discerns the trends and precedents emerging from state capitals this year.

(Updated 2:26 p.m. EDT, July 18, 2008)

Here’s Stateline.org's state-by-state rundown of significant legislative action in 2008.

Finally, the last primary votes have been cast, and Barack Obama and John McCain are jousting with each other. But even as Obama opens up double-digit leads in two national polls, the election is still poised to be decided in a half-dozen toss-up states.

High turnout among African-Americans and younger voters could reshape the Southern political landscape this fall. But Democrats may find gains in statewide contests thwarted by bad timing and a potential conservative backlash.

(Updated 5 p.m EDT, June 12, 2008)
The California Supreme Court reignited a political wildfire with its ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in the most populous state in the union, but the issue already has burned out in more than half the states.

After a pair of hard-fought primaries, North Carolina joins Missouri, Washington and Indiana on Out There's list of states where partisan control of the governorship could flip this fall.

The national polls point to a tight presidential race in November. But Democrats have a bit more to cheer about than Republicans do, regardless of who wins the Democratic primary, according to the latest state-by-state electoral-vote projections by “Out There.”