Morgantown, West Virginia votes 5-2 to ban hostile architecture, the spikes and divided benches designed to keep homeless people from resting in public.
Two Ohio cities approve pairing a licensed social worker with police and firefighters on mental health, addiction, and homelessness calls.
New York Mayor Mamdani orders businesses to make subscription cancellations as easy as signups, reviving the federal rule courts blocked under Trump.
Hoboken deploys robots to survey sidewalks, curb ramps, and crosswalks for accessibility barriers as the city extends nine straight years without a traffic death.
Baltimore sends city crews into every council district for 24 weeks of street sweeping, pothole repair, graffiti removal, and rodent control.
Minnesota begins distributing $40 million in rental aid to 11,000 residents after Operation Metro Surge detentions cost immigrant families jobs and breadwinners.
New York City’s new budget funds pet food pantries and free spay and neuter services for the first time, aiming to keep pets out of shelters.
Albuquerque opens bidding for 40 to 100 affordable rental homes on a former Shriners property just three months after starting acquisition talks.
Sacramento County’s Bradshaw Animal Shelter hosts its sixth annual comfort sessions, inviting volunteers to soothe pets as July 4 fireworks boom overhead.
Tacoma begins offering expedited permits and waived fees to builders who have structures assessed for reusable materials before demolition.
New Jersey begins enforcing fines up to $25,000 against group homes that abuse or neglect residents with disabilities, with penalties funding quality improvements.
Washington begins paying benefits under the nation’s first public long-term care insurance program, offering workers up to $36,500 for in-home care and equipment.
California becomes the first state to ban “sell by” food labels, requiring standardized dates aimed at the 6 million tons of unexpired food tossed yearly.
New York City will open a $1,000 college savings account for every public school kindergartner, the largest universal program of its kind in the country.
Pennsylvania’s House votes 197-5 in rare bipartisan agreement to repeal data center tax breaks for Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet, ending a five-year giveaway.
Arizona builds its 27th wildlife crossing over Interstate 17, part of a network the state credits with cutting wildlife collisions 90%.
Chicago builds the nation’s largest community air-monitoring network, 277 sensors citywide, under a 2023 settlement of a civil rights complaint over a polluting scrap shredder.
New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board freezes rents on roughly one million stabilized apartments, the first freeze since 2020 and delivering on a central Mamdani campaign promise.
Des Moines approves a 20-year lease and zoning permit for a tiny-home village offering 50 chronically homeless residents permanent housing at $300 a month with on-site healthcare.
Michigan erases more than $74 million in medical debt for nearly 72,000 residents through a state partnership with the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt.
The Senate passes a bipartisan housing affordability bill 85 to 5, restricting large companies from buying single-family homes and waiving some environmental reviews for new construction.
Seattle commits $8 million to keep about 1,000 households a year in their homes, funding rental aid and eviction defense before residents fall into homelessness.
Chicago votes to buy and renovate its Greyhound bus terminal, saving the hub for 450,000 yearly riders from possible demolition.
Oregon Governor Kotek signs a law guaranteeing every child under 5 a free monthly book, codifying the Dolly Parton Imagination Library statewide as the state fights some of the nation’s lowest reading scores.
Vermont passes a 2028 data privacy law letting residents see, correct, and delete what companies hold on them, and banning health-data geofencing near clinics.
Massachusetts commits $1 million to help at least 20 towns and school districts fix cybersecurity holes the state’s own free assessments uncovered.
Two rural Tennessee communities pause data center development to write grid, water, and pollution rules first, after the industry targeted them expecting little local resistance.
Texas launches accessible website components for state agencies, fulfilling a 2025 law to make digital services usable for Texans of all abilities.
New York breaks ground on a subway extension to East Harlem after the Trump administration released the federal funding it had withheld for a year.
