Politics: Member Stations

Shop around. That's the advice of health insurance navigators for people seeking health policies on the Affordable Care Act's state and federal exchanges. Premiums have climbed but so have subsidies.

Alabama's political history is littered with episodes mixing sex and power in unseemly ways. A former governor, "Big Jim" Folsom, claimed he had kissed "50,000 of the sweetest mouths in Dixie."

As the country's political gaps widen, the organization Better Angels hopes to close them with group counseling techniques.

An area sacred to the Blackfeet tribe could become a national monument in the home state of Donald Trump's secretary of the interior.

It's the first state to try the method on a statewide basis. The audits involve a ten-sided die, a software algorithm and the assumption that "the reported winner didn't really win."

The Democratic senator from New Jersey had been accused of offering government favors in exchange for extravagant gifts.

Medical debt is down across the country. In states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, the reduction is sharper.

The state of Maine has wrestled for years over whether expanding its low-income health insurance program would help more people or be a budget buster. Now they're going to take it to a vote.

At stake is control of the Washington state Senate, where the GOP holds a one-seat majority. It's currently the only Republican-held legislative chamber on the West Coast.

The Justice Department alleges Sen. Bob Menendez accepted gifts from a friend including flights, trips to France and the Dominican Republic, and large political contributions.

In the two states electing new governors this year, New Jersey and Virginia, once-moderate Republicans are running attack ads painting their Democratic opponents as weak on illegal immigration.

States aren't getting nearly as much federal money this year to explain and campaign for Affordable Care Act policies. Some are trying to make up the shortfall; others lack the cash or political will.