Governors Christine Gregoire of Washington and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island have petitioned the federal government to reclassify marijuana as a drug with accepted medical uses. Rhode Island and Washington state have already decriminalized medical marijuana in their states. But marijuana is currently classified by the federal government as a Schedule I controlled substance — the same category as heroin and LSD. It's a confusing distinction for many medical marijuana patients in those states. Governors Gregoire and Chafee say the federal government should reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II controlled substance in order to cut down confusion for medial marijuana patients.

The Texas DMV will decide on Thursday whether to accept a license place with the Confederate flag on it. Texas would become the 10th state to approve a Confederate flag vanity plate — applications are pending in three others. Hernán Rozemberg, senior correspondent and San Antonio bureau chief for Fronteras, discusses the details of the story. Fronteras is a multimedia collaboration focusing on the southwestern border between Mexico and the United States, lead by KJZZ in Phoenix and KPBS in San Diego.

Insurance companies have traditionally set up subsidiaries in off-shore tax havens like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands in part to get around strict state regulations regarding their investment strategies. But according to a report by our partner, The New York Times, a number of states have begun luring insurance giants back by allowing them to establish "captive" subsidiaries — risk management systems that allow companies to invest and reinsure without as much capital backing. Now some state insurance commissioners are warning that captives could put insurance policy holders at risk in the same way that the housing market was endangered by mortgage-backed securities.

Delaware: so small, harmless, and sometimes, forgotten, has been making headlines in recent weeks with the emergence of Tea Party-endorsed Christine O'Donnell, who won the GOP nomination for Senate last night.  But what is the truth behind Delaware? It's known as the First State, for being the first of the original 13 colonies to ratify the U.S. Constitution, but also the last to ratify the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. It's the origin of destination of many of those pesky credit card and collection agency bills you receive in the mail.

John Hockenberry takes us through his very own history of the First State.

Federal Judge Susan Bolton issued a blow to Arizona's controversial immigration law Wednesday, blocking key parts of the law, including the provision that requires immigrants to carry their papers with them at all times. We take a look at how long the injunction will stay in place and what Arizona's next legal move might be. And we ask what this means for other states that want to craft their own immigration policies. 

Yesterday, just one day before Arizona's controversial immigration law was to go into effect, a federal judge put a last-minute hold on some of the most controversial parts of the law, including the requirement for immigrants to carry papers at all times, and the directive for officers to check the immigration status of people they detain for other reasons.

For civil rights groups who oppose the law, it's a last-minute reprieve. For law enforcement agencies who supported it, it's a disappointing setback. It's been a long three months for supporters and opponents alike since Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed S.B. 1070 into law on April 23rd. 

It may seem like a distant memory, but back in 2008, the story of the Democratic presidential primary was the rise of a relative newcomer to Washington taking on the party establishment with grassroots organizing. It was a winning strategy for then-candidate Barack Obama in Colorado, where he earned more than two-thirds of the primary votes and defeated Hillary Clinton. 

In Colorado’s Democratic Senate primary this year, there’s another candidate campaigning as an outsider, but the establishment narrative is flipped. This time, the political newcomer is the incumbent, and the challenger is a mainstay of Colorado politics.

“Abolish the office of Lieutenant Governor, save the state $1,000,000 per year”: That’s the campaign promise of Robert J. Healey, Jr., who is running for lieutenant governor in the state of Rhode Island. Healey, an attorney and former Rhode Island gubernatorial candidate, is running as an independent and says he could be endorsed by the state’s Republican Party. As states across the country struggle with budget cuts, some legislators are asking the question: “Do we really need a lieutenant governor?”

This month, our friends at Serious Eats are kicking off a new series, in which they look at the most emblematic foods from all fifty of our United States. Their first edition focuses on the Northeast states – from Maine to West Virginia. Subsequent editions, which we’ll be featuring in the coming months, will focus on the rest of the country.

On May 4, 1970, a small group of national guardsmen opened fire on anti-war protesters who had gathered at Ohio's Kent State University. Forty years later, the gunshots, which lead to a national climate of anxiety and civil unrest may seem like a page in a history book, or a distant memory, to those who grew up after the event. We listen back to the tension and tragedy that makes the wounds of the Kent State massacre still fresh today.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer followed tough words with tough action when signed the "Safe Neighborhoods" bill into law on Friday. State House Bill 1070 is considered to be the nation's strictest law against illegal immigration. Among other changes, the bill requires all immigrants to carry proper identification at all times and broadens the power of local police to detain anybody suspected of immigration violations. State and local leaders who support the bill praise its sweeping reforms and cite the state's violent crime rate as reason alone for strict measures. On the other side of the debate, activists and lawmakers, including President Obama, have called the bill a "misguided" attack on the "basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans."

For most Americans, human trafficking is a horrific practice that nearly always seems to happen overseas and far away. However, a recent report by the Ohio Trafficking in Persons Study Commission says about 1,000 American-born children are forced into the sex trade every year in Ohio alone.

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts of The Miami Herald looks at ideological divides in the U.S., responses to the earthquake in Haiti, and the way the nation talks about race.

An article published in yesterday’s Denver Post asserts that in the Colorado public school system, disciplinary action frequently varies depending on the race of the student involved.  What might earn a slap on the wrist in some schools could mean an automatic 5-day suspension in another. The article goes on to say that out of 100 black students in Denver public schools, 18 will face “serious discipline.”  Of 100 Latinos, 11.  And out of 100 white students, only 6.5 would likely face suspension.

Joining us this morning is Marco Nuñez, organizing director at "Padres Unidos, Jovenes Unidos," an advocacy group in Colorado that studied discipline disparity in the state’s educational system.

Colorado's population has just rate hit the five million mark.  It is in the top five fastest growing states in the nation and its rate of growth has remained steady, even during the recession.  What is attracting new residents to the Rocky Mountain State and are all of those new residents a good thing for a state is dealing with a budget crisis?  Denver Post staff writer Burt Hubbard says there are certainly some growing pains that come with new residents moving in.  Rajeev Vibhakar and Chip Raches explain what attracted them to move to Denver.

The climate talks in Copenhagen will finish later today, with last minute appeals from major world leaders, including President Barack Obama. Obama has singled out one American town for praise regarding the work they have done in becoming more energy efficient and self sufficient.  Bob Dixon is the mayor of that small Kansas town, Greensburg, which was ravaged by a tornado in 2007 and rebuilt itself as a green town.  Matt Dellinger is a journalist who specializes in urban planning and believes that focusing overmuch on Greensburg as a model could be a mistake.

While nations around the world are readying themselves for climate talks in Copenhagen, the state of California is already negotiating their own international climate agreements. We talk with Tony Brunello, California’s deputy Secretary for Energy and Climate Change and Ingrid Lobet, West Coast Bureau Chief of PRI's Living on Earth about what the state is facing and how they’re staying ahead of the curve.

A case brought to the Georgia Supreme Court this Tuesday might decide whether Georgia can afford to levy the death penalty any more. Jamie Weis has been sitting in jail for four years waiting for a trial because the state can’t afford to give him adequate representation or his Sixth Amendment-guaranteed right to a "speedy and public trial." Yesterday, Jamie presented a pre-trial appeal — drop his charges, or at least the possibility of the death penalty. 

To find out more we spoke with Emily Green, a reporter covering the justice system for Georgia Public Broadcasting, and Robert McGlasson, an attorney at law who represented a previous death-penalty defendant in one of the most expensive cases in Georgia history. (You can read other stories in our "Deep Cuts" series on states' budget shortfalls.)