Washington, DC, USA. Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett are the latest to play a role in resolving crises at their state universities.

Governors across the country have varying degrees of authority in the operation of their state universities — most have little authority at all. But for those that do have authority the degree to which they intervene can be informative.

Pawnee County, Kansas, USA. Hydraulic fracturing by energy drillers may not be the heaviest consumer of water on parched land. But states are starting to worry about it.

“We’ve had dry years, and we’ve had hot years,” says Tom Giessel, who grows wheat, corn and sorghum in Pawnee County, Kansas. “Now we’re experiencing both.”

Annapolis, MD, USA. Taking DNA from suspects immediately upon arrest is an increasingly common law enforcement practice, but some courts have ruled it unconstitutional.

Alonzo Jay King, Jr. was arrested on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in 2009 for first-degree felony assault and, as is standard practice in 25 states and the federal government, a sample of King’s DNA was taken at the booking facility and sent to the state crime lab.

Washington, DC, USA. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Medicaid expansion optional for the states, casting doubt on decades of established state-federal programs.

Billions of dollars in funding are tied to the programs and in striking down the federal health care law’s mandatory Medicaid expansion, the ruling limited a key component of the federal government’s power over the states for the first time in decades, unsettling state-federal relations for years to come.

Denver, CO, USA. As oil and gas development increasingly moves into more populated areas, many municipalities are trying to exert control over where drilling can take place.

State regulators and industry advocates say local pushback against drilling is misguided and a dangerous obstacle to economic growth.