Columbus Day is one of the most inconsistently celebrated U.S. holidays. Fewer than half of U.S. states give their employees the day as a paid holiday.
Most states in the U.S. allow children to be exempt from vaccinations due to religious concerns.
California is one of 11 states that have the death penalty but haven’t used it in more than a decade
More than a third of the states that allow executions haven’t carried one out in at least 10 years or, in some cases, much longer.
Data from the past 50 years reveal the upward yet uneven trajectory of black political leadership in America.
God or the divine is mentioned at least once in each of the 50 state constitutions and nearly 200 times overall.
In 2015, about 126,000 prisoners were held in privately operated facilities under the jurisdiction of 29 states and the federal Bureau of Prisons.
One hundred years after Jeannette Rankin became the first female member of the U.S. Congress, women remain underrepresented in political and business leadership.
Just five states – Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Texas – accounted for all 20 executions in the U.S. in 2016.
Although the movement to limit congressional terms has been largely dormant for the past two decades, 15 states do limit how many terms their own legislators can serve.
While a growing number of LGBT politicians have been elected to public office and attitudes toward the LGBT community have become much more favorable over the past decade, survey data suggest that being gay or lesbian remains an obstacle for candidates running for president.
