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States will shape America’s future as nation confronts a pivotal choice

(Illustration by Alex Cochran for Stateline) A quarter millennium after its founding, the United States faces a stark choice that will define its future. In the years ahead, the country can continue to follow the path blazed by President Donald Trump, who is attempting to bring states under the authority of a more powerful federal government led by him. Or it can move in a different direction, one where states become a heavier counterweight to an aggressive White House and rebalance the relationship between the states and the federal government. The United States’ foundations are undergoing a significant stress test, experts say, raising questions about whether a radical reconception of the nation lies ahead. The federalism that has helped bind the states — and therefore, the nation — together is fraying, pulled apart by a president who demonstrates little regard for many of the nation’s core principles. “I wonder if we will come to a breaking point in which the institutions of gov...
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New ruling against mandatory detention is another blow to Trump immigration policy

A resident sits on a bench at Make the Road New York, a community center in Corona, Queens, in New York City. An appeals court ruling against mandatory detention applies to states where many New York immigrants are transferred after arrest. (Photo by Tim Henderson/Stateline) A new appeals court ruling is another blow to the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy that threatens millions of immigrants with unlimited incarceration without bond if they ever crossed a border illegally.   A sharply divided 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 on July 2 that such immigrants must receive a bond hearing within 90 days.  One of the two judges said 30 days would be a better time limit.  The dissenting judge  said having no bond was appropriate, calling the Trump policy “constitutionally sound.”  The 2025 policy has faced widespread rebellion among federal judges, even Trump appointees, with many of them freeing immigration prisoners and calling the policy unconstitutional...
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With control of US Senate in play, national Dems rush to dump Maine’s Platner

Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, said he told U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner of Maine he should "step aside." In this photo, Sanders, right, rallies with Platner in Portland on May 25, 2026. (Photo by Emma Davis/ Maine Morning Star) A host of high-profile Democrats called for Graham Platner, the party’s nominee to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine in November’s election, to drop out of the race as they tried to save the party’s chances to retake the Senate majority. In the wake of Politico’s explosive Monday  report that an ex-girlfriend of Platner’s alleged he sexually assaulted her in 2021, the political newcomer’s supporters in Congress and Democratic circles in Washington, D.C., rescinded their endorsements and sought a new candidate in the race that is seen as crucial to Senate control.  The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said it would pull all its resources from the race as long as Platner wa...
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How a rural Michigan community stopped a proposed 1.4-gigawatt power plant

Land off South Lima Center Road in Washtenaw County's Lima Township where a 1.4 GW data center had been proposed. | Photo provided by Ken Klovski Residents of Lima Township and surrounding areas who opposed a proposed Consumers Energy power plant celebrated a victory last week when the utility announced it had withdrawn plans for a 1.4-gigawatt power plant on a 120-acre parcel of farmland off South Lima Center Road.  The July 1 decision came after weeks of protest from residents and lawmakers concerned about the potential health hazards of a massive power plant on land zoned for agriculture.  “It was such an awesome team effort, how everybody came together,” Lima Township Supervisor Bill VanRiper told Michigan Advance. “There’s no right or left, we’re all fighting for the same thing.”  The project was first discovered by Ken Klovski, a former DTE executive, who noticed deep borehole drilling activity on the property across the road from his home. Klovski consulted county record...
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Fabian Schmidt chose America long ago. A year after getting trapped in ICE’s net, he still does.

Fabian Schmidt, photographed here on May 26, 2026, sits in his Nashua apartment. (Photo by William Skipworth/New Hampshire Bulletin) Fabian Schmidt sometimes wakes up afraid in the middle of the night, briefly forgetting he’s no longer at the maximum security prison where he spent two months last year. Schmidt, a German green card holder who moved to the United States as a teenager in 2007 and now lives in Nashua, was detained by immigration officials at Boston Logan Airport last year. He spent two months jailed in Rhode Island for what his lawyer calls a paperwork issue involving a decade-old misdemeanor. In the year since he was freed, he’s made little sense of the ordeal other than to say he was caught up in the early days of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown. His profile is different from other prominent targets of the dragnet: He’s European rather than Latin American or Middle Eastern, and he comes from a wealthy background. But as with other instance...
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Platner considering “best path forward” after sexual assault accusation in Politico

Maine's Graham Platner is the Democratic candidate for what's considered one of the nation's most competitive battles for the U.S. Senate. Platner, who is challenging incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, is shown at a rally at the Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland on April 18, 2026. (Photo by Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star) A woman who previously dated Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner told Politico that he sexually assaulted her. Platner denied the allegations.  The oysterman and military veteran has faced a series of controversies during his campaign including alleged unsettling behavior toward previous romantic partners, but the accusations in the Politico story published on Monday amount to the most serious.  Jenny Racicot, 41, told Politico she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner for more than two years before he entered her home in 2021 uninvited while intoxicated and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop .  Platner said in...
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Do data centers impact our physical health? Studies are few and far between.

Marvell data center in Culpeper County, Virginia. Virginia has the highest concentration of data centers in the world. (Photo by Evan Visconti/Virginia Mercury) Data centers fuel the ever-growing demand for social media, artificial intelligence and streaming services, allowing people to access a plethora of entertainment options and streamline everyday tasks.  And their numbers are growing — another 80 proposed projects cataloged by the Data Center Proposal Tracker would more than double the current 71 active sites in the commonwealth.  An increasing number of Pennsylvanians are concerned about the resource-hungry facilities’ impact on energy prices and water consumption, but there is very little research about potential impacts to physical or public health.  “There are still, relatively, very few studies that directly examine the health impacts of data centers themselves. Much of the evidence comes from related fields,” said Neha Gour, a PhD candidate at George Mason University. ...
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