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Alabama representative criticizes ongoing prison mental health litigation

A prison corridor in Holman Correctional Facility in 2019. An Alabama state representative last week said he wanted to know whether settling a long-running lawsuit over mental health care in state prisons would be cheaper than pursuing a settlement. (File) An Alabama lawmaker and outspoken critic of the Alabama Department of Corrections said Thursday the Alabama Attorney General’s Office should have settled an ongoing lawsuit over mental health care in state prisons instead of continuing with litigation. Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, said at the Contract Review Committee meeting Thursday that he wanted answers from ADOC about mounting costs in the lawsuit, known as Braggs v. Lovelace. “I am just really sick and tired of giving more money to the Department of Corrections under this current administration and under this leadership, because clearly, we are just burning it,” England said in an interview with the media following the meeting. “There aren’t any real reforms, changes or ...
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Alabama union membership declines amid aging workforce, outsourcing

A youngster holds up a pro-union sign at Laborfest in Milwaukee on Labor Day, Sept. 2, 2024. The percentage of unionized workers in Alabama has declined amid an aging population, outsourcing and technology changes. (Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner) Alabama’s union membership declined last year amid a broader decline of the workforce, the aging of union members and outsourcing.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics , Alabama’s total employment dropped from 2.110 million in 2024 to 2.090 million in 2025. Labor union representation fell from 140,000 in 2024 to 131,000, or from 6.6% of the workforce to 6.3%. The number of workers represented by unions also fell, from 165,000 in 2024 (7.8% of the workforce) to 150,000 (7.2%) in 2025. Nationwide, the unionization rate is 10%.  Alabama was historically one of the most unionized states in the South, due to the number of manufacturing jobs available during the 1940s. As late as 2015, about 10% of the state workforce belonged to unio...
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Developers eye Native nations, tribal communities for new data center projects

An explosion of data center facilities, including the one pictured here in northeast Oregon on May 18 have been built along the Columbia River Gorge during the last few years. (Photo by Jordan Gale/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Officials in Page, Arizona, a small city near the Glen Canyon Dam, passed a land sale  agreement last fall that establishes a framework for future construction of a data center. The  sale of the 500-acre parcel about a mile away from the Colorado River’s Horseshoe Bend — one of the  most visited natural landmarks in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area — to Huntley LLC for $7 million specifies that the company intends to build a 1 gigawatt data center. Residents have been pushing back and launched a  petition earlier this year to stop the planned data center from being built.  About 5 miles south of the city, a group of tribal leaders began to take notice. The proposed data center borders the LeChee Chapter of the Navajo Nation, lo...
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FEMA is off the chopping block. But disaster aid is still a guessing game.

Sisters watch as a skid-steer loader pulls a tree in Highmore, South Dakota, on June 29, 2026, after a severe storm that morning. The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced it will reimburse eight South Dakota counties and three tribes for storm-related infrastructure fixes. (Photo by Meghan O’Brien/South Dakota Searchlight) State leaders are breathing a sigh of relief that the Trump administration’s threats to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency have subsided.  But experts say there’s still confusion about President Donald Trump’s decisions to approve or deny disaster declarations, leaving states with uncertainty about whether they can expect federal recovery funds. “The foundation (at FEMA) seems stronger than it did six months ago, but this is an unreliable administration when it comes to the fair and equitable distribution of disaster funds,” said Juliette Kayyem, faculty chair of the Homeland Security Project at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Governm...
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NCAA eligibility lawsuit pits Louisiana, Southern elected leaders against each other

The new video display scoreboard in Tiger Stadium's north side as seen from the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Sept. 13, 2024. (Matthew Perschall for Louisiana Illuminator) Inside a Baton Rouge courtroom Thursday, a lawsuit challenging arcane NCAA eligibility rules turned into a political football with prominent elected officials involved on each side.  The case is one of two that pits the Southeastern Conference against LSU in proceedings that have captured national attention and drawn reaction from leaders from around the region watching with interest from the sidelines.  On one team, New Orleans’ District Attorney Jason Williams (who played football at Tulane) represents the SEC. On the other team, Baton Rouge-area prosecutor Tony Clayton is trying to get former NFL athletes on LSU’s roster ahead of its season-opening matchup Saturday against Clemson. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, though not a party to the case, submitted a brief to the court supporting the athlete...
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Judge criticizes Trump pressure on prosecutors on reflecting pool vandalism charges

Olympian David Hearn, center left, walks out of District of Columbia Superior Court with his attorneys after a hearing on Sept. 4, 2026. (Photo by Ariana Figueora/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — A District of Columbia Superior Court judge Friday seemed inclined to bar any new felony charges against former Olympian David Hearn, after the Trump administration accused the Maryland man of damaging part of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman raised concerns about President Donald Trump’s public pressure campaign on the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, following a quiet  earlier move by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro   to dismiss the charges. Trump, who oversaw the multi-million-dollar renovation of the pool, has blamed vandals for the damage. “The president of the United States is pressuring your office… to recharge Mr. Hearn (on) what you have decided is meritless,” said Edelman, who was nominated by former President ...
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Labor unions are growing, but where depends on state politics

Members of Virginia Professional Firefighters association hold signs during their biannual convention in May to protest Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s veto of collective bargaining legislation. New research found a significant spike in labor union membership, but growth is highly dependent upon state politics. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury) Labor union membership continues to climb in the United States, though the increase remains sharply divided by the politics of individual states. Last year, the nation added more than 411,000 union members — the largest annual growth since 2008, according to a study published just ahead of the Labor Day holiday by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  At the end of last year, more than 14.6 million American workers belonged to a union — about 10% of the workforce, the study said.  While union membership grew across the country, t...
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