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Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine, (left) speaks with Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile (right) on the floor of the Alabama Senate on Feb. 10, 2026 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. Figures on Thursday pressed Elliott on why senators should vote for a bill requiring state agencies to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) A Senate vote on a bill that would have required Alabama governments and agencies to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” was delayed Thursday amid a Democratic filibuster.   HB 2 , sponsored by Rep. David Standridge, R-Hayden, would require all state and local entities to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America .  Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, questioned the need for the bill.  “We’ve got gas prices as high as they are today, we’re in the middle of war . . . and we are here talking about the Gulf of America,” Singleton s...

Anti-abortion organizer Abby Johnson spoke at Students for Life of America’s annual National Pro-Life Summit on Jan. 24, 2026, behind former abortion clinic workers wearing “Make Abortion Murder Again” T-shirts. “I don’t think we’re going to hug and kiss our way out of this baby murder,” she told the student activists. (Photo by Sofia Resnick/States Newsroom)  Republican lawmakers in   several states so far this year introduced bills that would legally treat abortion as homicide.  The proposed laws could have implications not just for pregnancy termination but for certain  fertility treatments or even some forms of  contraception . Despite broad unpopularity, even within the mainstream anti-abortion movement, the measures continue to be introduced and debated in statehouses, concerning abortion-rights advocates. They fear the U.S. Supreme Court might someday consider the constitutionality of such a law, premised on giving legal personhood status to develo...

Alabama Public Library Service Chair John Wahl, left, and board member Ron Snider have a conversation before the APLS meeting on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. APLS will hire someone to help libraries comply with the administrative code changes that were finalized in Februrary. (Ralph Chapoco/Alabama Reflector) The Alabama Public Library Service Board will hire a person to assist libraries as they try to comply with new content restrictions imposed by the board in the past couple of years. APLS board members voted during a Thursday meeting to advertise the position. “We want to create a position to make sure we have the resources to support our local libraries,” said John Wahl, chair of the APLS Board, in an interview with reporters following the meeting. “We especially want this position to be a resource for local libraries when it comes to the new code changes, if there are any questions, any confusion, they have someone they can ask, get clear guidance, where they don’t have the in...

An F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft lands on the flight deck of the USS Gerald R. Ford in support of Operation Epic Fury in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, March 2, 2026. (U.S. Navy photo) WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday didn’t rule out asking Congress for an additional $200 billion to cover the cost of his war in Iran, a substantial sum that will likely be difficult to move through both chambers.  “It’s a small price to pay to make sure that we stay tippy top,” he said when asked about the number,  first reported Wednesday evening by the Washington Post and since confirmed by several other news organizations. The White House deferred questions from States Newsroom about a possible supplemental spending request to the Office of Management and Budget, which did not immediately respond to an email.  Trump, when asked specifically about the $200 billion figure, didn’t rebuff the reporter’s question or say the number was incorrect. Earlier news reports ex...

Rep. Mark Gidley, R-Hokes Bluff, speaking to House Speaker Pro Tem Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives on March 12, 2026, in the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The House Judiciary Committee Wednesday approved a bill requiring displays of the Ten Commandments in schools. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) An Alabama House committee on Wednesday approved legislation to require school districts to post the Ten Commandments in different locations. HB 216 , sponsored by Rep. Mark Gidley, R-Hokes Bluff, would require schools to display a poster of the religious document in fifth through 12th-grade classes and within the common areas, such as cafeterias and school libraries, in every school within the district. “This is strictly a historical reference to remind our students of one of the documents that was one of the foundational principles of the founding of this country,” Gidley told the House Judiciary Committee. GET THE MORNIN...

U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., leaves his confirmation hearing to be the next Homeland Security secretary in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on March 18, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, the president’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, on Wednesday in his confirmation hearing was challenged with questions about his “anger issues” by the fellow Republican who heads the Senate committee that oversees the department. Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, chair of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, at the outset of the hearing recalled how Mullin called him a “freaking snake” and expressed sympathy for a neighbor who assaulted Paul in a 2017 dispute, breaking six of his ribs and damaging a lung. “You have never had the courage to look me in the eye and tell me that the assault was justified,” Paul said to Mullin, nominated by Presid...