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Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, on the U.S.-Mexico border is occupied by the Texas National Guard in February 2025. Republican states that emphasize border security might benefit from immigration increases since 2020 because higher population translates to political power. (Photo by Eli Hartman for The Texas Tribune) The millions of immigrants who have crossed the border with Mexico since 2020 could change the balance of political power in Congress — but in a way likely to boost Republican states that emphasize border security, at the expense of more welcoming Democratic states. That’s because many of the new immigrants joined state-to-state movers gravitating to the fast-growing conservative strongholds of Florida and Texas, boosting those states’ populations. California and New York also had large influxes from the border but ended up losing population anyway. The vastly different population changes threaten to scramble the Electoral College map. California and other Democrati...

Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur (top) listens to Sen. Larry Stutts, R-Tuscumbia on the floor of the Alabama Senate on Jan. 14, 2026 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The Senate Health Care Committee approved Orr's bill Wednesday, which would regulate the usage of AI in determining health care coverage. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) An Alabama Senate committee Wednesday approved a bill that would regulate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in determining health care coverage. SB 63 , sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, does not ban the use of AI when health insurers determine what is and is not covered by health insurance plans. It requires a health care professional to make the final decision when coverage is denied. “If it’s approved, then there won’t be another evaluation of what the decision was,” said Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, chair of the Senate Health Care committee, who carried the bill in Orr’s absence. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIB...

A high-speed car chase involving a man in a red Prius and federal agent ended with multi-car crash at Nina’s in St. Paul Wednesday Feb. 11, 2026. (Photo by Alyssa Chen/Minnesota Reformer) A high-speed car chase that witnesses said involved a young man and a federal agent on Wednesday ended with a multi-car crash outside Nina’s Coffee Cafe in St. Paul. The man was transported away from the scene in an ambulance covered by a sheet. A St. Paul firefighter said the man asked to be covered for privacy. The injuries were “not serious, that’s all I can say,” the firefighter said. A woman whose airbag went off also went to the hospital; it was unclear whether she was injured. Three cars were damaged. A crowd of people gathered at the scene, yelling “F*ck ICE” at over a dozen federal agents who had shown up after the crash. “This is just another incident that tells us loud and clear: Operation Metro Surge needs to end immediately,” said St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, in a statement. Brandon R...

The U.S. Capitol as seen from New Jersey Avenue SE on Jan. 6, 2025.  (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — A handful of House Republicans tanked a procedural vote Tuesday night that would have kept intact a ban on congressional action against President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs. Republican Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Kevin Kiley of California joined all Democrats in a  214-217 vote  blocking language to continue a prohibition on any House votes challenging the unprecedented import taxes Trump triggered under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, or IEEPA. Rep. Gregory Murphy, R-N.C., did not vote. “I don’t like putting the important work of the House on pause, but Congress needs to be able to debate on tariffs. Tariffs have been a ‘net negative’ for the economy and are a significant tax that American consumers, manufacturers, and farmers are paying,” Bacon said in a post on X following the vote.  ...

Pictures of Alex Pretti sit in front of his Minneapolis home on Jan. 26, 2026. Pretti, an ICU nurse, died Jan. 25, after being shot multiple times during a brief altercation with Border Patrol agents in south Minneapolis. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — The head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined during a U.S. House hearing Tuesday to apologize to the families of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, the victims of fatal shootings by immigration officers in Minneapolis last month. Top Trump administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, had said both Minneapolis residents engaged in “domestic terrorism.” Good was a poet and mother of three and Pretti was an intensive care unit nurse.  ICE acting Director Todd Lyons demurred when asked by California Democrat Eric Swalwell if he would apologize for that characterization.  “I’m not going to speak to any ongoing investigation,” Lyons said. Lawmakers on the U.S. House Hom...

Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollinger's Island, speaks with colleagues on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives on Jan. 22, 2026 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. An Alabama House committee Tuesday passed a bill sponsored by Brown on Tuesday to end elections to the Public Service Commission and make it an appointed body. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) A House committee Thursday approved a bill that would end popular election of the Alabama Public Service Commission, as well as legislation targeting data centers. HB 392 , sponsored by Chip Brown, R-Hollinger’s Island, would stop elections for the commission, the body charged with regulating utilities in the state, by 2030. In its place, the governor, the speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives and the president pro tem of the Alabama Senate would appoint members. Speaking to the House Transportation, Utilities and Infrastructure Committee on Tuesday, Brown said that the bill’s requirements that appoi...