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Red and blue states pass laws to protect contraception access

Various birth control pills available at a Planned Parenthood in Austin, Texas. Several states, including Republican-led ones, have protected or expanded access to contraception in recent months. (Photo by Todd Wiseman/The Texas Tribune) The Trump administration has rolled back teen pregnancy prevention grants and repurposed a program designed to reduce unintended pregnancies so that it promotes childbearing. But several states, including Republican-led ones, have protected or expanded access to contraception in recent months. Georgia Republican state Rep. Beth Camp sponsored a bill to expand contraceptive access in her state after her daughter faced a two-month delay renewing her birth control prescription. The new law, passed in April and signed in May by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, allows pharmacists to prescribe contraception methods such as birth control pills and shots directly to patients without a doctor’s signature. Current Georgia law requires patients to receive a birth...
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Obamacare premiums likely to surge again next year

A man gets a checkup at a mobile health clinic in Parlier, Calif. A new report details preliminary Obamacare insurer premium rate increases. (Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local) Health insurance premiums are likely to grow more expensive next year for those who buy Marketplace plans, after increases this year. Affordable Care Act Marketplace insurers are proposing a median premium increase of 14% for 2027, which would be a double-digit hike for the second year in a row, according to a new analysis of preliminary rate filings. Insurers must submit their requested premium changes to state regulators by July 15, per Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services deadlines. Rates should be finalized later this summer. Released Wednesday by the Peterson Center on Healthcare and healthcare research group KFF, the analysis looked at proposed rate changes among 77 Marketplace insurers across 16 states and Washington, D.C., that have made proposed rates publicly available. Th...
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To promote more housing, cities and states target parking minimums

Cars in a parking lot at an apartment complex in Washington, D.C. In recent years, housing shortages have prompted more cities and states to scale back or even eliminate minimum parking requirements. (Photo by Scott S. Greenberger/Stateline) In 1923, the city of Columbus, Ohio, enacted the first known off-street parking requirement for new apartment buildings. The city’s rules got stricter over time. In 1954, a Columbus apartment building with 100 one-bedroom units had to have at least 100 parking spaces; by 2022, the minimum was 150. For a 2,500-square-foot restaurant, the mandate grew from nine parking spaces to 34. But in recent years, housing shortages have prompted Columbus and other cities and states to scale back or even eliminate minimum parking requirements. The need to provide parking makes projects more expensive, raising costs for developers that they often pass on to residents. In some cases, the rules prevent projects from ever being built. Since 2019, at least 14 stat...
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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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