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Alabama Department of Youth Services updates several policies

The Alabama Department of Youth Services updates several policies related to filing grievances and disseminating public information.(Photo: John Partipilo) The Alabama Department Youth Services (DYS) board approved a set of five policies at its meeting  Friday that outlines how the department  will operate and the control center will function. Board members updated policies earlier in the day, which dealt with use of outside sources and agencies, communication between staff and youth, disseminating information to the public, and how youth can file medical grievances. “It is part of the annual review, but we are also looking to make sure that everything is up to date with what we are currently doing,” said Steven P. Lafreniere, executive director of DYS. The Youth Services Policy Review Committee voted to recommend the update prior to the full board approving the updates en masse. Some of the details relate to the responsibilities of staff and specific procedures for various circums...
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The murder of Robin White and the limits of American promise

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, known as the Lynching Memorial, in Montgomery, Alabama. Robin White, lynched outside of Wetumpka on July 2, 1901, was one of at least 4,400 victims of lynching in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (Ted Vaden) We mark our nation’s 250th birthday on Saturday. Thursday will be the 125th anniversary of a lynching in Elmore County.  That story, halfway between the Revolution and today, doesn’t reflect our ideals. But it shows our reality. One where American violence proved stronger than justice. Where racism exerted its centuries-long veto over our ideals. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE It began with a petty dispute. In 1901, Robin White and his brother Abe, both of whom were Black, farmed property near Tallassee in central Alabama. They had a white neighbor nam...
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Protesters in D.C. rally for priorities to counter Trump’s 250th anniversary programming

A few hundred activists marched to the White House on Saturday, June 27, 2026, for the Next250 rally. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — Activists rallied, danced and marched in the nation’s capital Saturday as they laid out their vision for the future of the United States beyond this year’s semiquincentennial.    Speakers and performers at the Next250 rally in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, June 27, 2026. (Video by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom) The Next250 demonstration, organized by a coalition of advocacy groups, featured a massive “Declaration of Interdependence” requiring more than a dozen people to hold it during a march past the northern barricaded perimeter of the White House, where President Donald Trump was present this weekend. Marchers carried a “Declaration of Interdependence” during a Next250 demonstration in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, June 27, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom) Event organizers...
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Public universities face escalating involvement from state lawmakers

William J. Samford Hall at Auburn University in in Auburn, Alabama. The Auburn University Board of Trustees earlier this month voted to dissolve the university's faculty senate. New laws in Alabama and other states give greater power to politically appointed state university boards and administrators while weakening tenure protections and faculty sway over curriculum and university leadership. (Photo by Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) Jennifer Brooks, a history professor at Auburn University, had barely unpacked from a trip out of town earlier this month when the messages started blowing up her phone. Texts from colleagues and rumors on social media delivered the unsettling news: The Auburn Board of Trustees had voted to dissolve the school’s faculty senate and give itself ultimate authority over academic decisions, including curriculum. “What was really surprising … is the lack of knowledge that most of our faculty leaders had about the decision,” said Brooks, who’s been teachi...
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GOP dreams of another big budget bill dashed by Trump demands for SAVE America Act

The U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., amid fog on Dec. 10, 2024. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — Republicans have one more opportunity to use the complex process they relied on to enact their “big, beautiful” law and provide tens of billions in additional funding for immigration enforcement — a chance that becomes less likely the more divisions over a voter identification bill splinter the party.  Debate over a third reconciliation bill has been simmering in the background for months, though GOP lawmakers have yet to reach consensus about whether they should draft another massive package, like they approved last year, or a more narrow one that could help the party boost defense spending. That budget reconciliation process gives Republican leaders a way to get around Senate rules that would otherwise force bipartisanship, giving them a loophole out of negotiating major legislation with Democrats.  But it comes with several hurdles in order to get that...
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4 years after Dobbs, advocates clash over how far to take fight for later abortion access

Erika Christensen, left, with her husband, Garin, and her daughter in New York in 2018. Christensen and her husband founded Patient Forward, a nonprofit organization that advocates for later abortion access, after she had to fly to Colorado from New York to terminate a pregnancy with severe complications in 2016. (Photo courtesy of Erika Christensen) Kate Dineen assumed she would always have access to reproductive healthcare because of where she lived. It came as a shock when she was denied an abortion in 2021 because of gestational limits to the procedure in Massachusetts law. Dineen was 33 weeks into her pregnancy, the third trimester, when a routine ultrasound detected a problem with the fetus’s brain. An MRI showed that her son, whom she’d named Teddy, had suffered a catastrophic stroke in utero. A pediatric neurologist gave her the news over a Zoom call during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I said, ‘What’s the best-case scenario? Is there any chance of a normal, healthy outcome?’ And ...
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Judges block Trump push for Michigan voter info, setting up possible Supreme Court fight

Voters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, cast their ballots during the state’s August 2024 primary. (Photo by Matt Vasilogambros/Stateline) A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled the Department of Justice isn’t entitled to access the sensitive personal data of Michigan voters, a setback in President Donald Trump’s push to assert power over state-run elections. The decision moves the country closer to a potential fight at the U.S. Supreme Court over state voter rolls ahead of the November midterm elections, with Michigan at the center.  The Trump administration has sued 30 states for copies of their voter information. Federal officials want to run the data through a Department of Homeland Security computer program to identify possible noncitizen voters. In  a 2-1 decision , a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Michigan Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson isn’t required to turn over sensitive voter data, including dates of birth, driver’s license a...
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