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‘Unbearable’ heat in uncooled Alabama prisons

At least one dorm at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, located in south Alabama, is uncooled. (Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News) This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News , a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here . ELMORE — Tiffany Montellano can’t sleep. Instead, she lies awake, worried about her husband Andrew, 31, who is incarcerated at Elmore Correctional Facility just north of Montgomery. She worries because a few days ago, she received a call during her lunch break from Andrew, who had missed their usual call the night before. He told her he had become dizzy the previous day because of the overwhelming heat inside the un-air-conditioned, 200-person dorm where he’s housed. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE “He said th...
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Voting rights struggle continues, advocates say at March on Washington anniversary

Demonstrators gathered at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, marking the 63rd anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where the late civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — Just over two months from midterm elections and four months removed from a U.S. Supreme Court decision that gutted Voting Rights Act protections for majority Black U.S. House districts, and 63 years after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech there, thousands gathered again at the Lincoln Memorial Friday. Organizers focused the anniversary march around a “Defend the Vote” message.  The event, co-chaired by civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton and King Jr.’s son Martin Luther King III and daughter-in-law Arndrea Waters King, featured appearances from union leaders, interfaith organizers, people whose parents attende...
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To protect forests, I learned to burn them

A crew member uses a drip torch to ignite a prescribed burn in Southwest Washington. Leaders in Washington and other states want to empower more residents to lead burns like this on private lands. (Photo by Alex Brown/Stateline) AUBURN, Wash. — In the back row of a small community college classroom, I sip my coffee and consider a cumulus cloud, a puffy white pillar over an expanse of blue. I’m not staring out the window, but at a presentation on a screen at the front of the room.   Cumulus clouds are a telltale sign of an unstable atmosphere, Matthew Dehr, wildland fire meteorologist with the Washington Department of Natural Resources, tells our class. Fifteen students, clad in hoodies and flannel, nod along. They know what an unstable atmosphere means: Smoke will disperse instead of settling over the ground. In other words, ideal conditions for setting stuff on fire. My classmates and I make up the fifth group to take Washington’s Certified Prescribed Burn Manager course. It’s put o...
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GOP path to retaining US House majority narrowing as midterms near

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks at the Detroit NAACP Fight For Freedom Fund Dinner on April 26, 2026. Jeffries is in line to become House speaker if Democrats win control of the chamber in November. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance) WASHINGTON — With less than 70 days until midterm elections, Democrats remain favored to regain the majority in the U.S. House.   President Donald Trump’s anemic approval ratings amid the war in Iran, concerns over the economy and a coalitional shift within the party mark some of the largest headwinds facing Republicans heading into November, according to election analysts and political scientists interviewed by States Newsroom.  Though the GOP’s mid-decade redistricting push could help them shore up several seats and the battleground of competitive districts stands relatively small, Democrats maintain an edge to win the House, said Erin Covey, an editor specializing in U.S. House races for the Cook Political Rep...
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Canadian tariffs to further raise prices, a top concern for voters

Shipping containers sit at Malcolm Transfer Station in Minneapolis on March 21, 2026. A developing trade war with Canada poses economic danger, especially for states on the northern border. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer) WASHINGTON — A developing trade war with Canada could bite Republicans ahead of the upcoming midterm elections as voters worry about rising prices and industries in states with competitive races could suffer. Maine’s lobster industry  dodged what officials had warned could be economic havoc Thursday morning when Canada reversed its decision to tax lobster imports at 25%. But states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin could see effects if Canada follows through on retaliatory tariffs on alcohol, automobiles, dairy, home appliances, steel and other goods. Those products are  among the 629 categories Canada’s Department of Finance announced Tuesday in response to President Donald Trump’s most recent  tariffs on Cana...
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US Justice Department challenges 4 more states over in-state tuition for immigrants

The U.S. Department of Justice logo is displayed on a speaker’s podium. (Photo by Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight) WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday sued  Arizona ,  New Mexico ,  Oregon and  Washington over laws that allow immigrants in the country without legal status to pay in-state college tuition in the states where they live. President Donald Trump’s administration has now sued  21 states over such laws , which enable noncitizen students who meet certain requirements access to in-state tuition at public colleges and universities, regardless of their immigration status.  The lawsuits argue that these policies allow students without legal status to pay drastically lower tuition for public education than U.S. citizens from other states. They also come as the administration  aims to curb benefits that could be extended to immigrants more broadly.  “Over 30 years ago, Congress made clear that States cannot put ill...
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Postal Service pushes ahead on Trump order limiting vote-by-mail

Ahead of the May 2024 primary, a drop box for mail-in ballots sits outside the Shelby County Courthouse Annex in Shelbyville, Kentucky. (Photo by McKenna Horsley/Kentucky Lantern) WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service took another step Thursday in implementing a Trump administration policy to restrict mail-in voting, even as a high-stakes legal battle plays out and midterm elections approach. The agency published an  FAQ about its new rule that compels states to send their voter rolls to the federal government and only deliver mail ballots to voters who match federal citizenship data. The rule also updates standards for mail ballots that states have said would be difficult to implement before the Nov. 3 elections  that will determine the balance of Congress . The controversial rule, which two dozen Democratic states and voting rights groups are challenging in federal court, increases the federal government’s role in elections and voting.  The states have argued t...
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