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Trump nominates ousted FEMA chief to return

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, on Feb. 20, 2026. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday nominated Cameron Hamilton to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a former acting chief who was fired in 2025 shortly after he told a congressional panel FEMA should continue to exist. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will likely schedule a hearing in the coming weeks for Hamilton to testify about his goals for the agency as part of the confirmation process.  The panel will then schedule a vote on whether to send his nomination to the floor, where Hamilton will need to secure approval from a majority of senators before he would become FEMA administrator.  Taking on that role will be no easy task, especially since Trump has  spoken repeatedly during his second administration about reducing the size and scope of the agency.  “We want to wean off of FEMA and we want to bring it down to the state le...
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US Supreme Court overturns 2023 Alabama map ruling, clearing the way for redistricting

The U.S. Supreme Court, pictured April 9, 2026. The court on Monday vacated a 2023 order preventing Alabama from using a map it had ruled racially discriminatory, sending the case back to lower courts. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom) The U.S. Supreme Court Monday overturned a 2023 ruling blocking use of a congressional map the courts ruled as racially discriminatory, which could open the way for Alabama to use new district lines this year. The order from the nation’s highest court in the case, known collectively as Allen v. Milligan, came about a week before the state’s May 19th primaries and about a week and a half after the court significantly weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prevents racial discrimination in voting laws, in a case known as Louisiana v. Callais . The ruling said plaintiffs challenging maps under Section 2 must make a showing of intentional discrimination to prevail. G...
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Alabama Attorney General Office subpoenas Southern Poverty Law Center

The headquarters of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama on February 8, 2023. The Alabama Attorney General's Office Monday issued a subpoena for documents, weeks after the U.S. Department of Justce filed criminal charges against the organization. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) The Alabama Attorney General’s Office Monday subpoenaed the Southern Poverty Law Center a couple of weeks after the U.S. Department of Justice filed criminal charges against the organization. The office said in a news release on Monday that it was seeking records from a now-defunct program in which the SPLC paid informants within white supremacist and extremist groups to obtain information on the groups’ activities. “We have always suspected that they were monetizing hate and trading on race-baiting, it was just a matter of proving it,” said Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall in the news release. “Thanks to the U.S. Justice Department’s action to deal with the SPLC, the State’s effo...
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Trump so far failing in quest for power over elections as midterms approach

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in December 2025. (Photo by Tom Brenner/Getty Images) As President Donald Trump tries to assert power over U.S. elections, he has raged on social media, cajoled Republican lawmakers and unleashed the Department of Justice on his political enemies. What has he accomplished with all that effort? Not a lot. Six months before the November midterm elections, the Trump administration’s quest to exercise authority over the contests and impose sweeping restrictions on voters has proved largely unsuccessful. The aggressive campaign — separate from Trump’s more effective foray into redistricting fights — has been stymied by the courts, rebuffed by many state election officials and opposed by key Republican senators. “I think there’s many out there who are worried about the constant drumbeat of what the administration is trying to do and what they might do in the future. I hear this...
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In east Alabama GOP Senate primary, current incumbent faces previous incumbent

GOP voters will choose between incumbent Sen. Randy Price, R-Opelika, and former Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, for the Republican nomination for Senate District 13, seat in east Alabama. (Photos by Stew Milne for the Alabama Reflector and courtesy of Dial; graphic by Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) Republican voters in a rural east Alabama Senate district will decide next week whether to nominate their current state senator or the previous one.  The Senate GOP contest in District 13 features incumbent Sen. Randy Price, R-Opelika, and former Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, who hopes to return to office after leaving in 2018.  Senate District 13 covers Clay, Cleburne, Chambers, Randolph and the eastern half of Lee counties. It includes cities as far north as Heflin and as far south as Smiths Station, but is otherwise very rural. The last time the race was contested was in 2018, when Price got 71.1% of votes, according to election results. The candidates Dial, 88, said in a pho...
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Housing advocates expect homelessness numbers to fall slightly

The alcove of a vacant building in downtown Raleigh provides temporary shelter for North Carolina’s homeless population. (Photo: Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline) The U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s annual one-night count of those experiencing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness is projected to show a decline after a record-high surge in 2024, according to a new report. Conducted during January, the Point-in-Time count is HUD’s annual one-night census of people staying in shelters and unsheltered locations; the latest official national Point-in-Time report found 771,480 people experiencing homelessness in January 2024, an 18% surge from 2023.  Preliminary 2025 estimates, though, indicate homelessness has stabilized. A review by the nonprofit advocacy group Community Solutions, based on local counts available from 170 communities, projects that the total may fall to about 755,300 — a roughly 2% decline — though HUD has not yet released the official 2025 count. “The shift from sus...
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In photos: A tumultuous Alabama special session, marked by protest

Voters hold signs saying "Hands Off Our Votes" and "Our Vote Our Voice Our Power" outside the Alabama Statehouse on May 4, 2026 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The Alabama Legislature began a special session Monday that could result in changes to primary elections and current congressional legislative district lines. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) The Alabama Legislature on Friday passed two bills that would allow the state to set new primary elections in certain congressional and legislative district if federal courts allow the state to revert to maps it previously declared racially discriminatory. The session came after the U.S. Supreme Court substantially weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, preventing racial discrimination in voting laws, in Louisiana v. Callais , and as the Alabama Attorney General’s Office sought to overturn prior court rulings that led to the creation of a second congressional district with a substantial populatio...
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