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Republican U.S. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, left, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska talk during a U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing in February 2025. The two were the only Republicans on the committee to vote for a bill to block Education Department interagency agreements July 30, 2026. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — A bipartisan effort to rein in President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education has cleared its first major legislative hurdle in a bipartisan U.S. Senate committee vote.  The  measure , approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in a 13-9 vote Thursday, represents the most sweeping attempt from Congress so far in rejecting some of the interagency agreements, or IAAs, Education has signed with other departments as part of the administration’s push to eliminate the 46-year-old agency.  The Senate bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, with GO...

A jury convicted Jeffrey Lee of the 1998 murders of Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson during a pawn shop robbery. Gov. Kay Ivey Thursday set a September execution date for Lee, who successfully challenged Alabama's nitrogen gas execution protocol earlier this year. (Alabama Department of Corrections) Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey Thursday set a September execution date for Jeffrey Lee, a death row inmate who successfully prevented the state from executing him by nitrogen gas in June. Ivey said in a statement that Lee would be executed by lethal injection on Sept. 17. He was convicted of capital murder in the killings of Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson during a robbery of a pawn shop in Orrville in 1998. The move came eight days after a federal court rejected Lee’s argument that a 2018 settlement with the state over an earlier lethal injection prevented Alabama from putting him to death by lethal injection. GET THE MORNING HE...

President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Mount Rushmore National Memorial on July 3, 2026 in Keystone, South Dakota. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to pull acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to lead the Justice Department until two Republican holdouts, Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, leave office. “Todd Blanche is a STAR, and everyone knows it! He has the potential to go down as one of the Greatest Attorney Generals of All Time. However, John Cornyn, of Texas, and Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, both of whom I refused to Endorse, and whose political careers have been ended by my action, are refusing to vote for this Great Nominee, who will remain, in any event, as Acting,” Trump  wrote Thursday morning on Truth Social in his signature style of mixed capitalization.  “Remember, both Cornyn and Tillis voted for Merrick Garland, and others, too numerous to mention. ...

The U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — For the second time in as many weeks, a War Powers Resolution aimed at curbing President Donald Trump’s war with Iran failed to pass the U.S. Senate Thursday. The vote breakdown,  49-50 , fell along familiar lines as previous War Powers votes, with Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine supporting the measure.  Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted no, as he’s done in just over a dozen similar measures. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., continues to be absent while in medical rehab. A similar War Powers Resolution to rein in Trump’s military conflict in Iran  passed in the U.S. House on July 23, but failed in the Senate — both led by Republican majorities. War heats up The regional war reignited yet again this week after Trump ordered retaliatory strikes Tuesday, along with Saudi Arabia’s ...

Brandi Swindell, founder and CEO of the Stanton Healthcare network, examines items waiting to be given out to new mothers in the storeroom at the flagship crisis pregnancy center in Meridian, Idaho. Stanton, which unlike many other centers has a medical accreditation, offers traditional crisis pregnancy center services as well as free medical services including limited obstetric ultrasounds and sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment. (Otto Kitsinger for States Newsroom) The auditors trying to learn how a dozen crisis pregnancy centers in Louisiana had spent nearly $1.2 million ultimately could not figure it out.  Despite a new law , the state had failed to establish a process for the centers or to track how they spent taxpayer dollars. That was surprising enough, auditors said. But then they learned something else: Every center they reviewed offered ultrasounds and other medical services. Yet none was licensed as a healthcare facility. “They were providing medical ser...

The owner of an insurance agency that offers Obamacare plans stands outside his storefront in Miami, Fla, in 2021. In 49 states, the number of people enrolled in Obamacare plans has declined. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) In 49 states, the number of people enrolled in Obamacare plans has declined since Congress made coverage more expensive by allowing federal subsidies to expire at the end of last year. The lone exception was New Mexico, the only state that has used its own money to fully replace the expired aid, according to a new analysis by KFF, a health policy research group. Late last month, the Trump administration announced that overall participation in the health insurance marketplaces created under Obamacare, officially called the Affordable Care Act, had declined by nearly 3 million people, to about 19.2 million from 21.8 million in 2025. That 2025 figure, the highest ever recorded, was the culmination of six years of steady increases. In announcing the figures, t...