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Americans’ air conditioning costs expected to rise again this summer

After facing costly heating bills this winter, a new report says consumers shouldn’t expect relief for the summer months, as electric prices and temperatures continue to rise. (Photo by Dave Cummings/New Hampshire Bulletin) After facing costly heating bills this winter, consumers shouldn’t expect relief for the summer months, according to new projections for household utility costs. The National Energy Assistance Directors Association projects the average electricity cost to cool homes between June and September will reach $778 this summer. That’s a $61 — or 8.5% — increase from last year and nearly 37% higher than in 2020. The association, which represents state employees administering federal energy assistance programs, attributes the increase to warmer temperatures and higher electric prices. “Families are squeezed from both directions,” Mark Wolfe, the association’s executive director, said in a news release. “They are paying more for electricity, and they need more of it to s...

A US Supreme Court ruling hammered voting rights. What does it mean and what happens now?

“I voted” stickers rest on a counter at the Pennington County Administration Building during early voting on Jan. 19, 2026, for a municipal election in Rapid City, South Dakota. (Photo by Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight) The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision gutting the federal Voting Rights Act could upend American politics and trigger a new rush to redraw congressional districts. The opinion released on Wednesday, in a case called Louisiana v. Callais, holds sweeping consequences for how states and local governments draw district lines at all levels of government, from Congress to school boards. Louisiana, whose congressional map is at the center of the case, may even suspend an upcoming primary election so state lawmakers can pass a new map. Other states are also weighing new gerrymanders, either this year or before the 2028 election. Gerrymandering refers to drawing political maps for the purpose of gaining some form of unfair advantage — whether partisan or racial or to ...

Three shutdowns later, Congress finishes funding the government with passage of DHS bill

Federal immigration officers were at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on March 23, 2026 during the Department of Homeland Security shutdown to help with airport security. On April 30, 2026, Congress finally passed a bill funding most of the department for the rest of the year. (Photo by Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder) WASHINGTON — The U.S. House approved a bill Thursday that will fund almost every agency in the Department of Homeland Security for the next five months, sending the measure to President Donald Trump weeks after the Senate unanimously approved it. Once the bill becomes law, it will end the shutdown that began in mid-February and has at times stalled paychecks for federal employees throughout much of the department, including those at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration. The voice vote to pass the DHS appropriations bill finally marks an end to the annual government funding proce...

The Supreme Court’s endless war on southern democracy and voting rights

A crowd gathering at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 9, 2025. The U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday gutted a key portion of the Voting Rights Act, passed after law enforcement attacked civil rights marchers on the bridge on March 7, 1965, an event known as Bloody Sunday. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) Think of the millions of Alabamians who lived, loved and died under an apartheid government, a regime that lasted nearly a century, presiding over lynchings and mass disenfranchisement. And now think of the thousands of men and women who fought, who spent decades battling to bring democracy to Alabama. It’s a long list. There’s Jackson Giles , a postal worker making $500 a year who in 1903 took Alabama’s disenfranchisement all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. There’s Amelia Boynton Robinson , who registered Black voters in Selma in the 1930s. There’s Arthur Madison , who had his law license stripped for daring to organize voter registration efforts i...

US Senate panel approves Warsh as new Fed chair, as Americans struggle with soaring costs

Kevin Warsh, U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee for chair of the Federal Reserve, testifies during his Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on April 21, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve was one step closer to the job Wednesday after North Carolina Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis cast the deciding vote to advance Kevin Warsh’s nomination to the full Senate. Lawmakers on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs voted 13-11 along party lines to move Warsh to the next step. The potential turnover at the top of the Fed, which sets monetary policy, comes as Americans see higher costs hit their pocketbooks, particularly soaring prices at the gas pump, as the U.S.-Iran conflict disrupts worldwide energy supplies. Tillis had withheld his support until the Trump administration announc...

John Hamm retires as commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections

John Hamm, the commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections, speaks during a budget hearing at the Alabama Statehouse on Jan. 29, 2026 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. Hamm announced his retirement Tuesday. He will be replaced by Greg Lovelace as commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm announced his retirement Tuesday amid ongoing violence in state prisons and within days of the department suddenly canceling a $1 billion healthcare contract with a Tennessee company. Gov. Kay Ivey announced Hamm’s departure in a news release on Tuesday, saying ADOC Deputy Commissioner Greg Lovelace will succeed him and serve through the end of her term in January. Ivey said Hamm, who became commissioner in 2022, deserved “a ton of credit for our progress across the spectrum.” GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE “Tackling challenges that come with any correcti...