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ADECA Director Kenneth Boswell speaking to lawmakers about the Rural Health Transformation Program on Feb. 4, 2026, in the Alabama State House in Montgomery, Alabama. Boswell said that for the federal grant to be "transformational" and sustainable, the state, hospitals and physicians will have to think outside the box. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) A state official Wednesday briefed lawmakers on the state’s plans to spend just over $200 million in federal grants meant to partially offset Medicaid cuts , mostly on rural health and workforce. Kenneth Boswell, director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA), told a group of lawmakers that make up the Alabama Rural Health Transformation Advisory Group the distribution of the awarded funds between the 11 initiatives the state submitted in its November application.   The state will receive $203.4 million from the program , part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that was signed into law...

Rep. Mark Gidley, R-Hokes Bluff, listens during a session of the Alabama House of Representatives on Tuesday, March 14, 2023. An Alabama House committee Wednesday approved a bill sponsored by Gidley that would allow chaplains in K-12 schools. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector) An Alabama House Committee passed a bill that would allow local school boards to allow chaplains in public K-12 schools . HB 8 , sponsored by Rep. Mark Gidley, R-Hokes Bluff, is the latest iteration of legislation filed for the past several years in the Alabama Legislature. The bill would allow but not mandate schools boards to vote on authorizing chaplains.  “This bill does not require a school board to adopt this. It just requires them to make a decision,” Gidley told the House Education Policy Committee Wednesday. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE Gidley said the bill would help teachers that have “a lot of stress and anxiety that may not feel comfortable going to some of their peers.” Un...

A demonstrator waves a red cloth as hundreds gather after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good through her car window Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026 near Portland Avenue South and East 34th Street in Minneapolis. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer) WASHINGTON — The top two Democrats in Congress on Wednesday outlined their proposal for restrictions on immigration enforcement, including body cameras and a ban on masks, though they had no details to share about when actual negotiations would begin. Lawmakers from both political parties have less than two weeks to find a solution before the stopgap law funding the Department of Homeland Security expires Feb. 13, which could force all of its components, including the Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency, into a shutdown. However, Immigration and Customs Enforcement still has access to $75 billion in funding  included in the massive tax cuts and spending package signed into law last year. House Minority L...

Rep. Greg Barnes, R-Curry, voting on a local bill in the Alabama House of Representatives on Jan. 21, 2026, in Montgomery, Alabama, in the Alabama State House. A House committee Wednesday approved a bill sponsored by Barnes that would make the intentional disruption of church services a crime. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) An Alabama House committee Wednesday approved legislation that would make it a crime to intentionally disrupt a church service. HB 363 , sponsored by Rep. Greg Barnes, R-Jasper, would make it a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, to intentionally disrupt the proceedings in a house of worship by engaging in “riot, unlawful protest, or disorderly conduct” or by harassing people who attend the service. “This bill does not impede on anyone’s freedom of expression except on church property or in the building,” Barnes told the committee in response to questions. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE A person charged under the law would ha...

Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., a member of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement and of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, speaks outside of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 3, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — Dozens of U.S. House Democrats and leaders of several caucuses rallied on a chilly Tuesday morning outside U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in the nation’s capital, demanding the resignation, firing or impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Democrats criticized Noem for the monthslong immigration operation in Minnesota in which  federal immigration agents killed two U.S. citizens — 37-year-old Renee Good, a poet and mother of three, on Jan. 7, and 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse, on Jan. 24.  They blamed Noem for aggressive tactics used by ICE and other federal immigration agents in Customs and Border Protecti...

President Donald Trump signs a government funding bill in the Oval Office of the White House on Feb. 3, 2026. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — The partial government shutdown that began this weekend ended late Tuesday when President Donald Trump signed the funding package that both chambers of Congress approved within the last week.  The House  voted 217-214 earlier in the day to clear the package for Trump following a tumultuous couple of weeks on Capitol Hill after the package stalled in the Senate. Democrats demanded additional restraints on immigration enforcement in reaction to the shooting death of a second U.S. citizen in Minneapolis.  “We’ve succeeded in passing a fiscally reasonable package that actually cuts wasteful federal spending while supporting critical programs for the safety, security and prosperity for the American people,” Trump said in the Oval Office during the signing of the spending package.   Trump and Senate Minority...