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Absentee ballots are prepared to be mailed at the Wake County Board of Elections on September 17, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — With just over two months until the November midterms, a federal district judge in Massachusetts is chastising the Trump administration for sowing confusion and “creating” an emergency by noticing a rule Friday that the U.S. Postal Service will eventually require federally regulated mail-in ballot voting envelopes and state data. A 95-page  notice alerting that the final rule would appear in the Federal Register on Aug. 26 outlined justifications for federal requirements on states to redesign ballot envelopes and provide a list of recipient names and addresses to USPS. The final rule became effective Friday, according to the document. The final rule runs contrary to U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s Aug. 11  preliminary injunction barring the federal government from changing states’ mail-in ...

Michigan State University doctoral students attend the university's doctoral commencement ceremony on May 5, 2023. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance) WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security is planning to drastically increase the fee for hiring high-skilled foreign workers within the United States to $100,000, according to a preview of a proposed rule published Monday.  The administration  noted in the Federal Register that it plans to use the fee to “serve as a dedicated revenue mechanism to help recover a portion of the federal government’s costs of administering the lawful immigration system, including activities carried out by DHS” and the departments of Justice, State and Labor. Currently, it costs anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 for an employer to hire a highly skilled foreign worker through the H-1B visa program. Congress created the program in the 1990s and visas are capped annually at 65,000, with an additional 20,000 for foreign workers who graduate w...

Maigen Sullivan, co-founder of Invisible Histories, speaks at the Department of Archives and History on Thursday, June 15, 2023. In March 2026, the organization moved from Birmingham to Charlotte, North Carolina. (Jemma Stephenson/Alabama Reflector) Key Points Invisible Histories is a non-profit organization that researches and archives LGBTQ+ history. In June 2023, Maigen Sullivan, one of the co-founders of Invisible Histories, gave a talk at the Alabama Department of Archives and History about LGBTQ+ history in the state which sparked attacks against Sullivan and the department. The organization was previously based in Birmingham but recently moved to Charlotte, North Carolina this year for reasons including funding, space, and the hostility within the state.  Before June 2023, Invisible Histories flew under the radar in Alabama.  The non-profit organization, which archives and researches southern LGBTQ+ history, began collecting ...

Megan Hahn teaches class attendees how to use an online health portal at the Swanton Senior Center in Swanton, Ohio. Hahn is a digital navigator with the Northwestern Ohio Community Action Commission. The group’s work is supported by local, state, and federal grants. (Northwestern Ohio Community Action Commission) Key points A federal judge handed digital equity advocates a mixed ruling in their fight against Trump. The win: He blocked Trump’s attempt to unilaterally kill a $2.75 billion Digital Equity Act grant program. The catch: He agreed it’s unconstitutional to use race as a factor to award the money. A federal judge in July gave digital equity advocates a partial victory against President Donald Trump, stopping his attempt to unilaterally kill a multibillion-dollar grant program Congress created. But U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, in a 35-page opinion , also agreed with the administration that it was unconstitutional for t...

President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Oval Office on August 6, 2026. Trump signed an executive order during the event denying birthright citizenship to children of foreign diplomats after a loss at the U.S. Supreme Court limited an earlier order. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has not slowed his pursuit of central policy goals and personal passions, even after major setbacks at the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts. The high court in its 2026 term delivered blows to Trump’s core campaign promises to upend a constitutional provision governing who becomes a U.S. citizen at birth and to swiftly address the growing national debt with “trillions of dollars” raised by taxing imports.  The justices also ruled the president cannot fire, without cause, Fed Board Gov. Lisa Cook and deny her a chance to plead her case. And a lower court blocked Trump from installing his name on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts...