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Congressional approval not needed for White House ballroom, Trump tells high court

Demolition work continued where the East Wing once stood at the White House on Dec. 8, 2025. President Donald Trump ordered the 123-year-old East Wing and Jacqueline Kennedy Garden leveled to make way for a new 90,000-square-foot ballroom. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday to intervene in a lower court decision that halts his $400 million White House ballroom construction unless he receives authorization from Congress. The administration requested the justices grant an immediate stay to a 2-1 federal appeals court decision that sided with historic preservationists who argued Trump doesn’t have the authority to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom where the White House East Wing stood until Trump ordered its demolition in October 2025. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued the decision on Aug. 7 but delayed the ruling for two weeks to allow the administration time to app...

DOJ targets 3 more states in effort to axe in-state tuition for immigrants

Students walk across the University of Louisville campus. Kentucky is one of 17 states the Trump administration sued to block in-state tuition for students in the country without permanent legal immigration status. (Photo by McKenna Horsley/Kentucky Lantern) WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice has sued New York, Connecticut and Vermont over laws that allow immigrants in the country without permanent legal status to pay in-state college tuition in the states where they live. The suits, filed Aug. 10 , are part of a larger push from the Trump administration to go after states with such policies, as the administration seeks to curb any benefits that could be extended to people without permanent legal status. Since President Donald Trump re-took office, the DOJ has sued 17 states over laws that allow noncitizen students who meet certain requirements access to in-state tuition at public colleges and universities, regardless of their immigration status. In f...

Democrats push nearly 250 state bills opposing federal immigration efforts

Colorado state Sen. Mike Weissman, a Democrat, speaks at a February news conference about immigration enforcement-related bills at the Colorado Capitol. Democratic lawmakers nationwide proposed nearly 250 bills this year in statehouses seeking to limit federal immigration enforcement efforts. (Photo by Sara Wilson/Colorado Newsline) Democratic lawmakers proposed nearly 250 bills in state capitols this year seeking to limit federal immigration efforts as they sought to push back against what they view as federal government overreach. In a new report tallying 2026 action, State Futures, a nonprofit coordinating hundreds of Democratic lawmakers across the states, tracked 242 pieces of such legislation introduced across 32 states. About a fifth of them passed. Most of the measures address the ramped up immigration enforcement efforts that have defined President Donald Trump’s second term. Some of those bills have faced Republican opposition and White House challenges. But Democratic g...

More GOP party platforms include anti-IVF language. Is surrogacy next?

Idaho Democratic state Rep. Brooke Green, her toddler Bridger Byington, and her baby Bryson Byington at the Boise River in Boise, Idaho, on August 6, 2026. Opposition to the two ways that Green had her children, IVF and surrogacy, is rising. (Photo by Otto Kitsinger for Stateline) Brooke Green thought she needed a mammogram. Green, a Democratic state representative in Idaho, knew that breast cancer ran in her family and she “just had an inkling” that she should be tested. She was two weeks shy of the day her last remaining embryo would be implanted through in vitro fertilization. It was the one shot she had left to give her firstborn son a sibling, since it took several rounds of in vitro fertilization to get pregnant the first time. The mammogram confirmed her fears: There was in fact a lump in her breast, and a biopsy of the tumor confirmed it was cancer. Worse yet, it was a type of cancer fueled by estrogen and progesterone, two of the main hormones that skyrocket during pregnanc...

Federal agency blocks Medicaid coverage of kids’ gender-affirming care

A new federal rule is ending Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming hormone therapies and procedures for young people. (Photo by Dana DiFilippo/New Jersey Monitor) A new federal rule will end Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming hormone therapies and procedures for kids under age 18. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced Tuesday a rule that prohibits state Medicaid plans from covering gender-affirming procedures for minors and using federal Medicaid dollars for such care. The rule also prohibits Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, funds from being used for kids under 19. CMS is defining such care to include puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgical operations. The policy takes effect Oct. 13. The Trump administration asserts that gender-affirming care is dangerous for kids, while many medical groups say it’s safe and can improve the mental health of children and adolescents. Surgical gender-affirming care operations are very rare for chil...

Trump press secretary Leavitt to leave White House

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks Feb. 21, 2025, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo by Gage Skidmore) WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will step down from her position at the end of August to spend more time with her family, President Donald Trump announced on social media Wednesday. In a post on Truth Social, the president praised Leavitt, the youngest person to serve in the role, as one of his closest aides in the White House and said she will move to an adviser role outside of government. “Our wonderful White House Press Secretary, and one of my most trusted aides, Karoline Leavitt, will be departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect!” Trump wrote. “Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy H...