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A sign at a Carl’s Jr. restaurant in Anchorage, Alaska, advertises for workers. The state’s minimum wage increased to $11.91 this month and will rise to $13 in July. (Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) The minimum wage will increase in nearly half the states this year even as the federal wage floor remains stuck at $7.25 per hour. In many states, the minimum wage is automatically adjusted upward as inflation rises. But voters in several states, including deeply red ones such as Alaska and Missouri, chose in November to significantly increase their minimum wages this year. Michigan will see its minimum wage jump from $10.33 to $12.48 on Feb. 21 after the state Supreme Court concluded the legislature subverted residents when it adopted but then significantly amended voter-initiated ballot measures in 2018 to raise the minimum wage and mandate paid sick time. Michigan’s wage floor is set to rise to $14.97 by 2028 — more than double the federal minimum wage, which has not increased since 20...

Chair Rex Vaughn presides over the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission on Dec. 1, 2023 in Montgomery. (Alander Rocha/Alabama Reflector) ​A​ court hearing over medical cannabis licensing originally scheduled for Monday has been pushed back about a month.   The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals will hear arguments on February 11 at 10 a.m. over Montgomery Circuit Court Judge James Anderson’s temporary restraining order against the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC), according to the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals Clerk’s office. The hearing was initially scheduled for January 13. The Clerk of Courts office did not provide a reason for the delay. The Alabama Legislature approved a state medical cannabis program in 2021, allowing individuals with 15 qualifying medical conditions — such as cancer, depression, Parkinson’s disease, PTSD, sickle-cell anemia, chronic pain, and terminal illnesses — to apply for medical cannabis.  The law restricts medical cannabis to for...

Rep. Tracy Estes, R-Winfield, speaks to a colleague before the start of the session of the Alabama House of Representatives on May 11, 2023. Estes has agreed to settle a case that alleged he made violent threats to a woman, according to a Thursday court filing. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) Rep. Tracy Estes, R-Winfield, who faced accusations of making violent threats to a woman, has agreed to settle the case, according to a court filing Thursday. Estes, 57, was charged with 3rd degree domestic violence charges on Sept. 20 after he allegedly made verbal threats to a person for two hours. The person who filed the petition for protection from abuse alleged that a gun was involved and that she was afraid she would be seriously injured. Third-degree domestic violence is a class A misdemeanor. Conviction can result in a sentence of up to one year in jail and a fine of $6,000. In exchange for dismissal of the charges, the settlement states that a protective order issued in September ...

The late President Jimmy Carter’s casket is pictured leaving the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 9, 2025, before it was transported to Washington National Cathedral. (Photo by U.S. Army Spc. David A. Carvajal/Department of Defense) WASHINGTON — On a wintry Thursday morning, mourners and dignitaries gathered at Washington National Cathedral to honor the life of  former President Jimmy Carter . Speakers at Carter’s state funeral, including President Joe Biden and the sons of Carter’s political contemporaries delivering eulogies written by their fathers, described the Georgia native and U.S. Navy veteran as a man committed to civil and human rights who led a courageous life of faith and service. In his eulogy, Biden said Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, established “a model post-presidency,” depicting the Georgian as a man of “character” who held a “deep Christian faith in God.”  “Jimmy Carter’s friendship taught me, and through his life, taught me, that strength of chara...

Heavy traffic moves along Interstate 395 in Washington, D.C. Transportation is the nation’s leading source of greenhouse gas emissions, and the District of Columbia and many states have adopted California’s strict rules to cut emissions. But President-elect Donald Trump is expected to challenge long-standing waivers that allow those states to exceed federal standards. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Blue states are bracing for a battle with the Trump administration over their authority to limit tailpipe emissions, a showdown that will have major repercussions on the types of cars and trucks sold to American drivers. All sides expect President-elect Donald Trump to try to revoke states’ authority to adopt California’s strict rules on the pollution spewed by vehicles. Many states’ efforts to fight climate change hinge on a federal process that allows them to adopt stringent regulations for transportation, the country’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. GET THE MORNING HEADL...

Michael Fanone, a former Metropolitan Police Department officer who defended the U.S. Capitol and suffered injuries on Jan. 6, 2021, is pictured at the attack’s second anniversary. Fanone on Wednesday denounced President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to pardon people charged in connection with the attack. (Photo by Ariana Figueroa/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — Tennessee Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen and two former police officers who protected the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, on Wednesday condemned President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to pardon those charged in connection with the insurrection. Cohen, former U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell and former D.C. police officer Michael Fanone said on a call organized by the Not Above the Law coalition, a collection of pro-democracy groups often critical of Trump, that pardons for those who took part in the 2021 attack would be a blow to the rule of law. Trump  has said he would issue pardons for those prosecuted for ch...

Frank Wampol, vice president of safety and health at the BL Harbert International construction company, based in Birmingham, Alabama, is working on providing mental health first-aid training for on-site supervisors and information on suicide prevention to the company’s 10,000-plus employees. (Katja Ridderbusch for KFF Health News) The story originally appeared on KFF Health News . If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.” BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Frank Wampol had a dark realization when he came across some alarming data a few years ago: Over 5,000 male construction workers die from suicide annually — five times the number who die from work-related injuries, according to several studies. That’s considerably more than the suicide rate for men in the general population. “To say this is a crisis would be an understatement,” said Wampol, vice president of safety and health at BL Harbert...

President-elect Donald Trump speaks to members of the media during a press conference at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Jan. 7, 2025. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said during a wide-ranging press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday he wanted to see the country’s debt limit addressed while cutting spending and would not rule out military force to expand U.S. territory.  Trump, who will take office Jan. 20 after  lawmakers breezily certified the election results Monday, continued to place blame on outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden for what he will be left with in his second term as he dives into an ambitious GOP agenda. “We are inheriting a difficult situation from the outgoing administration, and they’re trying everything they can to make it more difficult,” Trump said. “Inflation is continuing to rage and interest rates are far too high, and I’ve been disappointed to see the Biden administration’s atte...

RICHMOND, CALIFORNIA - MAY 17: Newly donated LGBTQ+ books are displayed in the library at Nystrom Elementary School on May 17, 2022 in Richmond, California. California State Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond celebrated the donation of thousands of LGBTQ+ books from Gender Nation to 234 elementary schools in nine California districts. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) This story originally appeared on Stateline . Karen Grant and fellow school librarians throughout New Jersey have heard an increasingly loud chorus of parents and conservative activists demanding that certain books — often about race, gender and sexuality — be removed from the shelves. In the past year, Grant and her colleagues in the Ewing Public Schools just north of Trenton updated a 3-decade-old policy on reviewing parents’ challenges to books they see as pornographic or inappropriate. Grant’s team feared that without a new policy, the district would immediately bend to someone who wanted certain books...

Even a bitterly cold Monday, Jan. 6, did not stop a steady stream of visitors to Carter Presidential Center, where former President Jimmy Carter lies in repose ahead of his national funeral in Washington D.C. (Stanley Dunlap/Georgia Recorder) This story originally appeared on Georgia Recorder . Admirers of former President Jimmy Carter braved frigid temperatures Monday to pay respects to the late president before his six-day funeral procession moves to Washington. Hundreds of people continued to flock to the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, open since Saturday evening, while Carter lies in repose within a casket draped with the American flag surrounded by a guard of honor provided by the military. John Ploss, 93, visited the center on Monday to pay respects to a fellow graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. Following his graduation from the academy, Carter became a Navy pilot several classes before Ploss, who would also become a pilot. The Ploss family members spent the weeke...

Demetrius Terrence Frazier is scheduled to be executed in February 2025 after he was convicted of capital murder. (Alabama Department of Corrections) After executing more people than any other state in 2024, Alabama will carry out its first this year in early February. On Tuesday, Gov. Kay Ivey published a letter she sent to John Hamm, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections, indicating that she scheduled the execution of Demetrius Terrence Frazier for Feb. 6 by nitrogen gas. Frazier was convicted of capital murder and sentenced him to death in June 1996. According to court documents , five years earlier, Frazier broke into a Birmingham apartment, and raped and killed a woman who lived there. He was arrested a few months later in Detroit. Frazier is set to be the fourth person that the state has executed using nitrogen gas since Alabama approved the method in 2018. In January 2024, the state put Kenneth Eugene Smith to death, followed by Alan Miller in September a...

Arkansas Health Secretary Renee Mallory (center) explains part of the maternal health improvement plan that Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (second from left) authorized in an executive order on Wednesday, March 6, 2024. (Screenshot courtesy of Facebook livestream) This story originally appeared on Arkansas Advocate . Arkansas will direct $17 million in federal grant funds to improving maternal health care outcomes, the state Department of Human Services announced Monday in a news release . The Transforming Maternal Health (TMaH) Model comes from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and provides funding and technical assistance to state Medicaid agencies with the goal of improving maternal health outcomes. The newest model, which launched Jan. 1, will focus specifically on aiding people enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), both of which are administered by DHS. As of Dec. 1, nearly half of the 863,117 Arkansans on Medicaid ...