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Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollinger's Island, casts a vote in the Alabama House of Representatives on April 25, 2024 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. Brown sponsors HB 2 that would require parental consent for vaccines.(Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) The Alabama House of Representatives Tuesday passed a bill requiring parental consent for vaccinations of children 14 years and older. HB 2 , sponsored by Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollingers Island, passed the chamber on a 92-5 vote. It requires parental consent unless the child is not dependent on their parent or guardian for support, or is living apart from their parents.  “This isn’t an anti-vaccine bill,” he said. “This is a parental rights bill.” GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE Alabama’s vaccination rates have gone down, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to data from the CDC, the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination rate in Alabama was just under 93.8% i...

Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Hoover, listens to a debate in the Alabama House of Representatives on April 18, 2023. A House committee on Tuesday approved a bill defining sex-based terms on biological standards. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) A Senate bill that would define “sex-based terms” strictly on biology is in position for final passage. SB 79 , sponsored by Sen. April Weaver, R-Alabaster — which would define “sex” as the “state of being male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth” and provide further definitions for male, female, man, woman, boy, girl, mother and father — advanced the House Health Committee Tuesday on a voice vote. “When you have a Supreme Court justice who could not define what a woman is, despite being one herself, looks like we’re going to have to codify this into Alabama law. So, we do need to pass this law for clarity, certainty and uniformity in the courts and in the laws of Alabama,” said Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Hoover, who presented the bill to ...

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina gives a speech on the House floor on Feb. 10, 2025. Mace accused four men, including her ex-fiancé, of “some of the most heinous crimes against women imaginable” during a nearly hour-long prepared speech Monday night on the House floor. The men have denied the allegations. (Screenshot from C-Span) This story originally appeared on South Carolina Daily Gazette . U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, accused four men, including her ex-fiancé, of “some of the most heinous crimes against women imaginable” during a nearly hour-long prepared speech Monday night on the House floor. The 1st District congresswoman said she discovered thousands of photos taken with hidden cameras as well as recordings the “predators” made of themselves sexual assaulting women over years. She was among the victims. Some were underage girls, she said. “None of you will get away with it,” said Mace, who has represented the Lowcountry since 2020. “None of you will becau...

Wind turbines generate electricity at the Block Island Wind Farm near Block Island, R.I. President Donald Trump has blocked leasing for pending offshore wind projects, a serious roadblock for many states’ plan to transition to clean energy. (John Moore/Getty Images) For states that are pursuing plans to build more wind and solar projects, the federal government has suddenly shifted from a powerful ally to a formidable opponent. State leaders are still scrambling to make sense of President Donald Trump’s flurry of executive orders, funding freezes, agency directives and verbal threats about clean energy. It’s as if the teammate who had passed them the ball is now trying to block their shot. Trump has slammed the brakes on offshore wind development, which relies on access to federal waters. He’s halted permitting for some renewable energy projects. He’s frozen grants and loans supporting everything from rooftop solar panels to household weatherization assistance. And he’s created u...

The front of the federal Hugo L Black Courthouse taken on August 15, 2023. A trial over Alabama's redistricting maps began on Monday. (Jemma Stephenson/Alabama Reflector) BIRMINGHAM — A federal trial over Alabama’s congressional map opened Monday with questions over whether Black voters in Mobile share stronger political and economic ties with other Black residents in the state’s Black Belt or with nearby Baldwin County, a predominantly white area. The answers to the questions could determine the fate of Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, currently configured with a near-majority Black population to give Black Alabamians living there a better opportunity to select their preferred leaders. Shalela Dowdy, a plaintiff in the Milligan v Allen case and an Army major and Mobile native, testified that Black residents in Mobile and the Black Belt share economic, social and historical bonds that justify being grouped in the same congressional district. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. ...

The National Institutes of Health announced Friday that it would cap “Facilities and Administrative” costs at 15%, a significant reduction for many institutions that use grants from the federal agency to conduct biomedical research. (Photo by TEK IMAGE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images) WASHINGTON — Research universities and medical schools are grappling with how to implement a major change in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health that they warn could curtail breakthroughs or halt projects altogether, and that a senior Democrat in Congress called “nothing short of catastrophic.” The NIH  announced Friday that it would cap “Facilities and Administrative” costs at 15%, a significant reduction for many institutions that use grants from the federal agency to conduct research into some of the more daunting health diagnoses, like Alzheimer’s and cancer. The NIH said the policy change regarding so-called “indirect costs” is intended to align how much the federal g...

In this aerial view, Mexican immigration officials and police escort deportees after they were sent back into Mexico on Jan. 22, 2025, as seen from Nogales, Arizona.  (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — A New Hampshire federal judge Monday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order that aims to end the constitutional right of birthright citizenship. His  preliminary injunction was the third judicial action against the executive order the president signed on his first day of his second term, following nationwide injunctions from Washington state and  Maryland. Judge Joseph N. Laplante said he would issue a statement on his reasoning Tuesday, but noted an injunction was needed due to “the status of children born” as the lawsuit continues. Laplante was appointed by former President George W. Bush in 2007. The suit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, argues that the executive order violates the U.S. Constitution. “The framers of the Fourt...

Oil and gas development within Alabama’s Conecuh National Forest could potentially put recreation areas like Blue Lake and Open Pond at an environmental risk. (U.S. Forest Service) This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News , a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here . CONECUH COUNTY — At the confluence of the Yellow River and Pond Creek in Alabama’s Conecuh National Forest, there’s a place of peace. It’s a small, icy blue, year-round freshwater spring where the locals often go to unplug. Nestled inside Conecuh National Forest, Blue Spring is surrounded by new growth—mostly pines replanted after the forest was clear cut for timber production in the 1930s. Nearly a century after that clear cut, another environmental risk has reared its head in the forest, threatening Blue Spring’s peace: oil and gas development. As the Biden administration came to a close in January, officials with th...

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was one of the world's largest suppliers of contraception through a family planning program. An analysis estimated if USAID provides no contraception care in 2025, about 4.2 million unintended pregnancies will result as well as over 8,000 deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth complications. (Getty Images) This story was originally reported by Jessica Kutz of The 19th . Meet Jessica and read more of her reporting on gender, politics and policy . On Sunday, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, boasted that he was gutting the federal agency tasked with providing foreign aid to its poorest. “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk, the tech billionaire head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, posted on his social media platform, X. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was established in 1961 to provide foreign assistance to impoverished countries...

The sun rises above homes that burned in the Eaton Fire in January in Altadena, Calif. More than 12,000 structures burned in the Palisades and Eaton fires last month. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) This story originally appeared on Stateline . After nearly a month, the Eaton and Palisades wildfires that ravaged California have been contained . But for Southern California and state agencies, another challenge lies ahead: helping people find homes. The wildfires levied significant long-term damage, with thousands of homes destroyed, billions in damages and a worsening of the state’s housing and homelessness crises. Even before the fires, California already had a shortage of 1.2 million affordable homes, with Los Angeles County alone facing a deficit of 500,000 units. “This tragic loss will certainly make the housing crisis more acute in multiple ways,” said Ryan Finnigan, an associate research director at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berke...