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Engineer and TV host Emily Calandrelli came to Capitol Hill Wednesday, Oct. 29, as part of an effort to require the U.S. Transportation Security Administration to enforce a policy that allows parents to bring breast milk, formula and supplies on planes. She is among many moms who say they have faced scrutiny traveling with breast milk and ice packs. (Photo by Sofia Resnick/States Newsroom) Brinda Sen Gupta was traveling by plane for work last month without her infant but with gel packs she would need to keep her breast milk cool on the return flight. Knowing how hard it can be to get through airport security with breastmilk and infant-feeding supplies, Sen Gupta arrived extra early and prepared. Sure enough, a U.S. Transportation Security Administration agent objected to Sen Gupta’s gel packs, she said. She took out her phone and showed a screenshot of TSA’s  current policy . It stems from a  2016 law and states that breast milk, formula and toddler drinks are considered “...

A protester holds a photo of Kilmar Abrego Garcia as demonstrators gather to protest against the deportation of immigrants to El Salvador outside the Permanent Mission of El Salvador to the United Nations on April 24, 2025 in New York City.  (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Maryland on Friday approved the transfer of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from immigration detention in Pennsylvania to Nashville, Tennessee, for a multi-day hearing in his criminal case brought by the Trump administration after an erroneous deportation to El Salvador.  The Trump administration previously  planned as soon as Friday  to again deport Abrego Garcia, this time to the West African country of Liberia. Abrego Garcia has protections from deportation to his home country of El Salvador after an immigration judge in 2019 feared he would face violence if removed there.  Maryland District Judge Paula Xinis will allow for the transfer for his multi-day...

Textbooks pictured a in the Gordon Persons Building in downtown Montgomery, AL on Monday, May 15, 2023. The Alabama State Board of Education is scheduled to vote on new textbooks at its meeting next month (Todd Van Emst for Alabama Reflector) The Alabama State Board of Education will vote on adopting new social studies and arts education textbooks for the 2026-2027 school year at its November meeting. Members of the Alabama State Board of Education earlier this month were given scores granted to textbooks by the Alabama State Textbook Committee. The two committees, one for social studies and one for arts education , were appointed in April to review and rate textbooks. Once the ratings were complete, they were sealed and given to State Board of Education members. The scores and number of textbooks evaluated were not shared with the public. Alabama State Schools Superintendent Eric Mackey told the board the textbook approval process in Alabama is a “tight-lipped” process due t...

Democratic U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, accompanied by Democratic U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, points to a poster depicting rising medical costs if Congress allows the Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) States are preparing for the possibility of a rapid shift in the cost of Obamacare health plans, depending on whether Congress extends the subsidies that are at the center of the federal government shutdown. No matter what Congress does, the amount insurers charge for coverage sold on the marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act will increase by an average of 26% in 2026 , according to KFF, a health research nonprofit. In the 30 states that use the federal Healthcare.gov , premiums will rise by an average of 30%. In the states that run their own marketplaces, the average increase will be about 17%. But 22 million of the 24 million people who are enrolled in marketplace plans receive a tax credit. If Congress extend...

Idaho resident Lynlee Lord said she used nutrition assistance programs that helped ease some of the stress she was dealing with while pregnant in the aftermath of her partner’s death. Food insecurity can bring heightened risks of preeclampsia, preterm birth and NICU admission, research shows. (Courtesy of Lynlee Lord) Without action from Congress before Saturday, millions nationwide will be cut off from access to government food assistance, including those who are pregnant or have babies and young children. That possibility brings back a lot of difficult memories for Lynlee Lord, a mom of three in rural Idaho. In 2014, when Lord was 24, her partner died by suicide. She was 11 weeks pregnant with his daughter and already had a 2-year-old son. “I went from building my life with my best friend to not having anything, and having to move into income-based apartments,” Lord said. She was also going to cosmetology school full-time in Boise, Idaho, nearly an hour away from where she live...

Fruit is displayed at an Anchorage grocery store. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) WASHINGTON — The near-certain freeze on key federal nutrition programs will put particular pressure on tribal communities, according to advocates and U.S. senators of both parties. American Indian and Alaska Native communities are scrambling to fill anticipated gaps in food security and assistance created by the lack of funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC, during the ongoing government shutdown. Sarah Harris, the secretary of United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc. and United South and Eastern Tribes Sovereignty Protection Fund, a nonprofit and an associated advocacy group for 33 federally recognized tribal nations from Texas to Maine, told the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee during a Wednesday hearing that uncertainty over the availability of SNAP and WIC benefits is ...

A sign at Alabama State University entrance in Montgomery, Alabama as seen in 2023. (Getty Images) Alabama State University (ASU) has received the largest donation in the history of the university. ASU, one of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), received $38 million from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott, the largest contribution in the school’s 158-year history. “We are deeply grateful to MacKenzie Scott for her unprecedented generosity in supporting the vision of Alabama State University. The message here is clear: the work being done at this University is being held in high regard,” Dr. Quinton T. Ross, Jr., ASU president, said in a statement Monday. “This investment allows us to continue to make a significant impact as an institution of higher learning now and for generations to come. This is a history-making moment at the place where history is made.” The university said in the statement that the money will be used for “bolstering the university’s ...

An emergency room nurse tends to a patient at Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital in Texas. States, counties and nonprofits are striving to continue their work to close racial health disparity gaps but are struggling amid a loss of federal dollars. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) Racial health disparities may widen as states, universities and nonprofits grapple with federal funding cuts to programs that were aimed at filling gaps in care, public health experts say. As part of its federal restructuring and crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, the Trump administration has been shuttering federal offices and rescinding grants dedicated to addressing worse health care access and outcomes for racial minorities. The shake-up has caused some state agencies and nonprofits to pause programs and some groups and universities to apply for foundation grants instead. Hundreds of grants have been terminated for state, local and territorial health departments as ...

The U.S. Capitol. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats urged Republican leaders Wednesday to pass a bill to extend critical food assistance for the most vulnerable Americans during the ongoing government shutdown. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Democrats would support a  standalone bill introduced by GOP Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley. And New Mexico Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján attempted to pass by unanimous consent his bill to fund two major nutrition assistance programs. “Let’s end this hunger crisis before it begins,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.  But Senate Majority Leader John Thune objected to Luján’s proposal, and the government shutdown entered its fifth week with lawmakers of both parties showing no signs of the agreement needed to reopen the government in time to avoid putting 42 million people  at risk of losing their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits...

U. S. Space Force Guardians are seen at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado on Aug. 20. The Trump administration's intent to more Space Force headquarters to Alabama is the subject of a new lawsuit filed by the Colorado attorney general. (Photo by Dave Grim/U.S. Space Force) Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is suing President Donald Trump’s administration over its “retaliatory” decision to relocate U.S. Space Command from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama. In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of Colorado on Wednesday, Weiser wrote that the president “could not have been clearer about his motivations” for the move, citing Trump’s comments during the Oval Office announcement last month acknowledging that Colorado’s elections, which he falsely described as “crooked,” were a “big factor” in his decision. That admission makes Trump’s decision to vacate Space Command’s temporary location in Colorado — the latest twist in a years-long battle over the permanent ...

President Donald Trump attends inauguration ceremonies in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) President Donald Trump sought to remove his status as the only felon to be elected president by appealing his conviction on 34 New York state charges just before midnight Tuesday, arguing, in part, that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling giving the president broad immunity invalidated the conviction. In  a 96-page appeal nearly 18 months after his state court conviction that he falsified business records by disguising hush money payments over an alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels as legitimate legal payments, Trump’s attorneys recited a list of complaints over his prosecution.   Among those complaints were that New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, targeted the then-former president, and that the presiding Democratic judge created at least the appearance of partiality, t...