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A WIC child participant takes a WIC-approved product off the shelf in a grocery store in Seattle in September 2024. (Photo by U.S. Department of Agriculture) WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is infusing $300 million into a key federal nutrition program to keep it running through October, while a government shutdown continues without an apparent end point.  USDA’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children — known as WIC — has relied on short-term funds amid the shutdown. That has worried advocates as states are left to fill the gaps when the money runs out.  USDA is transferring $300 million into WIC from its child nutrition programs account, which has long been funded in part by tariff revenue from prior years, according to a congressional aide familiar with the plan.  The transfer does not require congressional approval and is expected to keep the program afloat through the end of this month.  A USDA spokesperson sa...

Relatives and friends of hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal embrace as they learn the news of his release on Oct. 13, 2025, in Ra'anana, Israel. The ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas has brought an end to the two years of war that followed the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. A condition of the deal was the immediate return of hostages held in Gaza. (Photo by Dima Vazinovich/Getty Images)  WASHINGTON — After just over two years in Hamas captivity, the surviving Israeli hostages were released Monday as President Donald Trump visited Israel and Egypt to celebrate a U.S.-brokered peace deal to end the war in Gaza. In remarks to Israel’s Knesset, the country’s parliamentary body, Monday afternoon Jerusalem time, Trump hailed “the golden age of Israel and the golden age of the Middle East.” “Israel, with our help, has won all that they can by force of arms. You’ve won. I mean, you’ve won. Now it’s time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of...

Marines assigned to the U.S. Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon congratulate newly promoted Gunnery Sgt. Nathan Cox, platoon sergeant, during a field event at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, on Sept. 4, 2025. (Photo by Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Brynn Bouchard/Department of Defense) WASHINGTON — The Trump administration plans to send paychecks to active duty troops this week, despite Congress not passing legislation to allow it during the ongoing shutdown. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has refused to bring the House back into session to pass a stand-alone bill to provide pay for troops, welcomed the action during a Monday press conference, though he didn’t comment on whether the administration holds that legal authority.   “We are so very grateful that President Trump, again showing strong leadership, has stepped up to ensure that our troops are going to be paid on Oct. 15,” Johnson said.  Congress  approved a bill just before the 2013 government shutdown b...

An aerial view shows an automated license plate reader mounted on a pole in San Francisco. California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have restricted the use of data from such camera systems. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Lawmakers in at least 16 states this year introduced bills to regulate the use of automated license plate readers responsible for collecting large amounts of data on drivers across the country. But just three states — Arkansas , Idaho and Virginia — enacted laws this session that establish or amend rules for law enforcement agencies using the high-tech camera systems and the manner in which license plate data should be stored. And this month, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have restricted use of such data. The new Arkansas law, which was signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in April, also allows nongovernmental entities, such as private landowners and commercial business owners, to ...

Flowers and balloons are tied to a pole in downtown Montgomery on Oct. 8, 2025, near the scene of a mass shooting that took place on Oct. 4. Two people — Jeremiah Morris, 17, and Shalanda Williams, 43 — were killed in the shooting. Twelve other people were wounded. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) State Republicans had a consistent response to the awful shooting  in Montgomery on Oct. 4 . From Gov. Kay Ivey down, Alabama’s white GOP elites lectured a majority-Black city about the importance of public safety. “This simply should not be happening in our capital city or anywhere in our state for that matter,” Ivey said in the wake of the shooting. And she’s right. It shouldn’t. But I’m not convinced that’s what they’re actually concerned about. Power seems to be the real point of this “public safety” outrage. What Montgomery’s critics seem to be angling for is a takeover of law enforcement in the city, akin to a proposal last year to have the governor and attorney general take o...

Bessemer City Council members listen as residents express their concerns about a proposed data center at a meeting on July 15. The council last week amended zoning codes to allow data centers in light industrial areas despite significant local opposition. (Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News) 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 . BESSEMER — The reverend knew what was coming. As Tuesday’s City Council meeting began, The Rev. Thomas Thrash delivered a prayer that set the stage for the dynamic that would play out in the council chambers. “May truth rise above deception,” Thrash said. “May righteousness rise above greed.” GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE Thrash requested divine guidance to help the council consider the harm a proposed hyperscale data center could bring to Bessemer and the surrounding, rural communities in cent...

Antitrust experts say the new administration’s hands-off approach to tech regulation could gain the president the loyalty of tech executives in the short term, but could hurt the competitiveness of the American tech sector in the long run. (Photo by hapabapa/Getty Images) Leaders in the tech industry have enjoyed more freedom to make business moves and an overall deregulatory attitude under the Trump administration, but antitrust experts say the administration’s hands-off approach could end up hurting American companies’ ability to innovate and compete on a global scale. Antitrust laws protect fair competition, ensuring that no one company controls an entire market, price gouges for their products or controls the cost of labor. In the short term, a lax approach to these laws could mean the American people may see more big tech companies merge or acquire smaller competitors.  In the long-term, it means the already small group of people running the country’s most powerful tech fi...

Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed speaking to press on Oct. 5, 2025, after a mass shooting on the night of Oct. 4 in downtown Montgomery. MPD arrested a juvenile male Friday and charged him with capital murder, first-degree assault and second-degree assault. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) The Montgomery Police Department said Friday that they arrested a suspect in connection with the Saturday shooting that left two dead and 12 people injured. MPD posted a video to its Facebook page of an officer patting down the suspect, a juvenile male, before putting him into the police car. The suspect’s name and age has not been released. He is charged with one count of capital murder; nine counts of first-degree assault and three counts of second-degree assault, according to police Police said the juvenile was taken to the Montgomery County Detention Facility on Friday. Messages seeking further comment from MPD and Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed were sent Friday afternoon. The shooting took pl...

Will Berry and his wife Courtney sit in front the Alabama State Capitol on Sept. 23, 2025 before delivering a petition to Gov. Kay Ivey asking her to halt the planned execution of Geoffrey West. West was convicted of killing Berry's mother, Margaret Parrish Berry, during a robbery in 1997. Berry publicly opposed West's execution, saying he wanted to have a relationship with him. West was executed on Sept. 25. (Photo courtesy Lee Hedgepeth) Recently, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall justified an execution with language that stopped me in my tracks. “We must stand firmly in our beliefs between right and wrong, justice and forgiveness,” he wrote . “Alabama is steadfast in our commitment to holding the guilty accountable because that is what honors the dignity of every victim. Justice is how we restore peace to the communities they leave behind.” The statement, issued immediately after Alabama’s execution by suffocation of Geoffrey West on Sept. 25, makes a mockery of te...

Members of the Texas National Guard are seen at the Elwood Army Reserve Training Center on Oct. 7, 2025 in Elwood, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) President Donald Trump’s novel use of National Guard troops for law enforcement purposes has reopened a debate over states’ authority to control police powers, as dueling briefs from current and former state leaders filed in Illinois’ lawsuit against the president show. A bipartisan group of former governors said Trump’s federalization and deployment of National Guard members to Chicago to control “modest” protests  upended the careful balance between state and federal powers.  At the same time, a group of 17 current Republican attorneys general told the court they  supported the administration’s move that they said was necessary to protect immigration enforcement officers. Both groups submitted friend-of-the-court briefs in the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern D...

President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Oct. 9, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday he’s prepared to cancel funding approved by Congress that he believes is going toward programs supported by Democrats, though he didn’t share any additional details during a Cabinet meeting.  “We’ll be cutting some very popular Democratic programs that aren’t popular with Republicans,” he said. “They wanted to do this, so we’ll give them a little taste of their own medicine.”  Meanwhile, on day nine of the government shutdown, members of the U.S. Senate for the seventh time failed to advance either a Democratic or Republican stopgap spending bill, and House Speaker Mike Johnson said partisan tensions in his chamber are so intense he is reluctant to bring members back until a resolution is found.  “This gets personal. Emotions are high. People are upset. I’m upset,” Johns...