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Gina Martinez holds a photograph of her daughter Giovanna Hernandez Martinez after Mass on Sunday, August 10, 2025. Civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups have filed open records requests with law enforcement agencies to get additional information on her arrest and detention along with the detention of other individuals. (Ralph Chapoco/Alabama Reflector) Civil rights groups have filed public information requests on agreements between local Alabama law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on enforcing immigration laws. In November, the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice; the Hispanic and Immigrant Center of Alabama and the Center for Constitutional Rights, civil rights and immigration advocacy groups with offices in Alabama, filed public information requests to review agreements and payments between ICE and the Baldwin and Pickens sheriffs’ offices and the Leeds Police Department . “We picked places where we knew there was new activity or increased ac...

A vacant hallway at Vaughan Regional Medical Center in Selma, Alabama, on Tuesday, Sep. 3, 2024 in Selma, Alabama. (Will McLelland for Alabama Reflector) WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration unveiled Monday hundreds of millions of dollars each state will receive this fiscal year as part of a massive $50 billion rural health fund baked into Republicans’ “big, beautiful” law.  The five-year  Rural Health Transformation Program — authorized under GOP lawmakers’ mega tax and spending cut package Trump signed into law in July — is designed to offset the budget impacts on rural areas due to sweeping Medicaid cuts.   Half of the $50 billion will be distributed equally among each state between fiscal years 2026 and 2030, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the remaining $25 billion, doled out over the same time period, is being allocated to states based on ...

President Donald Trump holds up the "One, Big Beautiful Bill" Act that he signed into law on the South Lawn of the White House on July 4, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Brandon - Pool/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — This year produced a seemingly endless array of history-making events and nearly constant change to immigration policy, tariffs, the Education Department and federal health care programs. President Donald Trump came back into office emboldened by a decisive 2024 election victory and empowered by Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress. The unified GOP government enacted a major tax cuts and domestic spending law in July, but hit a roadblock in late September when the federal government shut down for a record-breaking six weeks. Here’s a look back at some of the biggest news stories from Washington, D.C. January  The U.S. House began the year  reelecting Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson as speaker and pushing through a series of GOP-favored ...

The Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, as seen on Nov. 14, 2025. The Alabama Legislature will return for its 2026 regular session on Jan. 13, and should face questions about funding the state's two public health care programs. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) Hope you weren’t expecting a break from Alabama politics, because the silly season is about to begin. Lawmakers will return to Montgomery two weeks from Tuesday to get an early start on the 2026 session. It’s standard procedure in the fourth year of a quadrennium. Lawmakers can’t raise money while the Legislature is in session. So election-year sessions traditionally focus on passing the state’s two budgets and getting everyone back to campaigning as soon as possible. If you’re expecting gambling bills or Medicaid expansion this year, you’re going to be disappointed. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE But plenty of issues await lawmakers on Jan. 13. And afterward, we have the possibility of an interest...

An unlined coal ash pond in western Jefferson County, Alabama. A report released earlier this month found that Alabama cut environmental spending 49% between 2010 and 2024. (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 . Fewer inspections, weaker enforcement and less oversight: Deep cuts to state budgets and at the Environmental Protection Agency are preventing regulators from fully protecting the public from pollution, according to a report released earlier this month by the Environmental Integrity Project. The financial crisis at these agencies is occurring amid the expansion of the fossil fuel, plastics and petrochemical industries, said EIP Executive Director Jen Duggan. When states have fewer resources, Duggan said, “those protections, those rights that every American has under our environmental laws, a...

Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill. An analysis by The 19th has found that the Trump administration has implemented several of the goals in Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation program for remaking the government on right-wing lines. (Sarah Porter for The 19th; Getty Images) This story was originally reported by Amanda Becker, Orion Rummler and Mariel Padilla of The 19th . Meet Amanda , Orion and Mariel and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. In the months leading up to his election, President Donald Trump insisted that he had nothing to do with the far-right vision for his second administration known as Project 2025, a Christian-nationalist blueprint to remake the federal government. As the year draws to a close, a crowd-sourced effort , as well as trackers from advocacy organizations and labor unions , show that his administration has implemented roughly half of the goals laid out in the...

Medical bills are spread out on the kitchen table of a cancer patient in Salem, Va. (Photo by Don Petersen/The Associated Press) This article first appeared on KFF Health News . As Congress debates whether to extend the temporary federal subsidies that have helped millions of Americans buy health coverage, a crucial underlying reality is sometimes overlooked: Those subsidies are merely a band-aid covering the often unaffordable cost of health care. California, Massachusetts, Connecticut and five other states have set caps on health care spending in a bid to rein in the intense financial pressure felt by many families, individuals and employers who every year face increases in premiums, deductibles and other health-related expenses. Hospitals and other health care providers are citing Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by President Donald Trump in July, as one more reason to challenge those limits. The law is expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more tha...