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Connor Champion, president of Austin Christian University in Texas, addresses students at the school. Some of the nation’s biggest megachurches are getting into the college business, prioritizing hands-on job training and church culture over a more traditional liberal arts focus. (Courtesy of Austin Christian University) In the heart of the Bible Belt, a small Methodist college graduated its final class in May 2024, shutting its doors after 168 years. Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama, was a Christian private liberal arts school that counted among its graduates members of Congress, famous musicians, Pulitzer Prize winners and the former executive editor of The New York Times. Yet it had been unable to endure years of financial losses. About 15 minutes southeast, toward the Birmingham suburbs, the inaugural freshman class at Highlands College was finishing its first year that same spring. The private Christian school, which has just gotten permission from the state to...

A licensed dispensary in Maryland sells cannabis-infused edible chews and dried marijuana flower. Many states with cannabis industries say they’re waiting for more detail before taking action in response to the Department of Justice’s rescheduling of medical marijuana. (Photo by Amanda Watford/Stateline) The U.S. Department of Justice’s recent decision to downgrade the drug classification for medical cannabis will help medical marijuana businesses. Companies will be able to claim some federal tax benefits. New research can start up at state universities. But the broader divide between federal and state marijuana policy remains largely intact, leaving states to navigate a fragmented and still-evolving cannabis landscape with few clear answers about what comes next. The unprecedented change in April reclassifying medical marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III means the federal government is acknowledging an accepted healthcare use for cannabis. Recreational marijuana, however, remai...

Liz Stein, a sexual abuse survivor advocate who has gone public about abuse by the late Jeffrey Epstein, spoke surrounded by U.S. House Oversight Committee Democrats on Friday, May 29, 2026, in the Rayburn House Office Buildin in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — Former Attorney General Pam Bondi was on Capitol Hill Friday for a closed door interview with lawmakers about her role in the release of the federal investigation files of Jeffrey Epstein — the now deceased wealthy sex offender who surrounded himself with influential entrepreneurs, academics and celebrities, including President Donald Trump. But Democrats speaking to reporters outside the session criticized Republicans for not conducting the interview under oath or on camera and said Bondi did not answer many questions and blamed acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for the chaotic release of files related to Epstein. Bondi later denied on social media she evaded questions or tried to targ...

The U.S. Postal Service on May 29, 2026 proposed a rule to carry out President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting voting by mail. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom) The U.S. Postal Service on Friday took its first major step to carry out President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting voting by mail, proposing a rule that would require states to submit lists of voters before mailing ballots. But the proposed rule appears to smooth over some of the rougher edges of the executive order, which has been condemned by Democratic state officials as an intrusion on their constitutional authority to administer elections. “The proposed rule would apply uniform standards for the mailing of absentee ballots to and from voters, which the Postal Service understands will facilitate the faithful execution of federal law,” the Postal Service  said in a document posted on the Federal Register website. The executive order faces at least five lawsuits. Experts on the Postal Service ha...

Two senators have reached a bipartisan deal on legislation dealing with college athletes' name, image and likeness compensation. (Photo by Getty Images) WASHINGTON — A pair of U.S. senators reached a bipartisan agreement on a sweeping bill aimed at tackling many of the biggest issues surrounding how to compensate players in college sports. GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state — the top members of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over the matter —  unveiled legislation this week that aims to “restore order in college athletics.” Meanwhile, a separate bill to set a national framework for college athletes’ compensation remains stalled in the House after being yanked from the voting schedule earlier in May following unanimous opposition from the  Congressional Black Caucus .  The major voting bloc rallied behind the NAACP’s call to push back against GOP-led redistricting efforts in Southern states via college sports, including a bo...

Kilmar Abrego Garcia speaks to people who held a prayer vigil and rally on his behalf outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Baltimore, Maryland, on Aug. 25, 2025. Lydia Walther Rodriguez with CASA interprets for him. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters) WASHINGTON — Following a dismissal of criminal charges the Trump administration lodged against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the wrongly deported Maryland resident Thursday pressed a federal judge to prevent his removal to any country that is not Costa Rica, which has agreed to accept him as a refugee.  The filing in the federal District Court for the District of Maryland comes after  a federal judge in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 22 dismissed the U.S. Department of Justice’s criminal indictment charges of human smuggling that stemmed from a 2022 traffic stop. The judge called the prosecution “vindictive and selective.” Abrego Garcia’s habeas petition before Maryland federal Judge Paula Xinis argues that the Tr...

Plumes of smoke rise following an explosion on March 5, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. Democrats in the U.S. Senate on May 27, 2026, asked that the Congressional Budget Office provide the "true costs" of the Iran war. (Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — A group of U.S. Senate Democrats has sent a letter to the head of the Congressional Budget Office, asking him to include outside projections for the cost of the Iran war in the agency’s official cost estimate.  “The American people deserve to know the true costs of this conflict, and they deserve transparency and honesty when their government commits the nation to war,” the senators wrote in the May 27 letter to the nonpartisan agency. “Your timely and comprehensive estimate of the immediate and long-term budgetary consequences will help ensure that the Iran war remains subject to rigorous and appropriate legislative oversight.” House Budget Committee ranking member Brendan Boyle, D-Pa.,  sent a letter to the CBO in ea...

Two people enter a polling place at Messiah Lutheran Church in Montgomery, Alabama on May 19, 2026. Democrats saw a significant increase in voter participation in the May 19 primary, though most ballots were cast in the Republican primary. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) The May 19 primary in the state saw a decrease in Republican turnout from four years ago and an increase in Democratic voting, though a majority of voters chose to vote in the GOP primary.   According to t he Alabama Secretary of State’s office , just over 493,000 (57%) Republican ballots were cast in last week’s primary. That was a decrease from the 2022 midterm election where Republican voters made up 660,800 (78%) of the ballots cast. The reasons for the drop are not clear. While there were contested races up and down the ballot, the gubernatorial race, where U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville was widely seen as the prohibitive favorite, was noncompetitive. In 2022, Gov. Kay Ivey faced challenges fro...

In this 2023 photo, a Honduran migrant is overcome with emotion as he describes the extortion and threats that he says drove him and his partner to flee Honduras with their child. Fraudulent asylum claims are rare, but the Trump administration has issued a new directive targeting lawyers who file false claims. (Photo by Corrie Boudreaux for Source NM) In its latest effort to narrow pathways to immigration to the United States, the Trump administration says it will crack down on attorneys who file fraudulent asylum claims for their clients. The U.S. has long granted asylum to people who are unable or unwilling to return to their home countries because they have been persecuted, or fear persecution, based on their race, religion, nationality, social group or political opinions. In a directive it issued on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security instructed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to develop anti-fraud policies and to take action against immigration attorneys...

A sign marking the Southern Poverty Law Center outside the organization's headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama on February 8, 2023. The civil rights group on Tuesday filed a motion to dismiss criminal charges against it, alleging vindictive prosecution. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) Attorneys for the Southern Poverty Law Center Tuesday asked a federal court to dismiss criminal charges brought against it by the U.S. Department of Justice, citing statements made by President Donald Trump and other high-ranking officials as evidence of vindictive prosecution. The motion highlighted comments made by Trump; Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche; FBI Director Kash Patel and other members of the administration that criticized the organization. In one instance, Trump alleged that the indictment “had nothing to do with the SPLC breaking the law; it had everything to do with the SPLC’s perceived political leaning” a couple of days after the news conference. The motion also cites an Ap...

Vice President JD Vance, center, arrives at a roundtable anti-fraud meeting with Republican attorneys general in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus on May 26, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — A handful of Democratic state attorneys general said Tuesday that expert officials from their offices were denied access to a major White House anti-fraud meeting convened by Vice President JD Vance and attended by Republican AGs. Two dozen Democratic attorneys general had earlier declined invitations for their own attendance at the White House anti-fraud roundtable, citing extremely short notice and a lack of an agenda in a letter to Vance, who has helmed the Trump administration’s sweeping anti-fraud effort.   Instead, some sent top officials from their offices to Washington. Democratic attorneys general in California, New York and New Jersey said at a press conference later Tuesday that officials from their states were...

Demolition work continued where the East Wing once stood at the White House on Dec. 8, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump ordered the 123-year-old East Wing and Jacqueline Kennedy Garden leveled to make way for a new 90,000-square-foot ballroom. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche argued in a court filing that a shooting Saturday in the vicinity of the White House further proves the need for an East Wing ballroom with “a heavy steel, drone proof roof, missile resistant and drone proof columns, bullet, ballistic, and blast proof glass,” among other features. A gunman opened fire at a U.S. Secret Service checkpoint at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue and was killed when agents returned fire. One bystander was also shot and injured, according to the Secret Service.  President Donald Trump was inside the White House during the incident but was unharmed, and no ongoing operations were impacted, according to the agency. ...