Nwexx

Disability rights advocates rally at the Missouri State Capitol to protest the state’s participation in a lawsuit that began as an effort to block protections for transgender people but ended in a rollback of protections for people with disabilities. Missouri eventually withdrew from the suit, but five Republican-led states did not. (Photo by Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent) A court battle that began when conservative-led states sued to block protections for transgender people has ended in a rollback of protections for people with disabilities — a result disability advocates have feared for months. At the end of August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services joined the handful of conservative-led states suing it, and asked a court to strike language from a federal disability-rights regulation that directed states to prioritize serving disabled people in their communities rather than in nursing homes or institutions. Last week the judge did so, ending the case, Texas v...

A new poll from The 19th and YouGov sheds light on how young men and women are shaped by certain historical moments and tend to diverge on issues of gender and reproductive rights. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)  Editor’s note: This story is part of Gen Z at the Ballot Box, a collaboration between States Newsroom  and The 19th . Brenna Vandergeest was a teenager when her grandmother told her about Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court case that ended the federal right to an abortion . She said it lit a fire in her, one that has shaped her politics.  “I think that really flipped a switch in my head because knowing as a woman that rights that had been protected for years and years have now been overturned — it really made me upset,” Vandergeest said. “It really drove my view on reproductive rights because I do believe that only a woman should have a say over her body, and it shouldn’t be up to the government.”  Now a senior at Neumann...

President Donald Trump dances at the Mitchell Center at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama, on Oct. 2, 2026. The president is visiting several red states in support of GOP nominees about a month ahead of midterm elections in November. (Dan Anderson for Alabama Reflector) MOBILE — President Donald Trump told a crowd of roughly 8,000 supporters Friday night to vote like he is on the ballot in November. “Can everybody just close your eyes and pretend I’m on the ballot?” Trump asked the crowd. Mobile was the president’s second stop in a month-long campaign for Republican congressional candidates across the country. Supporters lined up at the Mitchell Center on the University of South Alabama’s campus hours before doors opened . The building was roughly 75 percent full by the time Trump took the stage. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE ...

Members of the Alabama Educational Television Commission listen to a speaker during a meeting on July 21, 2026 in Birmingham. Gov. Kay Ivey removed five members of the AETC Friday night. (Andrea Tinker/Alabama Reflector) Gov. Kay Ivey dismissed five of the Alabama Educational Television Commission’s seven members Friday evening. Commissioners Pete Conroy, Ferris Stephens, Les Barnett, Bebe Williams and William Green were removed from the AETC. Commissioners Tijuanna Adetunji and Logan Glass remain on the board. A message seeking comment was left with Ivey’s office Friday night. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE The story was first reported by Al.com . The move to dismiss the members came days after a survey conducted by the board showed support for Alabama Public Television continuing its relationship with the Public Broadcasting Ser...

President Donald Trump gestures as he exits the stage during a midterm election rally at the Choctaw Event Center on Oct. 1, 2026, in Durant, Oklahoma. (Photo by Jessica Tobias/For Oklahoma Voice) When Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin declared in September that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could serve warrants on individuals at polling places this fall, officials in Denver, a liberal city where roughly 14% of residents are foreign-born, quickly sued. “Every day we find new things to be astonished about but I think that we just want residents to not be afraid to vote because that’s ultimately what the president was after,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, a Democrat, said in an interview. Johnston and other local and state officials across the country are bracing for possible federal election interference from now through Nov. 3 — even as they remain unsure of what will actually happen. One month from Election Day, President Donald Trump’s long-running pressure campaign...