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A website user weighs whether to accept or deny cookies, small data files that websites store on a user’s browser to remember their preferences. Consumers and state lawmakers alike are becoming more concerned about how retailers are using algorithms — many of which rely on personal data — to price products. (Photo by Lauren McCauley/Maine Morning Star) One online grocery shopper got charged $3.99 for a box of Wheat Thins, while another — buying from the same store at the same time — got charged $4.89. A consumer watchdog detected this price discrepancy during an investigation last September in Seattle. The grocery app Instacart used an artificial intelligence-powered algorithm that charged customers differently for each item by as much as 23%, Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative found. Instacart has since stopped offering grocery retailers the technology. With many Americans struggling to afford the basics, consumers and state lawmakers alike are becoming more concern...

A protestor holding a sign that reads "I <3 Democracy" at the Auburn No Kings protest on March 28, 2026, on Toomer's Corner in Auburn, Alabama. The protest, part of nearly two dozen "No Kings" protests around the state drew about 700 people. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) Thousands of Alabamians Saturday joined nearly two dozen “No Kings” protests around the state, demonstrating against President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies. The protests drew thousands of people in Birmingham and Montgomery and hundreds more at demonstrations in smaller towns and cities, similar to No Kings protests that took place last October . Nationwide, more than 3,000 protests were scheduled, all expected to draw millions of people. Those who attended the demonstrations in Alabama Saturday cited numerous issues with the administration, including cuts to social service programs to attacks on immigrants to Trump’s anti-democratic methods. Here are reports from ...

No Kings protesters march in the District of Columbia on Saturday, March 28, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — Large crowds were gathering Saturday morning in the nation’s capital for the third No Kings protest, rallying with others across the United States against what organizers say is an unprecedented expansion of power by President Donald Trump. Thousands of people carrying signs and playing music began the day at Memorial Circle below Arlington National Cemetery. Crowds exiting the cemetery Metro stop clogged exit gates as they flowed toward Arlington Memorial Bridge into the district, where an afternoon rally on the Mall was scheduled. A dense crowd already was packed around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool by late Saturday morning. No Kings day national organizers anticipate more than 3,000 demonstrations across the United States, in every congressional district, and worldwide marches are organized on six continents, according to Logan Keith...

Democratic Del. Margaret Franklin in Virginia sponsored a bill to require insurance carriers to provide coverage for maternal mental health screenings that can help combat postpartum depression in the 2026 legislative session. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury) The Republican-majority U.S. Senate on Wednesday  voted to uphold a Trump administration policy banning abortion care and counseling for veterans at Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities. Last year, the Trump administration overturned a Biden-era policy that made abortion procedures and counseling in cases of rape, incest or a medical emergency available at VA facilities.  Elsewhere in Congress, Democratic U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Cory Booker of New Jersey announced  a legislative package called the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act. First introduced in 2020, this version focuses on parents of color and includes proposals to invest in the perinatal workforce, tel...

Workers install solar power modules for producing electricity on the roof of a house on October 15, 2011 in Wessling, Germany. A federal court Wednesday ruled that Alabama Power can continue to impose an additional charge on customers with solar panels. (Alexandra Beier/Getty Images) A federal district court on Wednesday ruled that Alabama Power may continue to charge an additional fee to households with rooftop solar panels. U.S. District Court Judge Annemarie Carney Axon granted a motion filed by both Alabama Public Service Commission and Alabama Power that sought a summary judgement dismissing a lawsuit filed by plaintiffs to rescind the fee, known as a capacity charge, from their bills. Axon did not provide an opinion with the order. Plaintiffs said in a statement Friday that they were disappointed with the ruling. “I am frustrated that Alabama Power solar customers like me have to pay an extra monthly fee in order to reduce our power bills,” said Mark Johnston, an Episcopa...

Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 28, 2026. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic leaders on Thursday were reading through a new Republican offer to fund the Department of Homeland Security that could end the shutdown that began nearly six weeks ago, with a congressional recess set to begin. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in the afternoon that Democrats hadn’t “responded officially” to a proposal GOP negotiators sent over in the morning but that discussions were ongoing. He described it as the “last and final” offer. “There are some language requests that they made that we did everything we could to accommodate,” he said.  Delaware Democratic Sen. Chris Coons said “it’s a good sign that there is paper going back and forth,” though he said the two political parties are still somewhat far apart. “I think there’s a lot of sense of urgency around getting TSA funded,” he said, re...

MIchael Shannon Taylor was sentenced to death for the murders of Ivan and Lucille Moore during a robbery of their home in Gadsden. (Alabama Department of Corrections) Alabama state officials are seeking to schedule two executions this year, a few weeks after Gov. Kay Ivey commuted an inmate’s death sentence to life in prison. The Alabama Attorney General’s Office filed a motion Monday with the Alabama Supreme Court to have Michael Shannon Taylor put to death, about a month after it sought to execute Jeffery Lee by nitrogen gas. “Lee has exhausted his conventional appeals,” the AG’s Office said in its motion that was filed in February. “As such, it is time for his sentence to be carried out.” The motion to request the execution of Taylor follows the same template as Lee’s. “There are currently no pending challenges to the validity of Taylor’s convictions and death sentence, and his conventional appeals concluded in 2016,” the motion said. Lee was convicted of two counts of ca...