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The Denny Chimes at the University of Alabama as seen on March 28, 2026. Student staff of two magazines filed an appeal with the 11th Circuit seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the university from terminating the publications.(Andrea Tinker/Alabama Reflector) Attorneys representing student staff at two University of Alabama magazines shut down by the school late last year appealed a lower court ruling to the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday. A U.S. district court in May refused to issue a permanent injunction  to halt the suspension of Alice, a magazine that focused on issues related to women, and Nineteen Fifty-Six, that highlighted subject matters that dealt with the Black student community on campus. The school claimed that continued publication of the magazines could violate federal guidance on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. “Closing these magazines because of their editorial perspectives related to race and gender perpetuates discrimination, rather...

Facebook owner Meta agreed to pay nearly $18 billion to an array of U.S. states over claims its platforms intentionally addicted teens. (Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso/New Jersey Monitor) Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, on Wednesday agreed to pay 47 states, the District of Columbia, and a handful of U.S. territories, up to $17.1 billion in penalties over claims that its social media platforms are addictive and a danger to children. As part of the settlement , Meta also pledged to make changes to Instagram and Facebook that are designed to reduce young people’s use of the platforms. “Meta intentionally exploited kids for profit and then lied about it, claiming its products were safe when its own internal research confirmed the platforms were addictive and harmful,” said Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, a Democrat, in a statement announcing the settlement. “The physical, mental and emotional harms that intentionally addictive social media inflict on youth — an...

Derrick Clark, 51, stands in front of the Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 6, 2026. Over the past few years, Clark and many other diabetes patients in Mississippi were getting regular care through subsidized Affordable Care Act health insurance plans. But Congress allowed so-called federal enhanced subsidies to expire at the end of last year, forcing Clark and more than 200,000 other Mississippians to give up their coverage. (Photo by Shalina Chatlani/Stateline) Part 1 of an occasional series on how people are being affected by the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies. EDWARDS, Miss. — Every now and then a freight train rumbles through, creaking and groaning on the rusted tracks that run along the edge of the largely deserted downtown. On some days, that train is just about the only thing moving. Grandma’s Ice Cream Shoppe, an ice cream parlor owned by a retired preacher and his wife, gets only one or two customers per day. There is a ...

A voter drops off a ballot on primary Election Day at the Salt Lake County Government Center on Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (Photo by Marco Lozzi for Utah News Dispatch) WASHINGTON — The  U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a procedural victory to President Donald Trump on an  executive order to curb mail-in voting, but the administration is still fighting a separate ruling that limits a portion of the order and remains in effect — complicating the administration’s temporary win.  In light of the ruling in the nation’s highest court, the administration late Monday asked U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts to  vacate her decision from earlier in August that blocks the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out aspects of Trump’s executive order, while the voting rights groups that brought that challenge  argued Tuesday the block should remain in place. Monday’s decision from the Supreme Court also drew the ire of Democrats, who argued that Trump...

Dolly Parton on stage in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 20, 2025, at the premiere of "Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony." Hailing from East Tennessee, Parton’s songwriting, savvy, charm and philanthropy made her a beloved figure globally. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images) Dolly Parton, the personification of Tennessee music, died Tuesday at age 80 after decades of entertaining the world. Parton’s nephew, Bryan Seaver, delivered the news of her death in a video for the family, sparking mourning from her birthplace of Locust Ridge in the mountains of East Tennessee across the state to Nashville, where she found fame, and around the world, where her name brought people happiness in her deeds and passion for life. “Sadness lies with us, but not with Dolly. Dolly has lived in the light, and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by (husband) Carl, her parents and countless others who have watched her and longed for her to meet them in the heavens,” said Seaver, who le...

The headquarters of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama on February 8, 2023. Heidi Beirich, the former director of a covert program that paid confidential informants embedded with white supremacy groups, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) A former Southern Poverty Law Center executive pleaded not guilty Tuesday to conspiracy charges of wire fraud and making false statements as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s prosecution of the civil rights nonprofit. U.S. Magistrate Judge Kelly F. Pate announced that Heidi Beirich, director of the Intelligence Project for SPLC, would plead not guilty during the arraignment Tuesday afternoon, held over videoconference. Beirich did not appear on the teleconference; her attorneys stood in for her. DOJ charged SPLC in April with 11 counts of fraud over a paid informant system the organization began in the early 1980s to gather information on and dis...

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico speaks during a campaign rally in Laredo, Texas, on July 14, 2026. A major elections forecaster moved the Texas Senate race, in which Talarico faces Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton, as a toss-up, though a Democrat has not won the state since 1994. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — Voters throughout much of the country will cast ballots for their U.S. senator this fall, but just nine states hold the power to determine control of the chamber — setting the course for which presidential nominees can secure confirmation and what bills advance during the next two years.  The Senate races, as well as the campaigns for every House seat, will serve as a test of Republican policies after two years of unified control of Congress. The outcome of this year’s midterm elections will also have a substantial impact on the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term.  Republicans hold 53 Senate seats, requiring Democr...