Stories From The States

Indiana election officials have canceled or rejected the voter registrations for hundreds of immigrant Hoosiers under a recent proof of citizenship law . One analysis found 981 existing voters had registrations canceled, and another 644 prospective voters have been rejected — or about 62% of the 2,602 people processed. Charrie Stambaugh was one of those people. Stambaugh has been a U.S. citizen fo...

Immigration and Customs Enforcement coming into Tremont Township in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania seems familiar to some people there – and not in a good way. Many residents had no idea a detention center could be built there until reading about it in a news article . They felt blindsided by their local politicians. Now community members worry their area will get taken advantage of again.  In Ep...

Tremont Township in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, has only one stop light, but the 300-person community is now at the center of the national immigration debate.  The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is planning to convert an old warehouse in the area into a 7,500-person detention facility. Many of Tremont’s most vocal residents are wary about whether their township can support the ICE facil...

For months, The New Hampshire Bulletin investigated case after case of abuse and neglect in the state’s intellectual and developmental disability care system, which relies on private agencies to provide care to individuals.  What they found exposed systemic failures in oversight and harm prevention, publicly reporting families’ stories of loss and trauma for the first time.  In Episode 33, you’ll...

After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Louisiana versus Callais decision gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, more than a dozen states moved to redraw their congressional district maps. Ten succeeded in quickly pushing through new lines. Louisiana’s state legislature passed a new map that redrew the majority-Black district seat currently held by Democratic Representative Cleo Fields of Baton Rouge....

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in January challenging trans athlete bans in Idaho and West Virginia. A decision is expected early this summer. In 2020, Idaho became the first state in the nation to implement this kind of ban, which prohibits transgender athletes in girl’s and women’s sports. In recent years, state lawmakers passed a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ bills . The measures have includ...

In recent months, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security spent more than one billion dollars buying nearly a dozen warehouses in several states. The plan is to convert them into immigrant detention centers as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation initiative.   Two are being pursued in rural Pennsylvania: Tremont Township in Schuylkill County, and Upper Bern Township in Berks County...

This year, nearly every state has introduced some form of AI regulation legislation. That’s according to a database from the National Conference of State Legislatures, a nonpartisan public officials’ association. Over in Michigan, the state is starting to use AI to process SNAP applications, and it’s sparking some concerns. And in Pennsylvania, counseling experts are pushing for AI legislation in...

It’s still uncertain if an abortion medication can be prescribed over telehealth. Mifepristone is one of two drugs used to terminate a pregnancy before 10 weeks and to treat miscarriages, but could require an in-person visit before it’s dispensed, depending on a U.S. Supreme Court decision.  In 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a rule that allowed mifepristone to be dispensed thro...

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais altered Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.  The decision could upend American politics and hold sweeping consequences for how states and local governments draw district lines at all levels of government, from Congress to school boards . What does that mean for this year’s midterms, as well as future elections? In Episode 27, you’ll hear fr...

The U.S. Forest Service is reorganizing. The federal agency will move their headquarters from Washington D.C. to Salt Lake City, closing over 50 research stations in 31 states, and will restructure management to rely on states more.  All these changes are coming while state GOP leaders and the Trump administration are pushing for the sale or transfer of federal public lands. Montana voters of all...

In Louisiana, the starting pay of a plumber is pretty decent. But that’s only after an aspiring worker spends thousands of dollars for on-the-job training to get a plumber’s license.  One state lawmaker in Louisiana wants to fast-track this process and reorganize the state’s plumbing board. However, some tradespeople don’t think it’s a good idea. In Episode 25, we’re handing the reins to our State...

For years, Idaho lawmakers have set their sights on Medicaid. In their most recent session, they considered Gov. Brad Little’s call for $22 million in budget cuts and a bill to repeal voter-approved Medicaid expansion. Last year, the legislature slashed funding for a mobile treatment program for people with severe mental illness. The Idaho Sheriffs’ Association warned the changes risked public saf...

President Donald Trump’s second term has been marked by aggressive attacks on the press that have led to restrictions in access, the search of a reporter’s home, heated public exchanges and even arrests. Journalist Estefany Rodríguez was arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on March 4, 2026 in Tennessee. The Nashville Noticias reporter was held in ICE custody for 15...

West Virginia lawmakers fought until the wee hours of the morning – and the final minutes of this year’s session March 14 over Raylee’s Law . Named for 8-year-old Raylee Browning, the bill would have prevented a parent from pulling a child out of public school to homeschool if social services is investigating abuse or neglect in the home. One of the highest profile bills of the session, the measur...

At least 37 states offer some sort of financial incentives to businesses building data centers. The incentives aren’t just a drop in the bucket either. In Virginia, for instance, the state has notched up about $1.6 billion in data center tax breaks.  Public opposition is on the rise, however, and some states such as Virginia and Ohio are reconsidering whether to keep offering the financial breaks....

States legislators have advanced a record number of bills attacking LGBTQ rights over the past few years. Many bills include, but aren’t limited to, restrictions on access to health care, forced outings in schools or barriers to accurate IDs. In February, the Kansas legislature passed a new law that invalidated driver’s licenses and criminalizes bathroom use for transgender residents. Trans people...

Executions in the United States have been on the decline over the past few decades, yet 27 states still enforce the death penalty – and many are imposing it more often.  One very recent case in Alabama illustrates the complicated and emotional debates unfolding around the death penalty.  In 2025, Alabama executed five people, and the state was set for its first execution of 2026 this month. Charle...

Since the 2022 Dobbs decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, state governments decide how they’ll regulate abortion. This includes which organizations receive reproductive health funding.  Crisis pregnancy centers, religiously affiliated organizations that advertise free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds but dissuade women from pursuing abortions, are seeing an influx of taxpayer dollars. At the same ti...

For years, voucher and scholarship programs that used taxpayer dollars for private school tuition were limited to low-income or special needs students.  Now, states like Arizona, Iowa and Texas have universal programs that allow any student to use public money for private school tuition. By the 2026-2027 school year, at least 17 states are expected to have that policy.  There’s been a significant...

Since President Donald Trump’s return to office, elections have been a priority for his administration.  The FBI raid of an election warehouse in Fulton County, Georgia, seizing 2020 ballots. The Department of Justice demanding voter registration lists and other information from all states. Mail-in ballots at risk of not being postmarked. Trump’s threat of a federal takeover of state elections. Tr...

President Donald Trump is still pushing Republican-led states to redistrict their congressional maps to help the GOP maintain control of the House of Representatives after the 2026 midterm elections. It led to an unusual burst of mid-decade redistricting in some states, such as Texas and North Carolina that have passed new maps increasing a GOP advantage. Democratic-led states California and Virgi...

For years, private prison companies have been a key partner to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the government carried out its immigration agenda. In 2025, they’ve been rapidly expanding, though they’re also facing pushback in several states.  CoreCivic is one of the biggest private prison companies in the United States, whose pockets have gotten substantially deeper after President Don...

For decades, government funding was withheld from historically Black public colleges and universities, such as Tennessee State University.  States across the South have grappled with the question: What could be possible if those debts were repaid? In Episode 13, we’ll hear from our colleagues at the Tennessee Lookout and WPLN News.  Together, they produced The Debt , a reported project and podcast...

Diversity, equity and inclusion programs have faced constant attacks from the current Trump administration.  Early in his second term, President Donald Trump signed several executive orders to terminate federal programs with any mention of DEI. This included the end of funding to some National Institutes of Health programs.  Some states pushed back, and now the Trump administration has agreed to d...