Stories From The States

As community pushback against data center construction grows, new commercials are cropping up in an attempt to improve public opinion. If you live in Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas or Virginia, you might have seen the 30-second ads on social media or TV. 

The ads are running in states where a growing number of local governments are considering and passing policies meant to slow data center growth. Fo...

Nearly 57,000 students applied for Arkansas’ universal school voucher program, where any student in the state is eligible and can use that state funding towards private school. 

However, there’s a gap between how much students are receiving and what private schools are charging. A study by the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice showed private school tuition increased in states with universal...

Across the country, joint ventures between private equity firms and healthcare nonprofits are growing increasingly popular. However many critics say investors and nonprofit care providers can be partners with fundamentally different missions.

As these joint ventures grow, they will test a wave of recent state laws that were designed to increase oversight of private equity in healthcare. 

In Episode 38, you’ll hear from Ann...

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump a year ago, imposed stricter work requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

With some exceptions, recipients must do at least 80 hours per month of work, training or volunteering. The law also increased the upper age limit for work requirements from 54 to 64. 

About 2.5 million Americans lost food benefits in the six-month period follo...

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 for nearly three decades and has ...

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 Episode 35, we explore the ri...

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 facility. 

Some see the pl...

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 hear from...

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. His voters were at the c...

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 included a bill requiring forced...

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. As it stands, infrastructure ...

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 healthcare. This co...

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 through telehealth appo...

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 from Jonathan Shor...

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 backgrounds are loudly against t...

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 S...

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 safety.

In less than three m...

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.

JournalistEstefany 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 days.  

Since her rel...

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 measure boasted bipartisa...