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OKLAHOMA CITY — A leading Republican candidate in Oklahoma’s 2026 state superintendent race has withdrawn. Rob Miller, the former superintendent of Bixby Public Schools, announced Wednesday he is ending his campaign following his wife’s unexpected death on Feb. 1. Rob and Anna Miller had been married 32 years. She died of an apparent heart attack, […]

Residents and others are still raising concerns over the potential use of the controversial technology. MPD says it no longer plans to use the technology, and also announced the suspension of an officer for improper use of a different tracking technology. The post Critics still wary of facial recognition technology use by law enforcement appeared first on Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service.

Multiple groups that are at risk of losing federal funding are asking Illinois lawmakers for more state money.

Advocates and partners of the Iowa Environmental Council gathered in the Iowa Capitol rotunda Wednesday to advocate for Iowa’s water, air and environmental concerns.  Sarah Green, the council’s executive director, pointed to statistics like Iowa’s rising cancer rates, increased public involvement with water quality testing and the number of impaired waterways in Iowa and said […]

Georgia’s first comprehensive needs-based college scholarship came closer to becoming reality Wednesday after the state House and Senate approved a budget plan that would fully fund the endeavor.  Gov. Brian Kemp proposed the DREAMS scholarship in his State of the State Address last month with a proposed price tag of $325 million. But last week, […]

Los adultos mayores de 65 años son el grupo más vulnerable, especialmente en incendios residenciales. La entrada Carolina del Norte reporta 159 muertes por incendios en 2025 se publicó primero en Enlace Latino NC. Carolina del Norte reporta 159 muertes por incendios en 2025 was first posted on febrero 25, 2026 at 8:00 pm. ©2024 "Enlace Latino NC". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at paola@enlacelatinonc.org

The county elections office doesn’t have the 2,000 clerks needed to staff Election Day voting sites.

(The Center Square) – Members of a California Assembly budget subcommittee heard from state officials who are often the first point of contact for residents who rely on state-run food assistance programs. The federally-funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as CalFresh in California, provided food assistance to more than 3.2 million residents of the state in 2025, according to data from the California Department of Social Services. Those who work in positions helping CalFresh recipients are seeing the impact cuts from H.R. 1, the federal budget bill passed in July 2025 and known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The budget cuts are expected to eliminate $187 billion in federal funding for SNAP benefits nationwide through 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. “It is often said that a budget is a reflection of our values, and nothing could be truer,” said Assemblymember Corey Jackson, D-Moreno Valley and chair of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee for Human Services. “The conversations that shape those values begin right here within these walls, within this room, at this historic time for our social safety net," Jackson said during the committee's meeting on Wednesday afternoon at the Capitol in Sacramento. CalFresh currently serves more than 5.3 million individuals in 3.1 million households with an average monthly benefit of $333 a month, Troia testified during the hearing. “The federal changes under H.R. 1 will have very major impacts on these households,” Jennifer Troia, director of the California Department of Social Services, testified. “We estimate $2.3 [billion] to 4.3 billion in annual federal funding reductions, and the governor’s budget assumes that as many as 578,000 people could lose benefits as a result of H.R. 1.” Troia also testified that CalFresh workers are attempting to offset the worst effects of H.R. 1 by maximizing allowable exemptions, using data to help CalFresh recipients keep their benefits, reducing administrative burdens and connecting people who rely on CalFresh to organizations that can help them satisfy work and activity requirements. “Even with these efforts, it is critical to acknowledge again that we expect that many Californians may lose access to CalFresh,” Troia testified. “They would face increased food insecurity and greater difficulty meeting basic needs, with corresponding impacts on their health and well-being.” State officials who testified on Wednesday also acknowledged that many immigrants who reside in California illegally will lose their access to CalFresh, as well as foster youth and veterans, among other CalFresh recipients. Problems with funding that existed before the H.R. 1 cuts also impact the workers who provide services to those who need food assistance, officials said. “We must acknowledge the historic moment we find ourselves in,” Jackson said during the meeting. “Those who are worried about their services being cut or reduced, we are doing everything that we can to make sure that we keep you stable, that we keep you safe and that you have an opportunity to be on a path to thrive here in the state of California.”

The House passed a bill Wednesday to create and implement a statewide, 30-year resilience plan to protect state life, property and other assets in the event of a flood or other water-related disaster.  Rep. John Wills, R-Spirit Lake, said the legislation was a “visionary bill” that “redefines” how the state protects itself from “floods, droughts […]

Nebraska U.S. House Republicans want to wait for the findings of a congressional investigation into Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales.

Six young journalists, scattered across three continents and connected largely by screens, recently attempted an unusual exercise: writing letters addressed to the future instead of to editors. All six were members of the 2025 cohort of the English-language Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship. The results read like field notes from a generation that has […]

Fort Worth Chamber survey looks at regional workforce needs.

O plenário da Câmara dos Deputados aprovou nesta quarta-feira(25) o acordo de comércio entre o Mercosul e a União Europeia. O texto do acordo foi aprovado na terça (24) pela representação brasileira no Parlamento do Mercosul (Parlasul). Com a aprovação, o texto segue para votação no plenário do Senado. O acordo ainda tem que ser […] Fonte

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox. Thomas Jefferson High School junior Mai Travi has visited Denver’s zoo, museums, recreation centers, and much more, thanks to the city’s MY Denver Card. The card has provided Denver youth ages 5 to 18 with free access to those opportunities since 2013. But she thinks more of her peers could benefit. “Students who live outside the Denver area often have fewer opportunities to explore the cultural educational and enrichment experiences that help shape who they become,” she said. There’s a chance lawmakers will end up agreeing. House Bill 1055 would create a pilot program in a limited number of communities outside of Denver to give students in grades 6-12 a similar My Colorado Card. The card would essentially be a free pass, not a voucher with dollars attached to it. The bill passed its first hearing in the House Education Committee on Tuesday with a 7-5 vote. Students involved with a Denver-based nonprofit organization called FaithBridge helped craft the bill that’s sponsored by state Rep. Mandy Lindsay, an Aurora Democrat. FaithBridge is an advocacy organization that helps students advocate for educational improvements. “When students have access to out of school activities such as public museums and recreation centers, they’re able to explore their interests and find a passion, same as I was,” said junior Travis Baker, who is also a junior at Thomas Jefferson High School and is involved with the nonprofit. The program would be administered by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and sunset in 2031. The participating communities would be selected in December. Denver school board member Marlene De La Rosa, who testified in support, said the city has provided over half of Denver’s 90,000 students with a MY Denver Card, which is funded by Denver tax dollars approved in a 2012 ballot measure. “They represent safe spaces, friendship, physical activity, cultural exposure, academic reinforcement, and community connection,” she said. “And if one program and the city can reach 45,000 youth, imagine what a statewide investment can do.” The My Colorado Card program would have to be funded through gifts, grants, and donations, the amended legislation says. It would cost about $250,000 in its first year and about $80,000 in subsequent years, according to a legislative analysis. The bill would also require a report to lawmakers that would evaluate the program. Although no one testified against the bill during the Tuesday committee hearing, some lawmakers expressed reservations about the program, including its cost and whether it represented an appropriate role for state government. Rep. Lori Garcia Sander, an Eaton Republican, said she wanted to know more about how the card would be used and what data would be collected on students. Lindsay said the MY Denver Card helped her kids figure out their interests and more youth deserve that opportunity. “I think we really need to listen to young people when they are telling us and asking us for what they want,” she said. Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

(The Center Square) – Washington state has seen a massive increase in tort claim payouts, exceeding half a billion dollars in the 2024-25 fiscal year, largely driven by claims against the Department of Children, Youth & Families. It often takes many years for victims who were under state supervision to come forward with claims of abuse and neglect. Juries have awarded multi-million-dollar claims, with taxpayers ultimately on the hook for those payouts. In other cases, state employees have sued their state agency employer to the tune of millions, and once again taxpayers are left with the bill. But despite bipartisan support for legislation aimed at reforms to rein in the massive payouts already clearing the Senate, a bill to do just that has stalled in the House and is not expected to advance this session. The legislation, Senate Bill 6239, is sponsored by Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Mercer Island, requires mandatory arbitration for certain claims, and according to opponents, would have infringed upon the constitutional right to a jury trial. The Department of Enterprise Services’ released a tort liability report in October 2025 detailing the massive increase in claims and payouts. The report says a spike in 2023 was primarily due to then-Gov. Jay Inslee’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. DSHS and DCYF claim filing doubled in 2024. “Look at how much the state is paying out in tort judgments and settlements. My gosh, it’s hundreds of thousands of dollars per case,” former state Attorney General Rob McKenna said. “When I left office, we thought it was a bad year when it was about $800,000, and now it's a half a billion in a year.” He suggested influence from trial lawyers played a role in stalling the bill. “Trial lawyers are so powerful,” McKenna said. “So influential.” The Center Square reached out to the Washington State Association for Justice, formerly the Washington Trial Lawyers Association, for comment on McKenna’s suggestion that their opposition helped killed the bill. “It is frustrating to hear the finger being pointed at us in that way, because we've been trying to work with the Democrats to address this issue since before the session even started,” personal injury attorney Alex Dietz said on Wednesday. He told The Center Square that WSAJ worked with Dhingra to craft the legislation, but when it was introduced, the bill looked nothing like what the organization expected. “Basically, our efforts to work with them on that front got walked all over by the sponsors of Dhingra’s bill,” Dietz explained. “They came out with something that was wildly different than what we talked about and completely impractical and would have saved no money.” He said the bill as initially filed “proposed taking matters of public concern, whether or not DCYF is protecting kids from child abuse, out of public courtrooms and behind closed doors. And that was unacceptable,” he said. Survivor group advocates argued the bill, which would have required mandatory arbitration for certain claims, would limit public accountability, shield state agencies and force survivors to "tell their stories twice.” During Tuesday’s media availability with Democratic leadership, members were asked about the fate of the tort reform bill. “I'm going to defer to the House on that one, but I think everyone acknowledges and understands that this is a huge problem for the state that we have to address,” Dhingra said. House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, confirmed the bill is unlikely to advance in her chamber. “I think our shared goals are to make sure that anybody who is a victim of childhood sexual abuse, or other kinds of misconduct, have access to justice,” she said. “But we have also seen skyrocketing tort claims, so how we find the balance there is something that will continue to work with Sen. Dhingra on, and I think that her bill has moved us along the way.” Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, D-West Seattle, said the biggest impact on skyrocketing payouts for claims would be to cap damages for victims. “The Supreme Court's already told us that that's not constitutional in our state. We need to get alternative processes for resolving these claims in place. But the really large, bankable reductions would require doing things that are not constitutional,” he said. Dietz told The Center Square that lawmakers are dodging the real issue, which he said is figuring out why DCYF is failing so many kids and families. “This should not be about protecting DCYF from accountability when it drops the ball and lets kids get hurt. We have an agency that is failing to protect children, and the goal should be to stop them from letting kids get hurt and to prevent child abuse,” he said. “The real tort reform is to stop kids getting hurt. And instead of doing that this session, we went with option B, which was to prevent survivors from obtaining any redress when the state screws up.”

Saying it was the “best policy around,” Gov. Greg Gianforte said a flat income tax rate was a goal of his heading into the 2027 Legislative session. Gianforte has cut state income taxes significantly since taking office in 2020— the highest bracket taxpayers paid 6.9% in 2021. In 2027, after legislation passed during the 2025 […]

Black and Brown artists will be performing across various stages at Summerfest. Here’s a lineup of the headliners and when you can see them. The post Here are the Black and Brown headliners at Summerfest this year appeared first on Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service.

El presidente batió el récord del discurso sobre el Estado de la Unión más largo en la historia del país al combinar optimismo económico, apelaciones patrióticas y confrontación partidista para marcar el tono político antes de las elecciones de medio término.

The Iowa House passed a measure Wednesday establishing drug-free homeless service zones Wednesday, setting certain requirements for nonprofits providing these services to remain eligible for state funding. House File 2584, passed on a 70-21 vote, is a measure establishing “drug-free” zones at shelters and other support facilities providing services to people experiencing homelessness in Iowa. […]

District administrators shared the strategies they are considering and heard what board members want to see when it comes to reducing chronic absenteeism.