Stories From The States

Despite a hard push by Republicans to bolster their chances of retaining control in Washington by redrawing congressional districts to the party’s advantage, Democrats are in a good position to gain several seats in the U.S. House in November. 

And which party controls the U.S. Senate after January is now a true toss-up, according to The Cook Political Report. 

Historically, the party that's out of power picks up seats in the midterm cycle. 

In Episode 48, you’ll hear from Erin Covey, who leads The Cook Political Report's coverage of the U.S. House of Representatives. Cook’s analysts have recently moved 15 House races in the Democrats’ direction, and say it’s realistic that the party could also take a majority in the U.S. Senate amid a worsening political environment for the GOP.

Covey is keeping an eye on U.S. House races in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, along with the Senate races in Alaska, Iowa, Ohio and Texas.

You’ll also get a weekly news wrap-up from Evening Wrap newsletter writer, Danielle Gaines and Daybreak newsletter writer Madyson Fitzgerald. They’ve got you covered with the latest on: data centers on federal land, states bolstering election safety and astronauts encouraging young people to vote. 

Episode produced and edited by Mallory Cheng. Music for Stories From The States composed by David Singer.

Click here for the full transcript.

Relevant reading from States Newsroom outlets and partners: 

Got questions? An episode idea? Email us at [email protected]

Photo: Voters will decide this November who will have control in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. (Photo by Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star)

Anxiety over artificial intelligence is growing. Will it replace humans and take jobs? How will it change our privacy? Will it impact our elections? The list of existential questions about AI goes on. 

The technology has not been regulated on a national level. Congress has struggled to pass federal legislation, while the Trump administration has pushed to limit state oversight efforts.

One expert says states have stepped up to the plate to create commonsense guardrails on AI. 

In Episode 47, you’ll hear from Maddy Dwyer, a policy analyst on the Center for Democracy & Technology’s State Engagement team. She’ll break down how states are regulating AI and whether it's too out of control for the federal government to set limitations on what the technology can do. 

You’ll also get a weekly news wrap-up from Evening Wrap newsletter writer, Danielle Gaines and Daybreak newsletter writer Madyson Fitzgerald. They’ve got you covered with the latest on: mail-in ballots, SNAP participation and state laws protecting wildlife. 

Click here for the full transcript.

Relevant reading from States Newsroom outlets and partners: 

Got questions? An episode idea? Email us at [email protected]

Photo: ChatGPT, an AI-powered system trained to follow instructions and carry out conversations, is being limited in some states. (Madyson Fitzgerald/States Newsroom)

Attorney Alexa Sendukas represents many unaccompanied children in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and tries to reunite them with relatives in the U.S. She has started to see a startling tactic: Federal agencies are using the children to trap and detain the adults who come to detention centers to pick the kids up. It’s left many families scrambling and trying to figure out when they’ll see each other again.

In Episode 46, you’ll hear from Alexa Sendukas, a managing attorney with the Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project. She has represented many detained adults and children in their immigration cases.  

You’ll also get a weekly news wrap-up from Evening Wrap newsletter writer Danielle Gaines and Daybreak newsletter writer Madyson Fitzgerald. They’ve got you covered on the latest about: local officials in Louisiana signing NDAs, how states are using their national opioid settlement funds and how school boards are dealing with declining school enrollment. 

Episode produced and edited by Mallory Cheng. Music for Stories From The States composed by David Singer. 

Click here for the full transcript.

Relevant reading from States Newsroom outlets and partners: 

Got questions? An episode idea? Email us at [email protected]

Photo: A masked, armed agent outside Ocean Seafood Depot during an immigration raid, Newark, NJ, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. (Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso/New Jersey Monitor)

When United Flight 93 crashed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 11, 2001, Tim Lambert was on his way to work at a public radio station. In the newsroom, he saw the televised images of the wreckage in a field near Shanksville and thought the trees looked familiar. Later that night, his dad left a message on his answering machine saying, “Those trees are ours.”

Lambert and his family, by chance, became a part of the story of Flight 93.

In Episode 45, you’ll hear from Pennsylvania Capital-Star Editor-in-Chief Tim Lambert. For 25 years, he has reported on Flight 93, kept in contact with many of the victims’ families and shared their stories.

You’ll also get a weekly news wrap-up from Evening Wrap newsletter writer Danielle Gaines. She’s got you covered on the latest about: the uneven growth of labor unions, wrinkle in the national school voucher debates and the latest on the Rhode Island and New Hampshire election results.

Episode produced and edited by Mallory Cheng. Music for Stories From The States composed by David Singer. 

Click here for the full transcript.

Relevant reading from States Newsroom outlets and partners: 

Got questions? An episode idea? Email us at [email protected]

Photo: Tim Lambert, center, interviews Somerset County Coroner Wallace Miller, left. Former WITF News Director Damon Boughamer on the right records the conversation at the Flight 93 crash site on Oct. 6, 2001. (Courtesy of Tim Lambert)

In Colorado, officials in the city of Boulder and Boulder County have filed a lawsuit against Suncor Energy and Exxon Mobil. They are seeking monetary damages for costs incurred responding to wildfires, repairing transportation infrastructure, restoring watersheds and other devastation caused by climate change. 

The officials are not seeking to regulate emissions or fossil fuel production, but they want the companies to help pay for harms Boulder contends were caused by their industry.

Some counties, however, have filed court records in support of Suncor and Exxon Mobil at taxpayers’ expense. When Deirdre Macnab learned hers was one of them, she rallied her fellow ranchers in support of Boulder’s cause. 

In Episode 44, you’ll meet Macnab and Kathleen Sullivan Kelley, both ranchers in Rio Blanco County, Colorado. They’ll discuss their firsthand experiences of how climate change is taking a toll on their lands and why they decided to get involved.

You’ll also get a weekly news wrap-up from Evening Wrap newsletter writer Danielle Gaines and Daybreak newsletter writer Madyson Fitzgerald. They’ve got you covered on the latest about: the death of a Ohio Haitian college student who lost temporary protected status, the growing interest from tech developers and data center companies to expand their efforts on tribal land in the Southwest and the future of e-scooters in Pennsylvania. 

Episode produced and edited by Mallory Cheng. Music for Stories From The States composed by David Singer. A special thank you to Sharon Sullivan from Colorado Newsline. 

Click here for the full transcript.

Relevant reading from States Newsroom outlets and partners: 

Got questions? An episode idea? Email us at [email protected]

Photo: Kathleen Sullivan Kelley rides one of her horses at her Rio Blanco County ranch. (Photo courtesy of Kathleen Sullivan Kelley)

Since his loss in the 2020 election, President Donald Trump has continued to deny the official results and baselessly sow doubt about election integrity. With an executive order to restrict mail-in voting and lawsuits demanding states turn over their voter rolls, Trump and his administration have been pushing for more federal involvement in how elections are run. That has some state leaders preparing for worst-case scenarios. 

In Episode 43 of Stories From The States, you’ll hear from Stateline staff writer Kevin Hardy. He spoke to some state attorneys general about how they’re preparing for the possibility of federal agents at the polls and contested election results. 

You’ll also get a weekly news wrap-up from Evening Wrap newsletter writer Danielle Gaines and Daybreak newsletter writer Madyson Fitzgerald. They’ve got you covered on the latest about: the nation’s first confirmed measles-related deaths of the year, Meta paying out penalties and the declining enrollment in the Affordable Care Act insurance. 

Episode produced and edited by Mallory Cheng. Music for Stories From The States composed by David Singer.

Click here for the full transcript.

Relevant reading from States Newsroom outlets and partners: 

Got questions? An episode idea? Email us at [email protected]

Photo: Georgia residents line up to vote in 2024. State Democratic officials nationwide are bracing for potential federal interference during November’s midterm elections. (Photo by Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)

In states such as Colorado and New Jersey, record-high temperatures have led to a spike in heat-related illnesses. In agricultural states like North Dakota and Wyoming, farmers are struggling to grow crops amid withering drought. 

Throughout the U.S., extreme heat days are becoming more frequent and more intense. State policymakers are now attempting to plan for extreme heat’s growing risks, which could strain public health and infrastructure budgets and the agricultural economies.

In Episode 42, you’ll hear from Andrea Snyder, an associate manager at The Pew Charitable Trusts. She’s been researching how the hotter summers could affect communities across the country and how some states are responding.

You’ll also get a weekly news wrap-up from Daybreak newsletter writer Madyson Fitzgerald. She’s got you covered with the latest on: Flock camera misuse, a ballot measure about Arizona’s school voucher program and data center legislation.

Episode produced and edited by Mallory Cheng. Music for Stories From The States composed by David Singer.

Click here for the full transcript.

Relevant reading from States Newsroom outlets and partners: 

Got questions? An episode idea? Email us at [email protected]

Photo: Crowds gathered in downtown Denver for Colorado Day celebrations commemorating the 150th anniversary of statehood on Aug. 1, 2026. Heat-related illnesses spiked in Colorado as the state experienced high temperatures. (Photo by Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)

Earlier this year, the Trump administration terminated temporary protective status for hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants. Many communities are preparing for a possible surge of federal immigration enforcement. 

However, Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, are being targeted and forced to wear ankle monitors, according to local advocates. The community became a focus of Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign promise to conduct mass deportations when he falsely accused Haitians there of eating house pets. He vowed to terminate their legal protections in order to deport them.

In Episode 41, you’ll hear from Ohio Capital Journal reporter Megan Henry, who has been covering the Springfield community since 2024. 

You’ll also get a weekly news wrap-up from Evening Wrap newsletter writer Danielle Gaines. She’s got you covered on the latest on: states passing legislation cracking down on social media companies, what companies are financially benefiting from increased immigration enforcement and New Hampshire’s new king crustacean. 

Click here for the full transcript.

Relevant reading from States Newsroom outlets and partners: 

Got questions? An episode idea? Email us at [email protected]

Photo: Signs of support for Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, after temporary protected status for Haitians ended on July 27, 2026. (Photo by Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal).

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. For example, a group called Oregon Connects registered as a nonprofit business in the state. This came just days before the state legislature passed a one-year pause on a popular tax incentive program for data centers.

In Episode 40, you’ll hear from Alex Baumhardt, a senior reporter at the Oregon Capital Chronicle. She has been covering who is behind the pro-data center ads and how communities are responding.

You’ll also get a weekly news wrap-up from Evening Wrap newsletter writer, Danielle Gaines and Daybreak newsletter writer Madyson Fitzgerald. They got you covered on the latest on: the latest wildfires in the West, Indiana’s “Medicaid churn”, and how the prediction markets offered some insight to Kansas’ primary races.

Click here for the full transcript.

Relevant reading from States Newsroom outlets and partners: 

Got questions? An episode idea? Email us at [email protected]

Photo: Screen grabs of similar videos, clockwise from the left, from Connected Ohio, Oregon Connects, Pennsylvania Connects and North Carolina Connects. The groups were founded by leaders at the Data Center Coalition, a nonprofit data center advocacy group backed by large tech companies. (Collage by Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

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 voucher programs. 

A report from the Arkansas Advocate found that the state followed that trend, where the average private school tuition among applicants is about $2,600 more than state funding. Some critics are concerned this could leave children behind in a state with one of the nation’s highest poverty rates, while the vouchers pull funds away from public schools. 

In Episode 39, you’ll hear from Arkansas Advocate Deputy Editor Antoinette Grajeda about how she combed through the data to break down the private school tuition costs. 

You’ll also get a weekly news wrap-up from Evening Wrap newsletter writer, Danielle Gaines, with the latest on: a pro-data center group behind a multi-state ad campaign, Diné community leaders protesting a Trump proposal to remove a mining ban and why a South Carolina tattoo parlor is suing the state.

Episode produced and edited by Mallory Cheng. Music for Stories From The States composed by David Singer.

Click here for the full transcript.

Relevant reading from States Newsroom outlets and partners: 

Got questions? An episode idea? Email us at [email protected]

Photo: Students study on laptops inside an elementary school in Farmington, Arkansas on March 19, 2026. (Photo by Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate)