Chesapeake Bay watershed restoration and more news from the states

It’s Monday, readers! And we’re back with another jam-packed edition of Daybreak.

Today, attorneys representing two local Colorado governments are set for a high-stakes legal showdown over climate change at the U.S. Supreme Court, where they’ll ask justices to allow Boulder’s lawsuit seeking monetary damages from two fossil fuel companies to proceed in state court.

Over the weekend, Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee announced that Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will step down. The announcement came three days after a botched execution attempt left Christa Pike on a ventilator in critical condition.

And in case you missed it, during his second second stop in a monthlong campaign for Republican congressional candidates across the country, President Donald Trump told a crowd of roughly 8,000 supporters in Alabama on Friday to “pretend” he is on the ballot in November.

Ohio: Family and friends remembered Pierre Damas Bel as a hardworking, loving and dependable young man who had hopes of building a hospital in Haiti. Damas Bel died in an apparent suicide on Aug. 31, which his family said was precipitated by his having to wear an ankle monitor after Haitians lost immigrant protections.

Texas: In the Fort Worth-area suburb of North Richland Hills, getting answers about how police use their Flock Safety cameras could cost $2.3 million. Or at least, that’s how much the city is charging a Flock watchdog after he filed a public records request for information about the city’s AI-powered cameras.

Iowa: Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a measure changing an economic development program that could provide nearly $1.4 billion in tax incentives for a $15 billion steel mill project planned in the southeast region of the state.

Georgia: The state’s Medicaid program abruptly slashed the reimbursement rate for foster children’s autism therapy by 30%. Georgia’s Department of Community Health administers the state’s Medicaid health insurance programs, and it has put rate decisions for foster children in the hands of the insurance company Amerigroup.

North Carolina: House Speaker Destin Hall and Senate Leader Phil Berger, both Republicans, announced they’ve agreed to call the Legislature into a special session to provide relief from high gas and diesel prices. 

South Dakota: The recently opened women’s prison in Rapid City held 79 women at the end of September. Overcrowding at the older women’s prison in Pierre spurred the construction of the $87 million complex, but 466 women remain incarcerated there.

See the rest of the news of the day from all 50 states, plus our D.C. Bureau and Stateline, on News From The States.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will disburse $37 million to localities to aid Chesapeake Bay pollution reduction and cleanup efforts. An additional $53 million in matching grant funds will be awarded to 83 projects across the watershed, 28 of them in Virginia, Virginia Mercury reports.

The money will be split between the Chesapeake Small Watersheds Grants Program and the Chesapeake Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Grants Program.

The former fuels projects that directly support clean water, habitat restoration and species protection. The latter consists of projects that help implement agricultural strategies, stormwater best practices, and other methods that prevent sediment, phosphorus and nitrogen from ending up in the Bay.

Virginia’s chief Chesapeake Bay organization, the Chesapeake Bay Commission, welcomed the collaborative funding opportunity.

The grants are awarded once a year through the EPA and are coordinated by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a nonprofit chartered by Congress. They are a key to achieving goals identified by federal, state and local partnerships through the Chesapeake Bay Program. 

Before matching grants, the agency awarded $44 million earlier this year and $22 million in 2024.

A mental health nonprofit plans to honor two mental health advocates who pushed the Idaho Legislature to retract budget cuts. Next month, the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Idaho plans to award them both the Kathie Garrett Impact Award, named after a former Idaho lawmaker, Idaho Capital Sun reports.

When the two mental health clinic owners set out to restore critical services for people with severe mental illness, they faced an uphill battle.

The Legislature was gearing up for across-the-board budget cuts. But Laura Scuri and Ric Boyce armed lawmakers with information and data — and spent time talking to journalists when four patients died after the mobile treatment service had been cut. 

The two often worked behind the scenes, directly with lawmakers, instead of testifying before committees. In the end, their advocacy persuaded lawmakers to reverse the cuts. 

On the final day of this year’s legislative session, Republican Gov. Brad Little signed into law a bill that temporarily restored funding for the programs that the two providers pushed for: the Assertive Community Treatment program, a mobile program for people with severe mental illness, and peer support services, which helps people navigate treatment.