Gen Z politicians face challenges and more news from the states

Good morning, readers! Thanks for stopping by for another edition of Daybreak.

In Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Police Department intends to renew its contract with Flock Safety, the producer of AI-powered license plate reader cameras. While police say that the cameras are valuable tools used to investigate serious crimes, Flock surveillance has been criticized as an invasion of privacy.

In Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump announced that every child in the United States with a valid Social Security number is now enrolled in a tax-advantaged investment account, called a “Trump Account.” Children born from 2025 through 2028 will automatically receive a one-time deposit of $1,000 from the U.S. government, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports. 

Finally, Election Day is less than a month away. The midterms will serve as a bellwether for Trump’s final years of presidency as voters weigh in on consequential policies from the first part of his term. Visit our website for more election news and find your state’s voter guide here.

National: The head of the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans for further cancellations of Biden-era oil and gas regulations aimed at reducing emissions of climate-warming gases while on a visit to New Mexico, as environmental groups protested the proposals. 

Virginia: Should the majority of voters approve a ballot referendum this fall, the state could remove its 2006 ban on same-sex marriage and enshrine same-sex marriage protections in the constitution. 

Montana: A federal judge has ordered the release of 50 people from jail since the end of July because the U.S. government wrongfully arrested them in Montana, according to Upper Seven Law. The firm’s senior legal counsel said the federal government has continued to ignore an earlier court order that said those arrests were illegal.

Tennessee: Democratic candidates in much of the state, especially in its rural areas, face a steep hill to climb. But in East Tennessee, a region that has voted reliably red for decades, that may be changing.

Mississippi: Organizations linked to Elon Musk donated more than $3 million to the Southaven Police Department, as Musk’s SpaceXAI sought approval for a data center in the city. The donations are part of a wider pattern in which organizations affiliated with Musk have donated to public groups in locations important to SpaceXAI’s deals. 

Alabama: A new law that weakens faculty senates at public universities has gone into effect, but the state’s public higher education institutions have reacted in starkly different ways to it. The law gives governing boards of colleges and universities more control over tenured professors and faculty representation on campuses.

New Jersey: The state Motor Vehicle Commission will automatically check new voter registrations against customers’ responses before transmitting them to election officials in a bid to prevent erroneous registrations, Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced.

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.

After state Rep. Angel Roeser defied her fellow Republicans and voted against their plan to ask voters to change the way Kansas Supreme Court justices are selected, members of her own party shared a graphic calling her and three other dissenters “obstructionists,” Kansas Reflector reports.

With the inside of the Capitol dome colored blood red and the representatives’ faces plastered beneath it in black and white, the words and visuals are akin to a tabloid mug shot. Roeser said she’s not sure her likeness in the post is even real — it’s likely a composite image generated by artificial intelligence.

Roeser’s experience exemplifies broader frustrations among members of Generation Z who feel excluded from U.S. politics, even as both Republicans and Democrats court their attention and votes. 

Roeser was the youngest legislator in Kansas when she took office in 2024 at 23 years old. The title of youngest legislator will most likely soon go to Democrat Reed Krewson, a 24-year-old parks and recreation manager in Overland Park running unopposed for the House. 

They might come from different parties with different platforms, but representing young people drove Roeser’s consequential vote and Krewson’s candidacy.

Representing young voters can be a tall order in a nation and state led by septuagenarians and older: Trump is 80, and Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly is 76. The average age of Kansas lawmakers was 59 years old during the 2025 legislative session, according to a study by the Center for Youth Political Participation at Rutgers University.  

There’s a saying at the Indiana Department of Administration: One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. The department routinely redistributes state property to other agencies, saving taxpayers an estimated $571,000 in the past three years alone, Indiana Capital Chronicle reports.

Local governments are next in line for this surplus property.

Any remaining unwanted property is then auctioned off to the public, who can bid on used vacuum cleaners, printers, lawn mowers, vending machines, television sets — even air compressors once used by divers at the Department of Natural Resources.

The state raised nearly $2 million in revenue through those auctions in the past three years, averaging $252 apiece for products sold on govdeals.com.

The surplus warehouse is brimming with unexpected finds: corkscrews, drill sets, brass knuckles, rolling pins, cast-iron skillets and a snake-engraved dagger confiscated by TSA agents at Indianapolis International Airport.