Killing endangered species and more news from the states

Happy Monday! Aside from today being Earth, Wind & Fire’s famous 21st night of September, we’re also watching the calendar as the midterm elections draw nearer. This morning, our newsrooms are reporting on the state of play in races across the country. 

In Tennessee, election experts say Democrats seem unlikely to be part of any national congressional blue wave during the midterm elections. At President Donald Trump’s urging, state lawmakers redrew all nine of the state’s U.S. House seats in May, which allowed Tennessee Republicans to crack a Democratic-held seat in Memphis.

In Alabama, several state Republican Party candidates have expressed worries about signs of flagging GOP enthusiasm in the fall campaign and fear it could give Democrats a boost in November. While turnout for the May primary elections was 23% statewide, the number of people taking Democratic ballots jumped from four years before.

And in a surprising twist, the Republican who serves as South Dakota’s top election official has endorsed a Democratic candidate to succeed her. The announcement was the culmination of a shift that Secretary of State Monae Johnson had been signaling for several years.

Be sure to check out the rest of States Newsroom’s election coverage here. Thanks for stopping by.

Texas: A federal judge paused a bid by Texas Republicans to restrict participation in the GOP’s primary elections to voters registered with the party. While the judge stopped the effort, he wrote in his order that he expects the state’s Republican Party to succeed in closing its primaries during the upcoming legislative session.

Missouri: Missourians living overseas began receiving their ballots despite continuing uncertainty over which congressional candidates should be listed on them. Federal law directs election authorities to send the emails and post the envelopes by Friday, the last business day before the 45th day before the election.

Georgia: Democrats and Republicans running for higher office this year agree that it’s time to address the rise of corporate-owned housing. Experts say there are a variety of reasons that housing prices are rising, but the role that institutional investors play in the state may also be a key factor.

Arizona: The state Supreme Court ruled that destroying a public record after a member of the public requests it should land government agencies in legal trouble. A former English professor at the University of Arizona sued after the university denied access to a list of hiring records.

New Mexico: State agriculture officials confirmed expanded surveillance following the Sept. 17 detection of a second New World screwworm case, afflicting a horse in Grant County. The pest has advanced rapidly through Mexico after being mainly contained in Central America for several decades.

Maryland: Thousands of seniors paying for long-term health care could see their annual premiums double, or triple, over the next several years if state officials approve the steep increases requested by four state insurance companies.

Maine: The implementation of the state’s recently passed gun safety laws — a red flag referendum voters overwhelmingly approved and a 72-hour waiting period facing a legal challenge — would greatly differ depending on who the next governor is. One candidate supports both laws, while another opposes both measures.

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 Trump administration’s top wildlife official issued a directive last week that expands a recent rollback of endangered species protections much further than the feds had told the public. Individuals and industries may kill endangered animals in the course of logging projects, developments and other activities, it said — so long as the activity’s purpose isn’t killing species, Stateline reports.

The memo issued by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik is the most drastic move yet in the Trump administration’s campaign to limit the scope of the Endangered Species Act. Wildlife advocates and experts said the nation’s bedrock wildlife conservation law would offer few safeguards under the new federal guidelines. 

Earlier this year, the Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal agencies finalized a rule excluding the destruction of habitat from the definition of “harm” covered by the law. As long as chopping trees or draining a wetland didn’t directly kill animals, the feds said, those actions were legal even if they led to a species’ demise. 

Now, Nesvik is instructing wildlife officials that even the direct killing of endangered animals does not constitute an illegal “take” as long the action was not “intentionally directed at a particular animal or animals.” Its instructions to staff on how to implement the new rule take effect immediately.

Georgia’s second-largest school district is once again at the center of a political controversy over the appropriateness of school materials. Cobb County Schools Superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced the district is removing copies of Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” from school library shelves, Georgia Recorder reports.

The novel tells the tragic story of a young Black girl dealing with racism, poverty and abuse. In a speech during a school board meeting, Ragsdale read aloud from a scene in which the protagonist is raped by her father.

Library and free speech advocates reject the removal. Georgia Library Media Association advocate and retired school librarian Nan Brown said the district appears not to have followed the proper procedure under a 2022 law which created pathways for removing books that start with guardian complaints and must follow a review process.

Under the district’s library rules, “Only a parent or legal guardian of a student currently enrolled in a District school” may initiate a request for materials to be removed, but during the school board meeting, Ragsdale said the district became aware of the book “through conversations with superintendents in Georgia and across the country.” A district spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about the procedures that led to the book being removed.