Legal aid for immigrant children and more news from the states

Good morning, readers. As the November elections rapidly approach, President Donald Trump’s executive order placing new restrictions on mail-in voting would assign state officials a Herculean task to reach compliance before the crucial midterm elections. 

The order directed the U.S. Postal Service to strictly regulate the envelope design of mail-in ballots and to collect voter data from each state through an online portal, among other things. But some state officials tasked with fitting their systems to the new regulations say it presents massive — if not impossible — challenges to reach compliance by November, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports.

In case you missed it, the Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that will decide whether voters will have the chance to decide on a measure making voter-initiated laws and constitutional amendments harder to change.

And last night in Minnesota, three people were killed and multiple others, including three police officers, were injured after a shooting in an apartment building in downtown Minneapolis. Among the dead is the suspected shooter, from unknown causes, according to city officials. The shooting occurred less than two months after a man shot and killed three workers at an apartment building in neighboring St. Paul.

Keep reading for more news on prediction markets, immigration enforcement, healthcare subsidies and much more. We’ll see you back here tomorrow.

Michigan: In her lawsuit against the prediction market Kalshi, Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel has secured another block barring the company from offering sports betting services in the state. Nessel first filed suit against the company in March, arguing it was operating in violation of the state’s Lawful Sports Betting Act.

Florida: Two voting advocacy groups filed a federal lawsuit, challenging Florida’s new law requiring proof of citizenship to vote. The law passed the Legislature this year on a near-party-line vote and was signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in April. It goes into effect Jan. 1. 

Utah: Opponents of Trump’s decision to sharply downsize two national monuments — Bears Ears and the Grand Staircase-Escalante — in July are re-upping their argument that he didn’t have the authority to do so. 

Alaska: The state’s K-12 public schools will receive an additional $115 million in funding this year, prompted by a boost in oil revenues driven by the U.S. war on Iran. Legislators earmarked the additional oil revenue for schools as part of the state budget approved by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy in June. 

North Carolina: A nurse practitioner is suing over state rules that require oversight from a doctor for her to run her practice. Jamie Gallagher says in a lawsuit filed in Wake County Superior Court that the requirement for her to have a contract with a doctor in order to practice violates her rights and is an unnecessary expense. 

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.

Thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children across the country are fighting for the legal services they are guaranteed by law, along with the right to shelter, healthcare, education and screening for human trafficking. But the Trump administration has pulled funding to a nationwide network of nonprofits that represent children who have crossed the border without parents or legal papers, Maryland Matters reports.

While some organizations have been able to continue providing services, smaller nonprofits have had to cut back assistance or close altogether. Other groups, such as the Chacón Center for Immigration Justice at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, are trying to build net networks to reach unaccompanied minors.

But advocates say they are up against an immigration system that is not working in the child’s best interest and badly in need of reform.

Unaccompanied immigrant children are not held by the Department of Homeland Security but are placed in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is supposed to provide for their care and legal representation if there is no adult relative who can take them in.

But in December, HHS stopped paying the Acacia Center for Justice — which distributed funding to a network of some 100 providers — in a dispute over access to sensitive client data.

A coalition of local organizations in St. Petersburg on Wednesday announced a petition campaign to try to place a measure before the public that, if approved, would make the city the first in more than 20 years in Florida to run its own electric utility, Florida Phoenix reports.

The campaign comes after the St. Petersburg City Council voted in June to spend $590,000 to study the feasibility of leaving Duke Energy Florida and creating a city-owned utility. That study is expected to be completed sometime in 2027.

Organizers say that their goal is to collect more than 16,200 signatures, the benchmark needed to place a charter on the ballot about locally owned utilities.

Energy rates among all the investor-owned utilities in Florida, and across the nation, have increased due to surging power demands, updates to aging power lines and severe weather conditions that can damage local energy grids.

According to the group Food and Water Watch, Duke Energy’s rates in Florida increased by 49% between December 2020 and January 2026. The group reports that Florida Power & Light’s rates have gone up on average 45%. Tampa Electric’s rates have gone up on average 86%, the report found. Federal data shows public companies’ bills are on average about 14% lower than private companies’ bills.