Local communities restrict data centers and more news from the states

Happy Monday! We hope you had a great weekend. We’re starting off the week with an update on the Colorado River plan.

In case you missed it, the Bureau of Reclamation released its two-year operating plan detailing how the agency will manage the Colorado River and the nation’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, amid ongoing drought and record-low water storage, our Nevada newsroom reports.

Under the new federal framework, Arizona, California and Nevada will be required to reduce their water use by 1.25 million acre-feet over the next two years.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has begun targeting and detaining Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, after President Donald Trump revoked their legal status. At least 29 people were detained as of Friday.

Tomorrow, voters in Georgia’s 13th Congressional District will decide who will finish the late Congressman David Scott’s term after he died in April. His daughter is one of the two candidates competing in a runoff to finish the term, but not to replace him starting next year. Republican voters in Oklahoma will also head to the polls in a primary runoff in the gubernatorial election.

Washington: Workers involved in labor disputes now must comply with the state’s rigorous job search requirements to receive benefits. This means actively seeking work and recording efforts to find another job. The change comes after pressure from the federal government. 

Colorado: Voters will decide in November whether to put the right to hunt and fish in the state’s constitution. Backers of the amendment gathered enough signatures to land on the ballot, but opponents worry it would restrict the state’s ability to enact future protections for wildlife.

Georgia: A state agency is accusing a school district of violating state and federal law by delaying the enrollment of foster children. The Georgia Division of Family and Children Services says the disagreement centers on the interpretation of a bill signed into law this year intended to help get kids in foster care enrolled in new schools more quickly.

Virginia: About 10% of schools operate without a nurse, leaving critical gaps in student healthcare, advocates say. Now, legislators and experts are exploring updating the state’s Standards of Quality, the school funding baseline requirements for the state and local governments, to include mandatory full-time licensed nurse positions. 

Maine: People who live in mobile homes in Augusta succeeded in gathering enough signatures to put a lot rent stabilization ordinance on the city’s November ballot. It’s the latest in a series of efforts by mobile home residents and the state to keep the homes affordable.

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 number of Arkansas communities rejecting or imposing new limits on data centers is growing faster than the list of places considering such projects publicly, Arkansas Advocate reports.

Madison County joined four other counties in passing a three-year moratorium on data center projects last week, though it doesn’t have any known projects in development. The pause is the second-longest in the state; only Independence County’s is longer.

The Madison County Record first reported on the moratorium, which passed unanimously.

Local governments have forged ahead on the moratoriums, even as similar measures in Pulaski County have continued to fall short despite blowback over two data center projects. Arkansas has several proposed data centers, with two already under construction.

Meanwhile, Fayetteville’s city council gave the green light to further restrictions on data center construction, building on regulations it passed earlier in the summer. A data center looking to expand would require an amendment to its city-issued permit.

Data centers have become an increasingly prominent issue in this year’s midterms, and have drawn bipartisan opposition. All five of the county quorum courts that have imposed moratoriums in Arkansas have a Republican majority. 

IndyCar took over the streets of the nation’s capital for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, the last in a series of events coordinated and promoted by Trump to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports.

More than two dozen racers zipped through a 1.66-mile course, reaching speeds of up to 190 miles per hour as they traced a course down Pennsylvania and Independence avenues, crossing the National Mall twice, for the first-ever IndyCar series event in Washington, D.C.

Trump’s motorcade traveled on the course down Pennsylvania Avenue ahead of the race, and the president waved the green flag at 1:10 p.m Eastern to start the 147 laps.

Several military aircraft crossed the sky shortly before the race, including flyovers featuring a B-2 bomber and Air Force One.

Thousands gathered along the course fencing with close-up views. Many won free tickets via a drawing earlier in the summer.