New law targets ‘big tech’ over kids’ social media and more news from the states

Good evening. Tonight we begin with a look at a new law in New Jersey that’s meant to rein in big tech’s relationship with kids’ social media use. 

In Missouri, courts are in crunch time over a ballot question on congressional district gerrymandering. In New Mexico, a presentation on a uranium mining proposal exposed wounds from the legacy of mining’s impacts on Navajo communities.

Across the country, states are moving to limit immigration enforcement at schools — but those efforts have seen limited results. 

Elections are being held today in Alabama, Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin. And one month after the death of South Carolina’s U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, voters headed to the polls to choose his replacement. Get the latest election news tonight at News From The States, tomorrow morning in Daybreak, and tomorrow evening right here.

Social media platforms will face a bevy of new restrictions in New Jersey that limit their use of children’s data, restrict algorithmic content recommendations to minors, block notifications during school hours and more, New Jersey Monitor reports. 

The new restrictions, which are set to take effect in September 2027, flow from legislation Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed Tuesday and are New Jersey’s bid to regulate tech giants that the governor said federal policymakers had largely left to their own devices.

“Big tech isn’t just the big tobacco of our era. They are worse. They designed platforms that highjacked our kids’ attention spans,” Sherrill said at a bill signing ceremony in Jersey City. “The typical American teen spends about 35 hours a week, almost a full-time job, on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.”

The law permits both parents and the New Jersey attorney general to sue over violations. If they’re victorious, courts could award $5,000 per violation or treble damages — an amount equal to three times the harm suffered — whichever is greater, plus attorney fees.

The Missouri Supreme Court wants a quick resolution in lower courts of a lawsuit that will decide if voters will see a congressional redistricting referendum on the Nov. 3 ballot, Missouri Independent reports. 

In a Monday letter to Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green, Chief Justice William Brent Powell noted that state law requires the case to be moved to the front of the docket “and heard and decided…as quickly as possible.”

Whatever he decides, Powell wrote, the case is likely to be appealed.

The trial court must act quickly because state law doesn’t allow the courts to add anything to the ballot after Sept. 8. 

The Department of Homeland Security has awarded a $63 million contract to an Alaska corporation to operate a national immigration enforcement call center in rural Tennessee, Tennessee Lookout reports. 

The city of Adams, a town of about 600 people near the Kentucky border, is identified in the database as the future site of the planned call center, intended to function round-the-clock to support local police and sheriffs’ departments across the country that have entered into cooperative agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

The call center will also help locate unaccompanied migrant children and develop new technologies for ICE, contract documents show. 

Local leaders, including Adams City Manager Anna Redfern, told the Lookout Monday they were unaware the town was even being considered. Officials could not immediately identify a potential physical location within the town’s 2.5-square-mile borders and expressed skepticism about the capacity of the city’s existing infrastructure to support a call center.

West Virginia: Lawmakers were displeased with the first state report on deaths of children, particularly those under state supervision, saying the short document was light on details as elected officials try to get a handle on the ongoing child welfare crisis.

Michigan: In November, voters will decide whether to pass a ballot proposal that is one of the most significant efforts to curb outside spending in state politics after a yearslong stalemate among lawmakers. 

Oklahoma: Voters are set to decide later this month whether to amend the state Constitution to include voter identification requirements and to give lawmakers greater authority over election law. 

North Carolina: Members of the Rocky Mount City Council voted against a proposal to halt utility cutoffs after a family of three and their dogs were found dead in their mobile home last week. 

Utah: Two pilots who died in a helicopter crash while fighting a forest fire were remembered Monday as skilled aviators dedicated to helping attack massive fires from the skies despite the enormous risk.  

Maine: The Trump administration’s anti-diversity shift unraveled federal funding that helped schools hire counselors and social workers to support students’ mental health. 

South Dakota: A judge ruled in favor of a state law that helps rural healthcare providers buy discounted drugs and mark up their sale price to fill budget holes created by low Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates.

Nebraska: The state Democratic Party and the national Working Families Party have sued Nebraska’s Working People Party to block it from the fall ballot.

Bertha Nez, a Navajo elder, listens Aug. 6, as presenters from NuFuels, Inc. describe their proposal to extract uranium near Church Rock, New Mexico. (Photo by Patrick Lohmann/Source NM)

The presentation centered on a proposed uranium project called Church Rock Section 8, which the company hopes to build on a 175-acre site of private land surrounded by the Navajo Nation, which bans uranium mining.

But Navajo anti-mining advocates, as well as those who still remember the cascading consequences from the 1979 Church Rock mine spill, shouted out repeatedly during the company’s presentation. They expressed frustration that NuFuels would pursue a uranium mine in an area still contending with the biggest uranium spill in the nation’s history, as well as numerous other public health and environmental harms from decades of uranium mining.

Read more from Source NM.

Since President Donald Trump began his second term with a vow to crack down on illegal immigration, more than a dozen states have enacted laws designed to keep ICE away from schools, Stateline reports. 

But a recent violent and chaotic arrest in a Baltimore school parking lot was a stark illustration of the limits of state and local authority when it comes to immigration enforcement.

Both Maryland and the city of Baltimore have enacted such measures, but neither one prevented ICE agents from making arrests in full view of arriving students at the Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School.

“Schools are places where children should feel safe, where parents should be able to drop off their kids without fear, and where educators should be able to focus on teaching — not where federal agents carry out immigration enforcement actions in front of children,” Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement he released on the day of the incident.

The Trump administration reversed guidance in place since 2011 that restricted migrant arrests at “sensitive locations,” including schools, hospitals and places of worship. Since then, there have been at least 17 ICE encounters on school grounds, according to a tracker maintained by K-12 Dive, an education news website.

More immigration coverage:

President Donald Trump covertly traveled across Europe in a military plane in July after Iran threatened his life, according to a bombshell report Monday night by The Washington Post that revealed press and White House officials remained on a decoy Air Force One, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports. 

The extraordinary episode unfolded July 8 after Trump boarded the former Air Force One following the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, after concerns reportedly arose about his safety on a new Air Force One, a retrofitted Boeing 747-8 jet donated to Trump by Qatar.

Trump had ordered a fresh wave of military strikes on Iran while attending the NATO summit, breaking a brief period of peace negotiations.

More national headlines:

The fireworks display last month at Mount Rushmore cost the state of South Dakota $450,000 more than the event generated in economic impact, South Dakota Searchlight reports. 

The state spent $2.8 million to plan and produce the July 3 celebration, which generated $2.35 million of economic impact, according to a new report by the state Department of Tourism.

“It’s an investment that strengthened our tourism economy while reinforcing South Dakota’s place as one of America’s most iconic destinations,” South Dakota Tourism Secretary James Hagen said in the press release.

The $2.35 million economic impact estimate includes visitor spending, hotel room rentals and sales tax revenue, the department said in the press release. There were 4,800 tickets for the event, and the department said attendees came from 40 states.

The event, officially known as South Dakota’s Freedom 250 Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration, featured a keynote speech from President Donald Trump — which he used to allege a “mortal threat” to the nation from communism — and a fireworks display above the carved faces of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota’s Black Hills.