New scrutiny of sexual assault laws and more news from the states

Good morning, readers. Today, we’re thinking of the residents in several states — including Alabama, Florida and Tennessee — who are girding for Hurricane Isaias’ landfall.

 With the elections less than a month away, Thursday continued a busy week of candidate debates, among them face-offs in the closely watched U.S. Senate races in Georgia, Maine and Michigan.

Keep reading for stories on immigration, education, the environment and more.

And before beginning your well-deserved weekend, forward this email to friends and colleagues so they can subscribe to get essential news from around the country. We’ll see you Monday.

Arizona: A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility has had fire alarms going off throughout the day for at least two months, creating cruel conditions, according to detainees. The alarm lasts anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes, they said.

Oklahoma: A first-in-the-nation taxpayer-funded Jewish charter school seeking to open in the state expects to enroll only 10 students — far short of original projections — in its first year of operation, according to an email the school’s leading founder sent to local faith leaders.

Florida: The state’s surgeon general, a well-known vaccine skeptic, said the drive to change rules to eliminate four vaccines children are required to get to enter school or daycare centers is not about science or the vaccines’ efficacy, but about parental rights.

Wisconsin: A group of four legislative Republicans, including two who aren’t running for reelection, announced proposed legislation that would repeal the sales tax exemption for data centers that was included in the 2023-25 budget.

Virginia: Pending changes to Head Start initiated by the Trump administration could make it harder for families to utilize the program, including those whose families lack permanent shelter.

Ohio: The state’s chronic absenteeism rate has been trending downward in recent years, but still remains higher than it was pre-pandemic.

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.

A Cornell University student’s allegations of gang rape in 2024 have renewed attention on a difficult area of sexual assault law, Stateline reports.

A person can be awake, responsive and even able to move during a sexual encounter while still being so intoxicated or impaired that they cannot understand what is happening or make an informed decision about sex.

But whether that person is considered legally incapable of consenting can depend on the state and, in some cases, on how the person became intoxicated.

In New York, where Cornell is located, criminal law distinguishes between mental incapacitation caused by a substance administered without a person’s consent and other forms of intoxication. That can leave prosecutors relying on other provisions of the state’s sexual assault laws.

Legislation on the issue has been before New York lawmakers for years, but the Cornell case has renewed attention on proposed changes to the state’s sexual assault laws.

The legal debate comes amid years of scrutiny over sexual assault and safety on college campuses.

National scrutiny on mail ballots changed Utah’s elections system

All Utah voters have automatically received a mail ballot since 2020. The reliably red state had championed universal mail voting. However, with voting under greater national scrutiny, Utah legislators rolled back universal mail voting.

Although he’s recently urged voters to cast their ballots by mail, President Donald Trump has long attacked mail voting, claiming without evidence that it is a source of election fraud.

In Episode 49, you’ll hear from the Salt Lake County clerk, whose office serves a third of Utah’s total voting population. She said 90% of people who participate in any given election in the county use their mail ballot.

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Along the twisting network of bayous in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, lie hundreds of boats, many of them submerged in hurricanes, others accidentally run aground or simply abandoned. Several vessels have sat for years with no one and no money available to move them.

But now, parish officials, aided by federal funding via a national boater safety nonprofit, are working to clear the castaway and derelict vessels from the bayous to improve environmental and safety conditions on the water, Louisiana Illuminator reports. 

Terrebonne Parish was one of 10 locales the BoatUS Foundation picked in 2023 to receive grants funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to remove sunken boats from coastal waterways. The parish matched the $1 million award with its own money.

To date, the parish has pulled out about 100 vessels from Terrebonne bayous and expects to remove about 134 vessels in all, the parish’s chief administrative officer said.

In 2024, the parish identified 232 sunken or ditched vessels that needed to be removed. Many sank during Hurricane Ida, a Category 4 storm that hit Louisiana in August 2021 and caused $75 billion in damage, according to NOAA.