Pregnancy-related prosecutions and more news from the states

Welcome to Wednesday! A busy week of news continues this morning with more election coverage. 

In six states — Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota and West Virginia — ballot measures would explicitly bar noncitizens from voting, Stateline reports.

In Arizona, a pair of Green Party candidates dismissed allegations they fraudulently obtained millions of dollars in public campaign funding, but the director of the Clean Elections Commission told the state Supreme Court that investigators have already uncovered 17 voters who say they didn’t give money to help those candidates qualify.

And in case you missed it, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will make $8 billion in one-time payments to American farmers to help offset “temporary market disruptions” and high fuel costs. The announcement comes after repeated requests for relief amid high diesel fuel prices that economists attribute mostly to the war with Iran, our Tennessee newsroom reports.

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Oregon: An eastern Oregon city that has for the last decade welcomed some of the largest data centers in the state is fighting Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek’s recent order meant to temporarily pause data center development, saying it could cost the city millions.

Texas: Pamphlets purporting to come from a transgender rights organization — mailed to families across Texas and igniting a storm of criticism from conservatives — came from a company formed last month in Wyoming.

Georgia: The state is currently in the midst of transforming its 911 system to incorporate new technology in a time when most calls to emergency services are made from cellphones rather than landlines. But in November, voters will get to decide how quickly the state finishes that upgrade.

Alabama: A lawsuit alleges that the Lowndes County Commission’s approval of a 2,200-acre hyperscale data center violated state open meetings law. The commission approved the project and a $1.15 billion tax break for the facility, surprising residents, advocates and two commissioners who voted against the proposals. 

Missouri: Interim Commissioner of Education Stacey Preis resigned after just four months on the job amid speculation she was about to be fired. Her departure comes a month after she and other education officials recommended delaying the release of A-F grades for public schools.

Nebraska: The state’s four licensed medical cannabis cultivators are pushing for changes to testing, fees and legal protections for healthcare providers as questions loom over when the fledgling program will provide for legal sales.

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.

Oklahoma has had at least 222 criminal cases related to women’s pregnancies or births since the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed the state to end abortion access, Oklahoma Voice reports.

Nationwide, there have been more than 900 such cases, but this number is likely an underrepresentation of pregnancy-related prosecutions, according to the new data released by Pregnancy Justice, a nonprofit that works to “defend the rights of pregnant people.” 

Of the 23 states reviewed in the report, Oklahoma had the second-highest number of pregnancy-related prosecutions, trailing only South Carolina. That state had 381 cases filed. 

The organization attributes Oklahoma’s high number of cases to a 2020 Court of Criminal Appeals ruling that an unborn fetus was protected as a child under the state’s child neglect statute. 

While the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision upheld the right to abortion in the U.S. for decades, the nation’s high court overturned it in 2022, ruling that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion. Since then, abortion access has varied by state. Oklahoma lawmakers have banned all abortions except to save the life of the mother. 

Love them or hate them, electric scooters in Pennsylvania are one step closer to being a legal and regulated means of transportation, Pennsylvania Capital-Star reports.

The state House approved legislation that would place restrictions, including an age limit, on the use of the two-wheeled micro-mobility devices. It would also allow Pittsburgh, Scranton and more than 50 other cities to establish e-scooter sharing programs. It passed by a 176-27 vote and heads to the Senate for consideration.

E-scooters are currently illegal in the commonwealth. That hasn’t slowed their widespread adoption as children’s toys and as a way for commuters to get to work and back.

Democratic Rep. Emily Kinkead introduced the bill after a pilot micro-mobility program in Pittsburgh expired. Its abrupt end left many who relied on the scooters to get around the city’s hilly neighborhoods stranded and about 40 people unemployed.