South Dakota voter list and more news from the states

Welcome to Wednesday! We’ve got another busy lineup for you this morning, so let’s jump right in.

Starting with news out of Washington, D.C., a federal judge extended a block on a Trump administration ban of press passes for three news organizations, which will allow them to continue to enter the White House grounds while a legal challenge to the ban plays out, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports.

In Oregon, Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek has effectively issued a moratorium on new data centers and data center expansions in the state by ordering environmental regulators to pause approving new state and federal air and water pollution permits.

Yesterday in Alaska, President Donald Trump stopped in Wasilla to campaign for U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican facing a stiff challenge from former Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola. 

Finally, as our newsrooms prepare to cover another iteration of No Kings rallies this weekend, check out this preview from Michigan on its early voting push. 

Texas: Voting rights groups are suing the state after more than 500,000 voter registration applications were submitted through the state Department of Public Safety’s web portal but never processed.

Arizona: The director of the Clean Elections Commission told the state Supreme Court that two Green Party candidates being investigated for campaign finance fraud are working to “recklessly vilify public servants” through their lawsuit against the commission.

Idaho: More than 80% of the wildfires that the state Department of Lands has responded to this year have been caused by humans, the department’s director told an interim committee of state lawmakers. Through the end of September, 10,000 acres of land that the state is responsible for protecting has burned.

Utah: An armed volunteer accused of killing a bystander at a Salt Lake City No Kings protest in 2025 has been ordered to stand trial for manslaughter, a second-degree felony. Prosecutors say Matthew Scott Alder, 43, was aiming at a man carrying a rifle when he mistakenly shot Arthur “Afa” Ah Loo. 

Wisconsin: Milwaukee County is a step closer to getting rid of Flock automatic license plate reader cameras. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley signed a resolution directing the removal of Flock cameras from county parks.

Alabama: Families of incarcerated people whose organs were harvested after their deaths demanded a meeting with University of Alabama Birmingham officials as delays in their civil lawsuit continue to mount. 

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.

Julian Winchester didn’t know he was one of South Dakota’s nearly 6,000 federal-only voters, let alone what that means, until South Dakota Searchlight found his name on the list and called him this month.

The Lake Area Technical College student registered through a voter registration drive on the Watertown campus this fall. His driver’s license predates a change that added a citizenship indicator to new licenses, making it ineligible as proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in South Dakota.

A new state law says people who fail to produce proof of their U.S. citizenship are registered as federal-only voters. That means they can only vote in the two federal races on the Nov. 3 ballot, for U.S. House and U.S. Senate. They can’t vote on the governor, four state constitutional amendments, state lawmakers or local races.

Winchester will need to provide a copy of his birth certificate or other accepted proof of citizenship to the Codington County auditor by the voter registration deadline to be able to receive a full ballot.

What’s happening to him “seems like voter suppression,” said Winchester, who added he’d have been angry if he hadn’t learned of his federal-only designation until he went to vote.

The number of South Dakotans restricted to voting in federal races has nearly quadrupled to 5,735 since May, driven by two recent measures passed by the state Legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden.

A flood reduction project on an island off Alabama’s coast is helping Louisiana researchers understand how coastal restoration can decrease both risk and insurance prices in other Gulf Coast communities, Louisiana Illuminator reports. 

The report from The Water Institute, a Baton Rouge-based research and policy group, shows that while coastal restoration reduces the risk of flooding for nearby homes and businesses, more policy work is needed to better reflect that lower risk in insurance prices.

The Water Institute worked on a pilot marsh restoration project on the north side of Dauphin Island in partnership with Munich Reinsurance America Inc., a New Jersey company that covers risk for insurance policy issuers, and Moffatt & Nichol, a Baton Rouge engineering firm. 

The Graveline Bay marsh restoration project rebuilt 60 acres of marsh habitat, measurably reduced the wave heights during major and minor flood events across the island and lowered overall still water levels, according to the report.

Another goal of the Dauphin Island pilot project was to see if the project could be replicated in other areas such as Louisiana, where the need for coastal restoration and insurance cost relief are also acute.