War-zone surveillance comes home and more news from the states

Good evening. In Arizona, new reporting details the operations of a war-zone surveillance drone that has been looping around border towns and drawing privacy concerns. A federal government watchdog released a report concluding that millions of dollars have been wasted on rapid expansion of immigration detention. 

In Ohio, a federal appeals court concluded that the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles can continue requiring citizenship documentation when registering drivers to vote. 

In Nebraska, a state commission is considering whether to add more whimsy to the Capitol.

An Army drone like those frequently flown in overseas warzones has been flying along Arizona’s southern border, doing loops around border towns, as part of a collaboration between the military and U.S. Department of Homeland Security that has privacy advocates concerned, Arizona Mirror reports. 

Under Operation Ardent Vanguard, the military operation overseen by the U.S. Northern Command to assist DHS in “obtaining full operational control of the Southern border,” American soldiers have been deployed to the country’s southern border. 

The aircraft comes with a litany of high-tech sensors and capabilities that privacy advocates worry could be used on American citizens.

“It raises very serious concerns that technology like that is going to be turned inward on the United States,” Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union Speech, Privacy and Technology Project told the Mirror. “Even if it is on the border, there are many people who live in our border communities who deserve not to live under the government microscope just because their community happens to be near the border.” 

Related: ICE deportation flights surge at Ohio’s Akron-Canton Airport as unpaid landing fees mount

Ohio officials can continue using a new proof of citizenship requirement for people who register to vote at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Ohio Capital Journal reports. 

In a divided ruling, a federal appeals court concluded that the requirement to provide proof of citizenship did not violate the National Voter Registration Act, which requires states to offer the opportunity to register to vote when someone submits a driver’s license application. It also directs states to require “only the minimum amount of information necessary.”

Red Wine & Blue and the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans, which challenged the law, argued that the state conditioning access to voter registration services on proof of citizenship violates the minimum information standard.

The groups presented two members who were initially barred from registering, both women, whose documents didn’t reflect their name change after marriage.

Research from the University of Maryland indicates 21 million Americans don’t have readily available, up-to-date citizenship documents.

Two federal agencies will collaborate on research to evaluate the human health risks of the widely used pesticide, glyphosate, Iowa Capital Dispatch reports. 

The recently announced memorandum of understanding between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency comes as EPA is conducting a registration review for the pesticide component and as the U.S. Supreme Court recently sided with the manufacturer of Roundup, a glyphosate-based pesticide, in lawsuits alleging the product needed a cancer warning label.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in a news release that his department aims to “answer unresolved questions, strengthen the evidence, and give EPA the data it needs to conduct a rigorous review.” 

Kennedy, in his time as an environmental lawyer, fought pesticide companies in cancer lawsuits. In recent months, however, Kennedy has supported initiatives from the White House to boost glyphosate production. And environmental groups say Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again report took it easy on pesticides.

Wisconsin: Leonard Boltz, a pilot who has flown Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany to events across the state, has long had ties with some of the state’s most prominent election deniers and said recently that if Tiffany loses in November it will be because of “cheating” by Democrats.

Tennessee: A federal judge denied a request for a preliminary injunction that would prevent the state Highway Patrol from conducting pretextual traffic stops in tandem with federal immigration agents.

Arkansas: The top elected official in Pulaski County, the state’s most populous county, has seven days to decide whether to veto new regulations on data centers approved by the county quorum court.

Iowa: A state judge dismissed the lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump against the Des Moines Register and pollster J. Ann Selzer for the 2024 Iowa Poll published shortly before the election.

Washington: Younger voters and voters of color see their ballots challenged for signature issues more often than their older and white counterparts, according to a new analysis.

Georgia: State Democrats are bullish on their chances of flipping the state House this year. But nonpartisan political observers aren’t convinced that control of the chamber is in play.

New Hampshire: Since 2016, the state has had one of the strictest laws in the country regulating and limiting automated license plate readers. Now the state is considered a model for others looking to rein in the technology. 

Kentucky: After a year-long Medicaid funding ban, Planned Parenthood officials say the midterm elections could be a deciding factor in future funding stability. 

Louisiana: After years of minimal profits, Louisiana State University athletics is now tens of millions of dollars in the red, having overspent its budget over the past six years by a total of $177.5 million.

Doctors Council-SEIU members picket during a historic four-day Unfair Labor Practice strike at Allina Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, on Sept. 14. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

The strike was believed to be the first by private-sector hospital doctors in U.S. history. 

The union representing about 150 Allina hospital doctors announced on Wednesday a tentative agreement on a first labor contract covering wages and benefits.

“This hard-won first contract gives us the written protections we needed so we can keep providing the care our patients deserve, instead of watching burnout drive good doctors out,” said Dr. Saul Singh, an Allina physician and union leader, in a statement.

A spokesperson for Allina Health shared a statement saying it was pleased to reach a tentative agreement, which must still be ratified by union members. Allina previously downplayed the effect of the strike, saying it would continue normal operations and asserting that about three dozen doctors crossed the picket line.

Allina Health, one of Minnesota’s largest health systems, with 12 hospitals and more than 60 primary care clinics, has seen significant labor unrest in recent years.

Read more from Minnesota Reformer.

Government investigators Thursday released a report that found the Department of Homeland Security wasted more than $20 million in federal funding in its rapid expansion of immigration detention, including warehouse purchases strongly opposed in numerous U.S. communities, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports. 

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found that millions were wasted because DHS began expanding detention operations without putting a plan in place to meet U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's goal of detaining up to 100,000 immigrants. 

As the second Trump administration aims to deport one million immigrants a year, DHS has rapidly increased the numbers of people in immigration detention after congressional Republicans last year approved roughly $175 billion for immigration enforcement.

Despite skyrocketing fuel prices and sinking approval ratings for President Donald Trump’s conflict in Iran ahead of the November midterms, Senate Republicans blocked Democrats’ efforts Thursday to check the president’s unfettered military action in the Middle East, the D.C. Bureau reports. 

Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., joined Democrats in supporting the House-approved Iran War Powers Resolution. 

But the number of Republicans who wanted to curb Trump’s prolonged military action in the Islamic Republic fell short in the final tally of 49-50.

While Collins, Murkowski and Paul have supported Iran War Powers Resolutions over the past several months, Thursday’s vote marked the first time the retiring Tillis crossed the aisle on the issue. Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, voted against the resolution, as he has on more than a dozen occasions. 

More from the D.C. Bureau: 

New federal rules likely will force three dozen states to reduce their annual Medicaid payments to doctors and hospitals by a total of more than $50 billion — potentially shrinking the number of providers willing to see Medicaid patients, Stateline reports. 

The analysis in the peer-reviewed Health Affairs estimates that the 17 states with the highest provider reimbursement rates will have to cut their spending by between 10% and 25% of their overall Medicaid budgets. 

Related: Missouri Medicaid enrollee challenges Trump rule on work requirement exemptions

Voters in nine states will weigh changes to their criminal legal systems and drug policies this fall, Stateline reports. 

The Nov. 3 ballot measures include questions about pretrial release, fentanyl and human trafficking penalties, immigration enforcement, traffic cameras, drug cartels and marijuana regulation.

The measures reflect a recent increase in ballot proposals that would expand criminal penalties or limit opportunities for pretrial release, according to Ballotpedia, a nonpartisan election research organization.

More from Stateline: CDC’s latest youth behavior report offers a narrower look at teen health

A bipartisan duo in Nebraska is continuing their effort to honor the State Capitol’s longtime unofficial feline mascot, Nebraska Examiner reports. 

State Sen. Jana Hughes, a Republican, and former state Sen. Anna Wishart, a Democrat, will again present the idea to honor Cameron the “Capitol Cat” to the Nebraska Capitol Environs Commission this Friday. 

Until this spring, 11-year-old Cameron had made a home away from home at the Capitol near his former downtown Lincoln residence with his owner, Dianna McGinnis, for nearly a decade. In May, Cameron and McGinnis moved into assisted living.

At a prior meeting, Wishart told commissioners that honoring animals has been a tradition throughout history, such as the case of Fala, the Scottish terrier of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Both are now honored in bronze at Roosevelt’s presidential memorial in Washington, D.C. 

“These animals become a part of the human story of our institutions, and we think Cameron should be a part of Nebraska’s Capitol,” Wishart said last month.

Commissioner Kile Johnson, chair of the commission, had summed up last month’s skepticism as whether the commission should allow something so “whimsical.” He appeared the most open to the idea, while some commissioners asked about what precedent the sculpture would set.

Courtney Wittstruck of Lincoln, a registered lobbyist at the Capitol, testified in favor of Cameron’s sculpture, saying the cat became a “dedicated public servant, and perhaps the most universally beloved figure around the Capitol.”