Wildfires strain resources and more news from the states

Good evening. We start in the West, where a severe wildfire season is quickly eating up available resources and funding, with months of hot, dry weather still ahead. 

In multiple states. Voters went to the polls Tuesday and delivered some interesting upsets. 

And in Pennsylvania, the governor bowed to pressure over data centers, though his critics say it isn’t enough.

In Michigan, an anti-Muslim rally drew thousands, while in Minnesota, one man has become the authoritative source of information on deportation flights.

In national news, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked the Trump administration's proposed changes to a teen pregnancy prevention program.

And in Maryland, officials say rabies is not unusually severe this year, despite reports of several unusual beaver attacks.

Fires are burning across much of the West, straining firefighting resources and state budgets. And there are months to go in the fire season before fall rains and lower temperatures ease the danger.

In the span of a month, firefighting costs for 20 wildfires burning across Washington have totaled $207 million, Washington State Standard reports. 

The expenses will be split among local, state and federal agencies. But the number is telling: Those 20 fires, some of which are still burning, have cost more than two-thirds of what the Department of Natural Resources spent over the last state fiscal year battling wildfires.

More than 770,000 acres across Washington have burned in 2026 alone.

“We’re in a wildfire crisis fueled by drought and extreme weather,” said Michael Kelly, communications director at the Department of Natural Resources, the lead state agency on wildfire response.

In Idaho, nearly 700,000 acres have burned so far this year, with costs already topping $31 million, and state officials are predicting fire risk will remain high through September, Idaho Capital Sun reports. 

With the costs of fighting fires rising, agency staff said they plan to increase dedicated funding for firefighting resources, even as they prepare for next fiscal year's request amid tight budget conditions.

“We’re entering a more challenging period of the 2026 fire season as conditions continue to dry across the state. The significant wildland fire potential outlook indicates above average fire potential statewide through August and September,” Idaho Department of Lands Director Dustin Miller told statewide officials Tuesday. 

In South Dakota, Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden authorized state firefighting resources to support local governments in fire suppression, South Dakota Searchlight reports.

Volunteer fire departments, often supported in part by local governments and fundraising, supply the first responders for blazes across most of South Dakota’s land area.

“As a volunteer firefighter, I understand that every second counts when attacking a fire. And as a lifelong rancher, I recognize the difficulty feeding livestock during this ongoing drought,” Rhoden said in a news release Tuesday. “Supplementing local resources with approved state assistance will improve response time, saving lives and property.”

Related: Vast scale of wildfire threats to Colorado watersheds far exceeds funding

Voters turned out for primaries in three states and a couple of special elections on Tuesday, mostly backing incumbents and presumed front-runners but delivering some major upsets as well.

In Alaska, incumbents had a good day in legislative races, while Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan and Democratic challenger Mary Peltola led a 16-candidate field for U.S. Senate with 378 of 403 precincts reporting, Alaska Beacon reports.

In Florida, a progressive democratic socialist pulled off an upset win over an establishment Democrat in a U.S. House race, while the presumed front-runners picked up their parties’ blessing in the race for governor, Florida Phoenix reports.

In Wyoming, Republican Chuck Gray, who’s been the secretary of state since 2022, won a tight, crowded race for the state’s sole U.S. House seat, while the Legislature’s conservative Freedom Caucus suffered a series of stunning upsets, losing at least 14 incumbents, WyoFile reports.

More election coverage:

Using fiery language and describing the companies “recklessly” pushing data centers as “greedy” and “predatory,” Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro distanced himself from project developers after months of mounting pressure to take action, Pennsylvania Capital-Star reports. 

“Starting today, (artificial intelligence) data center developers who want to do business in our commonwealth must respect our communities and abide by these stringent requirements,” Shapiro said in signing an executive order to impose conditions on new data centers. “And if they can’t agree to do that, well, they should stop considering Pennsylvania a home for their project.”

The first-term governor is up for reelection this year. Both his opponent — Republican state Treasurer Stacey Garrity — and grassroots campaigns have criticized him for not limiting data centers, which provide the computing power behind e-commerce websites, streaming services and more.

In a statement, Garrity’s campaign likened his action to “gaslighting,” saying Shapiro “was the biggest data center cheerleader in the nation” and had received campaign donations from the industry.

“Now that public opinion has turned against him and his donors, Josh Shapiro is playing CYA, and Pennsylvania voters aren’t buying it,” she continued.

More tech coverage:

New Jersey: The Boys & Girls Clubs of America cannot be held liable for alleged sexual abuse perpetrated decades ago by a counselor, the state Supreme Court ruled.

West Virginia: A federal grand jury indicted a former state lawmaker and public school teacher on three felony counts, including the alleged sexual exploitation of a child.

New Mexico: The state outspends most others on public assistance programs, but struggles to match recipients with long-term jobs, state analysts told a panel of lawmakers.

South Carolina: With cargo volumes and revenue on the decline, the owner and operator of the Port of Charleston is looking to cut costs as a way to keep its budget on track.

Arkansas: A Fort Smith chemical plant that spilled thousands of gallons of highly acidic chemicals last spring lacked a permit to operate, officials say.

Nebraska: The state Democratic Party will decide at a central committee meeting this week whether to fill a vacancy caused by its U.S. Senate candidate dropping out. 

North Carolina: Details of a $5 million appropriation for a statewide digital credential system for the community college system appear to show lawmakers favoring a politically connected vendor.

Oklahoma: A former bond director at Tulsa Public Schools wrongly profited from millions of dollars meant for student facilities, a state audit alleges.

Ohio: About 9% of state lawmakers are mothers of children under 18, according to a new report, giving them insight into issues affecting families with minor children.

Rhode Island: Democratic Gov. Dan McKee called for a pause on the installation of new Flock cameras for 60 days while the State Police lead a review of the technology. 

Arizona: A ballot measure asking voters to rein in the state’s $1 billion school voucher program died after the state Supreme Court refused to reinstate a batch of challenged petition signatures.

Alabama: Affordable Care Act enrollment dropped about 23% in the state after enhanced premium tax credits expired, leaving many uninsured or paying for private insurance.

Jayden Scott uses a megaphone to exhort anti-Muslim protesters as he stands behind the police line separating him from the crowd in Dearborn, Michigan, on Aug. 18. (Photo by Tyler Scott/Michigan Advance)

Scott was one of about 2,000 people at a rally led by Great Replacement conspiracy theorist and pardoned Jan. 6 rioter Jake Lang, who brought his racial grievances and Christian Crusader March to Dearborn and its city council meeting on Tuesday.

Lang told council members that Muslim people are “looking to outbreed” white people and “steal our wealth.” 

Dearborn, home to the largest Arab American population in the country, has long been the target of anti-Muslim rhetoric from people outside the community. Lang had spread his anti-Muslim message in the community as recently as Aug. 2, when he was reportedly assaulted by a Dearborn resident.

“The Muslims are being used by the Democrats to instill socialism in America,” Lang said during the city council meeting as the crowd lingered outside. “Once the Muslims have power in this country, then they will start throwing homosexuals off the roofs.”

Read more from Michigan Advance.

On the hot tarmac of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Tuesday afternoon, a man in a gray sweatsuit slowly climbed the steps to board an Eastern Airlines flight bound first for Alexandria, Louisiana, then El Paso, Texas.

He was chained at the ankles, wrists and stomach — and he was the 5,000th immigrant detainee shipped out of Minnesota’s flagship airport since November, according to independent tracking, Minnesota Reformer reports.

Nick Benson watched from the top floor of an airport parking garage, two cameras with zoom lenses trained on the plane, recording video as 14 men and two women boarded the flight in chains.

One of the women struggled up the stairs, leaning on a worker in a bright yellow vest for support. This was the 147th “ICE Air” flight — planes shipping detainees on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement — Benson had observed since he began tracking deportations in November.

The database he built late last year has provided some of the most accurate, timely information to the concerned public during Operation Metro Surge, which the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has described as the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history. 

More Immigration coverage:

A federal judge in the District of Columbia issued an order Wednesday blocking U.S. Health and Human Services from implementing sweeping changes to grants under the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program while a lawsuit proceeds, but dozens of existing grants that were canceled this summer will remain so for now, unless the administration chooses to reinstate the funds, Stateline reports.

The agency canceled 53 out of 67 grants under the program at the end of June, affecting grantees in more than two dozen states. Grantees were given no advance notice and were told their programs did not align with agency priorities — most were told their programs normalized or promoted sexual activity for minors. The grants were canceled two years before their expiration dates.

Following the cancellations, three affected grantees and a sex education advocacy group filed a lawsuit in the District of Columbia federal court district on July 14. 

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, said the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in the case, warranting his decision to block the Trump administration’s actions. 

But Cooper said it’s unclear whether he can order the restoration of nearly $70 million in canceled funds, and that other court cases need to be resolved before he can move forward with that kind of action.

Congress established the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program in 2010 as a national, evidence-based grant program that would fund diverse programs working to prevent teen pregnancy using methods that have repeatedly shown to be effective. Grant recipients typically offer educational programs about preventing pregnancy or identifying healthy relationships, and provide referrals for community and healthcare resources as needed. 

Since then, teen pregnancy rates fell about 72%, which researchers say is the biggest contributor to the overall drop in national birth rates.

To replace the canceled grants, HHS published two notices for new programs that focused less on preventing pregnancy and more on fertility tracking, “body literacy” goals and “reproductive goals counseling.”

“HHS is perfectly entitled to formulate its own views about how to stem teen pregnancy — or even whether it is worth preventing at all — and to pursue policy initiatives consistent with its viewpoint,” Cooper wrote in his ruling. “But it is not at liberty … to impose conditions on grant recipients that Congress did not intend or that are unreasonable or unexplained. The preliminary record suggests that HHS has done just that.”

Despite headline-grabbing stories of rabid animal attacks — including three attacks by beavers, at least two of which were confirmed rabid — public health officials and zoonotic disease experts say there is not any greater risk to public safety this summer compared with previous years, Maryland Matters reports.

But they say the increased publicity from those cases is an opportunity to brush up on rabies, how it works, and how to protect yourself, your family and your pets — which includes keeping your distance despite the temptation to get a great social media video.

“This is unusual, but it’s not out of character for this disease,” Meghan Frost Davis, an environmental microbiologist and associate professor with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said of the recent spate of cases. “We’re accustomed to hearing about rabies in raccoons and foxes; we’re less accustomed to hearing about them in beavers.”

Rabies is a virus that transmits through the bite of rabid animals and attacks the nervous system of mammals, including humans, causing deterioration in the brain.

It’s almost always fatal within 10 days of the onset of symptoms, which include disorientation, foaming at the mouth and aggression. Infected animals can also appear extremely lethargic, timid and suffer from paralysis.

The Maryland Department of Health reports that there were 226 laboratory-confirmed rabies cases in Maryland in 2025, and have been 141 cases so far this year.

“Every couple years, it seems that we have animals that people are not as accustomed to hearing about as being rabid,” said Alicia Evangelista, an environmental health program manager for Frederick County’s health department. “This year we have these beavers.”