By Brian Lyman | Editor
“We have seen over time that people with professional opportunities, experiences, skills and education are often moving out of the communities in which they were raised and going to urban areas where the jobs and economic opportunities are greater.” - Ronald Flagg, president, Legal Services Corporation
A courtroom in the Scott M. Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City is pictured on Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
By Ralph Chapoco
A nonprofit that works to place lawyers in rural areas estimates that two-thirds of Alabama counties are legal deserts, defined as having less than one attorney per 1,000 people. The shortages are particularly acute in impoverished areas and minority communities and makes it a struggle for residents to access representation in eviction proceedings and other encounters with the law.
Don Killingsworth, president of Jacksonville State University, speaks at a campus event in 2022. The Jacksonville State University Board of Trustees last week voted to dissolve the university's faculty senate and staff council to be in compliance with HB 580, sponsored by Rep. Troy Stubbs, R-Wetumpka, and signed by Gov. Kay Ivey in April. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector)
EDUCATION
By Andrea Tinker
The Jacksonville State University Board of Trustees Tuesday voted to dissolve its faculty senate and a staff council meant to allow employees to communicate with administrators. Board members said they were trying to comply with a new state law. The faculty plan to present an alternative this fall, but one professor called the schools moves “overcompliance.”
A line of voters wrapped around a polling location in Huntsville at midmorning on Nov. 5, 2024. (Anna Claire Vollers/Stateline)
COMMENTARY
By Brian Lyman
Jeff McLaughlin, the Democrats’ nominee for Alabama attorney general, has self-financed his prior campaigns and rejected contributions. It’s a sincere stand that reflects the former state representative’s efforts on campaign finance reform. But in my column this week, I write that it’s also proven a poor strategy in McLaughlin’s state House and mayoral campaigns, and that’s it’s preventing voters from knowing how he would work as attorney general.
ICYMI
The data center industry’s PR blitz is backfiring | Lisa Sorg, Inside Climate News
No more ‘hypothetical situations:’ States move to fortify elections against Trump | Kevin Hardy, Stateline
Flock Safety tightens safeguards as states, cities question surveillance network | Amanda Watford, Stateline
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