By Brian Lyman | Editor
We all hope you had a restful holiday weekend. Because we’ve got two months of campaigning to slog through.
A cow rests at the Kentucky State Fair in Louisville, Kentucky on Aug. 27, 2026. (Chris Hughes for Kentucky Lantern)
ELECTIONS 2026
By Andrea Tinker
President Donald Trump’s plan to import 300,000 metric tons of beef priced under market value has drawn rare rebukes from organizations generally supportive of him. Trump says the imports will lower high beef prices, but industry groups and officials raised doubts about that and said it could discourage investments. U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, has introduced legislation that would attempt to stop the imports.
A prison corridor in Holman Correctional Facility in 2019. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
By Ralph Chapoco
Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, a longtime critic of the Alabama Department of Corrections, questioned Alabama Department of Corrections officials Thursday on whether it would be cheaper to settle an ongoing lawsuit over mental health treatment in Alabama prisons instead of litigating it. Speaking at a Contract Review meeting, England said the state was “just burning” money appropriated to the department.
U.S. Sen. and Republican gubernatorial nominee Tommy Tuberville speaking at the Alabama Republican Party's Summer Dinner on July 31, 2026, at the Renaissance Hotel in Montgomery, Alabama. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector)
COMMENTARY
By Brian Lyman
On paper, Republican gubernatorial nominee Tommy Tuberville’s plan for data centers looks reasonable. Tuberville calls for giving communities the power to say no; taxing data centers at a high rate and requiring them to pay for infrastructure. But in my column this week, I write that empowering communities will likely require a state constitutional amendment, a slow process that without safeguards could render local opposition meaningless.
ICYMI
As the Trump administration dismantles Temporary Protected Status, Salvadorans may be next | Ariana Figueroa, DC Bureau
FEMA is off the chopping block. But disaster aid is still a guessing game. | Alex Brown, Stateline
Developers eye Native nations, tribal communities for new data center projects | Madyson Fitzgerald, States Newsroom
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