Via Jennifer Shutt: The U.S. Senate early Friday approved funding for the vast majority of the Department of Homeland Security, sending a bill to the House that could end the shutdown that began in mid-February.

Via Andrea Tinker: At least 22 "No Kings" protests are scheduled in Alabama Saturday. Here's a list of where to find them. https://alabamareflector.com/2026/03/27/at-least-22-no-kings-protests-scheduled-across-alabama-saturday/

Via Anna Barrett: A Democratic gubernatorial candidate wants Alabama's gas tax temporarily suspended. A Republican legislator says it's not off the table. But such a move could be costly for road maintenance. https://ow.ly/QXcx50YzqhO

Via Ralph Chapoco: The Alabama House of Representatives approved legislation last week to reimburse larger public utility companies whenever they spend money to accommodate projects from the Alabama Department of Transportation. https://ow.ly/hJKJ50YzrK3

Via @timhenderson.bsky.social and Stateline: Small counties in the coastal Southeast had some of the largest population gains between mid-2024 and mid-2025 in estimates being released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau, mostly because of people moving from larger areas. https://ow.ly/cZFR50YzjvG

Via Jennifer Shutt: Senate Democratic leaders on Thursday were reading through a new Republican offer to fund the Department of Homeland Security that could end the shutdown that began nearly six weeks ago, with a congressional recess set to begin.

Via Ashley Murray: President Donald Trump, who wants to ban mail-in voting, said he had the right to vote by mail-in ballot in Florida’s special election Tuesday “because I’m president of the United States.”

Via Ralph Chapoco: Alabama state officials are seeking to schedule two executions this year, a few weeks after Gov. Kay Ivey commuted an inmate’s death sentence to life in prison.

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Via Jennifer Shutt: The U.S. Senate was unable to agree Thursday whether to require photo identification to vote in federal elections, as the chamber debated a larger bill that would make several changes to how Americans register and cast ballots.

Via Anna Claire Vollers and Stateline: As No Kings enters its second year, organizers are looking for ways to connect the disparate groups that have united under the No Kings banner.

Via Andrea Tinker: Alabama's recent public school enrollment decline is in line with national trends. But determining who leaves Alabama public schools is difficult because of a law that experts say makes it difficult to track attendance in private schools. https://ow.ly/EgPV50YyWGb

Via Anna Barrett and Andrea Tinker: Corey Saylor with CAIR said recent attacks on Muslims by Alabama Republicans were “the type of speech that you see when you’re preparing a population for really extreme policies.” https://ow.ly/m2f650YyWPX

Via Jacob Fischler: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will allow gas stations to sell a blended fuel containing 15% ethanol into the summer season in an effort to lower gas prices, Administrator Lee Zeldin said Wednesday. https://ow.ly/vhvy50YyUKn

Commentary from Catherine Dorrough: Alabama later this year will choose whether Tommy Tuberville gets to keep representing us. But there’s plenty of time for us to search our souls and decide: Do we want to keep eating the strange fruit he’s so zealously cultivating? https://ow.ly/zJby50YyHAx

Via Jennifer Shutt: Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said an offer from Democrats, sent over in the morning, was completely unacceptable and that GOP lawmakers wouldn’t even bother to send back a counterproposal.

What does representing President Donald Trump in the Florida Legislature mean to the first-time Democratic candidate who upset the president’s choice in his Mar-a-Lago state House district? “It means he’s one of 180,000 constituents,” Emily Gregory told the @floridaphoenix.com.

Via Amanda Watford and Stateline: Gas prices are climbing again across the United States — with little clarity on where prices are headed next — spurring proposals for state gas tax holidays in the hopes of offering drivers some relief. https://ow.ly/u0Ys50YyF87

Via Jennifer Shutt and Shauneen Miranda: U.S. Senate Republicans on Tuesday were waiting to hear back from Democrats after they sent them a new offer to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which has been shut down since mid-February.

Via Jacob Fischler: Transportation Security Administration officers are struggling to afford basic necessities as they approach their second missed full paycheck since a funding lapse began last month, union leaders said at a virtual press conference Tuesday. https://ow.ly/bYNl50Yyoic

Via Andrea Tinker: A bill that would change faculty senates and tenure programs at public colleges and universities advanced out of an Alabama House committee last week. https://ow.ly/vJCv50YymTV

Via Anna Barrett: An audit of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) released Friday found the agency overpaid a vendor and violated the Alabama Open Meetings Act in its first four years of operation. The director of the AMCC pushed back on the overpayment finding. https://ow.ly/KBsi50YyaTJ

Via Stateline: The U.S. government will pay a French energy firm nearly $1 billion to cancel its plans to build a pair of wind farms off the East Coast, the Trump administration announced Monday in its latest move to stymie offshore wind. https://ow.ly/G8UF50Yyn2c

Via Ralph Chapoco: Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken McFeeters filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville is ineligible to run for governor. A spokesperson for Tuberville said in a statement Tuesday that McFeeters was “desperately trying to save his joke of a campaign.”

Via Ariana Figueroa: U.S. Supreme Court justices seemed split Tuesday on whether the Trump administration should be allowed to turn away asylum-seekers who present themselves at ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Via Stateline: The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute calculated women last year earned 18.6% less than men per hour on average. That’s up slightly from 2024, when the wage gap narrowed slightly to 18%. https://ow.ly/aifg50Yy75L

We're kicking off our spring pledge drive today! We're trying to raise $2,000 to keep delivering our independent, ad-free journalism to you. If you value that, consider a tax-deductible contribution of as little as $5. https://alabamareflector.com/donate/

Via Andrea Tinker: Staff members of two University of Alabama student magazines suspended by the school last year sued the university on Monday, alleging their First Amendment rights were violated. https://ow.ly/zgMo50YxShi

Via Ariana Figueroa: The department has been shut down since mid-February while Democrats have called for restraints on federal immigration agents after officers killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

Via Anna Barrett: A group of plaintiffs that include two Alabama birth centers Friday appealed a lower court’s ruling in January that birth centers are hospitals and subject to regulation by the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH). https://ow.ly/axQ050YxRc7

Via Nada Hassanein and Stateline: Federal Medicaid cuts could exact a heavy toll on psychiatric units at hospitals across the country, many of which are already struggling to keep their doors open but provide essential mental health care to people who need it. https://ow.ly/O7Ny50YxFXN

Via Jacob Fischler: Airport security workers missed work Monday at the highest rate since a partial government shutdown began in mid-February, the Department of Homeland Security said, and the Trump administration sent immigration officials to some airports in an attempt to keep lines moving.

Via Jonathan Shorman and Stateline: The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative justices on Monday appeared skeptical of the validity of mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, in a case that could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of voters during the upcoming midterm elections.

Via Ashley Murray: President Donald Trump on Monday said his administration is in talks with Iran about resolving the war, a claim that significantly tamped down oil prices and spurred market increases in Europe and the United States — though Iran denied any progress in negotiations.

Via Ariana Figueroa: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday in a case to determine if a migrant on Mexico’s side of a border crossing with the United States can legally apply for asylum when arriving at a U.S. port of entry. https://ow.ly/Lkj550YxE2n

My column this week. Alabama legislators claim this nation was founded on Judeo-Christian values. Actually, America stems in no small part from a man of faith seeing a theocratic project and yelling "Stop." And the South keeps proving Roger Williams was right to separate faith and power.

Via Ariana Figueroa: The Trump administration is again trying to send the wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the west African nation of Liberia and urging a federal judge to dismiss a bar on his removal, according to legal documents filed over the weekend.

Editor @brianlyman.bsky.social writes that Alabama legislators would benefit from looking at the real foundations of the nation -- not "Judeo-Christian values," but Roger Williams' pioneering creation of separation of church and state, and how it aimed to protect the practice and sincerity of faith.

Via Ralph Chapoco: A former Alabama death row inmate is seeking a new trial after finding evidence that his trial attorney was affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan. https://ow.ly/7Vvh50Yx3Hn

Via Anna Barrett: Alabama hospitals performed better than expected in health care-associated infections (HAIs) in 2024, according to a report released Thursday.

Via Kelcie Moseley-Morris: Visits for contraception and cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood clinics dropped by double-digits after Congress cut off Medicaid funding to certain reproductive health care providers, according to a new Democratic congressional report. https://ow.ly/g5Ne50YwRMW

My column from Monday. Don’t be fooled by the “Power to the People Act.” A bill claiming to give Alabamians a voice in addressing the state’s high electricity bills would actually swamp Alabama’s utility regulator with political appointees, which could nullify election results utilities don’t like.

Sure, Sen. Thom Tillis has become the most visible, outspoken Republican insider critic of the second Trump administration. But don’t mistake Tillis for a maverick. https://ow.ly/lknY50YwQsj

Via @timhenderson.bsky.social: Since their peak less than three years ago, opioid overdose deaths dropped nearly by half as of October, according to a Stateline analysis. https://alabamareflector.com/2026/03/20/repub/drop-in-opioid-overdose-deaths-nears-50-since-2023/

Via Anna Barrett and Andrea Tinker: Here's our weekly round-up of bills that passed the Alabama Legislature.

Via Anna Barrett: Senate Democrats slowed down business in the upper chamber Thursday afternoon due to a lack of Democratic bills on the chamber’s agenda and opposition to bills on it. The filibuster delayed votes on two controversial bills to the end of the month. https://ow.ly/hvQJ50YwAEh

Via Andrea Tinker: The Alabama House of Representatives Thursday passed a bill that would create state party registration and make it a requirement to vote in primaries following an hours-long debate that revealed divisions in the GOP caucus over the measure. https://ow.ly/1j9C50YwA5j

The U.S. Treasury Department will take over the Department of Education’s responsibility for collecting on defaulted federal student loan debt, the first step in a multi-phase process that will end with Treasury taking on the entire federal student loan portfolio. https://ow.ly/xHwM50YwAG2

Via Anna Barrett: A Senate vote on a bill that would have required Alabama governments and agencies to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” was delayed Thursday amid a Democratic filibuster.