Via Anna Barrett: Phillip Ensler is running for Alabama lieutenant governor in part because Doug Jones is running for Alabama governor. https://ow.ly/GoF050XMKYz

Via Jonathan Shorman and Stateline: A confidential agreement between DOJ and more than a dozen states would hand the federal government a major role in election administration, a responsibility that belongs to the states under the U.S. Constitution. https://ow.ly/4ue950XMwS6

My column from Monday. On Tommy Tuberville; the Alabama State Board of Education's struggle to adopt a new social studies textbook, and the difference between loving one's country and demanding unquestioning pride in it.

Via Amanda Watford and Stateline: Even in prisons and jails where menstrual products are available, limited supplies, low-quality products, strict disciplinary rules and delays in medical care can result in incarcerated people facing health issues or disciplinary write-ups. https://ow.ly/aXl150XMwnb

Via Jacob Fischler: The U.S. House on Thursday passed, 211-204, a bill to remove Endangered Species Act protections for the gray wolf outside Alaska.

Via Ashley Murray: In a press conference Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said lawmakers have been “preparing for any scenario” and warned “there will be serious legal and political consequences” if the Trump administration withholds documents required by law to be released.

Via Ariana Figueroa: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said late Thursday she was suspending applications for a diversity visa program because the man suspected of killing two Brown University students and an MIT professor obtained a green card through the program. https://ow.ly/XLXs50XME5v

Via @rhodeislandcurrent.com: Former Brown graduate student Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a suspect in the Dec. 13 mass shooting at the university, was found dead in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, shortly before 9 p.m.

Via @andreadotweb.bsky.social: A group of students and professors have appealed a federal court ruling allowing Alabama’s anti-diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) law to go into effect.

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: The Alabama Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) Board Thursday approved an emergency, temporary rule regulating the sale of consumable hemp products, over the opposition of a state representative who sponsored the law leading to the regulation.

Via @stateline.org: As pennies vanish from the American landscape, many businesses are clamoring for federal guidance on how to handle cash transactions in a penniless world.

President Donald Trump’s administration took major steps Thursday in a campaign to block minors’ access to gender-affirming care nationwide.

Via Jacob Fischler: President Joe Biden started the process for rescheduling the drug last year. Trump said the move reflected that cannabis could have medicinal value, even if abuse was still possible.

Via Ariana Figueroa: A panel of appellate judges seemed skeptical during Thursday oral arguments that the Trump administration erred in relying on a decades-old statute to require millions of noncitizens to register with the federal government and carry documentation. https://ow.ly/neIo50XLG35

Via Anna Barrett: Ensler, a first-term state representative, flipped a Republican seat in 2022, the first Democrat to do so in the Alabama Legislature since 2010. He helped lead efforts to create a state ban on Glock switches in the Alabama House.

Via @timhenderson.bsky.social and Stateline: Measles case are continuing to grow, reaching 1,958 confirmed cases in 43 states through Dec. 16 and threatening to undo next year the United States’ status as a nation that has eradicated the disease. https://ow.ly/AKMi50XLp6y

Via Greg LaRose and Louisiana Illuminator: Louisiana cannot enforce a 2023 law that requires social media platforms to verify the ages of its users, a federal judge ruled Monday, declaring that it violates the First Amendment.

Via Anna Barrett: A board overseeing a program allowing taxpayers to make donations to support rural hospitals Wednesday discussed how two third-party entities would fit into the program.  https://ow.ly/52gl50XLbnj

Via Ralph Chapoco: A new report from the Death Penalty Information Center found that Alabama put more people to death in 2025 than all but one other state. The report also noted that capital punishment states are expanding its use even as support continues to decline. https://ow.ly/Vfp150XL6Vm

Via Ashley Murray: President Donald Trump spent several minutes in a televised address Wednesday addressing the economy, stating that prices on groceries and fuel are coming down. Both claims are false, according to government data.

Via Ashley Murray: A U.S. appeals court ruled Wednesday that National Guard troops can remain in the District of Columbia while the judges take up the case that began when the district sued the Trump administration for deploying roughly 2,000 troops to the nation’s capital. https://ow.ly/VZXO50XLbaK

Via @elishabrown.bsky.social: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning four major retailers about compliance with a recall of infant formula that has been linked to botulism. (Deleted earlier post that misattributed the author.) ow.ly/hLfX50XL1rZ

Via @elishabrown.bsky.social: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning four major retailers about compliance with a recall of infant formula that has been linked to botulism. (Deleted earlier post that misattributed the author.) ow.ly/hLfX50XL1rZ

Via Ralph Chapoco: McCarron, a first-time political candidate, trailed Secretary of State Wes Allen and Ag and Industries Commissioner Rick Pate in fundraising at the end of November. He drew criticism for never having voted, only registering to vote three days before entering the race in October.

Breaking via Jennifer Shutt and Shauneen Miranda: The U.S. House could vote to approve a Democratic bill that would extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits for three more years, after a handful of moderate Republicans backed the effort on Wednesday.

U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday blasted ongoing efforts from President Donald Trump’s administration to dismantle the Department of Education, including plans to shift several of its responsibilities to other Cabinet-level agencies.

Via Andrea Tinker: The Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) and the Alabama Community College System (ACCS) will both focus on health care costs in the 2026 legislative agendas. https://ow.ly/lTLG50XKxKc

Via Andrea Tinker: Alabama’s two Democratic U.S. representatives want the University of Alabama to reinstate two student magazines suspended earlier this month. https://ow.ly/sOi350XKBro

Via Shalina Chatlani and Stateline: Traffic-related deaths rose 23% in the United States between 2013 and 2022, at a time when they were declining in most other parts of the world. State governments have noticed, and are pushing stricter enforcement laws. https://ow.ly/eq1f50XKmCz

Via Madyson Fitzgerald and Stateline: State lawmakers of both parties said they plan to keep passing laws regulating artificial intelligence despite President Donald Trump’s efforts to stop them. https://ow.ly/b19f50XKm6Q

Via Ashley Murray: U.S. senators left a meeting Tuesday with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio split over the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug-running vessels near Venezuela, particularly an early September follow-up strike that killed two survivors.

Via Jennifer Shutt: U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday he will not allow a floor vote this week on a bipartisan amendment supported by moderate Republicans that would extend the Affordable Care Act enhanced tax credits.

Via @timhenderson.bsky.social and Stateline: A shutdown-delayed jobs report released Tuesday showed an increase of 64,000 jobs in November, rebounding from a large loss of 105,000 jobs in October. Unemployment ticked higher to 4.6%, the highest since September 2021.

Via Anna Barrett: About 130,000 Alabamians could lose health care coverage or pay significantly higher premiums at the start of 2026 after Congress failed to pass an extension on tax credits for Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans last week. https://ow.ly/V0IL50XK2S8

Via Ralph Chapoco: Following days of attacks on Muslim Americans and immigrants -- including a post where he demanded the country "SEND THEM HOME NOW" -- U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, was placed on an extremist list Monday by a civil rights group. https://ow.ly/vvHW50XK2tm

Via Jonathan Shorman and Stateline: A new report found Alabama is one of 10 southern states where Republicans could gain legislative seats at the expense of Black lawmakers, should the U.S. Supreme Court strike down majority-minority districts in a case out of Louisiana. https://ow.ly/EFn350XJJGh

Via Jacob Fischler: In a brief affirmative response to a reporter’s question in the Oval Office, the president confirmed he is considering a reclassification of marijuana to unlock research funding.

Via Andrea Tinker: Ella Cook, a sophomore from Mountain Brook, was one of two people killed in the mass shooting at Brown University on Saturday, her church said over the weekend.

My column this week. Maybe Alabama is struggling to adopt a new social studies textbook because patriotism has become chauvinism, where only a handful of Americans are worthy of respect. Tommy Tuberville's despicable attacks on Alabamians of the Islamic faith embody that.

Via Amanda Watford and Stateline: Arrests in the United States have fallen to levels not seen in decades, according to a new report that reconstructs national arrest trends in the absence of federal data. https://ow.ly/qaIZ50XJymA

Editor Brian Lyman writes that Alabama leaders are confusing patriotism with chauvinism, which may explain why they're so fearful of honest interpretations of the past. https://alabamareflector.com/2025/12/15/the-past-keeps-seeping-into-alabamas-present-no-wonder-leaders-fear-it/

Via Ralph Chapoco: An Alabama Reflector analysis found that five of Alabama's 67 counties have been responsible for almost half of the death sentences handed down in the state since 2012. https://ow.ly/jB1z50XIKbR

Via Andrea Tinker: A committee told the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) Thursday that they had identified “the most burdensome paperwork tasks” for teachers. https://ow.ly/Hlmb50XIAfj

Via Kelcie Moseley-Morris: Attorneys for the states of Florida and Texas filed another lawsuit this week seeking to restrict access to a medication abortion drug and rescind the approval of its brand-name and generic versions dating back to 2000. https://ow.ly/ZKjB50XIpgh

Via @rhodeislandcurrent.com: Two people have died and several others were wounded in a mass shooting in a Brown University engineering building late Saturday afternoon, prompting a shelter in place alert on the Ivy League campus and a massive search for a gunman that continued into the evening.

My column from Monday. In the wake of the shutdown of two student publications, it’s no longer accurate to say the University of Alabama is cowering before the Trump administration’s anti-DEI assaults. UA leadership is embracing them, regardless of the harm they do to minority students.

Via Anna Barrett: The former U.S. senator, who faces an uphill battle in the governor's race, pledged to protect reproductive rights; expand Medicaid and mental health care and making voting easier in a campaign kick-off in Birmingham Friday.

Via @timhenderson.bsky.social & Stateline: Immigration arrests reached rates of more than 30,000 a month through mid-October. But an ever-larger share of those arrests were for immigration violations, not the criminal convictions the Trump administration claims to focus on. https://ow.ly/W4jR50XIoVg

Via Anna Barrett: Speaking to more than 1,000 supporters in Birmingham, former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones kicked off his gubernatorial campaign with pledges to protect health care and voting rights and attacks on likely GOP gubernatorial nominee Tommy Tuberville.

Via Jennifer Shutt: Starting in 2027, the legislation would appropriate funding for cost sharing reduction payments that the summary said would reduce health insurance premiums and stabilize the individual market.