State and Local on CrossGov.com

Supreme Court Lets New Hampshire Reject Student IDs at the Polls Over a Jackson Dissent

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The US Supreme Court on October 22 let New Hampshire stop counting student IDs as proof of identity for the November 3 election. It stayed a federal judge’s injunction in Scanlan v. Coalition for Open Democracy, No. 26A512, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting.

The order is short and unsigned. It stays the preliminary injunction orders of October 2 and 5 from the US District Court for the District of New Hampshire while the state’s appeal runs in the First Circuit and through any petition for certiorari. The stated reason is timing. Citing Republican National Committee v. Democratic National Committee (2020), the Court said lower federal courts should ordinarily not alter election rules on the eve of an election, and that the district court had identified nothing that justified departing from that rule.

Twenty One States Sue Treasury Over a Rule Exempting Nearly All Companies From Ownership Reporting

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Twenty-one state attorneys general sued Treasury on October 27 over a FinCEN rule that exempts every US company from the Corporate Transparency Act’s ownership reporting. The case, Oregon v. Bessent, was filed in federal court in Eugene, Oregon. It asks the court to throw out the rule and to stop FinCEN from deleting the ownership data it has already collected, a purge the complaint says is set for on or about February 10, 2027.

White Powder Letters Reach Election Offices in at Least Five States as the FBI Warns of Threats to Election Workers

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The FBI and the US Postal Inspection Service are investigating suspicious letters, most of them holding white powder, that reached state election offices in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arizona, Wisconsin and Nebraska in mid-October. Postal inspectors stopped more before delivery. On October 15 the FBI issued a public warning about threats to election workers.

Two letters were opened on Tuesday, October 13. In Louisiana, a letter reached the elections office of Secretary of State Nancy Landry. The employee who opened it was taken to an emergency room as a precaution and the building was cleared for the rest of the day. Testing later found the powder harmless. The same afternoon in Oklahoma, a state elections employee opened a letter with white powder and the building was evacuated.

Pentagon Invites Governors to Bid for the First New US Military Base Since 1985, With Congress Still to Approve the Money

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Pentagon has asked every governor to compete to host a new joint base for 15,000 to 25,000 troops, the first since 1985. States must offer land and fast permits. Congress must still authorize and fund it, and three weeks on no plan for picking a site has been published.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the “Next Great American Base” in a speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico on September 30 and in a memo the same day. The memo describes a hardened joint installation within the homeland, shared by more than one service, on hundreds of thousands of acres. Hegseth called it a self-sustaining power projection platform. It would run off the commercial grid on its own power, with modern air defenses, new housing, health care and child care, and classical architecture.

Georgia Sets a First-Day Early Voting Record of About 185,000 as a Wisconsin Court Rules on Late Mail Ballots

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

About 185,000 Georgians voted on October 13, the first day of in-person early voting, according to unofficial figures from the Secretary of State’s office. That’s more than 50,000 above the first day of the 2022 midterms, which itself set a record.

Georgia has a Senate race between Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff and his Republican challenger, and an open governor’s race, both rated competitive. Early voting runs until October 30. Long lines were reported in parts of metro Atlanta, with some voters waiting more than an hour.

ICE Arrests of Children Have Doubled, With 8,592 Arrested This Term, as Detainees Hunger Strike at Georgia's Largest Detention Center

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested 8,592 children since January 2025, including 562 under the age of four, according to an analysis of ICE data by the Marshall Project, a non-profit news organization that covers criminal justice. That’s about double the rate of the previous administration. About 8,700 children have been held in detention over the same period. New York accounts for the most arrests, at 1,336.

Most arrests of children happen when ICE detains families together or picks up teenagers. ICE says it doesn’t target children and that it detains families to keep them together. Under the Flores settlement, children generally can’t be held in unlicensed family detention for more than 20 days. The administration has asked courts to end the settlement.

Federal Pressure on State Elections Is Testing the Boundaries of American Governance

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An election office needs clear rules, reliable funding and enough time to prepare. A federal policy dispute can unsettle all three before a single voter reaches a polling place. When Washington announces new requirements for registration, ballot handling or voting equipment, state and local officials must determine whether those requirements have legal force, whether funding depends on compliance and whether a court has already suspended implementation. That is a substantial administrative burden in its own right. Election workers still have to run an election while lawyers argue over who is entitled to tell them how.

Fourteen States Sue the Labor Department Over $45 Million in Canceled Unemployment System Grants

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A coalition of states has sued the Labor Department in the US Court of Federal Claims to recover more than $45 million in canceled grants for modernizing unemployment insurance systems and fighting fraud. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul leads the suit, with Wisconsin and Maryland as co-leads. California, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington joined, along with the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

Hurricane Isaias: FEMA Emergency Declarations for Florida, Alabama and Georgia Cover Public Response Only, With No Help for Households Yet

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, as a Category 2 storm on the evening of October 9. The same day the President approved three emergency declarations: EM-3655 for 27 Florida counties, EM-3656 for three Alabama counties and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, and EM-3657 for 76 Georgia counties.

Florida’s declaration covers emergency protective measures, limited to direct federal assistance, at a 75% federal cost share. None of the three declarations includes Individual Assistance, the FEMA program that pays households for temporary housing and repairs. So far, families whose homes were damaged can’t apply for federal help.

Postal Service Pickup Cuts Threaten Rural Mail Ballots as Georgia Opens Early Voting on October 13

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Election officials in several states are telling voters to mail ballots early this year because of a change in how the US Postal Service moves mail. Under its Regional Transportation Optimization plan, USPS cut collection times at more than 15,000 post offices that are more than 50 miles from a regional processing center. Mail dropped at those offices may not be postmarked until the next day. In states that count ballots only if postmarked by Election Day, that delay can decide whether a vote counts.

DHS and New York City Clash Over the Marble Hill ICE Shooting as a Federal Judge Blocks Oscar Bergal's Removal

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin says the man an ICE agent shot in New York on October 8 put his own 5-year-old son in danger. New York’s mayor says the agency should leave the city. Between them sits a federal judge’s order that keeps the man, Oscar Bergal, in the United States for now.

The shooting happened just after 4 pm on Thursday in Marble Hill, in northern Manhattan, during a targeted arrest by plainclothes ICE agents. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at least one agent fired seven rounds. Bergal, 28, was hit once in the neck and is expected to recover. His son was in the back seat and wasn’t hurt. Court filings spell the name Bergal; DHS and the NYPD have used Belgal.

FMCSA's Non-Domiciled CDL Rule Will Push Out About 194,000 Truckers as California's $160 Million Penalty Goes to Court

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s rule on non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses has been in force since March 16. It ends eligibility for about 194,000 current holders as their licenses come up for renewal.

Two appeals cases heard in September will test it. On September 11 the DC Circuit heard California’s challenge to the Transportation Department’s decision to withhold about $160 million of its highway money. On September 15 the same court heard the challenge to the rule itself. Neither has ruled.

FEMA Denies More State Disaster Requests With 21,000 Staff and a Surge Force of 240, as States Absorb the Cost

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On October 8 FEMA turned down Illinois’s request for federal help with damage from storms in August, across eight counties. Administrator Cameron Hamilton said aid was “not warranted.” The state is appealing, and Darin LaHood, a Republican congressman from the area, objected.

It’s the latest in a run of denials that has shifted disaster costs to states. In July FEMA denied requests from New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island for a winter blizzard, together worth about $227 million. All four have appealed.

Transit Fiscal Cliffs: Bay Area Votes on November 3 as the Federal Stopgap Cuts Transit Funding About 20%

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On November 3 voters in five Bay Area counties decide on a sales tax to keep BART, Muni, AC Transit and Caltrain running. It would add half a cent in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and a cent in San Francisco for 14 years, raising about $980 million a year against a combined operating deficit of more than $800 million a year. A poll found 54% support.

Medicaid Work Requirements Start Nationwide January 1, 2027: Nebraska's First Data and 25 States in Court

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Nebraska started checking work requirements for Medicaid early. From May 1, 2026, adults applying for coverage under the state’s Medicaid expansion had to show they worked, volunteered or studied at least 80 hours a month. From July 1 the rule applied to people renewing. By the end of September, at least 1,090 people had lost coverage or been denied. Of those who lost coverage at renewal, 92% lost it for procedural reasons, paperwork not filed or not processed, and more than half of new applicants were being denied.

State Budgets Go Flat for FY2027 as Rainy-Day Funds Fall and Washington Shifts SNAP and Medicaid Costs to the States

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On October 1, 2026, every state started paying a bigger share of the cost of running SNAP, the food assistance program. Their share of administrative costs rose from 50% to 75%, a shift of about $3.4 billion a year from Washington to state capitals. It’s the first of several cost transfers written into the July 2025 reconciliation law, and it arrives as state budgets are already tightening.

The state picture

The National Association of State Budget Officers’ spring 2026 survey shows the slowdown. States spent an estimated $1.38 trillion from their general funds in fiscal 2026, up 7.9%. For fiscal 2027, governors recommended $1.36 trillion, a 1.4% decline in aggregate, though one large state drives much of that. The median state plans growth of just 0.6%. Between 22 and 23 states proposed flat or lower spending.

Login.gov Now Accepts Mobile Driver's Licenses, but Only About 20 States Issue Them and Apple Wallet Isn't Supported Yet

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In August 2026 Login.gov, the federal sign-in service run by GSA, began accepting mobile driver’s licenses to prove identity. Users with a state ID in Google Wallet or Samsung Wallet can now verify themselves without photographing a plastic card and taking a selfie. Apple Wallet isn’t supported yet. The feature is optional, and the original target was March 2026.

On September 30 GSA’s identity proofing contractor, Xcelerate Solutions, with Socure as subcontractor, said its $163 million, five-year order now supports the mobile license flow.

CISA's Midterm Election Security Plan Leaves States and Counties Paying for What Washington Used to Provide

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On September 24, six weeks before the midterms, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released its 2026 Election Infrastructure Security Plan. It promises monthly classified threat briefings with the FBI and intelligence agencies at more than 70 secure sites, a free threat-sharing platform linked to state fusion centers, and election advice from CISA’s ten regional directors.

What it doesn’t include is the dedicated election staff and funding the agency cut in 2025. The plan gives no staffing numbers or budget, and doesn’t mention the information-sharing center most counties used.