States' rights get a bipartisan push

QUOTE OF THE DAY
“If states were just this weak link, then they would be able to do nothing. You know, it would just be the federal government getting whatever it wants. But in fact, the states have a lot of tools themselves to push back on the federal government.”

– Paul Nolette, professor and director of the Les Aspin Center for Government at Marquette University and co-editor of a national academic journal on federalism. 

Many state leaders hope that a renewed focus on federalism could help lower the national political temperature. By shifting more political decisions to the states, they envision a nation less subject to blue-red swings that change the entire course of federal law enforcement, environmental policy and business regulation. Kevin Hardy and Jonathan Shorman report.

U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz discussed the status of the agency’s workforce and looming structural changes that were signaled in summer 2025 and formally set in motion this spring, as he prepares to move the agency’s headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City, shutter as many as five dozen research and development stations and relocate staff. Mike Koshmrl of Wyofile reports.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais narrowing the scope of the federal Voting Rights Act, as well as this year’s aggressive Republican redrawing of congressional district lines in conservative states, is a serious threat to Black political momentum. Analysts see more than 20 Congressional Black Caucus members possibly at risk of losing their seats. David Lightman reports on the Caucus’ cloudy future.

On the eve of the nation’s 250th birthday, President Donald Trump used his address Friday night at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota to allege that there is “a resurgence of the communist menace in our land.” Seth Tupper and Meghan O’Brien of the South Dakota Searchlight report.

PLUS:

America’s 250th birthday celebrated, despite extreme heat, canceled events