Monday, June 29: Undermining protections for people with disabilities, AI and policing, federal land management upheaval, a Declaration of Interdependence
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Personally, after all the hard work my family and I have done to get me to where I am today, I can’t fathom being forced into an institution.”
– Stacy Ellingen, a graphic designer in Oshkosh who has a form of cerebral palsy and manages an online community for people with disabilities, the Self-Determination Network.
Advocates including Carl Schulze, in the Green Bay Packers cap and a wheelchair, are unhappy with a federal legal opinion that rejects longstanding rights to care in the community for people with disabilities. Schulze is shown at a gathering of advocates at the Wisconsin state Capitol in in 2025 to protest low wages for caregivers. (Photo courtesy of Carl Schulze)
A recent legal opinion from the U.S. Department of Justice reverses decades of protections for people with disabilities who have been living independently. The opinion concludes that states may ignore the right to at-home care for people with disabilities and the elderly. Erik Gunn interviews advocates and disabled Wisconsinites about the potential consequences.
As law enforcement agencies increasingly embrace AI, some civil liberties advocates, legal scholars and policing experts warn that the technology could amplify surveillance, introduce hidden biases into investigations and make it harder to challenge evidence in court. They also worry about a future in which AI takes on a more active role in policing and criminal investigations. Amanda Watford of Stateline reports.
A new lawsuit challenging a logging project in Oregon threatens to unravel the management plans governing hundreds of millions of acres of federal public land, Alex Brown of Stateline reports. At stake are thousands of leases and permits covering billions of dollars of economic activity — including mining, drilling, grazing, logging, ski resorts, wind and solar projects, outdoor recreation, hunting and fishing.
Activists rallied, danced and marched in the nation’s capital Saturday as they laid out their vision for the future of the United States beyond this year’s semiquincentennial. The Next250 demonstration featured a massive “Declaration of Interdependence” requiring more than a dozen people to hold it during a march past the White House. Ashley Murray reports from Washington.
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ICYMI
A few hundred activists marched to the White House on Saturday, June 27, 2026, for the Next250 rally. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
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