GOVERNING

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Internet Explorer 11 is not supported For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers. William Boger, communications director of the Virginia Professional Firefighters, describing the toxic mix of chemicals firefighters inhale on the job as Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed a $2 million annual grant program into law to fund cancer screenings for firefighters statewide, at up to $350 per screening.

Starting Wednesday, insurance coverage through the state-run program will begin. Dozens of applications for benefits have already rolled in. It’s been a bumpy journey since majority Democrats in the state Legislature approved its creation in 2019 over the objections of Republicans. The program has undergone much retooling due to legislative action and public debate. And, two years ago, it survived an attempt to end it through a ballot measure.

The effort was announced Tuesday in Park City during the last days of Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox’s tenure as chair of the Western Governors Association in which he pushed an “energy superabundance” agenda. Joining Cox, governors of Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, North Dakota, Arizona, New Mexico and Washington signed the letter endorsing the Western Transmission Expansion Coalition, or WestTEC.

An estimated 174,000 fewer Hoosier children were insured through Medicaid programs in April compared to January 2025, according to a report from Georgetown University School of Public Policy. That’s a 20% decline — the highest rate in the nation, the report found. Indiana reported the highest percentage decline and third-highest absolute decline in the nation in this timeframe, behind California (-382,776, or 8%) and Texas (-190,956, or 6%).

Are the states the bedrock of American freedom, as the Founding Fathers frequently claimed? Or are they the enclaves of bigotry that led us into the Civil War and then promulgated Jim Crow? Could they be the “laboratories of democracy” treated with near-reverence by jurists and thinkers of the Progressive Era? Or are they deserving of the opprobrium heaped upon them these days as law enforcement catches one state official after another with a hand in the cookie jar?

Every time an opportunity for advancement appears, our public safety net forces millions of Americans to do this math. Facing the possibility of losing benefits that offer basic economic security, people are forced to evaluate the tradeoff of earning more against losing key supports that keep their family out of deep poverty. This is a “benefits cliff,” a problematic feature of many government programs. But there are some promising approaches to easing its impact, particularly at the state level.

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Internet Explorer 11 is not supported For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for a 5-4 Supreme Court majority Monday in RNC v. Watson, upholding the right of states to count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, a defeat for the Trump administration and Republican states that argued federal law requires all ballots to arrive by the close of polls.

Arkansas is one of several states that received federal permission to ban the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds to purchase soda, candy, juices with less than 50% natural juice and other highly processed foods. The ban will be enforced Wednesday, the start of the state’s new fiscal year. AR SNAP Companion allows users to scan grocery items with their phone cameras to learn whether a product can be purchased with food stamps or whether it’s deemed too unhealthy.