Here's how schools are getting creative to protect immigrant kids from raids.

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Olivia Rodrigo’s festival raises about $20 million for abortion access and gender equity. Proceeds from the singer’s music festival went to reproductive-rights and gender-equity groups, including Planned Parenthood. Rewire News Group >

Austin musicians now have better health coverage than most Texans. After a decade of clinic referrals left about 85% of members uninsured, the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM) began subsidizing ACA marketplace premiums through a partnership with Central Health, Travis County's public hospital district. NPR >

Missouri Supreme Court blocks the GOP’s mid-decade gerrymander and sends it to voters. The court unanimously ruled a 2025 Republican-drawn congressional map cannot be used in November and that voters may decide it by referendum, preserving a Kansas City district held by a Black lawmaker. Capital B News >

California bars work requirements and time limits on renters. State lawmakers passed a first-of-its-kind bill prohibiting housing authorities from imposing work requirements or time limits on low-income tenants receiving federal rental assistance, heading off proposed federal HUD changes. Capital & Main >

A federal judge blocks Trump’s mail-voting restrictions for the midterms. A U.S. District Court judge in Massachusetts found new USPS mail-voting restrictions, drawn from a Trump executive order, unconstitutional and unsupported by law, protecting mail-ballot access for November. An appeal is expected. Democracy Docket >

Stanford’s student newspaper wins its free-speech suit over a federal crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech. The Stanford Daily prevailed in a lawsuit challenging federal pressure targeting campus speech, backed by a free-speech legal group. Democracy Now >

An ICE agent is charged over a north Minneapolis shooting. Agent Christian Castro was charged with making false statements about the shooting. The count is narrower than the one a federal prosecutor sought; the Justice Department blocked the more serious charge. Sahan Journal >

California moves to give formerly incarcerated parents a path to reunify with their kids. AB 1201 would end the state’s automatic denial of child-welfare reunification services to parents with violent felony convictions, requiring judges to weigh cases individually. Bolts >

Jerome "Big Duck" Smith rode with the Freedom Riders in 1961, trained young activists in nonviolence, and spoke plainly to Robert F. Kennedy about what the federal government owed Black Americans. He returned to New Orleans and co-founded Tamborine and Fan in 1968, spending the next 58 years teaching the children of the 6th and 7th Wards their own history. Smith died on Aug. 21, 2026, at 87. Read his full story on 28 Days of Black History.

IMMIGRATION

Trump's DOJ blocked serious ICE shooting charge over federal prosecutor's "strongest possible" objections. A career federal prosecutor in Minnesota pushed to bring a serious charge against an ICE agent involved in a Minneapolis shooting. Justice Department leadership in Washington overrode that recommendation, and internal objections show just how hard the prosecutor fought to keep the case on track. ProPublica >

These judges take months to decide if immigrants have been unlawfully detained. When someone believes they're being held by immigration authorities without cause, they can file a habeas petition and ask a judge to rule. A review of those cases found that some judges take months to decide, and people wait out those months behind bars. ProPublica >

ICE is paying a controversial AI firm to hide the identities of agents. ICE has signed on with an AI company called ZeroFox for what it calls a "Doxing Mitigation Initiative," meant to scrub agents' identities from public view. People familiar with the technology warn the same tools could just as easily be aimed at whistleblowers and critics. The Intercept >

As hiring begins for Appleton ICE facility, CoreCivic offers to pay city and county more than $1.5M a year for lost tax dollars. The private prison company CoreCivic is turning a shuttered correctional facility in Appleton, Minnesota, into a 1,600-bed ICE detention center. To smooth the deal, it's offering the city and Swift County more than $1.5 million a year to make up for the tax revenue the site would otherwise generate. Sahan Journal >

Trump is dismantling TPS country by country. Salvadorans fear they're next. Temporary Protected Status lets people from countries in crisis live and work in the U.S. legally. The administration is now rescinding those designations one nation at a time, and Salvadorans who have built their lives here are watching the list, bracing for their turn. Truthout >

DEMOCRACY

Appeals court keeps block on New Hampshire voting restrictions. A federal appeals court left an injunction in place against key parts of New Hampshire's documentary-proof-of-citizenship law. That means eligible voters who don't have the required papers can still sign an affidavit and cast a ballot in Tuesday's primary. Democracy Docket >

New mail voting rules moved forward despite USPS officials' concerns about mass disenfranchisement. Postal Service officials raised internal alarms that new mail-voting rules could keep large numbers of people from having their ballots counted. The rules advanced anyway, heading into a midterm election where millions vote by mail. ProPublica >

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

Federal judge pauses case on mifepristone access until after midterm elections. A federal judge has hit pause on the lawsuit over access to mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in medication abortion, and won't take it up again until after November. The timing keeps a major abortion-access question off the docket during election season. Rewire News Group >

22 states sue Trump admin over "unprecedented" attack on gender-affirming care. A coalition of 22 states is suing to stop a federal rule that would strip Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP funding for gender-affirming care for minors. The states argue the administration overstepped its authority, and they're racing a mid-October deadline for the rule to take effect. LGBTQ Nation >

Voter ID, abortion and bans on trans athletes on ballots in November. Voters in several states will decide big questions directly this fall. Nevada and Virginia weigh constitutional protections for reproductive rights, Missouri considers repealing the abortion protections it passed in 2024 and banning gender-affirming care for young people, and trans-athlete measures appear on ballots elsewhere. UPI >

Tina wanted another baby. She also needed an abortion. Texas made both harder. Tina was trying to grow her family when she learned her pregnancy wasn't viable and needed to be ended. Her story shows how Texas's abortion ban tangled up both her miscarriage care and her hopes of getting pregnant again. The 19th >

DISABILITY JUSTICE

Labor Department rescinds disability hiring mandate. The Labor Department is scrapping a 2013 rule that asked federal contractors to aim for 7% of their workforce to be people with disabilities, along with the paperwork that tracked progress. Officials call the goal a quota; disability advocates see a tool for accountability going away. Disability Scoop >

Disabled workers at greater risk of losing health insurance. A new report finds disabled workers are far less likely to get health coverage through a job than other workers, 57.9% compared with 70.6%. As Medicaid work requirements start to kick in, that gap leaves many of them with fewer places to turn for insurance. STAT >

LABOR

"Treated worse than cattle": Tyson workers laid off. Tyson Foods permanently closed its beef plant in Joslin, Illinois, and roughly 2,500 workers lost their jobs. Many say they got almost no warning before the doors shut. In These Times >

Boycott of Starbucks is still on as workers press for $17 wage and protections. Unionized Starbucks workers are keeping their boycott going as they push the company for a $17 hourly wage and stronger workplace protections. It's the latest chapter in a years-long organizing fight at the coffee chain. Truthout >

CLIMATE

The EPA could make it harder to fight polluting data centers. The EPA is weighing whether to drop the public notice-and-comment step for air-pollution permits at data centers. With a massive data-center buildout underway across the South, that change would take away one of the main ways Black communities can challenge a new source of pollution next door. Word In Black >

Studies link New Mexico drilling to radiation, air pollution, health risks. New research around Loving, New Mexico, ties Permian Basin oil and gas operations to airborne radiation measured at up to five times normal levels, along with elevated ozone. Scientists say the exposure carries real health risks for people nearby, including a higher danger of lung cancer. Capital & Main >

In Arctic Alaska, 1.4 million acres of federal land is shifting to state hands. With federal protections lifted, Alaska can now claim about 1.4 million acres along the Dalton Highway corridor. The handoff opens some of the country's most intact Arctic land to mining and pipelines and threatens the subsistence hunting and fishing Native communities depend on. High Country News >

EDUCATION

Several states rejected this private school chain as a charter. Now it's eligible for Texas' taxpayer-funded vouchers. An AI-driven private school chain was turned down as a charter operator in several states. In Texas, it now qualifies for the state's new taxpayer-funded voucher program, giving it public dollars other states declined to hand over. ProPublica >

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A student observes artwork displayed along a school hallway. Teachers have encouraged students to create resistance art as a way to process the impact of immigration enforcement on their community.

Schools are getting creative to protect immigrant kids from raids. As ICE activity rattles immigrant youth, schools are building routines and protections to keep students safe and in class. A Spanish edition runs alongside it. palabra >

A Bronx father is home after his community organized his defense. Gagne Diagne, a Senegalese DoorDash driver, was released from ICE detention after six days. Documented >

Here’s a community organizer’s guide to Chicago’s West Ridge. Organizer Bharat Sharma walks readers through the neighborhood’s anchors, from a beloved grocery store to a family-owned Pakistani restaurant. Borderless Magazine >

Some childcare centers are keeping care affordable by housing their staff for free. Providers offering free staff housing are using it to retain workers and hold down costs for families. Reasons to be Cheerful >

Baltimore’s 911 system now has more ways to help without police. The city expanded non-police crisis-response options within its emergency system. Reasons to be Cheerful >

Nina Simone’s civil rights anthems return to a Minneapolis stage. A revival of Christina Ham’s play Nina Simone: Four Women anchors a run of Twin Cities arts events, including a group show responding to immigration enforcement through art. Sahan Journal >

A Yup’ik immersion program in Alaska is helping students reconnect with their language. The community-led school program teaches Yup’ik language and culture to Alaska Native students. Truthout >