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Families, lawmakers, advocates pay tribute to victims of social media harms at US Capitol memorial

By Amelia Twyman
National

Content notice: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you are struggling or in crisis, help is available. You can call or text 988 in the U.S. and Canada, or contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.

WASHINGTON — Placards featuring 272 names, each with a photo and the age of a child or young adult who lost their life due to what their families call social media-related causes, lined the lawn of the U.S. Capitol’s Upper Senate Park Tuesday evening.

Scattered among the signs stood dozens of bereaved families, friends, lawmakers and advocates from across the country and both sides of the political aisle, joining together to honor those who had died — and call for legislation aiming to make social media safer for children.

Founded in 2023 by two mothers whose sons died the same morning, Social Media Victims Remembrance Day commemorates young victims of online threats such as cyberbullying, blackmail, drug dealing, viral challenges and addictive algorithms.

Tuesday’s public memorial — the largest ever held in commemoration of kids impacted by social media, organizers said — featured speeches from Democratic and Republican U.S. senators working to pass legislation that would, among other things, seek to hold tech companies more accountable for a series of harms caused by their platforms.

Just as they took the stage, the rain that had been showering Washington all day trickled to an end and sunlight broke through clouds, shining down on the crowd and the placards that swayed gently in the breeze around them, which Sen. Amy Klobuchar used as a metaphor for the issue.

“I think part of what we need is more sunshine on what’s happening here, and more transparency, and people understanding how truly bad this is,” the Minnesota Democrat told the families seated before her.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, and Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, also spoke at Tuesday’s memorial.

Social Media Victims Remembrance Day

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, speaks at a Social Media Victims Remembrance Day event outside the U.S. Capitol on June 23, 2026. (Photo by Amelia Twyman/States Newsroom)

Mothers Kristin Bride and Amy Neville created Social Media Victims Remembrance Day to honor their late sons Carson Bride and Alexander Neville, who died in social media-related incidents on June 23, 2020.

Carson Bride, of Oregon, was 16 when he died by suicide after being cyberbullied through anonymous integrated apps on Snapchat. Fourteen-year-old Alexander Neville, of Arizona, lost his life the same morning from a fake prescription pill laced with fentanyl, which he had purchased through a drug dealer, also on Snapchat.

For Neville, founding Social Media Victims Remembrance Day was a way for her to put her “feelings out there at scale.”

The day now also gives her the chance to connect with other parents who have gone through similar tragedies.

“It’s a weird feeling being out in the world among people who don’t know what you’ve experienced,” she said in a joint interview with Bride on Tuesday. “Being together like this with folks who know, folks who have similar experiences, we feel normal. It is special to be together like this.”

Bride saw Social Media Victims Remembrance Day as an opportunity to “make a difference,” she said.

“I really feel like the way we can come at social media companies is education and awareness, which this event does,” she added. “Carson always wanted to make the world a better place. And I feel like we could be grieving alone on this day, or we could be together with so many other families.”

Big Tech or families?

Bride and Neville held the first Social Media Victims Remembrance Day event in 2023 in front of the Orange County Crime Victims Monument, a memorial outside the district attorney’s office.

Then, after taking a year off, they decided to bring the observance to the nation’s capital last year because they wanted to increase lawmakers’ awareness of the dangers surrounding youth social media use.

“We want them to make the decision: Is it Big Tech, or is it American families?” Bride said. “Because unfortunately, this memorial continues to grow.”

Over the past year, efforts to protect children online and hold Big Tech companies accountable for social media harms have continued to grow, with U.S. lawmakers in both the House and Senate pushing regulatory legislation and parents taking a legal stand.

Tuesday’s event three months after a California jury found Meta and Youtube liable in a breakthrough social media addiction trial, one of the first in a long line of suits blaming tech companies for personal injury and recklessness. A New Mexico jury had just days before found that Meta violated its state law in a separate child sexual exploitation case.

Social media platforms have rejected the framing that their products are responsible for harms to young users.

In a statement responding to the California verdict, Meta said the issue was much more complicated than the jury recognized.

“Teen mental health is profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app,” a company spokesman wrote on X.

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, speaks at a Social Media Victims Remembrance Day event outside the U.S. Capitol on June 23, 2026. (Photo by Amelia Twyman/States Newsroom)

Congressional action

On Monday, Republican and Democratic leaders on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce announced that they had reached a bipartisan agreement on a bill aimed at making social media environments safer for children and holding parent companies accountable.

“If you make a defective toaster and it blows up in someone’s home, they are liable,” Blumenthal said Tuesday. “When Big Tech makes products that addict and kill young people, they should be liable under a duty of care that is clear and effective.”

Blumenthal was one of the senators who introduced the measure in February 2022. The bill eventually passed in the Senate, 91-3, but did not receive a vote in the House as social media platforms opposed it.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, a Republican, and ranking Democrat Frank Pallone of New Jersey reached a deal this year to include the bill as part of a broader legislative package titled the Kids Internet and Digital Safety, or KIDS, Act.

“Through empowering parents, establishing safety as a default, strengthening privacy for children and teens, increasing transparency around data brokers, and holding Big Tech accountable, the KIDS Act delivers the 21st century protections parents have demanded and our kids deserve,” Guthrie and Pallone said in a news release.

Politico reported last week that Meta has dropped its opposition to the safety measures because the package also includes provisions on artificial intelligence that the company supports.

Hawley on Tuesday accused the companies of putting profits above children’s wellness.

“We’re here today to say that there is no amount of profit that justifies the exploitation of our children,” Hawley said. “But that’s exactly what these companies are doing, and they know just what they’re doing.”

June 24, 2026
Judges block Trump push for Michigan voter info, setting up possible Supreme Court fight

By Jonathan Shorman
National

Voters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, cast their ballots during the state’s August 2024 primary. (Photo by Matt Vasilogambros/Stateline)

A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled the Department of Justice isn’t entitled to access the sensitive personal data of Michigan voters, a setback in President Donald Trump’s push to assert power over state-run elections.

The decision moves the country closer to a potential fight at the U.S. Supreme Court over state voter rolls ahead of the November midterm elections, with Michigan at the center.

The Trump administration has sued 30 states for copies of their voter information. Federal officials want to run the data through a Department of Homeland Security computer program to identify possible noncitizen voters.

In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Michigan Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson isn’t required to turn over sensitive voter data, including dates of birth, driver’s license and Social Security numbers of voters. The 6th Circuit is the first appellate court to weigh in on the voter roll lawsuits after a series of district court rulings against the DOJ.

The Justice Department had demanded Michigan’s voter roll under the 1960 Civil Rights Act, which grants the U.S. attorney general broad access to documents and records that “come into the possession” of election officials. Congress passed the law to empower investigations into voting discrimination against Black citizens.

Lower court affirmed

Wednesday’s opinion affirmed a February decision by U.S District Court Judge Hala Jarbou, a Trump appointee in the Western District of Michigan, who ruled that the Justice Department isn’t entitled to voters’ data. Michigan’s voter registration database is a record created by state officials, not a document that comes into their possession, she reasoned.

The appellate judges agreed, writing that making the state’s full voter roll subject to the Civil Rights Act would place Michigan officials on a “collision course” with the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act, two federal laws that require states to maintain and update voter registration lists.

The Civil Rights Act “tells election officials to retain and preserve certain records and papers that come into their possession, and the NVRA and HAVA tell election officials to remove ineligible voters from statewide voter registration lists,” Judge Andre B. Mathis, a President Joe Biden appointee, wrote in the majority opinion.

“We should not adopt a reading that would place election officials in violation of one federal law for trying to comply with others,” Mathis added.

One member of the appellate panel, Judge John B. Nalbandian, a Trump appointee, wrote in a dissent that Michigan’s voter roll is a record that the Justice Department can demand under the Civil Rights Act. He argued that requiring Michigan to turn over the data wouldn’t conflict with the NVRA and HAVA.

DOJ sees ‘carveout’

During oral arguments in May, the Justice Department suggested that upholding the district court decision would weaken its ability to investigate racial discrimination in voting. DOJ attorney David Goldman told the panel that the district court judge had created a “carveout” in the Civil Rights Act not rooted in the law.

But Michigan Assistant Attorney General Heather Meingast, representing Benson, told the judges that the Justice Department’s demand is unprecedented and unsupported by federal law.

“It doesn’t seem to meet the test of what the (Civil Rights Act) was talking about in the ‘60s,” Meingast said. “And the purpose was voters turning in their documents, their applications, their poll taxes.”

The Justice Department has been pursuing state voter rolls for more than a year. While some Republican-led states voluntarily provided the data, most states have resisted, leading to a wave of lawsuits. So far, no court has ruled in the DOJ’s favor.

Lawyers for the Justice Department have said the voter information would be shared with Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, system — a computer program that originally checked the eligibility of individual immigrants for government benefits that the Trump administration overhauled into a tool to verify citizenship.

On Monday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that the changes to SAVE had been made illegally and that the Trump administration had violated the privacy of millions of Americans. The judge also noted that problems had been found with SAVE, including falsely flagging citizens.

The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. DOJ lawyers can ask the full 6th Circuit or Supreme Court to hear the case.

“The law cannot be any clearer– states run elections, the federal government is not entitled to Michigan voters’ personal data, and the president cannot change election law with the stroke of a pen,” Benson said in a statement.

June 24, 2026
States that won’t obey Trump order will have their mail ballots halted, postmaster says

By Jonathan Shorman
National

Ahead of the May 2024 primary, a drop box for mail-in ballots sits outside the Shelby County Courthouse Annex in Shelbyville, Kentucky. (Photo by McKenna Horsley/Kentucky Lantern)

The U.S. Postal Service won’t deliver mail ballots in states that refuse to turn over lists of voters under a proposed rule, the agency’s chief executive said Wednesday, angering Democrats who warn the decision will disenfranchise voters.

Postmaster General David Steiner defended the rule at a Senate hearing and dismissed accusations that the Postal Service was acting politically after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March restricting voting by mail.

“If a state refuses to turn their absentee voter list over to the federal government, will the Postal Service still mail their ballots under this proposed rule?” Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, asked Steiner.

“Under our proposed regulation, no,” Steiner replied.

Steiner’s testimony, before the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee, marked the clearest acknowledgment yet by a federal official that the rule threatens to upend voting by mail across the country.

If the rule takes effect and Democratic-led states refuse to comply, the requirements would effectively limit mail voting to Republican-led states during November midterm elections to decide control of Congress.

The Postal Service put forward the rule after Trump ordered Steiner to require states to submit lists of anticipated mail voters to the agency as a condition of having ballots delivered.

Trump cancels signing ceremony

The executive order is one of several steps the Trump administration has taken this year to influence how elections are administered, along with the Department of Justice suing states to obtain sensitive voter data.

Underscoring the depth of Trump’s interest, as Steiner was speaking Wednesday morning the president abruptly called off a U.S. Capitol ceremony to sign a bipartisan housing bill because of the Senate’s refusal to pass the SAVE America Act. The legislation would require voters to show documents, such as a birth certificate or passport, proving their citizenship.

“Now we have this new rule you’ve put out saying that states have to turn over their voting rolls and you, the U.S. Postal Service, will decide who’s approved to send their ballot through the mail,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, said. “It’s just another backdoor way of trying to influence this election.“

Slotkin said Trump’s decision to cancel the housing bill signing demonstrated the “level of obsession this president has” over elections.

Turning over names

Every state would have to provide the names of residents expected to vote by mail. Additionally, eight states and Washington, D.C., conduct elections by mailing all voters a ballot, meaning election officials would have to provide information on every voter. Those states include California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington.

Trump and his aides argue the restrictions are needed to combat noncitizen voting, which occurs very rarely. Democrats and voting rights groups have sued over the order, arguing it’s an unconstitutional assertion of presidential authority over state-run elections. No judge has yet halted it.

Steiner sought to place himself outside the controversy and said, in response to a question, that the Postal Service would adhere to a court order blocking the rule if one were issued. Asked about the legal authority underlying the rule, he said he would “have to defer that to the courts to understand the authority.”

Steiner, who became the postmaster general in July 2025, cast the rule as primarily focused on best practices for election mail, a description that understates the scope of the proposal, which postal experts call unprecedented.

“I’m not a political person and the Postal Service is not a political organization,” Steiner said.

Dems urge Steiner to withdraw rule

Democrats expressed sharp disagreement with Steiner and accused him of folding to Trump’s efforts to exercise more control over elections. Steiner answers to the USPS Board of Governors, not the president, and his critics say he is endangering the agency’s independence by complying with the executive order.

Every Senate Democrat, as well as two independents who caucus with the party, on Tuesday signed a letter to Steiner urging him to withdraw the rule. The letter warns that aside from the rule’s legal and constitutional problems, it’s not feasible for state and local election officials to meet its requirements.

“The proposed regulation demands that the Postal Service set up an entirely new system and database to process and transmit millions of absentee ballots that is secure and accessible to every American election official, just months prior to a general election,” the letter says.

At Wednesday’s hearing, GOP senators mostly steered clear of the mail ballot rule, instead focusing on the official topic, the Postal Service’s finances. But Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican, accused Democrats of hypocrisy over their past support of the “For the People Act.”

The sweeping bill, offered when Democrats last controlled Congress, would have required states to offer same-day voter registration and expand mail voting. Opponents said it amounted to nationalized elections.

“Three years later all of them are testifying, ‘It’s outrageous, President Trump is trying to nationalize elections.’ No, he’s not, he’s trying to get rid of voter fraud,” Moreno said, adding that Democrats had now “dug up from their bottom desk drawer” the Constitution.

“Should we get back to post office stuff now?” Moreno said.

“Absolutely,” Steiner replied.

June 24, 2026
Trump spikes housing bill at last minute, refusing to sign until SAVE America Act passes

By Jacob Fischler, Jennifer Shutt
National

Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol on June 24, 2026. The hall was set up for a ceremony in which President Donald Trump would sign into law a broadly bipartisan housing bill, but Trump abruptly canceled the event. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

President Donald Trump derailed a housing overhaul that he was set to sign into law Wednesday, canceling a signing ceremony for the broadly popular bipartisan bill until Congress passes an election security measure.

Trump had been scheduled to sign the bill, which passed the Senate Monday and House Tuesday with wide margins, during a Capitol ceremony.

But in a pair of social media posts prior to the event, he derided the overhaul aimed at lowering housing costs as “minor” before refusing to sign it entirely.

“Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.

The controversial SAVE America Act, a top priority for Trump, addresses the extremely rare phenomenon of noncitizen voting. Republican senators have told Trump there are not enough votes in the chamber for it to pass.

The housing bill’s Senate sponsors, Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott and ranking Democrat Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, sought to lower the costs of housing construction by removing regulatory barriers, expanding the uses of federal housing grants and banning institutional investors from buying single-family homes.

Scott, a South Carolina Republican, lauded the bill Tuesday as not only bipartisan, but nonpartisan, addressing universal needs.

Republican leaders framed the measure as addressing affordability, which is expected to be a key issue in November’s midterm elections amid stubborn inflation.

The measure, which combined elements of proposals in each chamber, appeared on a fast track to becoming law after the Senate approved it 85-5 Monday and the House voted 358-32 Tuesday. The White House had said Trump supported the bill.

Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol on June 24, 2026, after President Donald Trump called off a scheduled bill-signing ceremony. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

The House opponents were virtually all from a group of conservatives, led by Florida’s Anna Paulina Luna, who said she would oppose all legislation from the Senate, and even some House rules resolutions, until the Senate passed Trump’s elections security measure.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said during a Wednesday morning press conference that he spoke with the president earlier in the day and that he is going to delay signing the housing bill until Congress approves a grant program for elections through the complex budget reconciliation process. That’s the same procedure the GOP used to enact its “big, beautiful” law and $70 billion for immigration enforcement.

“You have to put it on a reconciliation bill,” he said. “We believe that if you create a grant program that ties it to reconciling the budget and you allow blue states, if they come to their senses and they want to avail themselves of election integrity proposals and ideas and policies, they can draw down from a federal fund and use those funds. We’re willing to invest heavily in that.”

Johnson said he told Trump that Republicans in Congress can enact that policy if they “stand together.”

“As you know he has a window of time before he has to sign a bill and he’s going to use a bit more of that window of time,” Johnson said. “And we’re going to go through this together.”

Johnson said he expects Trump to sign the housing bill within the 10-day window.

June 24, 2026
W.Va. lawmakers urge Capito, Justice to support ending greyhound racing; Ohio County lawmakers oppose greyhound racing prohibitions

By Steven Allen Adams
For The Parkersburg News and Sentinel

Charleston – Several Republican members of the West Virginia Legislature are encouraging the state’s two U.S. senators to back a ban on greyhound racing included in the latest version of the federal farm bill, while two lawmakers from Ohio County expressed support for the industry.

In a letter sent Monday to U.S. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Jim Justice, both R-W.Va., eight members of the West Virginia Legislature urged the senators to endorse the Greyhound Protection Act within the Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2026. The letter was first reported by West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

The Greyhound Protection Act would amend the Animal Welfare Act to ban greyhound racing in the country and make gambling on greyhound racing illegal. The bill would outlaw remote gambling on greyhound races and prohibit the transport and sale of greyhounds across state lines for the purpose of racing. Anyone violating these provisions would be fined and possibly imprisoned for up to seven years.

Eight state lawmakers signed the letter: Senate Majority Leader Patrick Martin, R-Lewis; Sen. Chris Rose, R-Monongalia; Sen. Mike Azinger, R-Wood; Sen. Vince Deeds, R-Greenbrier; Sen. Anne Charnock, R-Kanawha; House Deputy Speaker Matthew Rohrbach, R-Cabell; Del. Jonathan Pinson, R-Mason; and Del. Jarred Cannon, R-Putnam.

“As members of the West Virginia Legislature, we write to ask for your support of the Greyhound Protection Act and to urge its inclusion in the upcoming Farm Bill reauthorization,” the lawmakers wrote. “Federal action on this issue would help West Virginia follow the path that all other states have already taken, and most importantly, it will free up significant state tax revenues for unmet needs in our state.”

Since 2020, West Virginia has the only remaining greyhound tracks in the nation at Mardi Gras Casino and Resort near Charleston and Wheeling Island Hotel Casino Racetrack. Both are owned by Delaware North. Voters in Ohio and Kanawha counties approved table games at Mardi Gras and Wheeling Island in 2007, but only as long as the casinos had racing. Wheeling Island will celebrate 50 years of greyhound racing in August.

The two casinos employ more than 900 workers combined according to Delaware North, not including the number of businesses and support services that support the greyhound industry in West Virginia and other states.

The farm bill, which is renewed roughly every five years, is awaiting action in the U.S. Senate. The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives 224-200 with Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., and Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., voting for it. Moore offered an unsuccessful amendment to the farm bill – supported by Miller – that would have exempted West Virginia’s two greyhound tracks.

According to the National Greyhound Association, the handle – the total amount of money – wagered on greyhound racing at West Virginia’s two tracks in 2025 was $353.4 million, a $5 million increase over 2024. Of that $353 million, more than $211 million was wagered at Wheeling Island and more than $142 million was wagered at Mardi Gras.

West Virginia’s two greyhound tracks benefit from table game revenues. The West Virginia Lottery receives a privilege tax of 35% of adjusted gross receipts from each licensed racetrack which is deposited weekly into the Lottery’s racetrack table game fund. From the gross amounts deposited into the table games fund, the Lottery on a monthly basis retains 3% of the adjusted gross receipts for administrative expenses.

The Lottery then transfers 2.25% of adjusted gross receipts from all thoroughbred and greyhound racetracks participating in licensed table games to the special funds established by each thoroughbred and greyhound racetrack table games licensee for the payment of regular racetrack purses to be divided equally among each licensee.

A transfer of 1.8% of the adjusted gross receipts is made from all licensed racetracks to the thoroughbred development fund and the greyhound breeding development fund. Thoroughbred horse racing takes place at Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort in New Cumberland and Hollywood Casino at Charleston Town Races.

According to the West Virginia Lottery’s annual comprehensive financial report covering the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years, $2.08 million was distributed by the Lottery to racetrack purse funds in FY25, down from $2.107 million in FY24; while $1.664 was distributed to thoroughbred and greyhound development funds in FY25, down from $1.686 million in FY24. Past distributions to the West Virginia Greyhound Breeding Development Fund have ranged from $15 million per year to $17 million per year.

This revenue from table game wagers is sometimes described as a subsidy. In the letter, the state lawmakers refer to studies from Ball State University and Spectrum Gaming Group that question the financial benefits of greyhound racing for West Virginia.

“Every dollar that is diverted to greyhound purses is a dollar that does not flow to the state’s general revenue fund, lowering our citizens’ tax burden, paving state roads, or ensuring that local schools stay open,” the lawmakers wrote. “This arrangement is fundamentally inconsistent with the conservative principles we all share.”

“The West Virginia greyhound program is, in plain terms, a government mandate paired with corporate welfare, and it has produced exactly the result one would predict: an industry that has collapsed everywhere it was allowed to compete on its own merits, kept on life support here only by force of law and support of subsidy,” the letter continued.

State Sen. Laura Wakim Chapman, R-Ohio, disagreed with her fellow GOP lawmakers. In a statement Tuesday, Chapman compared federal involvement in ending greyhound racing to federal regulations on coal and coal-fired power generation.

“This is just another example of federal overreach into West Virginia industries,” she said. “We saw it with the war on coal. This is a state issue under the separation of powers and must be addressed on the state level.”

House Minority Whip Shawn Fluharty, Chapman’s Democratic opponent in the 1st Senatorial District, agreed, saying that support by state lawmakers for the Greyhound Protection Act was not an example of conservativism but an example of Republicans using the levers of big government to take away local control.

“The irony is hard to miss,” said Fluharty, D-Ohio. “Many of the same politicians who routinely preach about states’ rights and keeping Washington out of West Virginia are now asking Congress to override our state’s authority and eliminate an industry that supports jobs and pensions for our police and fire in communities in the Northern Panhandle. They can’t even do it on facts.”

State lawmakers attempted to push through a bill during the 2020 legislative session that would have eliminated the greyhound breeding development fund in hopes of hastening the industry’s demise in West Virginia. It would have eliminated the transfer of wagers on table games and video lottery machines to the fund and instead sent that money to the Excess Lottery Revenue Fund for distribution by the Legislature. But the legislation failed in the Senate in 2020 by an 11-23 vote.

The bill would have also used the remaining money in the Greyhound Breeding Development Fund to retrain workers in the greyhound industries in the state, promote adoption of greyhounds used at the two racetracks, and provide a one-time $500 tax credit for West Virginians who adopted greyhounds.

Fluharty said it was wrong to call table game revenues used for the Greyhound Breeding Development Fund “subsidies” when those funds are generated by casino patrons, not through taxes.

“Zero taxpayer money is part of greyhound racing funding, yet they continue to call it a subsidy,” he said. “Bottom line, this is a West Virginia decision, not a Washington, D.C., decision and I find it embarrassing my colleagues want to delegate their duties. Maybe they should find a new line of work or move to D.C.”

Chapman criticized members of Congress for sneaking the Greyhound Protection Act into the farm bill and inserting themselves into a local issue.

“People are tired of these federal omnibus bills that are hundreds of pages long and do more than the title of the bill suggests,” she said. “Perhaps Congress should focus more on balancing budgets and lowering inflation than on an issue that only affects West Virginia.”

Read more from The Parkersburg News and Sentinel, here.

The post W.Va. lawmakers urge Capito, Justice to support ending greyhound racing; Ohio County lawmakers oppose greyhound racing prohibitions appeared first on West Virginia Press Association.

June 24, 2026
Bluefield loosens fireworks restrictions for America 250 celebration

By Charles Owens
For Bluefield Daily Telegraph

Bluefield — With the big America 250 celebration at Lotito Park now less than two weeks away, city officials are taking steps to temporally loosen restrictions on fireworks.

The Bluefield Board of Directors voted 3-0 Tuesday to adopt a resolution honoring the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. The same resolution read by Vice Mayor Peter Taylor also said the city desired to provide additional opportunities for citizens to enjoy America’s 250th birthday while maintaining a spirit of community pride and patriotism.

As a result, the resolution read by Taylor said the city board finds it appropriate to temporarily suspend enforcement of a section of city code regulating fireworks in recognition of the America 250 celebration.

According to the proclamation, the board finds it appropriate during the nation’s semi quincentennial celebration to suspend Chapter 24, Section 24-33A of city code every Saturday and Sunday during the month of July, beginning at 9 p.m. on Saturday and continuing until 12:30 a.m. on Sunday.

“It’s the 250th and a lot of folks, for whatever reason, can’t get all their family together on the Fourth of July, so we wanted to give them the month to try to do something nice and also celebrate this great country,” — Bluefield City Manager Cecil Marson.

City manager Cecil Marson clarified after the meeting to the Daily Telegraph that the section of code mentioned in the resolution deals with fireworks.

“By ordinance of the city only the Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve can you shoot fireworks,” Marson said. “We’ve had a lot of requests come up in the last couple of months in the spirit of 250th (asking) if they could open that up for the month of July. So that was what the proclamation is about.”

Marson said the proclamation basically establishes a limited window where fireworks can be discharged in July.

“It’s the 250th and a lot of folks, for whatever reason, can’t get all their family together on the Fourth of July, so we wanted to give them the month to try to do something nice and also celebrate this great country,” Marson said.

The proclamation celebrating the nation’s 250th, and temporarily loosening city code as it relates to fireworks, passed 3-0 with Mayor Ron Martin and board member Matt Knowles absent.

Bluefield, in cooperation with the neighboring town of Bluefield, Va., is planning a America 250 celebration at Lotito Park on Saturday, July 4. The event will feature vendors, live music, a petting zoo, a parade, bounce houses, craft vendors, a dunk booth, food trucks and more.

“There’s tons of vendors, bounce houses and a parade for all the kids,” Marson said. “It’s just going to be a great day down at the park, and a really great time to celebrate our 250th. I can’t think of a better way to spend your 250th with everybody together. So it will be a great day, and it all kind of ends up with a nice baseball game at night.”

The city’s splash pad also is still tentatively scheduled to reopen for the America 250 celebration with several new additions.

Work has been ongoing on those additions, which will include new awnings, new shade structures, an expanded turf and a new concrete addition as well as a concession area.

Marson said the new concession area for the splash pad is expected to arrive at city park next week.

Other pre-Fourth of July events also are planned, including the Field of Honor event that will open on Wednesday, July 1, on the lower field area of Bluefield University that will feature more than 300 American flags, along with a fireworks show at the conclusion of the Ridge Runner baseball game at Bowen Field on July 2.

Read more from Bluefield Daily Telegraph, here.

The post Bluefield loosens fireworks restrictions for America 250 celebration appeared first on West Virginia Press Association.

June 24, 2026
Federal government scouts for interest in mineral mining off Virginia shores

By Shannon Heckt
Virginia Mercury

Map of potential lease site locations for offshore mineral mining. (Image by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management)

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has pitched the possibility of leasing areas of the outer continental shelf off Virginia’s shores for mineral mining. Over the next month, the agency will seek comments from seabed mining industries interested in leasing portions of the coast.

The move is part of President Donald Trump’s effort to increase domestic production of minerals, which are needed for the production of electronics and defense materials.

“Virginia’s offshore mineral resources present a pathway to lessen foreign dependence and reinforce America’s strategic position by establishing secure domestic supply chains,” BOEM Acting Director Matt Diacona said in a statement.

The area that is under consideration for the lease sale is a massive swath next to the Eastern Shore that the Southern Environmental Law Center noted is larger than the state of Delaware.

The entire zone under consideration would not be leased, but if the mining industry shows interest in extracting minerals off the coast, BOEM would then identify areas that could be available for a lease. From there, environmental tests and potential impacts would be analyzed before a lease is granted.

The SELC and Environment Virginia quickly condemned the idea of allowing private companies to conduct industrial dredging to remove large amounts of sediment from the ocean floor with heavy machinery. Both groups cited the major environmental risks it could pose.

“From dolphins breaching the waves to seabirds soaring above our heads, a visit to Virginia’s coast is a reminder of the vibrant ecosystems we are lucky enough to have right over the horizon. Ripping up vast swaths of the seafloor puts this ocean heritage at risk,” said Elly Wilson, the state director of Environment Virginia.

Virginia has not conducted offshore mineral mining before. The SELC is gearing up to fight the potential lease and likened it to proposals for offshore drilling.

Following 2015 and 2018 proposals by BOEM to offer offshore leases for oil and gas production, the Virginia General Assembly passed a law in 2020 banning the permitting and leasing of seabeds within 50 miles of the commonwealth’s shores for oil and gas production. But that law still allows for mineral mining.

“This beloved public resource belongs to the people, not private, extractive industry. Opening Virginia’s federal waters to seabed mining would put countless essential resources at risk, and that’s not a risk we can or should take,” said Megan Huynh with SELC’s wetlands and coasts program.

Environment Virginia suggested that mining companies would be interested in heavy mineral sands in the deep water locations and phosphorites in the shallower waters.

The United States Geological Survey states that “titanium, zirconium, and rare earth elements, needed to manufacture, for example, modern electronics for consumer and defense applications” are commonly found in those heavy mineral sands.

The nation relies on imports of these minerals from foreign countries across the globe, which the Trump administration wants to end..

A public comment period on the potential interest in this mining effort will be open on the Federal Register website until July 23.

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June 24, 2026
Spanberger unveils reformed practices for Va. prisons and council on corrections

By Charlotte Rene Woods
Virginia Mercury

Gov. Abigail Spanberger announced she has created the Governor’s Community Partnership Council On Corrections on June 23 at the Virginia Department of Corrections headquarters in Richmond. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury)

A new council convened by Gov. Abigail Spanberger aims to help solve longstanding issues in Virginia’s prisons that residents and correctional officers have expressed concerns about for years.

The Governor’s Community Partnership Council On Corrections, which Spanberger announced Tuesday, will bring together representatives from advocacy groups, faith-based organizations, healthcare and public safety groups and former prisoners to share their experiences and work towards solutions.

Two years ago a handful of prisoners at Red Onion State Prison, the most embattled correctional institution in the state, burned themselves in protest of living conditions and in attempts to transfer elsewhere.

Allegations of racism and retaliation by correctional officers were not ruled out by a state watchdog investigation at the prison and a class action lawsuit on behalf of prisoners who say they were abused will head to trial later this year.

Federal judge allows Va. inmates rights’ lawsuits to move forward

“The people living in Virginia’s prisons are not forgotten on our watch,” Spanberger said at a press conference announcing the new council held at the Virginia Department of Corrections headquarters in Richmond.

Virginia Public Safety and Homeland Security Secretary Stanley Meador emphasized that the council will empower participants to propose solutions to problems and help the administration “see things we can’t see.”

Shawn Weneta, a policy strategist who has helped shape some criminal justice law changes in recent years, commended the creation of the council. He noted that some VADOC changes first began under the previous director but is pleased with the progress that the new administration is building.

Speaking as a formerly incarcerated person, he emphasized that the council’s mission can best succeed by including “those most directly impacted by the system.”

Ahead of assembling the official council, Spanberger’s administration has already conducted engagement within prisons and implemented her Executive Order 12, which entailed enhanced training for correctional officers and building partnerships with communities.

From January to May of this year, Spanberger said use of force across all VADOC facilities has declined by 39%, serious inmate-on-staff assaults dropped 56%, lockdowns decreased by 27%, confirmed overdoses dropped 47%, while suspected overdoses dipped 12%.

Virginia prisons have stopped using five-point restraints, which can be harmful for people in mental health crises, she said.

The practice of isolating inmates in restorative housing, a persistent problem, has dropped by 20%.

Restorative housing is Virginia state code’s euphemism for solitary confinement. It removes inmates from general populations and houses them in solitary cells.

Restorative housing is used when there’s a threat of gang violence and as a disciplinary measure for inmates who violate prison rules.

When asked how the reduction in restorative housing was made possible, Spanberger shared that staff training refreshers since she took office have focused on deescalation, which doesn’t exacerbate situations where an inmate may be in crisis or agitated.

Spanberger also said her administration is considering how to fine tune the state’s Step Down program.

Step Down is supposed to offer people placed in restorative housing a pathway out by helping address root causes of why they were placed in solitary housing and giving them measures to transition out of it.

Several current and former inmates have relayed to The Mercury in recent years that restorative housing has been heavily utilized and people sometimes spend weeks or years, rather than days, in it.

A third-party report to state lawmakers in late 2024 confirmed that at least one facility had placed the majority of its residents under solitary housing.

Spanberger said her administration wants to be “making sure that every movement is documented on why someone is in restorative housing and their pathways out of it.”

Under her direction, VADOC has also started to solve visitor access issues.

After hearing tales of disparate visitation access, Spanberger identified COVID-era restrictions — like less seating and fewer visitor time slots — as a contributing factor.

In recent months, VADOC has worked to restore past seating capacities in prisons’ visitor centers and expand visitor time slots, the governor said. She also signed a law that creates more guidance and takes into account the needs of long-distance travelers who come to see their loved ones behind bars.

This “benefits, not just the family, but the person who is incarcerated,” she said.

With Joseph Walters now serving as director of VADOC, Spanberger’s administration established a new code of ethics for VADOC employees and mandated refreshed training.

Staffing issues have also plagued Virginia’s prisons. Walters and Meador shared that they’re very proud that their agencies’ work so far has been achieved even with a 21% staffing vacancy.

This means, they said, that current staffers are working longer hours and pledging deeper commitment to their tasks. But rebuilding employee teams will be critical to halt turnover and alleviate burnout.

Walters, Meador and Spanberger also hosted in-person engagement sessions with 13 advocacy groups that the governor said had gone unheard by the state’s top leaders for years.

She called it “stunning” how long some groups had tried to relay concerns to previous administrations and that she hopes her efforts to strengthen communication can “build a foundation for after I am no longer in office.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Walters.

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June 24, 2026
Trump’s policies won’t bring back coal, but they are driving up Virginians’ energy costs

By Ivy Main
Virginia Mercury

A coal chute in Wise County, Va. (Photo by Sarah Vogelsong/Virginia Mercury)

If virtue signaling has a Trump-era corollary, we might call it vice signaling. That’s what President Donald Trump’s most recent package of subsidies for the coal industry looks like: it infuriates the environmentalists he despises and thereby delivers a little dopamine hit to the president’s base, while accomplishing nothing meaningful for the industry or the nation’s energy supply.

On the other hand, the administration’s policy moves on energy are definitely hurting the clean technologies that Virginia needs to reach its zero-carbon electricity goals and lower rates for residents.

Browbeating Republicans in Congress to terminate wind and solar tax credits caused many renewable energy projects to get canceled across the U.S., wiping out $16 billion of clean energy investments; other projects have been blocked or lost grant funding.

Unable to stop offshore wind by any other means, the administration has even resorted to paying developers to abandon leases, with payments totaling more than $2.5 billion.

This mischief is hurting American consumers, and nowhere is that clearer than in Virginia. Our need for massively more power to feed the data center industry makes us especially vulnerable to the effects of Trump’s monkeying around with the energy markets. With less low-cost wind and solar available to buy, our utilities have to burn more high-cost coal. Our rates go up, and so does pollution.

The irony is that even Virginia Republicans don’t champion coal anymore, having thrown it over for cheaper and cleaner-burning fracked gas. Four years ago, then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s energy plan touted what he called an all-of-the-above strategy that was mainly focused on fossil gas. About the only time the plan mentioned coal was to note that it had fallen to only 4% of Virginia’s electricity generation.

Republicans here still rise to the defense of one coal plant, Dominion Energy’s Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center (VCHEC) in Wise County. But that’s in spite of the cost, not because of it.

Last time we looked, VCHEC was losing millions of dollars annually – money that comes out of customer pockets. Legislators defend it only because the jobs it provides and the local taxes it pays keep Wise County afloat.

This importance to Southwest Virginia earned VCHEC special treatment in the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), which aimed to slash both carbon and costs quickly by forcing the closure of Dominion’s other coal and oil-fired generation. Legally, VCHEC is allowed to stick around until 2045, though few people expected it would survive market realities that long.

In spite of its poor economics, however, coal use has surged in Virginia and nationwide as demand from data centers makes utilities scramble to produce every possible electron. If you don’t have enough cheap renewable energy, you have to use whatever you’ve got, never mind the cost.

Five years ago, Dominion expected to run VCHEC only 15.5% of the time in 2024, less than 11% of the time in 2025, and only a little more than 6% by 2030. Instead, the plant is generating more this year than it has at any time this decade.

The only other large-scale coal plant still operational in Virginia, the Clover coal plant co-owned by Dominion and Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, puts out well under half the electricity it did ten years ago, generating mainly during summer heatwaves and winter cold spells. But it too runs more often now than it did in the first few years of this decade.

Dominion also operates the Mount Storm coal plant in West Virginia. It serves Virginia customers, but its location outside Virginia means the VCEA didn’t require its closure.

Appalachian Power operates coal plants in West Virginia, too, producing power for its residents in that state as well as Southwest Virginia.

The lousy economics of coal mean all these plants generate significantly less power than they used to – but, again, more than they did just three or four years ago, thanks to the demand pressure of data centers. (Well, that and a Trump-style insistence by West Virginia regulators that utilities run their coal plants most of the time, no matter how much it hurts consumers).

A similar dynamic is playing out across the country. Coal use jumped in 2025 nationwide as data centers demanded more energy, adding to air pollution and killing more people.

The Trump administration is determined to make matters even worse.

Since resuming office last year, Trump has ordered the Department of Defense to buy power from coal plants for its military installations. His Department of Energy has ordered units to keep operating at five coal plants that were about to close because they lose money. His Environmental Protection Agency is loosening pollution standards for coal plants to save them money.

In February the Energy Department announced it would spend $175 million on six projects to extend the life of coal plants in West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina and Kentucky. The federally-owned Tennessee Valley Authority announced it would keep coal units open at two power plants that were previously slated for closure.

Then, in June, the Energy Department announced another $500 million in coal spending, including $425 million for a bunch more plant upgrades and a $75 million subsidy for a coal export terminal.

Most recently, the department issued plans to throw $350 million at four more coal projects, including restarting a closed plant in Maryland and subsidizing construction of two new plants, one at Mt. Storm.

Some of this spending will keep old plants limping along; some of it smells of grift. One of the proposed new coal plants getting an $18 million contribution from federal taxpayers is the project of a MAGA activist with no energy industry experience.

Indeed, the idea of propping up last century’s technology to build an inefficient industrial plant that won’t ever make money has a distinctly retro vibe, reminiscent of the Soviet Union in its heyday. The problem with Trump‘s vision is that since these money-losing plants couldn’t be completed before his term expires, no self-respecting capitalist will build them.

Trump’s vice signaling is having its intended effect in one respect, though: environmentalists hate it. So, for that matter, do economists and grid experts.

One grid expert I spoke with, Mike Jacobs, a senior manager at the Union of Concerned Scientists, noted that “if the goal was to mine more coal and send more of it up a smokestack, it would make more sense to subsidize coal purchases directly.” Building a coal plant, he said, is “a vanity project.”

What Trump isn’t accomplishing for coal, however, Big Tech is.

Data centers’ demand for power, coupled with Trump’s stifling of the renewable energy sector, keeps coal plants belching along and drives up electricity costs for everyone. That these companies have a long history of virtue signaling with sustainability promises they haven’t met is just its own kind of irony.

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June 24, 2026
Get ready for the semiquincentennial: Americans celebrate a 250th anniversary

By Ashley Murray
National

A 250th anniversary flag on the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building, location of the vice president’s office, on 17th Street NW in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, May 5, 2026 (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — Parties, protests, displays of historic documents, odes to the Founding Fathers — and a massive political rally by the president — will mark a deeply polarized nation’s 250th anniversary on this Fourth of July.

Pomp and circumstance will abound for the semiquincentennial as the similarly named America250 and Freedom 250 offer different slates of programming on Independence Day and beyond.

A countdown and ball drop will ring in the holiday in the eight time zones across the United States and its territories. The milestone birthday bash will close with an “unprecedented pyrotechnic spectacle” in the skies above the National Mall, livestreamed.

Tourists walk along the barricades surrounding the Freedom 250 construction site on 7th Street NW on June 22, 2026. A banner in the distance promoting Freedom 250 hangs on the Federal Aviation Administration headquarters. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

In Philadelphia, a time capsule, to be opened in 2276, will be buried beneath Independence National Historic Park. The capsule contains contributions from each state and territory; sports memorabilia, including an Olympic gold medal; a 1GB digital archive from the Library of Congress; and a pocket Constitution signed by each Supreme Court justice, among hundreds of other items.

Visitors to the nation’s capital can watch and anyone across the country, and the world, can tune in to a live dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence at 10 a.m. Eastern at the National Archives.

The public will also be invited to seldom-accessible spaces. The Federal Circuit Center for Innovation & Law will open its doors July 3. Guests, who must register ahead, will get the rare opportunity to don a judge’s robe and take part in a mock trial inside the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s courtrooms.

Federal judges will be on hand to answer questions, and Chief Judge Kimberly A. Moore hopes the experience will “show how courts, public service, discovery and history continue to shape the American story,” she told States Newsroom in a statement.

Former first lady Dolley Madison’s parlor at her former residence on H Street NW in Washington, D.C., on June 22, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

The court complex, which is connected to the residence of first lady Dolley Madison, the wife of President James Madison, will also showcase various highlights of American history. Visitors can see Dolley’s parlor, but also learn that NASA was headquartered there from 1958 to 1961. Space suits and a 3.9-billion-year-old moon rock will be on display.

America250 vs. Freedom 250

Two separate celebrations of America’s big year are similarly named but feature vastly differing programs that stretch beyond Independence Day.

America250, a 24-member bipartisan commission created by Congress a decade ago, has spearheaded nationwide initiatives for school students, corporate employees and young entrepreneurs.

The commission has organized plenty of July Fourth happenings, including the ball drops, time capsule burial and simultaneous block parties in Charleston, South Carolina; Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and Milwaukee.

America250 will also host a benefit concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which will feature Chris Stapleton and the Smashing Pumpkins. Tickets are $17.76, and all proceeds go to nonprofit organizations to kick-off “Giving 4th,” a nationwide initiative to promote mid-year donations.

It is all separate from President Donald Trump’s plans for 2026. Days after beginning his second term, Trump issued an executive order creating Task Force 250, resulting in White House-led programming known as Freedom 250.

Fencing along the Freedom 250 construction site on the National Mall near Madison Drive and 7th Street NW on June 22, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

America250 Chair Rosie Rios said the parallel initiatives are a collaboration to balance events in the nation’s capital and beyond.

“You see a lot of activities that the administration is planning in D.C. It was our agreement that we would focus on ‘sea to shining sea,’ and still obviously have opportunities for all Americans to participate across the board,” said Rios, who served as U.S. treasurer under the Obama administration.

State fair, car races, Trump rally

The White House initiative will take over the National Mall.

The president will kick off the Great American State Fair with a speech on Wednesday night. The fair, featuring 150 exhibits from all states and territories, a Ferris wheel and a model of Trump’s controversial proposed “triumphal arch,” will last until July 10.

The Washington Monument can be seen from a Freedom 250 ferris wheel at 7th Street and Madison Drive NW on June 22, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

Winners of the Freedom 250 “American Heroes” student art contest will also be honored at the fair.

As part of the Freedom 250 lineup, Trump will visit North Dakota on July 1 ahead of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opening set for July 3.

A Freedom 250 firework display at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota is also scheduled for the eve of Independence Day.

Trump promised the “most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all” on July Fourth, featuring military bands and orchestras, military flyovers and keynote remarks from the president himself.

The night will culminate with the “LARGEST FIREWORKS SHOW IN HISTORY,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform on June 15.

A National Guard member stands along the National Mall on Independence Avenue and 12th Street SW on June 22, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

Attendees can also expect to see an increased National Guard presence as part of the administration’s “summer surge.”

Trump’s Freedom 250 festivities will extend into August with a national high school athletic competition for 14-to-17 year olds, dubbed “The Patriot Games.” The games are scheduled in Washington, D.C., for Aug. 9-11 and will stream on the ESPN app.

A one-hour primetime finale special will air on ABC the evening of Aug. 13. One female and one male athlete each will win a $250,000 scholarship.

A banner promoting the Freedom 250 Grand Prix scheduled for August hangs on the Department of Transportation’s Orville Wright Federal Building at 800 Independence Ave. SW on June 22, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

On Aug. 22-23, motorsports will come to the capital for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix where an NTT INDYCAR SERIES race will follow a 1.7 mile circuit “through the National Mall and surrounding city streets,” according to the event’s website. The event will be broadcast live on FOX.

‘After the fireworks’

Rios said America250 also has an “after-the-fireworks strategy.”

Winners of essay, art and poetry contests at schools across the U.S. can choose an all-expenses-paid “America’s Field Trip” to one of several locations.

They include a private guided tour of the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida; Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota; or Yellowstone National Park in Montana and Wyoming, among other choices.

A national contest and expo for young entrepreneurs in San Francisco — and another in Washington, D.C., this coming November — awarded $25,000 in seed grants under the “America Innovates” and startup initiative.

A 3.9 billion-year-old Moon rock on display at the Federal Circuit Center for Innovation & Law, which is connected to NASA’s former headquarters on Madison Place NW on June 22, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

The commission is also aiming to make 2026 the “largest year of volunteer hours ever recorded by our country,” Rios said. A counter on the commission’s website displays the number of “America Gives” hours tracked, and Rios will announce a grand total on New Year’s Eve in Times Square.

“We’ve had great stakeholders who’ve already made their pledges, so Coca-Cola, for example, made a pledge for 250,000 volunteer hours. Not to be outdone, Rob Manfred from Major League Baseball says, ‘Well, we’re going to do 250,000 volunteer hours,’” Rios said, referring to the baseball commissioner.

‘Declaration of Interdependence’

Not all are feeling celebratory.

A coalition of organizers led by those who spearheaded the 2017 Women’s March will host a nationwide mobilization event June 27 demanding change for America’s next 250 years.

“We know the oxygen is going to be consumed by the official Trump-led commemoration on the Fourth. Kicking this off, in a proactive way, if we can talk about what we want this country to look like and what it actually does look like ahead of that, it’s important that we go first,” said Angelo Greco, a D.C.-based strategist handling messaging for the event.

Progressive groups including the 50501 movement, All of U.S. 250, Next 250 and Get Free are expecting up to 5,000 people at a flagship march near the White House and thousands more at teach-ins, faith events, art installations, marches and cultural events at 80 locations throughout the U.S.

Organizers are collecting signatures on a “Declaration of Interdependence” outlining four principles for a nation where: “All people are treated with dignity and respect; Everybody feels safe in every community; Access to clean, green spaces is abundant; and Every person who works earns a living wages and benefits that allow families a work-life balance.”

“We’re taking away the spotlight from those in power that want to whitewash our history, and instead setting the terms of the debate about what the story of America has been, who we are, and who we should become,” said Anthony Vidal Torres, communications director at Get Free.

Activists said they are ready to incorporate any relevant news events into their messaging, not least of which could include a forthcoming Supreme Court decision on birthright citizenship.

The future of a polarized nation

Thought leaders, lawmakers and former administration officials from both parties are marking the nation’s semiquincentennial by sounding the alarm about the effects of polarization.

Citing recent statistics, including that only 4 in 10 Gen Zers are more likely to describe the Founding Fathers as “villains” rather than “heroes,” an advisory board convened by the center-left Progressive Policy Institute launched the American Identity Project meant to guide policymakers and educators on the future of civics education.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., an adviser on the project, said he worries the liberal patriotism modeled by figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and former President Barack Obama is “vanishingly rare.”

“The central emotion of our time is not patriotic hope about America, but rage against America across the political spectrum,” Torres said at the think tank’s June 11 event to unveil the board’s Identity Project “manifesto.”

Linda Chavez, a former Reagan administration official and chair of the conservative Center for Equal Opportunity, said she sees the problem on “both the left and right.”

“I see kids on the left who find our whole system of government, including democracy, as not important, and you know they seek to transform the country, they want to throw everything out,” Chavez said at the June event.

“And on the right I see young people who are falling under the sway of people like Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens, who want to divide Americans, and basically they’re going to get to decide what an American is and who gets to count as an American.”

Other current and former lawmakers who advised include Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., and former Sens. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., and Doug Jones, D-Ala., who is Alabama’s current Democratic gubernatorial candidate.

June 24, 2026