By Greg LaRose | Editor-in-Chief
“We’re talking about Busch Light here, and you’re talking about Everclear in that perspective.” — Stephen Swiber, deputy secretary at the state Department of Conservation and Energy, addressing a state lawmaker’s concerns about whether any nuclear waste Louisiana would permanently store could be volatile. Learn more in today’s top story.
By Greg LaRose
Louisiana is one of five states that are finalists for a U.S. Department of Energy initiative to create nuclear lifecycle innovation campuses — developments that would encompass the refinement, use and recycling of nuclear fuel and disposal of waste. Until this week, the Landry administration has provided few details publicly beyond broad strokes on what such a campus in Louisiana might involve.
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner speaks with reporters in the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
By Jonathan Shorman
As Election Day approaches, top Democrats on the intelligence committees in Congress are preparing for the possibility that President Donald Trump will allege foreign interference to discredit unfavorable results. And they want leading U.S. intelligence officials to be immediately reachable if he does.
A rocket prepares to launch at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas in 2023. (Photo courtesy of SpaceX)
By Stephen Mercantel | The Current
The Federal Aviation Administration will assess the potential effects of approving hundreds of more launches annually at SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas, site. Elon Musk’s company also wants to launch Starship rockets at a planned spaceport in Pecan Island at an even higher clip of potentially thousands of launches per year. The FAA’s draft environmental review might shed some light on what living next to one of these facilities could look like — or sound like.
By Shalina Chatlani
The percentage of working-age adults without health insurance has increased in the past two years, largely because many people can no longer afford Obamacare coverage after Congress allowed federal subsidies to expire at the end of last year.
By Nada Hassanein
Federal regulators are cracking down on the nonprofits responsible for coordinating organ donations, aiming to begin shutting down substandard groups by early next year. New criteria will score the organizations on donation and transplantation rates and will decertify the bottom tier, meaning their contracts with the federal government will be revoked.
D.C. DIGEST
NEWS FROM THE STATES
Proposal would close ‘voluntary intoxication’ loophole in sexual assault law | West Virginia Watch
Homeless cleanup nonprofit furloughs employees, faces full shutdown | Utah News Dispatch
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