By Janelle Stecklein | Editor
“I think a person should vote whenever there’s an issue to vote on because one way or another, it’s gonna affect you.” - David Robertson of voting in Oklahoma’s runoff primary election
Voters exit their cars and head into the Oklahoma County Election Board Thursday in Oklahoma City to vote in the primary runoff election. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice)
By Emma Murphy
Oklahomans braved the scorching heat Thursday and began casting their votes to narrow down which candidates will make it to the general election ballot in November.
Voters throughout Oklahoma, including Darla Gragert in Oklahoma City, turned out for the first of three days of early voting in the statewide election despite temperatures that by midday had already topped over 100 degrees.
Gragert, a retired teacher, said the Republican governor and superintendent runoffs drew her to the polls. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is facing off against financial adviser Mike Mazzei for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Retired educator Robert Franklin is challenging teacher James Taylor.
A student sits with a tray of food in the school cafeteria at Thelma R. Parks Elementary in Oklahoma City on Aug. 13, 2025. The Oklahoma State Department of Education recently discontinued a federal program that pays for third meals in schools with extended hours. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
By Nuria Martinez-Keel
The Oklahoma State Department of Education has discontinued a federal program that funded third meals in public schools that operate with extended hours
Children’s Aid, a 170-year-old organization in New York City, told Stateline in July that their nearly $1 million grant that served 1,200 youth each year was canceled. A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration can’t move forward with its proposed changes to the national prevention program. (Photo Courtesy of Children’s Aid)
By Kelcie Moseley-Morris
A federal judge in the District of Columbia issued an order Wednesday blocking U.S. Health and Human Services from implementing sweeping changes to grants under the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program while a lawsuit proceeds, but dozens of existing grants that were canceled this summer will remain so for now, unless the administration chooses to reinstate the funds. The agency canceled 53 out of 67 grants under the program at the end of June, affecting grantees in more than two dozen states, including Louisiana, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.
Louisiana Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy talks with reporters in the Dirksen Senate office building on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
By Jennifer Shutt
President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration will face challenges securing Senate confirmation after the committee chairman in charge of that process expressed doubts.
The Still Creek area in the Mt. Hood National Forest is part of 2 million acres of Oregon land protected by the federal Roadless Rule. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service)
By Alex Baumhardt
The Trump administration will move ahead with plans to end more than 25 years of sweeping protections for tens of millions of wild, federally managed acres across the U.S.
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