The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) under the administration of President Trump announced on Saturday that it will end a longstanding annual food insecurity survey, calling it “redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous.”

The Household Food Security Report provides yearly data on the lack of access to adequate nutrition for low-income Americans, and helps shape policy on how to combat food insecurity and hunger.

The USDA’s announcement comes after Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law this summer, which expands the work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. This, in effect, will leave an estimated 2.4 million Americans without food aid.

“The national food insecurity survey is a critical, reliable data source that shows how many families in America struggle to put food on the table,” Crystal FitzSimons, president of the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) told NPR. FRAC is an anti-hunger organization that advocates for food security in the U.S.

FitzSimons said that without the annual report, advocates and policymakers won’t have a clear lens on the scale of hunger in America, and how to prevent it.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration left many local officials in the dark about the immigration detention center that rose from an isolated airstrip in the Everglades, emails obtained by The Associated Press show, while relying on an executive order to seize the land, hire contractors and bypass laws and regulations.

The emails show that local officials in southwest Florida were still trying to chase down a “rumor” about the sprawling “Alligator Alcatraz” facility planned for their county while state officials were already on the ground and sending vendors through the gates to coordinate construction of the detention center, which was designed to house thousands of migrants and went up in a matter of days.

“Not cool!” one local official told the state agency director spearheading the construction.

The 100-plus emails dated June 21 to July 1, obtained through a public records request, underscore the breakneck speed at which the governor’s team built the facility and the extent to which local officials were blindsided by the plans for the compound of makeshift tents and trailers in Collier County, a wealthy, majority-Republican corner of the state that’s home to white-sand beaches and the western stretch of the Everglades.

The calls from Alligator Alcatraz’s first detainees brought distressing news: Toilets that didn’t flush. Temperatures that went from freezing to sweltering. A hospital visit. Giant bugs. And little or no access to showers or toothbrushes, much less confidential calls with attorneys.

The stories, relayed to the Miami Herald by the wives of detainees housed in Florida’s makeshift detention center for migrants in the Everglades, offer the first snapshots of the conditions inside the newly opened facility, which began accepting detainees on July 2. They reveal detainees who are frightened not just about being deported, but also about how they are being treated by the government, which is saying little about what is taking place inside.

“Why would we treat a human like that?” a woman whose Venezuelan husband is housed in Alligator Alcatraz told the Miami Herald. “They come here for a better life. I don’t understand. We are supposed to be the greatest nation under God, but we forget that we’re under God.”

The men, whose identities the Herald is withholding due to their families’ fears that the government will punish them for speaking out, described harsh conditions at the detention center, pitched as a new model for holding migrants ensnared in President Donald Trump’s war on illegal immigration. The state, which intends to eventually house 3,000 or more people at the site, has said the detainees’ descriptions provided to the Herald are “untrue.”

A group of Democratic state legislators said Thursday they were denied entry to “Alligator Alcatraz,” the newly opened controversial immigration detention center in the Everglades.

“This is a blatant abuse of power and an attempt to conceal human rights violations from the public eye,” said the legislators in a joint statement. “If the facility is unsafe for elected officials to enter, then how can it possibly be safe for those being detained inside?

State Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, along with state Reps. Dr. Anna V. Eskamani, D-Orlando, Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, and Michele Rayner, D-St. Petersburg, said they were “illegally” denied access to the facility off Tamiami Trail in Ochopee.

They said state officials flatly denied them entry to the facility Thursday afternoon when they first arrived and then later, when pressed, the legislators said state officials offered “vague safety concerns” without any specific details.

The legislators said they wanted to visit the facility because of “legal, moral, and humanitarian concerns” raised following the DeSantis administration announcement of the plans.

“Florida law is unambiguous — state legislators have full access to inspect any state-operated facility. This is not a federal facility,” said the legislators. “Denying us entry is not only unlawful — it’s a disgrace. We will be back.”

The House Homeland Security Committee’s Democratic members made allusions to Nazi Germany as they assailed “Alligator Alcatraz,” a new immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades that President Donald Trump toured Tuesday.

“Historically, never a bad sign when fascists start building camps,” the committee posted on X on Tuesday alongside a video of Trump advocating for similar facilities in other states.

Trump visited the site alongside Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The governor, Trump’s onetime opponent in the 2024 Republican primary, has pledged his state’s support as the White House works to enact its sweeping mass deportation agenda.

Photos of the facility from Trump’s tour showed dozens of bunk beds arranged in cages inside a large tent.

“They want a bunch of people… interned…in a camp of some sorts…I wonder what we should call this?” the committee wrote in another post.

PARKS: And today on the show, direct democracy. We’ve talked a lot in recent years about ballot measures allowing voters to weigh in directly on things like reproductive freedom and ranked choice voting. But now, Ashley, you are reporting that a number of Republican-led states are making it harder to get these sort of initiatives on the ballot. So I want to take a step back and just talk about the process of how things get on a ballot more broadly. Can you walk us through how something becomes kind of a vague political idea to actually getting something voters weigh in on?

LOPEZ: Yeah, so there are about two dozen states in this country that allow citizens to petition their state to change its laws, usually by amending their constitution. And how this works for the most part is fairly straightforward. You have to get a certain number of voters to sign a petition to get an issue on a ballot. And depending where you live, there are rules about who collects those signatures, how, and how much time they have. And then if state officials and, you know, oftentime (ph) the courts get involved – if they say that the language passes legal muster, then that will appear on a ballot before voters. And typically, if a measure gets a majority approval – and then it passes.

‘Together, we’re creating a space for real, honest conversations — the kind that move us forward.’

Civil rights leaders and grassroots groups are set to gather in Miami Gardens for “The People’s Meetup,” a town hall led by Democratic state Sen. Shevrin Jones focused on mobilizing Black voters and advancing social justice.

The May 31 event will feature U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Texas civil rights and criminal defense lawyer, and civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who represented the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, among others.

A coalition of local and statewide organizations is also partnering with Jones for the event. Among them: Black Voters Matter, Equality Florida, Florida Student Power, Moms Demand Action, the NAACP and SAVE.

“This isn’t another town hall — it’s a community-powered gathering,” Jones said in a statement. “Together, we’re creating a space for real, honest conversations — the kind that move us forward.”

Jones, the first openly gay Black lawmaker elected to the Florida Senate, has built a reputation for grassroots organizing and civic mobilization. He previously spearheaded Operation BlackOut, a statewide voter engagement campaign launched in 2022 that focused on turning out Black and Brown progressive voters in underserved communities.

TALLAHASSEE — Describing the law as “substantially overbroad,” a federal appeals court Tuesday upheld a preliminary injunction blocking a 2023 Florida law aimed at preventing children from attending drag shows.

A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, backed the Central Florida venue Hamburger Mary’s in a First Amendment challenge to the law. The state appealed in 2023 after U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell issued a preliminary injunction.

Tuesday’s majority opinion said that “by providing only vague guidance as to which performances it prohibits, the act (the law) wields a shotgun when the First Amendment allows a scalpel at most.”

“The Constitution demands specificity when the state restricts speech,” said the 81-page majority opinion, written by Judge Robin Rosenbaum and joined by Judge Nancy Abudu. “Requiring clarity in speech regulations shields us from the whims of government censors. And the need for clarity is especially strong when the government takes the legally potent step of labeling speech ‘obscene.’ An ‘I know it when I see it’ test would unconstitutionally empower those who would limit speech to arbitrarily enforce the law. But the First Amendment empowers speakers instead. Yet Florida’s Senate Bill 1438 (the law) takes an ‘I know it when I see it’ approach to regulating expression.”

Tallahassee, FL – HB 1205, a bill to restrict citizen-led amendments, was approved by the Florida Senate earlier today. State Voices Florida opposes this legislation. The citizen-led amendment process in Florida is the strictest in the nation, requiring nearly one million signatures to get on the ballot and 60% support from voters to pass. The process should be made easier…not harder.

Floridians have used citizen-led amendments to pass transformative policies, such as the $15 minimum wage, legalizing medical marijuana, restoring voting rights to returning citizens and prohibiting gerrymandering when drawing Congressional Districts.  

The following is a statement from Larry Hannan, communications and policy director at State Voices Florida. 

“The citizen-led amendment process is one of the most direct ways Floridians can shape the future we all deserve. It embodies the collective power of Floridians, uniting us across race, zip code, and income to address the issues that matter most to our communities. This is direct democracy at its best—a system where the will of the people drives progress and shapes a better future. We call on legislators to abandon efforts to make this process harder.” 

Tallahassee, FL – HB 1205, a bill to restrict citizen-led amendments, was approved by the Florida House of Representatives earlier today. The citizen-led amendment process is one of the most direct ways Floridians can shape the future we all deserve. It embodies the collective power of Floridians, uniting us across race, zip code, and income to address the issues that matter most to our communities. This is direct democracy at its best—a system where the will of the people drives progress and shapes a better future.

If this bill or its companion in the Senate, SPB 7016, becomes law it will give only ten days to turn in petitions, and create unnecessary and burdensome fines on volunteers, preventing everyday Floridians from being able pass policies that improve our lives and strengthen our communities when politicians refuse to act.

State Voices Florida opposes this legislation and urges the Senate to reject both HB 1205 and SPB 7016. The citizen-led amendment process in Florida is the strictest in the nation, requiring nearly one million signatures to get on the ballot and 60% support from voters to pass. The process should be made easier…not harder.

The program helps Black-owned businesses obtain borrow money when they can’t access traditional lending. 

As part of his budget proposal for fiscal year 2025-26, Gov. Ron DeSantisplans to eliminate funding for the Black Business Loan Program.

His budget, called “Focus on Fiscal Responsibility,” calls for the cancellation of $2.225 million for the program, which provides loans for “Black business enterprises that cannot obtain capital through conventional lending institutions but that could otherwise compete successfully in the private sector,” according to Florida State Statute. 

The program, last decade, had a record of controversy, including allegations of high rates of default, inadequate security for loans, and loans made improperly to ineligible people, including elected politicians and a convicted felon, according to reporting in the Florida Times Union of Jacksonville, theGainesville Sun and FloridaPolitics.com.

The budget cut falls under community development programs within Housing and Community Development. Overall, the department stands to be funded at $438 million under the Governor’s budget proposal, a little less than half its funding in the current budget year. 

A majority of Florida voters — including more than half of Republicans surveyed — told pollsters they support a proposed amendment that would add a right to abortion to the state Constitution. The poll from the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab, released Thursday, found 62% of state voters said they would vote “yes” if the measure appears on the November 2024 ballot. UNF also said 67% of Florida voters are “yes” on a proposed state constitutional amendment that would allow adults in Florida to purchase and possess small amounts of marijuana for personal use. The poll results suggest the measures could pass. Referendums require a 60% “yes” vote to become part of the Florida Constitution.

Today is Giving Tuesday, a global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities, and that is what we hope to do, transform communities. State Voices Florida is a  statewide civic engagement organization committed to bringing together progressive Non Partisan organizations to work together in building power around civic issues.  If the progressive movement works together and speaks with one voice, great things will happen. We believe everyone should have the right to vote, and voting should be simple and easy. We also support reproductive rights, environmental justice, criminal justice reform, economic justice and affordable housing for everyone. Along with our partner organizations, we use data and technology, people-powered campaigns, and coalitions to collectively build a multiracial democracy that allows every Floridian to thrive and live in their full dignity. We are a member of the State Voices Affiliated Network, a network of state-based coalitions,

CRETE, Neb. — This is what the future of American democracy looked like for Sierra Edmisten one evening this fall: a block of modest, single-story homes; the lights from the Crete High School football stadium glowing in the mist; families gathering for dinner after a day in the meatpacking plants. Edmisten was collecting signatures for a cause associated with liberals in a red part of one of the country’s reddest states. The ballot initiative she was seeking to put before voters would, if passed, require Nebraska employers to guarantee their workers at least five days of paid sick leave each year.

In response to the recent controversy surrounding African American history standards in public schools, Senator Shevrin Jones, a Democrat from Miami Gardens, has introduced a proposal aimed at preventing the inclusion of any instruction suggesting that enslaved people benefited from slavery in any way.

Salandra Benton is Executive Director of the Florida Coalition on Black Civic Participation.