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 countr