Good morning, it’s Tuesday, August 26, 2025. In today’s edition, Colorado AI deal falls apart; Utah enters redistricting chat; Trump targets cashless bail:
Top Stories
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Attorneys general from 44 states sent a letter to top AI companies warning them to implement safeguards to protect children from sexually inappropriate chatbots. The AGs said companies would be held accountable for harms to minors, citing a recent Reuters report showing Meta allowed its AI chatbots to engage a child in “romantic or sensual” conversations. (Pluribus News)
MORE: The Colorado Senate approved legislation postponing the implementation of their first-in-the-nation comprehensive AI law, after negotiations fell apart on Monday. The House is expected to adopt the delay in a floor vote Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez (D) blamed the tech industry for the collapse of a deal he said had been reached over the weekend. (Pluribus News)
Read the backstory of Rodriguez’s legislation and the scaled-back version he offered in special session.
REDISTRICTING: Utah District Court Judge Dianna Gibson threw out her state’s congressional district map lines, ruling the state legislature weakened and ignored an independent commission established by voters to prevent gerrymandering. The ruling gives lawmakers a deadline of Sept. 24, and it allows voting rights groups to submit alternative proposals to the court. (Salt Lake Tribune)
MORE: The Hispanic rights organization LULAC has filed a legal challenge against Texas’s new U.S. House district maps, alleging the maps unfairly dismantle majority-minority districts. LULAC had already sued over map lines adopted in 2021. (Texas Tribune)
TRANS RIGHTS: The Texas House State Affairs Committee has advanced legislation barring transgender people’s access to bathrooms in government buildings. (Texas Tribune) The Alaska State Medical Board has voted to limit access to gender-affirming care for minors. The board approved proposed regulations that would deem gender-affirming care “unprofessional conduct.” (Anchorage Daily News)
MORE: The University of Michigan’s medical center will no longer offer hormone therapy or puberty blockers for patients under the age of 19. Michigan Medicine said it had received a subpoena as part of a federal investigation into gender-affirming care for minors. (Detroit Free Press)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE: President Trump has signed an executive order threatening to withhold or revoke federal funding from state and local governments that offer cashless bail. The order requires Attorney General Pam Bondi to submit a list of jurisdictions that have eliminated cash bail as a condition for pre-trial release. (NBC Chicago)
Illinois, New York, New Jersey, New Mexico and Washington, D.C., have all enacted cashless bail programs. (ABC News)
In Politics & Business
DEMOCRATS: The Democratic National Committee meets this week in Minneapolis, where they will begin hashing out the 2028 presidential primary calendar. Current rules allow South Carolina to hold the first primary, while Iowa Democrats have publicly threatened to go rogue. The calendar won’t be finalized until 2027. (Associated Press)
GEORGIA: State Rep. Tanya Miller (D) has filed papers to run for attorney general. Miller chairs the House Democratic caucus and appears on television as a legal expert. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) She faces former House Minority Leader Bob Trammell (D) in the Democratic primary.
MINNESOTA: Voters head to the polls today to pick party nominees in two special elections for state Senate seats. The contests include a seat formerly held by Sen. Nicole Mitchell (D), who resigned after being convicted of burglary, and a seat held by the late Sen. Bruce Anderson (R), who died last month. (MPR News)
PENNSYLVANIA: State Sen. Sharif Street (D) will step down from his post as chair of the state Democratic Party while he seeks a seat in Congress. Street will endorse former Auditor Eugene DePasquale (D) as his successor. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
MISSISSIPPI: The social media app Bluesky is now blocked in Mississippi, after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stop a new state law that requires websites to verify user ages. Bluesky, which emerged as an alternative to X — formerly Twitter — said the age verification requirement placed too much of a burden on smaller social media sites, to the advantage of larger sites. (Mississippi Today)
By The Numbers
$773.5 million: The amount of federal funds Florida spent on beach renourishment and replenishing projects between 2000 and 2025, more than any other state. New Jersey spent $733.7 million on beach projects over that same period. (Florida Politics)
245: The number of public broadcasting stations in rural communities that are at risk of going off the air, after Congress and the Trump administration clawed back funding. Twenty-seven of those stations are in Alaska. (New York Times)
$200,000: The amount the University of Kansas has received in federal funding to digitize the congressional records of the late Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and former Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.). The money will fund Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics staff as they digitize documents, photos, videos and audio. (State Affairs)
Off The Wall
Massachusetts lawmakers are considering what they call “A Beautiful Brunch Act,” legislation to allow alcohol to be served as early as 8 a.m. on Sundays. Existing law bars alcohol service until 10 a.m. on Sundays, a legacy of Puritan-era blue laws. (State Affairs)
Shout out to our Massachusetts colleagues on this headline: “‘ABBA bill’ would take a chance on early Sunday sips”
Thousands of residents and tourists in the eastern Spanish town of Buñol will participate in the 80th anniversary of the famed “Tomatina” tomato street fight on Wednesday. Up to 22,000 participants will chuck 120 tons of overripe tomatoes at each other. Participants are encouraged to squash the tomatoes before hurling them at each other to avoid injury. (Associated Press)
Quote of the Day
“I’m not going to D.C. I wouldn’t go out to D.C. under a court order.”
— Indiana Sen. Jim Tomes (R), declining an invitation to the White House to discuss potential redistricting. Tomes said he didn’t think the state needs to redraw its congressional maps. (State Affairs)