“Otero County Commission is flaunting that process by appeasing unfounded conspiracy theories and potentially nullifying the votes of every Otero County voter who participated in the primary.”

Mark Jones, a spokesperson for the Missouri National Education Association, describing a $1.9 million contribution to the campaign pushing Missouri voters to replace the state income tax with expanded sales taxes. The measure on the Aug. 4 ballot is a top priority for Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe. The money came from Missouri Promise Inc., a nonprofit incorporated in Delaware just weeks before the 2026 legislative session began, with a mailbox address in St. Louis and no publicly identifiable donors. When the Kansas City Star asked the attorney general's office about the contribution, the response was that state law prohibits revealing the identity of any entity under investigation, leaving voters with no way to know who is bankrolling one of the most consequential tax decisions in Missouri's recent history. (Kansas City Star)

Jonathan Alexander, president of Pittsburgh's Sheraden neighborhood community council, putting his finger on why fixing missed garbage pickups, which have more than tripled in 311 complaints since 2019, won't solve the waste problem in neighborhoods like his. Illegal dumpsites are the deeper issue. The nonprofit Allegheny CleanWays has identified more than 2,000 such sites across the city, with about 10 in Sheraden alone, and residents say sanitation trucks sometimes leave an area messier than they found it after rummaging animals or broken bags scatter debris that workers aren't required to clean up. The city's garbage fleet hasn't grown since before the pandemic even as 311 missed-collection requests have climbed steadily. (Pittsburgh Public Source)

Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, making his pitch to voters in a state where Trump won three consecutive presidential elections but where farmer frustration with tariffs, surging diesel prices and collapsed soybean exports to China is scrambling the political math heading into November's midterms. Turek, a four-time Paralympic wheelchair basketball player born with spina bifida, represents a Republican-leaning district in the Iowa House and is running on what he calls "prairie populism," affordable healthcare, a living wage and opposition to Medicaid cuts. Iowa's governor's race has already moved from "lean Republican" to "toss-up," and Democrats see as many as three of the state's four House seats as competitive. (Bloomberg News)

Former San Diego City Councilmember Mark Kersey, defending middle managers even as he acknowledged the city must make tough choices, a rare moment of nuance in a budget debate in which middle managers have become the go-to scapegoat for San Diego's $118 million deficit. Mayor Todd Gloria is proposing to cut 37 unclassified positions to save $9.3 million from a general fund that spent more than $49 million on such roles this fiscal year. (Voice of San Diego)