Medicaid freeze: The Trump administration paused more than $1 billion in Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota over what it calls fraud.
Betting ban: Arizona's largest county barred employees from using inside information to bet on prediction markets.
Line 5 tunnel: Michigan approved key permits for Enbridge's pipeline tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac, but legal challenges aren't over.
Washington state’s budget: The state's operating budget has grown 230% since 2001, even as officials warn of a shortfall in the next cycle.
Cross-country heat wave: The U.S. Department of Energy authorized emergency backup power across 14 states to prevent rolling blackouts.
Trump administration freezes more than $1 billion in Medicaid funds to two states
Photo: Joyce N. Boghosian / Official White House Photo via Flickr / United States Government Work / Edited in Canva
What we found: Federal officials say they used artificial intelligence and financial verification to identify what they call Medicaid fraud in California and Minnesota, freezing more than $867 million in California and over $200 million in Minnesota. In Minnesota, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said the flagged payments trace to 14 high-risk programs, including personal care and home health, and include about $3 million tied to documentation gaps, among them a claim for someone who had died. In California, Oz said in-home services spending rose 24% over two years, double the rate of other states, accounting for $391 million of the frozen funds.
The stakes: Hundreds of thousands of Medicaid recipients nationwide are on wait lists for home and community-based care, and federal officials say every dollar lost to fraud is a dollar that cannot reach a child with complex medical needs, an adult with an intellectual disability, or a veteran waiting for services.
The backstory: The freeze is part of a broader push to tighten Medicaid oversight, including a plan to expand the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' authority to bar suspected bad actors from the program.
Where it stands: Minnesota has submitted documentation for federal review. California's case remains under evaluation. No funds had been released as of Tuesday's announcement.
3 States
Arizona: Maricopa County, the state’s most populous county, banned employees this week from using inside information to place bets on prediction markets, joining Gov. Katie Hobbs's existing ban for state executive branch workers. A new federal bill from U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., would extend similar restrictions to members of Congress. North Carolina, New York, Illinois, Wisconsin, Maryland, and California have all adopted similar bans in recent months, part of a fast-growing, bipartisan effort to keep officials from profiting off information the public doesn't have.
Michigan: State regulators approved key permits for Enbridge's Line 5 tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac, though the company still needs added state and federal approvals before construction. Tribal nations and environmental groups oppose the project, and Earthjustice is litigating a separate permit case now before the state Supreme Court, keeping a years-long fight over the aging Great Lakes pipeline alive.
Washington: The state's operating budget has grown 230% since 2001, from $24.5 billion to $80.7 billion for the current 2025-27 cycle, as officials warn of a shortfall next cycle, according to a presentation to the Legislature's budget transparency committee. About 42% of that increase, or $23.5 billion, came from a 2013 state Supreme Court ruling that shifted responsibility for education funding from local school levies to the state. Adjusted for inflation, per-person spending is up 21% to 41% since 2002.
2 Issues
Energy: The U.S. Department of Energy authorized the Southwest Power Pool to activate emergency backup generation across 14 states, from North Dakota to the Gulf Coast, as a heat wave pushed demand to record levels. Oklahoma, Kansas, and the Texas Panhandle faced the highest outage risk, while parts of northwest Louisiana saw isolated blackouts as the heat index hit 115. The order taps more than 35 gigawatts of idle generation, enough for the peak demand of about 26 million homes.
Elections: North Carolina offers an early read on how independents break heading into the midterms. Independents now outnumber both parties on the state's rolls, with 3,113,007 unaffiliated voters compared to 2,327,131 Republicans and 2,316,541 Democrats, according to the State Board of Elections. In 2008, Democrats held a 45.8% share of registrations to Republicans' 32%, with unaffiliated voters just under 1.4 million, or 22.2%. With the state electing a U.S. senator and all 14 U.S. House members this fall, how those unaffiliated voters break could preview how independents shape control of Congress.
1 Number
3.5 million
The United States added nearly 3.5 million new businesses in the first half of 2026, a 12% increase over the same period in 2025, according to Registered Agents Inc.'s June 2026 business report.
Tennessee's $30 million Starbucks incentive deal
Tennessee handed Starbucks $30 million to set up in Nashville, part of a program that has already clawed back $92 million from companies that broke their job promises.
Zohran Mamdani, Mayor of New York City
Mamdani, who campaigned on a pledge to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, renewed that threat this week ahead of the Israeli leader's September U.N. visit, then backed off Tuesday, saying his office lacks the legal authority to enforce the International Criminal Court's warrant. He is now calling on the Trump administration to carry out the arrest, which the White House has already rejected.
California's cannabis task force released its latest enforcement numbers. How much was the illegal cannabis seized between April and June worth?
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