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A masked ICE agent knocks on the window of an observer's car in Minneapolis, Minn., Jan. 12, 2026. (Photo: Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
By Christine Zhu
Immigration advocates are demanding answers after a U.S. citizen said he was arrested at gunpoint by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on his way to work in Charlotte earlier this week.
Atilio Portillo, a resident of east Charlotte who owns a small construction business, told reporters during a press conference Friday that ICE agents stopped him as he was on his way to work early Wednesday morning with his brother and nephew.
The agents blocked his work truck with unmarked vehicles, broke its windows, and pointed guns at the passengers, according to Portillo. He said his requests for a warrant or explanation of the stop were denied.
A Habitat for Humanity Home in Durham. (Photo: Greg Childress/NC Newsline)
By Greg Childress
Housing demand across the country is slowing due to an affordability crisis that makes it difficult for people with moderate-to-low incomes to buy a home or pay high rents, said Alexander Hermann, a senior research associate at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.
High housing costs, high home prices, high rents and rising interest rates are all part of the problem, Hermann said. Other key factors include a decline in the immigrant population and a “tepid and difficult job market for a lot of potential housing consumers,” he said.elections.
Vicki Wanamaker, left, and Cathy Mager, right, talked in Wanamaker’s Springdale, Pennsylvania, home on Oct. 19, 2026, about their opposition to a proposed hyperscale data center roughly a quarter mile away. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
By Ashley Murray
SPRINGDALE, Pa. — Residents in a small southwestern Pennsylvania town are facing the prospect of a 47-acre data center facility on their doorstep.
“Right here behind this fence is where they want to put up the data center, and as you can see, there’s houses right across the street, roughly 100 feet,” said lifelong Springdale borough resident Cathy Mager, stretching her arms to show the distance from the development site’s perimeter to a line of houses across Porter Street.
The Organ Transplant Service teams at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Nationwide, more than 109,000 people are on waiting lists for organs. (Photo: Walter Reed National Military Medical Center)
By Nada Hassanein
Federal regulators are cracking down on the nonprofits responsible for coordinating organ donations, aiming to begin shutting down substandard groups by early next year.
New criteria will score the organizations on donation and transplantation rates and will decertify the bottom tier, meaning their contracts with the federal government will be revoked. Many professional medical groups welcome more stringent evaluations. But the nonprofits strongly oppose aspects of the criteria and have filed lawsuits, warning of potential disruptions in some states or regions.
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