Thursday, September 3rd, 2026 Independent & Reader-Supported
The former FEMA leader who worked to abolish it says the administration has dropped that goal. Meanwhile the agency has shed more than a thousand career staff since 2024, and the mitigation grants that reduce the cost of the next disaster have gone unauthorised for almost every major declaration since February 2025.
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia were running waiting lists for childcare assistance this spring, against eight states in 2023. Three more simply turned eligible applicants away. Indiana alone had nearly 37,000 children waiting for a benefit they already qualify for.
A Colorado county is closing $12.5m. An Arizona district is cutting five assistant superintendents against a shortfall of nine to eighteen million. A Washington district is down $14m over two years after voters declined a levy. The word covers a transfer that expired, a decline that is permanent and a vote that was lost, and only one of those is fixed by cutting.