The parents of an 18-year-old killed in a shooting on Tuskegee University’s campus on Nov. 9 filed a lawsuit against the university on Tuesday, alleging negligence by school officials led to their son’s death, Alabama Reflector reports.

The lawsuit, brought by the parents of La’Tavion Jashun Johnson, alleges that a failure to secure the premises of the university during homecoming celebrations brought about the shooting, which left Johnson dead and at least 16 other people injured.

The shooter was arrested and charged with violating a federal law on machine gun possession. Law enforcement said he had a gun with a trigger activator, which can rapidly increase a firearm’s rate of fire.

And in Colorado, on the two-year anniversary of the deadly Club Q mass shooting in Colorado Springs, survivors and family members of those killed announced a federal lawsuit claiming El Paso County officials and Club Q management could have prevented the shooting, Newsline reports.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court of Colorado, claims the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners and former El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder are culpable in the shooting because they refused to enforce Colorado’s “red flag” law, and that Club Q owners did not implement sufficient security measures to keep its patrons safe.

On Capitol Hill, Navajo Nation Council Delegate Eugenia Charles-Newton read the names of missing Navajo people during a congressional hearing on Wednesday, to ensure “they are not forgotten,” Arizona Mirror reports.

She told the House Appropriations Committee oversight hearing on “Investigating the Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women” that the total number of known people missing from the Navajo Nation is 75, and they do not know the number of Navajo people who have been murdered.

“It’s unaccounted for because we lack the manpower to track those cases properly, and we also lack the infrastructure to record all cases,” she said.

The victims are both men and women, but it is Native American women who disproportionately go missing and are murdered in cases that are rarely solved, if they’re investigated at all. The Bureau of Indian Affairs estimates that there are approximately 4,200 missing and murdered Indigenous peoples cases that have gone unsolved.

As part of the testimonies, advocates gave lawmakers recommendations on how federal agencies can better support tribal efforts.

In Maryland, where the state economy is heavily reliant on the federal government, officials awarded a $190,000 consultant contract to help the state “research the president-elect’s party platform and campaign policy proposals … to understand the potential impact of changes to federal policies, funding, and programs,” Maryland Matters reports.

The state is home to several massive federal agencies, and President-elect Donald Trump has promised to slash federal spending and the federal workforce, including potentially shuttering entire agencies.

Related: Nevada’s Ford and other Democratic AGs vow to form ‘a line of defense against Trump’

South Carolina: The state parole board denied parole for Susan Smith, a mother convicted of murdering her two young sons three decades ago. The case garnered national attention when Smith, for days, claimed a Black man carjacked her and drove off with her sons.

Florida: Advocates pushing for Florida to join the majority of states that allow the “open carry” of guns aren’t happy with state Senate President Ben Albritton (R) after he said he has no desire to cross the Florida Sheriffs Association, which disfavors open carry.

New Jersey: New embezzlement claims lodged in recent weeks offer what critics say are disturbing insights into Holtec, the Camden-based company pushing controversial atomic power projects across the United States.

Nevada: Inmates in state prisons are being denied necessary medical care and medications, according to providers and a memo from one warden.

Utah: The state’s attorney general is joining a coalition of 17 other states pushing back on the federal government’s attempt to regulate cryptocurrencies, arguing that authority should instead be left to states.

West Virginia: Republican lawmakers will again introduce exemptions to the state’s strict school vaccine laws. And passage may be easier next year with changes in the Legislature and governor’s office.

Ohio: Republican House Speaker Jason Stephens will not bring a controversial higher education bill — which would ban diversity training and allow universities to fire tenured professors, among other provisions — to the House floor during the lame duck session.

Idaho: About $14.5 million that should have gone toward reducing property taxes this year isn’t going out to taxpayers yet because of reporting challenges with the state’s massive new IT system.

New Hampshire: Advocates are asking a legislative committee to object to proposed updates to state landfill rules, arguing they aren’t protective enough and were overly shaped by industry interests.

Iowa: The state approved a request from the City of Cherokee to discharge up to 2 million gallons of partially treated wastewater, daily, into the Little Sioux River from the city’s wastewater treatment plant, which has been inoperable since a June 2024 flood.

Oklahoma: A nominating commission is seeking judicial applications after the Nov. 5 ouster of Justice Yvonne Kauger, the first Oklahoma Supreme Court justice to lose a retention vote.

Montana: Officials must count the votes of a man involuntarily committed to the Montana State Hospital, a judge ruled.

Among the weathered pages was a 200-year-old treaty between the United States and the Quapaw Nation. A telegram involving former President Abraham Lincoln was also on display.

Attorney General Tim Griffin (R) is setting aside $1 million to fund a partnership with the University of Arkansas to digitize historical documents related to the state constitution.

Transgender women will not be permitted to use women’s restrooms in parts of the U.S. Capitol complex, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R) announced the rule Wednesday, following some House Republicans’ targeting of the first openly trans person to win a congressional election.

In a statement, Rep.-elect Sarah McBride of Delaware said she would comply with the order even though she disagrees with it.

The statement continued McBride’s messaging on the issue that it reflected a misplaced focus by House Republicans on wedge issues that don’t meaningfully impact people’s lives.

“I’m not here to fight about bathrooms. I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families,” the newly elected Democrat wrote. “This effort to distract from the real issues facing this country hasn’t distracted me over the last several days.”

On Tuesday, the Bureau reported, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell told two U.S. House panels there was no evidence that an order to deny emergency relief to Trump supporters went beyond a single rogue employee — though Criswell said she welcomed a robust investigation to confirm that.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s request for nearly $100 billion in natural disaster response and recovery funding is on track to sail through the U.S. Senate after both Republicans and Democrats expressed strong support during a Wednesday hearing, D.C. reported.

As Trump continues to roll out nomination announcements, congressional Democrats largely reserved judgment Wednesday on his pick of Linda McMahon for Education secretary, even as they raised concerns about plans to eliminate the department.

And the director of the National Institutes of Health testified before Congress on Tuesday that the agency is looking to rebuild trust following the COVID-19 pandemic by solving some of the biggest health challenges facing the country, including tackling rare diseases that are ignored by for-profit companies, the D.C. Bureau reported.

In the year after Texas began implementing its six-week abortion ban, a university study found teen fertility rates in the state rose for the first time in 15 years, Stateline reports.

Overall, the increase in teen fertility in Texas was slight: only 0.39%.

So far, the Texas data is the first evidence that abortion bans might lead to an increase in teen births. But as abortion restrictions have spread post-Roe — 13 states now have total bans — some providers and other experts predict that other states will see increases. If so, the nation’s nearly 30-year trend of declining teen births could be in jeopardy.