By Andrew DeMillo | Editor-in-Chief
Good morning, Advocate readers! Arkansas’ ban on using food stamps to purchase junk food is taking effect this week, even as a similar restriction has been halted in other states. The state rolled out an app that officials say will help shoppers on SNAP navigate the new rules. You can find other Arkansas politics and government news on the Advocate site here.
Arkansas Department of Human Services Division of County Operations Director Mary Franklin (left) demonstrates how to use the agency’s new app to help food recipients navigate new changes to the program at Edward’s Food Giant in North Little Rock on June 29, 2026. At right is DHS Communications Chief Gavin Lesnick. (Photo by Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
By Tess Vrbin
The Arkansas Department of Human Services launched a new mobile app Monday to help food stamp beneficiaries navigate a new ban on junk food purchases that will go into effect this week.
Greg Lange of Bismarck, North Dakota, drops off his absentee ballot and his wife’s at the Bismarck Burleigh County Office Building on June 8, 2026. (Photo by Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
By DC Bureau
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, a blow to the Trump administration and some Republican states that had urged the justices to require all ballots to arrive by the close of polls.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, speaking alongside other senators and an advocate in the U.S. Capitol in 2022, announces bipartisan legislation to update the Violence Against Women Act. Despite protections in the law, immigrant survivors may have a harder time applying for a legal status under new guidance introduced by the Trump administration. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
By Stateline
The changes, which include narrowing the definitions of “battery” and “cruelty” and requiring that petitioners prove they resided with their abusers, are adding barriers for survivors who often are in tenuous situations, advocates say.
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