By Casey Smith | Senior Reporter
“Hoosiers should not be left staring at ruined homes and mountains of debris while billions of their tax dollars remain untouched.” — Indiana Senate Democrats
We sat down with Gov. Mike Braun on Wednesday to get the latest on Indiana’s flood response and recovery.
A federal appeals court says Planned Parenthood can refer Indiana patients out of state for abortion care.
A commentary makes the case for expanding community behavioral health care to treat Hoosiers before a crisis lands them in court or a state hospital.
Plus, fire departments are paying soaring prices and waiting years for new trucks.
And before you go, catch up on the Republican Senate leadership changeup, a new Ivy Tech workforce grant and Indiana’s latest local data center moratorium.
Gov. Mike Braun, center, speaks with state troopers while surveying storm damage in northwestern Indiana on Aug. 12, 2026. (Photo courtesy Indiana governor's office)
Indiana seeking federal storm assistance at time when Trump wants to scale it back
By Tom Davies
While state officials continue compiling details about recent storm damage across Indiana, Gov. Mike Braun said he is confident that the state can help pay recovery costs regardless of whether additional federal assistance is approved.
Flooding in central Indiana counties and severe wind damage in the state’s northwestern corner has caused many millions of dollars in damage at a time when President Donald Trump has said he wants states to assume more responsibility for natural disaster response.
Planned Parenthood celebrated the ruling while the state's attorney general kept mum. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Planned Parenthood can refer Indiana abortion patients out-of-state, federal appeals court rules
By Leslie Bonilla Muñiz
A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a ruling that permanently bars the state of Indiana from penalizing Planned Parenthood for pointing pregnant minors to states in which abortion is legal.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Appeals Court for the Seventh District found that providing factual information on abortions, as well as referrals for the procedure, is speech protected by the First Amendment — and that the state’s arguments aren’t strong enough to overcome that.
COMMENTARY
Indiana implemented Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic coverage across the eight centers in 35 counties in 2025. But it still has 57 counties to go. (Getty Images)
Indiana’s competency restoration crisis demands a community-based answer
By Beth Keeney
Recent reporting by WYFI highlighted the dramatic increases in individuals incompetent to stand trial for criminal offenses and their referral to the state hospital system for competency restoration. The result is a system under tremendous strain and one that is increasingly displacing people who need the highest level of psychiatric care for reasons unrelated to criminal activity.
This is not a cheap problem. As highlighted during the August 5 FSSA Quarterly Financial Review, the cost for competency restoration averages $100,000 per person.
The right question is not, “Do we limit restoration or do we need more state hospitals?” The right question is, “How do we prevent people from needing competency restoration in the first place, and when necessary, can we provide it closer to home and connect it to existing and ongoing care?”
NATIONAL NEWS
A decades-old pumper truck owned by the Providence Fire Department in Rhode Island, where it’s used for events and ceremonies. Providence is one of dozens of cities accusing fire truck manufacturers of conspiring to suppress the supply of trucks, raising prices and driving up delivery times. (Photo by Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current)
Dozens of cities and counties sue fire truck makers over soaring costs, delivery delays
By Anna Claire Vollers
In the summer of 2023, a third of the fire engines owned by the fire department in Kansas City, Kansas, were unusable. Five of 15 pumper trucks were out of commission, and the department was waiting on parts from the manufacturer.
So Kansas City fire officials went on a nationwide hunt for trucks. But their frantic search turned up just four they could buy immediately, and the vehicles were designed for smaller, more rural departments.
Their experience was not unusual: Municipalities and fire departments in every state are struggling with soaring prices and years-long delivery times for trucks. It’s a crisis many cities and departments lay squarely at the feet of the country’s biggest fire apparatus manufacturers.
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