The Alabama legislature approved some of the most restrictive abortion rules in the country this week. A group of lawmakers wants to make Illinois the most progressive state.

Seventy-five women dressed in long red robes and white bonnets gathered at the capitol Wednesday. They represent characters from the dystopian Margaret Atwood novel and recent television series The Handmaid’s Tale.

Floodwaters on the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers may be going down, but rain has continued to soak farmland around much of the state. More rain could be on the way later this month.

Wet fields make it hard to plant because farmers use large, heavy machinery in the fields. Even if a field is dry enough for equipment not to get stuck, too much pressure on wet soil makes it hard for seedlings to develop solid root systems.

One year after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states outside of Nevada to set up their own sports betting rules, some experts are offering Illinois lawmakers tips as a final proposal is drafted. 

Updated at 7:09 p.m. ET

A federal judge ruled against President Trump on Monday in a subpoena dispute not long after the White House said it is seeking to block its former top lawyer from talking to Congress.

The events amounted to a win — and a loss — apiece for Republicans and Democrats in their ongoing high-stakes legal and political war over separation of powers and oversight in the aftermath of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

The McGahn matter

Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton wrote a book.

But he’s not running for president (as far as we know.)

Politico describes the book as “apolitical,” and it follows the U.S. 3rd Infantry Regiment, a unit which Cotton was a platoon leader in 2007-2008. That regiment is called the Old Guard, which carries out funerals for soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tony Horwitz has spent the last two years in the South, embracing what he calls “bar-stool democracy.”

It’s the premise of his new book, Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide, which catalogs his journey as he retraces the footsteps of journalist-turned-landscape-architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

This year, the largest percentage of Australians since 2006 agreed with the following statement: “global warming is a serious and pressing problem. We should begin taking steps now even if this involves significant cost.”

Journalists and pundits alike believed that this sentiment would affect this weekend’s elections and that Australians might overwhelmingly select a party with the most aggressive approach toward climate change.

But that’s not what happened.