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Timeline › 2026 › July › 29

July 29, 2026

7 entries on this date.

Alabama Department of Corrections withheld required audit documents from the state examiner, an unprecedented refusal she said

At a July 29, 2026, Joint Legislative Prison Oversight Committee hearing in Montgomery, Alabama's chief examiner of public accounts, Rachel Riddle, told lawmakers the Alabama Department of Corrections had refused to turn over documents her office requested for a legislatively mandated audit, citing privilege and confidentiality over some records. Riddle said she has never had a state agency withhold documents from her office before, even confidential ones, calling it "new territory," and said she had enlisted the Attorney General's Office to help resolve the impasse while weighing whether to issue a subpoena.

ICE deported Arizona detainee to El Salvador with unremoved medical tube despite hospital orders

ICE deported Salvadoran national Ana Granados Sanchez from its Eloy Detention Center in Arizona on July 28-29, 2026, with a nephrostomy tube still in place more than three months after hospital discharge orders required urologist follow-up within a week of her April 2026 surgery. An independent physician who reviewed her medical records warned before the deportation that the unmanaged tube put her at risk of irreversible complications. DHS did not respond to written press inquiries submitted more than a week before the deportation.

Trump resumed Iran airstrikes after five-day pause, again defying bicameral war-powers resolution

On July 29, 2026, President Trump ordered U.S. forces to resume direct airstrikes on Iran after a five-day pause, following an Iranian missile attack a day earlier that targeted a U.S. air base and CENTCOM center in Jordan. U.S. Central Command said it completed a "heavy wave" of strikes against dozens of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps targets, with Iranian media reporting several civilian deaths, continuing a military campaign waged without new congressional authorization in defiance of the bicameral War Powers Resolution Congress passed in June 2026.

Florida AG Uthmeier opened investigation into Fauci hours after Fifth Amendment invocation, despite 2025 grand jury finding no applicable crime

On July 29, 2026, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a state investigation into former federal health official Anthony Fauci hours after Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times before the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Governor Ron DeSantis had publicly argued that Fauci's 2025 federal pardon does not excuse invoking the Fifth Amendment and separately outlined how a state prosecution could proceed, with Uthmeier's announcement following shortly after. Neither official cited a Florida statute or Florida-specific harm, and the state's own 18-month statewide grand jury had already concluded in January 2025 that no criminal statute reached federal COVID-19 officials.

Richland County, S.C. deputy Russell Kenton II fired, arrested for misusing Flock camera system

Richland County Sheriff's Department deputy Russell Kenton II, 35, was fired and arrested for misconduct in office on July 29, 2026, after a July 24 audit by the department's Professional Standards Division found he had used his access to the Flock license-plate-reader system to research information unrelated to law enforcement purposes. Sheriff Leon Lott announced the termination and arrest; RCSD's public statements did not specify what information Kenton searched or why. Kenton was booked into the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center and released on a $20,000 personal recognizance bond.

Court monitor found Mississippi child welfare agency met only 22 of 107 court-ordered foster-care safety standards in 2025

A federal court monitor's report filed July 29, 2026 in the Olivia Y. v. Reeves consent-decree lawsuit found Mississippi's Department of Child Protection Services met only 22 of 107 applicable child-safety measures during 2025, including at least 22 congregate-care placements of children under age 10 lacking required approval and abuse investigations completed on time only about half the time against a 90% standard. The monitor also found the department undercounted how many foster children were victims of abuse in its care. The report was filed as the state, represented by Attorney General Lynn Fitch's office, seeks to have the underlying lawsuit dismissed on grounds it has made "sufficient progress."

NC Health News investigation found NC officials steered $40M in public funds to donor-founded mental health center amid clustered contributions

An NC Health News/Charlotte Ledger investigation published July 29, 2026, found that North Carolina officials, including Gov. Josh Stein and senior legislative leaders, approved more than $40 million in public funding for the Katie Blessing Center, a mental-health facility founded by Charlotte businessman Michael Estramonte, while Estramonte and 19 relatives, business associates, and their relatives contributed nearly $1 million to those officials' campaigns between 2023 and 2026. Campaign-finance watchdog Bob Hall identified clusters of same-day donations from donors with no prior giving history, such as 13 Estramonte associates who each gave $6,400 to Stein on the same day in April 2023, and filed a complaint with the North Carolina State Board of Elections alleging some contributions may have used straw donors, which Estramonte denies.