Month: January 2022

Political Wire: “Alabama Republicans are heading for a dogfight in the state’s Senate primary, with GOP voters in the reddest of states set to forecast which of the party’s disparate wings could be ascendant in the November midterms,” The Hill reports. “The nominating contest is largely a contest among Rep. Mo Brooks (R) and Katie Boyd Britt,…

Associated Press: “The prosecutor weighing whether Donald Trump and others committed crimes by trying to pressure Georgia officials to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential election victory said a decision on whether to bring charges could come as early as the first half of this year. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in an interview with The Associated…

AL Political Reporter: “Former U.S. Senator Doug Jones is calling on citizens to “build a pro-democracy coalition” a year after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. “Jan. 6 was a day of remembrance and analysis, a day to look back,” Jones said. “Today is a day to look forward,” Jones said. “Quite frankly, democracy is…

NC Policy Watch: “Gov. Roy Cooper signed an ambitious executive order today designed to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions statewide and to emphasize environmental justice in agency decisions, beyond the NC Department of Environmental Quality. Executive Order 246 sets several targets to mitigate the damage of climate change, including the reduction of statewide greenhouse gas emissions by…

NY Times: “A Georgia judge on Friday sentenced both Travis McMichael, the man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, and his father to life in prison without the possibility of parole, but issued a lesser sentence of life with the possibility of parole to the other white man convicted of murdering Mr. Arbery, a 25-year-old Black…

TX Observer: “In November 2012, Austin voters were asked to approve a proposition that promised to expand health care for the poor. They approved a ballot measure creating a pool of $35 million in tax money each year for the nonprofit Central Health, an agency charged by the state with funding indigent health care and…

North State Journal: “States and the federal government carried out 11 executions this year, the fewest since 1988, as support for the death penalty has continued to decline.  That’s according to an annual report on the death penalty released in mid-December. Three of the death sentences were carried out in January days before President Donald…

NC Policy Watch: “Rev. William Barber has tested positive for COVID-19. Barber, the former president of the North Carolina NAACP and current president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, announced his diagnosis in a statement early Thursday in which he praised vaccines and boosters and encouraged people to get them to…

TX Observer: “O’Rourke, who rose to fame with a near-successful bid to topple Senator Ted Cruz four years ago, looks headed for another defeat. Polls show him trailing by as much as 15 points against Texas’ Republican incumbent Governor Greg Abbott, who thrashed his two prior Democratic opponents and sits on a $55 million warchest. Unlike in…

AR Times: “A report from the Department of Finance and Administration on medical marijuana sales in the state in 2021: The state’s 37 dispensaries sold a total of 40,347 pounds of medical marijuana in 2021. Patients spent $264.9 million to obtain those 40,347 pounds. The Releaf Center (Bentonville) was the top selling dispensary for the year at…