WRAL: ““This will not be a political circus. This will not be the kind of character smear that sadly, our Democratic colleagues have gotten very good at.”– U.S. Sen Ted Cruz, R-Texas, at the opening of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings on U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson It hardly took 24 hours…
Month: March 2022
“Book bans and the threat of censorship rev up political activism in the suburbs”
NPR: “On a school night in late January, Stephana Ferrell, a 39-year-old mother of two elementary school children in Orange County, Fla., logged onto a virtual meeting with more than 200 other parents around the country who, like her, have been alarmed to see books pulled off the shelves of their children’s schools. Ferrell, a family…
“Report: Alabama among states with most workers earning less than $15 an hour”
AL Political Reporter: “A recent study found that more than 40 percent of Alabama workers make below $15 an hour, while an even greater percentage of Black and Hispanic Alabamians make less than $15 an hour. The state is among the seven states with the largest concentration of low-wage workers. The report by Oxfam America, a Massachusetts-based charitable…
“Matt Gaetz Will Seek Re-Election”
Political Wire: “Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) announced Saturday that he will be running for reelection this year, the Northwest Florida Daily News reports. Said Gaetz: “It’s choose your fighter time. I’m your Florida man. I’m ready to take the fight to Washington and I hope you’ll fight with me.””
A Look at How TX Voting Restrictions Impacted Primary
Ft. Worth Star-Telegram: “Texas’ new election law resulted in confusion and hundreds of votes uncounted as officials scrambled to prepare for the changes. The March 1 Democratic and Republican primaries were the first Texas elections with a wide-reaching voting law in effect. The bill — Senate Bill 1 — and earlier versions made national headlines…
“[AL Senate Candidate] Durant paid thousands in campaign funds to his own company, to buy his own book”
AL Political Reporter: “A closer look into U.S. Senate candidate Mike Durant’s required financial reporting shows he is an extremely wealthy individual, with a multimillion-dollar estate in Colorado, who has benefited from recent federal bailout funds, used his company’s services to further his campaign and purchased copies of books he has written using campaign contributions….
Conviction in $10 MM Public School Fraud in AL
AL Political Reporter: “Managing Raleigh’s Torchlight Academy was a lucrative family venture for Don McQueen. The school paid McQueen nearly $3 million in management fees between 2016 and 2020, financial audits submitted by the school show. The Raleigh businessman ran the K-8 charter school with a reported 600 students (state officials could only confirm 489…
“Audits show lucrative family venture at soon-to-be shuttered [NC] charter school”
NC Policy Watch: “Managing Raleigh’s Torchlight Academy was a lucrative family venture for Don McQueen. The school paid McQueen nearly $3 million in management fees between 2016 and 2020, financial audits submitted by the school show. The Raleigh businessman ran the K-8 charter school with a reported 600 students (state officials could only confirm 489…
“Yadkin County residents dig in for a fight against a proposed mine near homes, elementary school”
NC Policy Watch: “After living all over North Carolina, Terry and Joyce Long finally came home. In 2020, they bought a tract of land in Hamptonville adjacent to property that had been in Joyce’s family for five generations. Joyce grew up in this Yadkin County town of just 6,100 people, and now she and her…
“Judge Griffen strikes down four new Arkansas voting laws as unconstitutional”
AR Times: “Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen didn’t take long to rule on the challenge of four new laws passed by the Arkansas legislature to make voting more difficult. The judge agreed at the conclusion of the trial with plaintiffs, including the League of Women Voters and Arkansas United, that four new state laws placed state unconstitutional…