Month: July 2022

WaPo: “When coronavirus vaccines for infants andyoung children were authorized for the first time last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned parents against the “baby jabs,” saying regulators had done insufficient testing and trials. Still, he said he wouldn’t stand in parents’ way if they chose to vaccinate their kids. “You are free to choose,”…

AL Political Reporter: “A new report submitted by the Southern Prisons Coalition to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination details the devastating consequences of incarceration on Black people throughout the southern United States.  With the long-term goal of eliminating all forms of racial discrimination in the criminal legal system,…

Off the Kuff: “Gilberto Hinojosa won reelection as chairman of the Texas Democratic Party on Saturday, defeating two challengers who sought to tap into members’ simmering frustrations over a lack of progress in the state, especially after their disappointing 2020 election. Hinojosa, who first took over leadership of the state party in 2012, was up…

Political Wire: “The White House is abandoning plans to nominate a Kentucky lawyer who opposes abortion rights and is backed by Senator Mitch McConnell to a federal court seat, citing opposition from Senator Rand Paul, Mr. McConnell’s home-state colleague,” the New York Times reports. “The resistance from Mr. McConnell’s fellow Republican marked a new twist over a…

AL Political Reporter: “A committee of the U.S. Judicial Conference ruled last week that U.S. Circuit Court Judge Bill Pryor and U.S. District Court Judge Corey Maze – both of Alabama – should be investigated for their decisions to hire a law clerk who made overtly racist comments in her past.  The Committee on Judicial…

NY Times: “The breadth, speed and seriousness of the criminal investigation into election meddling by former President Donald J. Trump and his associates in Georgia were underscored on Friday by the revelation that two pro-Trump state senators and the chair of the state Republican Party were sent letters by an Atlanta prosecutor informing them they…

AL Political Reporter: “The Alabama Democratic Party will select a new chair and officers of the state committee at an organizational meeting in Birmingham in less than a month. Rep. Chris England, Chair of the Alabama Democratic Party, informed newly elected and at-large members of the State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC) that the 2022 organizational…

NC Policy Watch: “UNC-Chapel Hill has reached a settlement with acclaimed journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones over the failed attempt to hire the her last year, avoiding a potential lawsuit. Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer Prize-winner and author of the best-selling 1619 Project, was courted by the university’s journalism school for a Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism. Policy Watch…

Political Wire: ““Mississippi’s top legal official has no plan to prosecute the white woman whose accusation set off the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago, an aide said Friday following revelations about an unserved arrest warrant and a newly revealed memoir by the woman,” the AP reports.”

Sun Herald: “Attorneys are wrangling Mississippi’s former governor into the welfare department’s massive civil lawsuit, which one attorney called a “no-holds-barred death match.” The attorney for the state agency is subpoenaing the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation for any of its communication with former Gov. Phil Bryant and his wife Deborah Bryant. The Mississippi…