WUNC: “The North Carolina state employee health plan will resume coverage of gender affirming treatments for transgender employees, the state treasurer said Wednesday, complying with a recent federal court ruling that declared the refusal of coverage unconstitutional. State Treasurer Dale Folwell and the State Health Plan Board of Trustees agreed to reinstate coverage of “medically necessary services”…
Month: July 2022
“Texas sues to block Biden from requiring doctors to provide abortions in medical emergencies”
CNBC: “Texas on Thursday asked a federal court to block the Biden administration’s requirement that physicians and hospitals provide abortions in medical emergencies. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, argued that federal law does not confer a right to an abortion….
“Gaetz friend faces December sentencing as he helps in probes”
AP: “Sentencing for a former Florida tax collector whose arrest led to a probe of U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz has been set for December, as his lawyer indicated that his client continues to cooperate with federal investigators in multiple jurisdictions. After several postponements, former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg will be sentenced on Dec….
“Strong opposition to GOP request for signature matching on NC absentee ballots”
NC Policy Watch: “More than 7,000 people wrote the State Board of Elections with their thoughts on the state Republican Party request to allow county elections officials to verify mail-in ballots by matching ballot signatures with those on voter registration documents. Most commenters opposed allowing local elections officials to use signature matching, with hundreds of…
“Prof. Gene Nichol: Supreme Court right-wingers should spare us their claims of “originalism””
NC Policy Watch: “In “Republicans on the Supreme Court are ‘originalist’ until they don’t want to be,” Nichol skillfully exposes the nonsense found in the claim of the U.S. Supreme Court’s right wing that they are defenders of constitutional “originalism” — the idea that they are somehow engaged in doing the business of implementing the desires of…
“Texas woman says unborn baby counts as passenger in HOV lane”
North State Journal: “When an officer pulled Brandy Bottone over for driving by herself in a high occupancy vehicle lane in Texas just days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, she pointed to her pregnant belly and told him her unborn daughter now counts as a person. “I said, ‘Well, not trying…
“Jill Biden compares Hispanics to ‘breakfast tacos’ in speech”
North State Journal: “First Lady Jill Biden is facing intense backlash for a remark she made about Hispanic Americans Fox News reported. Biden was speaking Monday at the 2022 UnidosUS Annual Conference titled “Siempre Adelante: Our Quest for Equity” when she boasted about the “diversity” of the Hispanic community nationwide. Biden was the featured speaker at the event’s…
“IRS designates FRC as a church with BR’s Tony Perkins as its minister despite group’s history of hate-mongering, lobbying”
LA Voice: “Well, it’s official. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has bestowed upon the right-wing lobbyist group the Family Research Council (FRC) the official status of a CHURCH and Tony Perkins (not the late actor, but the former Louisiana legislator from Greenwell Springs) as its religious leader, or pastor, as it were. A church. The agenda of…
“Ann Richards’ Legacy Is a Light for Dark Times”
TX Observer: “As we gazed down at the photo, I was struck by Richards’ magnetic hold on people. Perhaps her heaps of charisma, a quality generally lacking in Texas politicians today, is what captures the eye. Or perhaps it’s that she represents a more hopeful time when Democrats stood a fighting chance. Whatever the key…
“Mitch McConnell’s labor shortage take: It will ease when people ‘run out’ of savings”
USA Today: “Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that people will begin to work once they run out of savings. “You’ve got a whole lot of people sitting on the sidelines because, frankly, they’re flush for the moment,” he said at an event in his home state of Kentucky. “What we’ve got to hope is once…