Month: December 2022

ATL Journal Constitution: “Stacey Abrams raised more than $103 million for her failed rematch this year against Gov. Brian Kemp, a record-setting haul for a Georgia gubernatorial race that allowed her to experiment with unconventional ways to promote her candidacy. But her campaign’s expenditures have come under sharper scrutiny as new details emerge about the tight cash…

AL Political Reporter: “The Alabama Supreme Court is into fiction writing.  Maybe this trek was inevitable, given its disregard for the truth and facts in so many of the opinions issued by the high court, but still, it’s somewhat surprising to see it. To see, for example, a couple of justices from the state’s highest…

WaPo: “Early in the pandemic, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis repeatedly praised President Donald Trump for the expedited development and rollout of a coronavirus vaccine. The governor’s office pushed for $480 million in pandemic resources, including media campaigns promoting the shots, according to state budget documents. And DeSantis, a Republican, even lauded the Biden administration for helping to…

North State Journal: “A 2018 law requiring photo identification to vote in North Carolina remains invalidated after a narrow majority on the state Supreme Court agreed Friday with a lower court decision that struck it down. In a 4-3 decision, the court’s Democratic justices said they saw no reason to disturb the 2021 ruling that voided the…

NY Times: “A Tennessee man already facing charges of assaulting a police officer during the storming of the Capitol last year was charged on Friday with plotting to assassinate several of the federal agents who had investigated him and to attack the F.B.I.’s field office in Knoxville, Tenn. The plot by the man, Edward Kelley,…

Alternet: “North Carolina Supreme Court justices found that GOP lawmakers “acted unconstitutionally” by implementing two voter suppression tactics to “intentionally” hinder Black voters, The News & Observer reports. The tactics the Republican officials put in place include a voter ID law that specifically targeted Black voters, and gerrymandering – meaning state lines were strategically redrawn to ensure the Democratic…

WataugaWatch: “The election of Court of Appeals Associate Justice Richard Dietz to the NC Supremes last month leaves a seat vacant on the Court of Appeals. It’s not vacant any more. Gov. Roy Cooper has appointed Allison Riggs to the seat. Riggs is co-executive director and voting rights chief counsel at the Southern Coalition for…

HuffPo: “A former Texas police officer was convicted of manslaughter Thursday for fatally shooting a Black woman through a rear window of her home in 2019, a rare conviction of an officer for killing someone also armed with a gun. Jurors found Aaron Dean not guilty of murder but convicted him of manslaughter in the death of…

The Hill: “Democrats are quietly discussing plans to propose a possible compromise state as the nation’s first-in-the-nation primary following vocal concerns about South Carolina from all corners of the party.  The informal talks among strategists, former campaign advisers, activists and those close to state parties are largely centering around three states — Georgia, Nevada and…

WaPo: “Workers in Richmond removed a statue of Confederate Gen. A.P. Hill, the last city-owned Confederate statue that had been standing, on Monday from a busy intersection. Although Confederate monuments of various types remain in many places around the South, they’re steadily being taken down, and what’s so remarkable is how quiet this once-churning debate has become….