Month: March 2023

The Intercept: “DERRICK MILLER, a former U.S. Army National Guard sergeant who spent eight years in prison for murdering an Afghan civilian in 2010, now serves as a legislative assistant covering military policy for Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz. While on a combat mission in Afghanistan’s Laghman province on September 26, 2010, Miller shot 27-year-old Atta Mohammed in…

NY Times: “Dear Gov. Bill Lee, For more than 24 hours, I waited for you to speak to the people of Tennessee about the massacre of Nashville schoolchildren and the adults who gave their lives trying to keep them safe. These were your citizens. These children were your children. This shattered faith community is exactly…

NPR: “ALAN PAUL: This is Alan Paul. I’m biographer of The Allman Brothers Band. When Jimmy Carter began his campaign for president – and it was a real long shot – he had virtually no money at the start. What he did have was really good relationships with Phil Walden, who was the manager of…

Political Wire: ““North Carolina legislators repealed the state’s requirement that someone obtain a permit from a local sheriff before buying a pistol, as the Republican-controlled legislature on Wednesday successfully overrode one of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes for the first time since 2018,” the AP reports.”

Politico: “Florida regulators over the last year punished more than a dozen abortion providers for violating a nearly decade-old law that requires pregnant patients wait 24 hours before getting the procedure. Florida legislators approved the law in 2015, but it remained in limbo after the American Civil Liberties Union challenged it. After a judge upheld…

Political Wire: “Gov. Ron DeSantis’ handpicked board overseeing Disney World’s government services is gearing up for a potential legal battle over a 30-year development agreement they say effectively renders them powerless to manage the entertainment giant’s future growth in Central Florida,” the Orlando Sentinel reports. “Ahead of an expected state takeover, the Walt Disney Co. quietly pushed…

The Tennessean: “Emotions and tempers flared Monday night inside the Tennessee Capitol, just miles from the Nashville private school where three children and three staff members were slain in one of the deadliest school shootings in the state’s history. Republican leadership in both chambers decided to press pause on legislative debate at the regularly scheduled floor sessions…

TX Observer: “The Texas Democracy Foundation, the nonprofit parent of the Texas Observer, told its staff Monday that it is laying off employees—including journalists and editors—and ceasing publication on Friday, March 31, 2023. A Go Fund Me was established so that readers and supporters of the Observer can give a lifeline to staff and journalists. Shuttering the publication would be…

Political Wire: “A Florida school district banned the showing of a film about Ruby Bridges — the young girl who became a civil rights icon by wading through a White mob to integrate an elementary school in the South in 1960, the Weekly Challenger reports. Reports indicate that, once again, a single parent provoked the district’s action toward censorship, and…

NY Times: “Since its opening in a converted wood-frame mansion 117 years ago, Greenwood Leflore Hospital had become a medical hub for this part of Mississippi’s fertile but impoverished Delta, with 208 beds, an intensive-care unit, a string of walk-in clinics and a modern brick-and-glass building. But on a recent weekday, it counted just 13…