Month: November 2023

Political Wire: “Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) told Senate Republicans on Tuesday that he’d resolve the standoff over his military promotions blockade before Democratic leaders force them to take an uncomfortable vote on a rules-change resolution, Punchbowl News reports. Said Tuberville: “Listen, everyone. I got y’all into this mess. I’m gonna get you out.” “Tuberville also extolled the…

NY Times: “Robert Walker, Mr. Walker’s father, was also a sanitation worker. On Feb. 1, 1968, he was collecting garbage when sheets of rain started pouring down. He and his colleague Echol Cole took shelter in the compactor of their truck. When a compressing piston malfunctioned, the two men were crushed. The city had no…

WaPo: “Despite long advocating small government and local control, Republican governors and legislators across a significant swath of the country are increasingly overriding the actions of Democratic cities — removing elected district attorneys or threatening to strip them of power, taking over election offices and otherwise limiting local independence. State lawmakers proposed nearly 700 bills…

WaPo: “Carter, who was 96 when she died Nov. 19, is being remembered with three days of tributes for the work she did alongside her husband. She was seen as an equal partner, first for the one term of Jimmy Carter’s presidency and then for decades after as an advocate for mental health, caregiving and other issues…

The Liberal Patriot: “Tuesday, November 7 was a bad day for Mississippi. Incumbent Republican Governor Tate Reeves rolled Democrat Brandon Presley 50.9 to 47.7 percent. This result smarts. Presley is a genuine policy entrepreneur with a down-home demeanor. Reeves, per Republican sources, is droll and unpleasant. Mississippi’s gubernatorial race pitted one of the nation’s most unpopular…

Politico: “A federal appeals court issued a ruling Monday that could gut the Voting Rights Act, saying only the federal government — not private citizens or civil rights groups — is allowed to sue under a key section of the landmark civil rights law. The decision out of the 8th Circuit will almost certainly be…

Futurism: “A major oil spill off the coast of Louisiana has poured more than a million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, alarming local authorities and wildlife conservationists. As the Washington Post reports, officials traced the spill back to near a pipeline operated by oil company Main Pass Oil Gathering, but it’s still unclear if…

Political Wire: “For five months this year, homosexuality was prohibited in a Tennessee college town,” The Guardian reports. “In June, the city council of Murfreesboro enacted an ordinance outlawing “indecent exposure, public indecency, lewd behavior, nudity or sexual conduct”. The rule did not explicitly mention homosexuality, but LGBTQ+ people in the town quickly realized that the ordinance…

NC Newsline: “I’ve been doing life in the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction (NCDAC) for almost 22 years. In 2021, the NCDAC made my life worse by contracting TextBehind to remotely scan and print our mail, supposedly to thwart synthetic drug smuggling, although it is widely accepted that prison employees are the main source…

AR Times: “Northwest Arkansas is my home as well, and we compared our distinct critiques and discomforts about the world’s largest retailer and the role it played in shaping the worlds we live in. Bart’s writing on Walmart shows a company whose founder, Sam Walton, played up and played in the natural environment of the…