Month: March 2024

The Bulwark: “But he hasn’t really stopped running for president. Next month, DeSantis hosts a two-day presidential-donor gathering at the Hard Rock Hotel in South Florida that’s billed as—don’t call it a “fundraiser”—an “Investor Appreciation Retreat.” It’s the latest phase of an image makeover DeSantis started after he officially dropped out of the 2024 race…

Charlotte Observer: “Union County joined at least two other local governments when it decided last month not to add fluoride to a newly constructed water plant. County commissioners there voted 3-2 last month to not to add fluoride to its Yadkin River Water Treatment plant, which serves about one-third of the county’s population. Nearly two-thirds…

Orlando Weekly: “The Florida Senate declined to confirm Moms for Liberty co-founder Tina Descovich’s appointment to the state Commission on Ethics, with Senate President Kathleen Passidomo saying that the procedural move puts Descovich’s confirmation “on hold.” Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Descovich to the Florida ethics commission last year, a position which requires Senate confirmation…. The…

Vanity Fair: “Yes, as HuffPost reports, a recently unearthed video from 2020 shows Robinson publicly declaring, “I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote.” While this is obviously shocking, it’s merely a drop in the bucket of the completely wild comments Robinson has made over the years. (Neither Robinson’s campaign nor…

WaPo: “Former officer Brett Hankison had been acquitted of state charges of reckless behavior related to Taylor’s death. With a petition signed by 18,000 people, Tamika Palmer that day in 2022 asked senior Justice officials whether there was anything more they could do. The Justice Department ultimately charged Hankison, who fired his gun in the…

Political Wire: “Democrats are starting to dream that President Biden can wrench North Carolina away from Donald Trump in November,” the New York Times reports. “They’re less confident that Mr. Biden can hold on to Georgia.” “The two Southern battlegrounds are creating a tricky strategic calculus for Mr. Biden’s campaign as it grinds into higher gear and…

Political Wire: “A prominent evangelical advocacy organization plans to significantly ramp up political spending in the 2024 election with one goal in mind: returning Donald Trump to the White House,” Politico reports. “Faith & Freedom, a conservative-leaning organization, intends to spend $62 million registering and turning out evangelical voters, texting and calling supporters, and door-knocking — $10…

WaPo: “They’d pinned their dreams of children and parenthood on IVF. It gave a cancer patient left infertile by chemo and other treatments a chance to grow her family. It renewed hope in a mother who had struggled to conceive. And it offered a lesbian couple a path to pregnancy after other attempts had failed….

WaPo: “But instead of sailing through the Republican-dominated legislature, the DeSantis-backed bill died a quick legislative death, making it only as far as one subcommittee. It wasn’t the only culture war proposal from conservative lawmakers to end up in the bill graveyard during the session that ended Friday. One rejected bill would have banned the…

CNN: “Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell announced Wednesday he will support Donald Trump for the presidency, a move that comes more than three years after they have last spoken and after the Kentucky Republican pointedly blamed Trump for the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. “It is abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned…