AR Times: “The Dirt Road Democrats PAC has named two former Democratic gubernatorial nominees as its 2024 co-chairs: Arkansas’s own Chris Jones, who lost to Sarah Huckabee Sanders in 2022, and Brandon Presley, who narrowly lost the 2023 race for Mississippi governor to Republican incumbent Tate Reeves. The PAC announced its new co-chairs by posting a video on X,…
Month: May 2024
“Arkansas Supreme Court greenlights four laws that make voting harder”
AR Times: “Surprising no one, the staunchly conservative Arkansas Supreme Court unanimously upheld four 2021 state laws that make voting in Arkansas less pleasant, less convenient and less likely to count. In an opinion issued Thursday, the seven-member court overturned former Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen’s 2022 ruling that the four laws at issue hindered…
Pardon Our Progress
Our blog was down for most of this past week. Oops! We are adding a newsletter feature to the site, and in that process accidentally deleted some vital digital certificates. Our apologies for any confusion or inconvenience that caused. Sincerely, Yellow Dog
“Louisiana moves to make abortion pills ‘controlled dangerous substances’”
WaPo: “Louisiana couldbecome the first state in the country to categorize mifepristone and misoprostol — the drugs used to induce an abortion — as controlled dangerous substances, threatening incarceration and fines if an individual possesses the pills without a valid prescription or outside of professional practice. Legislators in Baton Rouge added the provision as a last-minute amendment to a…
“Virginia school board restores Confederate leaders’ names to two schools”
WaPo: “A Virginia school board voted to restore the names of two schools previously named for Confederate leaders Friday just after midnight at a meeting that stretched more than six hours. The Shenandoah County School Board voted 5-1 to call the schools Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School, four years after the…
“Book Bans Are Surging in Florida. So Lauren Groff Opened a Bookstore.”
NY Times: “Groff and her husband, Clay Kallman, had toyed with the idea of opening a bookstore in Gainesville for more than a decade, but the timing never felt right. Groff’s writing career was taking off, and they had two young sons. But last year, as book bans surged across Florida, they decided that their town…
“Mississippi Lawmakers Reach a Tentative Deal to Expand Medicaid”
NY Times: “Mississippi lawmakers reached an agreement late Monday on a proposal to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, providing largely free health coverage to an additional 200,000 low-income residents in a state with dire health outcomes and numerous rural hospitals facing financial collapse. … The proposal still faces daunting hurdles, including a possible…
“Charlotte evangelical pastor in national spotlight, called Trump Bible ‘disgusting’”
Charlotte Observer: “A Charlotte evangelical pastor is in the national spotlight for a fire-and-brimstone sermon denouncing as “blasphemous” and “disgusting” what’s become known as the Trump Bible. Evangelicals are among the former president’s strongest backers, but Rev. Loran Livingston, the senior pastor of Central Church on Sardis Road condemned the Trump-endorsed “God Bless the USA…
“Matt Gaetz Gets a Primary Challenger”
Political Wire: “Rep Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has drawn a challenger in the Republican primary, the Pensacola News Journal reports. Former naval aviator Aaron Dimmick filed Friday to run for Florida’s 1st congressional district as a Republican.”
“Court tosses map that created second Black House district in Louisiana”
Politico: “A panel of federal judges has tossed out Louisiana’s new congressional map, striking the state’s second majority-Black district just months after it was signed into law. The ruling, if it stands, could be a win for Republicans, since Democrats were almost certain to win the newly drawn district.”