Month: March 2025

NY Times: “A majority of the Supreme Court appeared ready on Monday to allow Louisiana to continue using a congressional voting map that includes two majority-Black districts in the state. The question before the court: Did Louisiana lawmakers improperly rely on race when they drafted the map? The case could not only shift the boundaries…

WaPo: “A Georgia jury found pharmaceutical and agricultural products giant Bayer liable for more than $2 billion in damages to a plaintiff who argued that Roundup weed killer caused his cancer, the latest hit in a series of legal fights over the herbicide glyphosate. The penalties awarded by jurors on Friday include $65 million in…

Charlotte Observer: “Marshall Rauch, a Jewish Gaston County politician who once was the largest Christmas ornament maker in the world died March 18. He was 102. Rauch was renowned for Gastonia-based Rauch Industries, which made Christmas ornaments until the family sold the business in 1996 for about $50 million, according to Charlotte Observer archives. …Rauch…

Axios: “President Trump has embarked on a systematic effort to unravel Lyndon B. Johnson’s civil rights legacy, rolling back protections that have shaped American life for nearly six decades…. The big picture: Two months into his term, Trump already has overturned, weakened or targeted LBJ policies on voting rights, desegregation, the environment, immigration, education, affirmative action and health care.

WaPo: “Two Democratic candidates running in special elections for solidly red House seats in Florida have raised more than $16 million combined, underscoring Democratic enthusiasm as President Donald Trump begins his second term. The candidates are competing against Trump-backed Republicans in the April 1 special elections to replace former Republican congressmen Michael Waltz and Matt…

American Prospect: “Regardless of whether one casts economic hardship, nativist bigotry, or coastal elitism as the primary cause of the Democratic Party’s disrepute in small factory towns and the farm belt, the resulting sense of alienation in rural America remains the single biggest obstacle to broadening the party’s regional power. And it has mostly stifled whatever impulse there might…

Political Wire: “Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill to overhaul Mississippi’s tax system — one that many lawmakers inadvertently voted for because of typos — into law on Thursday,” Mississippi Today reports. “This sets Mississippi on a path to become the first state to eliminate an existing income tax, when the tax is phased out in about…

Political Wire: “Georgia election officials plan to cancel about 455,000 inactive voter registrations this summer, one of the largest registration removals in U.S. history,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

ABC11: “Hundreds of people packed Raleigh Brewing Company on Friday night, with more sitting outside listening over speakers, for a self-described “empty chair” town hall for Sen. Thom Tillis. “Listen to your constituents and do what is right for the working people of North Carolina,” said Anna Ruderman, a co-founder of Bull City Indivisible, one…

ABC News: “Multiple incendiary devices were found at a Tesla dealership in Austin, Texas, on Monday morning, according to the Austin Police Department. Officers located the “suspicious devices” after responding to a Tesla dealership on U.S. Route 183 just after 8 a.m. local time and called the Austin Police Department Bomb Squad to investigate, police said in…