AP: “With just seven months until Louisiana’s election for governor, Shawn Wilson officially entered the gubernatorial race Monday, becoming the first prominent Democrat to seek the seat later this year. The former head of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, who appears to be the only high-profile Democrat that will run for the state’s…

AP: “President Joe Biden used the searing memories of Selma’s “Bloody Sunday” to recommit to a cornerstone of democracy, lionizing a seminal moment from the civil rights movement at a time when he has been unable to push enhanced voting protections through Congress and a conservative Supreme Court has undermined a landmark voting law. “Selma is a reckoning. The right to vote…

NBC News: “A Republican in Florida’s Legislature has filed a bill that, if enacted, would eliminate the Florida Democratic Party. “The Ultimate Cancel Act,” filed Tuesday by state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, would require the state’s Division of Elections to “immediately cancel” the filings of any political party whose platform had “previously advocated for, or been…

TX Public Radio: “For the first time in seven weeks, no men in Texas’ solitary confinement program known as “restrictive housing” were refusing food in protest. The last participants began eating Tuesday, according to officials at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The hunger strike was in protest over living conditions in, and the use…

NBC News: “Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a novel bill into law Thursday that will criminalize some drag performances. The first-of-its-kind legislation will ban “adult cabaret entertainment” on public property or in locations where it can be viewed by minors. Such entertainment, according to the measure, includes “topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, male or female…

Democracy Now!: “In Alabama, hundreds of striking miners are set to return to work Thursday after nearly two years spent on picket lines in the so-called right-to-work state. This was the longest strike in Alabama history. Its end comes after the Warrior Met Coal company successfully used replacement workers to keep its mines running, reporting…

Political Wire: “A South Carolina woman “was arrested earlier this week and charged with performing or soliciting an abortion,” the Columbia State reports. “The incident report says the woman told medical personnel she had taken abortion pills to end a pregnancy. State law prohibits self-medication to abort a pregnancy. The fetus was stillborn and was determined to…

AP: “North Carolina legislative leaders announced Thursday an agreement to expand Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of additional low-income adults through the Affordable Care Act. The deal, which likely won’t be voted on until later this month at the earliest, marks a milestone for Republican lawmakers, most of whom opposed expansion for a decade until…

Political Wire: “A newly introduced Texas House bill proposes property tax cuts for couples who get married, stay married, and have lots of children,” Rolling Stone reports. “There’s a catch though. In order to qualify for the tax benefit, couples need to be heterosexual, never divorced, and their children born or adopted after their date of marriage….

WAVY: “The Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina went on a radio talk show this weekend, saying in part that if he had the authority, abortion would be completely illegal in the state. Mark Robinson appeared on a WSIC program called “Taking Care of Iredell with NC Representative Jeff McNeely,” primarily talking about his position on…