Alternet: “North Carolina Supreme Court justices found that GOP lawmakers “acted unconstitutionally” by implementing two voter suppression tactics to “intentionally” hinder Black voters, The News & Observer reports. The tactics the Republican officials put in place include a voter ID law that specifically targeted Black voters, and gerrymandering – meaning state lines were strategically redrawn to ensure the Democratic…

WataugaWatch: “The election of Court of Appeals Associate Justice Richard Dietz to the NC Supremes last month leaves a seat vacant on the Court of Appeals. It’s not vacant any more. Gov. Roy Cooper has appointed Allison Riggs to the seat. Riggs is co-executive director and voting rights chief counsel at the Southern Coalition for…

HuffPo: “A former Texas police officer was convicted of manslaughter Thursday for fatally shooting a Black woman through a rear window of her home in 2019, a rare conviction of an officer for killing someone also armed with a gun. Jurors found Aaron Dean not guilty of murder but convicted him of manslaughter in the death of…

The Hill: “Democrats are quietly discussing plans to propose a possible compromise state as the nation’s first-in-the-nation primary following vocal concerns about South Carolina from all corners of the party.  The informal talks among strategists, former campaign advisers, activists and those close to state parties are largely centering around three states — Georgia, Nevada and…

WaPo: “Workers in Richmond removed a statue of Confederate Gen. A.P. Hill, the last city-owned Confederate statue that had been standing, on Monday from a busy intersection. Although Confederate monuments of various types remain in many places around the South, they’re steadily being taken down, and what’s so remarkable is how quiet this once-churning debate has become….

Political Wire: “Employees at the Texas Department of Public Safety in June received a sweeping request from Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office: to compile a list of individuals who had changed their gender on their Texas driver’s license and other department records during the past two years,” the Washington Post reports.”

WaPo: “The largest antiabortion organization in Texas has created a team of advocates assigned to investigate citizens who might be distributing abortion pills illegally. Students for Life of America, a leading national antiabortion group, is making plans to systematically test the waterErin Brockovich-style in several large U.S. cities, searching for contaminants they say result from medication…

NC Policy Watch: “Several years ago, several “Eat This, Not That” books took America by storm, dispelling a lot of myths about our eating habits, giving us smarter diets. Here’s a similar version, based upon lessons from the 2022 Georgia election and runoff, which can help candidates prepare for the 2024 election and avoid myths from…

TX Observer: “In the fall of 2021, a national reporter from Politico was in Austin writing another profile of Beto O’Rourke as the El Paso Democrat geared up to follow a failed presidential campaign with a run for governor. The reporter asked Mayor Steve Adler whether it was a sustainable political strategy for Texas Democrats for O’Rourke to keep…

WRAL: “North Carolina prosecutors will determine whether to pursue criminal charges against Mark Meadows, a former congressman in the state who left office to become then-President Donald Trump’s chief of staff. Meadows voted in North Carolina’s 2020 general election. He was registered to vote in the state using an address of a rented western North…