TX Observer: “If city budgets are a reflection of what a community holds precious, one thing is glaring in Texas: Policing and incarceration are cities’ crown jewels.  Texas’ five largest cities—Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, and Fort Worth—spend far more on criminal justice than on community services, and in the case of Fort Worth, more…

NC Policy Watch: “On Dec. 13, just as horrifying images from Iran emerged showing condemned protestors hanged publicly on street-corner construction cranes, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown followed Virginia’s lead and commuted the death sentences of 17 inmates to life imprisonment and dismantled that state’s death chamber. It is gratifying to see another state break away from the…

AP: ” Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff to President Donald Trump, won’t face voter fraud charges related to his 2020 registration and absentee vote in North Carolina, the state’s attorney general announced Friday. Meadows, a former western North Carolina congressman who worked for Trump during his final months in the Oval Office,…

NY Times: “Two days after a gunman killed 10 people at a Colorado grocery store, leaving many Americans on high alert, Rico Marley was arrested as he emerged from the bathroom at a Publix supermarket in Atlanta. He was wearing body armor and carrying six loaded weapons — four handguns in his jacket pockets, and in…

AL Political Reporter: “A law to allow Alabamians to conceal a firearm without a permit went into effect on Sunday. As a result, the legal requirement for residents to obtain a concealed carry permit for pistols before hiding them on their person is now null and void, with the only need for a pistol permit…

WaPo: “As a small group of Confederate heritage defenders assembled nearby — at least one of them armed — city safety coordinator Miles Jones lectured the work crew on wearing hard hats and eye protection. And who, he asked, would be the site supervisor? A bearded man in Ray-Ban sunglasses and a Norfolk State University…

Longleaf Politics: “North Carolina is used to high-dollar U.S. Senate races. The governor’s race could soon join that club. As Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson continues to lay the groundwork for a 2024 run for governor, his campaign is signaling that it will take an unprecedented amount of money to win. In a fundraising email, the…

AR Times: “Federal Judge Kristine Baker last week set one of the long-awaited sentencing hearings for former Republican Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, who’s pleaded guilty to federal crimes in three different jurisdictions. One other former legislator — former Sen. Henry “Hank” Wilkins IV of Pine Bluff, who was charged, like Hutchinson, in the sprawling Preferred Family Healthcare bribery/kickback public corruption case, also is to…

WaPo: “Reps. Bennie G. Thompson and Liz Cheney have radically different political philosophies and life experiences. But with Thompson as its leader and Cheney as his second-in-command, the House Jan. 6 committee has conducted one of the most impressive congressional investigations the nation has ever seen. Thompson, 74, is a Black liberal Democrat from Mississippi who grew…

WUNC: “State regulators face a year-end deadline to decide how Duke Energy will eliminate carbon emissions at power plants to meet the state’s climate goals. After a year of debate, the North Carolina Utilities Commission is expected to issue an order next week. Power plants are the state’s second-largest source of the heat-trapping pollutants that…