WaPo: “Around the state of Texas, Octopus and other power companies raised thermostats, paused electric car chargers and tapped into home batteries in thousands more of their customers’ homes. They also paid stores, data centers and office towers to shut off lights and air conditioners and slow down their computers. All told, Texas utilities made…

‘I’m a black NAZI!’: NC GOP nominee for governor made dozens of disturbing comments on porn forum” Mark Robinson, the controversial and socially conservative Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, made a series of inflammatory comments on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago, in which he referred to himself as a “black…

CBS News: Vice President Kamala Harris‘ visit to Georgia Friday is centered around one thing: women’s reproductive rights. The visit by Harris follows ProPublica’s investigation into two women who recently died in the state. It found their deaths could have been prevented, but their medical care was hindered by Georgia’s six-week abortion ban. Harris highlighted the…

Political Wire: “The number of women in Texas who died while pregnant, during labor or soon after childbirth skyrocketed following the state’s 2021 ban on abortion care — far outpacing a slower rise in maternal mortality across the nation,” NBC News reports. “From 2019 to 2022, the rate of maternal mortality cases in Texas rose by 56%,…

the Assembly: “The Labor Department has a daunting task: protecting the safety and health of more than 4.4 million workers who toil in all kinds of environments–from farm fields to small businesses to corporate offices. And workplace fatalities have climbed in recent years. The Charlotte Observer found that a construction worker dies on the job every 10 days in North…

NOTUS: “Rep. Matt Gaetz attended a drug-fueled sex party in 2017 with the 17-year-old girl at the center of the alleged sex trafficking scandal, according to legal documents filed to a Florida federal court shortly before midnight Thursday, which cite sealed affidavits from three eyewitness testimonies. The minor, who was a junior in high school…

WaPo: “Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) on Wednesday signed an executive order banning “conversion therapy” for minors — skirting the Republican-led state legislature and setting up a likely legal challenge. Beshear said the new policy, which goes into effect immediately, is an overdue step to protect children from a widely discredited medical practice that attempts…

Alternet: “A survey of professors at Florida universities found that new state government limits on tenure and academic freedom, plus the state’s political climate, have prompted many of them to apply for jobs outside the Sunshine State. Of approximately 350 faculty working almost exclusively in Florida public institutions, 135 — 39% — reported that since…

NY Times: “As is the case for many people who grew up in the Deep South but have lived somewhere else for many years, the Southern accent I once had has given way to the “nowhere man” accent that I think of as generically American. But it comes roaring back when I visit my family…

MSN: “Priscilla Dunn of Bessemer, a career educator who served 24 years in the Alabama Legislature and inspired other Black women who followed her into politics, has died. Dunn was 80. Dunn served in the Alabama House from 1998 until 2009, when she defeated seven Democratic opponents to win a vacant seat in the state Senate. Voters…