AR Times: “Chris Jones, the Democratic nominee for Arkansas governor, announced his plan to raise teacher pay outside of Little Rock’s Central High School on Tuesday. Former and current teachers joined Jones and voiced their concerns about the message state lawmakers are sending by not prioritizing Arkansas education.”

AL Political Reporter: “A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Corrections confirmed Tuesday the deaths of three incarcerated men in the corrections system over the last week. The most recent confirmed death occurred last Sunday when Brian Stephen Pate, 48, an incarcerated man serving a 30-year sentence for burglary and rape committed in Walker County,…

AR Times: “Racop’s post has documentation of Little Rock police officers’ pursuit in March 2021, sometimes at high speeds, of an SUV occupied by three teens, including a 12-year-old driver who didn’t have permission to use the family vehicle. It ended in a crash that killed one passenger and injured the driver and another passenger….

Political Wire: “A video from 2019 shows Georgia U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker (R) falsely claiming that he was an FBI agent. He then told a story about grabbing a gun with the intent to kill someone. At the same event, Walker said his “favorite game” was Russian Roulette.”

WaPo: “The most exhaustive report yet on the May 24 mass shooting inside a Uvalde, Tex., elementary school spread blame across every law enforcement agency responding to the attack, faulting local police for mistakes and more experienced agencies for failing to take charge. Nearly 400 local, state and federal law enforcement officers were at the…

WaPo: “When coronavirus vaccines for infants andyoung children were authorized for the first time last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned parents against the “baby jabs,” saying regulators had done insufficient testing and trials. Still, he said he wouldn’t stand in parents’ way if they chose to vaccinate their kids. “You are free to choose,”…

AL Political Reporter: “A new report submitted by the Southern Prisons Coalition to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination details the devastating consequences of incarceration on Black people throughout the southern United States.  With the long-term goal of eliminating all forms of racial discrimination in the criminal legal system,…

Off the Kuff: “Gilberto Hinojosa won reelection as chairman of the Texas Democratic Party on Saturday, defeating two challengers who sought to tap into members’ simmering frustrations over a lack of progress in the state, especially after their disappointing 2020 election. Hinojosa, who first took over leadership of the state party in 2012, was up…

Political Wire: “The White House is abandoning plans to nominate a Kentucky lawyer who opposes abortion rights and is backed by Senator Mitch McConnell to a federal court seat, citing opposition from Senator Rand Paul, Mr. McConnell’s home-state colleague,” the New York Times reports. “The resistance from Mr. McConnell’s fellow Republican marked a new twist over a…

AL Political Reporter: “A committee of the U.S. Judicial Conference ruled last week that U.S. Circuit Court Judge Bill Pryor and U.S. District Court Judge Corey Maze – both of Alabama – should be investigated for their decisions to hire a law clerk who made overtly racist comments in her past.  The Committee on Judicial…