NY Times: “A jury on Tuesday found the three white Georgia men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery guilty of a federal hate crime, determining that they were motivated by racism when they chased the 25-year-old Black man through their neighborhood. The case was one of the most high-profile hate crime trials in years, and came after…

Chicken Fried Politics: “Can private groups and individuals who believe their electoral prospects are harmed by new political maps bring suit in federal court under the Voting Rights Act? For more than 50 years, the answer to that question has been yes. But a federal judge in Arkansas has come down on the other side,…

MSNBC: “In the midst of the ongoing debate over Republicans’ siege on voting rights in states they control, here’s an unconventional suggestion: Democratic state legislators should take a page from the Republican playbook and empower private citizens to sue people who are “aiding and abetting” voter suppression efforts…. While personally I believe this law is…

AL Political Reporter: “More than 10,000 Alabama child care workers are receiving bonuses totaling $12.6 million following the first round of Child Care Workforce Stabilization grants from the Alabama Department of Human Resources. The second round runs from Feb. 28 through March 18. DHR awarded grants to 1,278 child care providers who applied in December…

Popular Information: “Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which is scheduled for a floor vote in the Florida House today, would create a hostile environment for LGBTQ students. The bill prohibits any discussion of “sexual orientation or gender identity” through the third grade and any discussion “that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students” in other grades….

Lawfare: “In any case, even if the petition against Cawthorn vaults that hurdle, its prospects for disqualifying him are dim. While the events of Jan. 6 probably qualify as an “insurrection,” discovery would have to turn up something far more damning than the petitioners have alleged so far to establish that Cawthorn “engaged in” it….

NY Times: “Like the majority of her neighbors in the heavily Latino community of Laredo, Angelica Garza has voted for Democrats for most of her adult life. Her longtime congressman, Henry Cuellar, with his moderate views and opposition to abortion, made it an easy choice, she said. But as up-and-coming Democratic candidates in her patch…

WaPo: “At least 19 police officers in this statecapital are facing criminal charges for allegedly using excessive force on protesters during the summer of 2020, according to their union president — an unusually high number that reflects District Attorney José Garza’s year-old effort to crack down on police misconduct. Garza, who was elected in 2020 after promising…

WaPo: “Virginia’s new Republican Attorney General ended a legal campaign to get the federal government to recognize the state’s ratification of the landmark Equal Rights Amendment, the long-running effort to enshrine women’s equality in the Constitution. Attorney General Jason Miyares withdrew Friday from an appeal seeking to compel the U.S. archivist to certify that Virginia,…

NY Times: “Even in deep red East Texas, even on a Tuesday afternoon, even after a failed bid for the Senate followed by a failed bid for president, Beto O’Rourke still draws a crowd. More than 100 supporters gathered last week in a park in the city of Tyler, southeast of Dallas in the Piney…