TX Observer: “O’Rourke, who rose to fame with a near-successful bid to topple Senator Ted Cruz four years ago, looks headed for another defeat. Polls show him trailing by as much as 15 points against Texas’ Republican incumbent Governor Greg Abbott, who thrashed his two prior Democratic opponents and sits on a $55 million warchest. Unlike in…

AR Times: “A report from the Department of Finance and Administration on medical marijuana sales in the state in 2021: The state’s 37 dispensaries sold a total of 40,347 pounds of medical marijuana in 2021. Patients spent $264.9 million to obtain those 40,347 pounds. The Releaf Center (Bentonville) was the top selling dispensary for the year at…

WaPo: “Lower vaccination rates and fewer mask and vaccine mandates have created a much different environment for the omicron variant to spread in the South, leaving experts unsure whether outbreaks will end up deadlier than in the North. Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi are among the states experiencing the sharpest increases in covid-19 hospitalizations since…

WaPo: “The decades-long incumbent-protection scheme known as redistricting is finished in Virginia, at least for now. Good riddance. Its death sentence was pronounced by the state’s Supreme Court, which last week approved new voting maps for Congress and the state legislature with little regard to safeguarding existing seats for politicians who, in many cases, have held them…

WaPo: “Caught in a racial uproar, people make all sorts of promises to make amends. Whatever they do tends to be heavy on symbolism and light on lasting change. The cycle is so predictable that even the most generous of souls grows weary of this performative reconciliation, which becomes more about making a problem go…

WaPo: “At the height of the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, veteran journalist Ted Koppel was working out on the treadmill when he came across an episode of “The Andy Griffith Show” — it caught his attention because of something he heard earlier that day while listening to WMAL, a Virginia-based conservative talk radio station. A listener had called…

Political Wire: “Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that a Republican-led House after the 2022 elections likely will consider impeaching President Biden on “multiple grounds,” the Washington Times reports. Said Cruz: “The Democrats weaponized impeachment. They used it for partisan purposes to go after Trump because they disagreed with him. One of the real disadvantages of doing that…

Slate: “Among other things, COP26 failed to address biomass energy, which many European nations have relied on as a “renewable energy” source. At best, that terminology is a semantic stretch. At worst, it’s greenwashing a dirty fuel at the worst possible moment. One thing is for certain: Biomass has fueled quite the controversy. Biomass energy comes from…

Political Wire: “A federal appeals court said Monday it will hear oral arguments Jan. 7 in a high-profile case centered on the country’s most restrictive abortion law,” NBC News reports. “The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Louisiana, scheduled the hearing after the Supreme Court this month declined to block enforcement of the Texas law…

AL Political Reporter: “A federal judge in a 600-page opinion Monday gave the Alabama Department of Corrections until 2025 to boost correctional officer hiring, calling the state’s prisons so understaffed that security checks are lax, prisoners receive little or no time outside of cells and those with mental illnesses continue to  U.S. District Judge Myron…