Chicken Fried Politics: “Take a map showing population shifts across the South over the last 10 years and put it over a map of where Joe Biden performed best in 2020, and the connection will appear obvious. The counties in the South that have gained population — large cities and surrounding suburbs — are the…
“Should [NC] Justice Phil Berger Jr. recuse himself from voter-ID law case in which his dad, Berger Sr., is a defendant?”
The Progressive Pulse: “The lawsuit NAACP v. Moore, filed in August 2018, named Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger Sr. and House Speaker Tim Moore as defendants. Since then, two state Supreme Court associate justices, Berger Jr. and Tamara Barringer, who have close connections to the defendants, have been elected to the state’s highest court in 2020. Plaintiffs…
“Ex-NC lawmaker gets probation for campaign money scheme”
North State Journal: “David Lewis, the former chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee and author of Republican redistricting plans during the 2010s, had pleaded guilty to two counts nearly a year ago. He resigned from the General Assembly the same day the accusations and the plea agreement became public. U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn…
Sen. Rand Paul Fails to Report His Wife Cashing In on Pandemic Intel for Over a Year Past Deadline
Slate: “Sen. Rand Paul disclosed Wednesday that his wife purchased as much as $15,000 in stock in Gilead Sciences, the maker of the antiviral drug known as remdesivir that is used to treat COVID-19. She bought the stock on Feb. 26, 2020, before the World Health Organization had declared the coronavirus a pandemic. That means the…
“Texas Supreme Court Blocks Local Mask Mandates”
Political Wire: “San Antonio Express-News: “The all-Republican Texas Supreme Court on Sunday temporarily revived Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on local mask mandates, thwarting attempts by officials in Dallas and Bexar counties to implement COVID-19 restrictions as virus patients strain hospitals.” “The justices granted Abbott’s request for an emergency stay that blocks lower court decisions allowing…
“Northam Mask Mandate Moves COVID Front and Center in Campaign”
Bearing Drift: “Virginia’s election campaign became the latest entry into the Fall-Plans-Delta-Variant meme collage last week, courtesy of Governor Ralph Northam, who imposed a statewide mask mandate for all K-12 schools (NBC12) Gov. Ralph Northam announced a public health emergency order on Thursday to require universal masking in all Virginia K-12 schools. “That requires all…
MS’s Neshoba County Fair Apparently COVID Superspreader
Clarion Ledger: “A community in rural east central Mississippi is overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases, two weeks after it hosted the Neshoba County Fair that brought thousands of people who lived in cabins, attended shoulder-to-shoulder outdoor concerts and horseraces and listened to political speeches — including one by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who decried federal guidance…
“With Mississippi Hospitals Near Calamity, Gov. Reeves Left State For GOP Political Event”
MS Free Press: ““Hospitals and healthcare workers need you to help us,” Neshoba General Hospital CEO Lee McCall tweeted desperately at Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves yesterday as COVID-19 continued to overwhelm the state’s least vaccinated county. “Where are you?” The answer, Arizona’s governor inadvertently revealed, was that the Mississippi governor was once again out of state. He…
““I am frightened by what is coming”: Texas hospitals could soon be overwhelmed by COVID-19 caseload, officials say”
TX Tribune: “Texas hospitals are on the brink of catastrophe, close to being completely overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients, leaders of some of the state’s largest hospitals told state lawmakers Tuesday. Official after official used their strongest descriptions to get the point across to legislators: Hospitalizations are rising too fast for them to keep up with,…
“Tap Dancing With Trump: Lindsey Graham’s Quest for Relevance”
NY Times: “For four years, Mr. Graham, a man who had once called Mr. Trump “a race-baiting, xenophobic bigot,” exemplified the accommodations that so many Republicans made to the precedent-breaking president, only more vividly, volubly and candidly. But Mr. Graham’s reaffirmed devotion has come to represent something more remarkable: his party’s headlong march into the…