TX Tribune: “In the first days of his campaign for governor, Beto O’Rourke made a beeline to this southernmost corner of the state, saying it was no mistake he was choosing to start his run in a part of Texas where Democrats have their work cut out for them after the 2020 election. His supporters know…
Rep. Terry Brown: Jim Crow has no place in North Carolina’s constitution
NC Policy Watch: “The North Carolina constitution contains an alarming provision from a dark period in our history: a literacy test requirement to keep Black voters from the ballot box. I am determined to finally repeal it. In 1899, the North Carolina legislature amended the state constitution with measures to steal and suppress Black political…
“Meet the Texas Secessionist Movement: Brought to You by Russia”
The Bulwark: “A couple weeks ago Senator Ted Cruz was speaking at Texas A&M University when someone asked him his thoughts on the Texas secessionist movement. He replied that he wasn’t “there, yet.” It is important to understand that the modern secession movement is not a product of Lone Star pride. It’s an idea that…
“Andre Dickens Elected as Mayor of Atlanta”
Political Wire: “Andre Dickens, the Atlanta native who first beat an incumbent eight years ago for a spot on the City Council, defeated Felicia Moore in Tuesday’s runoff election to become Atlanta’s 61st mayor,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports. “Dickens will succeed Keisha Lance Bottoms, who did not run for a second term and endorsed Dickens to…
“Former Georgia district attorney booked on charges of obstructing Ahmaud Arbery case”
CBS: “Ex-Glynn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson turned herself in to the Glynn County Sheriff’s office Wednesday morning, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, after a grand jury returned an indictment on counts of obstruction and violations of oath by a public officer last week. Johnson was released from the Glynn County Detention Center on a $10,000 bond, the…
“The guilty verdicts against Ahmaud Arbery’s killers are justice for a lynching”
WaPo: “The killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a young Black man who had the gall to jog through a mostly White neighborhood, was nothing but a classic lynching of the kind that could have happened a century ago. We can say that in plain English now, with no hemming and hawing, following Wednesday’s jury verdict finding Arbery’s…
“Texas Abortion Law Complicates Care for Risky Pregnancies”
NY Times: “A few weeks after Texas adopted the most restrictive abortion law in the nation, Dr. Andrea Palmer delivered terrible news to a Fort Worth patient who was midway through her pregnancy. The fetus had a rare neural tube defect. The brain would not develop, and the infant would die at birth or shortly…
Rep GK Butterfield Discusses His Decision to Retire in Face of Gerrymandered Map
Slate: “I spoke with Rep. Butterfield about the Democrats’ chances in 2022, what the party needs to change about its messaging, and how he feels about Sen. Joe Manchin holding up the voting rights legislation that would have prevented this North Carolina redistricting disaster. Our conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Christina…
Jury Finds Charlottesville Rally Planners Liable, Far Right Group To Pay Tens of Millions in Damages
NY Times: “Jurors on Tuesday found the main organizers of the deadly far-right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 liable under state law for injuries to counterprotesters, awarding more than $25 million in damages. But the jury deadlocked on two federal conspiracy charges. Still, the verdict was a clear rebuke of the defendants — a…
“We’re a Small Arkansas Newspaper. Why Is the State Making Us Sign a Pledge About Israel?”
NY Times: “At The Arkansas Times, a publication I founded 47 years ago, our pages focus on small-scale local issues, like protecting Medicaid expansion from the predations of our state legislature and other elements of Arkansas politics, history and culture. So I was surprised when in 2018 I received an ultimatum from the University of…