Politico: “The blast radius from the controversy surrounding Virginia’s Republican lieutenant governor candidate expanded this week, when a top political aide to Gov. Glenn Youngkin stepped down from his post. His departure was the latest event in a week of turmoil that has pitted Republican leaders in the state against the GOP’s grassroots, upending a…

NOTUS: “Mills was awarded the star after January 2021. Four years later, five people who served with him — including two of the men the document says Mills saved in different incidents — say they have no recollection of Mills being at the incidents listed on the form. “He didn’t save my life,” Private First…

WaPo: “A bruising battle over academic freedom is being waged in Texas, where the legislature is poised to give the state power to screen faculty, programs and courses in one of the country’s largest public university systems, and experts say the outcome could reverberate for higher education nationwide. Conservative lawmakers, who control all levers of…

NY Times: “These days, Mr. Casar, 35, is the chairman of the House Progressive Caucus and a rising star in a Democratic Party struggling to find its footing during the second coming of President Trump. He has shifted his emphasis to respond. “We can’t be known as the party of just the most vulnerable people,”…

WaPo: “Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Virginia), a longtime liberal voice representing Northern Virginia, said Monday that he would not be seeking reelection next year and would step down from his role as the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committeeafter his esophageal cancerreturned. Connolly, 75, had announced his diagnosis last fall, just days after winning reelection to…

Political Wire: “Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) filed paperwork Monday to begin raising money for a run for Georgia governor, with plans to formally launch her campaign within weeks,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports. “Bottoms enjoys high name recognition in metro Atlanta, the heart of Georgia’s Democratic electorate, and she won office with overwhelming support…

WRDW: “Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene fired back on Wednesday after a religious and civil rights group called for her censure over an online post that followed the death of Pope Francis. The tweet, which was posted right before 10:45 a.m. Monday and does not name Pope Francis, was made just hours after the Vatican…

WaPo: “Three U.S. citizen children from two different families were deported with their mothers by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the early hours of Friday morning. One of them is a 4-year-old with Stage 4 cancer who was deported without medication or the ability to contact their doctors, the family’s lawyer said. According to their…

Political Wire: “A year after his presidential ambitions collapsed, Gov. Ron DeSantis and his wife Casey can no longer lay claim to the future of the Republican Party. And in Florida, even their present is in jeopardy,” CNN reports. “Once firmly in his corner, many Sunshine State Republicans have lately turned on DeSantis, stymying his agenda and…

MS Today: “The sports gambling lobby, as it has done in other states, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Mississippi politicians trying to convince them to legalize mobile sports betting. Part of that effort was an unreported trip to the Super Bowl in New Orleans this year for House Speaker Jason White, his…