Politico: “The 36-year-old Sims formerly published Yellowhammer News, an influential conservative website that tracks the Alabama political scene. He has maintained connections with leaders in the state, including Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, who announced Monday that he was retiring after more than three decades in the Senate. Sims spent the final months of the Trump…

The Progressive Pulse: “The Duke Center for Firearms Law held an online roundtable discussion Tuesday exploring the issue in the wake of the 2020 election, the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and a rising tide of militant extremists that call themselves militias. The forum, moderated by lecturing fellow Jacob Charles of the Duke University Law School, featured…

WaPo: “One of the first steps must be an overhaul of the Senate filibuster, which has long been wielded as a cudgel against the needs of millions who struggle. Today, the parliamentary trick creates a more sinister threat to our nation: the ability of a minority of senators, who represent 41.5 million fewer people than the Senate…

Politico: “Florida Democrats are a mess and have spent the past year stumbling from one crisis to another. That doesn’t mean they lack potential candidates who want to challenge Gov. Ron DeSantis next year. A string of electoral losses, an internal schism over the leadership of the state party and a series of self-inflicted public…

Louisiana Voice: “One of the campaign promises made by President Joe Biden was an end to the practice of private prisons. If the examples of problems experienced by LaSalle Management, aka LaSalle Corrections, of Ruston are in any way indicative of conditions throughout the industry, that might be a very good thing indeed. LouisianaVoice in recent…

Texas Tribune: “When it came to elections, Abbott also said there is a “keen focus on mail-in ballots” and how elections were conducted last year in Harris County. Ahead of the November election, Abbott and other state GOP leaders clashed with the county’s clerk at the time, Chris Hollins, over his plan to send a…

NY Times: “In the weeks following the attack on the Capitol, many Americans have argued over whether the violence was a singular event or an outcome of deeper forces. Voters, Congress and a former president are clashing over who is to blame. To Kelly J. Baker, a writer and public scholar of religion and racial…

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: ““The way patriots are now being hunted down and arrested by fellow men and women who have taken the same oath has disheartened any faith I had in the redemption or reformation of the USA as one entity,” Justin Thayer, head of the Georgia III% Martyrs, said in a text exchange with The…

The Guardian: “A push to unionize workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama is running into tough opposition as the retail giant, whose profits have boomed during the coronavirus pandemic despite concerns over worker safety, has launched an aggressive anti-union drive. If workers at the BHM1 warehouse in Bessemer, near Birmingham, succeed in their efforts they would…

The Hill: “Virginia legislators appear poised to abolish the death penalty in the coming days, a step that would make it the first Southern state to end the practice of capital punishment. A bill to end capital punishment passed the state Senate on Wednesday by a 21-17 margin. The state House of Delegates is set to…