WaPo: “The Rev. James M. Lawson, a United Methodist minister who became a principal tactician of nonviolent protest during the civil rights movement, leading sit-ins, marches and Freedom Rides that withstood attacks by mobs and police throughout the 1960s, died June 9. He was 95. He died of cardiac arrest en route to a Los…

NC Newsline: “In a surprise move that caught most Legislative Building watchers off-guard, Republican lawmakers unveiled legislation on Thursday that would make significant changes to state campaign finance law. The sudden move prompted all 20 Senate Democrats to walk out of the chamber in protest when the bill was quickly brought to a vote. It…

Slate: “Two professors at the University of Texas at Austin are suing for the right to penalize students who miss class to obtain an abortion out of state. The professors, John Hatfield and Daniel Bonevac, are contesting the Biden administration’s efforts to shield students from retaliation when they obtain reproductive health care, a long-standing guarantee under Title IX. They also demand the freedom to discriminate against…

HuffPo: “Conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is taking heat on social media after comparing Donald Trump to Jesus Christ. “The Democrats and the fake news media want to constantly talk about, ‘Oh, President Trump is a convicted felon,’” she said, referring to the former president’s conviction last month on 34 felony charges in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial. “Well, you wanna know something?…

WFAE: “With five months until Election Day, North Carolina Republicans appear to have momentum, at least when it comes to how people identify themselves when they register to vote. The North Carolina Board of Elections recently updated voter registrations for all 100 counties. The database previously had been locked from March to mid-May because the…

Political Wire: “Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA) — once one of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s top lieutenants — is increasingly persona non grata in the GOP for threatening to challenge other Louisiana Republicans in November,” Axios reports. “Graves is the latest McCarthy confidante to lose influence or retire after McCarthy’s ouster last October.”

WaPo: “Who might take him in? “How could I say no?” recounted Ruben Garcia, looking at Wilson, who sat in a wheelchair before him. “There was no one else.” The influential patriarchof Annunciation House, a faith-based network of shelters based in El Paso, Garcia has taken in tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants he calls…

TN Lookout: “Among the recent protests on Tennessee college campuses by students calling for divestment from industries supporting Israel in the ongoing conflict with Gaza was a three-day occupation of a school building at the Sewanee: The University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn. — the first student-led protests since the 1960s Civil Rights Movement,…

KUT News: “The Travis County District Attorney is challenging the governor’s pardon of Daniel Perry, who was convicted of murdering a Black Lives Matter protester in Austin in 2020. José Garza said his office filed the challenge, known as a writ of mandamus, with the state’s highest criminal court on Tuesday. It argues the pardon…

WFAE: “A North Carolina federal judge overruled a spate of new state laws that imposed new requirements on the use of Food and Drug Administration-approved abortion pills. The ruling means that pregnant people can again take the medicine mifepristone at home and can obtain the medication from a pharmacy or by mail. New North Carolina…