Reuters: “U.S. workers at a Mercedes-Benz (MBGn.DE), opens new tab plant in Alabama handed a stinging loss to the United Auto Workers on Friday, rejecting the union in a vote it had expected would build on a win at a Tennessee Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), opens new tab plant and push it deeper into the U.S. South. It marked the first…

ATL Journal-Constitution: “President Joe Biden gave a high-stakes commencement speech to hundreds of young Black men at Morehouse College on Sunday, delivering a direct address to the constituency his campaign worries is shifting against him as he runs for reelection against former President Donald Trump. The Democrat focused parts of his speech laying out the…

TX Tribune: “Protests have been a century-long tradition at UT-Austin, and The Daily Texan, the student-operated university newspaper, has faithfully covered and recorded these significant historical events. UT-Austin President Jay Hartzell, in an op-ed following the protests, defended the university’s response and also acknowledged the university’s long, proud history of protest. He recognized the campus…

KUT News: “Pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched near the Texas Capitol on Sunday after the Texas Department of Public Safety announced the grounds would be closed through at least Monday to ensure the safety of “persons and property within the complex.” In a statement, organizers from the Palestinian Youth Movement called the closure an “instance to repress…

NC Newsline: “Despite strong opposition, the North Carolina Senate voted this month to boost enrollment in privately run K-12 schools by doubling state funding for tuition subsidies called “opportunity scholarships.” More than $200 million is earmarked for kids in high-income families.  Why would Republican leaders do this now when polls show voters oppose subsidies for the rich? And when public schools…

WaPo: “Not content to prevent women from obtaining abortions in his own state, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is doing his best to prevent them from traveling to states where the procedure remains legal. Fortunately, a federal judge just ruled that the Constitution won’t let him. Unfortunately, we might have more of this kind of zealotry…

ABC9: “A new bill filed by a Tennessee congressman would revoke the visa of individuals arrested while rioting or participating in an unlawful protest at a college or university. Tennessee U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-5) filed H.R. 8322 in Congress last week, otherwise known as the Study Abroad Act. The bill calls on the Secretary of State…

WaPo: “The Supreme Court restored a congressional voting map in Louisiana on Wednesday that includes an additional majority-Black district, handing a victory to African American voters and Democrats less than six months before the November election. The order was in response to emergency appeals filed after a federal three-judge panel in the state threw out…

Political Wire: ““A third person with ties to U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar’s bribery case has pleaded guilty, according to a recently unsealed plea agreement, after the South Texas Democrat was accused of accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes from Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank,” the Texas Tribune reports.”

Political Wire: “More than a year after a jury convicted Daniel Perry of murdering a protester, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) pardoned the former U.S. Army sergeant on Thursday shortly after a parole board recommended a full pardon, the Texas Tribune reports. A Texas state district court judge sentenced Perry in May 2023 to 25 years in…