Slate: “Claims about religious conscience are nothing new in debates about reproduction in the United States. Employers cited it in refusing to include contraception in employee insurance plans; anti-abortion doctors relied on conscience when trying to establish standing in a case to shut down access to mifepristone. But a new suit is foregrounding a very different kind…

NY Times: “A Democratic group promoting veterans running for office is sending $500,000 to Abigail Spanberger in support of her run in this year’s Virginia governor’s race, pointing to the former C.I.A. officer as the type of candidate who can help the Democratic Party return to power. The direct donation is the largest in the…

The 19th News: “Systemic failures have led Black women in the Mississippi Delta to have disproportionately high death rates from cervical cancer, a new report concludes. The Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative for Economic & Social Justice and Human Rights Watch collaborated on the report. It is the result of publicly available information, and interviews with 49 experts and 159…

Political Wire: “Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) is doubling down on his call to deport Somali American Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) with a fundraising email urging supporters to sign a petition to that effect, Axios reports. “It’s one of the most graphic examples to date of the kind of incivility that has gripped Congress in recent years and fueled a…

Clarion-Ledger: “OpenAI reportedly has an internal road map to get to this point, and beyond, in five levels. The first is Chatbots, what we have today; the second is Reasoners, which is AI with human level problem solving; third is Agents, which are systems able to act autonomously in line with prescribed goals (these will…

CNN: “The Louisiana Department of Health will no longer promote mass vaccination, the state’s surgeon general, Dr. Ralph Abraham, told state health workers Thursday. “The State of Louisiana and LDH have historically promoted vaccines for vaccine preventable illnesses through our parish health units, community health fairs, partnerships and media campaigns,” Abraham wrote in a memo…

WaPo: “At least 24 cases of measles have been detected in Gaines County, Texas, the state’s Department of State Health Services (DSHS) said this weekas it warned that additional cases were likely given the highly infectious nature of the disease. None of the 24 infected individuals had been immunized with the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine,…

WaPo: “New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she will not comply with a request to extradite to Louisiana a New York doctor who faces a criminal charge there for allegedly prescribing abortion-inducing drugs despite a near-total abortion ban. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) on Tuesday signed an extradition warrant for the New York doctor, Margaret DaleyCarpenter, after a Louisiana…

WaPo: “Jim Guy Tucker, a onetime rising star in Arkansas politics who became governor after his predecessor, Bill Clinton, was elected president in 1992 and who resigned four years later after being convicted in a loan fraud case, died Feb. 13 at a hospital in Little Rock. He was 81. His death was confirmed by…

Arkansans show up for nationwide protest against President Trump, Project 2025 agenda Pride flags, signs in Spanish and chants like “Dump Trump” characterized a protest on the steps of the state Capitol Wednesday afternoon where at least 200 Arkansans voiced their opposition to national leadership. The protest was a local grassroots effort shared widely on…