WaPo: “The Justice Department on Wednesday said a 17-month civil rights investigation found that the Memphis Police Department engages in the systemic use of excessive force and discriminates against Black people and disabled people. In a scathing 73-page report, federal authorities said they had identified a pattern of unlawful conduct, including serious problems in the…

Political Wire: “The House voted Thursday to beat back a Democratic effort to make public a potentially scathing ethics report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) conduct,” Axios reports. “The 206-198 vote came shortly after Ethics Committee members met behind closed doors on the matter. Republicans on the panel last month blocked the findings pertaining to Gaetz…

NY Times: “The story of the political transformation of Cameron County, a majority-Hispanic border community at the southernmost tip of Texas, began with the arrival of a billionaire. His name wasn’t Donald J. Trump. It was Elon Musk. More than a decade ago, Mr. Musk brought his private space company, SpaceX, to Cameron County, where…

Politico: “If you’re from Miami, Radio Mambí’s celebratory vibe is no surprise. This is, after all, the radio station that has been a touchstone for Miami’s Cuban exiliados, or exiles, since they arrived. It’s the radio station that made Miami Cuban politics. But since the 2016 election, it’s morphed into a hotbed of misinformation — one that impacted…

Political Wire: “David Wasserman notes the House of Representatives would have flipped to Democrats this year — while the White House and Senate flipped to the GOP — had it not been for Republicans winning a majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court in 2022, allowing GOP legislators to redraw three Democratic seats into oblivion.”

WRAL: “Moral Mondays are coming back to the state legislature in December, with a “mass mobilization” expected Dec. 9. That was the word Monday from Rev. William Barber, the original founder of the 2013 movement. He says principled lawmakers must reject a bill passed last week changing the power structure of state government and giving Republicans control…

Texas Won’t Examine Maternal Deaths After Abortion Ban““The Texas committee that examines all pregnancy-related deaths in the state will not review cases from 2022 and 2023, the first two years after Texas’s near-total abortion ban took effect, leaving any potential deaths related to abortion bans during those years uninvestigated by the 23 doctors, medical professionals…

NY Times: “After more than a decade of court battles and legislative jousting over voting rules, North Carolina this month held its first general election under its new voter ID law. And unlike the pitched battles of the past, it felt like a fight that had largely been fought to a draw, with a more…

the Assembly: “There was never any doubt Charles Ray Peterson would be a Democrat. His parents, grandparents—everyone he knew in Bladen County, really—were Democrats.  Peterson, 70, served on the Bladen County school board for 12 years and has been a county commissioner for more than two decades. “When I got involved in politics,” he said,…

Alternet: “If North Carolina Republican legislative leaders were hoping to prevent a gubernatorial veto of their ambitious 131-page proposal to reorganize several aspects of state government and take away the powers of statewide offices soon to be filled by Democrats by attaching changes to Hurricane Helene relief legislation, the plan has failed. Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the…