Political Wire: “Republican Party of Texas delegates voted Saturday on a platform that called for new laws to require the Bible to be taught in public schools and a constitutional amendment that would require statewide elected leaders to win the popular vote in a majority of Texas counties,” the Texas Tribune reports. “Under current voting patterns, in…

WaPo: “For the past decade, Louisiana’s program for coastal protection has been hailed as one of the best in the country, after the devastation from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita pushed the state to shore up coastlines, repair levees and protect natural habitats. But now, environmental advocates and experts say the state’s new Republican governor is undermining its…

WUNC: “This year, a veto-proof Republican supermajority all but ensures that the latest immigration enforcement bill, House Bill 10, could become law. Bills like these aren’t new — there was House Bill 370 in 2019, and most recently, Senate Bill 101 in 2021. Gov. Cooper vetoed both of them. “We’ve worked on building up relationships between law…

NOTUS: “Long before he was indicted, Rep. Henry Cuellar was considered the “King of Laredo.” And as he rose to power and prominence in South Texas, he brought his sister Rosie and brother Martin with him. Along the way, his siblings have faced questions about self-dealing and political influence-peddling. NOTUS found that Rosie Cuellar was…

WaPo: “The lawyer who won a record-setting settlement for Sandy Hook families announced two lawsuits Friday on behalf of the relatives of Uvalde school shooting victims against the manufacturer of the AR-15-style weapon used in the attack, as well as the publisher of Call of Duty video games and the social media giant Meta. The…

WaPo: “Clinics up the East Coast have seen a surge in patient traffic since a law banning most abortions in Florida went into effect on May 1 — but so far they have not experienced the collapse in care that many providers had feared before the new restrictions began in the country’s third most populous state,…

NY Times: “Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas has unexpectedly emerged as a top contender to become Donald J. Trump’s running mate, a signal that the former president is heavily weighing experience and the ability to run a disciplined campaign over other factors. Mr. Cotton’s ascendance comes as Mr. Trump’s leading vice-presidential options have increasingly come…

NY Times: “The speaker of the Texas House, Dade Phelan, won renomination in a runoff on Tuesday, surviving a bruising Republican primary challenge from a party activist and first-time candidate who was backed by former President Donald J. Trump and his Texas supporters. The race, in a southeast Texas district that includes part of the…

CNN: “The Supreme Court upheld a pro-Republican South Carolina congressional map Thursday, rejecting the argument raised by civil rights groups that lawmakers impermissibly used race as a proxy to bolster the GOP’s chances. But the high court also said that the civil rights groups that challenged the maps could continue to pursue one part of their claim,…

NC Newsline: “Lawyers with the North Carolina Attorney General’s office tried three times to convince a federal court the state’s “ag-gag” law should stand. They lost in U.S. District Court, which ruled the law violated the constitution. They lost at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the lower court. They petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear…