Political News

by Wesley Muller, Louisiana Illuminator A federal judge has struck down Louisiana’s congressional redistricting map that state lawmakers adopted earlier this year. In a ruling issued Monday, Judge Shelly Dick found the Legislature violated the Voting Rights Act by limiting representation of Louisiana’s one-third Black population to just one of the …

by Ariana Figueroa, Missouri Independent The Poor People’s Campaign is urging President Joe Biden to meet with low-income workers before the organization’s march on Washington, D.C., on June 18 to advocate for a $15 federal minimum wage. “What we cannot do is be silent anymore,” Rev. William Barber II, the co-chair …

Henry L. Chambers Jr., University of Richmond In the upcoming midterm elections, states may use maps that a federal court has found unlawful. You read that right: The U.S. Supreme Court recently barred federal courts from requiring states to fix their newly adopted, but unlawful, congressional maps before the 2022 …

A retired police officer was arrested outside of the U.S. Capitol on Friday morning after he was found with a fake badge, a BB gun, body armor, high capacity magazines and other ammunition. Just before 5 a.m., a U.S. Capitol Police patrol officer started talking to a man who had …

by Jared Strong, Missouri Independent The Biden administration has set aside billions of dollars to help the nation’s food supply chain recover from the coronavirus pandemic — and, more recently, the looming global effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and on Wednesday, it announced new funding and a comprehensive …

The Biden administration has moved to erase $5.8 billion in student debt for former students of the collapsed for-profit Corinthian Colleges chain. This is the largest single federal loan discharge in the history of the Education Department. It will result in 560,000 borrowers receiving full loan discharges. “Providing this targeted relief …

On June 1st, Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott announced that Baltimore City filed a lawsuit against the nation’s largest ghost gun manufacturer, Polymer80, Inc. The lawsuit, filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, asks the Court to order Polymer80 to stop the public health crisis that the company has …

Former White House advisor Peter K. Navarro has been indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of contempt of Congress stemming from his failure to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 breach of the United States Capitol. Navarro, 72, is …

by Ariana Figueroa, Florida Phoenix Survivors of two horrific mass shootings in New York and Texas will appear before the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday to relate their experiences with gun violence. The witnesses will include fourth grader Miah Cerrillo of Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and …

by Quentin Young, Colorado Newsline Many public officials are guilty of bad behavior. But few can as readily be held responsible for harassment, personal threats and violence as Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado. What’s worse, ghastly conduct represents the totality of her public service. Her legislative record is a …

The Biden administration is preparing to ship out to the states millions of COVID-19 vaccines for kids under 5 in the coming weeks. White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha said Thursday that if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorizes emergency use of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for young …

An Ohio bill allowing teachers and other school staff to carry guns in schools with reduced training is on its way to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk. On the heels of a mass shooting at a Texas elementary school that left 21 people dead, the bill was fast-tracked through the Statehouse …

President Joe Biden called on lawmakers to pass legislation to curb gun violence in the country in a rare primetime address from the White House Thursday, a week after 19 children and two adults were shot dead by a gunman at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. “It’s time to …

By Kate McGee, The Texas Tribune Five of the 17 children and adults injured in last week’s mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde are still being treated in hospitals across San Antonio more than a week after the massacre. As of Wednesday morning, a spokesperson at University Hospital …

Democrats on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee have unveiled a gun control legislative package that they plan to mark up Thursday morning. The package, named the Protecting Our Kids Act, is made up of eight bills related to gun control, all first introduced in 2021 by Democratic lawmakers. Only one had …