Poli Alert Politics & Civics

Matthew Choi, The Texas Tribune Nearly two years after former President Donald Trump’s supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol and delayed certification of the 2020 election, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz still won’t say President Joe Biden was legitimately elected. During a confrontational appearance Monday on “The View,” the Texas Republican was …

Jasmone Mathini This story was originally published by The 19th In states that have passed abortion bans, only 13 percent of people are in favor of the procedure being completely restricted, a new analysis of a recent 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll shows. Despite huge differences in the legality of abortion across …

Lynn Bonner, Daily Montanan A U.S. Supreme Court case originating in North Carolina could bring far-reaching changes to elections and the balance of political power in nearly every state. North Carolina Republicans want the nation’s highest court to rule that state courts cannot throw out congressional districts that legislatures draw, …

Alex Rozier, Mississippi Today The Environmental Protection Agency wrote in a letter Thursday that it is opening a civil rights investigation into the state of Mississippi’s role in the breakdown of Jackson’s water system. The letter is in response to a complaint the NAACP filed on Sept. 27 under Title …

Julia Conley, Common Dreams  In addition to a nationwide abortion ban, the extension of tax cuts benefiting the wealthy, and the shredding of the social safety net through cuts to Medicare and Social Security, progressives this week are warning of another consequence of a potential takeover of Congress by the …

Greg LaRose, Louisiana Illuminator The U.S. Supreme Court ruled two years ago that felony convictions could no longer be secured with a non-unanimous jury in Louisiana and Oregon, the last two states that had such a threshold. But Louisiana’s highest court handed down an opinion Friday that said the ruling …

The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol sent a subpoena Friday to former President Donald Trump, demanding documents and testimony from the person the panel has said was central in orchestrating a plan to overturn the 2020 election that culminated in the insurrection. …

An estimated 80,000 female, active duty service members are stationed in states where their access to abortion has been restricted by state laws enacted since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in June. To give back some of that access, the Pentagon has decided to provide leave and reimburse travel …

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams In an unsigned order Friday night, the conservative-dominated Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily barred the Biden administration from moving ahead with student debt cancellation as judges weigh an effort by Republican attorneys general to block the program. The court’s one-page order said it decided to grant the …

President Joe Biden pledged Friday to defend Social Security and Medicare from Republican attacks but rejected calls to support a full repeal of the debt ceiling, an arbitrary federal borrowing limit that the GOP is threatening to use as leverage to enact spending cuts. “The Republican leadership in Congress has …

Former Trump aide Steve Bannon was sentenced Friday to four months in federal prison and ordered to pay a $6,500 fine for contempt of Congress charges stemming from his defiance of a subpoena issued by the House January 6 committee. The sentence amounts to less than the six-month prison term …

Jay Bookman, Georgia Recorder In a recent campaign video, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican from Georgia, likened Democrats to destructive feral hogs allowed to range free and destroy the American countryside. But Marjorie had a solution: As the camera followed her, she grabbed a rifle and climbed aboard a …

The ACLU of Florida on Wednesday condemned Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis following the publication of police body camera videos showing sympathetic officers arresting confused people—most of them Black—who believed they were eligible to vote for alleged “voter fraud.” “The body camera footage reveals the real, human impact of these anti-voter …

Henry Redman, Wisconsin Examiner U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett denied an application by the right-wing Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) to have the court strike down President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive some student loans. WILL’s lawsuit, on behalf of the Brown County Taxpayers’ Association (BCTA), …

Garret Martin, American University School of International Service The U.K. government is in tatters after Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned on Oct. 20, 2022 – the second leader to be forced out in mere months. It follows an economic mess largely of her own making that resulted in U-turns, a …