Poli Alert Political & Civics

Ariana Figueroa, Georgia Recorder U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Tuesday said House Republicans’ debt limit proposal would cut vital education programs and harm vulnerable students across the U.S., such as those who are low income or have a disability. “It would be taking us backwards,” Cardona said on a …

Michael Moline, Florida Phoenix An expansion of the Florida State Guard, created last year to supplement the Florida National Guard, which suffers from low capacity and is subject to being nationalized and sent away to foreign conflicts, would include a “specialized unit” with power to arrest civilians if deployed by …

Mariel Padilla Originally published by The 19th One in every eight couples face challenges while conceiving, according to survey data from Resolve, the National Fertility Association. With more than 9 million people eligible, the Federal Employees Health Benefit (FEHB) Program, administered by the government, is the largest employer-sponsored health insurance …

President Joe Biden made his reelection campaign official Tuesday morning as he evoked the threat to foundational and hard-won rights and freedoms posed by the increasingly fascist Republican Party. “Every generation has a moment where they have had to stand up for democracy. To stand up for their fundamental freedoms,” …

by Ariana Figueroa, Tennessee Lookout President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with Tennessee state Reps. Justin Jones of Nashville, Justin Pearson of Memphis and Gloria Johnson of Knoxville to discuss efforts to ban assault weapons, the firearm that is typically used in mass shootings, according to the White …

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams The House GOP leadership’s newly released debt ceiling legislation would have potentially devastating impacts on Medicaid recipients across the United States, putting more than 10 million low-income people at risk of losing health coverage under the program. That’s according to a detailed analysis of the bill …

Adam Goldstein, Georgia Recorder  Every public school kid in the United States was eligible for free school meals during the COVID-19 pandemic, regardless of family income, thanks to the federal government. While that’s now ended, a growing number of states across the country are enacting universal school meal laws to …

Last year, after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the federal right to abortion, voters in Kansas, California, Michigan, Vermont, Kentucky, and Montana used the ballot initiative process to show their support for reproductive freedom, both by defeating GOP-backed anti-abortion measures and approving constitutional amendments aimed at preserving abortion access. Those …

Ashley Murray, Wisconsin Examiner  The Department of Veterans Affairs can continue providing service members with access to abortion in cases of life-threatening complications, rape or incest, after the U.S. Senate narrowly blocked a measure Wednesday that would have scrapped a new Biden administration rule. The VA policy, which also includes …

Jon Quealy, Common Dreams Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito of throwing a ‘tantrum’ in his written dissent to Friday night’s ruling over the abortion medication mifepristone and said the Court’s right-wing majority has become an ideological political force that must be checked by the two …

Sam Stockard, Tennessee Lookout Gov. Bill Lee will call a special session to tackle gun reform after the Tennessee Legislature adjourned for the year Friday night without tackling gun reform nearly a month after a mass shooting at a Nashville private school. The governor said Friday night he made the …

Though the U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily blocked an effective ban on medication abortion, anti-abortion groups are not giving up on trying to fast-track a national abortion ban. And that means continuing to try to squash nationwide access to the most common form of abortion post-Roe, by whatever means necessary. …

Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune Mifepristone, a common abortion-inducing drug, will remain on the market without additional restrictions while a legal challenge proceeds, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday. The court ruled 7-2 to stay the lower court’s ruling, with Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito dissenting. The fate …

Tennessee Rep. Scotty Campbell, the vice chair of the state House Republican Caucus and a leader behind the effort last month to expel three Democrats who joined a gun control protest, resigned on Thursday weeks after a state House investigation found that he had sexually harassed at least one intern. …

Ariana Figueroa, Tennessee Lookout U.S. House Republicans voted Thursday to prohibit transgender student athletes from competing on girls sports teams consistent with their gender identity, at the same time multiple GOP-dominated states are making similar moves. The bill, H.R. 734, which would apply to K-12 schools as well as colleges …