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from FiveThirtyEight
We spent the summer and fall of 2020 tracking changes to state voting regulations due to the pandemic, when almost every state relaxed its laws to make it easier to vote. That’s not the case here in 2021, though, as many Republican state legislators spend the early days of this year’s legislative session proposing laws that would make it harder to vote — especially in ways disproportionately used by Democrats and voters of color — under the pretense of preventing large-scale voter fraud (which doesn’t exist). According to the Brennan Center for Justice, a pro-voting-rights advocacy group, more than 165 bills restricting voting access have been proposed in 33 state legislatures — more than four times as many as had been proposed in February 2020. The ones that have received the most attention are probably those in Georgia, both because that state has emerged as one of the closest swing states in the country and because of how draconian the restrictions are. And because Republicans control all levers of state government in Georgia, these bills have a higher chance than most of actually becoming law.
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from Fox News (& affiliates)
Paul spoke during a hearing on the nomination for assistant secretary of health of Dr. Rachel Levine, who is transgender
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., asked whether minors should be allowed to permanently change their genders Thursday, and Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., accused him of making "ideological and harmful misrepresentations." Paul likened gender transformation procedures on minors to "genital mutilation" and asked whether President Biden’s nominee for assistant health secretary is in favor of allowing underage children to decide to undergo such treatments. "According to the [World Health Organization], genital mutilation is recognized internationally as a violation of human rights," Paul said. "Genital mutilation is considered particularly egregious, because as the WHO knows, it is nearly always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children. Most genital mutilation is not typically performed by force, but as WHO notes, by social convention."
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from Huffington Post
LEFT BIAS, MIXED, news and commentary site headquartered in New York City
It’s a stunning turnaround from his angry comments this month that Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for the deadly storming of the Capitol.
In a breathtaking turnabout, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday on Fox News that he would “absolutely” back Donald Trump for president in 2024 if he becomes the Republican Party’s nominee. The startling support came less than two weeks after McConnell’s angry slam of the former president as “practically and morally responsible” for inciting last month’s deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol. “There’s no question,” McConnell said. “The people that stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.” He called Trump’s actions “a disgraceful dereliction of duty.”
Militias tied to the Jan. 6 insurrection have stated their desire to “blow up the Capitol,” said acting Chief Yogananda Pittman.
The Capitol Police remain on high alert about possible violence directed toward Congress even after the Jan. 6 riot, with acting Police Chief Yogananda Pittman saying there is chatter about trouble around the State of the Union address. “We know that members of the militia groups that were present on Jan. 6 have stated their desires that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible, with a direct nexus to the State of the Union ― which we know that date has not been identified,” Pittman revealed in testimony to a House Appropriations subcommittee Thursday. “So based on that information,” she added, “we think that it’s prudent that Capitol Police maintain its enhanced and robust security posture until we address those vulnerabilities going forward.”
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from HumanProgress.org
Education Website
Urban and Suburban Americans are seldom well-informed about what goes on in rural America—a.k.a., “Flyover Country.” One prominent but mistaken urban legend is that rural America is in decline because small, diversified “family farms” have been replaced by large modern “industrial” farms. Time magazine said in 2019, “The disappearance of the small farm will hasten the decline of rural America.” This common view gets a number of big things wrong.
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from NPR (& affiliates)
Nonprofit Broadcasting & Media Production Company
It's All About Trump: CPAC Seems Poised To Ignore Republican Identity Crisis
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It's All About Trump: CPAC Seems Poised To Ignore Republican Identity Crisis
When the annual Conservative Political Action Conference — CPAC for short — kicks off Thursday in Orlando, Fla., it might as well be called TPAC. That's because this year, it is all about Trump. The former president will headline the event with a Sunday afternoon keynote address, his first speech since leaving office last month. It comes as the Republican Party is struggling with its identity after Donald Trump's presidency. And yet CPAC, the largest gathering of conservative activists in the U.S., will still very much be a pro-Trump event.
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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