“When it comes to keeping kids from reading much, if at all, DeSantis’ policy is a smashing success,” writes Amanda Marcotte. “He’s established the idea that no student should ever be allowed to just grab a book and read on their own.”
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January 6th committee eyes criminal referrals to Justice Department
“Committee Chairman Representative Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, expects the panel to make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, he told reporters Tuesday.”
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How one Atlanta bookstore is picking up the fight against book bans
“Atlanta Vintage Books is one of hundreds of independent bookstores across the country that have celebrated the freedom to read this week at a time when schools, universities and public libraries face what experts say are unprecedented attempts to ban or restrict reading materials,” NPR reports.
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Migrants stranded in Martha’s Vineyard say they were lied to
“Migrants in the group said they’d agreed to fly to Massachusetts on the promise of jobs and assistance but didn’t realize they were bound for Martha’s Vineyard. No one on the island knew they were coming and, according to their attorneys, they’d been given falsified U.S. addresses by immigration officials, perhaps ensuring that they’d be deemed in the country illegally,” Miami Herald Political Reporter Bianca Padró Ocasio reports.
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Watch President Biden deliver remarks in response to the Supreme Court’s horrific Dobbs decision
“This fall, we must elect more senators and representatives who will codify a woman’s right to choose into federal law once again, elect more state leaders to protect this right at the local level,” the President said.
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31 white supremacists tied to hate group charged with planning riot near Idaho Pride event
“Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White said authorities received a tip about a ‘little army’ loading into a U-Haul truck Saturday afternoon. Police later arrested thirty-nine people who had masks, white supremacist insignia and shields,” The Washington Post reported.
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Watch the unveiling of NPI’s June 2022 assault weapons ban poll finding
With Attorney General Bob Ferguson, State Senator Manka Dhingra, State Representative Jamila Taylor, State Senator Patty Kuderer, and Emily Cantrell of the Alliance for Gun Responsibility.
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Chris Murphy confronts Republicans on gun safety inaction: “What are we doing?”
Senator Chris Murphy, who represents Newtown in the United States Senate along with Richard Blumenthal, delivered a speech on the floor of the Senate demanding that his Republican colleagues stop blocking gun safety bills from reaching the President’s desk.
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Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr calls for action and slams Mitch McConnell before NBA playoffs game
Watch and listen to Steve Kerr’s call to action for gun safety following the horrific slaughter of schoolchildren and teachers in Uvalde, Texas.
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For decades, Patty Murray has blocked Republican attempts to limit abortion
This Washington Post profile by Mike DeBonis delves into some of the behind-the-scenes work Patty Murray has done to protect reproductive rights at the federal level, with one Republican senator stating on the record: “She’s very effective.”
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The fall of Roe would also be an attack on religious liberty
“A ban on abortion in Missouri violates our freedom as Jews to control our bodies in a way that is consistent with our religious beliefs. As Jews, we understand religious persecution very well. Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion is also deeply troubling because it reveals his disturbing view of pregnant people as mere birthing vessels,” Stacy Newman and Dana Sandweiss write.
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Abortion care has joined economic security as a top midterms issue, Monmouth finds
“The importance of abortion policy in the current midterms compared with four years ago has shifted the most among Democrats,” says the polling institute.
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Republicans’ overreach on abortion may haunt them in 2022
“It seems Republicans have taken a divisive issue and created an enormous bipartisan coalition against themselves, uniting pro-choice and even some antiabortion voters who don’t like the vigilante mechanism,” Jennifer Rubin writes.
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Joohn Choe dissects Marjorie Taylor Greene’s absurd “look at me with my gun” ad
In a lengthy Facebook post, Joohn Choe explains why the extremist, militant Georgia member of Congress is a poseur rather than a legit shooter. As Choe puts it: “Trashy weapon, threatening posture, and always, a thin veneer of Instagram ‘gun-bunny’ posturing overlaying stark ignorance and rank mediocrity.”
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How the September 11th attacks changed us
“The betrayal of America’s professed principles was the friendly fire of the war on terror,” Carlos Lozada writes.
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Change the Ref tricks former NRA president into giving a graduation speech to thousands of empty chairs, representing gun violence victims
Change the Ref: “This year, 3,044 members of the high school class of 2021 aren’t graduating due to gun violence. They are The Lost Class. Though their futures were stolen, they still have the potential to change the future of our country so that we never lose another class to gun violence again.”
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NRA suffers massive defeat as federal judge dismisses its bankruptcy case
“The Court finds, based on the totality of the circumstances, that the NRA’s bankruptcy petition was not filed in good faith but instead was filed as an effort to gain an unfair litigation advantage in the New York Attorney General Enforcement Action and as an effort to avoid a regulatory scheme,” Judge Harlin Hale ruled.
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Vancouver is the anti-Asian hate crime capital of North America
“A surge of attacks in one of Canada’s most multicultural cities during the pandemic is surfacing long-simmering racial tensions,” reports Bloomberg’s Natalie Obiko Pearson.
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Oregon Republican Mike Nearman charged with letting rioters breach state Capitol
The lawmaker has been charged with misdemeanor counts of first-degree official misconduct and second-degree criminal trespass, according to court documents.
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Olympia police arrest Trump backer who fired gun during Saturday protest
“The twenty-seven-year-old man who was arrested was part of a pro-Trump rally Saturday afternoon on the Capitol Campus. They eventually clashed with black-clad counter-protesters at Capitol Way South and 11th Avenue Southeast,” The Olympian reports. Allegedly, the man fired his gun at people protesting the Trump regime.
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Right wing terrorists who plotted to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer arrested, FBI announces
A group of militant right wing extremists who were plotting to harm Governor Gretchen Whitmer have been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the federal government announced today.
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