politics

Democratic leaders in the California Legislature on Friday threw their support behind Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to bring a potential redraw of the state’s congressional districts to voters in November.

Newsom has urged lawmakers to join a national fight over congressional district lines that could help determine control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections. The governor’s call for maps favoring Democrats appears to have won over legislators after some expressed early concerns about an accelerated push to set aside California’s current nonpartisan district boundaries.

At a press conference in Sacramento, California Democratic leaders appeared alongside legislators from Texas, who fled their home state to delay a Republican-led redistricting effort aimed at boosting the GOP.

The order came at the request of Attorney General Ken Paxton, who O’Rourke accused in a separate lawsuit of going on a “fishing expedition, constitutional rights be damned.”

Gavin Newsom threatens to move forward with redrawing effort as Texas attorney general seeks removal of group of 13

The Republican attorney general of Texas on Friday asked the state supreme court to vacate the seats of 13 Democratic legislators who have left for blue states, hours after their absence once again delayed a vote on a redrawn congressional map sought by Donald Trump.

Republican leaders in Texas had set a Friday deadline for Democrats to return to the state capitol in Austin or face punishment, including arrest and possible removal from office. Dozens of Democrats left the state over the weekend to prevent a Republican redistricting effort, requested by the president, to redraw the Texas maps mid-cycle, as part of an effort to secure a Republican House majority in the 2026 midterms.

The aggressive redistricting effort has set off a chain reaction in other states, including California, where the governor has vowed to retaliate with a congressional map that would “nullify” the Republican effort to redraw five Democratic-held districts in Texas.

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The exhibit now is set up in a way that places information about Trump’s two impeachments in a lower spot than they had been previously. The old placard, which had been installed in September 2021, blocked the view of much of the rest of the exhibit, which includes pieces like the filing cabinet damaged by political operatives working under Nixon during the Watergate era and the Starr report which cited grounds for impeachment against Clinton for actions stemming from his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

A more subtle placard about Trump’s two impeachments now rests near the bottom of the exhibit, along with admittance tickets to Senate impeachment proceedings.

Some slight, but significant, changes were made to the placard’s text.

One portion which had previously described Trump’s “solicitation of foreign influence in the 2020 presidential election and defiance of Congressional subpoenas” as the impetus for his first impeachment now includes the word “alleged.”

A description of his second impeachment now omits a claim that Trump made repeated “false statements” challenging his loss in the 2020 election, as well as a quote from the impeachment article accusing Trump of delivering a speech that “encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — lawless action at the Capitol.”

Archive article: https://archive.ph/B8rGh

"South Park" is back to once again mock President Donald Trump — and this time, Vice President JD Vance, too.

The Comedy Central show took aim at the president, as well as Vance and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, in its latest episode, "Got A Nut," which aired on Aug. 6.

The episode revolves around school counselor Mr. Mackey being fired from his job and, because he's desperate for money, joining Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A parody ad for the federal agency mocks its recruitment process, with a jingle declaring, "We don't ask for experience, just show up!"

Trump “awakened a lot of people to the issues we’ve been raising for years,” Stout told Reuters. “He’s the best thing that’s happened to us.”

“This ban is a massive win for Texas ranchers, producers, and consumers,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said in a statement following the bill’s passage. “Texans have a God-given right to know what’s on their plate, and for millions of Texans, it better come from a pasture, not a lab. It’s plain cowboy logic that we must safeguard our real, authentic meat industry from synthetic alternatives.”

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Texas joins Indiana, Mississippi, Montana and Nebraska in enacting new laws this year; Alabama and Florida did so last year. In March, the Oklahoma House approved a similar bill that did not advance out of the Senate this session.

Last month, Republicans passed a reconciliation bill that is expected to kick millions of Americans off of Medicaid and other forms of health insurance. The legislation includes over $800 million in cuts to Medicaid spending over the next 10 years, the largest in the program’s history. Now, as Republicans gear up for next year’s midterm elections, vulnerable lawmakers who supported the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” are attempting to recast themselves as protectors of the health care program they sent to the wood chipper.

Archive: https://archive.is/CgOwC