NPR – No. Here is what you should know – “With less than [12 days] until Election Day and with early voting taking place across the U.S., many Americans are questioning the secrecy of their ballots. Election officials, voter registration organizations and election law experts — including New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Congress
Is It Fascism? A Leading Historian Changes His Mind
The New York Times unlocked article Robert Paxton thought the label was overused. But now he’s alarmed by what he sees in global politics — including Trumpism…Paxton, who is 92, is one of the foremost American experts on fascism and perhaps the greatest living American scholar of mid-20th-century European history. His 1972 book, “Vichy France:… Continue Reading
The United States of Abortion Mazes
In 1973, Roe v. Wade granted a nationwide right to abortion and helped create a path to access. But, abortion access has rarely been a straight line — it’s full of twists, turns, and roadblocks. And these barriers have only gotten more complicated since the US Supreme Court gave states the power to ban abortion… Continue Reading
Modernizing Congressional Data – Senate Legislation and Amendments on Congress.gov
In Custodia Legis: “Continuing our series on modernizing the legislative data exchange behind Congress.gov, we are going to look at the next phase of the project – modernizing the exchange of Senate measures and amendments data. The Legislation collection is comprised of bills and resolutions, along with associated actions (including Action Codes), titles, sponsors, cosponsors, and committee-related activity. Legislation text… Continue Reading
The Individualization of Responsibility – Masterclass in Deception
The Climate Historian: “…In the mid-20th century, as evidence mounted linking smoking to lung cancer, the tobacco industry didn’t just fight back—they mastered the art of deflection. Instead of outright denying the dangers, they funded research to stir doubt, muddying the scientific waters.In the 1950s, the Tobacco Institute launched its “health reassurance” campaigns. These campaigns… Continue Reading
Voting early or by mail is getting more popular. See the data by state.
Washington Post unpaywalled: “Election Day in many states now stretches over multiple days or weeks. Across America, jurisdictions have adopted an array of policies that allows for ballots to be cast by mail, in person at early voting sites or that maintain a preference for voting in person on Election Day. The result: a voting… Continue Reading
Comics art against Project 2025
“Project 2025 is a detailed plan to shut you up, and shut you out. You matter, and you have a voice. Project 2025, also known as “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” is a document created to be a roadmap for a second Donald Trump presidency. It was prepared by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation and… Continue Reading
Report Examining Failures of Supplemental Background Investigation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh
U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, today released a report detailing disturbing shortcomings in the supplemental background investigation conducted after allegations of sexual misconduct emerged during the 2018 confirmation process of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Whitehouse’s report is the culmination of a six-year-long investigation hindered by… Continue Reading
Campaign Finance Made Easy: Announcing DataTalk
Cheryl Phillips, Founder and Co-Director, Big Local News: “DataTalk is an experimental system that makes it easier to follow the money flowing through national campaigns for the Nov. 5 U.S. election. It allows for natural-language queries of large public datasets from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and OpenSecrets.org to help journalists and other researchers tap… Continue Reading
Why are Red State Citizens Poorer, Less Educated & Sicker than Blue State Citizens?
Hartmann Report – “Republicans worship cheap labor — and having a steady and reliable supply of cheap labor requires widespread poverty… We must not confuse statistical probability with some transcendental and utterly compelling force. — Unspiek, Baron Bodissey One of the enduring mysteries of America is why the citizens of Red states are generally poorer,… Continue Reading
The Supreme Court Needs a Mandatory and Enforceable Code of Ethics
“The City Bar, through its Rule of Law Task Force, Federal Courts Committee, Professional Responsibility Committee, and Professional Ethics Committee, asserts that Congress has the Constitutional authority to enact binding and enforceable ethics rules for the U.S. Supreme Court, and endorses the creation of a Judicial Investigation Panel and an Office of the Inspector General… Continue Reading
The late summer release for GovInfo included 85 individually tracked system changes
GovInfo – RSS Feeds for Searches, Browse Pages Updates, and New Mobile Buttons – The late summer release for GovInfo included 85 individually tracked system changes. Highlights were functionality to create RSS feeds based on search criteria, design improvements for mobile button display, browse updates that include migrating the Public and Private Laws collection to the… Continue Reading
