22 States Join Campaign Finance Fight

“Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Thursday moved to liquidate his personal assets, agreeing to demands from the families of Sandy Hook victims whom he owes more than $1.5 billion in damages over his lies about the 2012 school massacre,” CNN reports. “The seismic move paves the way for a future in which Jones no longer owns Infowars, the influential conspiracy empire he founded in the late 1990s.

A bill framed as cleaning up state election law that became a new front in the fight over ranked-choice voting won Gov. Jared Polis’ signature Thursday afternoon — but not without Polis criticizing a controversial, last-minute amendment. The new law, passed as Senate Bill 210, makes largely technical and procedural changes to state election regulations, such as requiring officials to update financial disclosures, lowering the age for when Coloradans can preregister to vote to 15, and changing deadlines and procedures for replacement ballots. But on the last Sunday before the legislature needed to adjourn, Rep.

By Pooja Salhotra and Robert Downen, The Texas Tribune May 30, 2024 "Texas education leaders unveil Bible-infused elementary school curriculum" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. Elementary school curriculum proposed this week would infuse new state reading and language arts lessons with teachings on the Bible, marking the latest push by Texas Republicans to put more Christianity in public schools.read more

You might think Russia would be leery of going after wives and daughters of their mobilized troops and calling them, in effect, enemies of the state would be a bad idea and they wouldn't do something so stupid. If you thought that you'd be wrong. Source: Russian Life On Friday, Russia's Justice Ministry added "The Path Home" (Путь Домой), a grassroots organization of family and community members who defend the rights of those who have been mobilized to fight in Russia's War on Ukraine, to its Orwellian "Foreign Agents" list. The Path Home was a subject of a feature article in the Spring 2024 issue of Russian Life, which was translated and reprinted from Cherta (also a "foreign agent"). The Justice Ministry said that Путь Домой had worked to create a "negative image" of Russia and the Russian army and that it had called for illegal protests.

Washington — The Supreme Court sided with Native American tribes Thursday in a dispute with the federal government over the cost of health care when tribes run programs in their own communities. The 5-4 decision means the government will cover millions in overhead costs that two tribes faced when they took over running their health care programs under a law meant to give Native Americans more local control. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Covering those costs is “necessary to prevent a funding gap,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion, joined by the three liberal justices and fellow conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch.

“Two former law enforcement officers who defended the U. S. Capitol from rioters during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection were jeered by state GOP lawmakers as they visited Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives on Wednesday,” the Washington Post reports.