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"Wist left the Republican Party this year, citing the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection as the reason, and is now unaffiliated with any political party. Days after the slaughter of 19 children and 2 adults in an elementary school in Texas, ProPublica talked to Wist about the challenges ahead as proponents once again work to enact gun reforms." This story was originally published by ProPublica . by Megan O’Matz ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox . Cole Wist was a Republican state House member in Colorado with an A grade from the NRA. Then, in 2018, he supported a red flag law, sponsoring a bill to allow guns to be taken away — temporarily — from people who pose an immediate threat to themselves or others. Wist lost his seat in the legislature that year in the face of an intense backlash from Rocky Mountain Gun Owners , a gun rights organization in Colorado that boa...

"Following Tuesday’s massacre at Robb Elementary School, which killed 19 children and two adults, a growing number of lawmakers in Texas and beyond are calling for the minimum age to purchase assault rifles to be raised to 21 from 18. Doing so would require undoing nearly two centuries of more permissive regulations on so-called long guns." This story was originally published by ProPublica . by Kiah Collier and Jeremy Schwartz, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox . The fact that the gunman responsible for this week’s massacre in Uvalde, Texas, was able to buy two AR-15s days after his 18th birthday highlights how much easier it is for Americans to purchase rifles than handguns. Under federal law , Americans buying handguns from licensed dealers must be at least 21, which would have precluded Salvador Ramos from buying that type of ...

We have endorsed Republicans in the past and might do so again in the future. Yet as we survey the field of Republican candidates across the state, we are struggling to identify those who are not an active threat to American democracy or the institutions of government that have sustained our republic for 250 years. Full text of editorial

On the policy front, we have two problems. One is a further indication of misfeasance from the Biden administration, in the form of new blather about the success of deficit reduction. It’s one thing to be blocked from worthwhile reforms like Build Back Better by a couple of intransigent Democratic senators. It’s another to celebrate the results. This is very much a replay of the Obama 2010 playbook, when his administration failed to cobble together a congressional majority to support its initiatives, failed to note the shortcomings of what had been enacted, and failed to talk about what should have been done instead. Then, in the 2010 midterms, the Democrats, as Obama said, got ​“shellacked” and lost their majorities in Congress. Bringing employment back to nearly its pre-pandemic level in a year’s time was a great achievement, but we can do better. Employment should keep up with population growth — and that means 2022 population, not 2020 population. The other policy issue is the ...

Many QAnon channels around the world have regularly praised Russia’s war since it began. They see the invasion as an effort to take down the international “Cabal” around which QAnon’s conspiracy theories are centred. They posit different ideas on the war’s goals, whether it’s to destroy US “biolabs” in Ukraine they claim are inventing a new Covid-like disease, or that it is about preventing the ‘Great Reset” which supposedly seeks to use the pandemic to destroy capitalism and install a one world government. All of this supposedly makes Russia an ally in this fight and the invasion a war against all evil, for all good.   A Telegram post reads: “Vladimir Putin has upset this balance of theNew world order… the balance as people like… Klaus Schwab…Bill Gates… want it” posts a UK channel To be clear, some prominent Russian QAnon channels seen by Bellingcat do also appear to have been echoing the same themes as their global counterparts and continue to post seemingly in favour of the wa...

Profs. Roosevelt and Wolff as well as student leaders of a pro bono reproductive justice project share their insights. According to a leaked draft published by Politico , the Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights . Notably two University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor have submitted amici curiae briefs to the Court in Dobbs v. Jackson . Dorothy E. Roberts , George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology and the Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights, co-authored a brief that argues that abortion access is a key element of racial justice and that the denial of such access is a form of racial subordination. Professor of Law and History Serena Mayeri co-authored a brief that identifies and explains the equal protection principles underlying the case. Members of the Law School community have shared the following reactions to the leaked opinion.     Kermit Roosevelt , David Berger Professor for the Admini...

I’m on the verge of blocking every occurrence of the name “Elon Musk” from my Twitter timeline because I have fucking had enough of him. Never mind all his idiotic uninformed and uneducated prattle about free speech. He obviously can’t be bothered to read the 45 words which are the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. Nor can he be arsed to read the Constitution’s Article I, Section 8 regarding the regulation of commerce. Muskian Stupidity, Market Cupidity full post by Rayne at emptywheel , May 2, 2022