Category: Uncategorized

On July 17, History professor Allen Lichtman testified in the ongoing North Carolina trial over changes to laws that affect voting. He testified that the legislators who voted for the bill intended to reduce the participation of Black voters. See this story.
Lichtman has testified in election lawsuits in the past. In 1991 he testified in favor of the New Alliance Party, in its lawsuit against the April petition deadline for new parties in Alabama. In 2004, he testified against Ralph Nader and the Reform Party in the lawsuit over whether Nader should be on the Florida …read more

The Longmont, Colorado Times-Call has this op-ed in favor of the National Popular Vote Plan. Colorado has not passed the plan. The op-ed, by Brian Litwin, contains an inaccurate statement. The op-ed says the electoral college was created to preserve the interests of the small-population states. Actually, historians of the Constitutional Convention have demonstrated that the concerns of low-population states were ameliorated by the provision of the Constitution giving each state two U.S. Senators. The purpose of the electoral college was to ameliorate the concerns of the slave states, most of which had very limited …read more

London, UK — The United Kingdom tabloid, The Sun has published a video from the private footage of the British royal family.
In the video the Queen and the Queen mum raise their Nazi salutes proudly for the camera.
According to the Sun:
The film shows the then Princess Elizabeth, just seven, larking about in 1933.
Egging on her sister Princess Margaret, three, is their uncle Prince Edward, Prince of Wales. He was a sympathiser towards Hitler’s Nazi Germany and became King Edward VIII.
The stunning film footage of the Queen performing a Nazi salute is today revealed by The Sun.
The astonishing clip lay hidden …read more

Palm Beach County, FL — The CDC estimates that there are currently 1.2 million persons aged 13 years of age and older living with HIV infection, including 156,300 who are unaware of their infection.
Greenacres police officer, Ervans Saintclair is one of the 1.2 million people who has HIV. However, he is not in the second number of people who were unaware.
In 2007, medical records show that Saintclair was diagnosed as HIV-positive. For the last 8 years, he knew that he could potentially spread HIV to individuals through unprotected sex.
In January of 2014, Saintclair was arrested after three victims came forward …read more

On July 18, North Carolina legislative leaders decided that the 2016 presidential primary should be on March 15. Back in April 2015, the House had passed HB 457 to move that primary from February to March 8. That bill had not made any headway in the Senate.
For some reason, HB 457 will be abandoned and HB 373 will be the vehicle for the change. This story says it will soon be heard in the Senate committee.
It is somewhat extravagant for North Carolina government to pay for a March 15 presidential primary and then pay for a May …read more

According to this story, the Working Families Party is organizing in Wisconsin. Wisconsin does not permit fusion, and generally the Working Families Party only becomes ballot-qualified in states that have fusion. However, the party may be feeling more confident about running and winning races without fusion. It has elected two of its nominees in special legislative elections this year, and in neither case was the WFP nominee also the nominee of the Democratic Party. The two 2015 legislative wins were to the Connecticut State Senate and the New York Assembly. …read more

The blog of the Birmingham News, Alabama’s biggest newspaper, published an appeal by the Constitution Party for a candidate to step forward to run in an upcoming special legislative election. …read more

This Roll Call analysis shows that in 2014, only four Republican members of the U.S. House were defeated in primaries, and generally those four defeats were not caused because the incumbent was too “centrist.” The article also shows that so far, only six incumbent Republicans in the U.S. House seem likely to face a strong primary challenge.
This article rebuts the assumption commonly made by supporters of top-two systems that “90% of elections are decided in the primaries.” …read more

Albuquerque, NM — The city of Albuquerque and the Albuquerque Police Department may be facing a lawsuit by one of their own officers after an undercover officer was repeatedly shot by another member of the APD.
As we previously reported, Officer Jacob Grant was critically wounded after being shot approximately eight times by Lieutenant Greg Brachle during an undercover drug bust. Both officers were undercover at the time of the shooting.
According to the criminal complaint, Grant and his partner Holly Garcia met a suspect to buy $60 worth of “shards,” another term for meth. The suspects got into Garcia’s car, and …read more

Waller County, TX — As more details emerge in the tragic in-custody death of Sandra Bland, this story gets even more suspicious.
Sandra Bland, 28, died in police custody Monday, after being assaulted by cops just a few days before, during a routine traffic stop. Authorities are claiming she committed suicide.
According to Waller County Sheriff’s Department officials, Bland was pulled over last Friday for “improperly signaling a lane change” and charged with “assault on a public servant.”
Sheriff Glenn Smith claimed that Bland failed to use her turn signal then became combative during the traffic stop. Video of the arrest was posted …read more