Proposals from the 14 Wisconsin residents, brought together to come up with consensus solutions on abortion, arrived at proposals designed to address the economic, health and education disparities that can lead people to choose abortion. (Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner) Editor’s note: This story is the third in a series about a group of people from Wisconsin trying to come up with policies to address abortion and its root causes that could be applied nationwide. Their larger goal is to find common ground on one of the most divisive issues in America. Read Part 1 and Part 2. MADISON, W ..read more

Alabama Reflector photo Just a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to travel from New Orleans to Ukraine through my advocacy work. I rode trains throughout Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe.  As I traveled from city to city, I carried Eli Wiesel’s powerful Holocaust-related book “Night,” and imagined what my fellow European Jews had lived through 80-plus years ago when forced into cattle cars on their arduous and final journey to death camps most had never heard of.  Now we know they will never be forgotten: Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek, and of course Auschwi ..read more

State lawmakers — most of them women — are establishing new committees to study and assess maternal health outcomes and strengthening existing review panels. (Getty Images) As efforts to address the country’s maternal mortality crisis have stalled at the federal level, advocates and lawmakers are increasingly turning to statewide maternal mortality review committees to make progress — and try to save lives. Guttmacher Institute, one of the nation’s largest reproductive health research organizations, reports that almost all states have a maternal mortality review committee that’s tasked with i ..read more

Milly Gonzales, 31, who works with domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking survivors, supports abortion rights. She said the repeal of Roe v. Wade in 2022 was “devastating.” (Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner) Editor’s note: This story is the second in a series about a group of people from Wisconsin trying to come up with policies to address abortion and its root causes that could be applied nationwide. Their larger goal is to find common ground on one of the most divisive issues in America. Catch up on Part 1. MADISON, Wis. — For the 14 abortion-rights opponents an ..read more

Supporters of President Donald Trump demonstrate at a “Stop the Steal” rally in front of the Maricopa County Elections Department office on Nov. 7, 2020. Arizona’s attorney general announced the indictments on April 24 against 18 people, seven of whose names are redacted. Multiple news organizations have used details in the indictment to identify RNC senior counsel for election integrity Christina Bobb, as well as the other six. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) Less than a week after the Republican National Committee unveiled a “historic” new program to monitor the polls for fraud, a top lawyer with ..read more

The Wisconsin Social Session on Abortion and Family Well Being has brought together 14 residents from a diversity of backgrounds and viewpoints to create proposals for state lawmakers on abortion. (Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner) Editor’s note: This is the first in a series about a group of Wisconsin residents trying to come up with policies to address abortion and its root causes that could be applied nationwide. MADISON, Wis. — Thomas Lang, 61, is white, deeply Catholic and opposes abortion. “Each one of us has a beginning, and that unique beginning … is conception,” Lang said. “And I wo ..read more

Transmission towers carry electricity in LaPlace on Dec. 28, 2021. (Photo credit: Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator) State lawmakers advanced a bill Tuesday that intervenes in a land dispute and threatens to block construction of an interstate power line at the behest of a small group of north Louisiana landowners, including the wealthy owner of a large pharmaceutical company that made billions during the opioid crisis.   Paul Dickson Sr. is a principal owner and former board chairman of the Shreveport-based Morris & Dickson Co., one of the largest wholesale pharmaceutical distri ..read more

An "emotional support" peacock was denied boarding of a United Airlines flight in 2018. Louisiana lawmakers are considering a bill to crack down on the misuse of such emotional support animals. (Image courtesy of @Dexterthepeacock on Instagram) Louisiana lawmakers are considering a bill that would crack down on the proliferation of dubious emotional support animal certifications, which people are misusing to get their pets aboard commercial flights or to skirt no-pet policies at apartments and hotels.  House Bill 407, sponsored by Rep. Joe Stagni, R-Kenner, cleared the Senate Health & ..read more

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., is pictured on Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — U.S. House lawmakers will no longer be able to request earmarked funding for some nonprofits under a change in eligibility made by the Republican chairman of the Appropriations Committee on Thursday. The alteration is related to an uproar during last year’s annual government funding process, when House Republicans, who are in the majority, included three LGBTQ projects in one of their spending bills and then stripped that funding during a tense public markup. The change ..read more

During a press conference Thursday at the Capitol, Landry defended attacks on his proposed constitutional convention, in which he wants legislators and 27 delegates he will appoint to meet for two weeks to rewrite the state’s foundational document. (Piper Hutchinson/Louisiana Illuminator) Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry wants a new constitution. He wants it soon, but he won’t say what he wants in it.  During a press conference Thursday at the Capitol, Landry defended attacks on his proposed constitutional convention, in which he wants legislators and 27 delegates he will appoint to meet ..read more