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‘We are in an oasis of freedom.’ CPAC conference is a Florida-heavy, Trumpian affair
ORLANDO, Fla. – The country’s largest annual gathering of conservatives began in Orlando on Friday, and Florida was front and center. Gov. Ron DeSantis kicked off the event and touted his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and Florida’s relatively lax social-distancing protocols that enabled this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference to be held indoors and in-person in former President Donald Trump’s home state. “We are in an oasis of freedom in a nation that’s suffering from the yoke of oppressive lockdowns,’‘ DeSantis said during a speech that mostly mirrored a stump-style campaign ...
Miami Herald
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Trudy Rubin: Chris Coons talks bipartisan foreign policy as strategic necessity, not political gamesmanship
It would be easy to dismiss President Joe Biden’s hopes for a return of bipartisanship as naive when one looks at the GOP record since he took office. Most GOP legislators still refuse to denounce their cult leader’s infamous Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen, a lie he keeps promoting. They showed no serious interest in compromise on the critical COVID-19 relief bill, rightly Biden’s first priority. They are trying to curb voting rights in states across the country. So you might think Biden’s push for bipartisanship is an irrelevance in this viciously partisan era. You would be dead wr...
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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Will Bunch: Why Biden needs a prime-time, Oval Office speech to declare war on voter suppression
The Democratic president had won a strong victory in the November election, and now the nation's best-known civil-rights leaders were urging him to take strong federal action to override a number of states where conservative lawmakers and sheriffs were impeding Black and brown Americans from voting. The president agreed with them in private — but he also insisted that he had to go slow, because a voting rights showdown might cost him centrist votes he needed for his bold economic agenda to fight poverty, expand health care and overhaul immigration. But within weeks, something dramatic happened...
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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Stacey Abrams backs federal protection as Georgia election bills draw more criticism
WASHINGTON — Stacey Abrams says new federal protections for voting rights are needed because too many states, including Georgia, are trying to hinder access. Legislation proposed this year by Republicans in the Georgia's General Assembly would eliminate or limit automatic voter registration, early in-person voting and mail-in voting, Abrams said. These changes are unnecessary and amount to voter suppression, she told the U.S. House Administration Committee on Thursday, urging members to move forward with a bill that could prevent those changes from becoming law. "Federal legislation and federa...
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Washington ‘outsider,’ spent donations on insider expenses
ATLANTA — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene rode into Congress on a message of “people over politicians” and fueled her bid with small-dollar donations from around the country. Once in Washington, the Georgia Republican quickly spent her donors’ money to gain access to the halls of power, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of her spending found. In her year-end campaign filing, Greene reported spending campaign donations on a $717.60 dinner at BLT Prime, a pricey steakhouse inside the Trump International Hotel; another $653.15 to dine at the Beltway hangout Capital Grille; a $4,000 sponsorship...
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Women gain record power in state legislatures
Nevada state Sen. Pat Spearman, a Democrat and chief majority whip, successfully shepherded legislation in 2020 requiring pharmacists to honor 12-month doctors’ prescriptions for birth control pills, over the objections of some male lawmakers. “We had men on a committee making statements like, ‘if you give them a whole year’s supply, they are going to sell them,’” Spearman recalled in a phone interview. “People don’t get them to sell them, they get them to use them.” Women in the Nevada legislature, the only one with a female majority, brought focus to the issue, Spearman said. “There’s no dou...
Stateline.org
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Who might challenge Sen. Raphael Warnock in 2022
ATLANTA — U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock was one half of a shocking Democratic sweep during Georgia’s epic Jan. 5 runoffs. Now he’s preparing for a brutal reelection campaign for a full six-year term. While fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff won’t face the voters again until 2026, Warnock must run again next year to keep his seat in the U.S. Senate. That’s because his victory over GOP incumbent Kelly Loeffler was to fill the remainder of retired Republican Johnny Isakson’s term. Warnock, the pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, will be a formidable candidate. He’s got sky-high name recognition, the...
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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News briefs
Moderna to ramp up production of COVID-19 vaccineWASHINGTON — Moderna plans to ramp up production of its COVID-19 vaccine, the U.S. pharmaceutical company said Wednesday. The company will increase its capacity in a bid to produce up to 1 billion doses this year. "We believe from our discussions with governments around the world that there will continue to be significant demand for our COVID-19 vaccine and we now are committed to materially increasing our manufacturing capacity," Stephane Bancel, Moderna's chief executive, said in a statement. The announcement was made as U.S. President Joe Bid...
Tribune News Service
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Pro-Trump candidate plans to challenge Rep. Kinzinger, one of the former president’s critics
CHICAGO — In what could be a foreshadowing of national fault lines in the Republican Party, a pro-Donald Trump Republican announced plans on Wednesday to challenge one of the former president’s most vocal critics in Congress, Illinois U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger. Catalina Lauf, of suburban Woodstock, first announced her intentions on social media to challenge Kinzinger for the 16th Congressional District, which skirts the Chicago suburbs from the Indiana border to the Wisconsin line. Lauf, who last year ran an unsuccessful Republican primary bid in the 14th Congressional District where she lives,...
Chicago Tribune
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DeKalb elections board members decry 'harmful' Georgia voting legislation
Four members of DeKalb County, Georgia's elections board issued a joint statement Tuesday denouncing "harmful legislation" being considered by state lawmakers. Elections board chair Sam Tillman, vice chair Baoky Vu and members Dele Lowman Smith and Susan Motter all signed on to the statement calling for legislators to withdraw House Bill 531, a wide-ranging and controversial proposal that would, among other things, end early voting on Sundays, limit the use of absentee ballot drop boxes and require ID for absentee ballots. Anthony Lewis, one of the DeKalb board's two Republican appointees, was...
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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