Florida voters said clearly in 2010 that they wanted to put an end to political and anti-minority gerrymandering. More than 3.1 million Floridians — 63% — cast votes in favor of the Fair Districts amendments to the state’s Constitution.

Now, in 2022, Florida legislators are about to turn their backs on those voters by refusing to abide by the Fair Districts amendments during the congressional redistricting process. Instead of following the law approved by voters, they are letting Gov. Ron DeSantis draw the new district lines — an abdication of their legal responsibility — and run right over them in his pursuit of one-man rule in Florida.

A Texas judge formally dismissing a murder charge Monday against a 26-year-old woman over a self-induced abortion did not quiet outrage or questions surrounding the case, including why prosecutors ever brought it to a grand jury.

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge has ordered New York's Democrat-controlled Legislature to redraw the state's congressional and legislative districts after finding they were unconstitutional.

Judge Patrick McAllister said in a Thursday ruling that maps redrawing the state's congressional districts were gerrymandered to benefit Democrats. McAllister said those districts must be redrawn, along with the legislative districts, in a way that attracted at least some bipartisan support.

McAllister, a state trial court judge, gave lawmakers until April 11 to try again. If their new maps fail to pass muster in the courts again, then the judge said he would order the state to pay for a court-approved expert to redraw the maps.

West Virginia’s legislature has approved a proposal that could restrict the state’s work with financial institutions that have limited their business with coal and oil companies.

The measure, Senate Bill 262, is now under consideration by Republican Governor Jim Justice, after clearing both chambers over the weekend. If enacted, the legislation would allow state Treasurer Riley Moore, also a Republican, to create a list of restricted financial institutions that “have been shown to refuse, terminate or limit commercial activity with coal, oil or natural gas companies without a reasonable business purpose,” his office said in a statement Monday.

The Florida state Senate on Thursday evening passed legislation banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, sending it for consideration to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who has already signaled he will support it.

In a 23-15 vote, Florida's upper chamber passed the 15-week abortion ban after the Florida House of Representatives approved the bill last month.

Rolling Stone via Yahoo

Gary Chambers Jr.’s first campaign ad was short and simple: The Louisiana Senate Candidate alone, in a park in New Orleans, sitting in a leather armchair, smoking a massive blunt. The ad landed him a wave of press, all of which, he told Rolling Stone, were part of an attempt to prove that the race to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. John Kennedy was “winnable.”

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida’s legislative session continues its second week with movement on one of multiple abortion ban bills currently working their way through the legislature.

The Republican-proposed 15-week abortion ban, House Bill 5, passed its first House committee review on a 12-6 vote, with the yeas and nays voting along predictable party lines. In the Professions & Public Health Subcommittee, HB 5 was approved. The bill now heads to its next two hearings in the Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee and Health & Human Services Committee.

Its companion bill in the Senate, SB 146, was proposed by Fla. Sen. Kelli Stargel (R-Lakeland) and submitted to the legislature on January 11. Both the House and Senate versions of the bill seek to shorten the state’s legal window to seek out and receive an abortion, as well as defining and codifying what the different types of recognized abortions are.

Under the law, the state would add definitions for a “medical abortion” to mean abortions caused by a pharmaceutical drugs, as well as the more commonly-referenced surgical abortion.