Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Follow Us:
Top Stories

N.C. legislators on course for on-time undoing of their partisan gerrymander

N.C. legislators on course for on-time undoing of their partisan gerrymander

This map, drawn by the state Senate for itself, is expected to win approval from the judges who demanded it.

North Carolina General Assembly

North Carolina's new state legislative district lines are on pace to be finished by Wednesday's court-imposed deadline after versions of the maps passed both chambers of the General Assembly.

The Senate's bipartisan, 38-9 vote happened Monday night. The House and Senate are now reviewing each other's maps, potentially making additional tweaks to some boundaries before they are forwarded for final approval to the three state judges in Raleigh who ordered the redistricting this month.


The judges said the current maps were gerrymandered to ensure continued Republican control to the point they violated the state constitution. In reviewing the new lines for similar partisan bias, the judges will be assisted by Stanford University law professor Nathaniel Persily, who was appointed on Friday to referee the process.

The court has the ability to tweak the news lines, and House Democrats don't think districts covering Robeson, Columbus and Pender counties will pass the proverbial sniff test, according to WRAL. The state House maps were passed on Friday, but were more controversial, meaning the Senate maps will be the ones most likely passed on to the court.

These new maps will only be used for one election before they are redrawn using data from the 2020 census.


Read More

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services envelope
Honor migrants’ quest for a better life
Evgenia Parajanian/Getty Images

Exploring New Pathways to Citizenship: Renewing the Immigration Act Registry Statute

Background

Since the introduction of the visa quota system under the Immigration Act of 1990, average wait times for visas have doubled from 2.8 years to 5.6 years. With the backlog reaching a record high of 11.3 million in 2025, at least 675,000 would-be immigrants are expected to die while awaiting their visa approval. Consequently, analyses of current pathways to citizenship and possible reformation continue to spark public and Congressional action.

Keep ReadingShow less
I Watched the State of the Union Address: Everyone is “Winning” Except Child Care

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber at the Capitol on February 24, 2026 in Washington, DC.

(Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)

I Watched the State of the Union Address: Everyone is “Winning” Except Child Care

During Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, we heard repeatedly that America is “winning.” The message was clear and consistent. But when it came to child care, there was only a single mention, briefly noted during a guest recognition for a woman in the audience who balances work and family responsibilities.

That was it.

Keep ReadingShow less
Person's hands holding prison bars
America is guilty of over-incarceration
Victor de Schwanberg/Science Photo Library/Getty Images

Constitutional Democracy Requires That Prisoners No Longer Be Treated Like Slaves

When the United States added the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865, it ended slavery but left a loophole, which allowed involuntary servitude to continue “as a punishment for crime.” Today, state constitutions in places like Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, and Mississippi still contain a similar provision.

For example, Article I, Section 37 of Indiana’s Constitution prohibits slavery or “involuntary servitude, within the State, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” Article I, Section 9 of the Michigan Constitution says: “Neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude unless for the punishment of crime, shall ever be tolerated in this state.”

Keep ReadingShow less
A tragedy in Mali, West Africa is a reminder of solidarity across difference and the work needed at home in the United States

Map highlighting Mali over Mali flag

AI-generated image

A tragedy in Mali, West Africa is a reminder of solidarity across difference and the work needed at home in the United States

This fall, I got a phone call from a longtime friend in Mali, West Africa. I could hear the familiar hum of insects in the background, even as I heard the audible strain in his voice. A tragedy had just unfolded - innocent people were being displaced, villages destroyed, and people killed in the name of religion and political extremism. Even though it has been over two decades since I last visited, Mali is a place I grew to know and love - and for over 25 years, I’ve been blessed with a close friendship with my host family, with whom I lived during my time in the U.S. Peace Corps. I had been one of just over 2,500 volunteers who had served in the country until security concerns forced the closure of Mali’s Peace Corps program in 2015. And now, the village where I lived had been burned down, and my friends and host family were refugees on the run.

It was a reminder about how quickly things can change. One day, you wake up to the familiar path of sunlight across mud brick walls and the large baobab trees that frame the dirt path leading from the main road. Another day, you wake up to a worst nightmare - a country in chaos, extremism on the loose, and the very real force of violence right at your doorstep. It was also a reminder that political unrest can strike close to home, to the places and people I know and love, and that political instability and violent, polarizing rhetoric takes its toll.

Keep ReadingShow less