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Five stories to read about voting rights

Sen. Joe Manchin

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is trying to negotiate a compromise on the For the People Act.

Sarah Silbiger-Pool/Getty Images

This week, governors and legislatures across the country took action to change voting rules in a handful of states while Senate Democrats made modifications to the sweeping election overhaul bill known as the For the People Act.

While many state legislatures are debating bills to alternately ease or restrict voting, the most progress has been made in states that are tightening election rules. This week, Texas and Florida took big steps in that direction, while New York became the latest to restore voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences.

Here are five key stories to keep you in the loop on the latest activity.


Senator Joe Manchin Seeks Compromise on Voting Rights Legislation (The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register)

Texas GOP's voting restrictions bill could be rewritten behind closed doors after key House vote (Texas Tribune)

DeSantis signs controversial new election law making it harder for some Floridians to vote (Orlando Sentinel)

Cuomo signs law to restore voting rights to parolees immediately after prison release (CBS News)

Bill to Give Parties Control over Congressional Primaries in Louisiana Dropped (IVN)

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A stethoscope, calculator, pills, and cash.

America’s healthcare debate misses the real crisis: soaring care costs. Discover how inattentional blindness hides the $5.6T gorilla reshaping policy, work, and rural communities.

Getty Images, athima tongloom

America’s $5.6 Trillion Healthcare Gorilla: Why We’re Blind to the Real Crisis

In the late 1990s, two Harvard psychologists ran a now-famous experiment. In it, students watched a short video of six people passing basketballs. They were told to count the number of passes made by the three players in white shirts.

Halfway through the film, a person in a gorilla suit walks into the frame, beats its chest, and exits. Amazingly, half of viewers — both then and in later versions of the study — never notice the gorilla. They’re so focused on counting passes that they miss the obvious event happening right in front of them.

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A stethoscope, calculator, pills, and cash.

America’s healthcare debate misses the real crisis: soaring care costs. Discover how inattentional blindness hides the $5.6T gorilla reshaping policy, work, and rural communities.

Getty Images, athima tongloom

America’s $5.6 Trillion Healthcare Gorilla: Why We’re Blind to the Real Crisis

In the late 1990s, two Harvard psychologists ran a now-famous experiment. In it, students watched a short video of six people passing basketballs. They were told to count the number of passes made by the three players in white shirts.

Halfway through the film, a person in a gorilla suit walks into the frame, beats its chest, and exits. Amazingly, half of viewers — both then and in later versions of the study — never notice the gorilla. They’re so focused on counting passes that they miss the obvious event happening right in front of them.

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Rethinking the Church’s Calling in a Time of Crisis
person's hand
Photo by Billy Pasco on Unsplash

Rethinking the Church’s Calling in a Time of Crisis

There is a significant distinction between charity and justice. Charity responds to visible wounds in the community and rushes to bandage them as necessary. Justice, rooted in biblical conviction and prophetic courage, goes further. It questions the sources of suffering: Why are people bleeding in the first place? This tension between crisis response and deeper transformation is at the core of a courageous step recently taken by Atlanta's New Birth Missionary Baptist Church.

As the nation grapples with democratic strain and institutional fatigue, New Birth's decision to suspend the collection of tithes and offerings during a government shutdown and amid the threatened rollback of social supports is a daring example of moral clarity. It is more than an act of relief; it is a refusal to proceed with business as usual when the most economically vulnerable are again being asked to bear the highest costs. The pause is not merely financial; I believe it is prophetic. An assertion that the church's highest duty is to its people, not its ledger.

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