1) Strong resistance against redistricting which would dilute Black voters’ power has succeeded in Georgia. Republican state leadership told Gov. Kemp that they will not consider redistricting without further study.
2) A federal judge in Massachusetts said Democratic state attorneys general and pro-voting organizations can continue their bid to block Trump's anti-voting executive order before the midterms. The judge said that if the order is implemented, it will directly harm states’ ability to carry out elections this November.
3) MAGA Rep. Mike Collins won The Republican runoff for Senate in Georgia last week. The total republican vote was 10% less than the vote for Jon Ossoff in the Democratic primary.
4) Melinda French Gates is pledging $215 million to women’s health--specifically, expanding contraceptive access, maternal care, and menopause research globally, pushing her total investment in women’s health past $600 million over the past two years.
5) An experimental personalized skin cancer vaccine lowered the risk of melanoma returning or causing death by 49% after five years when used in combination with immunotherapy. The vaccine still has a while to go through clinical trials, but this is welcome news given the increasing skin cancer rates.
6) The FDA approved inhaled insulin (Afrezza) for children ages 6 and older with diabetes. This is the first needle-free insulin option for pediatric patients in over 100 years.
1. Thanks to the ruling of a federal judge, and despite a last-minute attempt to appeal the ruling, the current U.S. president’s name has been removed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. This includes signage, the website, and all center materials.
2. Federal Judge Leonie Brinkema on Friday blocked in no uncertain terms the $1.8 billion fund to compensate January 6th rioters, by requiring a written declaration within one week’s time, signed under penalty of perjury, by both acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, that there would be no fund going forward.
3. A 2-stage clinical trial testing a new HIV-prevention drug administered via injections, has shown unimaginably positive results, with a 99.9% reduction in infection rates. The drug, Lenacapavir, was administered to 5,000 participants over a wide geographical area.
4. The California Department of Justice has launched the Affordability Response Team, a group of legal experts dedicated to investigating and going after the unlawful practices that are bringing up costs. As California Attorney General Rob Bonta put it, “Our goal is to put more money back in [Californians’] pockets.”
5. According to a study conducted by Circle/When We All Vote, and reported by Field Team 6, 56% of youth (ages 18 – 29) said they are “extremely likely” to vote in the upcoming midterms. In the 2018 “Blue Wave” midterms, the number was 34%! 68% of those extremely likely voters identified as Democrats, compared to 49% who identified as Republicans.
6. Yesterday, June 14th, we celebrated Flag Day, commemorating the adoption of the flag on that date in 1777 with the passage of the first Flag Act by the Continental Congress. Any coincidence of that date with someone’s birthday who represents everything counter to the freedom, justice, and opportunity symbolized by our flag is strictly an unfortunate twist of fate.
1. In California election results— Democrat Xavier Becerra will advance to the general election for Governor. Dems avoided being shut out, phew! Nithya Raman overtakes Spencer Pratt for second place in the LA mayoral race.
2. Federal Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of Rhode Island ruled that Trump officials must restart asylum and immigration processing.
3. Trump's 1.8 Billion dollar anti-weaponization fund is dead
4. Billionaire Connie Ballmer (wife of Steve Ballmer former Microsoft CEO and owner of the Los Angeles Clippers) donated 80 million dollars to NPR following Trump cutting 1.1 Billion dollars from public broadcasting.
5. The South Carolina Senate effectively killed an effort to redraw the state’s congressional lines to eliminate longtime Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn’s seat in Congress, stalling out an effort by President Donald Trump’s White House to redraw the state’s seven seats to benefit Republicans. One dozen Republicans, including several staunch conservative members of the conference, joined ten of their Democratic colleagues on a procedural motion to kill the bill.
6. Senate blocks GOP push to sneak the SAVE Act into the Immigration Funding Bill. Republicans who joined Democrats were: Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitch McConnell, and Thom Tillis.
1. Two Federal Judges delivered blows to the President on Friday. Judge Christopher Cooper determined that the decision to add Trump's name to the Kennedy Center was illegal, and ordered the administration to remove his name within two weeks. Judge Kathleen Williams will review the Trump administration $1.8 Billion "weaponization fund" in a response to a motion brought by 35 former federal judges. The former Federal Judges urged Williams to dig into the details of the original lawsuit brought for $10 Billion which Trump filed against the IRS.
2. Republicans in South Carolina rejected Trump's efforts to gerrymander districts before the November elections.
3. Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed a ban on assault weapons and ammunition magazines that hold more than 15 rounds.
4. Brazil's Atlantic Forest, the country's most threatened biome recorded it's lowest level of deforestation since monitoring began 40 years ago.
5. South Korea just deployed a new ferry that purifies the water while people ride. Eco-Bot is a solar powered boat that uses AI to clean floating pollutants.