Politics

The Huffington Post reports: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) signed a bill into law this week making Maryland the second U.S. state to ban the declawing of cats. Declawing a cat is a major surgery that involves amputating the last bone of each toe, similar to amputating each first knuckle on a person’s hand. The first U.S. state to ban …

The New York Times reports: Ms. Le Pen conceded defeat in her third attempt to become president, but bitterly criticized the “brutal and violent methods” of Mr. Macron. She vowed to fight on to secure a large number of representatives in legislative elections in June, declaring that “French people have this evening shown their desire for a strong counter power …

Axios reports: Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Sunday called House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy “a liar and a traitor” when asked about audio of the congressman saying he planned to urge President Trump to resign over the Jan. 6 riot. “That is really the illness that pervades the Republican leadership right now,” the Massachusetts Democrat told CNN’s Dana Bash, “they say …

ABC News reports: Utah Democrats pulling hard to defeat Republican Sen. Mike Lee took the unusual step Saturday of spurning a party hopeful to instead get behind an independent, former presidential candidate Evan McMullin. Democrats were swayed by calls from prominent members who said McMullin, a conservative who captured a significant share of the vote in Utah in 2016, was …

Salt Lake City’s NBC News affiliate reports: Retired Sen. Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history and the longest-serving from Utah, died Saturday at age 88. Hatch was first elected in 1976 and served 42 years in the Senate until retiring after his seventh term in 2019. Prior to his election to the Senate in 1976, Hatch, a …

The Guardian reports: A Memphis prosecutor has dropped all criminal charges against Pamela Moses, the Memphis woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register to vote. Moses was convicted last year and sentenced in January. She was granted a new trial in February after the Guardian published a document showing that had not been given …

Politico Europe reports: Voters in France return to the polling booths on Sunday in a second-round runoff vote to decide who will be their president for the next five years — the incumbent Emmanuel Macron or his far-right rival Marine Le Pen. All available voting intention polls aggregated in our POLITICO Poll of Polls show Macron winning reelection with 55 …

The Associated Press reports: A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a state law that effectively eliminated abortions in Kentucky after the state’s two remaining clinics said they couldn’t meet its requirements. The decision by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings was a victory for abortion rights advocates and a setback for the Republican-led legislature, which passed the law in …

The Washington Post reports: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is open to running for president in 2024 if President Biden declines to seek reelection, according to a campaign memo a top political adviser distributed to allies on Wednesday that was shared with The Washington Post. “In the event of an open 2024 Democratic presidential primary, Sen. Sanders has not ruled out …

The Associated Press reports: French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that challenger Marine Le Pen’s proposed measure to ban Muslim headscarves in French public spaces would create “civil war” if implemented. In a televised debate Wednesday ahead of Sunday’s presidential election, the far-right presidential candidate said she is fighting radical Islam not Muslims: “I am not carrying out a war …

The Hill reports: A new Politico-Morning Consult poll found that if the election for Congress was held in voters’ districts that day, 43 percent of voters would most likely vote for the Democratic candidate, while 42 percent would likely vote for the Republican one. A separate 16 percent polled said they either had no opinion or did not know, an …

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports: Democratic challenger Marcus Flowers outraised U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. He raised $2.4 million in the first three months of 2022, compared to her $1.1 million. And Greene spent about $300,000 more than she raised during the quarter. Still, she has $3 million in cash on hand, compared to Flowers’ $1.9 …

Politico reports: A Democratic candidate recruiting group is pitching donors on an ambitious three-year program to find, train and support 5,000 candidates for local offices in charge of election administration, a sprawling national effort intended to fight subversion of future election results. The program would recruit candidates in 35 states for everything from county probate judges in Alabama to county …

Axios reports: Finland, which shares an 830-mile border with Russia, is “highly likely” to join NATO despite the Russian government’s threats to deploy nuclear weapons, Finnish Minister for European Affairs Tytti Tuppurainen said in an interview with Sky News Friday. “The people of Finland, they seem to have already made up their mind,” Tuppurainen told Sky News, noting that polls …

The Des Moines Register reports: U.S. Senate candidate Abby Finkenauer will appear on the June Democratic primary ballot, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday, reversing a district court decision that found she failed to qualify. The ruling ends a tense week for Finkenauer, a former U.S. representative who is vying to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley. On Sunday, …

The Insider reports: Following a report from the San Francisco Chronicle that raised fresh concerns about Sen. Diane Feinstein’s mental fitness, the 88-year-old California Democrat indicated that she’s not going anywhere. “I meet regularly with leaders,” she told the Chronicle’s editorial board on Thursday. “I’m not isolated. I see people. My attendance is good. I put in the hours. We …

The New Jersey Advance reports: New Jersey legal weed sales can begin April 21, state officials announced Thursday. Green Thumb, which uses the RISE banner, confirmed to NJ Advance Media that RISE Bloomfield and RISE Paterson will open next Thursday at 6 a.m. Recreational users will be able to purchase up to 1.0 ounce in a single transaction at 13 …

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports: For the fourth time, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected state House and Senate maps drawn by Republicans, sending mapmakers back to the drawing board. Time is of the essence because Ohio needs legislative maps by Wednesday to conduct an Aug. 2 primary – the latest possible date, according to state election officials. But in its 4-3 …

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports: Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has pulled ahead as the Democratic U.S. Senate frontrunner over U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, while the GOP primary for the country’s most-watched Senate race remains wide open, according to a Franklin & Marshall College Poll released Thursday. Mr. Fetterman now leads the Democratic primary with 41% of registered Democrats saying they’d …

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: When a California Democrat in Congress recently engaged in an extended conversation with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 88, they prepared for a rigorous policy discussion like those they’d had with her many times over the last 15 years. Instead, the lawmaker said, they had to reintroduce themselves to Feinstein multiple times during an interaction that lasted …