Politics

ABC News reports: Ohio lawmakers have introduced a bill that would allow execution by nitrogen gas, a controversial practice critics call untested and lacking in evidence that it’s more humane than lethal injection, after Alabama became the first state to execute someone with nitrogen gas. Ohio state Reps. Phil Plummer and Brian Stewart, both Republicans, introduced legislation during a press …

Axios reports: Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) said Tuesday she is facing investigations by the Justice Department, Federal Election Commission and House Ethics Committee into the alleged misuse of campaign funds for personal security. Bush denied that she has used official congressional funds to pay for security, saying she has “used campaign funds as permissible to retain security services.” She also …

The Tallahassee Democrat reports: Transgender Floridians can no longer change the listed gender on their driver licenses. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles announced the change in a memo late last week sent to county tax collectors, where state residents can get licenses. “Permitting an individual to alter his or her license to reflect an internal sense …

Florida Politics reports: “Expel from Congress, denaturalize and deport,” urged Ron DeSantis about U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who is taking criticism from the Right for comments she made privileging Somalia over the United States. As Newsweek notes, Omar recently told a crowd of Somali American constituents that she was “Somalian first, Muslim second” and “here to protect the interests of …

“My opponent is a complete liar. She’s a socialist, she’s a liar and she’s a radical. I’ve been clear — I’m pro-baby, I’m pro-life. I think we have to have reasonable limitations for rape, incest and the life of the mother. In the Senate every Democrat has voted for abortion up until the moment of birth. She ought to say …

“Are we really in this country going to have two 80-year-olds running for president? It is a fact that when you are their age you have mental decline. I don’t care who you are. You have mental decline. He didn’t just get me confused, he mentioned it over and over and over again. He’s not what he was in 2016. …

Seattle’s The Stranger reports: Marching into a gay bar to issue citations feels a bit vintage in 2024. Nevertheless, over the weekend, the Joint Enforcement Team (JET), which is a coalition of Seattle Police, Fire, the state Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB), and others, entered two gay bars, The Cuff Complex and The Seattle Eagle, and started looking around. And …

NBC News reports: Senate Democrats are putting new pressure on the Biden administration to ease federal restrictions on marijuana in a new letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration on Tuesday as it considers rescheduling cannabis after it was federally classified more than five decades ago. The letter, from 12 senators led by Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and John Fetterman, D-Pa., and …

The Associated Press reports: Republican state Attorney General Dave Yost scheduled a news conference Tuesday to discuss “next steps to kickstart” Ohio’s capital punishment system. He has expressed support for the nitrogen gas method used for the first time in Alabama last week, when convicted murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was put to death with nitrogen gas administered through a …

Politico reports: Attorney General Merrick Garland will be out of commission this weekend due to back surgery and is going out of his way to make sure that there are no doubts about who will be in charge during his absence. The unusual, early announcement by the Biden administration’s top law enforcement officer is intended to avoid the storm of …

Florida Politics reports: Sen. Jonathan Martin’s legislation (SB 1530) would ban counties and municipalities from permitting public sleeping or public camping on public property without explicit permission via temporary permits, a move deemed by the bill language to fulfill an “important state interest.” Localities may designate certain public property for sleeping or camping with the sanction of the Department of …

The Insider reports: On Sunday, Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida was asked about federal funding she’s been bragging about bringing to her Miami-area district. It didn’t go so well. In an interview with CBS Miami on Sunday, host Jim DeFede asked Salazar about her votes against three bills: an omnibus bill to fund the government for 2023, the …

The Hill reports: Former national security adviser John Bolton called for “disproportionate” strikes inside Iran after a drone attack killed three U.S. service members in Jordan over the weekend. Bolton said Sunday night on NewsNation that the U.S. needs to carry out retaliatory attacks in the wake of the deadly drone strike. He said the U.S. needs to “impose enough …

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: Pennsylvania’s highest court on Monday recognized for the first time that access to abortion is a right guaranteed by the state’s constitution, a significant finding in the wake of the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning nationwide abortion rights. The finding came in a case focused on a much narrower issue — whether Medicaid should cover …

ABC News reports: Former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb won the first round of Finland’s presidential election Sunday and will face runner-up ex-Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto [photo] in a runoff next month. The vote largely centered on the Nordic nation’s new role as a NATO front-line country with Russia, and the security situation in Europe, particularly Russia’s assault on Ukraine. With …

“I have every intention of going to Super Tuesday. Through Super Tuesday we’re going to keep on going and see where this gets us. That’s what we know we’re going to do right now. I take it one state at a time. I don’t think too far ahead. I need to show that I’m stronger in South Carolina than New …

NBC News reports: President Joe Biden’s campaign is trying to organize a first-of-its-kind fundraiser that officials hope would be lucrative and headline-grabbing, but also energizing for Democratic voters who so far have not shown enthusiasm for the party’s 2024 ticket, according to four people familiar with the planning. The idea is for three Democratic presidents — Biden, Bill Clinton and …

“The Biden Administration can take out all the Iranian proxies they like, but it will not deter Iranian aggression. I am calling on the Biden Administration to strike targets of significance inside Iran, not only as reprisal for the killing of our forces, but as deterrence against future aggression. “The only thing the Iranian regime understands is force. Until they …

Mississippi Today reports: Mississippians would be prevented from placing an initiative on the ballot to change the state’s strict anti-abortion laws under a proposal passed Wednesday by the House of Representatives. House Concurrent Resolution 11, which is still several legislative steps from becoming law, would give citizens the ability to gather signatures to propose new state laws or change existing …

The Stars & Stripes reports: Three U.S. service members were killed and 25 injured Sunday in a one-way drone attack at a small U.S. base in northeast Jordan, near the Syria border, U.S. Central Command announced. The attack is another escalation of the hostilities between the U.S. and enemies in the Middle East following the Hamas attack on Israel on …