The former assistant attorney general for the Justice Department Antitrust Division, Gail Slater, was abruptly terminated in February after clashes with Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche.
A three-judge federal panel, including two President Donald Trump appointees and one Former President Bill Clinton appointee, blocked Alabama from using its 2023 congressional map, finding it deliberately diluted Black voting power. The court ordered Alabama to adopt a replacement map, allowing Black voters to elect their preferred candidates, Slate reports. In a 79-page opinion, U.S. District Judges Anna Manasco and Terry Moorer (Trump appointees) and U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus (Clinton appointee), explain Alabama's 2023 map, "made it impossible not only to remediate the vote dilution we identified, but also to respect the longstanding community of interest the Legislature identified in Alabama's Black Belt."Legal analysts argue the decision forces the Supreme Court to either clearly prohibit overtly racist gerrymandering or admit it has enabled attacks on Black political representation. The court found Alabama cynically used a recent Supreme Court decision to justify intensifying discriminatory vote dilution. Alabama is appealing to the Supreme Court and seeking an emergency stay. Analysts warn, if the conservative-majority Supreme Court grants Alabama's stay, it will expose previous assurances about racial gerrymandering as "cynical fiction."Watch the video below. Your browser does not support the video tag.
Americans already grappling with elevated gas prices face another inflation squeeze as severe weather, trade policy and geopolitical conflict could send consumer costs surging just before November's midterm elections.Grocery prices rose in April by the most in nearly four years, and experts warn the pressures will only worsen through 2027, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects a 3.2 percent increase in grocery prices and other experts warn that could rise even higher, reported Bloomberg.“It’s going to be a challenging year,” said Ricky Volpe, an agribusiness professor at California Polytechnic State University who expects grocery costs to soar by 4 percent to 4.5 percent. “Food is going to become less affordable, and consumers should be prepared for it.”The U.S. experienced its warmest start to any year on record, with temperatures running about 6 degrees Fahrenheit above average through April. The early heat prompted crops to begin blossoming prematurely instead of remaining dormant through winter, leaving them vulnerable to subsequent frosts. Meanwhile, drought has devastated agricultural regions nationwide — 70 percent of U.S. winter wheat production sits in drought areas as of mid-May, along with 25 percent of corn production.Beef prices hit record highs in April due to the smallest cattle herd in 75 years, squeezed by drought and elevated production costs. Tomato prices surged 33 percent over two months following winter storms that damaged Florida's growing season combined with declining shipments from Mexico due to Trump administration tariffs on Mexican imports.California, which supplies nearly half of U.S. vegetables and three-quarters of fruit and nut receipts, faces severe irrigation challenges after Sierra Nevada snowpack fell to just 23 percent of typical levels.The Iran war has disrupted global fertilizer markets, with North American fertilizer prices up 20 percent since fighting began, and El Niño is forecast to emerge by August with potential for unusual strength persisting into 2027, threatening additional drought in major international growing regions for rice, coffee and cocoa.The impact is already visible in household budgets, according to the report. James Giese, a 62-year-old from Madison, Wisconsin, reports cutting back on prepared foods and meat while growing potatoes in his backyard to stretch his budget. "I'm probably considered middle-income, but it's starting to pinch," he said.Consumers face additional headwinds, with household debt rising and savings rates are falling, and real average hourly earnings declined for the first time in three years through April.Food insecurity measures showed meaningful increases between October 2025 and February 2026, according to Federal Reserve data."As I've been saying: Inflation is just getting started. I think this is going to be a major theme of the next few years," commented Wall Street Journal columnist Christopher Mims. "It is not going to be pleasant, even for people with money. For people without, it's going to be (and is already) devastating."
Despite suffering from weak approval ratings in countless polls, President Donald Trump is having no problem affecting the outcome of GOP primaries: Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and at least five Indiana state lawmakers are among the Republican incumbents who lost recent GOP primaries to challengers backed by Trump. Journalist Colby Hall is arguing that Trump's weakness in polls and far-right Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's Tuesday victory over Cornyn are "the same story," showing that "Trump's coalition is getting smaller and louder at the same time.""The contradiction at the center of Donald Trump's politics has never been more visible than it was this week," Hall, the founder of Mediaite, writes in a column for his ColbyHall.com website. "He is one of the least popular presidents in modern polling history, and simultaneously, the most dominant force in the Republican Party. Neither fact is canceling out the other. His approval numbers are collapsing again. Depending on the poll, they are now approaching the lows he hit after January 6. He is underwater on inflation, cost of living, immigration, and now Iran. The broader electorate is plainly exhausted by him, the still very high price of a gallon of gas, and the bread and eggs he promised to make cheaper on Day 1 of his second term."Hall continues, "At the exact same moment, Trump casually ended Sen. John Cornyn's political career with a single endorsement of the far more MAGA-coded Attorney General Ken Paxton in Texas. Ironically, Trump helping Paxton win the primary delivers his MAGA faithful a short-term win while putting the seat itself in real jeopardy. Democratic nominee James Talarico is a much more plausible threat to Paxton than he would have been to Cornyn, and a Republican Senate majority that looked safe a week ago no longer does."According to Hall, the "true nature of Trump's current power" is that he "looks weak nationally" yet continues to be "all-powerful inside the Republican Party.""The two observations fit together pretty neatly," Hall argues. "Trump still owns the Republican primary electorate. The problem for Republicans is that the Republican primary electorate is no longer the country. His coalition is shrinking and becoming more emotionally concentrated at the same time. That creates the illusion of growing strength because intensity is very often mistaken for scale." Hall compares Trump's influence on the GOP's hardcore MAGA base to professional wrestling, noting that "the diehards in the front rows scream louder as the cheap seats empty out.""Trump's endorsement (of Paxton) remains incredibly powerful inside a shrinking but highly motivated audience that still sees him as the central figure in American politics," Hall explains. "Outside of it, the reaction looks very different. Republicans may still hold the seat, but they just replaced a broadly electable incumbent with a candidate carrying impeachment baggage, corruption allegations, and obvious general-election vulnerabilities. Democrats suddenly have a plausible opening in Texas that barely existed before."
Alabama Republicans asked the Supreme Court to allow the state to use a congressional map that would give the GOP an edge in the midterm elections.
President Donald Trump hosted the 12th Cabinet meeting of his second term on Wednesday, where he claimed that the White House’s anti-fraud task force may balance the federal budget and save Social Security. Trump opened by praising Vice President JD Vance, who leads the task force, and said he was “very proud” of the initiative. The president […]
Alabama asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to clear the way for its congressional map that would remove the state’s second majority-Black district and give Republicans a potential pickup in November. State Republicans insist the justices’ recent 6-3 blockbuster decision narrowing the Voting Rights Act means they should be able to move ahead with their map for the midterms. But on Tuesday,…
While President Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters might be celebrating Ken Paxton's dominant win in Tuesday's Senate primary, according to one of the leading election forecasters, the result has tipped the general election odds in the direction that the Texas GOP most feared.Paxton, whose time as Texas attorney general has been plagued by scandal and corruption, trounced incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in a primary runoff this week, spelling the end of one of the most powerful Republicans in the Senate. This came after Trump, at the last minute, issued an endorsement of Paxton, calling him a staunch MAGA ally, despite the warnings of his party. Given his history, Paxton has a lot of toxic political baggage, prompting considerable alarm that voters might turn their noses up at him and open a path to victory for Democrats.The blue opposition is also fielding one of its strongest Texas Senate nominees in years in the form of state Rep. James Talarico, who has built a strong campaign with a focus on economic issues voters are most worried about, as well as his devout Christianity. Numerous polls have shown that Cornyn might have been able to fend off Talarico, Paxton's chances were much closer, with some even giving the Democrat the edge.These worries were reflected by the latest update from the Cook Political Report, a firm that issues predictions for every major political race in the country based on evolving circumstances. In the wake of Paxton's win, per The Hill, the report moved its prediction for the Texas Senate race to be more in favor of a Talarico win. Cook still, overall, gives the Republican Party the edge in the race, but now, it is more slight. Whereas the rating used to be "likely Republican," Paxton's win saw it changed to a "lean Republican" rating, the sort of momentum shift that the Texas GOP does not want to see. It also noted that the Texas AG has no shortage of weaknesses for Democrats to exploit, potentially helping them move the race more in their favor through November."Paxton has a litany of ethical lapses for Democrats to exploit — from allegations of bribery and misuse of his office to marital infidelity, which led his wife to divorce him on ‘biblical grounds,’” Jessica Taylor, Senate and governors editor for the Cook Political Report, explained. “Given the national environment, this is a race that certainly may have become competitive even if Cornyn had won, but Paxton’s flaws warrant an immediate move to the Lean column."