Abrams To Challenge Kemp In Court
Abrams plans suit to seek cure to problems in Georgia’s voting process. AJC: "Her campaign for governor may be over, but Stacey Abrams is not going away. Before she considers a new campaign, she is throwing her energy behind a new federal lawsuit alleging mismanagement and malfeasance at nearly every level of Georgia’s electoral process. 'That does not happen in a functional democracy, and this cannot be repeated in any future election,' she said Saturday. “Georgia is too important of a state, and democracy is too core to who we are." A team of lawyers is gathering testimony from election workers, academics and statisticians as they prepare the lawsuit, said Lauren Groh-Wargo, Abrams’ gubernatorial campaign manager. The goal of the suit, which is still being finalized, will be to lay bare the state’s voter registration and elections system and dissect why and how the issues occurred. 'Literally just every day, this suit kind of grows and changes because the problems are so profound,' Groh-Wargo said. Abrams said the lawsuit, which will fall under the umbrella of a new organization called Fair Fight Georgia, will look toward improving the state’s election system prior to municipal elections in 2019 and the 2020 presidential election. Fair Fight may also push for legislative changes at the Capitol, and Abrams said it will hold the state accountable for running elections fairly."
GOP Says Goodbye To Orange County
RIP, California GOP: 'You Just Lost Reagan Country'. Crooks and Liars: "In the wake of a near-political annihilation in California that has left even longtime conservative stronghold Orange County bereft of a single Republican in the House of Representatives, a growing chorus of GOP loyalists here say there’s only one hope for reviving the flatlining party: Blow it up and start again from scratch. That harsh assessment comes as Republicans survey the damage from the devastation of a “blue tsunami” in California which wiped out five GOP-held House seats — with more still threatened — while handing every statewide seat and a supermajority to the Democrats in both houses of the state legislature this week. The latest blow came Thursday, when Democrat Katie Porter, an UC Irvine professor, defeated Republican Rep. Mimi Walters in a district which represents the beating political heart of Orange County."
DeVos Revises Campus Sexual Assault Rules
What New Title IX Guidance on Sexual Assault and Harassment Means for K-12 Schools. EdWeek: "U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos released a long anticipated rewrite of federal Title IX guidance Friday that allows schools to raise the bar on what evidence is needed to prove claims of sexual assault and harassment. The guidance replaces an Obama-era civil rights directive that DeVos revoked in September 2017. Secretary DeVos claimed that guidance didn't do enough to protect the due process rights of the accused. Her move, and the new guidance released this week, face intense criticism from women's groups that say the rewrite doesn't do enough to protect students who've been victims of sexual assault and harassment. The new rules from DeVos dictate when schools are obligated to intervene to address such victimization and when those obligations kick in. While most of the debate over Title IX—the federal law that prohibits sexual discrimination in education—has centered on colleges and universities, the new civil rights guidance will affect K-12 schools, too. Some survivors' advocacy groups fear the changes will cause K-12 schools to "step off the gas" in improving how they address assault and harassment when they say many are already failing to provide adequate Title IX support to students."
14,000 Migrant Children Still In DHS Custody
More than 14,000 immigrant children are in U.S. custody, an all-time high
. SF Chronicle: "The number of undocumented immigrant children in government custody has topped 14,000 for the first time, a rise that shows no signs of slowing as the Trump administration enforces policies that are keeping them in government facilities longer. There were 14,056 unaccompanied immigrant minors in Department of Health and Human Services custody on Friday, according to a government source familiar with the number. A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that the total had reached approximately 14,000. That number tops records set just two months ago, putting further strain on an already overburdened system."
