We’ll know at the top of the hour whether the Supreme Court will release decisions today in the key remaining cases of the term: Suits over the Affordable Care Act and SB1070, Arizona’s strict anti-immigrant bill.
Update 10:21 AM: Three opinons so far, no ACA or SB1070 yet, but decisions not yet done for the day.
Update 10:26 AM: No opinions on the health care and immigration laws will be released today. Next day for rulings is Monday.
For years, North Carolina has been wrestling with how to confront the terrible legacy of its state-sponsored eugenics program. With a victim compensation plan close to approval, the state was set to be in the vanguard of righting the past wrongs of forced sterilization programs across the country.
On Wednesday, the state Senate killed the plan.
The story of the Romney campaign trying to get the extremely unpopular Gov. Rick Scott of Florida to stop crowing about recent job growth in his state is, on one level, just a clumsy leak and a bad news cycle. (Here are the statements from the Scott camp that got Romney and Co. so freaked.) But it lays bare a key dynamic in the 2012 cycle. While the national economy is now sputtering, in key states it’s actually doing fairly well. And as luck or bad luck would have it, several of those states are critical national swing states — most notably, states in the industrial midwest like Ohio and the critical state of Virginia. Read More
We’ve got the first nuggets out of Mitt Romney big immigration speech coming later today. And the gist seems to be that he’s going to duck the question of whether he’s for or against, would keep or change President Obama’s new mini-Dream Act. More soon.
Until a couple months ago, I think most political news junkies would’ve predicted confidently that Mitt Romney’s biggest threat from within his own party came from House conservatives. That assumption may ultimately be vindicated, but today’s news makes it clear that his immediate challenge comes from swing state Republican governors, who are boasting to voters about the economic recoveries in their states. When your entire campaign depends on fomenting gloom about the economy, having such renown liberals as Rick Scott and Scott Walker heralding the morning in Florida and Wisconsin … well, let’s just say it doesn’t help. It exposes a palpable tension between the mixed reality of President Obama’s economic record, and Romney’s caricature of it.
It’s a rich story. Read More
Accused murderer of Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, has released to the press his own version of what happened the night he shot Trayvon Martin, including the statement he gave police the night of the shooting.
At his speech today to the National Association of Latino Elected Officials Mitt Romney managed to duck the roiling question of what he would do about President Obama’s mini-Dream Act, pushed through last week by administration directive. Romney says he would “replace” and “supersede” it with something better but declined to say what the better thing would be. Watch the video.
Mitt did restate his support for a path to citizenship for people who came illegally as children and later served in the military.
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer calls out the GOP: “…there are a lot people in Washington who want to drown the captain and are prepared to sink the ship in order to do so.”