Utah State

Columbus, OH

California State

TheDailyBeast

A California state senator, fed up with the Democratic Party’s supermajority in the Golden State’s legislature, announced she is defecting to the Republican Party. Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil was elected in 2022 to represent California’s fourth senate district, which includes parts of the Sierra Nevada mountain range and the agrarian Central Valley. Alvarado-Gil made the party switch announcement on Thursday, after serving two years of her four year term. “I was elected to serve the public, not a political ideology,” Alvarado-Gil said in a statement. “The status quo under a supermajority Democratic rule in the legislature is simply not working for this state.” In an interview with Sacramento Bee opinion columnist Marcos Bretón, Alvarado-Gil said the “last straw” was the attempt to pass reforms to Proposition 47—a decade-old ballot initiative that downgraded some property crimes like shoplifting, forgery, and writing bad checks to misdemeanors. Read it at Sacramento BeeRead more at The Daily Beast.

California State Senator Defects From Democratic Party

Colorado State

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David Heitz

A bill quietly introduced this spring in the Colorado legislature to decriminalize the possession of drug paraphernalia obtained by harm reductionists has become law. As low-key as the legislation was introduced, the bill was signed into law without fanfare June 6. It garnered little to no media attention.

Colorado legalizes needles, pipes for meth and crack if obtained by harm reduction group

Wisconsin State

TIME

A guide to the battleground states in the 2024 election fight between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

The 7 States That Will Decide the Election

Denver, CO

In addition to collecting more than 8,000 used needles in the past year from Denver drug users, the Harm Reduction Action Center passed out 10,000 meth pipes and “snort kits,” according to a newsletter sent to its supporters Thursday. They also connected about 1,700 people to medical, mental health and substance abuse treatment.

Denver group hands out 10K meth pipes, ‘snort kits,’ connects 1,700 to treatment annually

Virginia State

The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus Virginia Rep. Bob Good has been unseated after losing a recount stemming from a close June primary race.
                The congressman conceded after a commonwealth judge determined state Sen. John McGuire the ultimate victor late Thursday evening. Good's term expires at the end of the calendar year.
                The two-term Republican trailed McGuire by 374 votes heading into the recount. As the...

Good loses congressional seat following primary recount

Ohio State

The Lantern

On Tuesday, licensed Ohio dispensaries began legally selling non-medical marijuana to consumers; however, the drug’s possession, growth and/or usage are still prohibited on Ohio State’s campus. Credit: Jefferee Woo/Tampa Bay Times/TNS [Original caption: Four citizen-led petitions with proposals to update Dallas’ charter hit the 20,000 valid signature threshold to make it on the Nov. 5 election ballot, including one that would ban police officers from arresting or citing people carrying less than four ounces of marijuana.] As of Tuesday, students 21 and older can now legally purchase marijuana in Ohio.

Dispensary sales of recreational marijuana began Tuesday; possession and usage still prohibited on Ohio State’s campus

WashingtonExaminer

When voters cast their ballots in the presidential election this fall, those in several key states to decide the presidency will likely notice changes to election procedures compared to the 2020 election. With control of the House, Senate, and White House up for grabs on Nov. 5, the direction of the country will be decided […]

Pivotal states where election laws have changed since 2020

Wyoming State

Pinedale, WY

WyoFile

PINEDALE—Rep. Albert Sommers (R-Pinedale) lost to a political newcomer in a close-fought contest for a state Senate seat Tuesday, an upset that ousts one of the most influential figures in Wyoming politics in recent years.

Speaker of the House Sommers loses bid for Senate seat

The election authorities of at least 48 states, both Republicans and Democrats, say there are no obstacles that would prevent Vice President Kamala Harris from getting on election ballots if she becomes the official Democratic presidential nominee, as expected.

Exclusive: CNN survey finds 48 states say Harris can get on ballot instead of Biden, rejecting claim switch breaks state laws

Jacksonville, FL

Jacksonville Today

A historic marker could be erected to honor the victims of the racist mass shooting at the Dollar General store in Jacksonville’s New Town neighborhood nearly a year ago. If approved by the Jacksonville City Council, a marker would be installed at Kings Road and Canal Street on Aug. 25, a day before the first anniversary of the shooting, when a white gunman took the lives of three Black people.

Memorial considered to honor Dollar General victims

Salem, OH

Northern Kentucky Tribune

Every day, 8-year-old Emma sits in a small garden outside her grandmother’s home in Salem, Ohio, writing letters to her mom and sometimes singing songs her mother used to sing to her.

Thousands of parents die of overdoses; advocates say their kids need more help

Florida State

Democrats have been sunny in their hopes to flip Florida in the presidential and Senate elections in November, but Republicans have expanded a key advantage that wasn’t in their favor four years ago. The Florida Republican Party announced Sunday that it expanded its voter registration advantage in the state to more than 1 million voters, […]

Democrats fall into 1 million voter hole in former swing state

Tampa, FL

New York Post

A Florida gastroenterologist has been disciplined after two recent colonoscopy procedures went awry on his watch, including at least one where he couldn’t hear an improperly-sedated patient’s screams because he wasn’t wearing his hearing aids.

Dr. Ishwari Prasad, 84, has been placed on probation by the Florida Board of Medicine after the botched procedures, according to a state Department of Health administrative complaint viewed by USA Today.

Both colonoscopies took place on June 5 last year at the Tampa Ambulatory Surgery Center.



During the first, Prasad is said to have “improperly delegated” medical tasks to a surgical tech who did not have a...

Florida doc, 84, couldn’t hear colonoscopy patient screaming in agony because he wasn’t wearing his hearing aids: complaint

Pinellas County, FL

The Blue Dog Coalition’s Blue Dog PAC is backing Whitney Fox, the Democratic challenger to Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) in Florida’s 13th Congressional District. The Blue Dogs are a group of moderate-to-centrist Democrats led by Reps. Mary Peltola (D-AK), Marie Glusenkamp Perez (D-WA), and Jared Golden (D-ME). “Whitney Fox is the right person to […]

Blue Dog PAC backing Democratic challenger to Rep. Anna Paulina Luna

Minnesota State

Ballotpedia News

In the 37 states that have held primaries so far this year, 136 state legislative incumbents—3.4% of all incumbents seeking re-election—have lost. That’s less than at this point in 2022, when 174, or 4.6%, of incumbents had lost in primaries. Four of the 136 defeated incumbents were legislative leaders: three Republican state senators and one Democratic House member. More on that below.

136 state legislative incumbents have been defeated in primaries this year – four of which were legislative leaders

(The Center Square) - The California State Senator who switched from the Democratic to Republican party mid-session claims she has been stripped of her committee assignments and the Latino Caucus as “retribution” for leaving the Democratic Caucus.
                While Senate Democratic leaders say it’s standard to remove individuals from committees to figure out how to maintain appropriate party balance in committees, the Latino Caucus says State Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil, R-Jackson, a Latina woman, was removed from the group just for being a Republican.
   ...

California State Sen. removed from Latino Caucus for switching to GOP

The Current GA

Since 2020, the condition known as long COVID-19 has become a widespread disability affecting the health and quality of life of millions of people across the globe and costing economies billions of dollars in reduced productivity of employees and an overall drop in the work force .

Expert: Long COVID puzzle pieces are falling into place – picture is unsettling

Georgia State

Floyd County, GA

Daily Coffee Press

According to officials with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), three former officers from the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC), one GDC investigator, and a former Floyd County deputy have been charged for the aggravated assault of an inmate at the Floyd County Jail.

Five Former Georgia Law Enforcement Officers Charged With Aggravated Assault Against Inmate

Arizona State

The Biden administration told the Supreme Court on Friday that parts of an Arizona proof-of-citizenship voter law should remain on hold for the coming election.

Justice Department urges Supreme Court to keep parts of Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship voter law on hold

Apache Junction, AZ

Writers represent independent, third-party users who have joined our contributor program and self-verified their accounts. Writers are expected, like all users, to adhere to our Community Standards.

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Suzy Jacobson Cherry

When I studied Anthropology in college, I learned that teeth have been indicators of economic status just about forever. Archaeologists look at the teeth in ancient skeletons and know who the rich were based on their tooth decay. During the Renaissance period, it became fashionable for women to blacken their teeth to look like they were better off than they were, because the royals and aristocrats, who could afford sugar and sweets, had more rotten and missing teeth than the poor.

Opinion: Stop Stereotyping Bad Teeth as a Sign of Drug Addiction

NewsBreak

State auditor to conduct ‘limited review’ of certain issues in election process

SALT LAKE CITY — The Office of the State Auditor announced Tuesday it will conduct what it calls a “limited review” of certain parts of the...

State auditor to conduct ‘limited review’ of certain issues in election process

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