The House of Delegates gave final approval Wednesday evening to a bill that would create a Maryland Reparations Commission, sending the measure to the governor for his signature.
By Mitch Perry
A bill that would make it much easier for individuals wrongfully incarcerated to receive compensation has cleared the Florida Senate, and needs just one final vote in the House before going to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk.
By Schuyler Mitchell
A push to claw back a process-oriented change in New York’s criminal legal code shows just how readily Democrats will capitulate to carceral demands in 2025.
By Jon Queally
In response to U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth claiming on live television earlier this week that "nobody was texting war plans," The Atlantic magazine on Wednesday morning published the "war plans" that were, in fact, shared on the private sector messaging app Signal by top members of President Donald Trump's national security team, including Hegseth and national security advisor Mike Waltz.
By Pavin Kulkarni
By Robbie Sequeira
More than a dozen states in the past two years have launched or expanded programs that allow families to use taxpayer dollars to send their students to private schools. Now, President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress want to supercharge those efforts.
After former Columbia University student and permanent U.S. resident Mahmoud Khalil was detained by federal immigration officials over his involvement in student-led protests last year — a move that shocked advocates for free speech and immigrants’ rights around the country — he was taken to Jena, a small town of 4,000 in north-central Louisiana and home to one of the country’s largest and most notorious immigration detention centers.
words by charles brooks
UPDATE as of 3/16/25: The bill was ultimately advanced in the House for a final vote, which is expected to occur in the coming days before moving to the Senate
There’s an opportunity in 2025 for Maryland state lawmakers to address the state’s mass incarceration and sentencing policies with the Maryland Second Look Act.
The proposed measure creates a pathway for men and women who served twenty plus years in prison to petition the court to have a judge review their sentence for possible reduction. The proposed measure is sponsored by State Senator Charles E. Sydnor, III, and House Delegate Cheryl E. Pasteur. The proposal requires a comprehensive evaluation process to prove to the court they no longer pose a threat to society. The rigorous process allows the judge to measure their capacity to change, and as a result the proposed legislation cannot be viewed as a, “get out of jail free card”.
words by charles brooks
On Thursday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that aims to limit legal challenges to his administration’s actions by seeking to get judges to require monetary “security” payments from plaintiffs if an injunction is issued.
By Shauneen Miranda
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Education Department on Monday warned 60 colleges and universities they could face repercussions if they fail “to protect Jewish students on campus.”
In a statement announcing letters to schools across the country, the department did not detail what consequences the schools could face, but the letters came less than a week after the administration announced that it would be canceling roughly $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University over “the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
By Chris Walker
Trump wrote that students taking part in “illegal” demonstrations at college campuses should be arrested or deported
In a Truth Social post on Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump said he would punish students who engage in demonstrations of any kind — a clear violation of their — and threatened consequences for any college or university that allows protests to take place.
By Jessica Holdman
COLUMBIA — If South Carolina legislators pass legislation meant to strip diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from state and local governments, the impact could stretch far beyond the halls of public colleges and state agencies, opponents warned Tuesday.
By Sasha Abramsky
On Tuesday evening, hours after the in response to the U.S. imposing high tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China — Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress and declared a new “golden age of America.”
By Robby Brod
President Donald Trump nominated Linda McMahon, 76, to serve as secretary of education on Nov. 19, 2024. McMahon is a prolific political donor, Republican fundraiser and successful businesswoman best known for her tenure as CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
McMahon is being considered for the Cabinet position while a defendant in a lawsuit claiming she used her position as CEO to conceal sexual abuse committed by a former WWE staffer against the company’s teenage employees.
While McMahon has prior government experience, having served as head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, she has been chosen to spearhead America’s educational system despite having limited education leadership experience.
Who is she?
McMahon co-founded and led WWE with her husband, Vince, from 1980 to 2009, growing it from a regional promotion into a publicly traded entertainment empire worth over $1 billion. Her relationship with Trump dates back to his first WWE appearances in the 1980s, which continued through the 2000s. After leaving WWE, she served one year on Connecticut’s Board of Education and launched two unsuccessful Senate campaigns, spending nearly $100 million of her own money.
Despite admitting “I’m not an educator” during her state board confirmation, McMahon has maintained connections to education through her longtime role as a Sacred Heart University trustee, where buildings bear her name following substantial donations. She is an outspoken advocate for school choice and charter schools.
Follow the money
McMahon has been a significant financial backer of Republican causes and her fundraising efforts on behalf of Trump’s campaigns have made her a key figure in GOP circles.McMahon’s exact net worth remains a mystery as she and Vince share an estimated $3 billion fortune. They announced their separation after Linda was announced as Trump’s Cabinet pick, just weeks after jointly spending millions to re-elect Trump.
This article originally appeared in Open Secrets on January 27th, 2025
By Jessica Corbett
The trade war Trump is igniting will weaken our economy and cause chaos in our marketplace as Americans pay the cost in the form of higher prices on everyday items," said Rep. Don Beyer.
By Natalia Marques
On Tuesday, February 25, Republicans in the House of Representatives narrowly passed a budget resolution that would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy and implement new tax cuts, costing the government USD 4.1 trillion.
The Alliance of Sahel States (AES), that includes Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, has taken another decisive step toward regional integration following its recent withdrawal from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). On February 22, the new flag was unveiled and symbolizes the bloc’s growing autonomy as it seeks to redefine its political, economic, and security structures outside the influence of French imperialism and Western neoliberal frameworks.
By Pete Tucker
Bravo, Jeff Bezos!”
By Julie Hollar
As oligarchs Donald Trump and Elon Musk continue their pursuit of power unfettered by the Constitution, many citizens wonder why their elected representatives in Washington are doing so little to stop the administrative coup. They also might well wonder why the media so rarely ask the same question.
By Jarrod Shanahan
A strike wave has spread throughout New York State prisons. Since February 17, 14,000 guards in 40 of the state’s 42 facilities have joined wildcat walkouts, neglecting and endangering incarcerated people throughout the state. Since February 19, National Guard troops have been deployed to replace striking guards. These actions are illegal under New York State’s Taylor Law, which prohibits public sector workers from striking. Nonetheless, state correctional officials have negotiated with the guards — and have agreed to suspend compliance with a recent law limiting the amount of a time a prisoner can spend in solitary confinement, among other concessions.
By Natalia Marques
The New York Times editorial board (2/8/25) this month urged readers not to get “distracted,” “overwhelmed,” “paralyzed” or “pulled into [Donald Trump’s] chaos”—in short, don’t “tune out.” But what good is staying informed unless there are concrete actions Trump’s opponents can take to rein him in?
By Sharon Zhang
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has reportedly ordered a City University of New York (CUNY) college to remove a job posting for a professorship in Palestinian Studies, sparking outrage among advocates who say she is contributing to the censorship and dehumanization of Palestinians amid widespread repression of anti-Zionists across the U.S.
By Eloise Goldsmith
That's the basic premise of a 12-page policy roadmap released Tuesday by Free Press Action, the 501(c)(4) arm of the advocacy group Free Press, and created by members of Media Power Collaborative, an organizing space for media workers and others, which aims to resist journalism's trend towards clickbait, misinformation, and "a shortage of local news that actually meet people's needs."
In just a matter of months, Gov. Jeff Landry plans to reopen a Baton Rouge-area youth prison shuttered a little over a decade ago with support at the time from Democrats and Republicans.
Landry and state legislators have reshuffled at least $42.4 million over the past week and directed it toward reopening the Jetson Center for Youth in Baker. The governor is also pushing for an additional $12.7 million to add staff to Jetson in his latest budget proposal, though lawmakers haven’t signed off on that money yet.
By Piper Hutchinson
Louisiana Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley is urging Louisiana K-12 schools to comply with guidance from President Donald Trump’s administration as it threatens to revoke federal funding from campuses that use race-conscious practices in admissions, programming, training, hiring, scholarships and other aspects of student life.
By Steven Mangual
At Red Onion State Prison, one of two supermax prisons in Virginia, at least 12 Black menlast year set their own bodies on fire in horrifying and desperate acts of protest against inhumane conditions, including prolonged solitary confinement.
By Shauneen Miranda
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education is threatening to rescind federal funds for schools that use race-conscious practices in admissions, programming, training, hiring, scholarships and other aspects of student life, according to a Dear Colleague letter sent to schools.
By Sam Stockard
Tennessee’s Department of Correction is requesting a $6.8 million contract increase for its private prison operator despite penalizing the company $44.78 million since 2022 for contractual shortfalls, $15 million in the last five months alone.
By Chris Walker
The DOJ had ordered the case against Mayor Eric Adams to be dropped following weeks of his cozying up to Trump.
UPDATE: As of Friday afternoon, the number of federal prosecutors who have resigned over the Department of Justice’s demands to drop charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams (amid claims that that action was part of a quid pro quo with the Trump administration) .
IN SUMMARY
Californians rejected the anti-slavery ballot measure Proposition 6, which would have forbid forced prison labor. Reparations advocates want to try again in 2026.
Assemblymember Lori Wilson, a Democrat from Suisun City, this month introduced a new constitutional amendment aimed at abolishing the everyday de facto slavery practices that persist inside California prisons.
By Danielle Brown
The state and the city of Baltimore sued gun maker Glock on Wednesday for its failure to stop the rising trend of its handguns being modified into machine-gun-like weapons used in violent crimes.
The lawsuit, filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court, asks the court to stop the sale and distribution of Glocks in Maryland until the company changes the design of its handguns to be more resistant to modifications that let them “fire fully automatically — that is, to operate like a machine gun.”
