With Louisiana leaders intent on first execution since 2010, DA obtains death warrant

 By Greg LaRose

A Rapides Parish man could be the first person Louisiana puts to death in 15 years after the district attorney there obtained a warrant Monday for his execution.

Larry Roy has been on death row since his 1994 conviction for double murder in Cheneyville. Police said Roy attacked his ex-girlfriend, Sally Richard, and her ex-husband, Freddie Richard Jr., with a knife in front of her two children. The woman and her children survived, but Roy killed her aunt, Rosetta Salas, and Freddie Richard Jr.  

Order to Drop Charges Against NYC Mayor Among 'Most Openly Corrupt Writings I've Seen on DOJ Letterhead'

 By Jake Johnson 

New York officials, lawmakers, and activists expressed fury on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump's Justice Department instructed prosecutors to drop federal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a move seen as an overtly corrupt deal aimed at giving the White House free rein to attack the city's immigrant communities.

Trump’s January 6 Pardons Were a Green Light to Far Right Paramilitaries

By Sasha Abramsky 

The GOP’s silence after the pardons made it complicit in Trump’s decision to normalize paramilitary violence in the US.

With President Donald Trump’s pardoning of more than 1,500 people charged with offenses relating to the January 6 insurrection, and his description of them as “hostages” rather than as insurrectionists, paramilitarism is now firmly back on the national agenda.

As Constitutional Crises Mount, US Press Sleepwalks Into Autocracy

 By Julie Hollar

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When President Donald Trump announced an unprecedented freeze on federal grants and loans last week, some of the most prominent US news outlets proved themselves largely uninterested in whether it was legal. Meanwhile, a few braver journalists called out the move as the constitutional crisis that it was (FAIR.org, 1/29/25)

Virginia House targets speed camera ‘cash grab’

 By Nathaniel Cline

With millions flowing from speed camera fines, Virginia lawmakers are pushing to curb potential profiteering and increase public oversight of the devices. A bill to bring more transparency and accountability to speed camera operations cleared the House this week and is now headed to the Senate.

According to Virginia State Police data, the state collected nearly $24 million from speed cameras in school zones and almost $10 million from highway work zones last year. The cameras, approved by the General Assembly in 2020, were intended to reduce traffic fatalities and encourage safer driving near children and construction workers. But growing concerns over the financial windfall for local governments and law enforcement have put the program under scrutiny.

Bill to limit the crimes for which juveniles could be charged as adults sparks debate

By William J. Ford

Criminal justice advocates welcomed a Senate bill that would sharply reduce the number of crimes for which a juvenile could be charged as an adult.

Senate Bill 422 by Sen. William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery) would raise the age at which a juvenile would be tried as an adult from 14 in the current law, to 16. It would also eliminate a number of crimes for which 16-year-olds are currently made eligible to be charge as adults.

Facial recognition in policing is getting state-by-state guardrails

By Paige Gross

The AI behind newer police identification tactics is controversial, and instances of false arrests and privacy concerns are drawing lawmakers’ attention.

In January 2020, Farmington Hills, Mich., resident Robert Williams spent 30 hours in police custody after an algorithm listed him as a potential match for a suspect in a robbery committed a year and a half earlier.

The city’s police department had sent images from the security footage at the Detroit watch store to Michigan State Police to run through its facial recognition technology. An expired driver’s license photo of Williams in the state police database was a possible match, the technology said.

Execution of SC inmate convicted 23 years ago marks first execution in the US for 2025

By Sklar Laird

Marion Bowman was the third death row inmate executed in SC since September

COLUMBIA — Marion Bowman died Friday night by lethal injection in the country’s first execution this year.

His recorded time of death was 6:27 p.m.

The roughly 30 protesters outside the prison gates sang “Amazing Grace,” Bowman’s favorite hymn, after receiving confirmation of his fate.

Tennessee legislature puts hundreds of millions toward private-school vouchers

By Sam Stockard 

In one of the most hotly-contested questions in modern Tennessee political history, the legislature narrowly approved a $430 million private-school voucher program that critics say will grow quickly to $1 billion and endanger the state’s budget.

The House voted 54-44 in favor of Gov. Bill Lee’s voucher initiative, with 20 Republicans opposing the measure, only four more than required for passage. 

Trump administration profile: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

By Indy Scholtens

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President Donald Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr.to lead the Department of Health and Human Services on Nov. 14, 2024. Kennedy, 71, ran for president last cycle, initially as a Democratic challenger to Joe Biden, but switched to run as an independent in October 2023. He suspended his campaign on Aug. 23, 2024, and endorsed Trump.