Gun Violence is Unrelenting but Preventable

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American gun violence is unrelenting, but we do not have to accept it as inevitable. Let us honor the individuals mentioned above, along with all other victims and survivors by taking action on their behalf.

Passage of legislation such as Universal Background Checks, Red Flag Laws, Child Access Prevention Laws, a ban on assault style weapons, and protections for victims of domestic violence will help make us safer. We must vigorously support bills calling for these changes.

CENSUS – the ongoing saga of delayed results and the impact on the 2022 election

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date changes have created angst for the political parties and its’ constituencies and placed states in difficult positions to legally and accurately complete their responsibilities.  Some states have constitutional deadlines for redistricting and/or statutory filing deadlines for primaries.

Michigan’s redistricting commission will hold an open meeting at 1 PM on March 5th to discuss the conflict between when Census data will be available and constitutional deadlines. Complicating matters, voting rights advocates have said, is that this will be the first redistricting cycle since the Supreme Court eliminated the preclearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act that required states with a history of racial discrimination to prove to the Department of Justice that their electoral maps weren’t drawn to dilute the power of voters of color. The shortened redistricting window leaves less time to challenge maps in the courts as discriminatory.