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Civil rights advocates on Tuesday filed a lawsuit to overturn a redistricting map expected to favor Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections, saying it weakens the electoral influence of Black voters. The NAACP and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed the lawsuit in Texas.They accuse Texas legislative leaders of engaging in gerrymandering to prevent Black voters from electing candidates of their choice. “The state of Texas is only 40% white, but white voters control over 73% of the state’s congressional seats,” Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement. “It’s quite obvious that Texas’s…

The Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters is photographed in Washington on May 5, 2025. Gene J. Puskar/AP hide caption toggle caption Gene J. Puskar/AP Some employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency who signed a public letter of dissent earlier this week were put on administrative leave Tuesday evening, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press. More than 180 current and former FEMA employees signed the letter sent to the FEMA Review Council and Congress on Monday critiquing recent cuts to agency staff and programs, and warning that FEMA’s capacity to respond to a major disaster was dangerously diminished.…

8/26: CBS Evening News Plus – CBS News Watch CBS News Texas floods expose gaps in emergency warning system; Climate scientist explains what made the Texas floods so extreme Source link

In this moment of crisis, we need a unified, progressive opposition to Donald Trump.  We’re starting to see one take shape in the streets and at ballot boxes across the country: from New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s campaign focused on affordability, to communities protecting their neighbors from ICE, to the senators opposing arms shipments to Israel.  The Democratic Party has an urgent choice to make: Will it embrace a politics that is principled and popular, or will it continue to insist on losing elections with the out-of-touch elites and consultants that got us here?  At The Nation, we…

The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday suspended more than 20 employees who signed an open letter arguing the Trump administration had undone years of post-Hurricane Katrina progress at the disaster relief agency, multiple sources told CBS News.Monday’s open letter to Congress — known as the “Katrina Declaration” — said it was signed by 191 current and former FEMA employees. Some 35 attached their names, while the rest said they withheld them over fear of retaliation.Some of the current FEMA employees who used their names received emails on Tuesday night saying they had been placed on paid administrative leave “effective…

Mason, Tennessee — The small West Tennessee town of Mason, just 2 square miles in size, is home to about 1,000 people. But its residents are now divided by what a new immigration detention facility will mean for the area. Shannon Whitfield has lived in Mason for 13 years. Earlier this month, Mason’s town leaders voted to reopen a shuttered private prison, the West Tennessee Detention Facility, and turn it into a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center. “This is not the place for an ICE facility. This is not the place for a for-profit prison,” Whitfield told CBS News. Mason experienced…

The NEA Creative Writing Fellowships have launched many prominent literary careers. Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Getty Images Alice Walker. Charles Bukowski. Louise Erdrich. Juan Felipe Herrera. These are just some of the authors who received a Creative Writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts over the years. The fellowship has now been canceled. The annual program was set up in 1966 to help foster American fiction, non-fiction and poetry. The latest iteration of the fellowship offered fiction and creative non-fiction writers a $50,000 grant. Applications were due in March and notifications were set to go out…

Florida could be the next big target for Republicans to redraw their congressional lines to their advantage, with plans in the works to potentially target three to five House seats currently held by Democrats before the 2026 midterm elections. The state already has a highly gerrymandered map that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through in 2022, which led to a congressional delegation of 20 Republicans and eight Democrats.A more aggressive gerrymander in Florida would launch another salvo in the political battle that has most recently seen GOP-controlled Texas and the Democratic-controlled California fight to enact new political maps. Currently, Democrats would…

Politics / August 26, 2025 And DC residents will be footing much of the bill. Ad Policy Donald Trump visits the US Park Police Anacostia Operations Facility on August 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images) Amid the shock and awe of occupation by armed National Guard troops with the mission of policing a city experiencing a 30-year low in violent crime, it’s been easy to overlook just how bloated and extravagant Donald Trump’s siege of Washington, DC, is proving to be. With 2,100 National Guard personnel now roaming the streets looking to hound detained residents into…

Lawyers for former special counsel Jack Smith on Monday defended him in the face of an ethics probe into his actions investigating President Trump before the 2024 election, referring to the basis of the investigation as “imaginary and unfounded.”Earlier this month, the Office of the Special Counsel — which is not affiliated with Smith’s former position — launched a probe into Smith’s handling of two criminal investigations into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents and alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election. Mr. Trump pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. File: Special Prosecutor Jack Smith addresses reporters after his…