When Janelle Bynum won her congressional race in November 2024, becoming the first Black woman to represent Oregon in Congress, she wasn’t just making history. She was validating a training methodology that has quietly revolutionized how Democratic women prepare for political office. Bynum is one of three recent Emerge program graduates to reach Congress, all...
A federal court ruled that Alabama lawmakers intentionally disenfranchised Black voters by refusing to redraw the state congressional district map to include a second majority-Black district, despite receiving a previous order from federal judges. In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that state lawmakers violated the Voting Rights Act after submitting a map that only contained...
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka’s arrest during a protest against the Delaney Hall ICE detention center has ignited a firestorm of controversy across New Jersey political circles. The dramatic Friday confrontation occurred as Baraka demonstrated against the newly opened facility, resulting in his detention for allegedly trespassing on federal property despite his position as the city’s...
The new top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles is offering a controversial plea deal to Trevor Kirk, a former L.A. sheriff’s deputy convicted by a jury of felony use excessive force against a Black woman, allowing him to instead plead guilty to a misdemeanor. The unusual post-trial plea agreement, obtained by Atlanta Black Star, has...
That fundamental legal protection allowing detained people to challenge their imprisonment might be on the chopping block. In a development that has alarmed constitutional experts across the political spectrum, Trump administration officials have confirmed they’re “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus, one of the oldest and most foundational legal rights in American jurisprudence. This extraordinary...
While migrants from crisis-ridden countries like Venezuela, the Congo, and Afghanistan are being denied refuge or deported to brutal detention centers, Donald Trump and his administration are expected to welcome 54 white South African refugees with full resettlement benefits — despite no ongoing war or humanitarian crisis in their country. In Venezuela, crime is soaring,...
