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US/World News
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson, Charismatic Champion of Civil Rights, Dies at 84 (NYT)
Jesse Jackson died Tuesday in Chicago at 84, after years of declining health. He was the most influential African American political voice in the decades between Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama.
He came up through the civil rights movement of the 1960s, joining Dr. King’s inner circle and was present at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis when King was assassinated in 1968. He spent much of the rest of his life trying to finish what King had started.
He ran for president twice — in 1984 and 1988 — becoming the first Black candidate to mount a serious, sustained challenge for a major party nomination. In 1988 he won 13 primaries and caucuses and nearly seven million votes before the party establishment coalesced around Michael Dukakis.
His “rainbow coalition” — a multiracial alliance of poor and working-class Americans bound by economic interest — became a template for the modern progressive movement. His convention speeches became landmarks of American political oratory.
His two presidential campaigns directly opened the door for Obama. Georgia Congressman John Lewis — who in many ways came to surpass Jackson as the most admired living civil rights leader — said so at the time. Obama confirmed it this week, saying, “We stood on his shoulders.”
Internationally, he was an early and forceful advocate for sanctions against apartheid South Africa, for Palestinian rights, and against the Iraq War — positions that became a blueprint for the American left’s foreign policy thinking.
His career was not without serious controversy. Members of King’s own inner circle accused him of embellishing his role in King’s final moments and using the assassination to position himself as King’s successor. Later came antisemitic remarks, personal scandals, and a persistent criticism from allies and opponents alike that his ego and appetite for the spotlight often overshadowed his cause.
He never held meaningful elected office, and some argue that’s the central tension of his legacy: a moral leader of the first order, operating in an era that increasingly demanded political ones.
Epstein
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor released under investigation after arrest (Guardian)
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — formerly Prince Andrew, having been stripped of his royal title — was arrested Thursday morning at his home on the Sandringham estate on suspicion of misconduct in public office, marking the first arrest of a senior royal family member in modern history. He was released under investigation the same evening.
The arrest stems from allegations that he shared sensitive government information with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during his time as a UK trade envoy — including confidential briefings on official visits to Asia and investment opportunities in Afghanistan — based on documents released by the US Justice Department.
King Charles expressed “deepest concern” but said the law must take its course and gave police his full support. Neither he nor Buckingham Palace were informed of the arrest in advance.
The Epstein saga engulfs Les Wexner — and the Ohio he helped build (NBC)
Leslie Wexner, Ohio’s richest man and founder of a retail empire including Victoria’s Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch, built enormous civic and political power over decades — funding campaigns, shaping development, and putting his name on institutions across the state.
Wexner gave Epstein sweeping control over his financial affairs in the late 1980s. Released Justice Department documents name Wexner as a possible co-conspirator in Epstein’s crimes. Wexner insists he was defrauded and had no knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activity.
Politicians across Ohio are scrambling to return his donations, his name is being considered for removal from buildings, and the House Oversight Committee deposed him this week.
New Mexico approves comprehensive probe of Epstein’s Zorro Ranch (NBC)
Texas businessman running for office owns Epstein’s Zorro Ranch (FOX SA)
Huffines’ son works in the Trump White House (LegiStorm)
New Mexico has reopened its criminal investigation into Epstein’s Zorro Ranch — a 7,560-acre property where multiple women say they were abused as minors — after federal agents apparently never searched it at the time of Epstein’s arrest. The state legislature has also unanimously approved a “truth commission” tasked with filing a full public report by year’s end.
The ranch’s history is now further complicated by the revelation that a limited liability corporation tied to Don Huffines — a former Texas Republican state senator currently leading the primary race for Texas comptroller — purchased the property in 2023 for an undisclosed sum. Huffines’ campaign says the family bought it at public auction, the proceeds of which benefited Epstein’s victims, and had no prior connection to the property.
Don Huffines’ son, Russell, has served as Associate Director of Agency Outreach in the White House Office of Cabinet Affairs since June 2025. Huffines is heading into early voting with a steady lead in the comptroller race, and the property acquisition — which his own representatives argued was devalued by the ranch’s “notoriety” — is now public just as Epstein-related documents continue to implicate powerful figures across the political spectrum.
Economy
US economy slowed more than expected at end of 2025 (ABC)
The U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of just 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025 — well below the prior quarter’s 4.4% — driven by slowing consumer spending, flat retail sales, and rising credit card debt, while the broader picture remains complicated by inflation still above the Fed’s 2% target and a labor market that was near-paralyzed for much of last year, leaving the Federal Reserve caught between its dual mandate to control inflation and maximize employment with interest rate cuts not expected until June at the earliest.
Supreme Court strikes down tariffs (SCOTUSblog)
In a 6-3 ruling that scrambled the court’s usual ideological lines, the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s sweeping tariffs, with three conservative justices — Roberts, Gorsuch, and Barrett — joining the court’s three liberals to hold that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act never gave the president authority to impose them; Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the word “regulate” in the law cannot be read to include the power to tax, and that Congress, not the president, holds the constitutional power to impose tariffs — while the three dissenting conservatives, Kavanaugh, Thomas, and Alito, sided with Trump, and Gorsuch and Kavanaugh used their respective concurring and dissenting opinions to take pointed shots at each other’s reasoning, leaving unresolved whether the federal government must now refund the more than $200 billion already collected.
Refunds from Trump’s struck-down tariffs remain up in the air (NBC)
Following the Supreme Court’s tariff ruling, the question of refunds on the estimated $130-175 billion collected is wide open: hundreds of companies including Costco have already filed suit, but the court offered no guidance on repayment, Trump has signaled he has no intention of moving quickly, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren has pointed out that while large corporations can lawyer up and sue, there is no legal mechanism for consumers or small businesses to recover what they paid — and within hours of the ruling, Trump announced a new 10% global tariff by executive order, raising fresh questions about whether any refunds would be rendered moot.
Trump vows to raise worldwide tariffs to 15% ‘effective immediately’ (Independent)
Trump threw a public tantrum over the Supreme Court’s 6-3 rejection of his tariffs, escalating from 10% to 15% global tariffs in less than 24 hours while calling the decision “ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American” and lashing out at Republican-appointed justices who ruled against him; the petulant response — which Democrats are framing as a “tax on the American people” — is limited to 150 days under the 1974 Trade Act unless Congress extends it, while trading partners express concerns about the uncertainty and damage to consumers and businesses caused by Trump’s vindictive policy-making.
Authoritarian Creep
DHS/ICE
A debate over warrant requirements is at the center of the partial government shutdown (WBAL)
A dispute over warrant requirements is blocking a deal to end the partial government shutdown: Democrats are refusing to restore DHS funding unless Republicans agree to require ICE to obtain a judicial warrant — signed by a judge — before entering private property, rather than the administrative warrants ICE agents currently approve themselves; a policy shift that critics say violates Fourth Amendment protections for citizens and non-citizens alike.
ICE’s Campaign Of Terror Is Not Over, Says Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (HuffPost)
Despite Tom Homan announcing a drawdown of the immigration surge in Minneapolis, Mayor Jacob Frey says the operation is not over — ICE agents remain active in the city, residents are still too terrified to leave their homes after months of enforcement actions, and observers on the ground report that agents appear to have shifted their focus from immigrants to the legal observers and clergy who have been filming and monitoring their operations.
Outrage after 2-month-old and mother ‘abandoned’ by ICE after he was hospitalized (Independent)
A two-month-old boy with bronchitis was deported to Mexico with his mother and sister just hours after being hospitalized while detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas — where he had become “unresponsive” and was reportedly “choking on his own vomit” — leaving the family “abandoned” in Mexico with only $190 from their detention commissary account; the case has sparked outrage as part of broader scrutiny of the facility, which has also seen a measles outbreak and the detention of other sick children, including an 18-month-old girl hospitalized with life-threatening respiratory illness after ICE allegedly ignored her parents’ pleas for medical care.
Trump’s election bill tops 50 Senate votes, but Democrats could still block it (NBC)
The SAVE America Act — which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo ID to cast a ballot — has cleared 50 Republican Senate votes and passed the House, but faces near-certain defeat by filibuster, as Democrats are unified in opposition and key Republicans including Susan Collins have made clear they won’t eliminate the 60-vote threshold. Trump has threatened to impose the requirements by executive order ahead of the 2026 midterms regardless, though a federal court already permanently blocked a similar executive order he signed last March, with the judge ruling that the Constitution reserves election regulation for Congress and the states — not the president.
Trump’s FCC Weaponizing ‘Equal Time’ Rule
What to know about the “equal time” rule at heart of Colbert, CBS fight (Axios)
Colbert says CBS spiked planned James Talarico interview amid FCC pressure (Politico)
‘Their plan backfired’: Colbert’s James Talarico interview generates large online audience (MaddowBlog)
FCC is investigating ABC’s ‘The View’ over ‘equal time’ rule, chairman says (PBS)
CBS blocked Stephen Colbert from airing an interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, citing the FCC’s “equal time” rule — a provision dating to the Radio Act of 1927 that requires broadcasters to offer equal airtime to all candidates in a race. Talk shows have been exempt from the rule since 1959, but FCC Chair Brendan Carr recently issued new guidance reinterpreting that exemption, specifically targeting late night and daytime talk shows.
Critics — including the FCC’s sole Democratic commissioner — argue this is government intimidation, not legitimate regulation, and note that CBS’s parent company Paramount has active regulatory matters before the Trump administration, raising serious questions about why the network chose not to fight back. Colbert put it bluntly: while Carr said in January he was thinking about eliminating the talk show exemption, “CBS generously did it for him.”
The attempt to suppress the interview spectacularly backfired. Colbert aired it on YouTube instead, where it drew over 7.3 million views on that platform alone and 85 million views across all social media — far more than the show’s average broadcast audience of 2.3 million. Talarico raised $2.5 million in the 24 hours after Colbert revealed the interview had been blocked — his single best fundraising day — with early voting in the Texas Democratic Senate primary just two weeks away.
And the pressure campaign doesn’t stop there: the FCC has also opened a formal enforcement action against ABC’s “The View” over a separate Talarico appearance — a show Carr had previously suggested investigating because its hosts are frequently critical of Trump. Carr called watching the Colbert fallout “probably one of the most fun days I’ve had in the job.”
Pentagon
Pentagon threatens Anthropic punishment (Axios)
The Pentagon is threatening to designate Anthropic a “supply chain risk” — a status normally reserved for foreign adversaries — over a dispute about the terms under which the military can use Claude, currently the only AI model available in classified military systems; Anthropic is willing to loosen restrictions but wants guardrails against mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons, while the Pentagon is demanding the right to use AI for “all lawful purposes” — a standard that critics note may diverge sharply from ethical ones, particularly given that existing mass surveillance law doesn’t contemplate AI and the Pentagon already has broad authority to collect civilian data that AI could vastly supercharge.
Hegseth invited pastor who calls for Christian theocracy to lead Pentagon prayer service (CNN)
Pete Hegseth invited Doug Wilson — a self-described Christian nationalist and Hegseth’s own pastor — to deliver a sermon at the Pentagon this week as part of a monthly worship series Hegseth launched last summer. Wilson’s views go well beyond the controversial: he supports repealing women’s right to vote, believes homosexuality should be a crime, co-authored a tract arguing that Southern slavery promoted racial harmony and was broadly beneficial to enslaved people, and advocates for a Christian theocracy in which non-Christians would be barred from holding public office or worshipping in public. His ultimate stated goal is a global Christian theocracy — achieved, he says, by peaceful means, though on a 250-year timeline. Critics say Hegseth’s embrace of Wilson is part of a broader pattern of religious imposition across federal agencies since Trump returned to office — and a particular problem at the Pentagon, where the Secretary of Defense is supposed to be accountable to service members of all faiths and none.
International
Cuba
Why Is Trump Strangling Cuba? (Zeteo)
Cuban drivers face monthslong wait for gasoline in an app designed to reduce lines (ABC)
Cuba is in a severe humanitarian crisis — daily blackouts, food and medicine shortages, airlines canceling flights, banks cutting hours to conserve power — after a U.S.-engineered oil blockade cut off the island’s last remaining suppliers: Venezuela halted shipments after Trump captured Nicolás Maduro in January, and Mexico followed under tariff threats; a UN human rights panel has condemned the blockade as incompatible with international law, while critics note the policy is widely seen as a cynical electoral play to shore up Cuban-American conservative support in Miami ahead of the midterms — crafted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, son of Cuban immigrants, while the administration simultaneously pursues broad U.S. oil interests in Venezuela.
Middle East
Iran says “clearer path ahead” to nuclear deal with U.S. (CBS)
Saudi Arabia may have uranium enrichment under proposed deal with US (AP)
Here’s what we know about the buildup of U.S. military assets in the Middle East (PBS)
Even as U.S. and Iranian negotiators meet in Geneva for indirect nuclear talks mediated by Oman — describing the latest session as “more constructive” and agreeing on guiding principles toward a draft agreement — the Trump administration is simultaneously deploying its largest Middle East military force in decades: two aircraft carrier strike groups, 14 ships, over 10,000 additional service members, and dozens of F-35s, F-22s and F-15s, in an explicit warning that military strikes will follow if talks collapse; experts warn that unlike Iran’s deliberately telegraphed retaliation after last June’s U.S.-Israeli strikes on its nuclear facilities, Tehran has now signaled it would respond in ways designed to “draw blood,” potentially triggering all-out regional conflict — all while the Trump administration is simultaneously negotiating a nuclear cooperation deal with Saudi Arabia that would allow the kingdom to enrich uranium on its own soil, a risk that nonproliferation experts say stands in direct contradiction to the pressure being applied to Iran.
Trump banner on Justice Dept. building draws authoritarian comparisons (WaPo)
A large banner bearing Trump’s portrait and the phrase “Make America Safe Again” has been installed on the facade of the Justice Department’s headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, prompting criticism from Democrats and former FBI Director James Comey — who noted the irony that the building’s own inscription reads “Where Law Ends Tyranny Begins” — with critics arguing the display exemplifies Trump’s broader effort to bend the historically independent agency to his personal and political will.
Democrats Still Don’t Get It
Every Single Participant in NYT Focus Group Preferred Progressive Candidates Over Moderate Ones (Common Dreams)
A New York Times focus group of 13 Democratic and independent voters found deep fury at the Democratic Party establishment — describing it as “spineless,” “paralyzed,” and full of “sellouts and suckers” — with particular anger directed at the eight Senate Democrats who voted to end the government shutdown without extracting any concessions, and at leadership’s repeated capitulations to Trump on ICE and immigration; by contrast, the same voters expressed strong enthusiasm for democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders, AOC, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, with all 13 saying they would choose a progressive over a moderate given the choice, reflecting a growing conviction that the party’s establishment wing is not just ineffective but actively complicit in the conditions that created Trump in the first place.
Pro-Palestine Super PAC Brings Multimillion-Dollar War Chest to Midterms (American Prospect)
A new super PAC called American Priorities is positioning itself as a direct financial counterweight to AIPAC, committing millions to progressive primary challengers who oppose unconditional U.S. support for Israel — beginning with Nida Allam in North Carolina and Rev. Frederick Haynes in Texas, both of whom are also backed by Justice Democrats; the effort is notable both for its scale — potentially matching AIPAC dollar-for-dollar in a dozen races — and for its explicit bet that a pro-Palestine stance is a winning position in Democratic primaries, a calculation backed by polling showing supermajority support among Democrats for sanctioning Israel, and underscored by AIPAC’s own apparent awareness of its toxicity, given that it has recently been funneling money through shell PACs with names like “Elect Chicago Women” to obscure its involvement.
Progressive group rolls out 2026 candidates, pitching working-class challengers (ABC)
Justice Democrats announced a slate of 12 progressive primary challengers for 2026, pitching candidates who will refuse corporate PAC money, AIPAC funds, and donations from the crypto and AI lobbies — a direct rebuke to what the group calls a Democratic Party captured by corporate interests; the slate includes former Rep. Cori Bush making a comeback bid in Missouri, Sacramento councilmember Mai Vang challenging a longtime California incumbent, and Dallas pastor Frederick Douglass Haynes III running for the open Texas seat vacated by Jasmine Crockett, all running on the argument that this moment demands fighters, not institutionalists.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries CRASHES OUT When Asked About “Abolish ICE” and AIPAC (Left Hook)
Progressive commentator Wajahat Ali confronted House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries about embracing “Abolish ICE,” citing the agency’s plans to convert warehouses into detention camps and barbaric overcrowding conditions, but Jeffries declined to take a hardline stance and instead spoke about “reining in” ICE through negotiations with Republicans; Ali argues this represents Democratic leadership’s failure to seize an opportunity during the partial DHS shutdown, contrasting it with progressive primary winner Analilia Mejia’s success in New Jersey after embracing both Abolish ICE and pro-Palestine positions despite heavy AIPAC spending against her moderate opponent.
Indiana News
The Crossroads
Democrats Delegate Fight
Hamilton County Dems set record w/ candidates (Noblesville Times)
Record number of Democrats seek to be delegates (Elkhart Truth)
Marion County Democrats challenge filings (Karla Lopez Owens)
Election Board Spikes Dozens of Candidates (Ron Newlin, Facebook)
Indiana is seeing an extraordinary wave of grassroots Democratic energy heading into 2026 — record candidate filings in Hamilton County, a record number of delegate candidates in Elkhart County, contested races in all 25 state Senate districts for the first time in 50 years, and the largest number of contested state House races since 1992 — a surge driven by activists who have concluded that the party’s chronic underperformance in a state that isn’t as red as it looks is a problem of participation, not ideology.
But in Marion County, the state’s most populous Democratic stronghold, the party establishment is moving aggressively to strangle that energy in its crib. After organizers spent months recruiting roughly 200 new candidates to run for precinct committee chairs and state convention delegate seats, the Marion County Democratic Party — chaired by Myla Eldridge — waited until one week after the filing deadline and then challenged over 100 of them, citing a party rule requiring that candidates have voted in a recent Democratic primary; many of the challenged candidates had voted Republican in 2024 specifically to oppose Mike Braun in a well-organized but unsuccessful effort. Party leadership had assured organizers it would not comb through voting histories — and the rules explicitly allow the county chair to certify candidates as Democrats on a case-by-case basis — but Eldridge refused to respond to certification requests and proceeded with the challenges anyway. A subsequent hearing before the Marion County Election Board, described by one organizer as “four hours of shameless gaslighting,” resulted in the removal of dozens of loyal, active Democrats from the ballot after being given two minutes each to make their case. The organizer’s conclusion: the Marion County Democratic Party doesn’t want voters choosing their own precinct chairs and convention delegates — because those delegates will choose the party’s Secretary of State candidate — and would rather keep those seats vacant so they can fill them by appointment with people accountable to the machine, not the public.
GOP Has Internal Divisions Too
PAC targets Republicans who opposed redistricting, but expert doubts it will succeed (Indiana Citizen)
A newly formed PAC called No Quarter is threatening to primary the 21 Indiana Republican state senators who joined Democrats in December to block Trump-backed midcycle redistricting that would have flipped the state’s congressional delegation from 7-2 to 9-0 Republican — framing the holdouts as RINOs who betrayed both the party and the president; eight of those senators are up for reelection and already have primary opponents, though political scientists are skeptical the PAC has the money or ground game to make much difference, and its aggressive tone — mocking incumbents with nicknames like “Boozin’ Bohacek” — may do more harm than good.
Severe Weather
Suspected tornado leaves trail of damage in Bloomington area (WTHR)
Trump administration restricts new FEMA disaster deployments during DHS shutdown (CNN)
An EF2 tornado tore through Monroe County and the Bloomington area Thursday evening — in February, a month when Hoosiers don’t typically take shelter from twisters — damaging homes, businesses, and the county humane society with 120 mph winds, while a second EF0 tornado touched down in Sullivan County; residents are being directed to Indiana 211 to report damage as officials begin assessing whether to pursue a federal disaster declaration — but that process may be complicated by the Trump administration’s decision to freeze FEMA deployments during the partial government shutdown, halting over 300 disaster responders who were preparing for assignments, even though the Disaster Relief Fund that pays for such work is entirely unaffected by the shutdown; a former FEMA chief of staff called the move “reckless disregard for communities recovering from FEMA-supported disasters,” while an agency official put it more bluntly: “it’s yet another way they continue to bleed us out and kill the mission.”
General Assembly
State seeks change after Indy councilors use taxes to pave roads by their homes (IndyStar)
The Republican-controlled legislature is moving to restrict how county councilors spend state road funding, after Mirror Indy reported that several Indianapolis councilors used $1 million each in one-time discretionary infrastructure money to repave streets near their own homes or workplaces; Senate Bill 179 would require counties to use asset management plans — which prioritize the worst roads first — to determine where state-matched road dollars go, though the city argues the spending in question was local income tax money, not state funds, and councilors maintain they were responding to constituent needs rather than personal interest.
Bills on the legislative scrap heap (ICC)
A bill that would have protected Hoosier patients’ homes and paychecks from medical debt collectors — Senate Bill 85 — died Thursday after the House Public Health Committee declined to take it up, despite having passed the Senate with bipartisan support. Also failing to advance was the breaded pork tenderloin’s bid to become Indiana’s official state sandwich. But in more serious matters, two heavily opposed conservative bills also failed to make it through: one that would have codified binary sex definitions throughout Indiana code and mandated biological-sex-based prison housing and school bathrooms, and another that would have allowed Hoosiers to sue their neighbors over abortion pills — and in a win for local communities, a data center and utility siting bill that would have allowed large projects to override local officials’ objections also died without a hearing after intense pushback.
Indiana House approves five-year syringe exchange extension, sends bill back to Senate (Indiana Citizen)
The State House passed a five-year extension of the state’s syringe service programs 70-22, sending the bill back to the Senate with amendments that add buffer zones around schools, churches and childcare facilities, require one-for-one needle exchanges, and allow state oversight of local programs — a compromise that falls short of the Senate’s preferred ten-year extension but saves programs that would otherwise expire June 30, and that supporters argue do far more than distribute needles, connecting people struggling with addiction to testing, treatment referrals and recovery services.
Indiana Senate passes bill reshaping how utilities charge customers (IndyStar)
The State Senate unanimously passed HB 1002, a sweeping electric utility affordability bill that introduces performance-based ratemaking — giving the state more power to hold utilities like AES and Duke accountable to affordability and reliability goals — in what consumer advocates are calling some of the most pro-consumer utility legislation to pass the Indiana General Assembly in decades; but advocates warn customers shouldn’t expect immediate relief, describing it as a long-term structural shift rather than a quick fix, and noting that several amendments that could have provided more immediate help — including a pause on the sales tax on electric bills — failed on the Senate floor.
Township merger plan could advance under compromise bill (ICC)
Hoosier lawmakers are moving toward consolidating the state’s 1,000-plus township governments, with a House committee endorsing a compromise bill that would require low-performing townships (those scoring poorly on a points system measuring services like emergency aid, fire departments and timely financial reporting) to merge or be absorbed by cities — affecting an estimated 300 townships, down from the 650 that would have been hit under the House’s original bill — with mergers taking effect January 2029; it’s the latest attempt to modernize a system dating to the 1800s that has resisted reform since at least 2007, though this time even the Indiana Township Association is cautiously on board.
Hoosiers would have less time to vote under a change slipped into an election bill (IndyStar)
Supermajority Republicans slipped an amendment into an election bill without public testimony that would cut the state’s early voting period from 28 days to 16 — a change that would take effect as soon as this May’s primary; the fraud justification for the change appears to have been imported wholesale from Trump’s repeatedly debunked claims of widespread election fraud, which Indiana’s own legislative leaders have rejected, and the Republican sponsor of the amendment admitted under questioning that he has no data showing a longer early voting period has actually contributed to fraud — a finding consistent with Indiana’s own record of just 59 criminal election fraud convictions over four decades; meanwhile, Democrats warn the reduction could disenfranchise working voters and create Election Day bottlenecks, pointing out that roughly 90,000 Hoosiers voted during the period that would be eliminated in the last midterm alone.
Hammond Bears? Team says Indiana site near Wolf Lake is now its main stadium focus (Sun-Times)
An State House committee unanimously advanced legislation creating a stadium authority that would help the Chicago Bears build a domed stadium in Hammond — a deal that would have Indiana taxpayers finance construction through bonds, with the Bears retaining all stadium revenues for 35 years and then receiving the building for $1 once the bonds are paid off; it’s a structure that should raise eyebrows given the overwhelming evidence that public stadium financing rarely delivers the promised economic returns, and the Bears aren’t even committing to the move — they’re simultaneously stringing along Illinois officials who say negotiations remain active, using the Indiana legislation as leverage in a three-year saga that has seen the team pivot repeatedly between Chicago, Arlington Heights and Hammond; the proposed site, meanwhile, is a golf course built over an old industrial landfill within steps of an oil refinery, and the team hasn’t even released renderings.
The Kids Aren’t Alright
Students rally at Statehouse, some called for lawmakers to address bullying (WRTV)
Hundreds of Indiana students descended on the Statehouse Monday to advocate on issues affecting young people — with bullying front and center — but the visit carried a bitter irony: the two bills they came to support, one that would have redefined bullying to make it more reportable and another that would have created local prevention committees and given families a path to appeal unresolved cases beyond their school district, never received a hearing; advocates say that lack of recourse is precisely the problem, with school districts able to silence students and parents without consequence, a dynamic that hit home when sophomore Jakiah Brown described being hospitalized for eight days at age 11 due to bullying while those responsible faced none — all against a backdrop of rising youth suicides in Indiana.
Indiana lawmakers hashing out proposed social media restrictions for kids (FOX59)
Indiana lawmakers are racing to salvage a social media restriction bill in the final week of the session after a procedural dispute sent the legislation back to square one, but Senate President Pro Tem Rod Bray says he’s optimistic a plan requiring parental consent for minors 16 and under to access social media will still pass — with lawmakers also working to bulletproof it against the First Amendment challenges that have sunk similar laws in other states.
How are Indiana kids doing? Here’s a breakdown of this year’s ‘State of the Child (WTHR)
Indiana ranks 25th nationally in overall child well-being according to the latest KIDS COUNT Data Book, with the state showing improvement in education (jumping from 17th to 11th nationally) driven by record-high graduation rates and improved early literacy scores, but significant challenges remain: youth suicides increased from 143 to 152 in 2023, one in five children lack consistent access to nutritious food, and while reports of persistent sadness and suicidal thoughts declined, mental health concerns persist with social media identified as a contributing factor; the state’s 1.59 million children are increasingly diverse, with over a third being non-white, and while teen pregnancy has hit historic lows, advocates say Indiana can’t be satisfied with “middle of the pack” performance on child welfare.
Lawmakers could scrap child labor reporting in Indiana (IndyStar)
Indiana lawmakers are moving to eliminate the state’s Youth Employment System — a database that tracks employers and minors on their payrolls — despite warnings from the Department of Labor that doing so would reduce the efficiency of inspections for child labor law compliance; the change, pushed by Sen. Linda Rogers (who owns a golf course registered to employ minors and previously sponsored bills expanding teen work hours and lowering the alcohol service age), comes as Indiana has steadily weakened child labor protections since 2019 and child labor violations involving hazardous jobs hit a nine-year high in 2023, with supporters arguing the reporting requirements are burdensome to employers who might otherwise hire more teens.
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