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Evening Wrap

Your daily analysis of trending topics in state government. The snark is nonpartisan.

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Reticulating splines

A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that Donald Trump can be prosecuted for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, sharply rejecting his claims of absolute immunity and moving the case one step closer to a jury trial, our D.C. bureau reported

Reticulating splines

I used to play The Sims, a video game where you create little people and build them little houses and then tend to the boring details of their daily existence in hopes of climbing the corporate ladder* so you can achieve your dreams of building bigger homes and filling them with better stuff. (Basically it is American capitalism, but slightly more fun, and also proof that we exist in a simulation.) My Sims had some amount of free will, but ultimately I had all the power, which I mostly used to force them to exercise, play chess and extinguish the fires they periodically set all over their homes.

Suits, ugh

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Sunday released the much-anticipated text of a $118 billion bill that would tie critical foreign aid to a massive overhaul of the country’s immigration system, our D.C. bureau reported. The 370-page package is likely to face a vote in the Senate this week despite mounting opposition in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) declared it “dead on arrival.”

An early spring, per the rodent

I’ll begin with a very normal story out of Alaska, where a proposed bill would require school districts to train volunteers to serve as armed guards. Schools would be exempted only if no one agrees to assume the role of unpaid sentry, or if no one is “able” to do it, per the Alaska Beacon.

Politics, in other words

Horrified to learn that corporal punishment is still a thing in Florida schools, lawmakers on Wednesday advanced a bill that would continue the practice — but only if a child’s parent approves, per the Florida Phoenix.

It's because I care

Two weeks ago, we talked about an increasingly common health care scenario: A private equity firm swoops in to purchase a hospital chain, saddles it with debt, uses the proceeds to pay off already wealthy investors and then sells off the properties, leaving communities to deal with the fallout. As their stake in American health care grows, equity firms have found themselves in the crosshairs of legislative debate and public outrage. Most of that negative attention has focused on hospitals and nursing homes — but that’s not the full story, Stateline reported.

Never a dull moment

The aforementioned proposals are all real examples from Indiana, where House lawmakers spent Monday advancing a veritable buffet of legislation, the Indiana Capital Chronicle reported. By which I mean: There’s something for everyone! Do you wish lazy high-schoolers would pull up their bootstraps and get full-time jobs already? There’s a bill for that! Do you worry about the lack of random inspections at dog breeding facilities? There’s a bill for that! Do you long to drink cocktails at home, but not quite enough to make them at home? Yep — there’s a bill for that, too!

Kid stuff

For decades, the state of Missouri has seized Social Security benefits from foster kids to help defray the cost of their care. Usually, the kids have no idea. This is legal under federal law, which permits foster care agencies to serve as financial representatives for children who are eligible for benefits, either because they have a disability or because their parents have died. And it’s a sizable chunk of change. Last year alone, the state confiscated at least $6.1 million, the Missouri Independent reported.

Big swings

Senate Republicans said Thursday they would continue negotiations on a bipartisan immigration package despite pressure from Donald Trump to scuttle the measure ahead of this year’s presidential election. Debate over the deal, which would trade GOP-backed border security measures for $106 billion in global security funding, is at a “critical moment,” U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) told our bureau in D.C.

Interventions, or not

The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Wednesday to halt a pending execution in Alabama, clearing the way for the state to put to death a prisoner using nitrogen gas, an untested method that critics say is inhumane, the Alabama Reflector reported

Where am I?

Whatever slim chance remained for a relatively sane election year evaporated into the ether Tuesday night as Trump triumphed in the New Hampshire GOP primary, besting Nikki Haley by 11 points, per the New Hampshire Bulletin. That margin is a lethal blow for Haley’s campaign, which outspent Trump two to one in hopes of wooing New Hampshire’s moderate Republicans and independent voters and still failed to finish within 10 points of first place. There is no plucky comeback in store here. This is not the turning point of the primary. This is the end, and everyone knows it.

A month in politics is a LIFETIME

We need to talk about New Hampshire, but first, we need to talk about abortion.