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NC Court Rules on Partisan Gerrymandering
In a landmark decision this month, a North Carolina state court struck down the Republican-drawn state legislative map as an illegal partisan gerrymander. The court gave the legislature two weeks to redraw district lines for the 2020 elections. Lawmakers are prohibited from using political data to achieve partisan advantage, and the redrawing must take place in public view. This ruling has national implications and could pave the way for other state constitutional challenges against partisan gerrymandering ahead of the next redistricting cycle.
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Higher Ed Affordability on Everyone’s Mind
Close to 70% of college students graduate with debt, and the collective student loan debt in the United States in 2019 is now over $1.5 trillion. In Michigan, for example, public universities and community colleges face an affordability crisis in which increasing tuitions and state funding cuts have created significant barriers to higher education, especially for students of color. SiX published a report this month highlighting the most important trends in legislation that state lawmakers have crafted to address the student debt crisis.
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Concerns Over E-Cigarettes Cause State Action
Michigan became the first state to ban flavored e-cigarettes and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo later proposed legislation to do the same in response to concerns of marketing nicotine products towards youth. Since then, there have been calls from state legislators in Utah, Delaware, and New Jersey to follow suit. This occurs on the heels of an investigation into 450 cases of a mysterious lung illness related to vaping.
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The Paradox of Food Waste and Food Scarcity
Santa Clara University recently published a study finding that more than a third of all edible produce is being left to rot in fields, as farmers cannot justify the costs of labor based on the price produce will sell for. This is a significant increase from previous estimates, and may end up drastically increasing the current estimates of overall food waste of in the U.S. at 40 percent. This is occurring at the same time almost 12 percent of U.S. households are food insecure, and 37 million individuals including more than 11 million children in our country face hunger issues.
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States Modernize, Others Limit Access to Voting
Many states are taking steps to modernize their voting systems and increase access for voters ahead of the upcoming elections. Maine will become the first state to use ranked-choice voting in presidential elections in 2020, and Pennsylvania is launching a new option for voters to apply for absentee ballots online. Meanwhile, “1,688 polling sites across 13 states have closed in the six years since the Shelby v. Holder decision gutted key voter protections,” according to a new report from The Leadership Conference.
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Health Care Still Inaccessible for Many
For the first time this decade, federal data is showing a significant increase in the proportion of Americans without health insurance over the past year. The Census Bureau found that 27.5 million residents did not have coverage in 2019, reversing the expansion in coverage following the Affordable Care Act. The poverty rate has fallen to its lowest level in 18 years, and yet, we are seeing high levels of inequality and growing numbers of people at financial risk due to lack of health care coverage.
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Lawmakers Speak Out Against Abortion Bans
Sen. Margie Bright Matthews of South Carolina and Rep. Sarah Unsicker of Missouri are voicing their criticisms of legislation to implement new abortion restrictions. These restrictive and oppressive laws are being passed at a time when public opinion polls show a majority of Americans believe abortions should be legal in all or most cases.
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