Following the 2024 presidential election, some states are already focusing on implementing election security legislation, such as requiring proof of U.S. citizenship and reducing the time it takes to count ballots.
Republicans in Ohio, North Carolina, and Arizona are all zeroing in on election integrity following this month’s election, and ahead of newly-elected officials taking office next year.
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Jon Graft is on a mission to reignite the passion for learning by pushing a long-denigrated  classroom practice: vocational education.
The superintendent of the Butler Tech District of high schools in Ohio is a leader in the growing movement to revive public education, marred by low test scores and high absenteeism, through a hands-on approach to learning that prepares students for careers in today’s tech-driven economy. Traditionally a means of funneling disadvantaged kids into outdated shop classes and dead-end jobs, vocational education is being reimagined by Graft and others in sophisticated career and technical education (CTE) programs nationwide, offering high school students of all academic abilities training in healthcare, computer science, engineering, skilled trades, and even the arts.
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Democrats had outspent Republicans on advertisements in every competitive Senate race except for Ohio as of Wednesday, Axios reported.
Republicans are losing the ad spending race in Pennsylvania, Montana, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona and Michigan, though have spent slightly more in Ohio, leading their Democratic rivals by a margin of $158.4 million to $152 million, according to Axios. The Republican spending advantage in Ohio may be slightly misleading as their roughly $6 million spending advantage in Ohio is the product of considerable ad spending during the state’s competitive Republican primary, as reflected in Federal Election Commission records.
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Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance being named Monday night as the GOP’s vice-presidential nominee sparked a flurry of names and interested candidates coming forth to potentially take his Senate seat – from local politicians to former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to the powerful GOP Ohio congressman Jim Jordan.
Ramaswamy has reportedly been angling for the seat since about the time Vance emerged on GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s short list.
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Chemical pollution emitting from the East Palestine, Ohio, train crash in 2023 rained down on 16 different states, according to a study released on Wednesday.
A Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed and crashed in East Palestine in February 2023, sending plumes of black smoke rising over Ohio and Pennsylvania. The smoke carried the chemicals and polluted 16 states, spreading over roughly 540,000 square miles of land, according to a new study published in Environmental Research Letters.
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In April, the Biden administration finalized efficiency standards for residential water heaters, as part of a broader climate goal of electrifying the American household.
The Department of Energy estimates that, under the new rules, 50 percent of newly manufactured electric storage water heaters will utilize heat pump technology to be in compliance. The standards go into effect beginning in 2029.
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) plans to spend more than $25 million on the November elections and will particularly focus on pro-abortion state constitutional amendments.
This year, the ACLU is spending the largest amount of money it ever has on elections, Deirdre Schifeling, ACLU’s chief political and advocacy officer, told NBC News.
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Bills that seeks to block med schools from receiving federal funds if they maintain diversity equity and inclusion mandates are winding their way through Congress.
“Embracing anti-Discrimination, Unbiased Curricula, and Advancing Truth in Education,” or the EDUCATE Act, would limit the availability of funds for medical schools that “adopt certain policies and requirements relating to” DEI, it states.
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The prevailing belief in the Democratic Party is that abortion will again be a potent issue against Republicans in this year’s election cycle just as it was in 2022 – and that this time it will not just cost the GOP gaining the majority in the U.S. Senate, but also give Democrats the upper hand in retaining the presidency and winning back the House.
Abortion rights put the brakes on the Republicans’ chances in 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion after almost 50 years; a decision that transformed American politics that year, benefiting Democrats who were on their way to a bruising midterm election defeat.
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A coalition of states has filed a legal challenge to President Joe Biden’s latest executive effort to forgive a portion of Americans’ student loan debt.
The lawsuit comes after Biden on Monday announced the plan, which the states in question say is an overreach of executive authority. The White House claims that Biden has so far canceled at least some of the debt for 4 million Americans, totalling $146 billion so far.
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