The reach of late Republican gerrymandering mastermind Thomas Hofeller may be longer than previously known, according to a review of thousands of documents and emails culled from his hard drives, obtained by The Intercept. While Hofeller was known for drawing maps to give Republicans an advantage and to limit the impact of voters of color in North Carolina, Texas, Missouri, and Virginia, the new documents reveal he also participated in the 2010 redistricting cycle in Alabama, Florida, and West Virginia.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine appointed an interdisciplinary task force  to look at that question. It found that, on the contrary, “immigration has an overall positive impact on long-run economic growth in the United States.” Immigration, the report says, has “little to no negative  effects on overall wages and employment of native-born workers in the longer term.” Native-born teenagers who have not finished high school may work fewer hours, at least in the short term. (They won’t lose jobs.)

The author points out that Tim Kane is not a progressive and has time and again stood with Wall Street in favor of big banks. The article also points out that the Tim Kane choice was an affront to the progressives and a signal to the establishment that she will play ball.

Democrats are daring to dream. But as strong as Hillary Clinton looks against Donald Trump four months before Election Day – earlier this month, data whiz Nate Silver gave Trump only a 19 percent shot at beating the former secretary of state – 2016 is not looking like a Democratic wave year. Continue reading

As we've reflected on the events of the past week, one of my colleagues came across this speech made by Robert F. Kennedy at the Cleveland City Club on April 5, 1968. She encountered it on a recently published blog post and, at first, didn't realize that it was nearly 40 years old. Many of us have been remembering the events of 1968 and feeling an uncomfortable familiarity over the course of the past few days. Continue reading