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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) Lawmakers punted a bill that stiffens penalties against protesters who block highways and streets.

The bill would also have given drivers who feared for their life immunity if they injure or kill someone.

Every protest where theres cars revving their engines threatening to run people over this bill is a license to hunt and a license to kill, said Justin Jones, a community organizer.

The impassioned debate extended on both sides the Senate bills sponsor said its about protection.

This in my opinion strengthens the ability for that person to be immune to protect their own life and the life of the person theyre in the vehicle with, said Republican Sen. Paul Rose said.

The amended bill calls for the first offense to be a class A misdemeanor and a fine.

Within a year if another violation happens the penalty for protesting in the street would increase to a class E felony and fine.

In your mind your intention is not to harm someone your intention is to protect your family of those occupants in your car or maybe even yourself, Rose said.

Democrats on the committee highlighted former Tennessee Senator Thelma Harpers previous protestwhen she stood in front of garbage trucks heading to dump in her district.

Had she been stopped back then and this law was in effect, look at all the good work we wouldve missed out on, Sen. Sara Kyle, a Memphis Democrat said.

Demonstrators at the hearing say lawmakers are encouraging violence against them.

What is violent is a bill that will encourage cars to run over protesters, what is violent is making it a felony and taking away somebodys voting right because theyre exercising their first amendment rights, Jones said.

The bill ultimately was sent to Summer Study. A way to kill the bill for the legislative session.

The bill would have also increased penalties against rioters.

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Republican-led bill giving immunity to some drivers who hit protesters shelved for now - WATE 6 On Your Side

BARONE

BY MICHAEL BARONE

The COVID-delayed results of the 2020 census are finally in, with totals for the 50 states and the District of Columbia at nearly one-third of a billion - 331,449,281 - and with surprises having to do with the short run and what French historians call the "longue duree."

The short-term news revolves around the function for which the framers of the Constitution mandated the world's first regularly scheduled census: the reapportionment of seats of the House of Representatives among the states. That's done according to a 1941 statutory formula that the Census Bureau conveniently applies.

The results were underwhelming. Only seven seats out of 435 were switched from one state to the other. Texas gained two, and Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon gained one each. Losing one each were California (for the first time in history), Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Readers who keep up with these things will recognize that population and representation continue to flow from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West and, generally, from Democratic states to Republican states. But they will also recognize the changes are small, nothing like the censuses in which one state gained eight seats (California in 1960) or another lost five (New York in 1980).

The partisan effects are likely to be small as well, expert forecasters agree. Sean Trende of Real Clear Politics predicts a Republican net gain of four seats. The Cook Political Report's David Wasserman pegs it at 3.5 and Kyle Kondik of Sabato's Crystal Ball at two. Not quite enough to overturn the 222-213 majority Democrats won in November 2020.

All three emphasize that the redistricting processes within the states could produce a wide range of results. According to Wasserman, Republicans control redistricting in states with 187 districts, Democrats in states with 75 districts and theoretically bipartisan commissions in states with 121 districts. Control is split between parties in states with 46 districts, and six states have just one district each.

That's less of an advantage than Republicans had in the 2010 cycle and about the same as they had in the 2000 cycle; it's less than the advantages Democrats had in the 1960, 1970 and 1980 cycles. Democrats' advantages then derived from their majorities in northern metro areas and near monopolies in the South. Republicans' more recent advantages are due mainly to the clustering of Democratic voters in central cities, sympathetic suburbs and university towns, while Republican voters are more evenly spread around the country.

As for the long-term effects, the 2020 census shows less population change and less internal migration than government and private estimators expected, based on models from previous decades. Arizona grew 3.3% less than the census estimate and didn't gain the seat widely forecast, and Texas and Florida each fell a seat short of expected gains.

On the other hand, population outflows were less than expected, especially in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island. The latter two didn't lose seats as expected, and New York was only 89 people short of not losing a seat for the first time since 1940.

Speaking of which, the picture the census paints of the 2010-20 decade closely resembles that of the long-past decade of 1930-40. In those 10 years, dominated by the Great Depression of 1929-33 and its echo in the Roosevelt Recession of 1937-39, the nation's population increased by only 7.3%.

That's eerily similar to the 7.4% in the decade that just ended, dominated by the sluggish Obama recovery of 2009-16 and the downscale-driven, pre-COVID Trump upturn of 2017-19. These two stand out as the lowest growth intervals in American history; in every other 10-year period, the nation's population has grown by double-digit (rounded off) percentages.

In each case, the previous decade was a poor guide for the one that followed, because the earlier one featured an abrupt decline, almost to zero, in immigration from abroad. That was the intended result of the 1924 Immigration Act. It was the unintended (and largely unnoticed) result of the housing price collapse in 2007, which struck first in markets with heavy Hispanic immigration. New York started gaining House seats after the 1892-1924 Ellis Island immigration ended; California stopped gaining them after the 1982-2007 inflow from Mexico stopped.

The 1930s were a decade when, with the picturesque exception of the Okies fleeing the Dust Bowl in the Great Plains, Americans hunkered down and cultivated their gardens. The 2010s turn out to be a decade when Americans, to a greater extent than appreciated by demographers and forecasters, hunkered down and cultivated their grievances in what The New York Times' Ross Douthat describes as our "decadent society."

By 1940, Americans had settled into a period of partisan parity and gridlock: Democrats won the presidency in four of six elections, from 1940 to 1960, but a coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats controlled Congress for almost all that time. Partisan parity and gridlock are certainly familiar now: Joe Biden's congressional majorities are almost identical to George W. Bush's 20 years ago.

But some things can change. The census conducted on April 1, 1940, came just weeks before the fall of France and the accession of Winston Churchill. Within months, Depression America became Wartime America, and then, a few years later, it became Postwar America: No more hunkering down. As America emerges from lockdown, are similar changes and challenges ahead?

Michael Barone is a senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and longtime co-author of The Almanac of American Politics.

2021 CREATORS.COM

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Opinion: The 2020 Census: Small Republican gains in a nation hunkered down - Sumter Item

Susan Wright, the widow of the Republican congressman whose death prompted a special election in Texas on Saturday, made the runoff after reporting to law enforcement a bizarre robocall in which she was accused of murdering her husband by contracting Covid-19.

The election in the sixth congressional district on Saturday drew 23 candidates and was seen as a key test of both a Republican party under Donald Trumps sway and of Democratic hopes of making inroads in Texas.

Endorsed by the former president, Wright led with 19% of the vote. The lone anti-Trump conservative in the field, former marine Michael Wood, was way off the pace.

A Republican, Jake Ellzey, edged out a Democrat, Jana Lynne Sanchez, for second place and a spot in the runoff.

Ellzey, a state representative and navy veteran, drew 13.8% of the vote. Just 354 ballots and less than half a percentage point separated him from Sanchez, a journalist and communications professional who ran for the seat in 2018, with 13.4%.

In a statement, the chairman of the Texas Democratic party, Gilbert Hinojosa, put a brave face on the outcome.

The new Democratic south is rising, he insisted, and we will continue to rally our movement to take back our state including as we look toward the 2022 governors race. Were ready to build Democratic power, ready to defeat Texas Republicans, and ready to elect leaders who defend our rights and put Texans first.

Nonetheless, the sixth district, close to Dallas and Fort Worth, will again send a Republican to Washington despite trending Democratic for years. Trump won it in 2020 but only by three points after winning by 12 in 2016, that lead down five points on Mitt Romney four years before.

In Utah on Saturday, Romney, the only Republican senator to vote to convict in both Trumps impeachment trials, was booed and called a traitor when he spoke at a state convention.

NBC News reported the split of the vote in Texas at roughly 60%-40% in Republicans favour. Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University, told Reuters: Democrats didnt get their people out there, and then to the extent to which they did they split up a lot of the Democratic votes.

The contest was to fill a seat vacated when congressman Ron Wright died in February, after contracting Covid-19. Trump endorsed his wife this week.

The day before the election, Politico reported that Susan Wright sought help from local and federal law enforcement after voters received a robocall which said she murdered her husband and was running for Congress to cover it up.

The robocall claimed Wright obtained a $1m life insurance policy on the life of her husband six months before his death and tearfully confided in a nurse that she had purposely contracted the coronavirus.

The call, in a female voice, did not say who paid for it.

This is illegal, immoral, and wrong, Wright said. Theres not a sewer too deep that some politicians wont plumb.

Matt Langston, an aide, said: Susans opponents are desperate and resorting to disgusting gutter politics.

Other Republican candidates condemned the call.

Before polling day, Wood, the anti-Trump conservative, told CNN he ran because he was worried about Trumps influence and somebody needed to stand up and say this isnt what the Republican party should be.

He also said he was afraid for the future of the country, given the prevalence of belief in Trumps lie that the election was stolen 70% of Republicans in a CNN poll this week said they believed Joe Biden did not win enough legitimate votes to win the White House and conspiracy theories such as QAnon.

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Republicans into Texas runoff after robocall claims leader killed husband with Covid - The Guardian

Mitt Romney was loudly booed at the Utah Republican party convention on Saturday and called a traitor and a communist as he tried to speak.

Arent you embarrassed? the Salt Lake City Tribune reported the Utah senator asking the crowd of 2,100 delegates at the Maverik Center in West Valley City. Im a man who says what he means, and you know I was not a fan of our last presidents character issues.

Romney was the sole Republican to vote to impeach Donald Trump twice for seeking political dirt on opponents from Ukraine and for inciting the deadly insurrection at the Capitol on 6 January, before which Trump told supporters to fight like hell in support of his lie that the presidential election was stolen by Joe Biden.

Six other Republican senators voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment.

You can boo all you like, Romney told a crowd the Tribune said spat insults like so many poison darts.

Ive been a Republican all my life. My dad was the governor of Michigan and I was the Republican nominee for president in 2012.

Romney, who will not face re-election in 2022, was also a governor of Massachusetts and would ordinarily be a member of the GOP establishment.

But the party is firmly in the grip of Trump and his supporters according to a CNN poll this week, 70% of Republicans believe the lie that Biden did not win enough legitimate votes to be president.

At the Utah convention, a motion to censure Romney failed narrowly, by 798 votes to 711. The author of the resolution, Davis county delegate Don Guymon, said Romneys votes to remove Trump from office hurt the constitution and hurt the party.

This was a process driven by Democrats who hated Trump, Guymon told the Associated Press. Romneys vote in the first impeachment emboldened Democrats who continued to harass Trump.

Some in the crowd applauded Romney and after the state party chair, Derek Brown, asked delegates to show respect, the senator ended with a plea to come together in strength and unity.

Emily de Azavedo Brown, a delegate from Salt Lake county, told the AP: If the point of all this is to let Mitt Romney know were displeased with him, trust me, he knows. Lets not turn this into a Trump or no Trump thing. Are we a party of principle or a party of a person?

On Sunday the Maine senator Susan Collins, like Romney a senior figure in the centre of the party, told CNNs State of the Union she was appalled by events in Utah.

Mitt Romney is an outstanding senator who serves his state and our country well, she said. We Republicans need to remember that we are united by fundamental principles we are not a party that is led by just one person.

Collins refused to say who she voted for in the presidential election. Romney has said he did not vote for Trump but not who he voted for instead. He has said that in 2016 he voted for his wife, Ann, rather than Hillary Clinton.

Cindy McCain, the widow of the Arizona senator and 2008 presidential nominee John McCain, also spoke to CNN. She said refusal to accept the result of the 2020 election as in her state, where Republicans are carrying out a controversial audit of votes in the most populous county was just aloof and crazy.

Other speakers at the Utah convention faced dissent, among them governor Spencer Cox. He told a largely maskless crowd he knew some hated him for his Covid-19 mitigation measures but touted other moves such as banning vaccine passports in state government.

Private businesses in Utah can still demand proof of vaccination.

In one of many attacks on Bidens attempts to pass new spending bills on top of the $1.9tn coronavirus relief bill passed in March, Utahs other senator, Mike Lee, said Democrats followed one idea: unquestionable trust in government.

Chris Stewart, a congressman, told the crowd Biden was pursuing an agenda of radical socialism. He also said the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, kind of sucks.

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Mitt Romney booed and called traitor at Utah Republican convention - The Guardian

The chair of the Orleans Parish Republican Executive Committee on Monday condemned statements about the good aspects of slavery by Martha Huckabay, president of the Womens Republican Club of New Orleans and a vocal, far-right conspiracy theorist.

Parish Republican chair Adrian Bruneau denounced Huckabay, who over the weekend defended state Rep. Ray Garofalo, R-Meraux,after the lawmaker suggested thereweregoodaspects to slavery.

These are atrocious, Bruneau told Gambit regarding Huckabay's statements, adding, This is not what we stand for. We dont agree with her stance in fact, we vehemently disagree with her stance.

Huckabay told Gambit on Tuesday evening, "My comment is a series of statements taken out of context. Nobody believes there is anything good about slavery."

But on May 2 she lashed out at state Rep. Stephanie Hilferty, R-New Orleans, after Hilferty correctly pointed out there are no good parts of slavery during consideration of Garofalos legislation to ban teaching critical race theory, which examines systemic racism.

In a rambling Facebook post, Huckabay, whose views often reflect the QAnon movement, claimed Hilferty and other conservative legislators were becoming indoctrinated by Communist beliefs. She also insisted slavery resulted in hard working ethics and love and respect between some enslaved people and slave owners.

In the United Statesand other parts of North America,millions ofAfricanswereraped, tortured andforced into labor. The United States was one of the last Western nations to end the practice during theCivil War. Since thattime,Jim Crow policies and other forms of institutionalized race-based discrimination have persisted in Louisiana and the rest of thecountry.

Huckabay argued Garofalo's words were appropriate and lamented that the Republican-dominated state legislature has been infiltrated with marxisum[sic] and said the topic of slavery is a one-sided leftist trap.

She wrote, Slavery goes all they [sic] way back to biblical times, and if youve read your Bible, you would know that many of the slaves loved their masters, and their masters loved them, and took very good care of them, and their families.

The post captured the attention of lawmakers and political organizations after the Twitter account,@HellOrBywater which frequently tracks Huckabays online activity sharedscreenshotsof it that went viral.

On May 4, Huckabay postedSlavey[sic]is an evil stain on humanity on her Facebook page after Bruneau posted a message condemning her comments.

Bruneau says the official committee stands with Hilferty, and sought to distance his party from Huckabay, saying the conspiracy theorist has zero clout with the GOP.

This lady Id never heard of her; I dont know her. I know there are two Republican womens groups in New Orleans, possibly three. Im not familiar with her group, Bruneau told Gambit.

However, Huckabayis clearly a fixture in Republican circles.Her personalFacebook page and the page for the WRCNO arelitteredwith grip and grin photo op shots with most of the states leading Republicans, including House Minority Whip SteveScaliseand Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.

Martha Huckabay's Facebook rant

But while those sorts ofpicturesarefairly routine virtually anyone can get in line for a picture with Scalise at a public event, for instance lawmakers and party leaders have clearly made it a point to attend her events, which the name of the organizationnotwithstanding, are typically held in Metairie. TheMetairieCountry Club and DesiVegas Steakhouse which has had itsownproblems with racismin recent months have served as venues.

These events regularly draw Republican elected officials, candidates and party leaders as guest speakers.According to the groups Facebook page, since 2019 guest speakers at WRCNO lunches have includedlosinggubernatorial candidateEddieRispone, Lt. Gov.Billy Nungesser, Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, state Sen. Kirk Talbot, and Jefferson Parish Judge Scott Schlegel and his wifeLaurie,aswell as representatives for other politicians, including U.S. Sen.Bill Cassidy who has since been denounced by Huckabayas a traitorafter he voted to convict former president Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial.

Nungesser on April 29 was also a guest on her conspiracy talk radio show Liberty or Lockdown." His office did not respond to requests for comment.

Additionally, Huckabay has long been an early adopter of many of the dangerous ideas that have become articles of faith for some of Bruneaus party.

She has encouraged flouting public health guidelinesthroughout theCOVID-19 pandemic, claimedthere has been widespread voter fraud favoring Democrats and that Donald Trump won the 2020 election.She also believes the government is exerting controlby distributingFDA approved coronavirus vaccines, which weregreen-litunder the Trump administration.

Manyof her positions are extreme, even for the modern Republican Party.

In recent weeks shehas alsosuggested White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg are the same person andclaimedGeorge Soros funds Gambit, which she believesemploys nefarious operativesattempting to destroy New Orleans.

Gambit is owned by Dathel and John Georges, who are of no relation to Soros.

This story has been updated to include a follow-up statement from Martha Huckabay.

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It's 2021, but Louisiana Republicans are still fighting over whether slavery is evil - NOLA.com