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Hello, and happy Thursday,

On Tuesday afternoon, Jim Cooper, a moderate Democrat who has been in Congress for more than three decades, announced he was retiring. The timing was not a coincidence.

Less than 24 hours earlier, the Tennessee legislature had approved a map with new boundaries for the states eight congressional districts. Since 2003, Cooper has represented a district that includes all of Nashville, and it has been reliably Democratic (Joe Biden carried it by 24 points in 2020). But the legislatures new plan erased his district. Republicans sliced up Nashville into three different districts, attaching a sliver of Democratic voters in each to rural and deeply Republican areas. Donald Trump would have easily won all three of the new districts in 2020.

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Cooper was blunt in his assessment of what had happened. Republicans, he said in a statement, had made it impossible for him to win re-election to Congress. Despite his best efforts, he said, he could not stop Republicans from dismembering Nashville.

The map doesnt just weaken the voice of Democrats, it also dilutes the influence of Black voters and other voters of color in Nashville. In Coopers current district, Black voters make up about a quarter of the voting-age population. They will comprise a much smaller share of the voting age population in the new districts, making it harder for them to make their voices heard.

Andrew Witherspoon, my colleague on our visuals team, and I put together an interactive map that shows exactly how Republicans transformed Coopers district. Its one of the clearest examples of how politicians can essentially rig elections in their favor just by moving district lines. It underscores how gerrymandering is a remarkably powerful and efficient method of voter suppression the influence of certain peoples votes matter less before a single ballot is even cast.

Tennessee isnt the only place this is happening. In Kansas, Republican lawmakers are advancing a plan that would similarly crack Kansas City, making it more difficult for the Democrat Sharice Davids, the first Native American woman elected to Congress, to get re-elected. In North Carolina, Republicans cracked the city of Greensboro in order to dismantle the states sixth congressional district, currently represented by a Democrat.

Democrats have also shown a willingness to engage in this kind of distortion where they have control of the redistricting process, in places such as Illinois, Maryland and probably New York. Democrats will have complete control over drawing 75 congressional districts, compared with 187 for Republicans.

The day before he announced his retirement, I spoke with Cooper about why he thought this was happening and what he thought the consequences would be for Nashville voters. Whats happening now is just raw politics, Cooper said.

In two previous redistricting cycles, none of the politicians in the state knew that I existed as a candidate. That made it easier they werent trying to get Jim Cooper. And then in cycles where they did know I existed, it was either too difficult to rearrange the counties, or they were gentler, he told me. Politico reported recently that after Republicans werent as aggressive as they could have been in states such as Texas and Georgia, there is some pressure to be even more aggressive in places like Tennessee.

The Nashville constituents who are being sliced up into each of the three districts are likely to have much less importance to their new, Republican representatives, Cooper said. Any input they have, at most, it will be tokenism.

This is not a majority-minority community, but it will limit the ability for them to be heard. Because theyll become essentially a rounding error in much larger districts that are dominated by the surrounding towns, he said. The center of gravity will shift.

Also worth watching

A federal court told Alabama to redraw its congressional districts after finding Republican lawmakers had discriminated against Black voters. Alabama is appealing the ruling.

Arizona Republicans are proposing a suite of new voting restrictions after a widely criticized review of the 2020 election results.

Texas continues to face significant problems after implementing sweeping new voting restrictions ahead of its 1 March primary.

Ohio Republicans are redrawing state legislative and congressional maps after the state supreme court struck down earlier efforts as unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders. There are still concerns the new state legislative maps are severely gerrymandered.

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Republicans just wiped out a Democratic district. Heres how - The Guardian

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greenewho has been stripped of her House committee assignments for writing inflammatory social-media posts, thrown off Twitter for spreading COVID-19 misinformation, and fined more than eighty thousand dollars for violating House rules on masksis facing a primary challenge. Three Republicans are running against her for the Party nomination in Georgias Fourteenth Congressional District, in the northwest corner of the state. The most serious of these challengers, it seems, is Jennifer Strahan, a health-care executive who has tried to portray herself as right-wing, just not loony right-wing. Strahan claims to be uniting conservatives who want a congresswoman who can accomplish something other than managing to embarrass the Republican Party and the entire state of Georgia.

A poll released last week suggested that Strahan might have a shot at beating Greeneif, that is, she gets a lot of help. The poll, conducted by a firm called TargetPoint, was designed to test anti-Greene messages. Respondents were asked, for example, whether theyd be more or less likely to vote for Greene after hearing that she had called the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Connecticut, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida, false flag operations. (The Web site Jewish Insider, which first obtained the poll, reported that it was financed not by the Strahan campaign but by a group of anti-Greene Georgia Republicans.) By the time respondents had been informed of some of Greenes most outrageous positions, including her claim that 9/11 was a hoax, she and Strahan were roughly even. Meanwhile, when respondents who said that they were planning to vote in the Democratic primary were asked whether they would consider, instead, voting for Greenes opponent, in order to hold Marjorie Taylor Greene accountable, all of them said yes.

Georgia is an open-primary state, meaning that voters can choose which partys primary they want to participate in. (Voters in Georgia do not register with a party.) Thus, some of Strahans help could come from people who disagree with her and have no intention of casting a ballot for her in November. All of this raises the question: Should it?

Crossover voting, as its known, has an unfortunate reputation. Usually, when its been advocated for, this has been done with the intention of undermining the opposition. In March, 2008, for example, the conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh launched what he called Operation Chaos. At that point, John McCain had already clinched the Republican Presidential nomination, and Barack Obama was leading in the race for the Democratic nomination. Limbaugh urged his listeners to vote for Hillary Clinton, to prolong the Democratic contest. In Indiana, an open-primary state, it seems that Limbaugh was either effective or else served as a convenient excuse, because the Obama campaign blamed crossover voters, at least in part, for Clintons victory in that states May primary.

Twelve years later, in South Carolina, another open-primary state, several G.O.P. politicians urged Republicans to cross over and cast their ballots for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Presidential primary. They, too, dubbed their campaign Operation Chaos. The Greenville News reported that conservative political groups were calling on Republicans to vote for the worst Democrat. We dont see this as in any way improper or underhanded because were being very open about it, Stephen Brown, the former chairman of the Greenville County Republican Party, said at the time. (Whatever the impact of the effort, Joe Biden won the South Carolina primary by a wide margin.)

Voting for the worst candidate in order to sow chaos is, for obvious reasons, a bad idea. Universalized, such conduct wouldor, at least, couldlead both parties to nominate extremists and incompetents. But what about voting for the least worst candidate in an effort to save the Republic? This would seem to fall into a different ethical category. As John Stuart Mill put it, in Utilitarianism, The morality of the action depends entirely upon the intention.

Because Republicans are nominating extremists, Democrats could engage in crossover voting with the very best of intentions. In Greenes district, they could vote for Strahan in the hope of defeating a dangerous conspiracy monger. Were G.O.P. voters in blue-leaning districts to do the sameto engage in what might be called principled crossover votingthey would end up voting for the most centrist candidates in Democratic primaries. If that happened, its hard to see how the country would be worse off than it is now.

The lines for Greenes district have recently been redrawn in such a way as to render it slightly less red. (Greene has blasted the new lines, calling them a fools errand that was led by power-obsessed state legislators.) Still, the district leans heavily Republican, and whoever wins the G.O.P. nomination will, almost certainly, head to Washington. Indeed, Democrats in the district are such a minority that its not even clear they could swing a primary. But, it could be argued, they have an obligation to try.

Why Republicans keep electing politicians like Greene is a question that will occupy historians and political scientists for decades. Part of the reason, though, would seem to be structural. In safe red districts, which sophisticated gerrymandering is producing more and more of, the only campaigns that matter are primary campaigns, and voters who turn out for primaries tend to be the most politically committed. (James Huntwork, a Republican election-law expert, once described the primary-campaign dynamic in a lopsided district as a race between one candidate who says, I am completely crazy! and another who claims, I am even crazier than you!)

In total, fifteen states hold open primaries. These include Michigan, where Representative Peter Meijer, who was one of ten House Republicans to vote for Donald Trumps second impeachment, is facing a primary challenge from a former Trump staffer, John Gibbs, who is perhaps best known for claiming, in 2016, that Hillary Clintons campaign chairman, John Podesta, was a satanist. (Asked whether he regretted his rhetoric, Gibbs said, I regret that its unfortunately become an issue.) Nine other states allow unaffiliated voters to participate in either partys primary. These include Colorado, where Greenes ally Representative Lauren Boebert is facing a primary challenge from State Senator Don Coram, whos considered a moderate. (Boebert has repeatedly been criticized for anti-Muslim remarks; most recently, she is reported to have asked a group of Orthodox Jews visiting the Capitol whether they were there to conduct reconnaissance.) The lines for Boeberts district, too, have been redrawn, and it is considered a safe Republican seat. But unaffiliated voters in the district outnumber both registered Democrats and Republicans, so they, presumably, could decide the races outcome. Lets hope they turn out for the G.O.P. primary, because right now leaving the future of the Republican Party to Republicans seems way too risky.

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Should Democratic Primary Voters Help Save the G.O.P. from Itself? - The New Yorker

Rep. Colin Allred (D-Tex.) announced Sunday he has tested positive for COVID-19 in a breakthrough case after returningfromcongressionaltripto Ukraine.

Allred was among 10 House members whorecentlymet with Ukrainian presidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy and other officialsduring two days of meetings amid themounting tension between Ukraine and Russia.

After testing negative before boarding our flight home and again when I returned home, I tested positive for COVID-19 today," Allred said in a statement, adding that he tested negative throughout the trip, then again beforeleaving Ukraine and again upon arriving in the U.S.

"I feel well and I will be following guidelines from the CDC and House Attending Physician to quarantine and keep others safe,he added.

Despite this diagnosis, this was still a vitally important trip, where my colleagues and I heard directly from NATO, EU and Ukrainian officials about the threat of Russian aggression. Our bipartisan delegation traveled thousands of miles and together, showed our strong commitment to the Ukrainian people, Allred added.

The congressional delegation was led byHouse Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory MeeksGregory Weldon MeeksDemocratic rep tests positive for COVID-19 upon return from Ukraine trip The Hill's Morning Report - Biden: Russia attack 'would change the world' Overnight Defense & National Security Biden says no US troops going to Ukraine MORE (D-N.Y.) and also included Reps. David CicillineDavid CicillineDemocratic rep tests positive for COVID-19 upon return from Ukraine trip Advocacy groups urge Congress to tackle tech giants' auto industry focus Meeks leading bipartisan trip to Ukraine amid Russia tensions MORE (D-R.I.), Ami BeraAmerish (Ami) Babulal BeraDemocratic rep tests positive for COVID-19 upon return from Ukraine trip Global Health, Empowerment, and Rights Act will permanently end to harmful global gag rule Meeks leading bipartisan trip to Ukraine amid Russia tensions MORE (D-Calif.), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), Tom MalinowskiThomas (Tom) MalinowskiDemocratic rep tests positive for COVID-19 upon return from Ukraine trip GOP faces divisions over siding with Ukraine against Russia Meeks leading bipartisan trip to Ukraine amid Russia tensions MORE (D-N.J.), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Mark GreenMark GreenDemocratic rep tests positive for COVID-19 upon return from Ukraine trip The US and the UK a force for good Meeks leading bipartisan trip to Ukraine amid Russia tensions MORE (R-Tenn.), August Pfluger (R-Texas), Mikie SherrillRebecca (Mikie) Michelle SherrillDemocratic rep tests positive for COVID-19 upon return from Ukraine trip SALT change likely to be cut from bill, say Senate Democrats Meeks leading bipartisan trip to Ukraine amid Russia tensions MORE (D-N.J.) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.).

Allred, asecond-term congressman, said he is fully vaccinated with a booster shot. "Thankfully so far, my symptoms are mild and I am glad to have the protection of a safe vaccine. If you havent, please get your vaccination and booster shot as soon as you can,he concluded.

Allreds announcement comesafter several fellow lawmakers including Reps. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa.), David TroneDavid John TroneDemocratic rep tests positive for COVID-19 upon return from Ukraine trip Nebraska Republican tests positive for COVID-19 in latest congressional breakthrough case The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Facebook - Voting rights week for Democrats (again) MORE (D-Md.), Jim CooperJim CooperDemocratic rep tests positive for COVID-19 upon return from Ukraine trip Romney tests positive for coronavirus DCCC expands list of vulnerable House Democrats MORE (R-Tenn.), Sean CastenSean CastenDemocratic rep tests positive for COVID-19 upon return from Ukraine trip Overnight Energy & Environment EPA unveils new pollution monitoring in South Watchdog finds 'substantial' evidence Illinois Democrat promised job to potential challenger MORE (D-Ill.), and Alexandria Ocasio-CortezAlexandria Ocasio-CortezDemocratic rep tests positive for COVID-19 upon return from Ukraine trip Carville says he'd help fundraise for potential Gallego Senate bid Ocasio-Cortez: Supporting Sinema challenge by someone like Gallego would be easy decision MORE (D-N.Y.) announced they have tested positive for the novel virus this month.

Nearly a quarter of federal lawmakers have tested positive for the virus since the start of the pandemic.

The omicron wave of the virus appears to be on the decline across the country, with average daily cases falling to around 500,000 from a peak above 800,000 two weeks ago.

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Democratic rep tests positive for COVID-19 upon return from Ukraine trip | TheHill - The Hill

The Bridgeport, Conn. police officer who was a supervisor on the case of Lauren Smith-Fields has retired amid a national controversy over the departments investigation into the 23-year-old Black womans death.

Detective Angel Llanos of Bridgeport Police Department retired on Friday,a representative for the department tells Rolling Stone, following Mayor Joe Ganims announcement on Sunday that Llanos and another officer, Detective Kevin Cronin, had been put on administrative leave. These suspensions came amid an internal investigation into the cases of Smith-Fields as well as Brenda Lee Rawls, both of whom died in December. Both of their families have said that they were not properly informed of the deaths, and alleged that adequate care was not put into the investigations. Llanos was the supervising officer in both cases regarding death notifications, the spokesperson said. When asked if Officer Llanos would still be eligible for retirement benefits, the spokesperson said that would be up to the Office of Internal Affairs and the detectives union.

Both officers are now subject of the Bridgeport Police Departments Internal Affairs investigation and disciplinary action for their alleged lack of sensitivity to the public and failure to follow police procedure for both cases.

I want to express my condolences to the families of Lauren Smith-Fields and Brenda Lee Rawls, said Ganim. It is an unaccepted failure if policies were not followed. To the families, friends, and all who care about human decency that should be shown in these situations in this case, by members of the police department Im very sorry. The officer who was in charge of overseeing these matters has retired from the department as of this past Friday.

Smith-Fields, 23, was found unresponsive in her home after meeting up for a date with a man she met on the dating app Bumble. Smith-Fields was reportedly found bleeding from her nose when the man called police. (The man has not been charged with any crimes, and is not considered a suspect in the case.) Smith-Fields family who learned of her death days later, after finding a note from the landlord on the door found a used condom with semen and an unidentified pill in her apartment when cleaning up her apartment over a week after her death. According to the family, detectives were unresponsive and did not conduct a proper crime scene investigation until over a week after Smith-Fields death. (After she was found to have been killed by an overdose of alcohol and fentanyl, among other substances, the states vice task-force and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration opened a criminal investigation into her death.)

That same day Rawls, 53, died also after visiting a male acquaintance who lived near her. After not hearing from her for approximately two days, her family went to her home and then to the home of the man who she said she was visiting last. It was then and through the acquaintance that they learned of her death. When Rawls family called the police they had no information, it wasnt until they called the Connecticut Medical Examiner that they were able to confirm Rawls death and locate her body.

In both cases, the families accuse the detectives of not responding to phone calls and providing information regarding their deceased loved one. In the case of the Smith-Fields family, they say they were told by their detective to stop calling.

Insensitivity, disrespect in action or deviation from policy will not be tolerated by me or others in this administration, Ganim concluded on Sunday. Ganim noted that both Smith-Fields and Rawls investigations are actively open and have been reassigned to personnel in the department.

The Mayors statement yesterday is a step in the right direction, Darnell Crosland, family attorney representing both Smith-Fields Rawls, wrote to Rolling Stone. The city is liable for the behavior of its police department and its officers. I am pleased that the Mayor has accepted that liability publicly and has apologized to the families for the suffering they have endured.

While the Mayors sentiments may show progress, Crosland says, he is still pursuing a lawsuit on behalf of Smith-Fields family for punitive damages. As of now, Rawls family has not confirmed whether or not they are filing a lawsuit. The family has had to grieve and advocate for justice at the same time. That is unfair and unacceptable.

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Supervising Detective on Lauren Smith-Fields Case Retires Amid Suspension, Internal Affairs Investigation - Rolling Stone

On July 31, 2015, the Pensacola Sheriffs Office made a welfare check at the home of Richard Smith, a 49-year-old IT specialist for the Department of Homeland Security.

His boss had reached out to officials when Richard failed to come to work for three days. No one answered the door of the home Richard shared with his mother, Voncile, 77, who was widowed and retired, and his brother, John Smith, 47, who worked at Walmart.

Police contacted Richards half-brother, Donald Wayne Hartung, who gave them permission to enter the house. Inside, authorities found Voncile, Richard, and John dead.Each one was buried separately under a mountain of clothing and blankets, investigators told Family Massacre, airing Fridays at 9/8c on Oxygen.

Once the medical examiner investigators arrived on scene, we pulled the blankets off, and you could tell that they had been there for at least a couple of days, said Wayne Wright, an investigator with the State Attorneys Office.

John and Voncile both had injuries to their heads and gashes in their necks. She also had defensive cuts on her hands and part of her pinky finger was missing. Richard had been beaten, stabbed, and shot in his right ear.

A bloody hammer and paper towels, as well as cigarette butts, were collected at the scene. Hartung was transported to the Sheriffs Office, where Escambia County Homicide Detective Matt Infinger hoped he could shed light on the brutal triple homicide.

Hartung, Vonciles son from a previous marriage, said he last saw his mother and John three days earlier when he cooked dinner for them at their house. He was their caretaker. Voncile had trouble walking and John had special needs. Hed left a plate of food in the oven for Richard, he said.

Donald agreed to give us a DNA sample, said Infinger, adding that he had no criminal record and was being cooperative. We had no reason not to believe him. He was not a suspect.

Because the bodies were covered the medical examiner couldnt pinpoint when the murders happened. It was estimated that the family was killed at least two days before their discovery.

An internet search turned up the idea that during cult or ritualistic slaying, blankets and clothes are heaped on bodies to warm them. A blue moon, used by pagan and Wiccan followers to guide rituals, occurred around the time of the murders, which added heft to this theory.

There was some speculation that maybe the bodies were to be kept warm until the actual blue moon occurred, which would have been in a few days, said Wright.

At a press conference outlining the crime, a sheriff stated that the method of the murder positions of bodies led us to believe that there's a potential that was a ritualistic killing.

The leader of a local Wiccan group, however, said the victims were not associated with any of the area's pagan or Wiccan organizations,reported the Associated Press.

But at the press conference, the murders were called the Blue Moon Killings. Suddenly this was making headlines not just in Pensacola, Florida, but throughout the world, said journalist Mollye Barrows.

Investigators dug deeper into the background of the Smiths, who, sources said, stuck to themselves.Detectives considered the possibility that Richards hush-hush work with Homeland Security could be tied to the crime, but a thorough investigation cleared this as a line of investigation.

We conducted another interview with Donald Hartung and during the interviews with Donald I learned that he practiced Wicca, said Infinger. This was a red flag.

Police obtained a warrant to search Hartungs home. They found a prayer room and some books about witchcraft but no weapons or anything connected to the triple murder.

Just because somebody has an alternative belief system doesn't necessarily mean that they're doing anything wrong, said Wright.

But Hartung remained a suspect and investigators explored his background. A coworker told them that Hartung bragged of his familys wealth and that he stood to inherit that fortune.

An interview with a relative of the Smith family suggested that Hartung, whod been portrayed as a caretaker, had another side.

He was mean, said Faye Haas, Hartungs cousin. If he saw a weakness in you as a child or something, it would pick on that weakness. People also said he was jealous of Richards success and had regularly sought financial help from his mother.

Investigators found that Voncile Smiths estate was worth close to $1 million. Although Hartung had been excluded from the will, he would be the sole heir if his half-brothers were deceased.

Investigators interviewed the Smiths neighbors to check Hartungs account about his comings and goings before the bodies were found. He said that hed left the home before sundown. Neighbors recalled seeing his car there later than that and added that when he drove away, he kept his headlights off.

Detectives hoped that DNA evidence collected from the crime scene could move their case forward. Hartungs DNA was found on cigarette butts mixed in with paper towels covered in Vonciles blood.

On October 27, 2015, Hartung was arrested by the Escambia County Sheriff's Department on three counts of first-degree murder.

Evidence against Hartung was mostly circumstantial, though. But as the trial approached, investigators received a letter from a jailhouse informant.

Hartung had talked to the cellmate because hed expressed interest in the Wiccan religion, investigators said. The informant claimed that Hartung told him he piled blankets and clothes on top of his family to make it harder to determine when they died.

The informant also volunteered shocking information about Vonciles missing fingertip. Donald told him he had to torture his mother to get the combination of the safe in the home, said Infinger. We never even found it during the crime scene investigation.

Investigators concluded the murders werent part of a ritual but were motivated by money. Hartung had been written out of his mother's will and believed he would never get the money nearly $900,000 unless his family members died, prosecutors said, nbcmiami.com reported.

During Hartungs trial, the cellmate testified to the gruesome way he killed his family: beating them with a claw hammer, torturing his mother, slitting their throats, all while after making dinner for them, said Barrows.

Hartung, 63, was found guilty of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison in February 2020 without the chance of parole.

He is currently serving his sentence at the Graceville Correctional Facility in Jackson County, Florida.

For more on the case and others like it, watch Family Massacre, airing Fridays at 9/8c on Oxygen, or stream episodes here.

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Blue Moon Killer Tortured Mom And Murdered His Own Family After Making Them Dinner - Oxygen