leemidi.bsky.social
@leemidi.bsky.social
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Voters in Washington, D.C., decided last year to switch their local elections to ranked-choice voting.

The new voting procedure will be implemented for the first time in the 2026 primaries, the D.C. council voted this week.
DC's June primary will use ranked choice voting, DC Council vote decides
June’s primary is now the first time ranked choice voting will be in place in Washington, D.C.’s local elections, after the D.C. Council cleared the way with a Tuesday vote.
www.nbcwashington.com
December 17, 2025 at 11:00 PM
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Anticipating budgetary challenges due to federal policy changes, Oregon lawmakers sought to scale back state spending this year.

One casualty is a workforce development program supporting incarcerated people as they prepare for release from prison.
Budget Cuts Threaten Oregon Program for Helping People Get Jobs After Prison
The state had recently expanded the novel program for providing one-on-one career coaching, job fairs behind bars, and support for people after release.
boltsmag.org
December 18, 2025 at 3:31 PM
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read our @boltsmag.org coverage of two of these cases!

—Hawaii's supreme court rebells against SCOTUS:
boltsmag.org/hawaii-supre...

—Michigan's supreme court expands protections against juvenile life without parole: boltsmag.org/michigan-sup...
State Court Report asked some of the country's top legal thinkers about the most significant state constitutional cases of the year. Read answers from @dahlialithwick.bsky.social, Eugene Volokh, Erwin Chemerinsky, Justice Nathan Hecht, and many more! statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...
2025’s Most Significant State Constitutional Cases
Leading legal thinkers weighed in on the state constitutional rulings our readers should know about from this past year.
statecourtreport.org
December 18, 2025 at 4:19 PM
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Reader support has sustained Bolts and helped us launch new projects. This year, for the first time, we translated stories into Spanish and commissioned photography and illustrations.

Help us think even bigger in 2026:
Support Bolts
We are a nonprofit publication that covers the nuts and bolts of political change, from the local up, and we need reader support to build our journalism.
boltsmag.org
December 18, 2025 at 5:11 PM
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A former Chicago police commander has criticized a state law mandating people with sex offense convictions live more than 500 ft away from a day care as “absolutely ludicrous.”

“They’re restricted [from living] almost everywhere,” she told Bolts.
How Illinois Housing Banishment Laws Push People into Homelessness and Prison 
Organizers with past sex offense convictions are championing a bill in the state legislature that could end the cycle and roll back residency restrictions.
boltsmag.org
December 18, 2025 at 6:27 PM
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Some Jersey City officials don’t want to create a civilian oversight board until state law grants them real investigatory powers. “The worst thing you can do is put a whole lot of energy and get people behind something that ultimately is going to fail them.”
New Jersey Cities Are Pressing Resistant State Officials for Civilian Police Oversight
Local officials in Newark, Jersey City, and Trenton want civilian agencies that can investigate police and issue subpoenas. But they keep running into the state’s Democratic leaders.
boltsmag.org
December 18, 2025 at 8:00 PM
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Lauren Gill reported in Bolts in 2023 that the majority of Floridians exonerated from death row had been sentenced by non-unanimous juries, raising concern that the law that brings them back will lead to more wrongful convictions.
Exonerees Sound the Alarm on New Florida Law Allowing Death Sentences by Split Juries
The majority of Floridians exonerated from death row had been sentenced by non-unanimous juries, raising concern that the law that brings them back will lead to more wrongful convictions.
boltsmag.org
December 18, 2025 at 9:00 PM
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The Florida supreme court today rejected challenges to a recent law that allows death sentences by split juries.

Nearly all other states with the death penalty require juries to be unanimous.

flcourts-media.flcou...
December 18, 2025 at 9:00 PM
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NC prison officials say “shifting economic conditions” forced them to raise their markup on basic goods like food, drinks, batteries to run radios, etc

Phill Smith, who’s incarcerated there, reports on the impact of the price hike and how prisons squeeze revenue from those who can least afford it
North Carolina Prison Officials Raise Prices for Those Who Can Least Afford It - Bolts
It’s 4:30 pm on a Monday as Colell Steele stands in front of the closed canteen window at Neuse Correctional, a medium-custody prison in North Carolina. He’s lined up to... Read More
boltsmag.org
December 2, 2025 at 3:30 PM
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The ruling allows Florida to continue with the lowest standard for the death penalty in the nation, requiring just 8 out of 12 jurors to agree on death.
Just in: Florida's supreme court today has UPHELD a recent state law that enables juries to sentence someone to death nonunanimously.

Bolts reported on FL's law a few years ago, amid huge concern that nonunanimous convictions have a high error rate, & are likelier to sideline Black jurors.
Exonerees Sound the Alarm on New Florida Law Allowing Death Sentences by Split Juries - Bolts
Herman Lindsey braced himself for news that he would be sentenced to death as he sat inside a courtroom in Broward County, Florida in 2006. A jury had convicted Lindsey... Read More
boltsmag.org
December 18, 2025 at 8:34 PM
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Florida's supreme court UPHELD law that enables juries to sentence someone to death nonunanimously.

The pro-life state my ass.
December 18, 2025 at 8:16 PM
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#Florida legislators quietly working on a measure to give Big Sugar legal power to go after activists & news outlets and silence critics jasongarcia.substack.com/p/florida-po... via @jasongarcia.bsky.social
Florida politicians may give Big Sugar legal power to go after activists and silence critics
Lawmakers in Tallahassee are quietly working on a measure that would give the sugar industry more ammunition to threaten Everglades advocates, news outlets and others with defamation lawsuits.
jasongarcia.substack.com
December 18, 2025 at 9:06 PM
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"after Epstein had been released from a Florida jail, it was an exclusive gathering..."

This 'David Brooks dinner with Jeffrey Epstein' story gets worse by the minute. Read Buzzfeed on the 2011 dinner with Epstein that included Brooks, Bezos, Musk, Brin...

www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pete...
December 18, 2025 at 8:57 PM
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Federal judge lifts block on #Florida college giving away land for President Convicted Felon's presidential "library," tosses Sunshine Law case filed by historian
www.miamiherald.com/news/politic... via @miamiherald.com
Miami Judge lifts block on Trump library land transfer, tosses Sunshine Law case
Miami Dade College can now transfer the deed for prime downtown land to the state for Trump’s high-rise legacy project.
www.miamiherald.com
December 18, 2025 at 9:47 PM
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that’s a real Achewood “guess who just got yelled at” statement
December 16, 2025 at 3:30 PM
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This is what culpability looks like.
What a coward.
December 16, 2025 at 3:42 PM
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Why do all these sh!tbirds insist we're "missing the context"? We don't need 'context' for anything Rob Reiner said.
Oh yeah: sh!tbirdieness.
December 16, 2025 at 4:15 PM
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they all keep saying this is the grandest, most successful administration in the history of the universe... do they actually think this works?
December 16, 2025 at 4:13 PM
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Its truly bizarre to see their little copy/paste praise leader bits in everything. We shouldn’t get numb to that shit. Like come on its embarrassing even if you’re doing propaganda spin
December 16, 2025 at 6:20 PM
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Part of the P2025 plan. Crack open the door through which they will eventually usher out Trump if their mid-term prospects continue to look grim. Also, creates the foundation for an exit strategy for Wiles. Hard to imagine she is so naive as to think these interviews would paint a positive picture.
December 16, 2025 at 3:53 PM
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Which 21 year old tiktoker will become the new White House chief of staff?
December 16, 2025 at 3:31 PM
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That third paragraph is extremely funny
December 16, 2025 at 3:28 PM
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Yeah context was omitted, and I said a lot of nicer things that were left out, are classic “yes I said all that shit”
December 16, 2025 at 3:28 PM
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“waaaahhhhh” would’ve been shorter
December 16, 2025 at 3:30 PM