Indy Digest: Nov. 20, 2023
The anti-democratic, anti-voting agenda got a big boost today from a federal appeals court.
A panel of judges in a federal appeals court said Monday that only the federal government—not citizens and groups—can sue under a key part of the Voting Rights Act, effectively gutting the legislation in seven states.
The ruling, which applies to Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, found that only the U.S. attorney general is able to bring a suit under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
The vast majority of Voting Rights Act claims are brought by private citizens and civil rights groups, who foot the bill for time-consuming litigation to protect voting rights. The Department of Justice, with limited staff and resources, typically brings just a small fraction of the cases fought nationally.
The ruling is sure to be challenged—likely to the U.S. Supreme Court—which has limited the voting law’s power significantly over the last decade.
“If this ruling were allowed to stand, it would decimate the Voting Rights Act,” Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the UCLA School of Law, said.
That last quote is worth repeating: If this ruling were allowed to stand, it would decimate the Voting Rights Act.
The Voting Rights Act, which became law in 1965, is the thing that stops lawmakers from engaging in racial discrimination in matters involving voting. The case in question here involved a lawsuit by the Arkansas State Conference NAACP and the Arkansas Public Policy Panel challenging redistricting maps in that state, where, as NBC News explained, “the Republican-controlled Legislature drew 11 majority-Black districts in the state’s 100-seat House of Representatives. The state is 16% Black.” NBC News also pointed out that “the ruling … goes against decades of precedent in which judges have assumed or specifically affirmed a private right of action under the Voting Rights Act.”
Of course, this decision will be appealed. But if the case makes it to the U.S. Supreme Court … well, Roe v. Wade showed that precedent doesn’t really matter there, either.
—Jimmy Boegle
From the Independent
Vine Social: Our Resident Sommelier Tasted About 3,000 Wines Over the Last Year—and These Stood Out
By Katie Finn
November 20th, 2023
You could say our columnist has developed a crush on these five wines—all unexpected, surprising little gems.
A Gory Holiday: Eli Roth Turns His ‘Grindhouse’ Trailer Into Bloody ‘Thanksgiving’ Mayhem
By Bob Grimm
November 20th, 2023
Thanksgiving’s killer dresses up as a pilgrim and hunts people responsible for a Black Friday catastrophe that resulted in deaths in the sleepy town of Plymouth, Mass.
Soulfully Somber: Burgundy Blues, Once a Coachella Valley Backyard-Scene Staple, Returns to Play at the Indio International Tamale Festival
By Matt King
November 20th, 2023
Burgundy Blues cut their teeth and honed their sound in the backyard scene, and have gained local support with a captivating mix of chill, somber and slightly funky musical moods.
Community Voices: I’m Alive Because My Softball Teammates Knew CPR
By Scot Howard
November 20th, 2023
If it hadn’t been for the CPR training of three angels in the dugout, you wouldn’t be reading this story.
Nonsensical Laughs: SNL’s Please Don’t Destroy Troupe Heads to ‘Foggy Mountain’ on Peacock
By Bob Grimm
November 20th, 2023
The Please Don’t Destroy guys revel in nonsense, and it’s hard to watch them for any length of time without giggling.
More News
• Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. ABC News reports: “Thirty-three transgender and gender-nonconforming people have been killed by violence in the United States since last year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance on Nov. 20, 2022, according to a new Human Rights Campaign report. Twenty-six of those people were killed in 2023, the report published Monday states. LGBTQ activists have been sounding the alarm on growing anti-trans and gender-based violence in recent years, but particularly this year, when the Human Rights Campaign declared in June a national state of emergency for LGBTQ people in the U.S. ‘The epidemic of violence against transgender and gender-nonconforming people is a national tragedy and a national embarrassment,’ said Kelly Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organizations. ‘Each of the lives taken is the result of a society that demeans and devalues anyone who dares challenge the gender binary.’”
• Our partners at CalMatters report that evictions in California have returned to pre-pandemic levels—and then some: “The elevated numbers—in some places beyond pre-pandemic levels—show a significant portion of renters remain at risk of losing their homes, despite the state’s rollout of a $5 billion rent relief program during the pandemic and a yearslong pause on many eviction cases that many landlords have said disrupted their businesses and income. A nationwide study published this year found increases in eviction filings are associated with slight upticks in the population of homeless people living in shelters. The statewide moratorium was extended until June 2022 for those who had applied for rental assistance by March, barring evictions in cases where tenants had not paid rent and said they couldn’t because of financial hardship wrought by the pandemic. The law didn’t stop evictions completely—thousands were still locked out under various exceptions—but it dropped cases to record lows. … Recently obtained data from when the statewide moratorium was lifted through the summer of 2023 show that in a dozen of the state’s most populous counties the average monthly eviction filings surpassed pre-pandemic averages.”
• Today’s food recall involves … cantaloupes! CNN says: “The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says whole and pre-cut cantaloupes have caused dozens of cases of salmonella infection, including 17 hospitalizations, in 15 states and in Canada. Salmonella causes diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps, and illness can start six hours to six days after swallowing the bacteria, according to the CDC. The most recent illnesses in the outbreak began November 6. A total of 43 cases have been reported, the agency said Friday, but many more people have probably been sickened. … The tainted cantaloupes were sold at multiple retailers.” You can peruse the CDC’s warning here.
• A mystery illness is sickening dogs across the country. Time magazine reports: “A respiratory illness with an unknown cause is sickening dogs in Oregon and other states, prompting warnings from governments and veterinarians about keeping pets safe. From August to mid-November, Oregon’s state government received a little more than 200 reports of the illness, which exhibits symptoms of a chronic cough or pneumonia that does not respond to antibiotics. Oregon’s Department of Agriculture told TIME, via email on Saturday, Nov. 18, that it was anecdotally aware of similar cases throughout the country including New Hampshire and surrounding northeastern states, Colorado, Indiana, Illinois, Washington, Idaho and California. … The Oregon Veterinary Medical Association said symptoms include a chronic mild to moderate cough that lasts at least six to eight weeks, and chronic pneumonia or acute pneumonia that rapidly becomes severe and often leads to poor outcomes in as little as 24 to 36 hours. Cases are minimally or non-responsive to antibiotics.”
• A WIRED story summary says: “A WIRED analysis of leaked police documents verifies that a secretive government program is allowing federal, state, and local law enforcement to access phone records of Americans who are not suspected of a crime.” Um, yikes. From the story: “A little-known surveillance program tracks more than a trillion domestic phone records within the United States each year, according to a letter WIRED obtained that was sent by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Sunday, challenging the program’s legality. According to the letter, a surveillance program now known as Data Analytical Services (DAS) has for more than a decade allowed federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to mine the details of Americans’ calls, analyzing the phone records of countless people who are not suspected of any crime, including victims. Using a technique known as chain analysis, the program targets not only those in direct phone contact with a criminal suspect but anyone with whom those individuals have been in contact as well.”
• In much-better government news: You can get more free COVID-19 tests. The Associated Press reports: “Americans can order more free COVID-19 tests online for home delivery. The U.S. government is offering to send another round of four at-home virus tests ahead of the typical surge in cases during the winter holiday season. Anyone who did not order a batch of four COVID-19 tests in September can secure up to eight of them this time around starting Monday at COVIDtests.gov. The U.S. Postal Service will deliver them for free.”
• And finally … airlines have been making a lot of changes to their frequent-flyer programs—often weakening rewards, or making rewards and status levels harder to obtain. Two business experts explain why they’re doing this, via The Conversation: “One big idea to understand is that airlines don’t earn very much money, if any at all, from ticket sales. This is mainly due to the highly competitive and capital-intensive structure of the airline industry, which often leads to reduced profit margins. Instead, they make their profits from bag fees, ticket change fees and—importantly—frequent flyer programs. … Since the deregulation of air travel in the 1970s, airlines have gone through boom and bust cycles. Right now, it’s a boom for airlines and a bust for people looking for frequent flyer status. There’s no reason for airlines to be as rewarding today as they were in the past. Planes are full of people willing to pay with money. Sometime in the future, however, it will reverse, and it will be a boom time for flyers looking for status when planes begin having empty capacity.”
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