Robert Zullo

Ad targeting ‘sharia law’ draws Muslim candidate to LG race • Georgia Recorder An incendiary campaign video drew criticism from both sides of the aisle and drew one lawmaker to make a last-minute entry into the LG race.

Campaign video targeting ‘sharia law’ draws a new candidate to Georgia’s lieutenant governor race georgiarecorder.com/2026/03/05/c...

Ad targeting ‘sharia law’ draws Muslim candidate to LG race • Georgia Recorder An incendiary campaign video drew criticism from both sides of the aisle and drew one lawmaker to make a last-minute entry into the LG race.

Campaign video targeting ‘sharia law’ draws a new candidate to Georgia’s lieutenant governor race georgiarecorder.com/2026/03/05/c...

Louisiana crawfish industry struggles with limited foreign workers, ag commissioner says • Louisiana Illuminator Crawfish processing plants in Louisiana are at a diminished capacity this year because they haven’t been able to get as many visas for the foreign guest workers, Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain s...

Louisiana's crawfish plants are operating at a diminished capacity because Kristi Noem and the Trump administration have capped foreign guest worker visas, according to Ag Commissioner Mike Strain. #lalege

lailluminator.com/2026/03/04/c...

Ohio lawmakers queue up data center study commission • Ohio Capital Journal Ohio lawmakers are weighing whether to set up a new commission studying data centers. Business groups believe it can vindicate the industry, while ordinary Ohioans worry time is short to rein in the…

Ohio lawmakers are weighing whether to set up a new commission studying data centers. Business groups believe it can vindicate the industry, while ordinary Ohioans worry time is short to rein in the already out-of-control growth of data centers. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/03/04/o...

Louisiana crawfish industry struggles with limited foreign workers, ag commissioner says • Louisiana Illuminator Crawfish processing plants in Louisiana are at a diminished capacity this year because they haven’t been able to get as many visas for the foreign guest workers, Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain s...

Louisiana crawfish industry struggles with limited foreign workers, ag commissioner says lailluminator.com/2026/03/04/c...

Judge grants summary judgment to Capital Chronicle in execution drug costs case • Indiana Capital Chronicle A judge ordered the Indiana Department of Correction to disclose records showing how much the state has paid for pentobarbital.

Judge grants summary judgment to Capital Chronicle in execution drug costs case indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/03/03/j...

Feds block millions for 'Alligator Alcatraz,' 'Deportation Depot' over pending environmental review • Florida Phoenix The federal government is withholding a $608 million grant to help pay for Florida's migrant lockups because a required environmental review still hasn't been completed, newly released records show.

Feds block millions for ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ ‘Deportation Depot’ over pending environmental review floridaphoenix.com/2026/03/02/f...

DeSantis links redistricting to Supreme Court ruling, but that may not come down by April 20 • Florida Phoenix Unlike the other states that have engaged in partisan gerrymandering since President Trump called on Texas to do so last summer, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has explicitly declared that is not why he ha...

DeSantis links redistricting to Supreme Court ruling, but that may not come down by April 20 floridaphoenix.com/2026/03/01/d...

CDC: Florida has 107 confirmed measles cases • Florida Phoenix Florida ranks third in the number of confirmed measles cases across the country, new data published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show. The CDC data, updated Friday, show 107 ...

CDC: Florida has 107 confirmed measles cases floridaphoenix.com/2026/02/27/c...

DOJ: Trump administration won’t pay for ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ construction costs • Florida Phoenix Florida officials’ plan to use a $608 million federal reimbursement to pay for the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” lockup won’t cover construction costs — if the money comes through at all, Justice Dep...

DOJ: Trump administration won’t pay for ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ construction costs floridaphoenix.com/2026/02/25/d...

FBI director’s plane use under scrutiny amid accusations of delayed team response to Brown shooting • Rhode Island Current U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois is asking the congressional watchdog office to investigate FBI Director Kash Patel’s use of government aircraft, citing whistleblower disclosures raising questions…

“Kash Patel has seemingly engaged in what amounts to irresponsible joyriding on DOJ and FBI-operated aircraft at the expense of the American taxpayer and to the detriment of ongoing Bureau operations,” Democratic U.S. Sen Dick Durbin of Illinois wrote.

rhodeislandcurrent.com/2026/02/25/f...

New emergency rules finish an administrative challenge to AIDS drug program cuts • Florida Phoenix The DeSantis administration has filed an emergency rule that restricts eligibility for an AIDS drug assistance program beginning March 1, effectively bringing an end to an administrative challenge fil...

New emergency rules finish an administrative challenge to AIDS drug program cuts floridaphoenix.com/2026/02/25/n...

Proposal to create counterintelligence unit receives bipartisan pushback • Florida Phoenix A bill (HB 945) that would create a statewide counterterrorism and counterintelligence unit within the Florida Department of Law Enforcement received pushback from Democrats and one Republican in a co...

Proposal to create counterintelligence unit receives bipartisan pushback floridaphoenix.com/2026/02/24/p...

Ohio billionaire political funder Les Wexner to be deposed by members of Congress in Epstein probe • Ohio Capital Journal Les Wexner — Ohio's wealthiest man who has donated to many politicians — is being deposed by members of Congress on Wednesday about his relationship with convicted child sex offender and disgraced fin...

Ohio billionaire political funder Les Wexner to be deposed by members of Congress in Epstein probe ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/02/18/o...

Graying prison population spikes health care costs, drives 'budget squeeze' • New Jersey Monitor The state has paid 44% more for prisoners’ health care over the last two decades, even as the prison population has fallen by half.

Graying prison population spikes health care costs, drives ‘budget squeeze’ newjerseymonitor.com/2026/02/17/n...

Last Thursday, Mississippi Today reported that the National Park Service removed brochures from the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument that called the murderer of Medgar Evers a racist. The article cited Park Service officials who “asked not to be named for fear of retribution.” Evers, a renowned civil rights activist, was assassinated in 1963 by a white supremacist named Byron De La Beckwith in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi. Condemnation was swift. “The murder of Medgar Evers was an act of racial terror. That fact is not partisan. It is historical,” Martin Luther King III posted on X in response to the story. “Sanitizing history from violence and racism does not bring the country together. It weakens our understanding of who we are and how far we still have to go.” Senator Raphael Warnock also weighed in: “This administration is celebrating Black History Month by erasing it. We won’t let them get away with it.” And it would indeed be appalling if the administration were attempting to erase the context of Evers’s killing. There’s just one problem: it appears the brochures may not have been removed or edited at all.

When Jaylin Smith, a Mississippi Free Press reporter, visited the site for a follow-up piece, she found that the brochures were still available and unedited. Keena Graham, the monument’s superintendent, told another Free Press reporter, Kevin Edwards, that she was unaware of any directive to scrub references to racism, noting that any planned updates were merely cosmetic and operational. Strange. “We just did the most basic thing you could do and sent our reporter to confirm the brochures were gone,” Ashton Pittman, the news director of the Mississippi Free Press, told me. “But when she got there, they were still there.” Before publishing, Pittman contacted Jerry Mitchell, the author of the Mississippi Today report and a local journalism hero, to clarify the discrepancy. Mitchell maintained the brochures were missing during his own visit “sometime last week, likely on Saturday,” per the Free Press, and that he had been told they were “in the office.” Then, about an hour after the Free Press published its report confirming the brochures were available, Mississippi Today posted a follow-up claiming the brochures had been “returned.” Absent from the update: any mention of the Free Press reporting. “That was a red flag from a journalistic point of view,” Edwards said. Faced with this new, conflicting narrative, the Free Press went back to Graham for a final clarification: Had the brochures ever been removed, even for a second? Her answer was “Not one second. Not one day. That’s all I can tell you.”

When I spoke with Mitchell, he said he later checked his records and that he actually visited the home on Tuesday, January 20. He declined to share specifics about whom he spoke with while there, but he was certain that he had been told the brochures were not available. He also noted that his original reporting was based on information from multiple sources. Mitchell told me that he did not reference the Free Press because an Associated Press reporter had told his editor that the brochures were available earlier the same day, and he had already drafted his second story before speaking with Pittman. But here’s another weird thing: the AP does not appear to have published a story on this topic. In another piece published yesterday about the Evers monument, Mitchell did reference the Free Press reporting, but did not include a correction to his earlier coverage. When I asked why, he said, “We’re still digging into this. I think that’s the correct answer.” Pittman stressed when we spoke that the intention of the Free Press was not to discount Mitchell’s report: “This is not about undermining the credibility of another news organization. It is just about reporting the facts.” But he said it is important that the staff at the monument are not misrepresented. “We saw comments from people saying shame on the staff at this monument for removing his brochures, for complying with this directive. And the fact is they didn’t do that,” he added. “If there was wrongdoing that we could find, we would report it,” he told me, “but we just don’t believe that that happened.”

At MississippiFreePress.org, we reported that the Mississippi Today story saying staff at the Myrlie & Medgar Evers Home National Monument removed brochures calling Evers' killer a "racist" were wrong.

A fair writeup from Susie Banikarim at Columbia Journalism Review: www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...

Federal court strikes down Louisiana law on disabled veterans’ claims consultants A federal court has struck down a Louisiana law that sought to let private consultants take a cut of benefit payments for disabled veterans.

Federal court strikes down Louisiana law on disabled veterans’ claims consultants lailluminator.com/2026/02/12/f...

Lawsuit claims Trump administration officials coerced removal of ICE tracking platforms • Indiana Capital Chronicle An Indiana man is part of a federal lawsuit claiming that Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem coerced Apple and Facebook into removing online platforms spotlighti...

Lawsuit claims Trump administration officials coerced removal of ICE tracking platforms indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/02/11/l...

Arizona has lost more top election officials than any western state since 2020 Report shows all 15 Arizona counties experienced election official turnover since 2020 amid threats and fraud claims

Threats, harassment and pressure to break election law drove turnover in all 15 counties

story via @jerodmacevoy.com

Trump administration sued over Gateway tunnel funding • New Jersey Monitor The bi-state Gateway commission's suit says the federal government breached contracts by freezing congressionally approved tunnel funding.

Trump administration sued over Gateway tunnel funding newjerseymonitor.com/2026/02/03/t...

Hundreds of Ohioans show support for Haitians, federal judge blocks TPS ending for Haitians • Ohio Capital Journal Hundreds of Ohioans gathered at a church in Springfield on Monday to show support for the Haitian community in Springfield.

BREAKING: A U.S. District Court judge blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to end protected status for about 330,000 Haitians living in the United States with Temporary Protected Status.

ICE officer fatally shoots driver through car window in Minneapolis • Pennsylvania Capital-Star The driver then slowly backs up and appears to be leaving, when another officer fires three shots.

ICE officer fatally shoots driver through car window in Minneapolis penncapital-star.com/2026/01/07/r...

Governor calls an April special session on redistricting • Florida Phoenix Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a proclamation Wednesday calling a special session in April to redistrict Florida's congressional map, just one month after the regular legislative session is scheduled to end...

Florida governor calls an April special session on redistricting floridaphoenix.com/2026/01/07/g...

'A fail-safe option': Lawmakers debate firing squad executions in Indiana • Indiana Capital Chronicle Indiana lawmakers on Tuesday heard testimony on a bill that would allow executions to be carried out by a firing squad.

‘A fail-safe option’: Lawmakers debate firing squad executions in Indiana indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/01/07/a...

Gov. Landry writes Maduro should be executed or imprisoned at Angola in Breitbart piece  • Louisiana Illuminator Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry wrote in an opinion column he believes captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro should be put to death

Gov. Landry writes Maduro should be executed or imprisoned at Angola in Breitbart piece  lailluminator.com/2026/01/06/g...

419 sober drivers in Tennessee arrested for DUI in 2024, according to TBI Data from TBI shows most sober DUI arrests made by THP troopers, WSMV4 Investigates finds.

419 sober drivers in Tennessee arrested for DUI in 2024, according to TBI
www.wsmv.com/2026/01/05/4... @wsmv.com

In Miami-Dade, Republicans say democracy is coming to Venezuela — but not immediately • Florida Phoenix A little over 48 hours after U.S. troops removed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power, top Florida Republicans say they are certain that democracy is coming to the South American nation. But...

In Miami-Dade, Republicans say democracy is coming to Venezuela — but not immediately floridaphoenix.com/2026/01/05/i...

Suspected Brown mass shooter found dead in N.H. storage facility; linked to MIT physicist’s killing • Rhode Island Current Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the former Brown University student responsible for a fatal shooting in Providence Saturday, was found dead in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, shortly before 9 p....

Suspected Brown mass shooter found dead in N.H. storage facility; linked to MIT physicist’s killing rhodeislandcurrent.com/2025/12/18/p...

How to mark the Ohio holidays super old-school • Ohio Capital Journal Indigenous people built Fort Ancient in southwestern Ohio around 2,000 years ago to mark the winter solstice and other phenomena. A celebration is scheduled there Sunday.

How to mark the Ohio holidays super old-school ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/12/19/h...

La. Supreme Court declines to restore death penalty for convicted killer who was just shy of 18 • Louisiana Illuminator The ruling doesn’t necessarily derail Attorney General Liz Murrill's plans to challenge a U.S. Supreme Court precedent that declared executing minors was unconstitutional.

La. Supreme Court declines to restore death penalty for convicted killer who was just shy of 18 lailluminator.com/2025/12/17/d...