The vote came less that a week after Collins’ critics unearthed a thread of tweets from 2016 in which she said Asian Americans had used “white supremacist thinking to assimilate and ‘get ahead’” and used a racial slur. Since then nearly 5,000 people have signed a petition calling for Collins’ resignation, joining a long list of public officials —including the mayor and 10 supervisors — as well as community organizations. The board voted 5-2 Thursday to approve the no-confidence measure with Collins and board President Gabriela López voting against it.

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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a sweeping omnibus bill on voting elections, SB 202, on Thursday. The bill expands early voting for most counties and requires identification to vote by mail.

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Our listeners weigh in with John.

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Dan Morain is the author and John'[s guest for the hour.

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Did the assault weapon ban make a significant difference? It did not.

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Vice President Kamala Harris will be the White House's point person on immigration issues at the nation's southern border, President Joe Biden announced Wednesday, tasking her with stemming the rising tide of migrants, many of them unaccompanied children, arriving in the U.S.

"I can think of nobody who is better qualified to do this,” the president told reporters at the White House.

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Last year’s gargantuan $2.3 trillion appropriations bill did a couple very obvious things: it provided millions of Americans badly needed coronavirus relief aid and it averted an impending government shutdown. It also dealt with ... UFOs. 

The legislation, which President Donald Trump signed into law, was a bureaucratic nesting doll that ran over 5,500 pages and contained the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, which itself carried an unusual provision in its “committee comment” section, beneath the understated heading “Advanced Aerial Threats.” The stipulation mandates that the director of national intelligence work with the secretary of defense on a report detailing everything the government knows about unidentified flying objects — known in agency lingo as “unidentified aerial phenomena” or “anomalous aerial vehicles.”

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Gavin Newsom’s decision to rely on Blue Shield is backfiring. A growing number of public health officials and lawmakers say Blue Shield isn’t the right choice to coordinate the state’s vaccine distribution. Newsom’s political future now hinges, in part, on how quickly Blue Shield—which is still charged with leading how vaccines are allocated—can get shots into Californians’ arms.

Blue Shield has already contributed $269,000 to a political account that Newsom could tap to fight a recall election.

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“ ‘Reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact but view them only as claims that await testing by the courts through the adversary process.’ ”

So said attorneys for Republican lawyer Sidney Powell as they sought dismissal of a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against Powell by the election equipment company Dominion Voting Systems.

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"I don't need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take common-sense steps that will save lives in the future and to urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act," Biden said Tuesday, speaking from the White House State Dining Room. Speaking at the White House before leaving for Columbus, Ohio, Biden suggested that he may take executive action on gun violence.

"As president I’m going to use all the resources at my disposal to keep people safe," he said.

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