Attacks on voting & free speech

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Louisiana election map was "an unconstitutional racial gerrymander" because it used race as a factor to create a majority-Black congressional district.

The ruling undermines an important part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Section 2 of the law was meant to protect minority voters’ political power. After this ruling, it’s not clear how much of that provision is still in tact.

A group of Black voters had previously sued over a 2022 Louisiana congressional map that only had one majority-Black district. The voters argued that map violated Section 2.

A federal judge agreed and ordered the state to draw a new map that created another majority-Black congressional district. That new map is the one that the Supreme Court just struck down. The ruling could affect this year’s midterm elections. Democratic leaders fear it could allow red states to redraw maps that would help them gain 19 seats.

The White House press secretary’s prediction that “there will be some shots fired tonight” was a reference to the customary comedy roast at the dinner, not to actual gunshots.

One official said he wasn’t aware of the dinner ever being designated a National Special Security Event. In other words, there wasn’t a sudden downgrade in security that allowed the shooter through.

People did place bets on what would happen at the dinner, but one bet that’s gotten attention on whether anyone would get kicked out does not mention a shooting, specifically.

Searches for the shooters’ name only trended after the shooting, despite false claims circulating online.

Photos of the shooter wearing an IDF shirt were likely AI generated. So are other photos of him you may have seem.

A tweet with the shooters name from 2023 is real, but it’s not clear whether there’s a connection to the shooting.

This brings us to this week’s media literacy tip from our friends at MediaWise!

Late night host Jimmy Kimmel joked that Melania Trump had “a glow like an expectant widow.” Since then, the first lady has called for ABC to fire Kimmel, criticizing his joke as a “call to violence.”

Kimmel refused to apologize, explaining the joke was about the age difference between the first lady and the president rather than a call to violence.

This is more than a feud between Kimmel and Melania. FCC chairman Brendan Carr is reviewing ABC broadcast licenses following the joke, earlier than that review was supposed to take place.

Local ABC affiliates have previously stopped airing Kimmel’s show, then reversed course.

In January, hours before U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, someone placed an online bet that U.S. forces would capture Nicolás Maduro. Curious!

Last week, the Justice Department arrested special forces soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who was involved in the operation. The DOJ charged him with using classified information to make the bet and win more than $400,000. He has pled not guilty to those charges.

Prosecutors say Van Dyke made a series of bets. They also allege he sent most of the money he made to a cryptocurrency vault and then a new brokerage account. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission also filed a separate complaint against Van Dyke. They say he engaged in insider trading on Polymarket.

Van Dyke’s not the only one in hot water over placing these kinds of bets. Kalshi, another prediction market, fined and suspended three people running for Congress for betting on their own races. All of this raises broader questions around how the government should regulate prediction markets — questions made even more interesting by Donald Trump’s social media app launching its own Polymarket competitor.

The U.S. economy grew 2% in the first three months of 2026! Woohoo! What does that mean?

A new Commerce Department report says it’s because private investment, consumer spending (like the guava danish I bought while writing this) and government expenditures were in good shape before the war with Iran. After that, rising oil prices hindered growth a bit.

Across the pond, European policymakers are also grappling with rising fuel costs because of the war. The Bank of England maintained interest rates but warned that inflation could rise soon. European Central Bank officials said something similar.