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Jaden Pierre was shot in the torso just before 6:20 p.m. Thursday near Nautilus Playground in Roy Wilkins Park in St. Albans, police said. 

The Latest On The Redistricting Battles

Authored by Jackson Richman & Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Despite the midterm season underway, the lines of congressional maps have not been finalized as redistricting battles continue nationwide.

Voters fill out their ballots at a polling station in the Hillsboro Old Stone School in Hillsboro, Va., on Nov. 4, 2025 Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Since Texas’s opening salvo, lawmakers in both parties from Florida to California have pushed for partisan redistricting in their states as a high-stakes midterm election season approaches.

Here is the latest on states redrawing their congressional maps.

Virginia

The Democratic-led General Assembly passed in February a new U.S. House map that will only go into effect if voters approve a referendum to allow the state to do mid-decade redistricting.

The state Supreme Court has yet to rule whether the effort is valid, but said the vote on the constitutional amendment can proceed. Before the court is an appeal of a county judge’s ruling that the amendment is illegal because lawmakers violated their own rules while passing it.

Florida

Gov. Ron DeSantis has called a special legislative session to begin Monday on redrawing the state’s congressional map. Republicans haven’t yet publicized what the lines would look like. However, the state constitution states that redistricting cannot favor or disfavor a political party or incumbent.

Texas

The Lone Star State last year added five congressional districts that favor Republicans after Trump urged the state to redistrict and after the Department of Justice suggested that several districts in the state unconstitutionally grouped minorities to make a majority. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the new map.

California

Voters in November approved a referendum that circumvents an independent commission by adding five congressional districts that favor Democrats.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal from Republicans, who claimed that the map favors Hispanics. The high court said the map could be used in this year’s election.

Missouri

Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a revised House district map into law last September, a move that could give Republicans an additional seat.

A county judge ruled that the new map will remain in effect while election officials review whether a referendum petition meets constitutional requirements and includes enough valid signatures for a statewide vote.

The Missouri Supreme Court has already dismissed a lawsuit arguing that mid-decade redistricting is unlawful. The court is set to hear arguments in May over claims that the new districts fail to meet compactness standards and should be paused pending a possible referendum.

Ohio

A bipartisan panel, largely made up of Republicans, voted in October to approve a revised House map that could boost the party’s chances of gaining two additional seats. The redraw was required under the state constitution ahead of the 2026 election after Republicans enacted the previous map without enough Democratic backing following the last census.

North Carolina

The Republican-controlled General Assembly gave final approval in October to revised district lines that could help the party gain an additional seat. In November, a federal court panel declined to block the new map from being used in the midterm elections.

Utah

A judge in November ordered new House district boundaries that could give Democrats an opportunity to pick up a seat. The court found that lawmakers had sidestepped voter-approved anti-gerrymandering rules when drawing the previous map. In February, both a federal court panel and the state Supreme Court rejected Republican challenges to the court-imposed districts.

Maryland

While Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, has pushed the state legislature to redistrict the state’s single Republican seat, the push has so far failed to gain steam.

On April 13, the state legislature’s session ended without the passage of a bill to redistrict Maryland’s congressional map despite Moore’s encouragement. The state House had passed the bill, but it stalled in the state Senate.

New York

Though New York Gov. Kathy Hochul had pushed for the state to redraw its congressional boundaries, any such change has been blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In March, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court order that had called on the state legislature to redraw Rep. Nicole Malliotakis’s (R-N.Y.) 11th congressional district seat.

Indiana

The Indiana legislature failed to pass redistricting legislation. The measure failed in December 2025 after 21 state Senate Republicans joined all 10 Democrats in the chamber to defeat the measure in a 31–19 vote.

It means the previous maps will remain in place for the upcoming elections.

Kansas

Though some Republicans in the GOP-dominated Kansas state legislature had pushed for the state to redraw its single Democrat-held seat, the push failed in late 2025 due to opposition from Gov. Laura Kelly.

Kelly vowed to veto any mid-decade map.

Illinois

While Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker indicated that the state was musing on redrawing maps to further favor Democrats, no push to that end has gained momentum. This year, Illinois is expected to use the same congressional maps it did in 2024.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 18:25

Precision policing, tweaks to the law and a renewed commitment to prosecuting recidivists have driven down retail theft by 20% citywide, proving that time-honored public safety strategies work.

Mayor Mamdani’s schools chancellor, Kamar Samuels, promises to bring back “rigor.” That means fixing the attendance and grading mess his predecessors left behind.

LA mayor Karen Bass leads a city reeling from street disorder, a failed homelessness response, wildfires, depleted police staffing, and a fiscal crisis. 

"The stigma is definitely reducing," the actress confidently explained.

"The stigma is definitely reducing," the actress confidently explained.

Unpaid Trash Company Empties Dumpster Rental Load On Customer's Front Lawn

A Bay Area dumpster company decided to skip collections and go straight to… lawn delivery.

Express Rental Dumpster said a San Pablo customer rented a bin while moving out, but the payment situation was, generously, fictional. The owner, Martin Perez, said the card kept getting declined while the customer kept promising “later”, according to Fox News.

So instead of eating the cost, the driver showed up and made a statement. Ring camera footage shows him briefly talking to someone off-screen, cracking open the truck so some trash spills out, then backing up and dumping the entire load onto the front lawn. 

At one point, someone from inside the house comes out and starts yelling, though it didn’t reverse the sudden landscaping change.

Perez told KTVU he’d already lost money on the job and would’ve had to pay extra dumping fees himself—apparently a line he wasn’t interested in crossing.

Police eventually showed up and told the driver to at least move debris off the sidewalk and back onto the property. A neighbor, meanwhile, claimed the homeowner insisted they had paid about $700, which only makes the whole situation murkier.

But thank God for America's growing homeless population...because in the end, the trash pile was picked through by scavengers and later cleaned up with help from a neighbor—because nothing says neighborhood bonding like surprise garbage mountain.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 18:00

The final game of the 2026 NBA Play-In Tournament is here with a “win to get in” matchup between the No. 10 Golden State Warriors and the No. 7 Phoenix Suns for the Western Conference’s No. 8 seed. Despite creating an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter against Portland, the Suns let their lead, the...

You'll be sleeping like never before.

Sophie Cunningham is washing off the old and embracing the new.

A source close to Fisher said the crew broke in through the front entrance and moved with precision.

A source close to Fisher said the crew broke in through the front entrance and moved with precision.

Kennedy was referring to an incredibly awkward moment at Syracuse University School of Law earlier this week where Biden demanded that one of the institution’s board members join him at the podium because he thought the black man resembled former President Barack Obama.

Big Apple grocery stores are optimistic that Council Speaker Julie Menin will take their side after she issued a cool response to Mayor Mamdani's proposal earlier this week.

St. John’s hero Dylan Darling is transferring to Grand Canyon for his final season of eligibility, according to on3.com.

The "About Us" singer exclusively spoke with Page Six about the aftermath of her dad's death while promoting her new wine brand, House of Stars.

The "About Us" singer exclusively spoke with Page Six about the aftermath of her dad's death while promoting her new wine brand, House of Stars.

Pet protection at its finest.

"F**k It…Just Do It": Carville Lays Out Democratic Plan To Add States And Pack The Court To Retain Power

Authored by Jonathan Turley via jonathanturley.org,

Various Democrats have been openly discussing their plans after retaking power to change the system so they never lose power again. Democratic strategist James Carville has been one of the most vocal and returned to the subject this week in laying out how they will make D.C. and Puerto Rico states and pack the Supreme Court with a liberal majority.

On his podcast with Al Hunt, Carville explained, “If the Democrats win the presidency and both houses of Congress, I think on day one, they should make Puerto Rico [and] D.C. a state, and they should expand the Supreme Court to 13. F— it. Eat our dust.”

Notably, this week, New Jersey just elected a radical new member, Analilia Mejia, who ran on packing the Court and other radical agenda items. While some of us have written about the expansion of the Court, these politicians and pundits are pushing for the packing, not just gradual expanding, of the Court.

However, Carville (curiously on a national podcast) seriously suggested that Democrats should keep the plan quiet: “Don’t run on it. Don’t talk about it. Just do it.”

Call it the Nike School of Constitutional Law.

The need of the left to pack the Supreme Court is obvious. Many of the proposals coming from the left are clearly unconstitutional. You will need a partisan majority to make the political changes that these figures hope will give the Democrats a lock on power for years to come.

Years ago, Harvard professor Michael Klarman laid out a radical agenda to change the system to guarantee Republicans “will never win another election.” However, he warned that “the Supreme Court could strike down everything I just described.” Therefore, the court must be packed in advance to allow these changes to occur.

Likewise, Carville previously explained how this process of how the pack-to-power plan would work:

“I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen. A Democrat is going to be elected in 2028. You know that. I know that. The Democratic president is going to announce a special transition advisory committee on the reform of the Supreme Court. They’re going to recommend that the number of Supreme Court justices go from nine to 13. That’s going to happen, people.”

The push for court packing and war chests on the left remains unchanged despite conservatives on the Court ruling against the Administration on major cases. Carville and others cannot claim that the conservative justices are robotically voting with the Administration, but it does not matter. They want a Court that will consistently uphold the changes being planned by Democratic strategists.

The fact that these changes would come after the 250th anniversary of the most successful democratic system in history is a crushing irony. However, it is notable that the Democrats want Congress and the courts to push through these changes, not the public. The public remains opposed to court packing and making D.C. a state. That is why Carville wants candidates to keep quiet on the plan and run, like Virginia’s Abigail Spanberger, as faux moderates. Then, as in Virginia, they can move to fundamentally change districts and rules to guarantee their hold on power.

It is a mentality summed up by NEA President Becky Pringle:

The question is whether rage politics can convince a people to destroy the very democratic system that has brought centuries of stability and prosperity.

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Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 17:40