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But when a state Senate vote was abruptly put off Monday because it didn't have enough support, the delay was a reminder that the politics of pot legalization aren't purely partisan. The key question instead can be whether voters or legislators are making the decision, experts say. Several states where it passed — like Massachusetts, Michigan and Vermont — are less blue than purple, with governors and legislative leaders of different parties. The Democratic governors and legislature leaders of New York and New Jersey have been jostling to make their states next in line to legalize marijuana, but the effort hasn't gone as smoothly as they might have hoped. Those are also among the sticking points that prompted the New Jersey Senate to postpone Monday's planned vote, which would fulfill a campaign promise from Gov. Pot advocates, meanwhile, say they don't expect it to be easy to change policy about a drug that was illegal in all 50 states for decades, and still is in the federal government's view. Nine of the 10 states that have legalized recreational marijuana did so through voter referendums — not through their legislatures. "I actually see this as a populist-movement-vs.-representative (body) issue," says Andrew Freedman, who helped set up Colorado's recreational-pot program and now consults governments on doing so. For all that, lawmakers in 21 states at least proposed legalizing marijuana last year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. “States are talking about it in the rainbow of red, blue and purple.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit back Tuesday at Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) weeks after her remarks deemed anti-Semitic triggered controversy. Omar drew condemnation from members of both parties last month after she suggested in the tweet that AIPAC has been paying members of Congress to support Israel. She later apologized for the tweet — and for other comments — but also insisted on what she called “the problematic role of lobbyists in our politics.” The Minnesota Democrat responded Tuesday to Netanyahu in a tweet: “This from a man facing indictments for bribery and other crimes in three separate public corruption affairs. "It’s because America and Israel share a love of freedom and democracy. It’s because we cherish individual rights and the rule of law," Netanyahu told AIPAC, as USA Today reported. Netanyahu on Monday visited the White House, where President Trump signed a proclamation recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel occupied in 1967 and unilaterally annexed in 1981. The document reverses more than a half-century of U.S. policy. Trump had previewed the move last week saying that it was time for the U.S. to take the step after 52 years of Israeli control of the strategic highlands on the border with Syria. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Roy Cooper, a Democrat, and Maryland Gov. Under the current system, politicians devise maps that make some votes count more than others. Our states — Maryland and North Carolina — are among the most gerrymandered in the country. Take a look at our congressional district maps, and you will see some absurd-looking districts. It makes them more beholden to the party leaders who draw the boundaries than to the voters who live within them. In Maryland, Democrats contrived a congressional district map to distribute liberal voters from Baltimore and the Washington metro area far across the state. In North Carolina, one Republican member of the North Carolina General Assembly actually told fellow legislators in 2016: “I propose that we draw the maps to give a partisan advantage to 10 Republicans and three Democrats because I do not believe it’s possible to draw a map with 11 Republicans and two Democrats.” Later that year, Republicans won those 10 seats — 77 percent of the congressional delegation — despite winning just 53 percent of the statewide vote. Leaders in both parties would be wise to listen to and work with the people they represent to strengthen our democracy. Both of us support reform efforts in our states that would take a nonpartisan approach to redistricting. Citizens should choose their elected officials, not the other way around.

Three cases of defendants who threatened the life of political figures came to various stages of resolution in federal courtrooms last week. In one, an upstate New York man was convicted of threatening to kill former president Barack Obama and congresswoman Maxine Waters, the California Democrat. In another, a California man was sentenced for threatening the lives of Obama, former presidents George H.W. A Secret Service spokesman declined to say how many open threats they are investigating against the president and the other individuals the agency protects. He noted that in the weeks, months and years following the 9/11 attacks of 2001, there was a surge in prosecutions of defendants with links to Muslim-majority countries. “These arrests subsided in the Obama years as US strategy changed focus, and Obama shifted focus to extrajudicial assassinations overseas,” Loadenthal tells Quartz. It’s the highest rate in the past two years, but down 8% as compared to 2013. “You go backwards and look at past incidents—problems at work, behavioral problems, does this person have access to firearms?” Agents then assign a risk rating to each person who make a threat that is discovered. That’s when Trump fans began appearing at Harrigan’s San Diego, California home, threatening to kill him and his family. A few days later, the Secret Service showed up.

NEW YORK (AP) — To anyone who figured the path of legalizing recreational marijuana use ran along blue state-red state lines, a sudden setback for pot advocates in New Jersey may show the issue isn’t so black-and-white. But when a state Senate vote was abruptly put off Monday because it didn’t have enough support, the delay was a reminder that the politics of pot legalization aren’t purely partisan. The key question instead can be whether voters or legislators are making the decision, experts say. Several states where it passed — like Massachusetts, Michigan and Vermont — are less blue than purple, with governors and legislative leaders of different parties. The Democratic governors and legislature leaders of New York and New Jersey have been jostling to make their states next in line to legalize, but the effort hasn’t gone as smoothly as they might have hoped. Those are also among the sticking points that prompted the New Jersey Senate to postpone Monday’s planned vote, which would fulfill a campaign promise from Gov. Nine of the 10 states that have legalized recreational marijuana did so through voter referendums — not through their legislatures. “I actually see this as a populist-movement-vs.-representative (body) issue,” says Andrew Freedman, who helped set up Colorado’s recreational-pot program and now consults governments on doing so. For all that, lawmakers in 21 states at least proposed legalizing marijuana last year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. “States are talking about it in the rainbow of red, blue and purple.” ___ Peltz is a member of AP’s marijuana beat team.

NEW YORK (AP) — To anyone who figured the path of legalizing recreational marijuana use ran along blue state-red state lines, a sudden setback for pot advocates in New Jersey may show the issue isn’t so black-and-white. But when a state Senate vote was abruptly put off Monday because it didn’t have enough support, the delay was a reminder that the politics of pot legalization aren’t purely partisan. The key question instead can be whether voters or legislators are making the decision, experts say. Several states where it passed — like Massachusetts, Michigan and Vermont — are less blue than purple, with governors and legislative leaders of different parties. The Democratic governors and legislature leaders of New York and New Jersey have been jostling to make their states next in line to legalize, but the effort hasn’t gone as smoothly as they might have hoped. Those are also among the sticking points that prompted the New Jersey Senate to postpone Monday’s planned vote, which would fulfill a campaign promise from Gov. Nine of the 10 states that have legalized recreational marijuana did so through voter referendums — not through their legislatures. “I actually see this as a populist-movement-vs.-representative (body) issue,” says Andrew Freedman, who helped set up Colorado’s recreational-pot program and now consults governments on doing so. For all that, lawmakers in 21 states at least proposed legalizing marijuana last year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. “States are talking about it in the rainbow of red, blue and purple.” ___ Peltz is a member of AP’s marijuana beat team.

Strangely enough, the imminent economic catastrophe of a no-deal Brexit only came second in the reasoning to political assessments. Hence Theresa May’s demand for a short extension until June 30th, which she hoped could avoid that election participation. On the European side, too, electoral considerations carried weight. National leaders want to show their own voters the clear costs of an EU exit, which is much easier with the UK outside. The British minister failed to grasp the extent to which his country’s exit from the European order is experienced by Germany, Ireland and other EU member states as an existential political attack on the foundations of the union, to be withstood at all costs. In sum: politics above prosperity on both sides (albeit with far lower relative costs for the remaining 27 members). The Brussels machinery is utterly ill-equipped to deal with border issues. A border is pure politics: an arbitrary line between us and them. Borders, in other words, cannot be “depoliticised”, not reasoned away thanks to a legal fix or technological trick. Just as light-heartedly, London first pretended the issue could be solved with technology before running into the sand of legal explanations.

In his new book, Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime (Polity), Latour argues that climate change, by calling into question the once-universal dream of “development” and globalization, is leaving a huge void in our consciousness. How to orient yourself in politics?” Humanity no longer has a shared framework of “becoming modern,” says Latour. The remaining nation-states of the world, meanwhile, have no clear path in a fractured, divided world for constructing a shared vision. As the claims of modernity and globalized capitalism fall apart, revealed as ecologically and economically catastrophic, it has opened up an empty space that we don’t know how to fill. It is also shattering the idea of the Local as a haven of sequestered safety, morality, and order. The earth can no longer be ignored as a powerful autonomous, living force in human affairs. Latour argues that a new “third attractor” is gradually arising to harness political energies and revamp political alignments.The new attractor is based on a commitment to healing the earth and changing the dynamics of politics itself. In short, climate change is mooting many of the premises of modern consciousness itself. This attractor escapes the fantasies of the Global and Local by frankly recognizing the biophysical realities of the living earth as our destiny and mission. Throughout the book, he cites the need for humanity to find “a place to land” – a way to escape the fantasies of modernity and to become more entangled with the biophysical life of the earth.

Those who followed the campaigns leading up to Senegal's presidential election late last month would have been struck by one of the defining features of Senegalese politics - hip-hop artists and the pivotal roles they can play in elections. A major reason for that: demographics. The average age of citizens there is exceptionally low - just 19. Rappers were among the founders of the country's largest social movement, credited with swaying the previous election back in 2012. But the power of hip-hop as a gateway to Senegal's youth goes beyond politics. Journal Rappe is a newscast rapped to a beat. Its founders Xuman and Keyti rhyme their take on the news in French and Wolof. "Journal Rappe is a way of simplifying political news, and making it accessible to citizens who might not want to watch news broadcasts. Back in 2011, they helped found the social movement Y'en a Marre - French for "Fed up". We went to the Republic of Congo, to Equatorial Guinea, to Mali, to Gambia, Madagascar, to meet young activists and musicians from various movements, and last year we hosted a gathering with all of them here in Dakar," says Thiat, Keur Gui rapper and cofounder of Y'en a Marre.

Sure, the market for Democratic presidential candidates is getting a little saturated. Because there's almost never a downside to running. The candidates of the crowded fields in the last few presidential elections — even the also-rans — almost always came out ahead or, at worst, ended up in the same place. No Democrat will say they're running for something else, like vice president or cabinet secretary. But that's where some of them will end up, if the Democratic nominee beats President Trump. If Trump wins, some of them are young enough to give it another try in four years. And if that doesn't happen, they can always become a cable news talking head. A quick look at the "whatever happened to them" file: Hillary Clinton (2008) became Barack Obama's secretary of state before moving on to that other presidential race. Joe Biden (2008) became his vice president. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul (2016) all went back to the Senate.