Free Republic

A galaxy of political and entertainment stars (of various wattage) arrived Saturday night at L.A. Live’s Peacock Theater for a gala fundraiser for President Biden’s reelection campaign. Here’s a rundown of some of those who attended the event, which is expected to raise at least $28 million: First Lady Jill Biden Former President Obama Julia Roberts George Clooney Barbra Streisand Paul Anka Kathy Griffin Jeffrey Katzenberg Bryan Lourd Richard Lovett Jimmy Kimmel Jack Black Kathryn Hahn Jason Bateman Sheryl Lee Ralph Gov. Gavin Newsom L.A. Mayor Karen Bass Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) Rep. Grace F. Napolitano (D-Norwalk) ***MORE

A new bill introduced in the House of Representatives by Democrats would eliminate the use of the words “husband” and “wife” in federal laws, instead replacing them with genderless terms like “spouse.” As reported by Fox News, the “Amend the Code for Marriage Equality Act” was introduced by Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D-Calif.), and would change many existing laws by removing “husband” and “wife” from pre-existing text. Instead, the new law would replace these words with phrases such as “a married couple,” “married person,” and “person who has been, but is no longer, married to’.” “Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled...

A group of California Democrats unveiled legislation Friday to place new requirements on how congressional districts are redrawn a day after the Supreme Court ruled that courts can’t resolve partisan gerrymandering claims. The bill, led by House Rules Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) along with Reps. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) and Julia Brownley (D-Calif.), would require that states adopt independent redistricting commissions to draw new district maps after each decennial census.The proposal comes one day after the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision along ideological lines, found that partisan gerrymandering claims are a political issue that courts can’t weigh in on....

The nine Democrats selected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to serve on the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis received a combined $198,000 from fossil fuel industry political action committees in the 2018 election cycle. The majority of the donations went to Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), who raised $117,000 from PACs connected to oil, gas, mining and electric utility corporations. Those donations constituted 6 percent of all contributions raised by Lujan. The rest of the appointees received scant funds from fossil fuel PACs. The data comes from the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit that classifies campaign donations...