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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Supreme Court OKs Independent Redistricting Commissions

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Tuesday, June 30, 2015   

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Election reforms that introduced an independent redistricting commission in California will remain in place, following a U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold a similar redistricting system in Arizona.

California's independent redistricting commission was part of a sweeping initiative package passed in 2008, which replaced a system in which politicians often drew legislative districts to favor incumbents. The redistricting commission certified new electoral district maps in 2011.

Stephen Spaulding, policy counsel with the grassroots advocacy group Common Cause, says the Supreme Court decision is a victory for voters.

"This was a sweeping affirmation of the California model, which allows citizens to draw the lines rather than legislators picking and choosing their voters," he says.

The California reforms also included a switch to an "open" primary, intended to draw more centrist candidates that can appeal to the entire electorate, instead of an extreme wing or faction of a political party. Since the changes, Democrats have added to their majority in Sacramento.

Kathay Feng, national redistricting director of Common Cause in Los Angeles, says the open, public redistricting process has put an end to so-called "backroom deals" meant to create safe seats.

"There were more than a dozen incumbents who either decided not to run, or who were defeated in elections because they didn't have the guaranteed re-election that they used to when district lines were drawn by the Legislature," she says.

Had the decision gone the other way, Feng says California's election system would have been thrown into disarray.

The next round of redistricting is scheduled for 2021, the year after the next census.



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