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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Supreme Court Day of Action to Tell Senate "Do Your Job"

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Thursday, March 3, 2016   

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Activists in Ohio and around the country are telling the U.S. Senate to "do its job" and take action this year on a Supreme Court nominee.

Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio is among lawmakers who want to delay filling the seat left vacant after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. They contend the process should wait until after the presidential election.

Catherine Turcer, a policy analyst for the advocacy group Common Cause Ohio, is organizing an event in Columbus today and says the judicial system should not be left in limbo.

"The wrangling of elections has come to interrupt the legislative bodies and leads to all sorts of gridlock, but it definitely should not lead to gridlock at the Supreme Court,” she states. “That third branch of government is all about independence. "

One-and-a-half-million petition signatures will be delivered to the home offices of eight Senate Republicans, including Portman, calling on senators to fulfill their constitutional obligation with a fair hearing and a timely vote on an appointment.

Rallies will also be held in other Ohio cities, including Cincinnati and Cleveland.

President Barack Obama held a meeting this week with some top ranking senators to discuss the issue, but it did not end the gridlock. And when asked by the president, Republican lawmakers reportedly did not give any suggestions on a nominee.

Turcer says Americans want government to function, and argues it's ludicrous to wait for what could be up to a year.

"Since 1975 the average number of days between an appointment and a confirmation is 67 days,” she points out. “Over the last two decades even the longest confirmation process took only 99 days."

Republicans are holding firm on their position that the vacancy should not be filled this year, but instead left to the American people through their vote in the presidential election.





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