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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.

With All Seats at Stake, Florida Women Start Grassroots Movement

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Tuesday, September 6, 2016   

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - With every seat in the state House and Senate up for grabs this November, two Florida ex-pats want to make sure voters make the most informed choices, especially when it comes to women's health issues.

Arianne Keegan and Abigail DeAtley grew up in Florida but have been living in New York for several years. Keegan said when Governor Rick Scott signed the highly controversial H-B 1411, defunding preventive services at the state's two Planned Parenthood clinics and placing more restrictions on doctors performing abortions, they found it hard to recognize their home state.

That's why with the election looming, the two founded the website Call Them Out Florida to let voters know exactly where the candidates stand on this issue.

"We have a chance to really make a change in the Legislature and shift the climate as long as people are paying attention to how these candidates vote and act with reproductive justice and access," she said.

H-B 1411 was slated to go into effect on July 1st, but has been challenged in court, and remains blocked as that process continues. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled similar restrictions in Texas were unconstitutional.

With such a divisive presidential race, co-founder Abigail DeAtley worries some voters might miss a real opportunity to effectuate change if they don't do their homework.

"It's down-ballot races that have decided health-care access since 2010. It is state by state, legislature by legislature, that they are winnowing rights, access, funding, sex education away," she said.

Given that there currently is one Supreme Court vacancy in play, DeAtley stressed that it remains crucially important for voters to look at where the presidential candidates and their running mates stand on the issue.


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The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

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