LAS VEGAS, Nev. - This Saturday, thousands of Americans will take part in a first-ever event called America Talks - in an effort to heal social and political divisions that are tearing the U.S. apart. The mass video-chat event will kick off the fourth annual National Week of Conversation.

Cheryl Hughes is a co-organizer of the event and a nonprofit consultant from Greenville, Ohio, who is a self-described liberal. She said it's important to reach across the aisle.

"I have actually lost friends because of positions that they hold," said Hughes. "I just decided that I need to become a better listener."

To be matched with a conversation partner for the event this weekend, sign up at AmericaTalks.us. The site also lists dozens of online forums on the schedule for next week.

The National Week of Conversation is designed to counteract the kind of vitriol often found on social media, and introduce people to those with differing views. Organizers are asking people to choose courage over contempt and reject the hostility that leads to political gridlock that hampers efforts to tackle the big issues.

Ron McFarland from Denver, Colorado is a retired teacher who describes himself as a fiscal conservative and moderate Republican. He said he's taken heat for his views.

"There's so much hurt, so much polarization and divide in the country," said McFarland. "But for me, it's 'Go, America!'"

The National Week of Conversation promotes what organizers call bridging norms. They advise everyone to listen with curiosity, speak from their own experience, and connect with respect.

There's another chapter in Ohio's redistricting saga. Several groups filed legal challenges asking the Ohio Supreme Court to declare revised state legislative district maps invalid, arguing they violate the Ohio Constitution's partisan fairness mandates.

After the state's first maps were declared unconstitutional, the Ohio Redistricting Commission went back to the drawing board and approved new maps Saturday.

Maki Somosot, communications and narrative director for the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, said the map drawers identified districts in the original maps leaning slightly Republican, and revised the lines just enough to create razor-thin Democratic-leaning districts.

"This is just another example of our legislators putting their own party over people's interests," Somosot asserted. "At the end of the day, if we're going to build a democracy that works for all of us, that means that we need to pick our leaders and not the other way around."

Gov. Mike DeWine, who sits on the Ohio Redistricting Commission, indicated the revised map is as close to proportional as possible, and argued it conformed to all other provisions required by the constitution. The commission has until noon on Friday to respond to the objections.

Ohio's voting breakdown is 54% Republican to 46% Democrat.

Collin Marozzi, deputy policy director for the ACLU of Ohio, explains the revised maps give Republicans a 57-42 advantage in the House and a 20-13 advantage in the Senate.

"There really is a tilt, a very intentional skew, to put the Democratic seats in a much more precarious position rather than the Republican districts which have been drawn to ensure a level of safety for those members," Marozzi contended.

Meanwhile, the Ohio General Assembly is tasked with redrawing congressional districts after the state Supreme Court found the map violated partisan gerrymandering rules. Marozzi noted redistricting is now a hot-button issue among voters.

"The maps that are ultimately adopted from one state to another in the aggregate has the ability to change the party in power in the U.S. House of Representatives," Marozzi pointed out. "And people have rightly begun to view redistricting as a linchpin for democracy."

Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Michigan and Texas are among the states where there are also legal challenges over newly drawn districts.

With new restrictions in place, Texans will vote March 1 in the nation's first primary to choose candidates for the Nov. ballot. Republicans and Democrats will make their choices for District-based congressional and legislative offices, the State Board of Education and judicial seats.

The state's significant overhaul of voting rules has already resulted in glitches.

David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, believes early voting problems illustrate the need for legislative and other responses to strengthen the guardrails of democracy.

"In this delicate time for American democracy, and I do think we're as much in crisis in American democracy as we've ever been perhaps in modern American history," Becker remarked.

Texas election administrators already have rejected hundreds of vote-by-mail applications. They say there is confusion over new ID laws requiring people to provide either a partial Social Security number or a driver's license number on their application for a mail-in ballot, and the number must match the identification on their voter registration, which many do not recall.

Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, Becker also is worried about poll workers who have faced threats and harassment in some states from election deniers who doubt President Joe Biden's victory in 2020.

He argued ongoing efforts in certain states to decertify the 2020 election may disenfranchise many voters.

"They've been fed a constant, steady diet of lies about the election, about how their fellow citizens, their friends, their neighbors, their members of their family... are their enemies," Becker contended. "These are the kind of things that cripple a democracy and leave a vacuum for autocracies to fill."

A Texas man was recently arrested in Travis County for allegedly sending threatening election-related communications to government officials on Jan. 5, 2021. It's the first criminal case brought by the Justice Department's Election Threats Task Force.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Carnegie Corporation of New York.

What is a riot, and what's a protest?

That was the question before the Wisconsin Legislature on Tuesday, as lawmakers debated and passed a bill to set new law-enforcement standards for unlawful assemblies. The bill would categorize as a riot any unlawful assembly where a single person either commits or threatens an act of violence or engages in violence that "substantially obstructs law enforcement or another governmental function."

Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, said she thinks the bill would target peaceful protesters.

"It puts forward increased penalties," she said, "while simultaneously paring back the rights of peaceful protesters and opening them up to criminal exposure for the misdeeds, the missteps, of others."

The bill would make attending such an unlawful assembly a misdemeanor, with a sentence of up to nine months in jail. Republicans argued that it would prevent property damage, such as that seen during protests in 2020, after the murder of George Floyd and shooting of Jacob Blake.

In November 2020, shortly after the protests over Blake's shooting, the Kenosha Area Business Alliance told The New York Times that 35 small businesses were destroyed during the unrest and about 80 were damaged. Rep. Barbara Dittrich, R-Oconomowoc, argued that the bill is necessary to distinguish between a riot and a protest.

"This bill does not blur the lines," she said, "but clarifies the difference between our First Amendment rights to protest and rioting."

Several law enforcement associations support the bill. Opponents include the American Civil Liberties Union, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and the City of Milwaukee. With its passage in both the Assembly and Senate, the bill now goes to Gov. Tony Evers for further consideration.

Support for this reporting is provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.