Politics and views in the United States.

Watchdogs worry about the national wave of redistricting, as NC professors say they're getting ideological record requests. Trans rights advocates say they'll continue fighting after SCOTUS ruling and the U.S builds up forcers in the Caribbean.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

Our goal is to ensure that when maps are drawn, we are instead centering the people, the constituents in those districts, and not politicians who want to maintain their own political power.

Joanne Antoine with Common Cause Maryland says Congress needs to act to make redistricting less partisan and to stop states from doing it except after a census.

That state's Democratic governor is pressing for new congressional maps, the latest move in a national gerrymandering arms race ahead of the midterms.

Texas, North Carolina, and Missouri have redrawn about seven districts to lean more towards Republicans.

California and Utah have redistricted six seats to be friendlier to Democrats, with Democrats in Virginia following suit.

But Maryland's Democratic Senate president says new maps could make already blue districts more competitive, and some Republican lawmakers in Kansas and Indiana are making similar arguments there, in spite of pressure from President Donald Trump.

North Carolina conservatives are using what look like partisan records requests to target public university faculty.

UNC professor Michael Palm with the American Association of University Professors says many of the Freedom of Information Act requests target key words like DEI, anti-racism, and LGBTQ+ in a way that encourages censorship.

They're using a series of key terms as evidenced in the FOIA request to try to find classes that right-wing ideologues find in violation of what they deem to be acceptable material being taught in the classroom.

One of the two groups requesting records there is a former subsidiary of the Heritage Foundation, which helped draft Project 2025.

It says it's auditing universities to stop tax-funded campuses from being "ideological playgrounds" rather than institutions of higher learning.

The Supreme Court is temporarily allowing the Trump administration to limit passports to male or female based on a person's birth certificate.

That changes a Biden-era rule allowing an "X" in place of a gender and had been blocked by a federal judge.

Blair Stenvik with Basic Rights Oregon says the discrimination is nothing new and the legal fights against it won't stop.

"Trump's rule has existed for a long time and we have had to deal with having incorrect markers on our identifying documents before and so we will still go on.

We can keep existing even if the government doesn't want to recognize us and wants to make our lives harder."

Any passport with an "X" on it will remain valid until it expires, but that won't be an option for new or renewed documents.

The Gerald Ford Aircraft Carrier Group arrived in the Caribbean yesterday, coinciding with another strike on a boat allegedly carrying narcotics.

The government of Venezuela has announced a major military mobilization.

Trump's Medicaid and Medicare Administrator, Dr. Mehmet Oz, says the administration is considering extending ACA health insurance subsidies.

The tax credits were the central sticking point in the government shutdown, with Democrats trying to get them extended to avoid letting premiums spike.

I'm Zimone Perez for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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