Alarming rise in youth gun deaths breaks down very differently by race

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Whenever there is a mass shooting in the United States, the national gun debate intensifies and in recent years that’s increasingly meant discussing how to protect young people from gun violence amid a shocking rise in deaths.

Since 2019, gun violence has become the leading cause of death among Americans under the age of 18, surpassing car accidents. A closer look at the numbers reveals even more alarming trends, especially among young African Americans. CONTINUED

Dante Chinni, NBC News

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Most want abortion pill to remain available

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A big majority of Americans want to see the abortion pill mifepristone remain available. Even some who are more generally opposed to abortion hold this view.

On a broader level, American women feel access to reproductive health care is getting harder today rather than easier, by about four to one.

There’s a red-blue state divide on the outlook for abortion rights: most who live in “red” states think abortion access is going to become more restricted for them. CONTINUED

CBS News

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America’s parents show increasing concern over gun violence — CBS News poll

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Social pressures. Bullies. Academics. These are all things generations of American children have had to worry about. Today, their parents tell us, there’s another worry weighing on most of them, too: the prospect of gun violence.

It’s increasingly on parents’ minds, as well; concern among America’s parents now is even higher than it was last summer. Today, 77% are at least somewhat concerned. Last year it was already high at 72%. CONTINUED

CBS News

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Biden’s poll numbers look grim as he preps for reelection bid

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Joe Biden became president promising a 180-degree turn from Donald Trump. But the two men do have one big thing in common: similarly poor approval ratings heading into the start of their reelection bids.

Biden has not yet officially announced he’s running again next year, though he has said he plans to. Polls show his approval rating is hovering in the low 40s, right around the mark where some of his predecessors who were denied second terms sat at this point of their presidencies. CONTINUED

Steven Shepard, Politico

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After soccer moms and NASCAR dads comes the ‘pickleball voter’

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It’s easy to dismiss the importance of how sports and politics commingle in American life. But it’s also a mistake.

There’s an excellent new book by our former CNN colleague Chris Cillizza to bring you up to speed. “Power Players: Sports, Politics, and the American Presidency” is about more than just the sporting lives of US presidents, although those details and backstories are quite interesting. …

In a larger sense the book is about how politicians try to manipulate their images, what voters expect from their elected leaders, and how the country has evolved since the 1950s. Dwight Eisenhower’s ties to golfing and the suburban sprawl created by the interstate system that bears his name is no coincidence.

Soccer moms, NASCAR dads, and now, Cilizza argues, pickleball voters. CONTINUED

Zachary B. Wolf, CNN

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The Tennessee Expulsions Are Just the Beginning

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The red-state drive to reverse the rights revolution of the past six decades continues to intensify, triggering confrontations involving every level of government. In rapid succession, Republican-controlled states are applying unprecedented tactics to shift social policy sharply to the right, not only within their borders but across the nation. …

The past week’s events in Tennessee and Texas, and the federal court case on mifepristone, extend strategies that red states have employed since 2020 to influence national policy. But these latest moves show Republicans taking those strategies to new extremes. Together these developments underscore how aggressively red states are maneuvering to block the federal government and their own largest metropolitan areas from resisting their systematic attempt to carve out what I’ve called a “nation within a nation,” operating with its own constraints on civil rights and liberties. CONTINUED

Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic

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