The Hound | April 30

SCOTUS guts remainder of Voting Rights Act, Powell says he will stay on Fed board until successor is approved by Senate, and California will soon have more than 300 data centers.

April 30, 2026

Hi there,

It’s Thursday. Yesterday, the Supreme Court gutted most of what remained of the Voting Rights Act, the seminal accomplishment of the Civil Rights Movement. Combined with Trump unleashing a gerrymandering frenzy last year, the congressional maps for the midterms — and 2028 — are far from decided. To wit, Florida just passed a map designed to give Republicans four additional seats, but no one knows who even drew the map.

These maps are not neutral—they are often engineered through opaque processes that prioritize partisan advantage over fair representation. Yet too much media coverage treats redistricting as a technical or legal issue rather than examining how these maps are actually created and who benefits from them. When coverage focuses on court fights or partisan reactions without digging into the mechanics of gerrymandering, the public is left without a clear understanding of how electoral outcomes are being shaped before a single vote is cast.

The public deserves reporting that makes clear how district lines influence power and representation. Democracy depends on voters choosing their leaders—not the other way around.

Read about this, and more, with today’s stories:

Until next time,

Harry from The Hound

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