WASHINGTON DC (March 5, 2020) — In a case before the US Supreme Court that could determine how far the courts may go in shielding police from being held accountable for wrongdoing, The Rutherford Institute is challenging a lower court ruling that prevents victims of police shootings for suing police for violations of their civil rights 

On March 3, US president Donald Trump spoke (via telephone) with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, chief of the Taliban's Doha diplomatic office and signer, on behalf of his organization, of the recently-concluded Afghanistan "peace deal." "The direct contact between an American president and a top Taliban leader would once have been unthinkable," writes Michael Crowley at the New York Times.

Writing at the Florida Politics blog, AG Gancarski reports on three sales-tax "holiday" bills working their way through the state's legislature. Two of the bills would lengthen existing holidays on school supplies and storm-preparedness products. The third would expand the holiday habit to hunting and fishing items. According to the Sales Tax Institute, at least 16 states have sales-tax holidays scheduled this year on goods ranging from clothing to school supplies to generators to guns.

DES MOINES, IOWA (February 26, 2020) — With 168 days until the Iowa State Fair, August 13-23, 2020, now is your chance to create a part of Iowa State Fair history by designing your own concrete statue. Past sculptures have included an elephant, pig, cow, horse, ice-cream cone, Ferris wheel, state of Iowa, Iowa State Fair logo, and blue ribbon. The featured concrete sculpture for the 2020 Fair is a retro camper to symbolize the rich tradition and sense of community at the Fair.