Vox Sentences - What the census tells about America

The US Census Bureau released its 2020 data; a Scottish judge has opened the door to potential investigations into Trump’s golf courses.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Gabby Birenbaum.

The redistricting battle begins

Christina Animashaun/Vox

• With a narrow Democratic majority in the House, redistricting this year could be pivotal in the 2022 elections and shape campaigns for the next decade. New US census data released Thursday, which showed growth in cities, suburbs, and the South and Southwest, will be the starting point for redistricting and, in some cases, partisan gerrymandering. [The Wall Street Journal / Paul Overberg and John McCormick]
• The census data showed the first-ever decline in the population of white Americans. Non-Hispanic whites now make up 58 percent of the population, the first time they have been below 60 percent. [The Hill / Reid Wilson]
• Nicholas Jones, the Census Bureau’s population division director, said the data shows an increasingly multicultural country. The number of people who identify as multiracial nearly tripled over the past decade, from 9 million people to 33.8 million. [The Washington Post / Tara Bahrampour and Ted Mellnik]
• Hispanics were the biggest driver of population growth, and now make up 18.7 percent of the population. Population growth as a whole was relatively low, and pretty much limited to cities — more than half of all counties saw population decline from 2010 to 2020. [CNN / Janie Boschma, Meghna Maharishi, Christopher Hickey, and David Wright]
• The new data kicks off the map-drawing process for redistricting. Already, experts are tracking redistricting lawsuits, with cases already pending from earlier data releases that lawyers say make certain districts unconstitutional. [USA Today / Mabinty Quarshie and Donovan Slack]
• Texas and Florida, which lean Republican, will both get additional seats in Congress. The state legislatures can draw maps that advantage the GOP. Meanwhile, West Virginia will lose a seat — all of their representatives are Republicans — and Democrats control the redistricting process in New York, which will also lose a seat, and can target a Republican. [The New York Times / Nick Corasaniti]
• Much of the nation’s fastest-growing cities are in states controlled by Republicans. The top-growing area was Florida’s The Villages, where retirees live, and four of the top 10 growing cities are in Texas. [The Associated Press / David A. Lieb and Nicholas Riccardi]

Scottish court opens door for potential Trump investigation

• The Scottish government has thus far resisted calls to investigate the financing of former American President Donald Trump’s golf courses in Scotland. That could change after a judge ruled an outside group has the right to challenge the government’s lack of investigation. [The New York Times / Stephen Castle]
• The ruling allows for an appeal of the government’s decision not to issue an "unexplained wealth order," which would allow them to investigate under a Scottish law nicknamed the McMafia law.  [The Independent / Nathan Place]
• In particular, Trump’s purchase of the Turnberry golf course has encouraged suspicion, with some estimating that Trump would have had to spend half of his available cash on the 2014 deal. He has never made a profit at his Scottish golf courses. [Mother Jones / Russ Choma]
• Trump’s Turnberry deal cost $400 million at a time when his businesses were facing defaults. The potential for illegal dealings is heightened by the recent arrest of the Trump Organization’s CFO for tax fraud and falsifying business records. [Forbes / Ollie A. Williams]
• Any potential investigation is still a ways off, given the procedural hurdles. [Insider / Peter A. Walker]

Sixteen months after the reporting deadline, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) revealed this wife bought stock in a company that produces a Covid-19 treatment drug in February 2020. [The Washington Post / Isaac Stanley-Becker]

• Jeopardy! named executive producer Mike Richards as its next host, with actress Mayim Bialik to host specials and spinoffs. [The Huffington Post / Marina Fang]
• Despite a 15-hour filibuster from state Sen. Carol Alvarado, the Texas state Senate passed the state GOP’s restrictive voting rights bill. [The Texas Tribune / Alexa Ura]
• Dr. Anthony Fauci said immunocompromised people will need a booster shot of the coronavirus vaccine. [NPR / Scott Neuman]

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“Twenty years ago if you told people this was going to be the case, they wouldn’t have believed you. The country is changing dramatically.”

[Census Bureau population division director Nicholas Jones, on the decline of the US white population]

Vox's Jamil Smith talks with former labor secretary, author, and social media gadfly Robert Reich about how our elected officials have fallen victim to the interests of the wealthy, what the pandemic exposed about our political and economic systems, and his vision of healthy civic education. [Spotify / Jamil Smith]

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