Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has asked the state Supreme Court on Tuesday to remove from office a top state lawmaker he called the “ringleader” of Democrats who left the state to block a vote on a new congressional voting map pushed by President Donald Trump.

A decrease of 1,123 students in four years, the addition of 480 staff over 10 years and Board of Education-approved raises for staff have all factored in “multi-year budget shortfalls” impacting the budget.

Candidates who have to play to their party’s base during primaries or nominating conventions often shift toward the center when the time comes to seek support from a wider range of voters for the general election.

A Michigan election board has approved a November ballot question on whether the state should expand opportunities to vote.

The Michigan Bureau of Elections has recommended approval of a ballot initiative that seeks to enshrine abortion rights into the state’s constitution after a review of the campaign's petition signatures.

An anti-abortion coalition in Michigan filed a challenge on Thursday to keep an abortion rights question off of the November ballot due to what it said are 60 errors in the text of a proposed constitutional amendment.

Abortion rights are poised to come before Michigan voters in November after an abortion rights campaign turned in a record-breaking number of signatures for a ballot initiative.