Politics and views in the United States.

House Republicans demand the removal of D.C.'s Black Lives Matter Plaza, the Justice Department ends civil rights investigations, and the Trump administration vows to cut federal funding for schools that allow campus protests.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

We have bigger fish to fry than fights over what has been very important to us and to the history and especially our ability to keep our city safe during that time.

Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser says she won't argue with the White House over its request to rename the city's Black Lives Matter Plaza, a BLM mural covering two downtown blocks became a focal point for residents following the murder of George Floyd.

The decision to paint over the mural comes after House Republicans moved to force Bowser to rename the area Liberty Plaza or risk losing federal funds.

The Department of Justice has dropped its lawsuit against Texas, arguing the state's legislative and congressional maps violate the Voting Rights Act.

Texas civil rights activist Antonio Arellano says the current maps dilute the voting power of Latinos.

The redistricting process is all about who's going to have money and power for the next decade.

Ninety five percent of the population growth was led by people of color.

That's exactly who should be calling the shots in Texas.

The Justice Department has also withdrawn from a Biden era voting rights case against Virginia over the removal of names from voter rolls.

Officials in Georgia have requested the DOJ drop a lawsuit over the state's 2021 overhaul of election laws.

Speaker Mike Johnson has introduced a bill to keep the government funded through September and avoid a government shutdown this week.

It increases spending for defense and deportations while cutting more than 13 billion dollars from domestic programs.

A bipartisan group of nearly a thousand political scientists have denounced Donald Trump's administration for rapid cuts to programs and staff.

Montana State University professor Sarah Rushing says democracy is not a business and requires checks and balances.

We have these procedures and practices built in to slow things down, build consensus, abide by processes and make sure that things are fair and transparent.

The White House counters it's merely holding federal agencies accountable as required by the Constitution.

The administration has canceled more than 400 million dollars in grants and contracts with Columbia University, claiming the school has not done enough to combat anti-Semitism on campus.

President Carol Garvin with the ACLU of Maine says the threat to funding has a partisan edge well beyond what the White House calls illegal protests over the Israel-Hamas war.

Regardless of what the root of the protest is, it could be used to pressure universities to clamp down on protests whenever the protests express a view that the Trump administration disagrees with.

Trump has threatened to deport international students who take part in protests.

Immigration agents arrested a Palestinian graduate student and Columbia protest organizer over the weekend.

I'm Katherine Carley for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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