Beech Tree News Network

Republicans launched an all-out assault Tuesday on sweeping voting rights legislation, forcing Democrats to take dozens of politically awkward votes during a committee hearing that will spotlight the increasingly charged national debate over access to the ballot. * * *Six central Kentucky farmers have now pleaded guilty to federal crop insurance fraud charges, including four on Monday in appearances at U.S. District Court in Lexington. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky says the charges centered on loss claims filed on their federally-backed tobacco insurance, known as multi-peril crop insurance or “MPCI,” and that all four pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit crop insurance fraud. * * * Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron is joining 43 of his counterparts around the country in a bipartisan effort urging Facebook to stop plans to launch an Instagram for children under 13. In a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who owns Instagram, the attorneys general state, “The use of social media can be detrimental to the health and well-being of children, who are not equipped to navigate the challenges of having a social media account.”