Latest news with #term limits
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Memphis school board members face term limits starting in 2026
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis Shelby County School board members will now be limited to two terms of four years. This comes after commissioners voted for those term limits during a meeting on Monday. The new rule begins in 2026. What remains up for debate is whether to align those board elections with county-wide elections. The terms are currently staggered. Judge denies injunction in Feagins' case against MSCS Next month, the Shelby County Board of Commissioners will continue debating whether all nine seats will be on the ballot in 2026 or 2030, four years later. However, if commissioners vote for the 2026 election, five school board members will have their cut in half. Those are the board members who were just elected last year. The 2030 election will ensure that all elected to the school board last year will serve their entire four-year term. This will be discussed again on September 3. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
County commission punts vote on MSCS school board elections, passes term limits resolution
A vote over syncing Memphis-Shelby County School Board elections with the Shelby County Commission was punted, again, on Aug. 11. The delay came after hours of deliberating, with Commissioner Britney Thornton moving to bifurcate a resolution that would have synced up the two elected bodies' elections by 2030. The resolution also would set a term limit of two consecutive four-year terms on the school board. Thornton's bifurcation motion passed without opposition, splitting the term limit resolution from the syncing of the election. A vote on term limits being set in 2026 for school board members also passed unanimously. Under the resolution, school board members in Districts 1, 6, 8 and 9 will still have elections in 2026 and serve through 2030. School board members in Districts 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 will complete their full terms through 2028, but then would run for a two-year term, and then the seats would come up for reelection again in 2030. The term limits are not retroactive and take effect starting with the 2026 elections. In 2030, all board seats will be up for election and will be on the same election cycle as county officials moving forward. School board members will also be held to the same two-term election limit that county commissioners are held to. The resolution was brought as part of an amendment by Commissioner Erika Sugarmon during the Aug. 6 committee meeting. During the Aug. 11 commission meeting, Commissioner Edmund Ford, Jr. proposed an amendment to Sugarmon's resolution that would establish term limits in 2026. The term limit amendment passed unanimously. Previous legislation, which was punted to Aug. 6, would have abridged the terms of some school board members elected in 2024 and forced term limits starting with the upcoming 2026 county-wide election. The previous resolution, sponsored by Commissioners Thornton, Michael Whaley, Amer Mills and Mick Wright, would have put all nine seats on the same election cycle as the Shelby County Commission starting next year. Members of the school board spoke ahead of the commission's vote, arguing passing the resolution would open the county up to a lawsuit, would not change the cost of elections and would not impact voter turnout. Most members of the public, who also spoke ahead of the vote, supported the original resolution. Some called for immediate consequences for the board members who voted to remove former Superintendent Marie Feagins. Lowry offers substitute referendum ordinance to cement term limits, recall votes for school board A potential substitute to the resolution voted on at the Aug. 11 meeting was brought by Commissioner Mickell Lowery. That substitute came in the form of a referendum ordinance that would allow Shelby County residents to vote for term limits and pave an avenue for recall votes. Commissioners seemed opposed to that, with Ford saying they could "take care of the business now," with the original resolution. Despite the opposition to the referendum, commissioners kept the door open to passing it in the future to complement the resolution. The referendum, if it were to pass the commission and pass at the ballot box, would enshrine term limits and a recall vote in the county's charter. A county attorney at the commission meeting said the referendum's passing would make it "much harder" to change in the future. The referendum ordinance asked voters two questions: "Shall the Shelby County Charter be amended at Article VI, Section 6.02(A) to apply term limit provisions to the county school board members as governed by the laws of the State of Tennessee?" "Shall the Shelby County Charter be amended at Section 5.24(A) Recall of elected county officials to add language providing for language providing for recall of county school board members as governed by the laws of the State of Tennessee?" Brooke Muckerman covers education and children's issues for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Future Memphis-Shelby County Schools board members to have term limits Solve the daily Crossword
Washington Post
06-08-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Trump administration: El Salvador's Bukele not a dictator
MEXICO CITY — The Trump administration said El Salvador President Nayib Bukele should not be lumped together with leaders in other countries it considers dictatorships after his party and allies discarded presidential term limits. Bukele posted the statement of U.S. support on X Tuesday. On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department said in a statement to The Associated Press that the constitutional change axing term limits in the Central American country was made by a 'democratically elected' Congress and that 'it is up to them to decide how their country should be governed.'
The Independent
23-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Questions swirl after GOP senator appears to freeze in TV interview - but he blames it on the ear piece
Questions swirl after Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy appeared to freeze up mid-sentence during a Fox Business interview. The 73-year-old appeared on 'Kudlow' Tuesday night when he began stuttering and froze while responding to host Larry Kudlow. Some social media users have blamed his age and speculated that he was having a Mitch McConnell-esque freezing spell. In a statement to The Independent, the senator said there was a 'malfunction in his earpiece' that caused him to suddenly stop. The clip, which aired Tuesday, captures Kennedy starting to respond to Kudlow, before trailing off, and then abruptly stopping altogether: 'I'm sure Jesus loves them, but everybody else thinks…everybody else…' The senator then stared off to the side with his mouth still open for seven seconds. As the septuagenarian was at a standstill, the network cut away. Kudlow apologized for what appeared to be 'technical problems' that the show had also experienced with Senator Rand Paul earlier in the day. Some social media users used the incident to call for term limits. 'Senator John Kennedy just pulled a McConnell,' one X user remarked. Another wondered: '73 year old Senator John Kennedy freezes mid-sentence on national TV. Is it time for term limits?' Yet another said: 'Sen. John Kennedy's freeze on live TV is a stark reminder of the urgent need for term limits and younger, more dynamic leadership to address critical issues like immigration reform effectively.' Another still called it 'jarring' and noted that Kennedy froze up while repeating a line he's used many times before: 'Jesus loves him, but everyone else thinks he's an idiot.' Kennedy maintained that he experienced a glitch with his earpiece during the interview. 'Yesterday, during my interview with Larry Kudlow on Fox Business, there was a malfunction in my earpiece. I heard a loud screeching noise with a lot of static. It sounded like a 747 taking off,' he told The Independent in a statement. 'The same thing happened with Rand Paul, who was interviewed before me. I stopped talking until the interference cleared up, and thought we were off the air. Once I could hear Kudlow, I started talking again.' The moment resembles Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell's freezing spells in 2023. In one incident, a reporter asked McConnell, then the 81-year-old Senate minority leader, about his thoughts about running for re-election in three years. The Kentucky Senator asked the reporter to repeat the question before freezing up and staring off into the distance. One of his aides then joined him at the podium and asked directly if he had heard the question. Still not responsive, the aide said they would 'need a minute.' McConnell's spokesperson later said he felt 'momentarily lightheaded and paused during his press conference.' Just weeks earlier, a similar scene transpired, with McConnell freezing for 20 seconds when fielding questions. The incidents sparked 'alarm' among his Congressional colleagues and renewed calls for term limits. At the time, then-Rep. Dean Phillips, a Minnesota Democrat, said it's 'time for term limits' in a social media post. "For goodness sake, the family, friends, and staff of Senators Feinstein and McConnell are doing them and our country a tremendous disservice. It's time for term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court, and some basic human decency," he wrote on X in August 2023. In February, McConnell said he will not seek re-election at the end of his term. Similar concerns around age arose when Dianne Feinstein missed 10 weeks of work at age 89. In May 2023, the California Democrat, then longest-serving woman in the Senate, had been recovering from shingles. As some of her colleagues called for Feinstein to resign, Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, who was also 89, told The Independent at the time: 'That's very anti-woman, it's very anti-aging and they should just let her leave her alone.' The 2024 presidential race also resurfaced age-old questions about whether an upper age limit should exist. Joe Biden and Donald Trump were the two oldest candidates to ever run for a major party.
