*By Carlo Versano*
When asked by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) what she most remembers from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's alleged sexual assault, Prof. Christine Blasey Ford drew on her training as a psychologist.
"Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the uproarious laughter between the two ー and them having fun at my expense," Ford said, alluding to both Brett Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge, the other boy who she said was in the room at the time of the alleged assault. "I was underneath one of them while the two laughed."
Ford said she first spoke about the alleged assault to a therapist as part of a couple's therapy session with her husband. It was triggered, she said, by a discussion she and her husband had about adding a second front door to their home. Ford said later that she had wanted the second door because of claustrophobia she believes was caused by Kavanaugh's attack.
“For me personally, anxiety, phobia and PTSD-like symptoms are the types of things I’ve been coping with," she said.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed a federal lawsuit against Rep. Jim Jordan on Tuesday, accusing the Republican of a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” him over his prosecution of former President Donald Trump.
Nashville’s governing council voted Monday to send Justin Jones straight back to the Legislature four days after he was expelled for his role in a protest on the state House floor.
The Justice Department is calling a Texas court ruling that would halt approval of the most commonly used method of abortion in the U.S. "extraordinary and unprecedented."
Nashville city councilors will likely appoint Justin Jones to his former seat on Monday while Memphis-area county commissioners will soon announce when they'll meet to fill the vacancy left by the expulsion of Justin Pearson, which Pearson himself is eligible to fill.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said "Everything is on the table" when asked if he'd recommend that the FDA ignore Friday's ruling to reverse the agency's nearly 23-year-old approval of the medication abortion drug mifepristone.
