News: Citizens Tell Sen. Susan Collins To Hang Tough On Health Care | States Move To Curb City Laws | Will Trump Ax WH Council on Women & Girls?

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) visits a Fourth of July parade in Eastport, Maine, where her constituents wanted to talk about health care. “There was only one issue,” she said. (Murray Carpenter for The Washington Post)

Anne is reading . . . 

At parades and protests, GOP lawmakers get earful about health care The Washington Post

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is a creature of habit on July 4, marching now for 15 years in Eastport, Maine to celebrate America's day of independence. Collins was celebrated by this small town of 1,331 citizens and their children, cheered for her principled stand against repealing the Affordable Care Act. 

“There was only one issue. That’s unusual. It’s usually a wide range of issues,” Collins said in an interview after the parade. “I heard, over and over again, encouragement for my stand against the current version of the Senate and House health-care bills. People were thanking me, over and over again. ‘Thank you, Susan!’ ‘Stay strong, Susan!’ ”

While Republicans maintained a generally low profile, not marching in parades for fear of running into angry protesters, a few others ventured out among the crowds. The message was universal around Republican attempts to scrap Obamacare: fix it, for heaven's sake. But don't scrap it and throw over 20 million Americans off health care. 

In Austin, the air smells of tacos and trees -- and city-state conflict The Washington Post

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), has called on Texas lawmakers to gather in Austin this month for a special session designed to curtail local power on issues ranging from taxation to collecting union dues. The special session is necessary, says Abbott, to face his grave worries about 'socialistic' behavior in the state's liberal cities.

Texas presents perhaps the most dramatic example of the increasingly acrimonious relationship between red-state leaders and their blue city centers, which are increasingly moving independently to expand environmental regulations and social programs with policies rejected by rural and suburban red parts of the state. 

At a state level, Republican state legislatures leaders have responded to the widening cultural gulf with legislation preempting local laws.

The Trump administration is considering doing away with the White House Council on Women and Girls MIC

“We want the input of various agencies to understand the assets they have so that we make this office additive, not redundant,” White House spokesperson Hope Hicks says that the administration is still debating the “best positioning” for the council.

Hicks acknowledged Ivanka Trump’s own pushes for policies benefiting women, including her proposed parental leave policy and emphasis on STEM education for young girls. However, Betsy Myers, the former director of Bill Clinton’s Office of Women’s Initiatives and Outreach, said that Ivanka Trump’s self-proclaimed dedication to women’s issues isn’t sufficient. We add -- especially when the Trump administration is layered up with people who don't even support birth control. 

“That’s the problem, there’s nobody to reach out to except Ivanka,” Myers told Politico. “If you don’t have somebody with a full-time job and a team — and the right title because that allows you to get into the right meeting — then you’re not going to be able to move the agenda forward on behalf of women.”