Merritt’s miscues seen as tacky and distasteful; Teachers are armed and not trained; Buttigieg, a gay Christian, is driving the religious right nuts

Jim Merritt’s fellow Republicans criticize ‘tacky, distasteful’ campaign on potholes
Some City-County Council Republicans are distancing themselves from their presumptive mayoral candidate, revealing fractures in a party that could be making a last-ditch effort to remain relevant in Indianapolis. (Indystar) 

U.S. citizenship test ordered to be given in Indiana high school government classes
Gov. Eric Holcomb is directing all Indiana high schools to administer to students, as part of the mandatory U.S. government course, the naturalization test that’s typically taken by immigrants hoping to become American citizens. (NWI Times)

Armed-teacher training bill dies
A bill that would have required all teachers authorized to carry guns in school to undergo a personality screening and take firearms training died late Wednesday. Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, refused to sign a deal on House Bill 1253 because he considered it a “gun control” measure. (Journal Gazette)

Local car dealers hit with flurry of lawsuits over document-prep fees
Indiana auto dealership owners are being hit with a slew of lawsuits from customers who say they have been charged exorbitant document-preparation fees in the car-buying process just as the rules for charging such fees are poised to loosen under a change in state law. (IBJ)

Commentary: Legislative Report Card—Incomplete
The first was the optics. All white men. Not a single minority or woman with a meaningful role in deciding how $34.6 billion was allocated. I don’t doubt the lawmakers with top roles in the budget process spent hours listening to the requests from both organizations and other legislators, including women and minorities. But being at the power table matters, and having the deciding opinion matters. (Statehouse File)

Ashley Boling Molyneaux Releases Third Radio Ad
Ashley Boling Molyneaux, Democratic candidate for Mayor of Elkhart, released the third in a series of radio ads leading up to the May 7 primary. (INdiana Talks Network)

Trump says he would ask Supreme Court to intervene if Democrats move to impeach him
President Trump suggested Wednesday that he would ask the Supreme Court to intervene if Democrats move to impeach him — a notion that legal experts said showed a misunderstanding of the Constitution. (Washington Post)

Federal Court Rules That Michigan’s Congressional Map Was Unfairly Gerrymandered
A federal court in Michigan says that the state’s Republican-controlled legislature unfairly drew some of Michigan’s state legislative and U.S. House district lines and that a divided government will have to come up with new boundaries. (NPR)

Pete Buttigieg, a gay Christian, is driving the religious right nuts
Combining homosexuality and Christianity might be the most natural thing in the world for Buttigieg and millions of gay Americans, but it is an iconoclastic development in American politics, where generalizations about religious freedom have in recent years been used specifically to fight advances in LGBTQ rights. (CNN)

Franklin Graham to Mayor Pete Buttigieg: Being gay is a sin and shouldn’t be ‘flaunted’
Graham called homosexuality a “sin” and “something to be repentant of, not something to be flaunted, praised or politicized,” in a tweet Wednesday. (Charlotte Observer)

Trump says he would ask Supreme Court to intervene if Democrats move to impeach him
President Trump suggested Wednesday that he would ask the Supreme Court to intervene if Democrats move to impeach him — a notion that legal experts said showed a misunderstanding of the Constitution. (Washington Post)

Federal Court Rules That Michigan’s Congressional Map Was Unfairly Gerrymandered
A federal court in Michigan says that the state’s Republican-controlled legislature unfairly drew some of Michigan’s state legislative and U.S. House district lines and that a divided government will have to come up with new boundaries. (NPR)

Pete Buttigieg, a gay Christian, is driving the religious right nuts
Combining homosexuality and Christianity might be the most natural thing in the world for Buttigieg and millions of gay Americans, but it is an iconoclastic development in American politics, where generalizations about religious freedom have in recent years been used specifically to fight advances in LGBTQ rights. (CNN)

Franklin Graham to Mayor Pete Buttigieg: Being gay is a sin and shouldn’t be ‘flaunted’
Graham called homosexuality a “sin” and “something to be repentant of, not something to be flaunted, praised or politicized,” in a tweet Wednesday. (Charlotte Observer)