
Map shows where effort to replace Electoral College stands
CBSN
For nearly two decades, there's been an effort to change the way the U.S. has always elected its presidents by creating a workaround to the Electoral College, the indirect popular election process that's been used in every American presidential election in history. A collection of states is now a little closer than it was four years ago to choosing a president by popular vote, after Maine signed legislation in April to join the effort.
Under the nonpartisan National Popular Vote Compact, the most prominent of the Electoral College reform proposals, states would agree to give their electoral votes to the national winner of the popular vote — even if it doesn't match the outcome in their state. For instance, if a presidential candidate were to lose Colorado — one of the 17 states that has signed the compact — but win the national popular vote, Colorado's electors would vote for that candidate.
A majority of Americans would prefer to elect the president by popular vote, rather than the Electoral College, Pew Research Center has found. That preference tends to be more pronounced when a president wins the popular vote but not the Electoral College, which has happened just five times — but twice since 2000. Former President Donald Trump was the last president to do so, winning about 3 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton in 2016, though he won the Electoral College by a sizable margin, 304 to 227.

Yangon — Myanmar's military leader lauded President Trump and asked him to lift sanctions, the ruling junta said Friday, after a tariff letter from the U.S. president that it has taken as Washington's first public recognition of its rule. Min Aung Hlaing endorsed Mr. Trump's false claim that the 2020 U.S. election was stolen, and thanked him for shutting down funding for U.S.-backed media outlets that have long provided independent coverage of conflict-wracked Myanmar.

After years of unsuccessful attempts to finance and build a public alarm network that would warn residents of Kerr County, Texas, about dangerous flooding, officials in the region, nicknamed "flash flood alley," were going to start developing a centralized flood monitoring system this summer to help leaders and emergency managers plan ahead.

Washington — The Senate is expected to vote next week on a request from the White House to claw back funding for international aid and public broadcasting. But the funding for rural radio and television stations — sometimes an area's sole source for emergency warnings and other news — has sparked concern among some Senate Republicans, especially after the recent devastating flash floods in Texas.