And another day of no alterations, a gun-buying run, Brazil’s approach to school shootings, GOP candidates promise more restrictions on abortion and transgender people, TX GOP jabs at blue cities, and Europe sounds the alarm on ChatGPT comes to a close:
“It’s impossible to overstate the enormity of the damage caused by Fox News.” -- Andrew Weinsten
Fox’s settlement with Dominion unlikely to cost it $787.5M. Fox Corp.’s $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over defamation charges is eye-popping, but the ultimate cost to the media company is likely to be much lower.
Will Fox settlement alter conservative media? Apparently not. Days after Fox News agreed to pay nearly $800 million to settle a lawsuit over its airing of 2020 election lies, you’d be hard-pressed to notice anything had changed there. Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham led their shows Thursday talking about Hunter Biden, the president’s son. Ingraham’s show warned, “The left wants the government to be your only family.” Hannity targeted familiar villains — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Vice President Kamala Harris. Carlson mocked a speech on racial equity, saying it meant “that straight white men are bad.” Experts doubt the settlement will lead to much of a course correction in conservative media, save for a little less specificity to avoid future lawsuits.
A nation rocked by mass shootings goes on an extended gun-buying run. The heightened interest in guns comes amid a horrific spate of mass shootings and – according to the CDC’s most recent figures – firearm fatalities that outnumbered motor vehicle traffic deaths 48,830 to 45,404. Over the last two weeks, four people were shot – one fatally – in upstate New York, Kansas City and Texas after accidentally going to the wrong address or opening the wrong door. The number of both state and national instant criminal background checks – required before one can purchase a gun and a rough indicator of how many people are either purchasing or possibly being issued a gun permit – surged during the pandemic from under 30 million to nearly 40 million, according to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. -- The GOP wants us to be afraid; they want us to buy more guns; they want us to kill each other. Apparently, their plan is working.
Brazil’s school violence mirrors US. Its reaction doesn’t. About two weeks after a man killed four children in a Brazilian daycare center, authorities already have rounded up some 300 adults and minors nationwide accused of spreading hate speech or stoking school violence. Little has been revealed about the unprecedented crackdown, which risks judicial overreach, but it underlines the determination of the country’s response across federal, state and municipal levels. Brazil’s all-hands effort to stamp out its emerging trend of school attacks stands in contrast to the U.S., where such attacks have been more frequent and more deadly for a longer period, yet where measures nowadays are incremental. Actions adopted in the U.S. - and some of its perceived shortcomings - are informing the Brazilian response. -- The US teaches other countries what they should not do.
At least 9 teens injured after shots fired at Texas after-prom party. At least nine teenagers suffered non-life-threatening injuries after shots were fired at an after-prom party in Texas, according to local police.
Once-a-week nightmare: US mass killings on a record pace. The U.S. is setting a record pace for mass killings in 2023, replaying the horror on a loop roughly once a week so far this year. The carnage has taken 88 lives in 17 mass killings over 111 days. Each time, the killers wielded firearms.
Gun deaths among children are soaring. One in 25 American kindergartners won't make it to their 40th birthday.
GOP candidates pitch Iowa evangelicals with promises to restrict transgender and abortion rights. Before a 1,000-person crowd at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s spring kickoff, a bevy of midtier candidates seeking to break out of the pack mingled with attendees, many of whom were influential activists across the state. They called for new restrictions on abortion rights and gender-affirming care, and for expanding school choice programs and shutting down the Department of Education. -- All they run on is pure hatred for others. They have no interest in helping all Americans.
Texas Senate moves to end countywide voting on Election Day. Voters in nearly 100, mostly rural counties can vote at any polling site in their county. The sponsor, without offering evidence, said the practice was not secure. Senate Bill 990, authored by Republican Sen. Bob Hall of Edgewood, passed 17-12 along party lines. The bill — if approved by the state House — would eliminate countywide voting centers on Election Day and require residents to vote at an assigned precinct, typically in their neighborhood. Larger voting centers would be permitted through early voting.
GOP lawmakers push for state control of St. Louis police. Ten years after gaining local control of its police for the first time since the Civil War, the city of St. Louis has more murders than ever before — and Missouri’s Republican lawmakers are again pressuring for a state takeover of the police force. The debate over policing power in St. Louis — a racially diverse, heavily Democratic city long vexed by violent crime — carries political and racial overtones like those that have roiled other cities and states this year. But data suggest neither state nor local control may make much difference when it comes to stemming homicides.
Possible links between Covid shots and tinnitus emerge. People who have developed life-altering ringing in their ears after Covid vaccinations demand deeper investigation into this potential side effect.
Texas House approves sweeping limits on local regulations in GOP’s latest jab at blue cities. In a major escalation of Republicans’ efforts to weaken the state’s bluer cities and counties, lawmakers in the Texas Legislature are advancing a pair of bills that would seize control of local regulations that could range from worker protections to water restrictions during droughts. A bill backed by Gov. Greg Abbott and business lobbying groups, House Bill 2127, would bar cities and counties from passing regulations — and overturn existing ones — that go further than state law in a broad swath of areas including labor, agriculture, natural resources and finance.
Washington state passes bill repealing death penalty law. Washington has become the 23rd state to end the death penalty after Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, signed Senate Bill 5087 into law on Thursday. The bill also bans forced chemical castration as a punishment for a crime. The measure was passed in the state legislature earlier this month.
Dying patients protest looming telehealth crackdown. Now, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has proposed a rule that would reinstate most previously longstanding requirements that doctors see patients in person before prescribing narcotic drugs such as Oxycontin, amphetamines such as Adderall, and a host of other potentially dangerous drugs...The proposal has sparked a massive backlash, including more than 35,000 comments to a federal portal and calls from advocates, members of Congress and medical groups to reconsider certain patients or provisions. “They completely forgot that there was a population of people who are dying.”...Among the biggest complaints: The rule would delay or block access for patients who seek medically assisted suicide and hospice care, critics said. Many of the comments -- including nearly 10,000 delivered in person to DEA offices -- came from doctors and patients protesting the effect of the rule on seriously ill and dying patients.
Europe sounds the alarm on ChatGPT. Europol, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, warned at the end of March that ChatGPT, just one of thousands of AI platforms currently in use, can assist criminals with phishing, malware creation and even terrorist acts. “If a potential criminal knows nothing about a particular crime area, ChatGPT can speed up the research process significantly by offering key information that can then be further explored in subsequent steps,” the Europol report stated. “As such, ChatGPT can be used to learn about a vast number of potential crime areas with no prior knowledge, ranging from how to break into a home to terrorism, cybercrime and child sexual abuse.”
Leg-lengthening surgery is gaining popularity among men seeking to be taller, doctors say. Leg lengthening is an intense and expensive process but one that has become more popular and accepted in the last five years, according to Dr. Shahab Mahboubian, a surgeon at the Height Lengthening Institute in Burbank, California, who performed Alex’s operations. “I even have 60-, 65-year-old guys that have come to me to undergo the procedure because it just doesn’t stop. The 'short' jokes keep going on and they feel inferior,” he said. The $75,000, four-hour operation, which is not generally covered by insurance, involves cutting the thigh bones in each leg and inserting rods inside them. Then over the next three to four months, the rods are lengthened by up to 1 millimeter (0.04 inches) per day, via an external remote control. New bone grows over the rods. Physical therapy is required.
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
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