And another day of trading immunity, rebelling forces in Russia, the Hell of providing health care in a post-Dobbs America, SCOTUS rejecting lawsuits, DeSantis trying to control universities, food insecurity, and malaria comes to a close:
“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” — William Shakespeare
Special counsel trades immunity for fake elector testimony as Jan 6 probe heats up.
Special counsel Jack Smith has compelled at least two Republican fake electors to testify to a federal grand jury in Washington in recent weeks by giving them limited immunity, part of a current push by federal prosecutors to swiftly nail down evidence in the sprawling criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Russian mercenary chief says his forces are rebelling, some left Ukraine and entered Russia city. The owner of the Wagner private military contractor made his most direct challenge to the Kremlin yet on Friday, calling for an armed rebellion aimed at ousting Russia’s defense minister. The security services reacted immediately by calling for the arrest of Yevgeny Prigozhin. In a sign of how seriously the Kremlin was taking the threat, security was heightened in Moscow and in Rostov-on-Don, which is home to the Russian military headquarters for the southern region and also oversees the fighting in Ukraine.
The Hell of Providing Health Care in a Post-Dobbs America. Pregnancy doesn’t happen in a vacuum. People who are pregnant get in automobile accidents. They have psychological disorders. They get heart disease and cancer. Before Dobbs, doctors may have told their patients in some of these situations that pregnancy could worsen whatever condition they may have and suggest the option to terminate. But because of Dobbs, abortion access all over the county has become limited and fraught with uncertainty for pregnant people and their doctors.
Pence tells Republicans to take hard line on abortion despite electoral liability. Speaking one year since the US supreme court removed the federal right to abortion, Mike Pence said candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination should stand firm on the electorally unpopular issue and take a hard line on bringing in national limits.
Supreme Court rejects a lawsuit from states demanding that Biden administration boost deportations. The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a Republican-led challenge to a Biden administration policy that prioritizes the deportation of immigrants who are deemed to pose the greatest risk to public safety or were picked up at the border. The justices voted 8-1 to allow the long-blocked policy to take effect, recognizing there is not enough money or manpower to deport all 11 million or so people who are in the United States illegally. The case was one of two immigration cases decided Friday, the other upholding a section of federal law used to prosecute people who encourage illegal immigration.
Ron DeSantis Has Launched a New Battle in His War to Control Public Universities. Gov. Ron DeSantis is, famously, on a crusade to transform Florida’s education system into one that projects his own ideology. What’s taken up fewer national headlines is that one of the institutions standing in the way has been the accrediting body for Florida’s institutions of higher education. On Thursday, DeSantis ratcheted up the power struggle by asking a federal court to find that the nation’s system for accrediting colleges and universities is unconstitutional. The play is simple enough: If the referees are ruling against you, try to throw them out…As I reported last month, DeSantis’ attempt to remake higher education in his image follows an authoritarian playbook. Would-be autocrats seek to eliminate centers of power that could challenge them, including liberal college campuses that are naturally opposed to authoritarian government. Like them, the accrediting bodies have become another obstacle he wants to destroy.
Ron DeSantis vows to pick more conservative judges than Trump: ‘We’ll do better’. Asked last week by radio host Hugh Hewitt if he would pledge to Republican primary voters that his judges would be like the three conservatives that Trump nominated to the Supreme Court, DeSantis responded: “Well, actually, I would say we’ll do better than that.” “I respect the three appointees [Trump] did,” the Florida governor said. “But none of those three are at the same level of Justice [Clarence] Thomas and Justice [Samuel] Alito,” calling them “the gold standard” of conservative values on the courts and the kinds of justices he’d seek to place on the high court, if elected.
RFK Jr. divides social media platforms with vaccine misinformation. Kennedy, a once-fringe anti-vaccine activist, has received a warm embrace from some of the most popular alternative media figures. In just a little over two months, he’s appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast, the “All-In Podcast” hosted by influential tech investors, the Jordan B. Peterson Podcast and more. Videos of those appearances have racked up millions of views on YouTube and tend to be relatively consistent — Kennedy espouses a wide variety of conspiracy theories and outlandish claims, most of which are either backed by little evidence or have been fully debunked, mixed in with other observations, stories and opinions.
Food insecurity worsened after pandemic SNAP aid expired, report finds. Low-income households are relying more on federal food assistance and eating less to save money after monthly benefits were cut by at least $95 in dozens of states in March.
Texas lowers barrier for food stamps, but many still won’t qualify. Although SNAP is a federal program that allows families access to food stamps, each state can set different requirements for eligibility. Texas looks at a household’s income but also factors in the value of a household’s cars, known as the vehicle asset test. The current SNAP policy in Texas — which was set in 2001 — disqualified applicants whose primary vehicle was valued at $15,000 or more and had additional vehicles valued at $4,650 or more. -- For a nation called “The United States of America,” the states themselves aren’t even close to equal. It matters where you live.
Speaker McCarthy supports expunging Trump’s impeachments over Ukraine and Jan. 6. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Friday he supports the idea of expunging the two impeachments of Donald Trump as hard-right Republican allies of the former president introduce a pair of proposals to declare it as though the historic charges never happened. -- Is “expunging” impeachments even a thing? I’m not sure it is.
3 people have acquired malaria in the US. They’re the first in 20 years. The cases, identified in Florida and Texas, raise a lot of questions.
Nearly half of US honeybee colonies died last year. Struggling beekeepers stabilize population. But using costly and Herculean measures to create new colonies, beekeepers are somehow keeping afloat.
Frozen fruit recalled nationwide over listeria concerns. The following products are included in the recall, sorted by what grocery store they were sold at:
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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