The vote on the #RightToContraceptionAct was 51-39, falling short of the 60 votes needed to defeat a #filibuster & move forward. Republicans said the bill is unnecessary as the use of #BirthControl is protected under #SCOTUS precedent as if [#SupremeCourt precedent means anything anymore].
The legislation would establish nationwide #rights for individuals to “obtain #contraceptives & to voluntarily engage in #contraception” & protect #healthcare providers who offer it. It defines contraceptives as “any drug, device, or biological product intended for use in the prevention of pregnancy” & prohibits #federal or #state governments from enforcing #laws or standards that impede that right. It empowers the #DOJ & affected private entities to sue to enforce the new protections.
Testimony in a #Michigan court Fri, revealed both #state & #federal investigators continue to probe certificates that falsely claimed #Trump won the #2020election, 5 months before the next election.
On day 4 of prelim examinations for 6 #Republicans who signed the false certificate in MI, MSP Capt Darren Green, said he was interviewed Thurs by the #FBI & 2 US prosecutors from DC.
“…In 4 decades as a #federal#judge, I have known scores, possibly hundreds, of federal trial & appellate #judges pretty well. I can’t think of a single one, no matter who appointed her or him, who has engaged or would engage in conduct like that. You just don’t do that sort of thing, whether it may be considered over the line, or just edging up to the margin. Flying those flags was tantamount to sticking a ‘Stop the steal’ bumper sticker on your car. You just don’t do it.”
70 yrs after #SCOTUS delivered its landmark decision outlawing school segregation, #BrownVBoardOfEducation ranks as perhaps the court’s most venerated decision….
Most everything else related to the decision…is complex.
Nearly 7/10 Americans say more should be done to integrate schools…a figure that has steadily climbed from 30% in 1973….But a deeper look into the views of both Black & White people shows skepticism about the success of #Brown….
Because of #Brown, #school ofcls may no longer deliberately separate students by #race —but under more recent #SCOTUS orders, they aren’t allowed to deliberately mix them by race either. #Integration advocates today have stopped looking to the #federal courts for help & are pursuing #state lawsuits instead.…some #Black leaders have concluded that the answer is not integration…but more #money & #opportunity for high #poverty#schools….
#HouseRepublicans are seeking to unite their unruly majority around an evergreen #conservative cause, devising a strict response to the wave of pro-Palestinian protests….
#GOP ldrs this wk announced plans for new “oversight investigations” of #universities where — in the words of #House#Republican Whip #TomEmmer — “pro-terrorist anti-Semites [are] taking over.”& on Wed they prepared to pass a bill they said would empower the #federal govt to crack down on anti-Israel #protests on #campuses by codifying a definition of #antisemitism that encompasses not just threats against Jews, but also certain criticisms of #Israel itself. #HouseRepublicans#Gaza#Palestinians
Hundreds of #German#Police Risk Dismissal Over ‘ #Extremist ’ Views
Members of the German police force who are suspected of holding opinions deemed unacceptable by #Federal Interior #Minister Nancy #Faeser and her #political allies risk having their employment terminated under a new law.
Trump stands to gain billions… from the merger between TrumpMedia & Tech & the blank-check co [#SPAC] #DWAC, which took the parent company of #TruthSocial public.
The trust’s existence has previously been reported…. However, who controlled the acct, how the trust was connected to Paxum, & how the money had been funneled thru it to TrumpMedia was unknown.
Last month, #federal prosecutors charged #MichaelShvartsman, a close assoc of #Postolnikov, w/ #MoneyLaundering in a #SupersedingIndictment after previously charging him & 2 others in Jul w/ #InsiderTrading#DWAC shares…
At least part of the #evidence against Shvartsman came from a CI for DHS, court filings show: in one March 2023 meeting w/the informant & an associate, Shvartsman mentioned a friend who owned a bank in Dominica & made bridge loans to #Trump Media.
A #GrayWolf killed in a January #coyote hunt in #Michigan's southern Lower Peninsula; #DNR investigating how it got there.
The harvest was potentially the 1st time a gray wolf has been identified in the Lower Peninsula since the species was wiped out driven to [#extinction] from the state in the early 20th century, MI Dept of #NaturalResources said.
"It's possible it naturally got there, but it's also obviously possible it had some help getting there," said Brian Roell, a large carnivore specialist for the #DNR. "Those are things we want to understand better. We want to know when it was actually harvested, where it was harvested…."
The #Michigan#hunter who harvested the #wolf reported harvesting "a large animal," the #DNR said in a Tues press release. Genetic tests confirmed the animal was a #GrayWolf.
The hunter was participating in a legal #CoyoteHunt & was accompanied by a guide. He said he believed the animal to be a large #coyote. The wolf weighed 84 lbs [that’d be a huge coyote], while Eastern coyotes typically weigh 25-40 lbs, the DNR said.
The family of #BrianSicknick, the #PoliceOfficer who died during the #Jan6 attack, blasted Trump’s appearance at a wake Thurs for slain #NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller.
Charles & Kenneth Sicknick on Fri expressed condolences to Diller’s family, but said #Trump’s appearance, especially the #PressConference outside a funeral home, was nothing but an #inappropriate#PoliticalStunt.
#Trump was #indicted last year by a #federal#GrandJury for his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, & has been blamed for #inciting the mob that stormed the Capitol on #Jan6.
He is currently under #indictment in #Manhattan for falsifying business records to hide #HushMoney payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. He is also facing #racketeering charges in #Georgia for an alleged effort to subvert that state’s election laws following his loss to Biden in the 2020 election.
#SouthCarolina to use #CongressionalMap deemed #unconstitutional #SCOTUS heard arguments on the redistricting case in Oct but has yet to rule🤬, essentially running out the clock for the #2024election. A #federal#court ruled Thurs that time had run out to draw a new congressional district in #SC & said the state could use its existing map even though it had earlier determined that map was unconstitutional.
#Melania Trump sponsored her mother to #immigrate to the #UnitedStates through a family-based process that #Trump aggressively sought to end, acc/to federal #immigration records released Mon.
The records detail for the first time the full path that the fmr first lady’s mother, Amalija Knavs, followed from Slovenia to the #US — & how the Trump admin’s policies would have made that far more difficult for others.
#Melania Trump used a #legal pathway that #Trump & his top advisers repeatedly disparaged as “chain migration,” the right of US #citizens to bring their parents to the #UnitedStates. #Federal#law since 1965 has said #US citizens may apply to bring minor children & parents to join them in the United States w/o having to wait a long time for a #visa. Citizens may sponsor siblings & adult children, but they typically wait longer for #visas.
Lawyers for #Trump asked a judge on Tues night to pause a group of #civil lawsuits seeking to hold him accountable for the #violence at the Capitol on #Jan6, 2021, until after his #federal#criminal trial connected to the same events was over.
The request…to pause the civil cases was the latest example of Trump trying to pit his multiple #legal matters against one another in an effort to #delay them.