Random News: April 22, 2023

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s April 22, 2023, and it’s a Saturday. I’m in my robe and, being my first day off work in a billion years roughly, I might stay in my slovenly state for a good while. Let’s see what’s happened since we last met here…

• Some good news.
• Late yesterday afternoon, the US Supreme Court preserved women’s access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion, rejecting lower-court restrictions while a lawsuit continues.
• This is, at least for now, a huge win for women’s rights, women’s health, and the Biden administration. They’d appealed a lower court ruling that would roll back Food and Drug Administration approval of mifepristone from 2000.
• More than 5 million people have used mifepristone in combination with a second drug, misoprostol, in more than half of all abortions in the U.S.
• Justices Samuel Alito, the author of last year’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, and Clarence Thomas voted to allow restrictions to take effect. No other justices commented. The decision was 7-2.
• This battle isn’t close to over. Extremist Republican politicians will continue to chip away at women’s rights to make their own health care decisions across the nation. Access to mifepristone should never have been in jeopardy in the first place.
• As long as we continue to elect Republicans, more anti-woman legislation will be a certain result.
• Moving on…
• Happy Earth Day.
• Earth is a planet. It’s one of trillions of planets, but at this moment, it’s the only one we know that supports life. Until proven otherwise, we have to assume that down to the smallest single-celled creature, Earth is the only home we have, or may ever have.
• If you fuck up the Earth, not only does everyone now pay a price, but it reverberates into future generations down the line for eternity.
• So go plant a tree, or save a bee, or at least make a tiny effort not to add to the myriad environmental problems facing us. Just try it for a day.
• Politicians like to use Earth Day to give some semblance that they give a shit about the planet. I’m not sure that any of them do.
• President Joe Biden announced new environmental justice actions yesterday, including an executive order that the White House says will make environmental justice a central mission of federal agencies.
• “Every federal agency must take into account environmental health impacts on communities and work to prevent those negative impacts. Environmental justice will be the mission of the entire government woven directly into how we work with state, local, tribal, and territorial governments.”
• The executive order, which will still be up to agencies to implement, will create a new Office of Environmental Justice inside the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
• Okay.
• In other news…
• The NAACP sued Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves last night after he signed legislation that allows state authorities to exert more control over law enforcement in Jackson, MS, including by expanding the Capitol Police, which shot four people last year without much public explanation. 
• The bills Reeves signed create a temporary court system outside city control to be run by appointed judges and prosecutors who will handle cases brought to them by the Capitol Police, a once-obscure agency that has been given power to patrol the city.
• What the actual fuck?
• Those moves strip Jackson residents of their voting power and muffle their voice in how justice is administered in the city by sidestepping Mississippi’s existing system in which voters elected their judges and their mayors, who appointed their police chiefs. 
• Assholes.
• Former Minneapolis police officer Kim Potter is being released Monday after serving about 16 months of her two-year sentence. She’d been convicted of manslaughter after mistaking her handgun for a Taser and fatally shooting Black motorist Daunte Wright in 2021.
• During her trial, the state attorney general's office had sought a sentence recommended by state guidelines of just over seven years in prison.
• Shrug. At least she served some time, unlike most cops who shoot Black people.
• Let’s get back to some more good news.
• Yesterday the Minnesota legislature passed a set of bills to bolster protections for gender-affirming health care and abortion and make conversion therapy practices for LGBTQ minors and vulnerable adults illegal. The measures now head to Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who is expected to sign them into law.
• “They want to put bullies in charge of your health care. We want to put you in charge of your health care, and put bullies in their place. And that’s why we protected access to gender-affirming health care and established an ironclad right to reproductive freedom.”
• You’re awesome, Minnesota.
• And now, The Weather: “Seaforth” by King Krule
• Hey Delaware. You can smoke weed tomorrow. Legally.
• Gov. John Carney said Friday that he will allow bills legalizing recreational marijuana use by adults in the state and authorizing the establishment of a state-licensed and regulated cannabis industry to become law without his signature.
• He’s playing both sides of this fence, but that’s what politicians tend to do. 
• “I want to be clear that my views on this issue have not changed. And I understand there are those who share my views who will be disappointed in my decision not to veto this legislation. I came to this decision because I believe we’ve spent far too much time focused on this issue, when Delawareans face more serious and pressing concerns every day. It’s time to move on.”
• As of tomorrow when DE becomes the 22nd state to remove marijuana prohibition, people 21 and older can possess up to 1 ounce (28 grams) of leaf marijuana, 12 grams of concentrated marijuana, or marijuana products containing up to 750 milligrams of the psychoactive compound THC. Possession of more than an ounce of marijuana and public consumption would remain misdemeanors. The bill also prohibits people from growing their own marijuana for personal consumption.
• From the Sports Desk… let’s talk hockey. The current status of the NHL playoffs, round one…
• Atlantic Division: Bruins lead Panthers 2-1; Maple Leafs tied with Lightning 1-1.
• Metro Division: Hurricanes lead islanders 2-1; Rangers lead Devils 2-0.
• Central Division: Avalanche tied with Kraken 1-1; Wild lead Stars 2-1.
• Pacific Division: Golden Knights tied with Jets 1-1; Kings lead Oilers 2-1.
• Go Kings Go!
• Today in history… Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés establishes a settlement at Veracruz, Mexico (1519). The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 that permitted the inscription ‘In God We Trust’ be placed on all coins minted as United States currency (1864). The first National League baseball game is played at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia (1876). President William McKinley calls for 125,000 volunteers to join the National Guard and fight in Cuba, while Congress more than doubles regular Army forces to 65,000 (1898). The first Earth Day is celebrated (1970). Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic (1977). The Paris Agreement is signed, an agreement to help fight global warming (2016).
• April 22 is the birthday of philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724), feminist/suffragist Emily Davies (1830), revolutionary Vladimir Lenin (1870), novelist Vladimir Nabokov (1899), physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904), painter Richard Diebenkorn (1922), bassist/composer Charles Mingus (1922), TV producer Aaron Spelling (1923), actress Charlotte Rae (1926), actress Estelle Harris (1928), singer-songwriter/guitarist Glen Campbell (1936), actor Jack Nicholson (1937), pianist/composer Jack Nitzsche (1937), fashion designer Issey Miyake (1938), actor/director John Waters (1946), singer-songwriter/guitarist Peter Frampton (1950), actor Ryan Stiles (1959),  NFL player Jeff Hostetler (1961), actress Amber Heard (1986), NFL player Marshawn Lynch (1986), and rapper Machine Gun Kelly (1990).

As I said, it’s my first actual day off in forever, so… no plans. Strike that; I do have a meeting with my band They Stole My Crayon this afternoon so we can resume the work on the upcoming sophomore release. I want the new TSMC album out in 2023 and am excited about making it happen. Enjoy your day.