Random News: May 12, 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 May 12, 2023, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! Let’s stroll together through the fields of information and gather big bouquets of facts…

• Daniel Penny, the ex-Marine who killed houseless man Jordan Neely aboard a subway in New York, will face criminal charges. He’s been arrested on a charge of manslaughter in the second degree.
• Neely, who had a history of mental health issues, was reportedly harassing people on the train. He died after Penny put him in a chokehold on May 1.
• Moving on for now…
• The FDA announced yesterday that it had officially eliminated restrictions that had previously prohibited many blood donations by gay and bisexual men — a longstanding discriminatory policy.
• The federal agency said it will recommend a series of "individual risk-based questions" that will be the same for every blood donor, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender or sex. 
• Those who have had anal sex with a new sexual partner, or more than one sexual partner, within the last three months would be asked to wait to donate blood. Sounds sensible to me.
• This next item, we knew was coming. I specifically told this to you not long ago.
• So zero surprise that a federal judge in Virginia has ruled that federal laws prohibiting 18-to-20-year-olds from getting handguns at federally licensed firearms dealers are unconstitutional.
• In a 71-page opinion, Senior U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne ruled that federal laws and regulations barring the dealers from selling the handguns to adults ages 18-20 violates the Second Amendment. 
• So any recent news about laws raising the legal limit of gun purchase to 21? Yeah, those are gone.
• Again, we knew this. I think I used the phrase, “This almost certainly won’t hold up in court,” and there you have it.
• Nothing will really change until a new court develops a better understanding of what the Founding Fathers meant by phrases like “well-regulated militia”.
• Moving on…
• You remember how Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis campaigned on promises of transparency in government?
• Yesterday he signed a bill into law that exempts records related to his travel from the state’s robust public disclosure law.
• Now, law enforcement agencies would be barred from sharing any records related to the governor’s security and travel, as well as “for persons for whom such services are requested by the governor.”
• This lets the DeSantis administration keep secret trips arranged by the governor’s office even when he wasn’t involved.
• What. An. Asshole.
• As long as we’re in the Asshole News section, Elmo Musk is finally stepping down as CEO of Twitter. The incoming new CEO is reportedly Linda Yaccarino, though this is unconfirmed. 
• Musk did refer to a generic “she” in reference to the new leader of Twitter.
• More no that later.
• Let’s do some good news… from the Supreme Court, surprisingly.
• Yesterday, the SCOTUS backed a California animal cruelty law that requires more space for breeding pigs. The pork industry says will lead to higher costs nationwide for pork chops and bacon.
• Fuck off pork industry. Treat those pigs humanely.
• “While the Constitution addresses many weighty issues, the type of pork chops California merchants may sell is not on that list,” - Justice Neil Gorsuch
• Some more good news.
• After a monthslong absence from Congress due to illness, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) attended her first Judiciary Committee meeting yesterday
• With Feinstein’s “aye” votes, Democrats were able to send three additional judicial nominees to the Senate floor for consideration on party-line votes: Charnelle Bjelkengren to be a district court judge in Washington state; Kato Crews to be a district court judge in Colorado; and Marian Gaston to be a district court judge in California.
• Democrats had been unable to advance nominees without some level of bipartisan support because of Feinstein's absence, leading some to call for her resignation. I respect the hell out of Dianne, but we do need representation via people who are physically and mentally capable of the job.
• Republican presidential candidate and super rich guy Vivek Ramaswamy is proposing raising the legal voting age to 25, his campaign announced yesterday.
• What. An. Idiot.
• Anyway, that would require a constitutional amendment, making its enactment extraordinarily unlikely.
• Continuing the plan to get rid of military bases named after Confederate traitors, the U.S. Army training base formerly known as Fort Benning was renamed Fort Moore yesterday.
• They rededicated the base to Lt. Gen. Harold "Hal" G. Moore Jr. and his wife Julie Moore. Moore was the author of "We Were Soldiers Once and Young".
• An interesting new study says that 30% of teens in 2021 said they had ever had sex, down from 38% in 2019 and a huge drop from three decades ago, when more than half of teens reported having sex.
• However, the question was in regard to sexual intercourse, and the definitions of sexuality have changed drastically in recent years, with gender fluidity becoming more common along with a decrease in stigma about identifying as not heterosexual.
• Another finding in this year’s study that found the proportion of high school kids who identify as heterosexual dropped to about 75%, down from about 89% in 2015, when the CDC began asking about sexual orientation. Meanwhile, the share who identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual rose to 15%, up from 8% in 2015.
• “I have a feeling a lot more people are quote unquote having sex — just not necessarily between a man and a woman.” - Rose, 17, a junior at a New England high school
• New York City has passed a bill outlawing discrimination based on weight, joining a growing movement in the US to make size a protected trait on par with race and gender.
• More than 40% of American adults are considered obese and studies show weight stigma is pervasive. The bias can bring sharp costs, such as lower wages, especially for women.
• Michigan has barred workplace discrimination based on weight since 1976, and a handful of other cities, including San Francisco and Washington D.C., have legislation on the books. State-level bills have now been introduced in New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Jersey.
• And now, The Weather: “Therapy Dog” by Boski
• Speaking of weather, there’s some weird shit going on in various places. Tornadoes, softball-sized hail, and record heat were reported yesterday.
• It’s really nice here in Redondo Beach, CA. Sorry.
• I want to give a mention to my friend Julie McLaughlin, who passed away yesterday due to cancer complications. I believe she had recently turned 50 and had been fighting the disease for at least the past couple of years.
• I knew Julie through SL, where we both enjoyed a weekly music trivia game for over a decade. I know she loved her oddly-flavored iced coffees and her recently-departed chihuahua Nacho, and was a huge fan of Kiss, of Disney, and the New England Patriots. She also was proud of her dad’s award-winning Ford Mustang and accompanied him to weekend car shows on a regular basis for years.
• Rest in peace.
• A herd of cows helped a North Carolina police department track a suspect who fled from officers during a traffic stop this week.
• Police initially pulled over Joshua Minton, 34, for a traffic stop on Tuesday. Minton fled from the officers before abandoning his vehicle and running into a rural area.
• “We want to express our gratitude to the cows for their assistance. The cows communicated with the officers as best they could and finally just had the officers follow them to the suspect’s location.” - Boone, NC Police Department
• Moo.
• From the Sports Desk… the Celtics and Sixers are going to game 7! Boston won their NBA semifinals matchup yesterday, beating Philadelphia in a low-scoring game 95-86, and knotting up the series at 3-3. Game 7 will be Sunday in Boston.
• However, the Denver Nuggets crushed the Phoenix Suns 125-100 in game 6 (and led by over 30 for a good part of the game), and they win the series 4-2. They move on to the Western Conference Finals to face the winner of the Lakers/Dubs series.
• Tonight’s games are Knicks at Heat and Warriors at Lakers.
• Today in history… Zhu Zhifan kills all the officials invited to a banquet and declares his intent on ousting the powerful Ming dynasty eunuch Liu Jin (1510). London playwright Thomas Kyd is arrested and tortured by the Privy Council for libel (1593). In the largest defeat of the Continental Army, Charleston, South Carolina is taken by British forces (1780). The Donner Party of pioneers departs Independence, Missouri for California, on what will become a year-long journey of hardship and cannibalism (1846). The Manitoba Act is given the Royal Assent, paving the way for Manitoba to become a province of Canada (1870). President Roosevelt signs legislation creating the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the predecessor of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (1933). The Duke and Duchess of York are crowned as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Westminster Abbey (1937). The U.S. tanker SS Virginia is torpedoed in the mouth of the Mississippi River by the German submarine U-507 (1942). The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon (1965). Iranian Azeris interpret a cartoon published in an Iranian magazine as insulting, resulting in massive riots throughout the country (2006).
• May 12 is the birthday of poet Edward Lear (1812), nurse/social reformer Florence Nightingale (1820), pianist/composer Gabriel Fauré (1845), historian/politician Henry Cabot Lodge (1850), actress Katharine Hepburn (1907), businesswoman Mary Kay Ash (1918), MLB player Yogi Berra (1925), songwriter/producer Burt Bacharach (1928), MLB player Felipe Alou (1935), journalist/TV host Tom Snyder (1936), comedian/actor George Carlin (1937), singer-songwriter Ian Dury (1942), keyboardist Ian McLagan (1945), singer-songwriter Steve Winwood (1948), actor Gabriel Byrne (1950), singer-songwriter Billy Squier (1950), keyboardist Greg Phillinganes (1956), actor Ving Rhames (1959), actor Emilio Estevez (1962), guitarist/businessman Brett Gurewitz (1962), actor Stephen Baldwin (1966), skateboarder Tony Hawk (1968), actress Kim Fields (1969), NFL player Steve Smith Sr. (1979), UK prime minister Rishi Sunak (1980), and actor Rami Malek (1981).

Well holy fuck, that was a lot of information. Time for me to do other things. Enjoy your day.