Random News: July 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 July 12, 2023, and it’s a Wednesday. I’m just getting my day rolling, and it’s gonna be a busy one, but I’m not worried about that. Let’s see what’s transpired since we last got together…

• Iowa’s state legislature voted late last night to ban most abortions after around six weeks of pregnancy, a time before most people know they are pregnant.
• Republican lawmakers, which hold a majority in both the Iowa house and senate, passed the anti-abortion bill after the governor, Kim Reynolds, called a special session to seek a vote on the ban.
• Yesterday, hundreds of protestors filled the Iowa Capitol in opposition to the state’s new force-birth measure. A recent poll of Iowans show that 61% of adults and 70% of women feel that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
• It didn’t matter. At this point, all Iowans can do is vote out every Republican who supported this draconian measure.
• "Democrats would lead differently," said Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames. "We would make sure that a full spectrum of reproductive health care is available for Iowa women."
• Abortion is health care. This is a step backwards for the good people of Iowa.
• Moving on…
• Yesterday, the Georgia grand jury that is expected to consider charges against that wacky Stable Genius for trying to overturn the 2020 election was sworn in after a three-hour selection process in Atlanta.
• This is in regard to the investigation that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis launched in early 2021 after the Creamsicle Criminal tried to overturn his defeat in the Peach State with a public and private pressure campaign targeting Georgia election officials, the governor, lawmakers and prosecutors.
• Two grand jury panels were picked. Each panel includes 26 participants: 23 grand jurors and three alternates. These grand juries will meet separately, twice a week, for two months.
• Get. His. Ass.
• Moving on…
• Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten is out of prison. She was paroled yesterday after serving more than 50 years of a life sentence for her participation in two infamous murders.
• She is expected to spend about a year at a halfway house, learning basic skills such as how to drive a car, go to the grocery store and get a debit card. 
• “She has to learn to use to use the internet. She has to learn to buy things without cash,” said her attorney. “It’s a very different world than when she went in.”
• Van Houten, now in her 70s, received a life sentence for helping Manson’s followers carry out the August 1969 killings of Leno LaBianca, a grocer in Los Angeles, and his wife, Rosemary.
• Manson himself died in prison in 2017 of natural causes at age 83 after nearly half a century behind bars.
• Scary Fact: I am personally acquainted with a member of the Manson Family, a man named Bobby Beausoleil. He’s a musician. One day in the ‘90s, I was at work and my phone rang and Bobby was calling me from Oregon State Penitentiary, where he was incarcerated at the time.
• He was calling because he was doing some recording with the gear of the company for whom I worked at the time.
• I ended up having a number of conversations with him. My impression was that he is very intelligent and also a good musician and songwriter. He’s also a murderer, which somewhat dampens my enthusiasm about knowing him.
• We have continued to cover every single arrest, trial, and conviction of the pieces of shit who attempted and failed a coup against our country on January 6, 2021.
• Matthew Beddingfield, 22, of North Carolina, had pleaded guilty this year to a felony count of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers using a deadly or dangerous weapon during the Capitol attack.
• This young dumbass who stormed the Capitol and assaulted police with a flagpole was out on bail on a charge of first-degree attempted murder. He’d shot and killed a Hispanic teenager in a Walmart parking lot in December 2019.
• Beddingfield was sentenced yesterday to more than three years in federal prison.
• Fuck around and find out, kid.
• More than 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with the attack on the Capitol so far, and more than 300 have been sentenced to periods of incarceration.
• Moving on…
• In the “I Didn’t Know That” file, child marriage is currently legal in most US states, and 20 states have no minimum age for marriage.
• What the fuck?
• Anyway, child marriage in Michigan is now illegal after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation yesterday raising the minimum age to marry in the state to 18.
• The state had previously allowed 16- and 17-year-olds to enter marriages with the written consent of a parent or legal guardian.
• Jesus fucking Christ. Look, I married young — I had just turned 24, and my now-ex was 23. But we were at least legal adults. Who marries a child? Fucking weirdos.
• And now, The Weather: “Look At Me Now” by Small Forward
• A little advice on dealing with heat. You need to pre-hydrate before you feel thirsty, and continue with more water intake than you’d usually have. Drink water — yes, actual water, not sugary, bubbly drinks — before heading out in high temps. If your pee isn’t almost clear, you’re not drinking enough.
• If you notice any symptoms of heat exhaustion like muscle cramping, increased fatigue and accelerated heart rate, get yourself somewhere cool ASAP.
• Wear loose, light clothing. Your fashion sense won’t matter if you’re dead.
• From the Sports Desk… the National League picked up its first All-Star game win since 2012. They beat the Al 3-2 in yesterday’s game held in Seattle.
• Colorado Rockies catcher Elias Diaz sealed the deal with a go-ahead two-run home run in the eighth inning.
• Diaz is 32 years old, and was playing in his first All-Star Game. He was named MVP.
• Today in history… Hartmann Schedel's ‘Nuremberg Chronicle’, one of the best-documented early printed books, is published (1493). King Henry VIII of England marries his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court Palace (1543). Mughal Empire annexes Bengal after defeating the Bengal Sultanate at the Battle of Rajmahal (1576). The American Army of the Northwest briefly occupies the Upper Canadian settlement at what is now at Windsor, Ontario (1812). German and Soviet forces engage in the Battle of Prokhorovka, one of the largest armored engagements of all time (1943). The Rolling Stones perform for the first time at London's Marquee Club (1962). Riots begin in Newark, New Jersey (1967). Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-104, carrying the Quest Joint Airlock to the International Space Station (2001). 
• July 12 is the birthday of Roman politician/general Julius Caesar (100 BC), potter Josiah Wedgwood (1730), poet Henry David Thoreau (1817), businessman George Eastman (1854), film producer Louis B. Mayer (1884), painter/sculptor Amedeo Modigliani (1884), architect Buckminster Fuller (1895), stage director/lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895), comedian Milton Berle (1908), artist Andrew Wyeth (1917), businessman Roger Smith (1925), pianist/composer Van Cliburn (1934), comedian/convicted rapist Bill Cosby (1937), singer-songwriter Christine McVie (1943), singer-songwriter Walter Egan (1948), actress Cheryl Ladd (1951), actor Charlie Murphy (1959), boxer Julio César Chávez (1962), guitarist/composer John Petrucci (1967), figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi (1971), and actor Topher Grace (1978).

I kinda like Wednesdays. I down’t have any scheduled meetings, I already handled the grocery shopping, and sadly enough, I get happy that I can get some uninterrupted work done. Getting happy about how much work I can do? That’s just sick, and not in a, “That’s sick, bro!” way. Enjoy your day.