Random News: November 9, 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 November 9, 2023, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. There’s a bit of a chill in the air this morning here at the beach, which seems appropriate for mid-November. But I’ve got my coffee and life is good, so let’s talk about various things.

• I mentioned yesterday that with the passage of Issue 1 on Tuesday, Ohio became the seventh state to vote to protect access to abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022. 
• Reproductive freedom had already been codified by California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, and Vermont. And constitutional amendments to protect access are already on the ballots for 2024 in Maryland and New York.
• I thought this would be a good time to look at a whole bunch of other states where abortion rights — protecting them or banning them — may be on the ballot next year.
• Arizona: Currently, abortion in Arizona is outlawed after 15 weeks. Advocates want to amend the state constitution to protect access to abortion until the fetus is viable, generally considered to be around 24 weeks gestational age. Supporters have until July 3 to collect 384,000 valid signatures to get the measure on the ballot.
• Colorado: The state currently has no state laws barring abortion at any point in pregnancy. They have dueling efforts in 2024. Abortion rights advocates want a constitutional amendment that would keep the state from banning abortion. Opponents want to ban abortion throughout pregnancy. Both sides have until August 5 to gather more than 124,000 signatures.
• Florida: Abortion in Florida is currently banned at 15 weeks, and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis just signed into law a measure to lower that to six weeks, a time before many woman know they are pregnant. Florida abortion rights advocates are backing a constitutional amendment that would undo both bans and require that abortion be available until fetal viability, around 24 weeks. They need to gather nearly 900,000 signatures by February 1 to get it on the ballot.
• Iowa: Their law generally prohibits abortion at twenty weeks. The Republican-controlled legislature approved an amendment that would declare that there’s no right to abortion in the state constitution. In 2019, Iowa’s Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision that there is a right to abortion in the state constitution. But in 2022, after membership of the court changed, the court reversed itself. Sigh.
• Maryland: Abortion is legal in Maryland until viability. Lawmakers have put an amendment on the ballot that includes the “fundamental right” to reproductive freedom.
• Missouri: Abortion is currently banned at all stages of pregnancy in the state. Abortion-rights advocates are pushing for a constitutional amendment that would bar the government from infringing on a person’s right to reproductive freedom or ban abortion in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. But some moderate Republicans are also working on an amendment that would be less restrictive than the current law, but still not allow the same amount of access the other abortion rights groups want. To get it on the ballot, they need more than 171,000 signatures by May 5.
• Nebraska: They currently ban abortion after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy in most cases. Abortion rights advocates have submitted language to Nebraska’ secretary of state for a ballot question that would expand abortion access. At least 7% of registered voters statewide must sign a petition by July 5 to put the question on the ballot.
• Nevada:  The state’s current policy allows abortion up to 24 weeks. A ballot measure from abortion-rights advocates would still allow the state to regulate abortion after viability, but would further enshrine it in the state constitution and make it more difficult to overturn. Supporters have to gather more than 102,000 signatures by June 26.
• New York: Abortion is already legal until viability in the state. Lawmakers have placed a question on the 2024 ballot asking voters to add “pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes and reproductive healthcare and autonomy” as areas where discrimination would be barred.
• Pennsylvania: Currently, abortion is legal in the state until 24 weeks’ gestational age. Republican lawmakers might push to add a question to the ballot to amend the state constitution to declare that it doesn’t grant the right to an abortion, or a right to a taxpayer-funded abortion. Dems only have a one-vote advantage there, and Republicans will enact the change if they ever get a majority.
• South Dakota: The state currently bans abortion at all stages of pregnancy with an exception only for the life of the pregnant woman. Under a proposed constitutional amendment, the state could not restrict abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. Supporters have until May 7 to gather more than 17,000 signatures to put it on the ballot.
• Washington: Currently, abortion is legal until viability there. Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee in 2022 pushed for lawmakers to add a question to the ballot to protect abortion access, but so far the legislature has not advanced it.
• Now, you may be asking yourself, why would a state where abortion is already legal need to go through efforts to put it into their Constitution or otherwise codify it in firm laws?
• Because there’s already a big push to ban abortion at a federal level. Even more so after last night’s elections. By codifying the rights of women’s reproductive freedom at the state level, it better protects them from any federal laws that attempt to force them to give birth against their will.
• Let’s move on for now. We’ll be talking about this a lot over the next 12 months.
• Yesterday, two US F-15 fighter jets conducted an airstrike on a weapons storage facility in eastern Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated groups.
• The strike is the second time the US has hit facilities used by Iranian-backed groups in response to nearly daily attacks by Iranian proxies on US forces in Iraq and Syria. On October 26, a US F-15 and two F-16s used precision-guided munitions to strike two facilities linked to Iran-backed militias in eastern Syria.
• US and coalition forces have been targeted at least 41 times since October 17 by one-way attack drones or rocket attacks, the latest being a multi-rocket attack on US and coalition forces at Shaddadi, Syria.
• Moving on.
• SAG-AFTRA negotiators have approved a tentative agreement that will end the longest actors strike against the film and TV studios in Hollywood history. The 118-day strike officially ended at 12:01 am today.
• The deal will see the first-ever protections for actors against artificial intelligence and a historic pay increase. The deal will see most minimums increase by 7% — two percent above the increases received by the Writers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America.
• Glad for them. Now go make some good movies, please.
• Want some Dumpy News? I’d rather not, but I should mention this.
• As I’d expected, yesterday the Minnesota Supreme Court rejected an attempt to block Donald Dump from the state’s GOP primary ballot next year based on the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban” but said the challengers can try again to block him from the general election ballot if the former president wins the Republican nomination.
• The ruling is a victory for Dumples, in terms of keeping his name on Minnesota’s ballot for the 2024 GOP primary, where recent polling shows he has a commanding lead. However, the Minnesota justices didn’t go as far as Dumpy wanted, which was to shut down the case altogether and keep the former president on the ballot for both the primary and general election.
• In the Trials of Don Don News…
• Yesterday, Vanky Dump testified in the New York fraud trial about her role securing loans for the Trump Organization and a penthouse apartment she leased from her father. She discussed her role in negotiating loans for Trump's purchases of Doral and the Old Post Office. The NY attorney general focused on Deutsche Bank loan negotiations.
• Nothing spectacular happened. Vanky distanced herself from her apartment’s valuation on El Dumpo’s financial statement. She did acknowledge discussing Trump Org. business with her husband, Jared Kushner.
• One moment of comedy was when Dumpy attorney Alina Habba objected to evidence of an from Vanky to Allen Weisselberg and other Trump Org. executives dated Dec. 15, 2011. Habba first claimed that it was never sent. The New York prosecutors contradicted it, saying that the email was sent, showing the date.
• Then prosecutor Kevin Wallace stepped in to address the authenticity, saying the document Habba had just objected to… was one of their own documents.
• Geniuses, all of them. The attorney general’s office rested its case after calling 25 witnesses. Dump's team will begin its defense on Monday.
• The third Republican presidential debate was last night. If you think I watched that shit, I have some swampland in Florida not far from the debate site that’s for sale.
• I did see some clips, which made me wish I hadn’t. But here are some quotes.
• "You're just scum.” - Niki Haley to Vivek Ramalamadingdong
• “We've become a party of losers.” - Ramaswamalong
• “I’m sick of Republicans losing.” - Ron DeSantis
• “I’m not.” - Zak Claxton
• Moving on.
• One note from Tuesday’s election that I forgot to call out specifically.
• When Democrat Gabe Amo defeated Republican Gerry Leonard to win Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District seat, it was a pickup for Dems in the House. That means they moved up to 213 votes in the chamber, leaving the GOP side with 221 — cutting the GOP margin to just three votes.
• Ha.
• And now, The Weather: “Lost and Found” by Enumclaw
• After Ohio voters approved a measure to allow recreational marijuana use on Tuesday, marijuana is now legal for more than half of Americans. Seven in 10 Americans think marijuana use should be legal, according to a new Gallup poll released yesterday.
• Ohio became the 24th state to allow adult cannabis use for nonmedical purposes with nearly 57% voting for the ballot initiative Tuesday. Medicinal use is legal in 38 states. Weed now remains under prohibition and illegal in just 12 states.
• Fun Fact: more Americans smoke weed than tobacco now.
• From the Sports Desk… the NHL season started just a month ago, but the better teams are already separating themselves from the pack. Here’s who’s atop the current power rankings…
• 1. Vegas Golden Knights (11-2-1). 2. Boston Bruins (10-1-1). 3. New York Rangers (9-2-1). 4. Dallas Stars (7-3-1). 5. Colorado Avalanche (7-4-1). 6. New Jersey Devils (7-4-1). 7. Los Angeles Kings (8-2-2). 8. Vancouver Canucks (9-2-1). 9. Carolina Hurricanes (8-5-0). 10. Toronto Maple Leafs (6-5-2).
• Today in history… Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims, sentencing all Jews to slavery (694). Kentucky marshals abduct abolitionist minister Calvin Fairbank from Jeffersonville, IN, and take him to Kentucky to stand trial for helping a slave escape (1851). The Great Boston Fire of 1872 (1872). Theodore Roosevelt is the first sitting President of the United States to make an official trip outside the country, inspecting progress on the Panama Canal (1906). Cambodia gains independence from France (1953). Garry Kasparov, 22, of the Soviet Union becomes the youngest World Chess Champion by beating fellow Soviet Anatoly Karpov (1985). Capital punishment in the United Kingdom, already abolished for murder, is completely abolished for all remaining capital offenses (1998). Firefox 1.0 is released (2004).
• November 9 is the birthday of Great Britain/Ireland king George II (1683), condensed milk inventor Gail Borden (1801), philosopher/poet/politician Muhammad Iqbal (1877), actor Ed Wynn (1886), actress/inventor Hedy Lamar (1914), vice president Spiro Agnew (1918), actress Dorothy Dandridge (1922), MLB player/manager Whitey Herzog (1931), astronomer Carl Sagan (1934), MLB player Bob Gibson (1935), singer-songwriter/guitarist Tom Fogerty (1941), actor Lou Ferrigno (1951), politician Sherrod Brown (1952), actor Robert Duncan McNeill (1964), singer-songwriter/guitarist Susan Tedeschi (1970), singer-songwriter/guitarist Corin Tucker (1972), singer-songwriter Nick Lachey (1973), and MLB player Adam Dunn (1979).

Alrighty then. I have normal Thursday-like things on tap today, with meetings and writing and all that jazz. Enjoy your day.