Gov. DeSantis signs bill banning protests in front of homes
From www.fox13news.com
2022-05-17 10:04:33
Excerpt:
Anyone who protests in front of a private residence in Florida can face jail time and fines under a bill signed Monday.
The legislation makes it a second-degree misdemeanor to protest in a manner that is aimed at intentionally harassing or disturbing someone in their home. Violators face 60 days in jail and fines of up to $500.
Protesters can only be arrested after ignoring law enforcement’s orders to disperse, however.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said the new law will prevent protests in Florida like those waged by abortion rights protesters in front of U.S. Supreme Court justices’ homes in Virginia.
“Sending unruly mobs to private residences, like we have seen with the angry crowds in front of the homes of Supreme Court justices, is inappropriate,” DeSantis said in an email to news agencies. “This bill will provide protection to those living in residential communities and I…
Court rejects sweeping school mask mandates in Iowa; allows exceptions
From www.desmoinesregister.com
2022-05-16 22:30:00
Excerpt:
Iowa school districts will no longer be allowed to issue sweeping mask mandates, a federal appeals court panel ruled Monday.
The 2-1 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit has lifted an earlier court order that blocked a state law banning the mandates, ruling that the order is now moot due to lower coronavirus transmission and wider vaccine availability.
But the panel also emphasized that Iowa’s law does not apply in situations where a school would need to require masks to comply with another federal or state law. That leaves the door open for schools to continue to require masks in certain circumstances as an accommodation for students with disabilities in order to comply with federal law, said the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, which is representing a group of families suing the state.
The decision is the latest development in the months-long legal battle over Iowa’s local mask mandate ban.
Iowa lawmakers passed the law prohibiting local mask…
California’s women on boards law is unconstitutional, judge rules
From fortune.com
2022-05-16 23:25:14
Brian Melley, The Associated Press
Excerpt:
A Los Angeles judge has ruled that California’s landmark law requiring women on corporate boards is unconstitutional.
Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis said the law that would have required boards have up to three female directors by this year violated the right to equal treatment. The ruling was dated Friday.
The conservative legal group Judicial Watch had challenged the law, claiming it was illegal to use taxpayer funds to enforce a law that violates the equal protection clause of the California Constitution by mandating a gender-based quota.
Plans to Increase US Food Production to Offset Shortages and High Costs
From www.nycfoodpolicy.org
2022-05-17 16:00:00
Excerpt:
How it works: There are three parts to this plan:
- The number of US counties eligible for double cropping insurance will increase. Double cropping permits farmers to plant two crops on the same land in the same year, which expands their overall production. However, due to high risk, many farmers are unable to obtain crop insurance for this practice, so the Biden administration will increase the number of counties where double cropping qualifies for insurance by 681, bringing the total number of eligible counties to 1,935. This will allow more farmers more financial security to practice double cropping.
- Technical assistance for precision agriculture will increase in order to cut costs for farmers. Precision agriculture uses technology to manage crops and helps farmers use less fertilizer without reducing production. The Biden administration plans to increase outreach to farmers and streamline the precision agriculture application process to allow more farmers to make use of it.
- Funding for domestic fertilizer production will double. Biden is investing $500 million in domestic fertilizer production to increase availability and lower costs for farmers.
Progress to date: President Biden announced his plan on May 11, 2022.
Texas Supreme Court partially blocks cases investigating Trans families
From www.losangelesblade.com
2022-05-13 20:28:49
Excerpt:
AUSTIN – The Texas Supreme Court Friday ruled that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) can continue to investigate families in the state who provide medically necessary care for their Trans children, excluding the parties in the litigation that brought the matter forward in a lawsuit filed in March.
The DFPS investigation into the Travis County family of a transgender teen that sued the state earlier this year was blocked by a lower appellate court injunction. The high court did uphold the injunction into that case barring further action by DFPS. However, the court struck down a statewide injunction issued by the lower court Friday on procedural grounds, leaving open the state’s ability to have DFPS once again investigate other families that provide gender-affirming care.
The justices however, questioned why DFPS had acted in the first case.
Alabama’s Transgender Youth Can Use Medicine to Transition, Judge Rules
From www.nytimes.com
2022-05-14 06:09:41
Rick Rojas
Excerpt:
Last year, a federal judge found that a similar law in Arkansas “would cause irreparable harm” as he blocked it from being enforced. The Arkansas law, known as the “Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act,” was passed by lawmakers after overriding a veto from Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, who contended that the legislation “puts a very vulnerable population in a more difficult position.”
Still, elected officials in conservative states have pursued a range of aggressive measures this year meant not just to limit transgender youth’s access to medical care but also to penalize parents and medical professionals who are helping them transition.
In Idaho, lawmakers advanced legislation that would alter the state’s genital mutilation law to make it an offense punishable to up to life in prison to provide gender-affirming care or help a child leave the state to obtain it.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott told state agencies that medical care helping a child transition should…
From www.reddit.com
2022-05-17 00:18:24
/u/Passage-Extra
Excerpt:
Russian president Vladimir Putin once said that any more countries on Russia’s doorstep joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) constituted a threat to Russia, and would provoke “military and political consequences.”
In fact, Putin warned last year that NATO expanding its military infrastructure eastward into Ukraine would be a “red line” for Russia and perceived as a direct threat.
But three months into a Ukraine invasion that’s not going according to plan, and after two other countries close to Russia announced that they are joining NATO, Putin appears to be softening his tone, and resigning himself to the fact that NATO’s eastward expansion is happening anyway.
On Sunday, Finland—which shares an 800-mile border with Russia and was part of the Russian Empire for over a century—said it had applied to join NATO to ensure that its own national security would not be threatened by Russia in the future. On Monday, Sweden followed suit after a meeting…
From legalinsurrection.com
2022-05-16 22:45:44
Jane Coleman
Excerpt:
Barrington, Rhode Island, schoolteacher Stephanie Hines asks me whether we can make our Sunday morning phone call an hour later than I had planned. She needs a little time after church.
But, for Hines, I soon learn, religion isn’t just about going to church once a week on Sundays. It’s about her life and how she lives it, in every detail. She has that in common with the two other Barrington schoolteachers I spoke with, Brittany DiOrio and Kerri Thurber.
The three teachers met this past October through a mutual acquaintance, because they had something else in common: They all needed a lawyer.
Unbeknownst to one another, each of the three teachers had requested a religious exemption from taking the Barrington school district’s mandatory Covid vaccine. On October 18, 2021, all three got a letter from Superintendent Michael Messore denying those requests.
Nonprofits want checks placed on ‘toxic’ Mark Zuckerberg
From nypost.com
2022-05-17 09:25:00
Excerpt:
Nonprofits including the American Federation of Teachers, the Anti-Defamation League and the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD are throwing their weight behind a Meta shareholder effort to place checks on “toxic” Mark Zuckerberg’s power at the company’s board meeting next week, The Post has learned.
On Tuesday, the groups came out in support of two Meta shareholder resolutions that supporters say would give much-needed oversight of Instagram and Facebook, as well as examine the potential “dystopian downsides” of Zuckerberg’s metaverse push.
SumOfUs, a corporate accountability group working with several activist Meta shareholders, introduced the resolutions in April, as first reported by The Post.
The group points to three crises facing Meta as evidence of Zuckerberg’s failed leadership: privacy restrictions by Google and Apple that have damaged Meta’s advertising business, the growing momentum for antitrust lawsuits and bills targeting Meta and other big tech firms, as well as allegations that Zuckerberg has lied to investors and lawmakers about Instagram’s harmful effects on teens and other ills.
“Mark Zuckerberg is either unwilling or unable to run his company in a way that protects the best interests of Meta’s users or shareholders,” SumOfUs shareholder engagement advisor Christina O’Connell said on Tuesday. “We cannot let Mark Zuckerberg continue running Meta so recklessly.”
Bryn Mawr College Ends Investigation of Racist Graffiti With No Suspects
From legalinsurrection.com
2022-05-17 16:00:54
Mike LaChance
Excerpt:
Of course, the school used this incident to expand their left wing race-based programs. It’s almost like that was the point.
The College Fix reports:
Bryn Mawr closes ‘racist graffiti investigation’ without any suspects
Bryn Mawr College officials recently closed an investigation into two incidents of “racist graffiti” found at the end of January and in early February.
The Pennsylvania women’s college hired an outside attorney to investigate the graffiti. The school’s original message and May 10 update does not provide specific details on what the slurs were.
The college announced:
After a comprehensive evaluation of all known and available information, including keycard records, text and social media messages, Campus Safety records, scene photographs, handwriting exemplars, and interviews with 22 individuals (several of whom were interviewed multiple times), Ms. Holland [the investigator] was unfortunately unable to definitively identify who committed the…
From www.chicagotribune.com
2022-05-17 20:07:00
Excerpt:
After student protests, complaints about inequity and the arrest of a professor, Concordia University Chicago resolved to meet with student groups and explore creation of a full-time position to better guide the school in “service to its diverse community.”
Russell Dawn, president of the university, said in a recent statement issued to students that other steps also were planned for the school in River Forest, such as a survey, a workshop and regular group discussions.
The statement followed protests after English professor Paul Stapleton was banned from the campus April 8, according to documents he provided to Pioneer Press. Concordia Associate Vice President for Communications and Marketing Eric Matanyi declined to offer a reason for the ban, but said Stapleton was offered the opportunity to teach online and Stapleton declined.
NYC Mayor Calls on ATF to Yank Ghost Gun Kit Maker’s License – U.S. News & World Report
From www.usnews.com
2022-05-11 18:57:00
Excerpt:
New York City’s mayor is calling on the Biden administration to yank the federal firearms license of a Nevada company that sells parts and kits for ghost guns, firearms without serial numbers that have been increasingly turning up at crime scenes around the U.S. Mayor Eric Adams joined with gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety on Wednesday to publicly call for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to immediately revoke the license of a Polymer80, Inc.
UN Gun Control Group’s Bid to Number, Track Bullets Is Shot Full of Holes
From www.dailysignal.com
2022-05-13 16:26:51
Excerpt:
More than two decades ago, the United Nations created a program to curb the trafficking of small arms. It’s done nothing but fire blanks. So now, the U.N. wants to control bullets.
In 2001, the United Nations started the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat, and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. Its next meeting will be held in New York from June 27 to July 1.
The Programme isn’t a treaty. It’s a political gathering that’s meant to encourage voluntary cooperation. It meets every other year to produce an outcome document that’s politically (but not legally) binding.
It’s supposed to work by unanimous consent.
The Programme has achieved very little, if anything. That’s not just my view. The U.N. secretary-general said so in 2008. New Zealand said so in 2012. Its supporters said it was “firing blanks” in 2014. In 2018, the Red Cross said that governments in the Programme talk a lot, but do nothing.
In practice, that suits most of the U.N. fine: All the nations get credit for participating in the Programme while actually doing nothing, while the Programme focuses on peripheral issues, such as 3D-printed guns.
Ground broken on project leading to conversion of biogas into renewable natural gas
From www.wdbj7.com
2022-05-17 18:32:00
Excerpt:
ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ/Roanoke Gas Release/Western Virginia Water Authority Release) – Western Virginia Water Authority and Roanoke Gas Company have broken ground on part of a joint project to produce commercial quality renewable natural gas, or RNG, from biogas produced at the Roanoke Regional Water Pollution Control Plant.
The product, which both agencies cite as the first of its kind in the Commonwealth, will need a digester gas conditioning system and interconnect facility at the Water Pollution Control Plant. It was groundbreaking for that project that took place Tuesday.
The agencies say biogas, also known as digester gas in wastewater treatment, a mixture of methane (63%) and carbon dioxide (37%), is produced as a “by-product of the anaerobic digestion treatment process as bacteria consume the organic solids that are removed earlier in the wastewater treatment process. Anaerobic digestion is employed at the WPC Plant as it is a much more energy efficient way to treat solids…
Lab-Grown Diamonds as an Energy-Efficient and Sustainable Alternative
From www.nextbigfuture.com
2022-05-17 05:33:39
Brian Wang
Excerpt:
Lab-grown diamonds are a new and more sustainable alternative to mined diamonds because they use less energy, less water, and produce less carbon emissions than regular diamonds. In order to help with the environmental issues that mined diamonds have caused, many jewelry brands have opted for a lab-grown alternative.
Are Sustainable Lifestyle Choices Rising?
According to consumer trends in 2020, the number of consumers who are aware of sustainable lifestyle choices is rising. While this phenomenon has a long way to go, it’s still considered to be an improvement. Additionally, this increase in sustainable options has led to an enormous growth in the industry. However, this awareness and demand in sustainable alternatives in the jewelry industry remains low.
Trying to Shed Light on the Negative Impacts of Natural Diamonds
Until now, not a lot of people have cared enough to learn about the process of mined diamonds. For instance, entrepreneurs Shivani Movaliya and Surali…
Personal Data of 1.8M Texans Exposed for Years by Texas Department of Insurance
From www.cnet.com
2022-05-17 15:24:33
Attila Tomaschek
Excerpt:
The confidential personal data of 1.8 million Texans was exposed and available to the public for almost three years, according to a state audit report released last week. Information including names, Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth of Texans who filed workers’ compensation claims with the Texas Department of Insurance was publicly available online from March 2019 until January 2022.
The unauthorized disclosure resulted from a glitch in the programming code of the department’s web application that manages workers’ compensation information, the department said.
TDI became aware of the issue on Jan. 4, took the application offline and…
U.S., Japan weigh pledge to jointly deter China at Tokyo summit
From asia.nikkei.com
2022-05-17 09:03:00
Excerpt:
TOKYO — The Japanese and U.S. governments have begun coordinating on the wording of a joint statement to be released during their summit meeting on Monday in Tokyo, Nikkei has learned. The statement will clearly state a policy of cooperation to “deter and respond to” China’s activities in the Indo-Pacific region.
Iran protests continue into second week as State Department tweets message of support for protesters
From www.foxnews.com
2022-05-17 01:06:09
Excerpt:
Protests in Iran continued Monday as more Iranians took the streets to show their disdain for the regime in Tehran. Over the weekend reports said up to five people were killed following a crackdown by authorities. A semi-official government news agency put the number of dead from the protests at one according to the Associated Press.
The protests began last week when the government slashed food subsidies on eggs, milk, chicken, and cooking oil leading to price rises of some 300%. Since then, protests have spread to many areas of the country and according to observers have taken on a much more anti-government current.
Protesters, showing no fear of retribution by the state security services have been heard shouting, “Death to Khamenei! Death to Raisi!” referring to Iranian…
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