You can see why Republicans are deeply concerned.
- Time magazine's Healthland reports on Wisconsin State Sen. Glenn Grothman's SB 507 bill that likens single parenthood to child abuse, saying it is "just one more example of states seeking to erode women’s rights and credibility." The Nation's Greg Kaufman delivers some hard data on single motherhood that Grothman's bill will do nothing to address.
- Choice meets states' rights: Federal government cuts off funding to Texas Medicaid Women's Health Program over Texas legislature's decision to stop funding any groups affiliated with abortion services. "Medicaid law is clear," said Cindy Mann, director of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
- Republican Gov. Gary Herbert of Utah vetoed an abstinence only sex education bill on Friday. Herbert's 2016 GOP presidential primary epitaph reads:
"If HB 363 were to become law, parents would no longer have the option the overwhelming majority is currently choosing for their children. I am unwilling to conclude that the state knows better than Utah's parents as to what is best for their children."
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Flaring black hole (
NASA)
- NASA releases a new batch of infra-red sky images. Start cataloging now, citizen astronomers. There's over a half billion stars, galaxies and other objects captured by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission. You can see some here.
- Intrigue, suspense and behind-the-scenes tension in the debate over adding marriage equality support to the 2012 Democratic party platform report Amanda Terkel and Sam Stein at Huffington Post.
- SOPA/PIPA 2.0? CNET reports internet service providers including Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, Time Warner Cable are working with Recording Industry Association of America to create an "automated" anti-piracy system slated to start July 1, 2012.
- Waah!!! Hollywood complains Los Angeles' new green bike lane is ruining their shots.
- GLAAD launches its Commentator Accountability Project. GLAAD has assembled dossiers of 36 commentators frequently seen on mainstream news outlets. The aim is to educate news people on the background of their chosen pundits. Not only do these people simply oppose marriage equality and non-discrimination measures, many believe gay people are like "Nazis" who commit acts of terrorism and there should be "criminal sanctions against homosexual behavior." These people don't represent "another side" of a "debate" but an extremist viewpoint far outside the American mainstream.
- Jason Russell, co-founder of Invisible Children of KONY 2012 fame, has one of the most unfortunate second acts in history also on video.
- Miss America Kirsten Haglund recounts her struggle with anorexia to CNN, in series on perceptions of beauty. "That was the first image I had in my brain; I always equated beauty and worth with being skinny."
- American Airlines objects to labor unions' request to settle disputes via National Mediation Board. Union leaders express disappointment:
"We thought [arbitration] was a wonderful idea of taking two parties that have a long history of not working together very well and with the help of a mediator work together to help rebuild an airline," said Howie Schack, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association.
- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand:
"America cannot afford an endless war in Afghanistan. After nearly a decade at war, with still no equal commitment from the Karzai government, and after all the lives we’ve sacrificed and the billions we’ve spent on this war, it’s time to start bringing our troops home."
- New Jersey jurors tell the New York Times the "overwhelming amount of evidence" left in the digital trail was decisive in convicting Dharun Ravi in the bias intimidation charges he faced in the Tyler Clementi/Rutgers University incident.
- First, Goldmann Sachs, now this:
Et tu, Anakin?
"Why I am leaving the Empire," by Darth Vader:
To put the problem in the simplest terms, throttling people with your mind continues to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making people dead.
The Empire is one of the galaxy's largest and most important oppressive regimes and it is too integral to galactic murder to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of Yoda College that I can no longer in good conscience point menacingly and say that I identify with what it stands for.
- British researchers find a correlation between high levels of health illiteracy and early mortality rates, adding to a body of empirical evidence suggesting public health education programs can help extend people's lives.
- Occupy Wall Street marked its six-month anniversary by re-occupying Zuccotti Park, only to have police break up the occupation, arresting "scores" of people, often violently. -Laura Clawson