Today’s comic by Ruben Bolling is Super-Fun-Pak Comix, feat. 'Boiling a Frog,' and more!
• Missourians about to doused with more forced-birther legislation:
The proposals include a personhood bill, religious liberty protections for crisis pregnancy centers, several measures blocking fetal tissue research, a chemical endangerment bill, and a bill regarding fetal burial similar to those passed this year in Indiana and Texas.
"I believe that the Republican leadership wants to focus on other issues that are priorities," says Alison Dreith, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri. "But the legislators who are obsessed with further restricting access to abortion…they are emboldened by the new Republican trifecta. They might be emboldened by the new Trump presidency."
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• Black teenager suing white cop who slammed her to the ground at 2015 party:
A 16-year-old black girl is suing a white police officer, the city of McKinney, Texas, and the McKinney Police Department for $5 million after she was slammed to the ground and dragged by the hair and it was all captured on video that has since gone viral.
Dajerria Becton, then 15, was at a pool party at the Craig Ranch Pool in May 2015 when Officer Eric Casebolt was called to the scene to deal with a group of teenagers who'd allegedly been fighting at the pool, which the caller said they did not have permission to access. (The teenagers involved later said they were invited the pool by someone with access to it.)
• ADP reports 153,000 new private-sector jobs were created in December. ADP’s job numbers are closely watched in the business community, but they often fail to mesh with the government’s numbers. Last month, for example. ADP said the U.S. economy had generated a net gain of 216,000 private sector jobs while the Bureau of Labor Statistics said 156,000 new jobs had been created by the private sector. The BLS also tallies new public-sector jobs.
• Here’s a timeline on Donald Trump’s contradictory comments on Russian hacking.
• Cities and towns gear up for fight against the Trump regime:
President-elect Trump’s campaign promises, proposed policies, and cabinet appointments offer little confidence that environmentalists, women, people of color, low-wage workers, Muslims, immigrants, and those who identify as LGBTQ will find protection in federal-level policies. In the years to come, community bills of rights are one strategy for cities across the nation to continue to shelter such populations.
In fact, many cities have already begun. At least 10 major sanctuary cities have reaffirmed their position as such, and some, including San Francisco, have released statements or passed ordinances pledging noncooperation with Trump’s policies. Some municipalities, such as Grant Township in Pennsylvania, already have existing community bills of rights.
• Tesla and Panasonic start mass production of lithium batteries at Nevada gigafactory. Although they’ve switched on, the factory itself is built for expansion and is only 30 percent complete. Construction is expected to be done by the end of 2018:
"Tesla's mission is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy through increasingly affordable electric vehicles in addition to renewable energy generation and storage," the company announced in a blog post on Wednesday. "At the heart of these products are batteries."
The high-performance cylindrical "2170 cell" was jointly developed by Tesla and Panasonic engineers. The cells will be used for Tesla's suite of battery storage products, the Powerwall 2 and Powerpack 2, as well as the company's mass-market electric car, the Model 3.
• New study confirms there’s been no slowdown of ocean surface warming.
• On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Morning chatter about ineligible electors. Greg Dworkin is watching the Gop vs. Obamacare minefield. Steve Mnuchin: foreclosure super-predator. Josie Duffy Rice on Kim Foxx taking aim at wage theft, and surprising news about bail reform from out of NJ.
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