In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: War on agency; misogyny] Andrea Grimes: "Overnight, Majority of Legal Abortion Facilities in Texas to Close Following Fifth Circuit Ruling." Last night, a three-judge panel on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the injunction against HB2, the omnibus abortion bill famously filibustered by Wendy Davis, meaning that Texas can now enforce the horrendously restrictive legislation. "According to findings from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project at the University of Texas, today's ruling will mean that more than one million potential abortion-seeking Texans will live greater than 150 miles from a legal abortion facility." The entire state of Texas will have 8 abortion clinics serving its entire population of 26.5 million people.

Do you bank at JP Morgan Chase? Then you might want to pay attention to this news: "JP Morgan Chase, one of the largest banks in the US, said on Thursday that a massive computer hack affected the accounts of 76 million households and about seven million small businesses, making it one of the largest of its kind ever discovered. ...The bank said financial information was not compromised and that there had been no breach of login information such as account or social security numbers, passwords or dates of birth. However, names, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses of account holders were captured by hackers." Terrific.

The latest employment numbers: "A surprisingly powerful surge in hiring pushed unemployment to a six-year low of 5.9 percent in September as the U.S. labor market showed renewed vigor. The 248,000 gain in payrolls last month followed a 180,000 increase in August that was bigger than previously estimated, the Labor Department reported in Washington. The median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey called for a 215,000 advance. The jobless rate fell to the lowest level since July 2008, from 6.1 percent." Which is still a deceptive number, because it does not account for the job seekers who have stopped looking, or the graduates who have not yet been able to find a job, etc.

[CN: Racism; violence] In Ferguson, voter registration has jumped 30% since August 9, the day Michael Brown was fatally shot by Officer Darren Wilson. Which is great, but only if these new voters have candidates worth voting for. Anyway: "Recent voter registration is due, in large part, to community efforts to boost civic engagement. Organizations like the NAACP and League of Women Voters, in addition to sororities and fraternities, are actively involved in registering the city's residents. Other community members are handing out registration cards for voters to mail them in. But some are not pleased with the surge of registered voters. In August, Matt Wills, the executive director of Missouri's Republican Party, denounced protesters' voter registration efforts, saying, 'If that's not fanning the political flames, I don't know what is. I think it's not only disgusting but completely inappropriate... Injecting race into this conversation and into this tragedy, not only is not helpful, but it doesn't help a continued conversation of justice and peace.'" LOLOLOLOLOL FUCK YOU.

[CN: Racism] Speaking of racism and dangerous cops: Lt. Shawn Williams, of the Charleston, West Virginia, Police Department, has been put on paid administrative leave while he is investigated after recordings were found on his computer of his "young daughter dressed in what appear to be articles of a police uniform and dancing to an anthem of the Ku Klux Klan. ...On the videos, a man alleged to be Williams can be heard asking the girl questions. Derogatory racial language can be heard, sources said." Good fucking grief. He should lose his job and be charged with child abuse.

[CN: Homophobia; bullying; assault] Unbelievable: A teenage boy "who spent nine days in the hospital after fighting back against his anti-gay bullies at high school is now being charged with assault." So, schools abdicate responsibility for prevention of bullying; refuse to intervene in bullying and harassment; and then punish bullied kids when they fight back to try to stop bullying. Just fucking perfect.

[CN: Misogynist slur] Vice President Joe Biden told a ha-ha funny joke about how being Vice President is "a bitch." Dude. Considering that the presumed next Democratic presidential candidate is a woman, the person people most want to challenge her is a woman, and you ran against a ticket that included a female vice-presidential nominee, maybe CAN IT with the misogynist slurs, all right? Asshole.

[CN: Antisemitism; racism; homophobia] Author Nicholas Sparks, who is not only a writer of terrible books and screenwriter of terrible movies, is also apparently the founder of a Christian academy called the Epiphany School (of course he is), and a former employee is alleging that the school is rampant with nasty bias and hostility to diversity. Gee, and Sparks always seemed so nice with his books about beautiful straight white Christian patriots falling in beautiful straight white Christian patriotic love!

And finally! Do you need some underwater puppies? You probably need some underwater puppies.