Virginia governor signs abortion protections into law
(CNN)Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed bills on Friday rolling back multiple abortion restrictions in the state, including some that had been in place for decades.
The new laws make Virginia the first state to codify new abortion protections in 2020, according to Elizabeth Nash, the senior state issues manager at the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health think tank.
The legislation removes longstanding regulations requiring abortion seekers to undergo an ultrasound at least 24 hours prior to receiving an abortion and to get counseling on alternatives to abortion. It also strikes the requirement that facilities providing more than five abortions per year be designated as hospitals.
"No more will legislators in Richmond -- most of whom are men -- be telling women what they should and should not be doing with their bodies," Northam said in a statement, adding that the legislation "will make women and families safer, and I'm proud to sign it into law."
The move continues the trend of liberal state legislatures looking to protect abortion rights after state lawmakers who oppose abortion passed a slew of restrictions in 2019 -- and in some cases, have looked to limit abortion access during the coronavirus outbreak.
The state is the 27th to decriminalize or legalize marijuana.
On Sunday, Gov. Ralph Northam (D) announced he signed a bill that will eliminate jail time for simple marijuana possession, leaving only a civil penalty with a fine in place for the first offense. Northam previously said decriminalization was a priority for him, and the newly elected Democratic-controlled legislature soon followed his lead.
This is not full marijuana legalization. Under decriminalization, penalties carrying jail or prison time are removed, but lower-level penalties, like a fine, remain in place and sales remain illegal. Under legalization, all penalties for marijuana possession are removed, and sales are typically allowed.
Some opponents of legalization favor decriminalization as a step toward peeling back America’s harsh drug and criminal justice policies. They see “tough on crime” policies as too punitive and costly, but they don’t want to resort to full legalization, which they fear would make pot too accessible in the US and allow big corporations to sell and market the drug irresponsibly.
The problem is some use unfamiliarity or even an unwillingness to become familiar as an excuse to be prejudiced.
– J.D.
Mob of the Mean: Free beanie, cattle-prod and Charley Fan Club! "Doctor X is just treating you the way he treats everyone--as subhuman crap too dumb to breathe in after you breathe out." – Don DocX: FTW. – sparks
"Doctor X wins again." – Pyrrho
"Never sorry to make a racist Fucktard cry." – His Humble MagNIfIcence
"It was the criticisms of Doc X, actually, that let me see more clearly how far the hypocrisy had gone." – clarsct
"I'd leave it up to Doctor X who has been a benevolent tyrant so far." – Grammatron
"Indeed you are a river to your people.
Shit. That's going to end up in your sig." – Pyrrho
"Try a twelve step program and accept Doctor X as your High Power." – asthmatic camel
"just like Doc X said." – gnome WS CHAMPIONS X4!!!!NBA CHAMPIONS!!Stanley Cup!SB CHAMPIONS X6!!!!!!
Starving and Cannibalistic: America’s Rats Getting Desperate Amid Pandemic
"A new 'army' of rats come in, and whichever army has the strongest rats is going to conquer that area," said Bobby Corrigan, an urban rodentologist.
America's rats are being hit hard by the coronavirus. As millions of Americans shelter indoors to combat the deadly virus, which has claimed over 21,000 U.S. lives, many businesses — including restaurants and grocery stores — have closed or limited operations, cutting off many rodents' main sources for food. On deserted streets across the country, rats are in dire survival mode, experts tell NBC News.
"If you take rats that have been established in the area or somebody's property and they're doing well, the reason they're doing well is because they're eating well," Bobby Corrigan, an urban rodentologist, told NBC News. "Ever since coronavirus broke out, not a single thing has changed with them, because someone's doing their trash exactly the same in their yard as they've always done it — poorly."
But many other rats are not faring as well, said Corrigan, who works as a consultant for several city health departments and businesses, such as airports and shopping malls.
"A restaurant all of a sudden closes now, which has happened by the thousands in not just New York City but coast to coast and around the world, and those rats that were living by that restaurant, some place nearby, and perhaps for decades having generations of rats that depended on that restaurant food, well, life is no longer working for them, and they only have a couple of choices."
And those choices are grim. They include cannibalism, rat battles and infanticide.
Rat battles, I been around the block a few times but...just... wow
... The stars were suns, but so far away they were just little points of light ... The scale of the universe suddenly opened up to me. It was a kind of religious experience. There was a magnificence to it, a grandeur, a scale which has never left me. Never ever left me.
Carl Sagan
State Legislators Send Letter to Feds on Decision to Disestablish Wampanoag Land
MASHPEE – Members of the Cape’s legislative delegation have sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, expressing their disappointment in the decision to disestablish and take land out of trust for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs last month was ordered to disestablish over 300 acres of land that was put into trust for the tribe.
The letter, which included state representatives and senators across the Commonwealth, stated the fact that the decision was made in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic “demonstrates a callous disregard for human decency.”
“This outrageous decision comes as we mark 400 years since the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620 and recognize the People of the First Light who inhabited these shores for centuries before contact. The Department’s capricious action brings shame to your office and to our nation,” said the statement.
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe last week asked the U.S. District Court in D.C. to issue an emergency restraining order to prevent the Secretary of the Interior from taking the tribe’s land out of trust.
The move would delay the decision by Secretary David Bernhardt to terminate the tribe’s land in trust.
I seem to recall similar for Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II. And Obama (though from a different crowd).
Freedom of speech. In Germany it would be illegal because they believe the mere sight of a swastika turns people Nazi.
The West German authorities ecen censored the original Wolfenstein game for that reason, and the laws on that question have not changed under the unified Bundesrepublik.
Of course real Nazis (and it's legal and there are a few) do not like Trump.
Trump really is a Zionist since forever. It's not just something the foreign policy establishment foisted on him (like some paleo-cons seem to think).
He was even Grand Marshal of NYC's salute to Israel parade back when. They wanted a Gentile with name recognition who was reliably Zionist but otherwise politically non-controversial.
The past is a foreign country, but Trump is still a Zionist.
WS CHAMPIONS X4!!!! 
NBA CHAMPIONS!! Stanley Cup!
SB CHAMPIONS X6!!!!!! 
"If I turn in a sicko, will I get a reward?"