04/10/23

Good morning! It’s Monday, April 10th. Easter Monday. And what an Easter Monday it is!

Real question… has Easter Monday always been a thing? Easter Sunday, sure. Makes sense. Easter Monday?

What’s happening on Monday?

And now, the news.

Tennessee Three Update

-via AP News, AP News, and CNN

Let’s start with the Tennessee Three – which… is that what we’re still calling them? Because it’s really all about these two now. The Tennessee Two!

Over the weekend, Veep Kamala Harris visited Tennessee and Let Them KNOW. In addition to meeting with the Tennessee Three (called so, in this instance, because Gloria Johnson, the white woman who was spared, was also at the meeting), she gave a rousing speech at Fisk University, which is both the oldest higher learning institute in Nashville, as well as an HBCU. There she used the moment to again call out the need for gun control, saying, “Let’s not fall for the false choice — either you’re in favor of the Second Amendment or you want reasonable gun safety laws. We can and should do both.”

She also talked about the expulsions saying, among many things, “Just like John Lewis and Diane Nash did many years ago, we too will resist.”

John Lewis was, of course, a prolific leader in for civil rights who then went on to represent Georgia in the House of Representatives until he died in 2020. Diane Nash, who, like Lewis, has a degree from Fisk, was as prolific of a leader in the fight as Lewis was. Together, they co-founded SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), as well as leaders in the Freedom Riders and lunch counter sit-ins.

This country is better because John Lewis and Diane Nash spent their lives making it so. It’s not perfect or done, but it is an unerasable fact, that America is better because of them.

An additional note for this moment… remember that John Lewis led a day-long sit-in protest for gun control back in 2016, after the Pulse nightclub shooting.

Anyway, so Veep Harris let them know in Nashville.

Also, support for the Nashville Two has only grown. To the point that, in a special Nashville council meeting in Nashille today may actually end in reappointing Justin Jones to his seat. Shelby County Commission will announce their plans to fill Justin Pearson’s seat. He could also be reinstalled.

As we do, we don’t speculate here until I feel super confident about it (or I just think it’ll be fun), so who knows. But that’s what’s what. We’ll talk more about it when we know for sure.

Greg Abbott Is Here for the Pardons

-via CNN

I want to start this segment with a little bit of street cred and tell you that I’ve been giving Greg Abbott the thumbs down emoji since 2013. For a DECADE, I’ve been knowing.

So here’s what happened, back in 2020, Army Sargent Daniel Perry fatally shot Garrett Foster while Foster was protesting in Austin at a Black Lives Matter protest.

Because Daniel Perry, who serves this country, was so upset at the idea that Black lives matter, that he shot and killed someone.

And notice I didn’t say allegedly. Because Perry was convicted on Friday of this murder.

But Greg Abbott now says that he is, “working as swiftly as Texas law allows regarding the pardon of Sgt. Perry.”

And that whole “as swift as Texas law allows” is no joke – because he asked the state’s parole pardon board to hustle up their determination over whether he should be pardoned.

So… stay knowing who Greg Abbott is. Stay giving him the thumbs down emoji.

New Mexico Police Killed the Wrong Person

-via Buzzfeed News

New Mexico state police are investigating three currently unidentified police officers who shot and killed the wrong person, after they went to the wrong house!

Last Wednesday night, the department received a domestic violence call. When they went to the house, which was the wrong house, the homeowner opened the door with a handgun, but did not shoot.

He was still shot and killed anyway.

Abortion Pill Yo-Yo

-via Washington Post

And finally, an update on some very confusion back and forth news that came out this weekend, starting Friday when two federal judges handed down two different rulings on the medical abortion bill mifeapristone.

The pill is used in more than half of all abortions in America, and now it’s all up in the air as a judge in Texas says the FDA 23 year old approval of the drug should be voided. While, also on Friday, a judge in Washington ruled in a separate case that the drug was safe and effective.

Because these rulings are, well, confusing in their contrarian manner, nothing has changed yet. Biden is reviewing the case. This all happened on Friday, so, we’ll know more here when we know more.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of… Easter. Easter was like, we have a LOCK on this Sunday thing. People love it. They’re very into it. But what if we expanded. What if we also did Monday? In a few hundred years, they’re gonna be into Tuesday and Wednesday if the market allows for it.

And you know what? When it comes to a holiday that leans so heavily on candy, I’m very into expanding.

But more than that. More than Easter. More than PEEPS (And I LOVE Peeps!), because you’re great year-round… I’m proud of you.