03/14/24

Good morning! It’s Thursday, March 14th.

Pi Day!

But wait, also Bake a Pie in Solidarity Day. So then I was like – great! Solidarity of what?

Just… of it.

And now, the news.

Nex Benedict Update

-via ABC News

Starting with a tragic update on Nex Benedict, the 16-year-old nonbinary student who died the day after being jumped in a school bathroom.

According to an autopsy report released by the state's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Nex died by suicide.

I talked about this a little bit in another episode, when I talked about the rates of depression in states with and without LGBTQ+ protections, but across the board LGBTQ students are also more likely to seriously consider suicide or attempt than their non-LGBTQ peers, per a CDC report. In their 2021 report, they noted that 69% of LGBQ+ youth reported feeling persistently sad and hopeless, compared to heterosexual youth, where that figure was 35%.

As a reminder, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is free and open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Just call or text 988.

Six Georgia Charges Dropped

-via NY Times

We’ve got an update on Trump’s Georgia RICO case… but not the one we’re all waiting for. The one we’re all waiting for, whether DA Fani Willis will be disqualified from the case because of her relationship with a prosecutor, should hopefully come by the end of this week. Which it arguably is now (who’s doing work on a Friday? Come on.)

But while we wait for that ruling, we did get surprising news about the case itself. Specifically the charges against Trump and other indicted folks.

The judge actually dropped six total charges.

Let’s talk about it.

The charges weren’t dropped because Trump and allies didn’t do those things or isn’t alleged to have done these things. They were dropped because charges weren’t specific enough.

For example, one count against Trump is that he “unlawfully solicited, requested and importuned” Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to violate his oath of office and decertify the election.

He did (the call is very clear and widely available) but that’s not specific enough about what they specifically were asking Raffensperger to do.

In his ruling, the judge wrote, “These six counts contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission. They do not give the Defendants enough information to prepare their defenses intelligently, as the Defendants could have violated the Constitution and thus the statute in dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways.”

Prosecutors can bring those charges again, in a more specific way, if they choose. But it’s not yet known if they’re planning to do so.

This brings the number of charges against Trump and America’s Mayor Rudy Guiliani down from 13 to 10, with Mark Meadows, John Eastman, Ray Smith III, and Robert Cheeley also seeing a reduction in their number of charges.

TikTok Ban

-via AP News

After passing through a full vote of the House, the TikTok ban now heads to the Senate.

President Biden has already said he’d sign the bill if it hits his desk (though people are not thrilled about this news, so who knows if this will even make it out of the Senate).

If that happens, ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, will have two opens: sell to a U.S.-based company or be banned in the United States.

It all comes down to the government’s concern over your privacy. You know how the government is always super worried about your privacy.

As a reminder, ByteDance actually offered up a solid plan called Project Texas (I love it on name alone!), where all U.S. cyber data would be based in the U.S. and be subject to U.S.-based oversight. Congress hasn’t moved on that. Instead it’s just… nah. We just don’t like it.

I talked about this when this first came about but this doesn’t solve the actual problem. If TikTok goes away, don’t they think someone else is going to create a similar platform that will be just as popular?

Also, they aren’t too worried about your security when Meta, based here in the states, sells your data whenever they feel like it.

Anyway, this heads to the Senate now so we’ll see what happens there.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of pies. In general. But rhubarb specificially. Rhubarb, ya look like celery, ya got a silent H in there for some reason, but you taste great and I wish I knew how to cool you.

But more than rhubarb, because you don’t look like celery!, I’m proud of you.