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News Transcripts

03/21/24

Good morning! It’s Thursday, March 21st.

World Poetry Day!

Roses are red. Violets are blue. Something something something, and so are you!

And now, the news.

 

Texas v SCOTUS v Sanity

-via Texas Tribune and CNN

For the third day in a row, let’s start with the Supreme Court ruling in regards to Texas’ immigration law.

Hours after the Supreme Court ruled that Texas can allow their new immigration law to go through, a law that experts who are against it call dangerous and anyone who knows anything about federal versus state law call… dangerous also, a federal appeals court let an earlier injunction stand.

So… what’s going on here?

A lower court ruling doesn’t supercede the Supreme Court, so this is confusing but it’s important to note here that the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the law to go into effect was not a ruling, but an allowance while case makes its way through the Court system.

Last month, U.S. District Judge David Ezra in Austin blocked the law, also known as SB 4. AG Paxton’s office appealed the ruling to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which then reversed Ezra’s ruling.

Following that, the Biden administration appealed to the Supreme Court, which temporarily blocked the law while it considered the federal government’s request to put a stop to the law completely.

The Court’s pause on the law had a March 18th deadline. On the 18th, because of that deadline, they hit pause again but with no deadline. The following day, the 19th, the decided actually that law can go through – not that the Court approved of the law, but they just decided to let it go through while the law continued making its way through the system.

Which it is. Because just a few hours after that, a federal appeals court again stopped the law.

So as of right now, as of this moment but truly who knows, the law is on hold.

On Wednesday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in the case, and who knows how they’ll rule but the predicating vibe of the hearing was… confusion. One of the judges on the panel said this: “We have no clue how any of this would actually be enforced.”

And even Texas Solicitor General Aaron Nielson told the judges, when asked how the law would be applied to an immigrant who crossed the border into Arizona or Canada and later moved to Texas, “I confess your honor, I don’t know.”

So… we’ll see what tomorrow brings, I guess.

 

Fourth Mississippi Officer Sentenced

-via CNN

A fourth Mississippi police officer has been charged after pleading guilty to the torture of two Black men. The statements that came out of this case are absolutely horrific, as this group of officers called themselves the “goon squad,” when they physically, emotionally, and sexually assaulted the men in January of 2023.

They even acted out a mock execution.

This office received the largest sentence yet, at forty years.

Another received 17 years.

This absolutely heinous group of the worst possible type of people is made of up six officers. Four have been sentenced, while the other two wait to hear their punishment.

 

Tailpipe Emission Limits

-via NPR

On Wednesday, the EPA finalized new rules on tailpipe emissions. A move meant to accelerate the transition from gas to electric vehicles.

The hope is that, under the new rules, EVs could account for up to 56% of new passenger vehicles sold for model years 2030 through 2032.

I think this is great. Where will I park my electric vehicle? Who knows. There are a lot of things we’ve got to figure out, including where I’d plug my car in, as an apartment dweller, but, you know… I’m happy to take a few minutes to figure out where a plug goes if it helps us have a few more days of breathable air.

 

Alabama Governor Signs DEI Funding Ban

-via NPR

And finally… Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed a bill that bans state funding of diversity, equity and inclusion programs in schools, public colleges and state agencies.

Because it doesn’t want to fund what it calls “divisive concepts.”

First of all… have these bing bongs been in a school? Everything is divisive. That’s not even something relegated to school specifically. Just walk outside and say anything – I guarantee you can get someone to argue with you.

And by the way – DEI is a divisive concept, sure, but that doesn’t mean that one side of the divide isn’t right.

This country has a history that is embarrassing. Terrible. Horrific.

Inexcusable and impossible to ignore.

It happened. To ensure it doesn’t happen again, we can’t hide that it happened in the first place. Which, not to blow all of our minds but… look at the party that’s fighting DEI and the look at everything else they’re trying to do… they don’t want DEI to be taught because they actually want to go right back to the 1700s.

Rights-wise.

They would need to comforts of the 21st century. For a group that can’t wait for a sentence to end before they’re calling someone a snowflake, I just know in my heart that they would not do well without all their little comforts.

(I mean, neither would I but I’m not the one trying to take us back hundreds of years so this isn’t about me and my little astronaut that puts constellations on the ceiling when I take a bath.)

This bill is bans DEI initiatives in schools and, just because why wouldn’t they toss this in, it also requires public colleges to designate bathrooms "for use by individuals based on their biological sex."

I can’t credit for this, but it’s never wrong… Alabama: first in the alphabet, last in everything else.

 

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m not proud of Kay Ivey. She’s a big thumbs.

You know how sometimes I’ll be like – I’m proud of women, but not all women. She’s in that group. Not proud. Bummer for her, people LOVE knowing I’m proud of them.

But I am proud of poems.

My favorite poem is sad, it’s an Emily Dickinson poem called “I measure every Grief I meet.”

But something that is very nerdy that I never talk about is how much I like how many different types of rhymes there are.

I’m a sucker for a slant rhyme – where love and move rhyme. That’s fun!

But more than that… because you’re cool… I’m proud of you.

Kim Moffat