National Space Day
Fort Worth Shooting
Six people were injured, including a three-year-old, after a shooting at a Fort Worth, Texas, apartment complex parking lot on Wednesday night1.
Police believe this is an isolated incident – it was a drive-by, and they know what car they’re looking for but have yet to find it.
Tell Your Friends:
In 2021, Greg Abbott signed into law a bill that made it legal in Texas for most people over the age of 21 to carry a gun in a holster without a permit. Though the gun has to be in a holster, it can be carried open or concealed2.
Greg Abbott’s Texas.
Katie Hobb’s Overturns Arizona’s Abortion Ban
On the other end of the “who we elect as Governor matters” spectrum… Arizona’s governor, Katie Hobbs, signed the bill that overturns the state’s abortion ban3.
Unfortunately, it will not take effect until 90 days after the end of this current legislative session, so hopefully, a court can quickly intervene. In the meantime…
Well, in the meantime, it’s just going to be a confusing summer in Arizona (as a reminder, confusion around reproduction rights is risky, possibly deadly) because the ban can be enforced starting June 27th, though the state’s AG has asked the state’s Supreme Court to block it until mid-July.
This means people in Arizona are just going to have a really bad summer, waiting for a law to go into effect and then hoping it gets blocked before it eventually gets overturned for good.
Once that happens, people in the state only have a 15-week ban to contend with, which is still not good! What a need time to be a person in this world, where something bad is still not as bad as some people want it to be.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it forever – Leave bodies that are not yours alone.
Second Boeing Whistleblower Dies
Joshua Dean, one of the first whistleblowers to flag an issue at a Boeing supplier, died on Tuesday. He was 45. His family says he was an exceptionally healthy man who went from completely healthy to dying of MRSA in two weeks4.
His family has requested an autopsy.
Armed Student Shot
An investigation is ongoing after police shot and killed an armed student who was outside of a Wisconsin middle school on Wednesday5.
The student’s name and age have not yet been released to the public. At this time, it’s unclear if the student shot at the police first, but they opened fire. It’s not even public knowledge what kind of weapon the student had, how police confirmed it beyond the call they got that the student was armed, or whether the student tried to get into the school.
And aren’t those the questions we want to have outstanding in a situation like this?
Campus Protests
More than 2,000 people have been arrested in the ongoing campus protests since the first arrests on April 18th6.
On Thursday, President Biden spoke about the protests for the first time. In his speech, he noted that his support for Israel remains the same but said that he supports the protestors as long as they stay peaceful. In his speech, he noted:
“Peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues. Violent protest is not protected; peaceful protest is.”
Meanwhile, Republicans are still out there pretending like they care about free speech but just don’t want it to turn into antisemitism.
Tell Your Friends:
To be clear: antisemitism is horrific and unacceptable.
But these MAGA Republicans don’t believe that. And the way we know that is because they literally do it, quietly or very, very loudly, at every possible turn. The only reason they’re acting outraged now is because they think it’ll drive a wedge and bring some voters to their side.
Once these protests calm down, they’ll be right back to normal abhorrent selves. It's not that they’re on their best behavior right now; they’re just hoping you’ll hear their words and not care about their actions.
Programming Note:
I’m planning to take next week off. I fully except Marjorie Taylor Greene to ruin it*.
*specifically because it’s expected she’ll call a vote to oust Speaker Johnson next week, but honestly, she ruins everything good anyway, so…
I’ll be back on the 14th.
Don’t forget - this is also a podcast :)
Hey, also:
(Or as an ebook on Amazon or Apple Books.)
And more than anything else… don’t forget: