Tammy Duckworth’s Baby Will Be Allowed On The Senate Floor
Earlier this month, Tammy Duckworth became the first U.S. senator to give birth in office—and yesterday, the Senate unanimously voted to allow senators like Duckworth to bring their children onto the floor. POLITICO reports that some lawmakers pushed for Duckworth to vote from the Senate cloakroom instead of the floor, but the cloakroom is not accessible by wheelchair (Duckworth uses a wheelchair). “By ensuring that no Senator will be prevented from performing their constitutional responsibilities simply because they have a young child, the Senate is leading by example and sending the important message that working parents everywhere deserve family-friendly workplace policies,” Duckworth said in a statement. Read more on POLITICO.
Stormy Daniels Plans To Donate $130,000 To Planned Parenthood—in Trump’s Name
In an upcoming issue of Penthouse hitting newsstands May 8, cover star Stormy Daniels reportedly shares information about her alleged affair with Trump, writes the Daily Beast—including her promise that, should she win her current case against Trump and his trainwreck lawyer Michael Cohen, she will be donating the $130,000 to Planned Parenthood in Trump’s and Cohen’s names. “I don’t have any shame,” Daniels said. “You can’t bully me.” Read more about the feature on the Daily Beast.
Federal Appeals Court Blocks Restrictive Reproductive Rights Law in Ohio
In a somewhat-related win, a horrifying Ohio law pushing to cut funding for 28 Planned Parenthood clinics was blocked by a federal appeals court yesterday. The court papers deemed the block unconstitutional, reports Reuters.
Bernie Sanders Says, “Cardi B is Right”
In her recent GQ profile, Cardi B shared her love for President Franklin Roosevelt, calling him “the real Make America Great Again.” She added, “If it wasn’t for him, old people wouldn’t even get Social Security.” Yesterday on Twitter, Bernie Sanders voiced his support for Social Security (and Cardi B) with a tweet: “Cardi B is right. If we are really going to make America great we need to strengthen Social Security so that seniors are able to retire with the dignity they deserve.” Read more on The Hill.
There’s A Huge Gender Imbalance in China and India
In a piece published yesterday in The Washington Post, reporters Simon Denyer and Annie Gowen point to prominent gender gaps of 70 million in China and India. Thanks to “cultural preferences, government decree and modern medical technology,” the gender imbalance in these countries is beginning to cause some very real problems, including increases in violent crime and trafficking. Read the full piece at The Washington Post.
We’re Still Failing Puerto Rico
As of earlier this week, over 97% of Puerto Rico had regained power, but a Wednesday blackout thrust the island, still recovering from Hurricane Maria, back into darkness. “I give the people of Puerto Rico my word: we are going to restore power to every last house,” electric company chief operating officer Justo González told The New York Times. Read the New York Time’s coverage here, and a piece on how America continues to fail Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands at Wired.
Women Are Getting Pushed Into “Often-Unneeded Surgery” For Profit
A disturbing feature in The New York Times reports that large numbers of women are getting lured into unsafe, misleading, and often unnecessary surgeries so that “they are more lucrative plaintiffs in lawsuits against medical device manufacturers,” report Matthew Goldstein and Jessica Silver-Greenberg. Read the story in the New York Times.
Men Plotting Mass Murder Targeting Somali Refugees Found Guilty
Three men in a Wichita, Kansas hate group were charged yesterday with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction against a mosque and apartment complex housing 27,000 Somali refugees. The tip came from a paid informant within the militia groups, called the Kansas Security Force and the Crusaders, which are still under investigation by the FBI. Read the full story (which contains Islamophobic language and descriptions of Islamophobia) on The Guardian.
Top photo via duckworth.senate.gov
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