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Meanwhile, in Opposite Land…

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* NBC…

With little fanfare, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Monday allowing residents to carry a concealed loaded weapon without a permit.

DeSantis signed the bill in a non-public event in his office with only bill sponsors, legislative leaders and gun rights advocates, including the National Rifle Association, in attendance. […]

Florida is now the 26th state in the country to pass some form of permitless carry legislation. The signing comes one week after six people, including three children were gunned down at The Covenant School in Nashville.

“This is a momentous step in the Constitutional Carry movement as now the majority of American states recognize the Constitution protects the right for law-abiding Americans to defend themselves outside their homes without fees or permits,” Randy Kozuch, interim executive director, NRA-ILA, said in a statement, which included a picture of the event. “The carry movement began decades ago and the NRA has been working to get this legislation passed throughout America. Therefore, today is indeed a day to celebrate.”

Opponents of the proposal have said it will increase gun violence, and they said it was telling that DeSantis did not hold a public signing ceremony like he has done in the past for other high-profile bills.

* It should be no surprise that there’s more out of Florida…

Florida’s ban on providing gender-affirming care to new patients went into effect this month after the state’s Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine voted to approve the rule last year. Under the rule, gender-affirming care includes treatments like puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy and surgery. The ban makes an exception to allow minors who were already receiving this care before January 2023 to continue their treatments.

“Everybody is in a kind of chaos right now,” said Joseph Knoll, a nurse practitioner and the CEO of Spektrum Health, a community-based health center located in central Florida that specializes in medical and mental health services for the LGBTQ community and beyond. He told me that the new rules leave healthcare professionals who provide this care “feeling helpless.”

Doctors and other practitioners who violate the ban could lose their medical license and be hit with hefty fines. Many are even considering leaving the state, given the uncertainty of future restrictions on their practice. Part of the dismay comes from feeling that the deck has been unfairly stacked. Local news outlets have reported that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appointed all the members of the “vociferously apolitical” Board of Medicine, several of whom made contributions to his campaign totaling $80,000. DeSantis is reportedly considering running for president in 2024 and gender-affirming care is an issue that many conservative lawmakers have been pushing across the country. […]

Florida, unlike the other states, initially chose not to take a legislative route, instead moving ahead via state medical boards. A bill, though, is currently making its way through the Florida House of Representatives to codify the ban on gender-affirming care. This bill also includes a ban on changing the sex as recorded on a birth certificate, prohibits health insurance providers from covering any treatments related to youth transitioning and prohibits organizations that provide transition-related healthcare to minors from receiving public funds.

Already, this has led to clinics shutting down preemptively. Outlets reported that the Johns Hopkins All Children Hospital in St. Petersburg and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, among others, stopped accepting new patients into programs that provided hormones or puberty blockers well before the law went into effect. The fear of prosecution leaves few providers still offering these services.

* Kentucky…

Kentucky state Sen. Karen Berg had to deal with the most devastating thing a mother could imagine.

In December last year, Berg’s transgender son Henry Berg-Brosseau died by suicide. He was just 24 and a prominent LGBTQ rights activist who inspired his mother to run for office. […]

Two weeks later, Berg was awash with grief but had to pick herself up and go to the state Capitol for the 2023 legislative session. She says she felt exhausted. […]

More than two months later, she watched her Republican colleagues, one by one, vote to override a veto on Senate Bill 150, banning all gender-affirming medical care for trans youth in Kentucky including puberty blockers and hormone therapy.

For public schools, the bill restricts which bathrooms students can use and puts limits on discussing gender and sexuality. It also allows teachers to refer to students by their gender assigned at birth.

It’s exactly what her son Henry fought against.

* Mississippi…

House Bill 1020, which would significantly increase state control over Jackson’s judicial system and policing, passed the Mississippi House, 72-41, on Friday, sending one of the most controversial bills of the 2023 session to the governor’s desk as lawmakers wind down their work for the year.

Democratic leadership promised the bill, if it is signed into law by Gov. Tate Reeves, will see legal challenges immediately upon taking effect on July 1.

“Legal action takes place when there is a cause of action. Cause of action does not become effective until the law actually is enacted. As soon as this bill becomes law, there will be lawsuits filed,” House Minority Leader Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, said.

It would create a new unelected court system within an expanded Capitol Complex Improvement District, add temporary appointed judges to the Hinds County court system, increase the boundaries of the CCID and allow Capitol Police to work outside of that area, expanding their jurisdiction to include the entire city, all of which local leaders have opposed.

* Texas…

A federal judge in Texas ruled that at least 12 books removed from public libraries by Llano County officials, many because of their LGBTQ and racial content, must be placed back onto shelves within 24 hours, according to an order filed Thursday.

Seven residents sued county officials in April 2022, claiming their First and 14th Amendment rights were violated when books deemed inappropriate by some people in the community and Republican lawmakers were removed from public libraries or access was restricted.

The lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio claimed county officials removed books from the shelves of the three-branch public library system “because they disagree with the ideas within them” and terminated access to thousands of digital books because they could not ban two specific titles.

Books ordered to return to shelves include “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson, “They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti and “Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen” by Jazz Jennings.

* Wisconsin…

Control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and likely the future of abortion access, Republican-drawn legislative maps and years of GOP policies in the key swing state rests with the outcome an election Tuesday that has seen record campaign spending.

The winner of the high-stakes contest between Republican-backed Dan Kelly and Democratic-supported Janet Protasiewicz will determine majority control of the court headed into the 2024 presidential election. The court came within one vote of overturning President Joe Biden’s narrow win in 2020, and both sides expect another close race in 2024.

It’s the latest election where abortion rights has been the central issue since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June. It’s also an example of how officially nonpartisan court races have grown into political battles as major legal fights play out at the state level.

All of it has fueled spending that will double, and likely triple or more, the previous high of $15.4 million spent on a state court race in Illinois in 2004. Democrats have spent heavily for Protasiewicz and Republicans for Kelly.

posted by Isabel Miller
Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 12:40 pm

Comments

All I know is, despite right wing trolls loving to run down Illinois, I’m sure glad I live in state that is not being run by crackpots.

Comment by Galena Guy Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 12:49 pm
There is another race just as important as the Supreme Court one in Wisconsin Tuesday, and it’s for the state Senate to replace a retiring member. If the Republican candidate wins, the GOP gets a 2/3 supermajority in the Senate, and can move to impeach Protasiewicz if she wins. The candidate has spoken out in favor of impeachment.

Wisconsin has been inching toward becoming a post-democratic (small d) state since Scott Walker took office, and this could be the big leap.

Comment by Roadrager Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 12:52 pm
Not mentioned in AP Wisconsin article about tomorrow’s Supreme Court election, but could be decisive if Dan Kelly wins tomorrow, is the month-long presence of nationally known Republican voter registration activist Scott Presler since March 6 building up the ground game across the entire Badger State.

Presler launched his Early Vote Action PAC (EVA) to focus the building of a Republican ground game, including embracing use of vote-by-mail (VBM) ballots, focusing on key swing states of Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin April 4 Supreme Court election has been used as a pilot for his 2024 program.

Presler’s approach, including VBM ballots and Ballot Harvesting as permitted by state law, could set a tone in other, non swing states for conservative/Republican grassroots activists to become more effective in the reality of VBM being mainstream.

If Kelly wins in Wisconsin tomorrow, watch EVA’s approach to gain more attention outside of EVA’s targeted swing states.

https://earlyvoteaction.com/learn/resources/about-us/

Comment by John Lopez Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 12:56 pm
Ron DeSantos, when it comes to your own private medical decisions he’s a Big Government, Nanny State Socialist!

Comment by Jerry Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 1:08 pm
= Republican-drawn legislative maps=

I guess no one thinks Wisconsin should have fair maps?

=now the majority of American states recognize the Constitution protects the right for law-abiding Americans to defend themselves outside their homes without fees or permits=.

How would they know if they are law-abiding?

Comment by JS Mill Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 1:09 pm
Living in Opposite Land is bad for your health.

The MAGA GOP literally is a death cult with their pursuit of gun proliferation, anti-public health measures and now attacks on persons’ needed health care - failure to provide will lead to additional suicides.

Comment by Norseman Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 1:11 pm
https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/florida-property-insurance-rates-expected-to-jump-40-to-50-in-june/

I never wanted to move to Florida, really don’t even like visiting; with the wackos, the weather, invasive species and insurance rates I continue to be quite happy living here.

Comment by Cool Papa Bell Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 1:14 pm
“The court came within one vote of overturning President Joe Biden’s narrow win in 2020, and both sides expect another close race in 2024.”

Exactly how one state’s Republican leadership can impact everyone else. The entire country’s future and democracy could bank on just one Supreme Court race. Definitely not healthy.

Comment by NIU Grad Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 1:17 pm
“allowing residents to carry a concealed loaded weapon without a permit”

The appropriate meme that’s in social media in some form or another is along the lines of two people hiding under a desk during a school shooting, with blood and carnage everywhere, and one of them says, “Whew, thank God it’s not CRT.” Imagine being more frightened and angry that a child may want to talk about her or his gay parents at school than a shooting.

Comment by Grandson of Man Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 1:21 pm
Ironically, in some Old West towns, handguns were not allowed within city limits and had to be checked at the local sheriff’s office or left out of town (presumably at the trail-driving camp the cowboy came from).

Now DeSantis lets everybody carry a concealed gun, with no permit yet.

Bullets gonna be flying in the Sunshine State.

Comment by Streator Curmudgeon Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 1:22 pm
“another indication that the states in the worst condition are the ones that turn to people like Trump to rescue them.”

https://jabberwocking.com/raw-data-life-expectancy-in-the-50-states/

Comment by very old soil Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 1:23 pm
Should be hard to vote to put people in power who choose to run on a platform of being cruel to people already facing struggles beyond what most have to face. It’s even harder to look around and realize a lot of voters are just fine with it.

Comment by Lincoln Lad Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 1:41 pm
Also from that jabberwocking article: “There are all sorts of confounders here, ranging from income to race to diet. So don’t make too much of it.”

Comment by Occasional Quipper Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 1:51 pm
==died by suicide==

These hatemongers don’t care what the impact of their hatemongering is. They only know one thing - and that is hate.

Comment by Demoralized Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 2:04 pm
==The signing comes one week after six people, including three children were gunned down at The Covenant School in Nashville.==

…where teachers were armed. So much for the ‘good guy with a gun’ trope.

Comment by Jocko Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 2:22 pm
It was never difficult to get a conceal carry permit in Florida in the first place. Take a 3 hour class and pay $100 bucks and it’s all yours. Illinois in contrast requires a 16 hours of instruction.

Comment by Stones Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 2:27 pm
@Streator Curmudgeon - This is why the most recent SCOTUS gun case was wildly dishonest. It says you need to find historical analogues for particular restrictions. Turns out that there are numerous historical analogues that were in fact MORE strict than many current laws. But then conservative judges hand-wave those away and say those don’t count for some reason.

Comment by Homebody Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 2:31 pm
There are other reasons to use puberty blocks related to endocrine issues. I am curious if those uses are now not allowed as well.

Comment by OneMan Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 2:34 pm
Speaking of historical analogies. The Supreme Court justice who wrote that would NOT have been a gun owner in 1791.

Comment by Jerry Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 3:08 pm
The stats don’t lie….
Either a lot of crazy people want to move there or Illinois should be at peace so many crazy people want to leave.

I mean seriously… which one is it folks…

Comment by Jolly Man Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 6:46 pm