Texans split on overturning Roe, support strong for 6-week ban in new abortion law, poll shows
DALLAS — Texans who favor the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade support banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy — consistent with the state’s new Senate Bill 8 restrictions — rather than 15 weeks, according to a Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll released Sunday.
The 15-week mark is used in the Mississippi ban now before the Supreme Court that many believe could be used to overturn Roe and the abortion rights it preserves.
The poll found that 47% of respondents want the court to overturn the 1973 decision and allow states to decide abortion policy; 50% do not want it overturned, and 3% said they don’t know. Of those who want it overturned, 43% of respondents favor a ban after six weeks while 27% favor 15 weeks or after, and 30% said they were unsure.
Pollster Mark Owens, who teaches political science at UT-Tyler, said Texans mostly know about the Texas law named the “heartbeat bill” by Republicans. And it’s clear that among those who want it overturned, “that is their preference,” he said.
In general, Owens said of respondents who favor overturning Roe, “I think there is a preference for the state to stop abortions as soon as possible.”
—The Dallas Morning News
'Squaw' still shows up in more than 100 California location names. A proposed law would ban it
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Two California lawmakers have proposed removing the word "squaw," a slur against Native American women, from all geographic features and place names in the state.
Assembly Bill 2022, introduced by Assemblyman James Ramos, D-Highland, and Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens, would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024. Ramos said the word is an idiom that came into use during the westward expansion of America, and is not a tribal word.
"AB 2022 would ban the use of the S-word and establish a process for renaming locations with that offensive racial and sexist term which began as derogatory word used against Native American women. For decades, Native Americans have argued against the designation's use because behind that expression is the disparagement of Native women that contributes to the crisis of missing and murdered people in our community," Ramos said in a statement announcing the bill.
More than 100 locations in California contain the word as part of their name, according to Ramos' office.
—The Sacramento Bee
Trump’s social media app ‘Truth Social’ goes live — and has a bumpy launch
NEW YORK — A social media platform linked to former President Donald Trump appeared on the Apple app store in time for Presidents Day, though its debut so far has fallen short of making the internet great again for the former president’s followers.
Several users who tried signing up for the platform called Truth Social got error notices or were put on lengthy wait lists. Numerous attempts to register on TruthSocial.com were met with a “405 Not Allowed” message.
The MAGA alternative to Twitter — which booted Trump from its platform after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection — was created by Trump Media & Technology Group. Former Republican Rep. Devin Nunes is the CEO for the 45th president’s new technology company. He told Fox Business last month that Truth Social would be up and running by the end of the first quarter of 2022. A note on the app’s Apple Store page indicated “Bug Fixes” Sunday night.
While Trump has trumpeted his latest attempt to create a platform that will allow him to speak freely, Nunes assured Fox Business that Truth Social will be a “family friendly” social media outlet.
The former president operated a heavily trafficked Twitter feed before being banned by that platform, where he was frequently flagged for spreading disinformation. On Jan. 8, following the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump fanatics who had been falsely told the 2020 presidential election had been rigged, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook suspended his accounts.
—New York Daily News
Fears of a lurch to dictatorship blight Arab Spring’s last hope
TV talk-show host Amer Ayad was expecting a backlash after he used his platform to portray Tunisia’s president as an aspiring dictator. But even he was stunned by its severity.
Police seized him from his home in his pajamas, bundled him at dawn into a car in front of his wife and young sons, and hauled him before a military court, where he was charged with defaming President Kais Saied and damaging the army’s morale. He was in jail for seven weeks.
“I knew then that the coup had begun to enact its dictatorial project,” recalled Ayad, who was detained for his on-air recital of an Iraqi poem whose author dreams of questioning a tyrant. Months after his Oct. 3 arrest, he’s back home in the Mediterranean city of Monastir, awaiting trial and banned from international travel.
Saied has denied he’s seeking one-man rule and has vowed to protect freedoms. Nonetheless, many have taken Ayad’s treatment as a flashing-red warning for the state of Tunisia’s fledgling democracy, one of the few lasting achievements of the 2011 popular uprising that ousted a longtime dictator and inspired years of tumult across the Arab world.
After a landslide election win in 2019, the former law professor is accused of crushing the revolution with a power grab and crackdown on dissent that stirs echoes of the days of deposed President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
An austere figure who delivers addresses in slow, formal Arabic, Saied has defended his July moves, taken as protesters rallied against parliament, as necessary to save the country from chaos and corruption.
—Bloomberg News
