Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s congressional Twitter feed suspended over anti-trans tweets
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s official congressional Twitter feed was briefly suspended over tweets denouncing a planned rally supporting transgender rights outside the Supreme Court.
The right-wing firebrand said Wednesday the social media giant disabled the account for several hours and blocked access to tweets about the so-called “Trans Day of Vengeance” rally that is planned for Saturday.
“My official Twitter account was temporarily suspended for warning about (the rally),” Greene tweeted.
The lawmaker accused the leftist Antifa of being behind the rally even though the organizing Trans Radical Activist Network makes no mention of that on its web site. A Twitter official said Greene’s tweets and account were targeted because the site considered them to be promoting the rally, not deriding it.
—New York Daily News
As fentanyl deaths surge in California, lawmakers kill bills that would punish dealers
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As thousands of Californians die each year from drug overdoses fueled by fentanyl, a bitter fight has emerged in Sacramento over how lawmakers can hold dealers accountable without refilling state prisons and waging another "war on drugs."
On one side of the debate are Republicans and moderate Democrats calling for stronger criminal penalties for dealers who sell the deadly drug, which is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and contributed to nearly 6,000 overdose deaths in California in 2021.
On the other are left-leaning Democrats who've spent the last decade retooling the state's penal code to favor treatment and rehabilitation over long prison sentences, and who are reluctant to embrace policies they fear could devastate Black and brown communities.
The disagreement reached a boiling point this week at the state Capitol, as Californians whose family members died from fentanyl overdoses packed a hearing room where Democrats voted down a bipartisan bill that would require warning convicted fentanyl dealers that they could face homicide charges if they sell it again. Meanwhile, a Democratic lawmaker shelved several other bills to increase sentences for fentanyl dealers.
—Los Angeles Times
Manatee winter deaths in Florida's Brevard County plunge — which could portend trouble
ORLANDO, Fla. — The winter killing season for manatees along Central Florida’s Atlantic coast is winding down with an astounding turn of events — a tiny fraction of the animals died compared to during the last two years.
From January through March in Brevard County waters, authorities collected 275 dead manatees in 2021 and 281 last year. The toll was 12 through the middle of March this year.
It’s not clear how encouraging that plunge in mortalities is, or if it reflects the species having reached rock bottom in Brevard. None of the dozen dead was a baby or very young manatee and that is potentially a bad sign.
Brevard’s waters have seen a pollution-driven ecosystem collapse that has wiped out seagrass that manatees forage on. State veterinarian Martine de Wit said chronic starvation may leave manatees in debilitated condition and unable to reproduce. “We can assume less manatees were born if we see less dead ones,” de Wit said.
—Orlando Sentinel
Kim’s rare display of nuclear warheads sends chilling message
While the U.S. has long demanded North Korea give up its nuclear weapons, the regime’s biggest display of warheads let the world know that Kim Jong Un has no intention of abandoning his atomic arsenal.
North Korea’s propaganda apparatus released photos for the first time in several years of Kim inspecting warheads designed for missiles to strike U.S. allies in Asia and deliver a nuclear bomb to the American mainland.
Weapons experts said the images published this week indicate Pyongyang has made progress in miniaturizing its warheads, which increases its ability to deliver a nuclear strike.
The warhead display comes as Kim’s regime has shifted from one-time tests of a missile to evaluate performance to exercises that show it can deliver a coordinated nuclear strike on short notice. At this point, North Korea’s nuclear capabilities may have reached a stage where the U.S. may not be able to offer enough incentives to roll them back.
—Bloomberg News
