Wisconsin passes law to ban abortion pills
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon has signed into law the nation’s first explicit ban on abortion pills since they became the predominant choice for abortion in the U.S. in recent years.
Gordon, a Republican, signed the bill Friday night while allowing a separate measure restricting abortion to become law without his signature.
The pills are already banned in 13 states that have blanket bans on all forms of abortion, and 15 states already have limited access to abortion pills. Until now, however, no state had passed a law specifically prohibiting such pills, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
A group seeking to open an abortion and women’s health clinic in Casper said it was evaluating legal options.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Legislation moving in the Florida House would ban discussion of
menstrual cycles and other human sexuality topics in elementary grades.
The bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Stan McClain would restrict public school instruction on human sexuality, sexually transmitted diseases and related topics to grades 6 through 12. McClain confirmed at a recent committee meeting that discussions about menstrual cycles would also be restricted to those grades.
The GOP-backed legislation cleared the House Education Quality Subcommittee on Wednesday by a 13-5 vote mainly along party lines. It would also allow parents to object to books and other materials their children are exposed to, require schools to teach that a person’s sexual identity is determined biologically at birth and set up more scrutiny of certain educational materials by the state Department of Education.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Memphis police supervisor on scene when Tyre Nichols was
beaten to death by officers retired with his benefits the day before a hearing to fire him, according to documents filed to revoke his law enforcement certification.
Lt. DeWayne Smith was identified Friday in records obtained by media outlets as the officer that officials said earlier this month had retired before his termination hearing.
Some Memphis City Council members were upset an officer was allowed to retire before steps could be taken to fire them, including the council’s vice-chairman JB Smiley Jr., who said it didn’t seem fair that the then-unidentified officer could keep pension and other benefits.
Minnesota regulators knew four months ago that radioactive waste had leaked from
a nuclear power plant in Monticello — but they didn’t announce anything about the leak until this week.
The delay in notifying the public about the November leak raised questions about public safety and transparency, but industry experts said Friday there was never a public health threat. They said Xcel Energy voluntarily notified state agencies and reported the leak of tritium to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission soon after it was confirmed and that the leak of 400,000 gallons of radioactive water never reached a threshold that would have required public notification.
State officials said that while they knew of the leak in November, they waited to get more information before making a public announcement.
WASHINGTON — Soon after a train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals in Ohio last
month, anonymous pro-Russian accounts started spreading misleading claims and anti-American propaganda about it on Twitter, using Elon Musk’s new verification system to expand their reach while creating the illusion of credibility.
The accounts, which parroted Kremlin talking points on myriad topics, claimed without evidence that authorities in Ohio were lying about the true impact of the chemical spill. The accounts spread fearmongering posts that preyed on legitimate concerns about pollution and health effects and compared the response to the derailment with America’s support for Ukraine following its invasion by Russia.
Some of the claims pushed by the pro-Russian accounts were verifiably false, such as the suggestion that the news media had covered up the disaster or that environmental scientists traveling to the site had been killed in a plane crash. But most were more speculative, seemingly designed to stoke fear or distrust.
LAHORE, Islamabad— Pakistani police stormed former Prime Minister Imran
Khan’s residence in the eastern city of Lahore on Saturday and arrested 61 people amid tear gas and clashes between Khan’s supporters and police, officials said.
Senior police officer Suhail Sukhera, who led the operation in an upscale Lahore neighborhood, said police acted to remove a barricade erected by members of Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party and his defiant supporters. He said they blocked the lanes around Khan’s residence with concrete blocks, felled trees, tents and a parked truck.
Khan was not in the home, having traveled to Islamabad to appear before a judge to face charges he sold state gifts while in office and hid his assets. The judge postponed that hearing until March 30.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis met Saturday with thousands of refugees and charity
groups hosting them in Italy as he sought to promote legal migration routes to Europe as an alternative to smuggling operations that he said have turned the Mediterranean Sea into a “cemetery.”
Francis said “humanitarian corridors,” which have operated in Italy since 2016, saved lives and helped newly arrived asylum-seekers get acclimated while church groups provided housing, education and work opportunities.