Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, and JeremyBloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
So, yeah, there was an election yesterday. It was well and truly covered all over the place, so we’ll move straight on to the consequences.
Remember how, when he trashed Roe V Wade and sent abortion back to the states, Alito said “...Women are not without electoral or political power”?
Well, Republicans are moving immediately to prove once again that they do NOT understand the meaning of “No”. And also to prove that they are utterly without irony.
Because after turning the 2nd amendment — or at least the part about guns — into a guarantee of a “Super-right” to own a firearm without any restriction whatsoever, they are now asserting… well, I’ll let them say it themselves.
(And note that the headline gets it WRONG — it was NOT an “abortion rights law”, it was an abortion rights amendment to the state constitution.)
Right to Life, three Republican lawmakers and others filed a lawsuit Wednesday asking the federal courts to intervene and overturn a state constitutional amendment that protects abortion rights in Michigan that won wide support from voters one year ago.
The filing in Michigan’s Western District court Wednesday came a day after Ohio voters passed a similar “reproductive freedom” ballot initiative enshrining abortion rights in its state constitution.
The U.S. Supreme Court in June 2022 ruled abortion laws must be left up to the states, overturning a half-century of federal abortion protections and spurring Michigan voters to approve Proposal 3 in the November 2022 general election, adding the right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy to Michigan's constitution.
Wednesday's lawsuit argues the language approved by voters for inclusion in Michigan’s constitution creates a “super right” to reproductive freedom that conflicts with the First and Fourteenth amendments of the U.S. Constitution and with constitutional guarantees to a “Republican form of government.”
...“At no time in our nation’s history has such a super-right, immune from all legislative action, ever been created by a popular vote outside of the checks and balances of a republican form of government,” the filing said.
The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled against a petition seeking to keep former President Donald Trump off the state's 2024 primary ballot, but left the door open to a potential subsequent challenge should Trump be selected as the Republican nominee in the general election.
The court's ruling stated that "petitioners have standing and that their claims are ripe as to the issue of whether former President Trump should be excluded from the 2024 Republican presidential nomination primary" but that "we reach a different conclusion regarding petitioners' claim that it would be error for the Secretary of State to place former President Trump's name on the ballot for the 2024 general election ballot."
"Although the Secretary of State and other election officials administer the mechanics of the election, this is an internal party election to serve internal party purposes, and winning the presidential nomination primary does not place the person on the general election ballot as a candidate for President of the United States," the ruling states. "There is no state statute that prohibits a major political party from placing on the presidential nomination primary ballot, or sending delegates to the national convention supporting, a candidate who is ineligible to hold office."
NOTE: Why do headline writers have to be totally misleading? This ruling only covered the PRIMARY election! Notice the difference between these headlines and the one atop the previous story, which actually TELLS you WHICH election is covered by the decision!
The ballot measure was the culmination of years of Mainers’ frustration with CMP and Versant. Both have been accused of exorbitant rates, prolonged outages, and poor customer service. Over the years, state regulators have repeatedly fined CMP for improperly sending disconnection notices and misbilling hundreds of thousands of customers.
Supporters of Pine Tree Power also accuse the utilities of lobbying to delay climate action. In recent years, clean energy advocates have railed against CMP for causing delays in connecting new solar projects to the grid. Our Power said a nonprofit, publicly owned utility would have better served Maine by representing residents’ interests while providing lower rates, improved reliability, and greater investment in expanding the grid to accommodate more renewables.
Question 3 supporters in Maine joined a growing movement of activists who argue that only a publicly owned and managed power grid can ensure a rapid transition to renewables while prioritizing the needs and interest of consumers. Public power advocates from San Diego to Rochester, New York, heralded the referendum as the biggest battle so far in the fight for public power and an inspiration for similar efforts in their own communities.
Hochschartner told Grist in October that even with a loss, the fight for public power in Maine is far from over. While the campaign doesn’t have any clear next steps mapped out, “What we do know is that our utilities have real problems, and we will continue to fight for the best path forward for the people of Maine,” she said.
After 118 days of the actors guild being out on strike, SAG-AFTRA and the studios on Wednesday reached a tentative deal on a new contract that could see Hollywood up and running again within weeks.
The tentative agreement follows the studios responding last Friday to the guild’s last comprehensive counter with a self-described “historic” package. That was succeeded less than 24 hours later by an expanded group of studio leaders — including execs from Paramount, Amazon, Apple and more — joining the Gang of Four to brief SAG-AFTRA on the AMPTP’s offer, which was said to include big gains in wages and bonuses as well as sweeping AI protections.
“We didn’t just come toward you, we came all the way to you,” Sarandos told guild leaders Saturday before SAG-AFTRA brass began digging into the fine print. Further talks between the two sides began earlier this week as the guild poured over the studios’ latest set of proposals.
Gender conservatism does not tend to attract as much notice as the other pillars of the far-right ideology, but it is central to the Republican ideology
...the picture that has emerged instead of the once-obscure Louisiana congressmen has not been that of the typically cynical climber, maneuvering corporate heights in pursuit of their own ambition without regard to ethics. Instead, the revelations that have emerged about Mike Johnson since his ascent to the speakership paint a picture of a fevered zealot: in thrall of baroque and morbid religious fantasies; beholden to a regressive, bigoted and morbid worldview; and above all, obsessed – with a lurid and creepy enthusiasm – with sex, and how he thinks it should be done.
...It would be easy to see Johnson’s wildly regressive gender politics as a personal quirk – his beliefs that gay people are sinful and inferior; that women should not be able to live freely from men or use their bodies in ways that are counter to wishes of the men close to them; that marriage should act, for men, as an entitlement to absolute control, and for women, as a prison. But these ideas are not quirks; they are part of a powerful constituency in the Republican party, one that has now found its way into the speakership, second in line for the presidency.
Gender conservatism does not tend to attract as much notice as the other pillars of the far-right ideology: it is less distinct than the far right’s avowed white supremacy, less flashy than its hostility to democracy. But the convictions shared by Johnson – about women’s inferiority and men’s right to control them, about gay people’s moral transgression, and about the ways that the sexed body at birth can, and must, be used to determine the outcomes of a person’s life – have become the foundation upon which the Republican party’s warring factions are set to unite.
Back in the home stretch of the 2020 presidential election, I stated that a second Trump term would be “game over for the climate.” That hasn’t changed in the years since. In fact, it’s become even more true.
...Consider what happened during the Obama era. Stymied by Republicans in Congress, President Obama nonetheless used his executive authority to promote incentives for renewable energy and tighter emissions restrictions on polluters, bringing China to the table and achieving a bilateral agreement that set the stage for the successful Paris summit. China ended up exceeding its commitments and began decommissioning coal-fired power plants.
But that all came to an abrupt halt with Trump. When he was elected, he turned over the reins of our government to fossil fuel interests and promised — and eventually made good on — a unilateral pullout from the Paris climate agreement. That signaled to other countries, like China and India, that the U.S. was no longer willing to keep up its end of the bargain, and in turn, they slacked off in their own efforts.
It is clear that the U.S. must lead — and that when we do, other nations join us.
Woah, is it just me, or are there serious national security (via blackmail) repercussions to this story?
...Authorities have not named the people believed to have bought services through the ring, and none of them have been charged. But Levy stressed that the investigation is in the early stages, and said that prosecutors are committed to holding accountable both those who ran the scheme and those who “fueled the demand for this ring.”
Levy said there were possibly hundreds of clients, including government contractors with security clearances, doctors, lawyers, elected officials, military officers, professors and executives at tech companies.
Han “Hana” Lee 41, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, James Lee, 68, of Torrance, California and Junmyung Lee, 30, of Dedham, Massachusetts were arrested Wednesday and charged with conspiracy to coerce and entice others to travel to engage in illegal sexual activity. Prosecutors say they made hundreds of thousands of dollars through the scheme.
...Authorities used surveillance and phone records to identify sex buyers and interviewed about 20 of them during the investigation, according to court papers. One buyer told investigators he was directed via text message to an apartment and provided a menu of women, services and the hourly rate.
The first Great Black Migrations built the Midwest. In return, Black communities received pollution and toxic contamination.
...Payne and others are descended from the thousands of families who migrated to the Midwest from the South during the Great Migration of the early to mid-20th century. Manufacturing and railroad jobs became a lifeline and a pathway to economic stability. But in recent years, these once-industrial hubs have become ground zero for environmental injustices, ruining the quality of life of the workers — and their families — who fueled these industries, all while Black employment in the industries has sharply declined.
The disappearance of Black Chicago isn’t unique. Over the past several decades, according to a 2019 policy analysis of education, economic, environmental, and health metrics, the Midwest has developed as the worst region for Black people in America.
Residents in Gary, Indiana; Detroit; Cleveland; and St. Louis are leaving the region in droves. Combined, the five cities’ Black populations have declined by 800,000 since 2000, with 60% of the fall happening since 2010. Reversing the journey of their great-grandparents, thousands have moved to the South, the only region with more Black people migrating in than out since 2000.
In many ways, environmental injustices are driving the exodus to cities like Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas, says Asiaha Butler, a housing activist in Payne’s old community. From the air that smells like rotten eggs baking in the summer sun to the toxic metals that cake soil and pack into families’ walls — and the deadly illnesses that follow — the reasons for leaving are piling up.
At least one worker was reported injured and the surrounding community placed under a shelter-in-place order after an explosion at a chemical plant in the town of Shepherd, Texas on Wednesday resulted in a monstrous and toxic fire.
Roughly 60 miles north of Houston in Jacinto County, the explosion and subsequent chemical blaze took place at the Sound Resource Solutions facility, a petroleum processing plant. A source toldABC 13 News that a 1,000-gallon propane tank sits in the middle of the fire while various highly flammable toxic chemicals and materials are used at the plant.
..."Polk County Emergency Management recommends that residents along US Hwy 59 from Goodrich to Leggett shelter-in-place and turn off HVAC systems in homes and businesses immediately," said a local emergency response from officials in neighboring Polk County. "At this time, the effects of the chemical in the air are unknown."
I often like to punctuate these roundups with feel-good pieces with cute animals or children. So there’s this:
And this (I blame the GOP’s vicious anti-China policy):
There were tears, lingering goodbyes and broken hearts Wednesday at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo.
Under police escort and accompanied by their longtime keepers, Washington’s three giant pandas boarded a flight to China. Their departure marked the end of an era that spanned half a century, brought joy to millions and left an enduring black-and-white imprint on the D.C. region.
Mei Xiang, 25, a female; Tian Tian, 26, a male; and their son, Xiao Qi Ji, 3, were loaded into three large shipping crates on Wednesday morning and driven by trucks to Dulles International Airport to embark on a 19-hour, 9,000-mile journey on a FedEx cargo jet to Chengdu, China.
...It is the fourth time members of the zoo’s giant panda family have departed for China. But before this journey, there had always been giant pandas who stayed behind when the others left.
Also this:
And also this:
And this:
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is about to weigh in on CP2, a massive liquefied-natural-gas export terminal. Climate activists fear it will be business as usual.
Sometime in the next few weeks, a government agency that most Americans know little about could approve a new fossil-fuel project that would have lasting consequences for the climate. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is expected to give Venture Global the green light to build Calcasieu Pass 2, one of the largest liquefied-natural-gas export facilities ever proposed in the United States, on the Louisiana coast.
...If all planned phases of the project are completed, CP2 will be capable of processing and shipping roughly 4 billion cubic feet of natural gas every day. That’s equivalent to 4% of all the consumer-grade natural gas produced daily in the U.S. last year. Some estimates suggest that the emissions from fracking, liquefying, transporting and burning that gas will be as high as half a million metric tons of greenhouse gases per day — as much as an average gas-fired power plant emits in an entire year.
...Climate activists say this trend can’t continue if the world wants to limit warming to 1.5 or even 2 degrees Celsius, and if the Biden administration wants to meet its climate goals. The International Energy Agency’s roadmap to net zero has natural-gas use falling by an average of 5% per year in the 2030s and dropping 55% from 2020 levels by 2050.
But FERC isn’t explicitly required to take climate impacts into consideration when deciding whether to approve an LNG terminal. Climate activists are trying to change that. Buoyed by a series of successful challenges to FERC’s environmental reviews in federal court, they hope the mounting legal pressure will persuade the commissioners to treat climate change with more urgency.
For now, though, FERC is caught in a political limbo that renders such bold action unlikely.
Today’s EV questions: To electrify?…
...At first Schofield’s idea for the EV business was little more than a fun excuse to convert his collector cars and maybe do the same for a few of his friends. But in the fall of 2022, he and Emr visited the SEMA auto show in Las Vegas, the predominant exhibition for aftermarket car parts and hot rods, named for the Specialty Equipment Market Association. There they were motivated to pursue a much bigger opportunity. If they combined their professional skills—Emr’s electrical- and mechanical-engineering background and Schofield’s business acumen—they could create 3D computer–aided design models, build a reliable supply chain, and perfect the process of converting a handful of popular classic cars, ones with a proven market among collectors.
Today, in a corner of the showroom just outside the two men’s adjacent offices, sits Schofield’s ’68 Camaro, its hood open and most of the original parts replaced, awaiting its batteries. In the engine bay of an EV, there are no belts, and the various gears and other moving parts are contained within the compact electrical motor—but the batteries occupy even more space than those modifications free up. In the Camaro, about two thirds of the battery array will sit in the rear and another third up front.
Once it hits the road, Emr says, this car will have double the horsepower and double the torque of its original configuration as a gas burner. That means it will accelerate from 0 to 60 in about three seconds, easily twice as quickly as it used to, and will have a top speed of about 150 miles per hour. Most of E-Muscle Cars’ vehicles will offer about 150 miles of range before they require recharging, but Emr hopes this one will top 250—enough to drive nonstop from Denton to Austin.
...So, if you’re looking into converting a classic car, you’ve gotta decide what wins out for you personally. For most people, the upfront costs makes a normal EV win out. For many others, the current unavailability of CCS or NACS charging in conversions wins out (but that will change soon). For basically the rest, disinterest in classic cars wins out (we want that modern convenience and comfort).
But, if you can pay the entry fee, you don’t care about the limitations (which tend to be greater with lower costs), and you LOVE classic cars, an EV conversion makes perfect sense.
On the other hand, it’s OK to NOT do an EV conversion, even when it makes sense. You shouldn’t feel obligated to take a piece of history and modify it. If you’re into keeping a classic car in stock condition, there’s really no environmental reason to take that collectible and ruin its value. Or, if you enjoy the rumble of a classic V8, straight six, or even a dirty rotary engine, it’s OK to leave it alone. Cars more than 20 years old are so rare that their overall environmental impact is almost unmeasurable.
Tracy Chapman made history with her 1988 hit “Fast Car.” The song won Song of the Year at the 57th Annual CMA Awards on Wednesday (November 8), making Chapman the first Black woman to win the award in the history of the CMAs.
...In 2023, Luke Combs gave new life to the song with his rendition of Chapman’s ballad, which originally went to No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned her three Grammy nominations, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year, and the one she won for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Combs’ 2023 version took “Fast Car” to the top of the country charts for the first time making Chapman the first Black woman to have a songwriting credit on a No. 1 country hit. Along with Song of the Year, Combs also picked up Single of the Year CMA for “Fast Car.”
And also, Aurora Borealis (if you didn’t on the last one, DEFINITELY click this up to full screen)
How are YOU feeling tonight? Tell us all about it in the comments!