ESTHER YU HSI LEE, - Think Progress
Stephan: I am not going to say anything about this story except to suggest you take note of who is for and who is against child marriage in Kentucky.
Senate Republicans in the state legislature pulled a bill to outlaw child marriage in Kentucky, Insider Louisville reported this week, following opposition from the conservative group Family Foundation of Kentucky on claims that it takes away parental rights.
Introduced by State Sen. Julie Raque Adams (R) to the State Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Bill 48 would set the minimum age of marriage to 17 years old, and establish a process for 17-year-olds to marry with a court approval.
The bill would require a statement from the minor indicating why the individual desires to marry; evidence for the minor’s “maturity and capacity for self-sufficiency” independent of that person’s parents; copies of any domestic violence order or interpersonal protective order involving either party to be married; and ensure that the court retrieves any records from the National Sex Offender Public Website relating to the intended spouse of the minor, among other proposals.
The bill would also grant authority to a judge to deny the petition if the age difference between the two people is more than four years; if the intended spouse has a history of domestic violence; if […]
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Ruth Milka, - Nation of Change
Stephan: I have been waiting for some time for this story to surface, and now it has. It was just a matter of time before Big Pharma, realizing how much money was to be made with marijuana got into the act and tried to suppress legalization of the actual plant so they could make profit from a synthetic pill.
To the greedheads of Big Pharma it was irresistible; the completely legal opioid addiction crisis being their model because it was mind-booglingly profitable. Insys Therapeutics just couldn't resist; they wanted a repeat.
If at all possible do not buy anything made by this company.
Insys Therapeutics, a major pharmaceutical company, has spent over $500,000 fueling the opposition to marijuana legalization in the United States. Now we know why.
The Big Pharma company is a major manufacturer of deadly painkillers and is one of the chief backers of the anti-legalization movement. They have been in legal trouble in the last several years for “alleged improper marketing of a highly addictive prescription painkiller.” They are currently the subject of several state and federal criminal investigations, and a shareholder lawsuit, over their marketing of a product that contains the deadly opioid painkiller fentanyl. The company is curiously developing a drug to treat opioid overdose as well as fueling the addiction.
Therapeutics donated $500,000, an amount equal to ten percent of all the money raised by Arizonas for Responsible Drug Policy, the group behind the strong opposition to medical marijuana. The donation was one of the largest single contributions to any anti-legalization campaign ever. Insys was the only Big Pharma company known to give money to oppose marijuana legalization last year.
Now the company has received preliminary approval […]
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MIMI MONTGOMERY, - Washingtonian
Stephan: And here we have what is looking just a bit like a modern day re-enactment of Lysistrata.
Most Americans think today’s strongest tensions lie between Democrats and Republicans, according to a Pew Research study. And in DC, where there’s already a lot of social sorting along party membership, the growing hyper-partisanship extends to even the most sacred of spaces: millennial dating.
Washington has the most singles actively dating and using dating apps, according to a recent Time Out ranking, so it’s not surprising that political standoffs would take place in packed bars and Bumble conversations. The League, a selective dating app, says its DC users are 15 times more likely to mention politics in their bios since the 2016 presidential election, and one-third say they wouldn’t date someone with contrasting political beliefs.
In a city as overwhelmingly Democratic as DC, the combination of lingering anger over Hillary Clinton‘s loss and President Trump‘s existence makes it tricky for conservatives to date across party lines.
“A lot of times you’ll connect with someone [on an app] and they’ll Google you, find out you worked for Trump’s campaign, and then it’s pretty much all downhill from there,” says a Trump Administration official.
People who work in right-wing media […]
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Michael King, - NBC 11 (Atlanta, Georgia)
Stephan: Every day I come across, or readers send me, multiple stories about the bizarre behavior of Republican officials. They run the gamut from racist, sexist, vulgar, anti-semitic, corrupt, or just plain stupid. It's mostly local stuff though that rarely makes it to the national news, so only locals read it or see it.
Obviously I don't run 99.9% of them; if I did SR would be filled with nothing but repellant stories about Republicans. I do find it notable that there is nothing comparable on the other side of the aisle, and I think it is worth asking what is it about the Republican Party that it attracts such people?
This story though I am going to run because I have seen similar stories from similar sources after every one of the gun massacres, and I think it is time for a little outrage.
Michael Davis, Georgia Republican official
Michael Davis, a vice chairman of the Cobb County Republican Party has shared a Facebook video which insists that last month’s deadly high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., was somehow faked.
The video, which was uploaded to Facebook by Mike Nikolaou of Athens, Greece, and shared by Davis, includes a portion of the breaking news coverage from West Palm Beach NBC station WPTV during the Parkland shooting. The coverage takes a closer look at the active shooter training undertaken by the Broward County school system as well as other schools around the nation before an announcer goes on to denounce the training.
The post then goes onto claim that the video depicts students in Parkland, Fla., “rehearsing” before “the fake shooting aired by NBC,” with hashtags including “#CrisisActors” and “#FalseFlag” — claiming that the shooting and deaths were faked and staged for some purpose.
When contacted by 11Alive News and asked if this was the viewpoint of the Cobb County Republican Party and of its leadership, the chairman, Jason Shepherd, responded with […]
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Benjamin Schneider, - Grist
Stephan: I promulgated the Theorem of Wellbeing after years of looking at social outcome research, and tried to explain it, how it worked, and why it worked, in the 8 Laws of Change. I just wish I could get it out to more people.
The theorem states: social policies that are compassionate, life-affirming, and fostering of wellbeing are more efficient, more productive, easier to implement, more pleasant to live under, and much much cheaper.
Here is another proof of the theorem: "A new
report from the National Institute of Building Sciences finds that for every dollar spent on federal grants aimed at improving disaster resilience, society saves six dollars."
Net benefits to various stakeholders for exceeding local safety requirements in new buildings
Credit: NIBS
In financial terms, 2017 was the worst year for natural disasters in American history, costing the country $306 billion. Scientists agree that hurricanes, floods, and fires are now turbo-charged by climate change, which the president and many top Republican leaders still refuse to acknowledge. But even while the federal government fails to address the root of the problem, there are ways to limit the damage from these increasingly frequent events — in property, and, more importantly, in human life.
A new report from the National Institute of Building Sciences finds that for every dollar spent on federal grants aimed at improving disaster resilience, society saves six dollars. This return is higher than previously thought: A 2005 study by NIBS found that each dollar from these grants yielded four dollars in savings.
“A lot of things have happened since 2005,” said NIBS’s Ryan Colker, who contributed to the report. “Katrina, Sandy, and the increasing … frequency of disasters prompted us to look at what […]
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