If Missouri’s abortion ban is triggered, showdown over state constitution likely ahead
If the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, as a leaked draft opinion indicates it will, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt will soon after issue a legal opinion confirming the decision and triggering a near-total abortion ban in the state.
But that will only mark the beginning of Missouri’s post-Roe fight over abortion.
“It doesn’t end, trust me,” said Samuel Lee, a lobbyist for Campaign Life Missouri.
The question of abortion rights almost certainly won’t be answered in any semi-permanent way until it’s settled in the state constitution, either by an amendment that affirms or rejects the right to the procedure — or a decision by the Missouri Supreme Court on whether the state constitution already protects the right to an abortion.
Kansas and Missouri’s constitutions are set to play a critical role in upcoming battles over abortion.
—The Kansas City Star
Indoor masking once again ‘strongly recommended’ in Chicago as COVID-19 numbers increase
CHICAGO — Chicago health officials announced Friday that indoor masking is once again “strongly recommended” — but not required — in the city as the risk of contracting COVID-19 in Cook County has increased.
Chicago’s public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady made the advisory after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deemed Cook County is now in the “medium” risk level for community transmission. The metrics are based on a combination of new cases and hospitalizations, but the medium category is automatically reached if weekly cases surpass 200 positive tests per 100,000 residents.
Arwady stressed the city is not near adding back mandates on indoor masking or proof-of-vaccination, though Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Transit Authority are “encouraging” indoor masking.
“Chicago moving into the medium level does not mean a citywide mask mandate, restrictions on public gatherings, or reinstatement of vaccination requirements at this time,” Arwady said in a statement. “With the way the current COVID variants are behaving, those are measures we would consider if we reached the high COVID-19 community level — which we aren’t close to reaching in Chicago right now.”
—Chicago Tribune
Trump’s censorship attack on Twitter fails to get his ban lifted
Former President Donald Trump’s claim that Twitter Inc. violated his free-speech rights by bumping him off its platform failed to win over a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge James Donato on Friday threw out the former president’s challenge to his permanent ban from Twitter for stoking the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The San Francisco judge gave Trump’s lawyers a chance to revise the suit and try again, but warned they will have to show that Twitter was acting as a government censor.
“This is not an easy claim to make, for good reasons,” Donato said.
Trump’s lawyers had argued that Twitter was acting at the behest of the government because it suspended his account under pressure from Democratic lawmakers.
Trump vowed in recent media interviews not to return to tweeting even if he’s reinstated once Elon Musk, who has agreed to buy the platform, takes over. Musk claims Twitter has censored free speech.
—Bloomberg News
At least 9 dead after explosion rips through five-star Hotel Saratoga in Havana
At least nine people were killed Friday and several others were injured in an explosion that destroyed much of the Hotel Saratoga, a luxury hotel in the historic center of Havana, Cuban authorities said.
The blast, which happened around 11 a.m., kicked up a plume of smoke and ash and shocked passing pedestrians in one of the busiest spots in the Cuban capital.
The death toll, initially reported at four, increased as search and rescue efforts continued into the evening. Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel confirmed the deaths of nine people and said on the presidential office’s Twitter account that another 40 were injured and receiving medical attention in several hospitals in the Cuban capital.
Preliminary investigations point to a gas leak, Díaz-Canel told reporters gathered at the scene in the afternoon.
“It was not a bomb or an attack, it is an unfortunate accident,” he said.
—Miami Herald
