Iowa Republican proposals raise growing concern among LGBTQ+ groups:Â An Iowa House subcommittee on Tuesday advanced a proposal by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds that would identify males and females in rape crisis centers, domestic abuse shelters, prisons, locker rooms and restrooms based on whether their “biological reproductive system” was developed to produce, or by contrast to fertilize, ova, reports KGAN. The bill would also require gender transition to be noted on drivers’ licenses and birth certificates, reports the Des Moines Register. In addition, the bill would provide federal Americans With Disabilities protections for anyone diagnosed with a gender disorder. A House subcommittee also forwarded a bill Monday that would remove penalties against public school teachers who used pronouns based on a child’s gender assigned at birth. One Iowa, the ACLU of Iowa, and LGBTQ+ activists across Iowa are rallying against these and other bills, labelling 2024 another record-setting year for “anti-LGBTQ” legislation,” reports The Gazette in Cedar Rapids. Read more about these bills, and Monday’s One Iowa activist day at the state Capitol, in Iowa Public Radio.
Climate change research would be slashed across more than a dozen government agencies under Trump plan: The plan, titled Project 2025, would boost the use of fossil fuels, reports Scientific American. The proposal, titled Project 2025 and generated through the ultra-conservative think-tank Heritage Foundation, would empower Trump, if elected, to “reshape the U.S. Global Change Research Program and related climate change research programs” through an executive order, writes the magazine.
Racial health disparities found regarding impacts of high blood pressure, police-involved killings, Taser use: Three new studies help illuminate the disparity in health effects between Blacks and whites. In one study, Black women with high blood pressure under the age of 35 were three times more likely than the general population to develop a stroke by the time they reached middle age, NBC News reported. In addition, “Black women are twice as likely to experience a stroke compared to white women, and  50% more likely to have high blood pressure (hypertension).” In another study involving 2 million responses, Blacks were more likely than whites to experience sleep disturbances triggered by police-involved killings, reports Amsterdam News. The study occurred from 2017 to 2019, following the highly-publicized police killings of Eric Garner and Tamir Rice, but prior to the police killings of George Floyd and Tyre Nichols. In a third study, also reported by new York’s Amsterdam News, one-third of people injured by Taser use were Black — almost three times the percentage of the general population that identifies as Black. “The injuries included puncture wounds, concussions, fractures and traumatic brain injuries,” Amsterdam News writes.
Another big settlement in Department of Justice’s pursuit of redlining: A North Carolina bank is the latest to agree to a multi-million dollar settlement for actions the Department of Justice says unfairly limited borrowing by Black and Latino customers, reports the Seattle Times. First National Bank of Pennsylvania will pay almost $14 million in the settlement agreement, which will go toward a fund for loans specifically for Black and Latino borrowers the Charlotte and Winston-Salem areas. The settlement agreement comes in response to DOJ accusations that from 2017 to 2021, the bank ignored neighborhoods that were majority Black or Latino residents. FNB denies the accusations. It’s the 13th settlement reached by the DOJ with banks since Attorney General Merrick Garland started a redlining task force in 2021, the Times reports.
(cover photo features Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds courtesy of Gage Skidmore, and a graphic depicting testing for high blood pressure, both through Wikimdia Commons)
