Fentanyl concerns in Iowa, Rock Island/Milan’s first female schools leader, Club Q shooter plea, more
Fentanyl seizures in Iowa up 105 percent in 2023: A new report on fentanyl seizures shows that the state of Iowa, plus eight counties along the Illinois/Wisconsin border, had among the nation’s greatest increases this year in seizure of fentanyl, the highly potent opioid that is causing overdoses to spiral nationwide. KCRG reports that 141,000 fentanyl pills were seized in Iowa in 2023, 105 percent the number seized in 2022. In addition, testing by the Drug Enforcement Administration showed that in 2023, seven out of 10 seized pills contained a deadly dose of fentanyl, compared to 4 of 10 seized pills in 2021 and 6 of 10 in 2022.
Rock Island/Milan School District hires first-ever female superintendent: Dr. Sharon Williams, originally from Tennessee, comes to the Rock Island/Milan School district from Cook County, reports WQAD. Williams is the first-ever female to lead the district, located on the Illinois side of the Quad Cities, and said she was drawn to lead the district because of its “compelling vision of equity and the diverse student body and Board of Education.”
Historic percentage of Emmy Award-winners this year are People of Color: The five People of Color Emmy Award winners Monday is the greatest number since 1991, says Hollywood Reporter. Those winners include Ayo Edebiri (The Bear), Quinta Brinton (Abbott Elementary), Niecy Nash-Betts (Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story), and Beef’s Steven Yeun and Ali Wong.
Club Q shooter likely to face decades more in jail for federal hate crimes: Anderson Aldrich, the gunman who killed five and injured 46 at the Club Q LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs in 2022, is expected to plead guilty to federal hate crimes soon, reports USA Today and other media. The 23-year-old on Tuesday pled “not guilty” to the hate crimes charges, but a court filing from Jan. 9 indicates he will soon plead guilty as part of a plea agreement that will save him from the death penalty in return for accepting a sentence of 190-plus years.
Coalition of 250 groups asks USDA to promote plant-based eating to fight climate change: A letter that features not only groups but also experts asks the U.S. Department of Agriculture to take several steps that will increase the focus on plant-based eating as an important part of climate change, reports Plant-Based News. The letter asks the USDA to make reduction of meat and dairy part of its climate strategy; increase access to plant-based foods in school meal programs; and emphasize “plant-forward” eating patterns into the agency’s official dietary guidelines. Read more here.
(photo shows seized real and counterfeit rainbow fentanyl pills, by the Drug Enforcement Administration through Wikimedia Commons)
Handling the cost of PrEP, new Guatemalan president, and the best way to honor MLK Day
Out-of-pocket cost increases drastically reduce PrEP use: Even a $10 monthly increase in the cost of PrEP can cause a patient to stop taking the medication, which is considered 99 percent effective in rendering HIV undetectable. Poz Magazine writes that the additional health costs of taking PrEP can also discourage people from taking the medication. Related blood screenings and lab work are supposed to be covered by the Affordable Care Act, but Poz reports that enforcing that requirement can be a challenge.
New anti-corruption Guatemala president faces establishment opposition: Guatemala, one of the three Central American countries with the greatest number of immigrants to the United States, has a new president, reports NBC News. Bernardo Arévalo, who promised to face down corruption, was elected in August. Read this article to learn more about Arévalo and why Guatemala’s Congress and attorney general have been legally challenging his election. Migration Policy estimates that Guatemala accounts for about 29 percent of Central American immigrants to the United States.
Scholar calls out conservatives and liberals alike for distorting Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy: The best way to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., Day is to read the late activist’s writings, says Rann Miller, author of Resistance Stories from Black History for Kids, in this op-ed piece for The Progressive Magazine. “Read King’s speeches and challenge yourself to change your lens of the world to reflect the world he relentlessly pushed us towards,” Miller writes
10-year high in police killings, Iowa’s push to keep book ban, reclassifying cannabis, Illinois’ assault weapons ban, more
Iowa governor, board of education announce intent to appeal stay on “sexually explicit” books law: A federal appeals court will hear Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ bid to lift a judge’s Jan. 1 stay on the state’s new law that limits the mention of gender identity and sexul orientation in public schools and also bars books with sexually explicit content, reports Iowa Capital Dispatch. Plaintiffs challenging the law contend it is unconstitutional; Reynolds, the state’s department of education, and Iowa Attorney General Brenna Byrd contend the new law, passed last year, protects elementary schoolchildren from inappropriate sexually explicit material at school.
Killings by police officers reached highest level since 2013 last year: The 1,232 people killed by law enforcement in 2023 was the highest number in 10 years. In only 2 percent of cop killings in 2023 were police charged with any crime, reports The Nation. In addition, Black people accounted for 26 percent of killings by police, almost twice the percentage of Americans that are Black.
Federal agency letter recommending reclassification of cannabis is released in full: The recommendation to reschedule cannabis from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug comes after 11 months of new scientific review initiated by the Biden administration, and an initial heavy redaction that removed almost all information from the letter, reports Marijuana Moment. In addition to recommending cannabis’ reclassification, the letter proclaims that cannabis has less potential for abuse than not only Schedule I drugs like heroin, peyote and ecstasy, but also Schedule II drugs like Oxycontin, and opium.
Battle brewing over federal “crisis pregnancy center” funding: A move by the Biden administration to drastically reduce funding to “crisis pregnancy centers” is drawing the ire of Republicans, reports Yahoo News. The centers, which counsel against abortion and often provide misleading information about the procedure, currently receive federal funding through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) federal block grant program. The Biden administration is seeking to require that states focus more of their TANF money on employment assistance, job training, and cash assistance to impoverished families.
Illinois sheriffs’ refusal to enforce assault weapons ban highlights upstate/downstate divide: Courthouse News reports that Illinois sheriffs’ trend toward refusing to enforce the state’s new assault weapons ban not ony heightens the divide between the urban Chicago area and the largely rural downstate of Illinois. Some gun control experts are also concerned the sheriffs’ open defiance of the law may set the stage for more mass shootings.
(photo credit: Fibonacci Blue through Wikimedia Commons, showing protesters May 26, 2020, following the murder of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin)
Ohio House revives gender transition care ban, Biden announces diverse judicial nominees, and microplastics identified in water bottles and protein
Ohio’s ban on gender transition care for youth is back on the table: The Ohio House of Representatives on Wednesday overrode its governor’s veto of a law that bans gender-affirming care for youth, reports the Cincinnati Enquirer. If three-fifths of the state’s Senate also votes to override Gov. Michael DeWine’s veto Jan. 24, the ban will become law. It would not apply to people already taking puberty blockers or hormones. In addition to addressing gender care for youth, the new law also requires youth athletes to compete under their born gender.
Biden’s first judicial nominees of 2024 include several diversity firsts: Rhode Island would have its first-ever openly LGBTQ Black federal judge, the District of Columbia would have its first-ever Arab-American district court judge, and Virginia would have its first-ever Asian American federal judge, if the Biden administration’s first six judicial nominees of 2024 are confirmed by the U.S. Senate, reports Reuters. Read here about Amir Ali, Melissa DuBose, Jasmine Yoon, and more of Biden’s appointments. Altogether, Biden has had 160 federal judges confirmed during his presidency, 100 of which have been women, wrote Cong. James Clyburn in an opinion piece for Black Press USA earlier this week.
Bottled water, protein sources riddled with microplastics, studies say:Â A liter of bottled water may contain nearly a quarter million pieces of the smallest particles of plastic, says a study published in the National Academy of Sciences. In addition, 90 percent of proteins ranging from meat to vegan options were found to contain microplastics, says a study from the University of Toronto. Read Inside Climate News‘ report about both studies.
(cover photo shows Amir Ali, director of the civil rights organization the MacArthur Justice Center and Biden’s nominee for district court judge in D.C., and Rhode Island State Court Judge Melissa DuBose, nominated to be a federal district court judge)
