Their mom died of COVID. They say conspiracy theories are what really killed her

Laurie’s mother, Stephanie, 75, died of COVID-19 in December. “I don’t believe she was supposed to die,” Laurie says. “I blame the misinformation.” Stephanie had been wrapped up in a world of conspiracy theories online, which led her to refuse treatments for COVID.

NPR

Michigan Senate candidate: ‘A family should be a White mom, White dad and White kids’

Randy Bishop, a right-wing Michigan radio host who filed last week to run for the state Senate, said on his show last month that TV commercials were attempting to make him feel guilty because he thinks families should be all White.

Detroit News

RIP, CNN+ (March 2022–April 2022)

CNN+, the Quibi of cable news, will be shutting down a mere month after it launched and tried to establish itself as a valuable subscription streaming service.

Vulture

Republicans Are Punishing Disney for Opposing Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay Law.’ Here’s What That Means for the Company

The measure, which passed swiftly through the state’s GOP-led House and Senate this week, strips Disney of protections that have allowed the company’s theme park to self-govern for nearly six decades within a special Orlando-area taxing district.

Time

No, Black and Asian people do not resent ‘Western achievements.’ We made them possible.

University of Pennsylvania law professor Amy Wax made headlines and sparked outrage recently for claiming that Black and Asian people resent “Western peoples’ outsized achievements” on Tucker Carlson’s Fox Nation show. Wax, who has a history of racist remarks, told Carlson she thinks “there is just a tremendous amount of resentment and shame of non-Western peoples against Western peoples for Western peoples’ outsized achievements and contributions.”

NBC News

Will Disney leave Florida? How the company might respond in feud over self-governing status

In contrast, another stockholder complained to Chapek that “your recent Magical Pride Days and your upcoming LGBTQ Pride March this year is a blatant attempt at indoctrinating children and attendees towards a certain political ideology.” He also expressed concern that transgender themes are getting into Disney creative content.

“My question to you today is: Would it not be beneficial both to you and the millions of Disney lovers around the world to ditch the politicization and gender ideology from your content aimed at children, and instead try to win back the trust of families by sliding away from politics altogether? And reverting back to the magic and innocence that has been the founding motive for its success?”

USA Today

Emmett Till’s Family Calls for Accuser’s Prosecution in His 1955 Lynching

Less than a month after President Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, making lynching a federal hate crime for the first time in U.S. history, Till’s family are calling for a renewed investigating in the 1955 killing of the Black teen.

Complex

How well is our immunity holding up against Covid-19?

Now that most US cities and states have dropped masking requirements and other precautions against Covid-19, you may be wondering about your chances of getting infected or, worse, being hospitalized or dying if you happen to get sick.

CNN

Cocaine seizures soar in Chicago, surrounding states, as DEA ‘snow’ forecast comes true

Heroin and marijuana have long been Mexican cartels’ big moneymakers in Chicago. But DEA cocaine seizures rose 50% in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana in the year ending Sept. 30 and keep rising in the Chicago area.

Chicago Sun-Times

U.S. judge temporarily blocks enforcement of Kentucky’s new abortion law

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Kentucky officials from enforcing a sweeping new abortion law that Planned Parenthood said would force abortion clinics to stop offering the procedure until they can meet certain requirements.

Reuters

What to know about Title 42, the Trump-era policy now central to the border debate

The order will be front and center when Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Mayorkas is expected to field questions about lifting it, and he’s likely to get pushback from both Republicans and Democrats.

NPR

Orrin Hatch Dead At 88; Ex-Utah Senator Appeared In ‘Traffic’ & ‘Murphy Brown’

The longest serving GOP Senator in American history and one-time president pro tem, Hatch represented Utah from the first year of Jimmy Carter’s lone term to the second year of Donald Trump’s one and only term in the White House. “Senator Hatch passed away at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 23, 2022 in Salt Lake City, Utah, surrounded by family,” said a statement in part from the Hatch Foundation today.

Deadline

Court-martial results in first conviction of general officer in Air Force history

A US Air Force general officer was found guilty of abusive sexual contact in military court in Ohio on Saturday, marking the first-ever court-martial trial and conviction of a general officer in the history of the military branch, the Air Force said in a statement.

CNN

Colo. Man Dies After Setting Himself on Fire in Front of U.S. Supreme Court Building, Police Say

According to a public incident report obtained by PEOPLE, Supreme Court Police witnessed the man light himself on fire in front of the Supreme Court building around 6 p.m. on Friday.

People

Trump Rambles About Toilets Not Flushing During Ohio Rally … Oh, and Also: Hijacking America’s Election Systems

The former president went on several laughable rants during his speech on Saturday night. He also waxed about his ongoing efforts to cut the legs out from under the democratic process

Rolling Stone

What did Greg Abbott’s border inspections turn up? Oil leaks, flat tires and zero drugs

The governor ordered troopers to thoroughly inspect every commercial truck coming from Mexico in what he described as an effort to stop illegal drugs and migrants from being smuggled into Texas. His order for increased state inspections led to snarling delays in trade between the two countries.

The Texas Tribune

Surprise: The Guy Behind the GoFundMe to Build Trump’s Border Wall Was Scamming

Brian Kolfage, the Air Force veteran who worked with Steve Bannon to fundraise $25 million to “Build The Wall,” has admitted to pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Vanity Fair

Supreme Court Rules That Congress Can Exclude Puerto Rican Residents From Disability Benefits

The decision, which was made Thursday, will continue to omit Puerto Rican residents from participating in federal safety net program

The Root

Biden Has A Streamlined Plan To Admit Ukrainians To The U.S. Will It Be Fast Enough?

The administration’s new program to admit Ukrainian refugees may face the same sluggish processing that has plagued earlier refugee efforts.

…In September, the Biden administration introduced humanitarian parole as a tool for speeding up the relocation of at-risk Afghans who were left behind by the U.S. pullout. However, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has struggled to keep up with a surge in applications that is 20 times larger than the total number of applications it receives in a typical year, Al Jazeera reported. The process has stalled after almost seven months.

Huffington Post

(Editor’s note: ahahahahahah are you fucking kidding me)

Transcript: CBS News interviews Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

The following is a transcript of an April 22 interview with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who told CBS News his department is ready to implement a major policy change along the U.S.-Mexico border in May. The transcript was slightly edited for clarity.

CBS News

As Finland considers NATO membership, citizens mobilize for an invasion by Russia

Military readiness is ingrained in the culture of this country of 5.5 million people that shares an 833-mile border and a long, complicated history with Russia.

Los Angeles Times

Family buries Mexican teenager who has reignited anger over gender violence

Standing atop a windswept hill in northern Mexico, surrounded by dozens of fellow mourners, Mario Escobar prepared to bury his teenage daughter, Debanhi, one of the latest victims of the country’s crisis of violence against women.

Reuters

Opposition liberals surge ahead in Slovenia election: Exit poll

Projections show the opposition Freedom Movement winning 35.8 percent of the vote compared with 22.5 percent for the ruling conservative Slovenian Democratic Party.

Al Jazeera

Israeli FM accuses Hamas of orchestrating Jerusalem violence

Israel’s foreign minister on Sunday accused the Hamas militant group of orchestrating recent unrest at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, responding to criticism that Israeli police used heavy-handed tactics to quell the violence.

AP News

Macron Beats Le Pen to Win Second Term as French President

Emmanuel Macron defeated far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election on a pro-business, pro-European Union platform, bolstering the bloc in the midst of its worst security crisis in decades.

Bloomberg

At least 168 killed in violence in Sudan’s Darfur: Aid group

Fighting in the Kreinik area of West Darfur province also wounded 98 others, according to a Sudanese aid group.

Al Jazeera

Experts Urge Continued Mask Wearing on Public Transportation After Judge Voided Mask Mandate

A Trump-appointed Florida judge, Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, just voided the 14-month-long federal mask mandate on public transportation, despite the World Health Organization (WHO) saying that, when worn properly, masks highly reduce the spread of COVID-19. The Department of Justice, under advisory from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), announced that they will appeal the ruling. In the meantime, they urgently encourage the continued use of masks on planes, trains, taxis, rideshares, in transit hubs, and other modes of transport.

Teen Vogue

Get inspired by these 5 history-making trans men who defied the odds to live authentically

If you’re hungry for historical trans men to inspire you, it can be tough — many trans men’s stories have been buried under the queerphobia and trans erasure of the past. However, here are five better-known trans men who still defied the odds and made history in their own times.

Queerty

State Sen. Mallory McMorrow on reclaiming faith from those using it as ‘a weapon to hate people’

The Michigan lawmaker, mother and LGBTQ rights backer who was falsely accused of wanting to “groom kids” by a Republican colleague drew widespread praise for defending herself in a 5-minute speech from the Senate floor. McMorrow, who has not gotten an apology, said she will not stop forcefully addressing such attacks.

Religion News