Daily Links: 01/23/18 – Pennsylvania top court throws out gerrymandered district maps

Pennsylvania’s gerrymandered 7^th District

• Pennsylvania Supreme Court throws out the state’s Republican-favoring gerrymandered district maps ^[pictured], giving the legislature a month to redraw them.
  (via Joe.My.God.)

• Montana governor signs executive order blocking ISPs from securing state contracts if they violate net neutrality.

• New Jersey’s Asbury Park Press has an in-depth, multi-part investigation into state police departments that allow rogue cops to abuse and murder citizens without losing their jobs.
  (via @davidminpdx; retweet by @radleybalko)

• Vermont kinda, sorta, becomes the ninth US state to legalize marijuana, but Vermonters still can’t sell it or smoke it in public.
  (via retweet by @radleybalko)

• Big Horn County, Montana lawyer announces a “crackdown” on pregnant women who consume drugs or alcohol, intends to issue restraining orders and then imprison women who violate them.
  (via @radleybalko)

• Preventing felons from voting is one of the most common and uncontroversial acts of voter suppression, and it shouldn’t be. Now Florida will vote on restoring voting rights to over 1.5 million citizens in November.
  (via @FullFrontalSamB)

• The sham-tastic Republican-controlled House Science Committee wants to investigate a scientist for writing in support of science.

• Finally, the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins lays bare the religious-Right’s hypocrisy: Evangelicals are happy to ignore all of Trump’s lying and adultery so long as he supports their agenda.
  (via @HashtagGriswold; retweeted by @Popehat)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Edit (01/31/18 @ 6:46 AM ET): Fixed a typo.

Daily Links: 07/21/17 – Oregon removes kids from parents with low IQ

Eric Ziegler (left) & Amy Fabbrini

• Oregon officials take couple’s ^[pictured] children away and put them up for adoption after declaring the parents’ IQ is too low; there are no reports of neglect or abuse. I have no words.
  (via @radleybalko)

• Iowa prosecutor magnanimously agrees not to ruin a 14-year-old’s life by putting her on the sex offender registry for sexting.
  (via RT by @radleybalko)

• Good write-up on AG Jeff Sessions’s wish to bring back decades’ worth of failed Drug War policies, including the useless-at-best DARE program.

• New York City evidently has run out of serious crime, since it’s now cracking down on people who watch other people’s pets for money.
  (via @radleybalko)

• Perpetually butthurt Todd Starnes joins other butthurt prudes in attacking Teen Vogue over its article on practicing safe butt sex.

• Two cases: A White cop shot and killed a Black teenager, and a Black cop shot and killed a White woman. Guess which story (and the nationality of the shooter) Fox News focused on.

• James Woods: Conservative actor, litigious asshole and weapons-grade hypocrite.

• And finally, it’s Big Bigot Ken’s Big Gay Boat Ride^*:

[full size (568×582)]

If you have any story suggestions, you can leave them in the comments or send them in.

* For the uninitiated.