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The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Monday on whether a law that legislators adopted more than a decade before the Civil War bans abortion and can still be enforced.

Abortion rights advocates stand an excellent chance of prevailing, given that liberal justices control the court and one of them remarked on the campaign trail that she supports abortion rights. Monday's arguments are little more than a formality ahead of a ruling, which is expected to take weeks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

This is one of the most chilling movies I've ever seen, and it's basically just bureaucrats sitting around a table discussing policy. Is it still available on whatever streaming service HBO turned into, or did they axe it too?

 

Republican and Democratic lawmakers acknowledged Wednesday that they will now have to put grudges aside and work together under a tied 67-67 Minnesota House.

Unofficial election results show that the party breakdown is split between Democrats and Republicans in the Minnesota House, effectively ending the two-year Democratic-Farmer-Labor trifecta control of state government. Republicans flipped three key swing districts on Tuesday.

DFL incumbents in two House Districts won their races by razor-thin margins, according to preliminary election data last updated on Wednesday afternoon. Rep. Dan Wolgamott, DFL-St. Cloud, won by 28 votes, and Rep. Brad Tabke, DFL-Shakopee, won by 13 votes. These results will likely be recounted, though they are expected to remain the same.

Democrats still control the Minnesota Senate and the governor’s office. Divided government in recent years has often led to acrimony and stalemate; in 2017, then-Gov. Mark Dayton and the GOP-controlled Legislature wound up in litigation when he vetoed their operating budget.

 

If elected, Donald Trump has vowed to demolish what he calls the “deep state” – a conspiratorial term for the American federal bureaucracy. A second Trump administration, running mate JD Vance has said, should fire thousands of civil servants and replace them with MAGA loyalists.

Trump has said he would tap the billionare Elon Musk as the hatchet man to lead his proposed government commission on “efficiency” in government.

Compared with the other fireworks of the campaign – like Trump’s promise to criminally prosecute his political rivals and suppress news organizations – threats to gut the United States’ vast federal bureaucracy don’t get much attention. But doing so is a big a threat to democracy.

For years, conservatives have claimed that taking power from government agencies gives it back to the people. Yet while it might seem counterintuitive, Americans actually exercise their sovereignty through the administrative state.

The American administrative state was established almost 100 years ago by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As a historian of American democracy, I think it’s valuable to remember what the old deal looked like while Trump rails against the New Deal.

 

Many of the state’s abandoned places vanished without a trace. But some still attract visitors.

 

October has long been associated with ghosts – from ancient Celtic festivals to ward off restless spirits after harvest time to the modern standby of using an old sheet to make a last-minute Halloween costume. In the middle of the 19th century, however, popular portrayals of ghosts became a year-round staple, in part because photographers discovered that they could depict them.

The first ghost photographs were accidents. Early cameras required 30 seconds or more to take a photo. If someone wandered briefly into the shot, the resulting picture would contain their ghostly trace superimposed over substantial furniture, buildings or people who had held still for the full exposure.

When shrewd photographers realized that the inconvenience of long exposure time could become an asset, detailed directions for creating these illusions proliferated. Photographers could cut ghost figures from transparent material and place them onto glass negatives or inside camera bodies. Or they could make real people half-transparent through tricks of double exposure.

 

Remains in France found by archaeologists and geneticists suggest at least two lineages—not just one—of late Neanderthals in Europe.

 

The majority of health insurers in the state’s individual and small employer health insurance markets will raise premiums between 9% and 15% next year, in yet another sign health care costs are back on the rise.

 

The largest animal on Earth is thought to be the blue whale, but these strange sea creatures can grow even longer — reaching up to 150 feet (46 meters) in length.

There are around 175 species of siphonophores living in the deep sea throughout all of Earth’s oceans, although not every species is found in each ocean. Many siphonophores are long and string-like, but some, like the venomous Portuguese man o'war (Physalia physalis), resemble jellyfish.

Although a siphonophore may look like a single animal, it is actually a colony made up of individual organisms called "zooids," which each have a distinct function within the colony despite being genetically identical. Some catch prey and digest food, while others enable the colony to reproduce or swim. An individual zooid cannot survive on its own because they specialize in one function, so they rely on each other to form a "body."

 

Members of a task force in Minnesota are making progress toward issuing a report on how the state might regulate psychedelics, including psilocybin, MDMA and LSD. The group earlier this month held preliminary votes on certain policy recommendations—including on eliminating penalties for personal possession and regulating clinical access to some entheogens—with more votes expected at its next meeting in October.

Two recommendations that are already approved by the body are the creation of a state-regulated clinical psilocybin program and the appropriation of research dollars to study the therapeutic use of psilocybin, MDMA and LSD. It will be up to lawmakers, however, to introduce and pass any psychedelics-related legislation to formally enact the suggestions.

 

As Russian missile strikes and heavy assaults by ground troops pace deadly attacks on Ukraine, a new report by University of Virginia researchers reveals another destructive facet of Russia's invasion.

Using commercial satellite imagery and other open-source information, associate professor of sociology Fiona Greenland and other researchers with UVA's Cultural Resilience Informatics and Analysis, or CURIA, Lab determined that multiple ancient Ukrainian burial mounds have been damaged in two locations currently occupied by Russian troops—a potential violation of international law.

These historically significant burial sites, called "kurgans," were constructed by the ancient peoples of the Ukrainian steppe. The mounds, up to 65 feet tall, contain human remains and artifacts dating back as far as 3000 B.C.E.

 

A team of student volunteers on an archaeological dig in northern France has had a surprise communication from the past.

 

Regulators issued a permit to Magellan Pipeline Company at a hearing last week, keeping in view the objections of several tribal nations who say the pipestone quarried at the national monument and the surrounding areas are central to the spiritual practices of tribes across the continent.

“It’s just too much of a risk,” Upper Sioux Community tribal historic preservation officer Samantha Odegard told the commission.

Pipestone National Monument was created in 1937 to protect the rights of Indigenous people to quarry pipestone — or catlinite, a soft, red stone used to make pipes and works of art. The National Park Service consults with 23 tribal nations with documented ties to the quarry on the monument’s activities.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I've heard nannyberries are tasty, but I've only ever seen them unripe in the summer. Maybe some day...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Better than a cat-less man-child.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago

As a Minnesotan I'd like to point out that Walz really isn't a progressive, however, like Biden, he's repeatedly shown a willingness to welcome everyone to the table, and (generally) not stand in the way of progressive legislation, even when he personally doesn't agree, so definitely not the worst choice. But I say double down on minority women, nominate lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan instead, let's get the first native woman in the White House!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

we've been weakening in that regard over the last decade

That's the thing, we really haven't. 2016 got a lot of press because Trump lost by the narrowest margin since Bush vs Gore, but if you look at the actual vote totals, Trump didn't do any better than the last 4 Republicans, slightly worse than Romney and Bush in 2004, in fact. The only reason it was as close as it was was due to the terrible turnout by Dems for Hillary in 2016. 2020 results were back in line with the norm, with Biden winning by 7+ points. So don't believe the media's click bait hype, Minnesota is not and never was in play. (Of course, that doesn't mean we don't need to vote, and don't forget the down ballot races, which are arguably more important. And have you all voted in your primary yet? Early voting is open, election day is August 13th)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Better than Strange Brew?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

god was just trying to get Judean citizenship this whole time, and we accidentally made a religion out of it. Whoopsie doodle.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Wait, so he's admitting hunter's laptop is a hoax? Or is his ephedrine addled brain having trouble keeping track of all of the lies?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (3 children)

The fuck is the "laptop from hell"?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Fargo, but I love it anyway.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Sounds like serotonin syndrome, possibly from NBOMes ?

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