Seattle -(Reuters )*
Ed Orcutt, a ranking Republican member of the (Washington) state House of Representatives Transportation committee, said in an email exchange with a bike shop owner that drivers and bicyclists should both share the burden of preserving the roads they use.
"You claim that it is environmentally friendly to ride a bike," Orcutt wrote to Dale Carlson, the owner of three bicycle shops in the Tacoma and Olympia areas who voiced concern that a proposed $25 fee on bicycle sales of $500 or more could hurt his business.
"But if I am not mistaken, a cyclists (sic) has an increased heart rate and respiration ... Since CO2 is deemed a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, bicyclists are actually polluting when they ride," Orcutt wrote late last month.
From Radio Iowa:
Under the proposed legislation, parents with kids under the age of 18 could not get a no-fault divorce. Instead, they’d have to show a spouse was guilty of adultery, had been sent to prison on a felony conviction, had physically or sexually abused someone in the family, or had abandoned the family for at least a year.
“This basically is an attempt on my part to keep fathers in the home,” bill sponsor Tedd Gassman said. “I sincerely believe that the family is the foundation of this nation and this nation will go the direction of our families. If our families break up, so will this nation.”*
Deficit, what deficit? Republicans want to push $550 million towards abstinence education. No matter that it has been a total failure everywhere it has been tried.
...the CDC last year reported teen pregnancy rates were on the decline for the first time in years, the agency noted that states with strong abstinence-only programs still had the highest numbers of unplanned pregnancies. States such as Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont -- all of which have comprehensive sexual health programs -- had the lowest teen pregnancy rates.*
Meanwhile, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Mississippi, all solid red states, reported the highest rates. Mississippi saw the most teen pregnancies in the country at 65.7 for every 1,000 live births.
Teenagers in states that stress abstinence are also less likely to understand how to properly use contraceptives such as condoms – one of the most successful ways to prevent an STI. A study published in the journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health last year concluded an astonishing 60 percent of unmarried men and women between the ages of 18 and 29 questioned the effectiveness of contraceptives.
GOP votes to defund group that no longer exists.
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Arkansas Senate overrides veto of post twelve week abortion ban.
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