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* Montana…
Montana has become the first state to ban the popular social media app TikTok.
Gov. Greg Gianforte signed Senate Bill 419 on Wednesday, saying he wants to protect the state’s residents’ private information from being compromised. He pointed to the Chinese government as a potential threat.
“The Chinese Communist Party using TikTok to spy on Americans, violate their privacy, and collect their personal, private, and sensitive information is well-documented,” Gov. Gianforte said.
There is no direct evidence that the Chinese government has ever accessed TikTok user data. However, TikTok’s critics point to laws in China that allow the government access to a company’s customer records.
* North Carolina…
North Carolina Rep. Tricia Cotham cast a pivotal vote Tuesday to pass new restrictions on abortion. State lawmakers voted Tuesday to override Cooper’s veto of the abortion bill, making the new 12-week abortion restrictions law. Every Republican, including Cotham, voted to support the override. […]
Cotham, a former Democrat from Mecklenburg County, changed her party affiliation to Republican in April, drawing backlash from her constituents and Democrats.
Republicans announced their new abortion bill in mid-May, and many wondered if Cotham would vote for it, as she had campaigned as a Democrat who supported Roe v. Wade. […]
The abortion bill passed into law Tuesday prohibits abortions after 12 weeks, with exceptions up to 20 weeks for rape and incest, up to 24 weeks for “life-limiting” fetal anomalies, and no limit if a physician determines that the life of the mother is in danger due to a medical emergency.
* South Carolina…
The South Carolina House of Representatives approved a ban on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy on Tuesday night, setting up a repeat fight in a red state that has become an unexpected battleground over abortion. The vote came after roughly 24 hours of often rancorous debate in a rare special session called by the governor, and fell largely along party lines, 82 to 33.
Because the House amended a bill passed earlier by the Senate, the bill now goes back to the Senate for another vote.
* Disney vs DeSantis…
Florida legislation that was designed to hamstring Disney could end up helping the company, at least in relation to a lawsuit in state court over development at Walt Disney World near Orlando.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and Disney have been sparring for more than a year over a special tax district that encompasses Disney World. The fight started when the company criticized a Florida education law labeled by opponents as “Don’t Say Gay” — angering Mr. DeSantis.
On Tuesday, Disney filed a motion to dismiss the state court case. As a matter of legal maneuvering, the filing was routine: Disney wants to shut down the state case and focus on the federal one.
But the company’s argument about why the district’s case should be tossed was less expected: Mr. DeSantis and his allies in the Legislature rendered the lawsuit moot with their subsequent actions, the filing said. By prohibiting the district from complying with the contracts, Mr. DeSantis and the Legislature made “any order this court could issue — in either party’s favor — legally irrelevant.”
* Disney is also pulling out of a billion dollar development in Florida…
In March, Disney called Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida “anti-business” for his scorched-earth attempt to tighten oversight of the company’s theme park resort near Orlando. Last month, when Disney sued the governor and his allies for what it called “a targeted campaign of government retaliation,” the company made clear that $17 billion in planned investment in Walt Disney World was on the line.
“Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people, and pay more taxes, or not?” Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, said on an earnings-related conference call with analysts last week.
On Thursday, Mr. Iger and Josh D’Amaro, Disney’s theme park and consumer products chairman, showed that they were not bluffing, pulling the plug on a nearly $1 billion office complex that was scheduled for construction in Orlando. It would have brought more than 2,000 jobs to the region, with $120,000 as the average salary, according to an estimate from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.
The project, known as the Lake Nona Town Center, was supposed to involve the relocation of more than 1,000 employees from Southern California, including most of a department known as Imagineering, which works with Disney’s movie studios to develop theme park attractions. Most of the affected employees complained bitterly about having to move — some quit — but Disney largely held firm, partly because of a Florida tax credit that would have allowed the company to recoup as much as $570 million over 20 years for building and occupying the complex.
* Texas…
Over the opposition of Democrats and the loud protests at the Capitol this month, the Texas Legislature voted on Wednesday to approve a bill banning hormone and puberty blocking treatments, as well as surgeries for transgender children. The state is poised to become the largest state to ban transition medical care for minors.
The final version of the bill included a limited exemption for those transgender children who were already receiving medical treatment before the bill’s passage, though it also required those patients to “wean” themselves off the medications over an unspecified period of time.
The bill would prohibit a doctor from performing mastectomies or surgeries that would sterilize a child or remove otherwise healthy tissue or body parts, or from prescribing drugs that would induce transient or permanent infertility. It now heads to the governor’s desk.
The legislation was one of several proposals aimed at regulating the lives of transgender people being considered this year by the Republican-dominated Legislature: On Wednesday, the State House voted to advance a measure requiring athletes in public colleges to compete based on the sex inscribed on their birth certificate at the time of their birth.
posted by Isabel Miller
Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 1:44 pm
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As George Will put it in his own column today “the moralistic micromanaging of life” that he accuses Progressives of doing in California is happening in small guv’mint Conservative states like Texas and North Carolina.
In those states they use their make believe friend as a justification for the laws in a Secular Nation.
Comment by Jerry Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 1:53 pm
I’m sure Disney would be welcome here, in Illinois.
Comment by Betty Draper’s cigarette Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 1:53 pm
The Cotham story is really something - the rep apparently was misinformed by her mother that Planned Parenthood didn’t applaud her at an event (video shows they did), got offended, and switched parties in retaliation. She shamelessly voted to override the veto notiwthstanding having run heavily on the issue in her last reelection campaign.
Comment by lake county democrat Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 1:55 pm
==regulating the lives of transgender people==
We are fighting for a free and strong America…as long as you’re cis.
Comment by Jocko Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 1:59 pm
How did giving puberty blockers to children ever become a thing? What a weird world. The great separation continues. N
Comment by James Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 1:59 pm
==How did giving puberty blockers to children ever become a thing?==
You can read, learn, and find an answer to that question. Or you can stay ignorant and comfortable.
I’ll give you a starter clue: Like mifepristone, there are more reasons for its prescription than you’d ever hear about on primetime cable news.
Comment by Roadrager Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 2:02 pm
Lake County:
She switched parties because her fee fees got hurt over that?
Sigh…..I wish I were surprised but it IS 2023.
Comment by btowntruth from forgottonia Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 2:09 pm
$1 billion. Losing that much in developmental money for your state’s economy because you’re a snowflake politician who can’t take criticism demonstrates failing in my book.
Comment by Norseman Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 2:19 pm
Re: North Carolina Abortion restrictions
When Tricia Cotham switched parties just five months after being elected as a democrat from the Charlotte area, the new republican proclaimed, “I will not be controlled by anyone!”
Tragic irony, I suppose.
Comment by H-W Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 2:26 pm
As someone who is personally familiar with some former Imagineers: everyone in that department would be immediately snatched up by Universal, Sea World, or any number of architecture, engineering, or design firms. Those guys are among the absolute best at what they do, and are largely responsible for Disney World being the gold+++ standard in entertainment architecture and design.
This is just the most public display of the real world consequences of governing solely by culture war principles. But I promise you these conversations are happening inside companies and among employees all the time.
Comment by Homebody Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 2:26 pm
Looks like I can’t take my daughter to Florida. DeSantis and his MAGA legislative sycophants has made it illegal for her to go to a public bathroom. This is the insanity running amok among opposite land.
Comment by Norseman Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 2:30 pm
The list of states that believe everyone who isn’t a white cisgender male is a second class citizen just grows and grows. We are becoming an island in the middle of Gilead.
Jacksonville Florida made me smile though.
Comment by Squirrel Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 2:34 pm
“How did giving puberty blockers to children ever become a thing? What a weird world.”
So when kids undergo early puberty at 8 the doctors should tell them they’re SOL because all the terrified conservatives out there are uncomfortable thinking about it?
It’s okay to be scared of things you’re too stupid and/or lazy to understand, but that’s not a basis for public policy.
Comment by Larry Bowa Jr. Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 2:35 pm
“pulling the plug on a nearly $1 billion office complex”
Is this the pro-growth the right keeps talking about?
Dude is going to probably get pounded for this, but not by Democrats. He’s reportedly getting ready to announce his presidential campaign. Someone with a frequent bronze or orange tint is waiting. Absolutely popcorn time.
Comment by Grandson of Man Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 2:43 pm
The Vatican employed an unconscionable ‘Surgery’ to young choirboys - The Castradi - in order to extend the ‘heavenly’ singing of those unfortunate children. I had no idea that was done by the Church until my Latin teacher Father Dempsey (in the early 60’s) laid out this ‘deplorable, putrid stain’ to a roomful of sophomores. Our jaws dropped not only due to the vile nature of that despicable practice, but also due to Dempsey’s having told us at all.
Comment by Sayitaintso Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 2:48 pm
J.B. should be on the phone with Disney recruiting that office project to Illinois. Particularly after Ron D. was here in Illinois this month talking smack.
I fear that Illinois is snoozing through a once-in-a-century gold rush. We could be out there recruiting population and companies from these bonkers southern states. Recruiting students for our colleges and universities. We just need to market our state.
Comment by sulla Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 3:04 pm
Am I reading that Texas law correctly in that it’ll ban minors from getting birth control pills?
Comment by Crow04 Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 3:42 pm
there plenty of land in southern Illinois for all Disney
Comment by 13th Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 4:16 pm
there plenty of land in southern Illinois for all Disney
Comment by 13th Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 4:17 pm
Good for Disney.
That’s the disturbing thing about today’s Republican party, their unwillingness to compromise, find common ground. It’s always this macho “We’re gonna own the libs” stuff.
Comment by Sir Reel Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 4:18 pm
@Crow04 - I saw that, too, and my layman’s reading is that it’s fairly narrow and would not include birth control pills - see bottom of page 2 to top of page 3 - https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/pdf/SB00014F.pdf#navpanes=0
Comment by Just Lurking Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 4:22 pm
Maybe after 7,000 layoffs in the midst of a 5.5 billion dollar cost cutting under the new CEO, the new 1 billion dollar Disney office complex was deemed unaffordable regardless of the feud with Governor DeSantis.
Comment by Lucky Pierre Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 4:39 pm
===deemed unaffordable===
They were gonna get almost half of that back from the state.
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, May 18, 23 @ 6:08 pm