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Teen girls in the United States are twice as likely as boys to experience persistent, long-term sadness, with one in three teen girls reporting that they “seriously considered” or attempted suicide, a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found, according to the New York Times.

The study also found that one in five children who identify as LGBTQ has seriously considered or attempted suicide in the previous twelve months.  The levels of sadness and suicide attempts were the highest among all teens in the past ten years, a sign that the pandemic has had significant adverse effects on the development and social interaction of children.

For both girls and LGBTQ teens, many reported feelings of despair and social isolation, with one in seven girls and one in five LGBTQ teens saying they felt coerced to have sex or they were physically forced to have sex in the previous year.

The National Suicide Prevention Hotline in the United States is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 1-800-273-8255 or 988. Please call or text if you need to talk to someone.

Expanding Democrats’ massive advantage in the state senate, New Jersey Republican Samuel Thompson announced that he was leaving the GOP to run as a Democrat in his upcoming reelection campaign because Republicans suggested another candidate for the seat after questioning the 87-year-old’s fitness for office, NBC News reports.

“The betrayal by so many of my friends — that was too much for me.  I am not leaving my Party. My Party leadership has left me,” Thompson said in an interview after Middlesex County Republican Chairman Rob Bengivenga told him he was supporting a challenger for the seat.  Thompson’s transparty move increases the Democrats’ majority in the state senate to 26 seats in the 40-seat chamber.

After the College Board thoroughly debunked his claim that he strongarmed them to change its African Studies Advanced Placement course, Republican Florida Governor and dollar store Napoleon Ron DeSantis now threatens to pull all AP courses from Florida schools in favor of a vendor that will include racial propaganda conservatives favor.  DeSantis put on an ultimately comical tough-guy performance claiming the College Board African Studies AP course was full of hatred towards white people–which DeSantis intentionally conflates with the academic study of critical race theory, only to have the College Board note that the final version of the curriculum was finalized before DeSantis held his press conferences to coddle the Republican base.  (Yes, the video is glitchy, but the audio, message and dog whistle are very clear.)

One of just eleven states that refused to expand Medicaid coverage as part of the Affordable Care Act, Mississippi has experienced a 900% increase in the number of infants born with congenital syphilis with at least one child dying of the disease, NBC News reports.

In 2016, just 10 cases of congenital syphilis in newborns were reported to state health officials; in 2021, the number of cases jumped to more than 100.  Mothers pass congenital syphilis to their children should they themselves be infected, but the disease can be stopped by treating the pregnant patient with penicillin shots within three months of giving birth.

Most prenatal maternity care treatment plans would identify and treat patients who test positive for the disease as part of their normal program, but in chronically poor Mississippi, there are few OB/GYNs or even trained pregnancy coaches staffing health care facilities to care for and educate pregnant patients.  The lack of care hits poor minority families worst:  of the cases of congenital syphilis, more than 70% have happened with Black patients, although they account for only 42% of live births in the state.

An active shooter is on the loose in or near Berkeley Hall on the Michigan State University campus in East Lansing, Michigan, Fox 2 reports. “MSU Police report shots fired incident occurring on or near the East Lansing campus. Secure-in-Place immediately. Run, Hide, Fight,” said a text alert from the school. Some sketchier sources on Twitter are saying there is more than one shooter and that at least six people have been shot, with multiple possible fatalities among them.

Alec Baldwin's daughter Ireland shows off her baby bump in skimpy bikini https://t.co/GSnjcYvl0h

— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 13, 2023

“So another unqualified clown appointee. I’m sure Joetato will keep him or appoint another diverse individual who will underperform” – The current top comment on the Breitbart article, “Kevin McCarthy Demands Joe Biden Fire the Capitol Building’s Top Manager” posted at 2:56 PM Monday.

That was 28 minutes after we reported that Biden had actually fired Capitol Architect Brett Blanton. A little tight, so maybe that was actually Breitbart’s fault and not the commenter’s. It’s not clear what time the article was posted, since Breitbart doesn’t have timestamps, though this top comment was also the “oldest.” As for which President actually appointed Blanton, the article does mention in the end that “Blanton was presidentially appointed the Architect of the Capitol in 2020,” so it’s sort of understandable that this dipshit thinks Biden was the one who hired Blanton.

This sucks. Like you can tell he was trying to make a funny reference like Tom Brady did when he told Joe Biden “Not a lot of people think that we could have won. In fact, I think about 40 percent of people still don’t think we won. You understand that, Mr. President?” during the Bucs’ ceremony at the White House in 2021, but here Trump just can’t make it work. He’s not clever enough.

At least he didn’t congratulate the “Great State of Kansas” on their win again. Otherwise we’d have to watch the MAGA trolls carry on for days about how he was actually right… even though he deleted that tweet and corrected it to say “Missouri,” the state in which the Chiefs are based.

What we couldn’t fit in the headline was that the 49 year-old rural Michigan man, Timothy Heath Findlay, was already in jail during both threats, according to the Detroit News. In 2013, while being held in a local jail over a non-political bomb threat, Findlay wrote two notes threatening to kill the judge and then-President Obama with a bomb, and also wrote “Fuckin’ kill the president bitches” and “Kill Obama” on the walls of his cell. Then he told Secret Service agents “that if he were drunk, he would definitely try and kill the president,” according to a transcript of his plea hearing.

Findlay did 15 months for that threat, but apparently hadn’t learned his lesson, as in April of last year, while serving time in the clink for some other crime, he mailed a letter to the White House threatening to kill President Biden, Jill Biden, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and others with cyanide. Findlay now faces up to five years in federal prison for the second conviction.

Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission Executive Director Steve Marks tendered his resignation to Governor Tina Kotek on Monday following weeks of accusations Marks had leveraged his position to acquire rare bottles of whiskey before the general public, the Associated Press reports.

Oregon is one of the states where the retail packaged liquor industry is completely nationalized, there are no privately-owned wine and spirit stores, and Marks and his pals were accused of diverting a shipment of a particular label costing thousands of dollars a bottle to a store outside the state capital of Salem. The now-former liquor czar claimed he and his minions paid for the bottles and used them only for gifts and personal consumption. Regardless, the attorney general is opening an investigation and at the very least they violated an ethics law which prohibits state officials from leveraging any sort of insider knowledge for personal gain.

President Biden on Monday fired Trump-appointed Architect of the Capitol Brett Blanton in the wake of revelations the asshole let his family use official vehicles, Punchbowl’s John Bresnahan reports.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had earlier told reporters there was “no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns” of the UFOs.

A US military official told ABC News on Monday a “significant portion” of the gondola from the ChiCom spy balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina last Saturday has been recovered.

A survey by Tulchin Research finds bespectacled oaf Republican Mississippi Gov Tate Reeves trailing Dem Brandon Presley by a slim 47 to 43 percent margin ahead of the November election.

Reeves is bogged down in the Brett Favre/Ted DiBiase welfare scandal, with the poll finding his approval rating down to 25 percent vs 64 percent disapproval. It’s tough, but not impossible for a Dem to get elected governor in a deep red state, especially when the Republican opponent absolutely sucks. See Kris Kobach losing Kansas in 2018, and Matt Bevin losing in Kentucky in 2019.

Spandex-wearing grapple freak Jim Jordan on Monday told Fox News conspiracy theory idiot Maria Bartiromo that having Jonathan Turley and Tulsi Gabbard as witnesses at his “Weaponization” select subcommittee hearing last week made it “bipartisan.” Not sure what else to add here.

Following the lead of his cantaloupe-colored autocrat, nihilist Steve Bannon has not paid the lawyers who have represented him in numerous criminal and civil legal cases, according to the Daily Beast, likely a reason his lawyers reported to the court last month that he’s not been communicating with his legal team.

Currently appealing a jail sentence after being convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress, Bannon escaped a prison sentence after receiving a pardon from disgraced former president Donald Trump for scamming donors out of tens of thousands of dollars in a “Build the Wall” scam.

With a net worth estimated at $20 million, made mainly through media projects like his podcast and through direct pleas to the Trump fans, Bannon owes “significant” sums of money to attorneys M. Evan Corcoran of Baltimore, who also represents Trump, and Robert Costello of New York City.  According to sources, Bannon outstanding debts to Costello totaled at least $100,000 as of August 2022.

Fulton County, Georgia Judge Robert McBurney on Monday ruled he will withhold portions of the report on the special grand jury’s investigation into fat former President Trump and his minions’ attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state, Lawfare’s Anna Bower reports.

Some sections of the report will be made public on Thursday, but it does not appear that the special grand jury’s list of recommended targets for prosecution will be included in those sections. Would seem the ruling could be an indication of good news as far as an indictment of the Orange God Emperor goes, as Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis had argued against a full release as to not compromise her ongoing criminal investigation into the MAGA Reich.

An ice fishing tournament on Vermont’s Lake Champlain was canceled Saturday after three competitors, including two brothers, died after falling through the ice and drowning, NBC reports.

Wayne Alexander, 62, of Grand Isle was found under the ice hours after he was scheduled to return home.  Two brothers, John Fleury, 71, of Williamstown, and his older brother, Wayne Fleury, 88 also died when their SUV they drove on to the ice broke through the ice and plunged into the lake.  John was found in the water, and a diver found Wayne caught in his car.

The Grand Isle County Sheriff’s Department requested organizers halt the tournament after the incidents, asking all fishermen and -women to get off the lake immediately due to hazardous conditions.  Reports of mudminnows with blowfishes under the water have not been confirmed.

French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu on Sunday ripped Disney’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever over its depiction of a French military plot to steal the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda’s reserves of a fictional alien metal called Vibranium, three months after the movie premiered in theaters and two weeks after it became available on demand, Politico EU reports.

“I firmly denounce this misleading and deceptive representation of our Armed Forces. I think about and pay tribute to the 58 French soldiers who died defending Mali at its request against Islamist terrorist groups,” Lecornu tweeted about a movie which depicts a war between Wakanda and a secret sub-pelagic civilization built off the Yucatan Peninsula by ancient Maya people who were mutated by vibranium flowers which gave them the ability to breathe underwater.

“Do not travel to Russia due to the unpredictable consequences of the unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces, the potential for harassment and the singling out of U.S. citizens for detention by Russian government security officials, the arbitrary enforcement of local law, limited flights into and out of Russia, the Embassy’s limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia, and the possibility of terrorism. U.S. citizens residing or travelling in Russia should depart immediately. Exercise increased caution due to the risk of wrongful detentions,” says a State Department advisory bulletin updated to “Level 4: Do Not Travel” on Monday.

“The U.S. government’s ability to provide routine or emergency services to U.S. citizens in Russia is severely limited, particularly in areas far from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, due to Russian government limitations on travel for embassy personnel and staffing, and the ongoing suspension of operations, including consular services, at U.S. consulates,” the bulletin continued.