Shawn never really wanted children. A 32-year-old software engineer and amateur weightlifter living in central Florida, he had long contemplated a vasectomy. When he met his fiancee and learned that she also held no grand designs on reproduction, the matter was all but settled. He was, by his estimate, “90% certain”.

The supreme court’s recent overturning of Roe v Wade, and the nationwide convulsions over abortion access, was the final push he and his partner needed. When he read that Justice Clarence Thomas mentioned, in his opinion concurring with the controversial ruling, that the court should reconsider access to contraception, Shawn knew he had to move fast.

*snip*

As Shawn and his fiancee were mulling more permanent options for contraception, he began to notice an obvious disjoint between the care he was offered and that which women are typically afforded. He has heard stories of women seeking tubal ligation (colloquially, “tube-tying”) procedures who are pressed about the considerations of “the hypothetical man” – husbands, or even prospective husbands, who may take issue with the procedure. “I see women talking about how they need their husbands’ signatures,” he said, shaking his head, a little disbelieving. “My fiancee was there for my vasectomy. No one asked her. There’s a huge double standard with reproductive rights.”

Suddenly, with the upsetting of Roe, the cultural response to a “child-free” lifestyle has itself been overturned. Once regarded as a selfish gesture, sterilization can now seem downright altruistic. Little has certainly entertained these sorts of bigger political and social considerations. But he ultimately sees them more as post-hoc justifications for something he was already considering. “It sounds grandiose to say that it’s a show of solidarity,” he says. “I don’t want to get a girl pregnant, right? Abortion was never the first choice, obviously. But it was a choice.”

MORE: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/27/vasectomy-roe-v-wade-abortion-supreme-court

Uprising Bakery & Cafe in Lake in the Hills, which closed Saturday after its front windows were smashed and epithets written on the walls, re-opened Sunday and Monday to long lines and community enthusiasm.

The cafe had planned an all-ages drag show Saturday night but had experienced backlash over the previous few weeks. The cafe and the performers were committed to putting on the show, right up until their hands were forced by the overnight destruction.

*snip*

Several Lake in the Hills village trustees and the village president, Ray Bogdanowski, also stopped by Sunday to show support for the business, Bendel-Sac said.

*snip*

Woodstock Pride has been in contact with the cafe offering help, and Buffalo Grove Pride and Together We Stand McHenry County provided "generous" donations Sunday, Bendel-Sac said.

Lake in the Hills Police made an arrest in the case on Saturday. The suspect, Joseph Collins, 23, of Alsip, charged with a hate crime and criminal damage to property, is due in court on Tuesday.

MORE: https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20220725/after-vandalism-uprising-bakery-re-opens-to-long-lines-in-lake-in-the-hills

Uprising Bakery & Cafe in Lake in the Hills, [IL] which closed Saturday after its front windows were smashed and epithets written on the walls, re-opened Sunday and Monday to long lines and community enthusiasm.

The cafe had planned an all-ages drag show Saturday night but had experienced backlash over the previous few weeks. The cafe and the performers were committed to putting on the show, right up until their hands were forced by the overnight destruction.

*snip*

Several Lake in the Hills village trustees and the village president, Ray Bogdanowski, also stopped by Sunday to show support for the business, Bendel-Sac said.

*snip*

Woodstock Pride has been in contact with the cafe offering help, and Buffalo Grove Pride and Together We Stand McHenry County provided "generous" donations Sunday, Bendel-Sac said.

Lake in the Hills Police made an arrest in the case on Saturday. The suspect, Joseph Collins, 23, of Alsip, charged with a hate crime and criminal damage to property, is due in court on Tuesday.

MORE: https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20220725/after-vandalism-uprising-bakery-re-opens-to-long-lines-in-lake-in-the-hills

Dr. Caitlin Bernard speaks out on "real-life implications" of abortion bans: "Come spend a day in my clinic"

Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist who was thrown into the national spotlight after a 10-year-old rape victim traveled from Ohio to Indiana for an abortion, said the case has made people recognize the impact of laws restricting abortions. According to Indiana records, Bernard is the doctor who provided a medication-induced abortion to the 10-year-old on June 30. Due to privacy laws, she's unable to confirm that.

"I think we're at a time in our country where people are starting to realize the impact of these anti-abortion laws," Bernard told "CBS Evening News" anchor and managing editor Norah O'Donnell in an exclusive television interview on Tuesday.

"This has been going on for a long time — becoming harder and harder in many states for people to access abortion," she said. "And now when it's finally become impossible for some people, we're realizing what that is going to look like, what the real-life implications are for people who need abortion care. I think people realize that that is actually not what they intended. That is not what they want for children, for women, to be put in these situations of life-threatening conditions, of traumatic pregnancies. They realize that abortion needs to be safe and legal."

*snip*

"When you take away the right to privacy in your medical decision-making, it puts you in a situation where you don't know where to turn," she said. "And it makes it incredibly difficult, not just to provide abortion care, but full-spectrum reproductive health care. You know, this will affect our ability to take care of miscarriages. This will affect our ability to take care of complications in early pregnancy that could kill someone. This will affect our ability to provide infertility treatment, contraception, the list goes on."

More: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abortion-bans-caitlin-bernard-doctor/

Dr. Caitlin Bernard speaks out on "real-life implications" of abortion bans: "Come spend a day in my clinic"

Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist who was thrown into the national spotlight after a 10-year-old rape victim traveled from Ohio to Indiana for an abortion, said the case has made people recognize the impact of laws restricting abortions. According to Indiana records, Bernard is the doctor who provided a medication-induced abortion to the 10-year-old on June 30. Due to privacy laws, she's unable to confirm that.

"I think we're at a time in our country where people are starting to realize the impact of these anti-abortion laws," Bernard told "CBS Evening News" anchor and managing editor Norah O'Donnell in an exclusive television interview on Tuesday.

"This has been going on for a long time — becoming harder and harder in many states for people to access abortion," she said. "And now when it's finally become impossible for some people, we're realizing what that is going to look like, what the real-life implications are for people who need abortion care. I think people realize that that is actually not what they intended. That is not what they want for children, for women, to be put in these situations of life-threatening conditions, of traumatic pregnancies. They realize that abortion needs to be safe and legal."

*snip*

"When you take away the right to privacy in your medical decision-making, it puts you in a situation where you don't know where to turn," she said. "And it makes it incredibly difficult, not just to provide abortion care, but full-spectrum reproductive health care. You know, this will affect our ability to take care of miscarriages. This will affect our ability to take care of complications in early pregnancy that could kill someone. This will affect our ability to provide infertility treatment, contraception, the list goes on."

More: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abortion-bans-caitlin-bernard-doctor/

Yes, Donald Trump Is at Significant Risk of Federal Prosecution

Just one week after the Jan. 6 House Select committee wrapped up a set of summer hearings that exposed Donald Trump’s deep culpability for the events of Jan. 6, things have started to look much worse for the former president. On top of the Congressional inquiry, the start of the week brought fresh reporting that a federal grand jury is accelerating its probe into Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

On Tuesday, the New York Times broke a story disclosing important emails and admissions about the scheme to submit “fake electors” to Congress that the 2020 Trump campaign, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and their lawyer-friends ran in six battleground states (plus New Mexico) after losing the election. Not to be outdone, the Washington Post published a scoop a few hours later confirming that the Department of Justice has turned to directly investigating Trump’s actions.

The Post reports that the scope of the grand jury inquiry includes the fake electors scheme, Trump’s direct involvement in it, and his efforts to press Vice President Mike Pence to utilize those phony certificates as part of a plan to overturn the election. The publication also noted that there was a parallel track to the investigation “that could ultimately lead to additional scrutiny of Trump.” That track would expand on the seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct a government proceeding probe that has already resulted in indictments against the leader of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. According to the Post, investigators are now not just looking at “individuals who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6,” but also scrutinizing those who “were allegedly involved in planning the day’s events.”

The Post’s confirmation matters, even though, to quote a line from Hamlet, “There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave to tell us this.” It has been obvious, and we have said so in Slate for many months, that Donald Trump is at significant risk of federal prosecution—as he should be, given the evidence now in the public record.

MORE: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/07/donald-trump-doj-prosecution-risk-high.html

The Supreme Court’s June 24 decision overruling Roe v. Wade unleashed an immediate and relentless flood of cruelty against pregnant Americans. Child victims of rape and incest, including a 10-year-old girl in Ohio, must cross state lines to obtain abortions. Patients undergoing a miscarriage are compelled to bleed out for days and risk sepsis before doctors are willing to terminate their pregnancies. Those with ectopic pregnancies, which are lethal and non-viable, are denied treatment due to the presence of a fetal “heartbeat.” Women suspected of being pregnant are denied vital treatment for autoimmune disorders because they happen to induce abortion, too.

In the face of these horror stories, the anti-abortion movement has doubled down. Jim Bopp, general counsel for the National Right to Life, said that the 10-year-old girl rape victim Ohio should have been forced to carry her rapist’s fetus, telling Politico: “She would have had the baby, and as many women who have had babies as a result of rape, we would hope that she would understand the reason and ultimately the benefit of having the child.” Other anti-abortion groups condemned the girl’s abortion as “violence perpetuated against her.” And John Seago, the president of Texas Right to Life, acknowledged that abortion bans may cause doctors to delay care for miscarriage patients until complications arise.

These organizations are defending a legal regime that they helped to craft. Most post-Roe abortion bans contain no exception for rape or incest, and only an extremely vague, narrow exception to protect the life of the mother. These laws are crafted to outlaw abortion in all but the most dire circumstances, when the patient is actively dying because of pregnancy—and even then, the bans are so ambiguous that doctors fear liability if they terminate.

STERN: My sense is that many anti-abortion advocates believe it is worth risking the death of the patient by providing extremely narrow health exemptions in order to spare a maximum number of fetuses from termination. Do you think that’s fair?

ZIEGLER: I think that’s fair. There has been a growing push to get rid of life-saving exceptions. In the worldview most folks in the anti-abortion movement have, abortion is murder. It’s worse not only in the sense that it’s certain death, but that it’s intentional. From their standpoint, if some women die because they’re refused care, that isn’t a certain death, there isn’t intentionally going to be a death, so that’s the lesser of the evils in that situation.

The Supreme Court’s June 24 decision overruling Roe v. Wade unleashed an immediate and relentless flood of cruelty against pregnant Americans. Child victims of rape and incest, including a 10-year-old girl in Ohio, must cross state lines to obtain abortions. Patients undergoing a miscarriage are compelled to bleed out for days and risk sepsis before doctors are willing to terminate their pregnancies. Those with ectopic pregnancies, which are lethal and non-viable, are denied treatment due to the presence of a fetal “heartbeat.” Women suspected of being pregnant are denied vital treatment for autoimmune disorders because they happen to induce abortion, too.

In the face of these horror stories, the anti-abortion movement has doubled down. Jim Bopp, general counsel for the National Right to Life, said that the 10-year-old girl rape victim Ohio should have been forced to carry her rapist’s fetus, telling Politico: “She would have had the baby, and as many women who have had babies as a result of rape, we would hope that she would understand the reason and ultimately the benefit of having the child.” Other anti-abortion groups condemned the girl’s abortion as “violence perpetuated against her.” And John Seago, the president of Texas Right to Life, acknowledged that abortion bans may cause doctors to delay care for miscarriage patients until complications arise.

These organizations are defending a legal regime that they helped to craft. Most post-Roe abortion bans contain no exception for rape or incest, and only an extremely vague, narrow exception to protect the life of the mother. These laws are crafted to outlaw abortion in all but the most dire circumstances, when the patient is actively dying because of pregnancy—and even then, the bans are so ambiguous that doctors fear liability if they terminate.

STERN: My sense is that many anti-abortion advocates believe it is worth risking the death of the patient by providing extremely narrow health exemptions in order to spare a maximum number of fetuses from termination. Do you think that’s fair?

ZIEGLER: I think that’s fair. There has been a growing push to get rid of life-saving exceptions. In the worldview most folks in the anti-abortion movement have, abortion is murder. It’s worse not only in the sense that it’s certain death, but that it’s intentional. From their standpoint, if some women die because they’re refused care, that isn’t a certain death, there isn’t intentionally going to be a death, so that’s the lesser of the evils in that situation.

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Co.)—or brunette Marjorie Taylor Greene—has apparently written a memoir, and it’s rife with details somehow more shocking than the fact that the gun-loving congresswoman is literate enough to write a book. In My American Life, released on Tuesday, Boebert, who’s spent the better part of the last couple months railing against “groomers” and the great safety risk drag shows pose to children, goes to bat for her “hunky husband,” who once served jail time for public indecency and lewd exposure after exposing himself to a teen at a bowling alley. Boebert claims this is all based on a misunderstanding.

According to Boebert, on the night in question, her now-husband and then-boyfriend Jayson Boebert had been “bonding” over drinks with her stepfather and some friends at Fireside Lane Bowling Alley in Rifle, Colorado (of course). It was totally a family affair, until an apparently nosy, 17-year-old bartender barged in, lusting after Jayson, who, err looks like this:

According to Lauren, Jayson’s friends had told the bartender—again, a teenage girl—about “a great tattoo” Jayson had “in a private area,” which “made her curious, so she pressed Jayson to show it to her right there at the bar.” Lauren claims the teen girl simply “wouldn’t stop” asking to see the private tattoo, and it was only then, after her repeated begging (uh huh), that Jayson merely “acted like he was going to unzip his pants” after having too much to drink.

When the bowling alley’s owner confronted Jayson and asked him to leave, he refused. “The two argued, and Jayson threw a basket of fries at the owner,” Lauren casually wrote. “The police were called.” Boys will be boys!

Go here for lots more on Jaysin's criminal past: https://jezebel.com/lauren-boebert-claims-husband-only-exposed-himself-to-t-1849173531
https://jezebel.com/lauren-boebert-claims-husband-only-exposed-himself-to-t-1849173531

If you live in the Chicago area, you don't have to travel very far to visit the second-best city in the world, a new list says. According to the 2022 Time Out index, more than 20,000 city-dwellers ranked Chicago as the No. 2 city in the world based on nightlife, food and drink, arts and culture, along with affordability, walkability, public transportation and more.

"Whether you want to try world-class dining, party until 4am at historic clubs, spend a day soaking up the sun along Lake Michigan, see iconic artworks or just wander among different neighborhoods, there’s never a dull moment to be had (yes, even when winter rolls around)," the report says.

The list, comprised of 53 cities, specifically highlights Chicago's food and beverage scene, naming that as a top reason to visit, noting the city boasts the country’s first-ever Michelin-starred Filipino tasting menu.

And, the Windy City is the only one in the United States to make the top 10.

Read more to see which cities round out the top 20: https://www.timeout.com/things-to-do/best-cities-in-the-world