The News Not Noise Letter: News That Doesn’t Suck (And Some That Does)
Who voted against giving women equal rights? An unexpected victory for reproductive rights. Plus: a 5,000-year-old tree and get ready for influencers in outrageous outfits all over your social feeds.
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A quick rundown of this week’s big stories:
Equal Rights Amendment: Congress voted down the Equal Rights Amendment this week, one century after it was introduced. Equal rights for women are still not explicitly written into the Constitution. Technically the vote was on extending the deadline to approve the ERA; bottom line that means they blocked it. The measure was 9 votes short of the 60-vote supermajority needed to clear the filibuster.
Rare Bipartisan Agreement: In a double-whammy surprise, bipartisan groups of lawmakers blocked anti-abortion legislation in Nebraska and South Carolina with Republicans leading the opposition to extreme abortion limits. Women lawmakers in South Carolina blocked their state’s bill, with one Republican likening the implications of the ban to The Handmaid’s Tale. And an 80-year-old Republican man stalled the anti-abortion bill in Nebraska. Abortion remains legal in both states until 22 weeks of pregnancy, though South Carolina has another anti-abortion bill moving through the legislature.
E. Jean Carroll Case: Writer E. Jean Carroll took to the stand this week in her civil suit against former President Donald Trump. Carroll alleges that Trump raped her in the mid-1990s, and that he defamed her by calling her a “liar” after she first published her allegations in her 2019 memoir. Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina cross-examined Carroll Thursday about the allegations, and she responded with powerful testimony.
Even Fox Can See It: A new poll from Fox News found that the majority of American voters support limitations on gun ownership, with 87% supporting universal background checks, 81% supporting raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21, 80% supporting policies that would remove guns from people who are at-risk, and 77% supporting a required waiting period for all gun purchases. 51% of voters, including 44% of those who live in gun-owning households, are “extremely/very concerned that they or a loved one will be a victim of gun violence. Gun safety legislation does not divide Americans — it unites us.
Pence Testimony: Former Vice President Mike Pence testified under oath for 7 hours before a grand jury in the criminal investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 election, including the January 6th insurrections. We don’t know what he said, but we do know that former President Trump’s legal team tried — and failed — to block Pence’s testimony.
Here’s some news that doesn’t suck:
That’s One Old Man: Meet a great grandfather who’s 5000 years old. “Great Grandfather” is the name researchers in Chile have given to a Fitzroya cypress which they believe is the world’s oldest tree. Data suggests it’s over 5,000 years old, making it at least 150 years older than “Methuselah,” the previous record-holding tree located in California. Great Grandfather has seen a lot of changes in its lifetime; it would have been a sapling when humans first invented writing. Great Grandfather is 13 feet wide and over 90 feet tall. One of the researchers who calculated Great Grandfather’s age says that ancient trees are “nature’s best athletes” and they offer “an important key about how life adapts to changes on the planet.”
Pollution Crackdown: President Biden signed a sweeping executive order which directs federal agencies to crack down on pollution and prioritize environmental justice. The order includes big changes and will require the federal government to:
Quickly notify communities when toxic chemicals are released in their area.
Conduct research on existing pollution and its distribution.
Create and publish an Environmental Justice Strategic Plan.
Establish a White House Office of Environmental Justice to help make sure low-income and majority nonwhite communities get access to “cleaner air and water, less exposure to pollution and hazardous waste sites, and better access to green space, safe and affordable housing, and clean transportation.”
USAFACTS HAS GOOD NEWS ABOUT CLEANER AIR: Our partners at USAFacts informed us that since 1985, air quality has improved in 42 states, and the state with the best air quality is Hawaii. To see how your state compares, click here. USA Facts is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civic organization dedicated to making government data available. They are a News Not Noise content partner.
Nerd Prom & the Met Gala: Get ready for a few days full of noise: The annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner is Saturday, April 29, and the Met Gala follows on Monday, May 1. The Correspondents’ Dinner has its detractors; not everyone loves seeing top political reporters drinking and dining with the politicians they cover and various Kardashians. (Full disclosure: I attended regularly when I was in the DC press corps.) The New York Times has not purchased tables for its journalists for over a decade, a policy former NYT Washington bureau chief instituted because “the scene of journalists and politicians partying together in an off-the-record bash looked pretty lousy for us.” Memorably in 2011, then-President Obama and comedian Seth Meyers roasted Donald Trump, which reportedly so enraged Trump he decided to run for president to prove their jokes wrong. The event was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, and there was some talk that it might not return but, since old traditions do not die in Washington, it came back in 2022 and may well persist as long as Great Grandfather the tree. This year’s host is Daily Show correspondent and stand-up comic Roy Wood Jr., who said that after Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon were let go, he had to scrap his whole stand-up routine and start from scratch. In addition to Washington politicos and press, rumored attendees include the Tennessee Three, state lawmakers who faced expulsion for taking a stand against gun violence. The dinner will be broadcast live on C-SPAN. On Monday, expect your Instagram feed to be taken over by the Met Gala, where 300-400 of the most fashionable – or most-likely to go viral on TikTok – figures in New York, Hollywood, and the world gather to show off attention-grabbing outfits and fund the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met Gala’s theme this year is all about Karl Lagerfeld, the iconic but controversial fashion designer. Check out some iconic looks from recent Met Galas below:
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