Month: January 2024

A transgender woman said she was disqualified from running for a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives because she did not disclose her former name, or ‘deadname’ (the name a trans person was given at birth and no longer uses after their gender transition.)

Former real estate photographer Vanessa Joy, 42, hoped to run as a Democrat and represent Ohio House District 50, but was disqualified when she failed to include her deadname. Ohio law requires people running for political office who have changed their name within the last five years to include their former names on candidacy petitions. While the law exempts people who have changed their name because of marriage, it does not mention exemptions for trans people who have changed their names.

Joy said she filed a petition Thursday to contest her disqualification, adding that she was unaware of the law. She told NBC News: “It’s a barrier to entry for many trans and gender-nonconforming people. Where I personally would have just bit the bullet and allowed my deadname to be on the petitions and likely on the ballot, for a lot of trans people, they don’t want their deadnames printed. It’s a safety concern for many … I wanted to give millennials, Gen X and Gen Z the courage to get out and vote and to run for office themselves. Because if they see a trans girl from very red Ohio running for public office, in a chamber full of people who despise me for my existence, they might have more courage to get out and vote and see that ‘maybe my vote will make a difference.’” 

Joy’s disqualification comes shortly after Ohio made national headlines over transgender issues, with Republican Gov. Mike DeWine vetoing a GOP-backed bill last week that would have restricted both transition-related care for minors and transgender girls’ participation on school sports teams.  DeWine’s veto was criticized by some Republicans, as well as former President Donald Trump, who wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social:  “DeWine has fallen to the Radical Left. No wonder he gets loudly booed in Ohio every time I introduce him at Rallies, but I won’t be introducing him any more. I’m finished with this ‘stiff.’ What was he thinking. The bill would have stopped child mutilation, and prevented men from playing in women’s sports. Legislature will hopefully overturn. Do it FAST!!!”   The veto is expected to be challenged by Ohio lawmakers in coming weeks.

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A sixth grade student was killed, with four students and a school administrator injured, in a shooting on Thursday morning at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa. The shooter, a teenage student, appears to have acted alone and was also found dead at the scene with a self-inflicted gunshot wound after opening fire, officials said.

Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigations, said police received an alert of an active shooter inside the high school about 7:37 a.m. Mortvedt confirmed during a press briefing that the shooter, 17-year-old Dylan Butler, opened fire in the school Thursday morning, the beginning of the second semester for the Perry Community School District following winter break. Butler was armed with a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun, and a “rudimentary” explosive device was also found. It was rendered safe by the state fire marshal and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Mortvedt added that Butler made posts on social media shortly before the shooting, but his motivation is unknown and the shooting remains under investigation.

The high school and middle school in Perry are connected with a cafeteria near the hallway, and Mortvedt said there may have been students from different grades in the cafeteria at the time of the shooting. Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said fewer students and faculty members were in the building at the time than would have been after classes had begun: “It’s still unclear how many are inured or the extent of injuries. There is no further danger to the public. We are working backwards trying to figure out everything that happened and make notifications.” Infante said all students were reunified with their parents within the first two hours of the incident.

The first officer arrived on the scene about 7 minutes after the alert, with about 150 officers responded within the hour. Infante said. Law enforcement agencies that respond included the Perry Police Department, Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, Polk County Sheriff’s Department, Des Moines Police Department and the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigations.

Perry, situated about 40 miles northwest of Des Moines in central Iowa, has a population of 7,800. The high school was named a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education last month.

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On Wednesday, bomb threats across the nation forced the evacuation of multiple state Capitols, with law enforcement and state officials in Kentucky, Mississippi, Georgia, Connecticut, Montana, and Michigan confirming having received threats or reports of suspicious activity. None of the threats have been found to be credible at press time.

Kentucky Secretary of State communications director Michon Lindstrom said that a “mass email” containing the threat had been sent to lawmakers and state offices in at least 10 states, adding: “It just said ‘there is an explosive in your state Capitol,’ so it didn’t make any references to the secretary of state’s office specifically.” A copy of the email received by the Kentucky Secretary of State contained the subject line “Explosives inside of your State Capitol.” The email read: “I placed multiple explosives inside of your State Capitol. The explsoives are well hidden inside and they will go off in a few hours. I will make sure you all end up dead.” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear wrote on X: “while everyone is safe, [state police] has asked everyone to evacuate the state Capitol and is investigating a threat received by the Secretary of State’s Office.” An all-clear was later issued following a sweep by law enforcement.

Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s chief operating officer in the Office of the Georgia Secretary of State, wrote on X: “Starting 2024 with a bomb threat at the Georgia State Capitol.”   Sterling later confirmed in a subsequent tweet that the “all clear has been given.”  Officials in Georgia, Michigan, and Connecticut all confirmed evacuations at their Capitols after threatening emails were sent to lawmakers and government officials. Connecticut State Capitol Police officer Scott Driscoll wrote in an email to Connecticut Capitol staff and lawmakers on Wednesday: “Earlier this morning, the Connecticut State Capitol Police received complaints from numerous employees about a suspicious email that was received. The email, which apparently was sent to numerous states, claimed to have placed multiple explosives in the Capitol Building.” The building was reopened after several hours of lockdown.

Michigan State Police said that lawmakers received a text message alert indicating they “must evacuate the building” at around 10:16 a.m. local time, and later wrote on X that “the Capitol was evacuated, the building searched, and the Michigan State Police currently has MSP Canine teams still sweeping the building. Out of an abundance of caution, the Capitol will remain closed for the rest of the day.”

In addition, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves wrote on X: “Today a bomb threat was made against our Mississippi Capitol building. Thankfully, the situation is clear. I’m incredibly thankful to the Capitol Police and all the Mississippi law enforcement officers who immediately responded to the incident.”

Montana’s Capitol had also been evacuated due to a bomb threat and that the threat was found to not be credible following an investigation by law enforcement. A spokesperson for the Montana Department of Administration shared: “In response to this morning’s bomb threat at the Montana State Capitol, Department of Administration General Services has been working closely with local law enforcement officials. A sweep has been completed, and the threat was found to not be credible. The building has been reopened to the public.”

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On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to overturn a state court ruling in Colorado that said he is ineligible to appear on the state primary ballot because of his actions leading up to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The Colorado Supreme Court based its ruling on Dec. 19th on language in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment that prohibits those who “engaged in insurrection” from running for various federal offices. The Colorado Republican Party had already filed its own appeal in the case; based on language in the state court ruling, Trump now remains on the Colorado ballot until the Supreme Court decides on Trump’s appeal.

Trump’s lawyers said in the filing that if the ruling is allowed to stand it would “mark the first time in the history of the United States that the judiciary has prevented voters from casting ballots for the leading major-party presidential candidate.”  They added that the court should “return the right to vote for their candidate of choice to the voters … only Congress has the authority to decide who is eligible to serve as president.” Trump’s legal team also argues that even if the provision could be applied to the former president, he did not engage in insurrection on Jan. 6, citing a “long history of political protests that have turned violent.”

The decision from Colorado’s high court reversed a lower court’s ruling in which a judge said Trump had engaged in insurrection by inciting the riot on Jan. 6, but that presidents are not subject to the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment because they are not an “officer of the United States.” The state court said its ruling would remain on hold indefinitely, allowing Trump and his allies to file appeals with the Supreme Court.

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