Thousands Pour Into Austin, Texas Abortion Fight | Gabby Gifford Fires Gun & Presses On For Gun Control

An estimated 5-6,000 abortion rights supporters converged on Austin, Texas yesterday, as lawmakers returned for a second special session called by Texas Governor Rick Perry. The Republican majority body is expected to pass abortion legislation that galvanized American women last week, after Fort Worth Democrat state Sen. Wendy Davis led an 11-hour filibuster against the bill. The Texas Tribune reports that a group of about 100 backers of the bill held a press conference inside the capitol.

The Texas Tribune also shares an important article How Public Opinion Fueled Senate’s Abortion Fight, interpreting recent polls in Texas as AOC analyzed them.

Taken together, these polling numbers convey broad support for some specific restrictions focusing on procedures. We don’t find more than token support for drastically reducing or eliminating access. In June 2013, 79 percent of Texans indicated that abortion should be available to a woman under varying circumstances. As for Davis’ core constituency, 59 percent of Democrats and 77 percent of liberals think that it should always be legal and available. As for the GOP: 20 percent of female Republicans think that abortion should always be legal, compared with 11 percent of male Republicans. But maybe more important for future electoral fortunes, there exists a 19-point gap among female and male independents regarding the opinion that abortion should always be available, 41 percent to 22 percent; and one of the most supportive groups of all is suburban women, 45 percent of whom think the procedure should always be legal.

1. Former Arizona Reb. Gabrielle Giffords aimed and fired a gun at a Las Vegas target firing range yesterday. Giffords sent the firing shot of her seven-day “Rights and Responsibilities Tour” as a proud gun owner who seeks sensible gun legislation in America. Giffords and husband Mark Kelly are trying to revive stalled background-check legislation, which failed in the US Senate in April. 

“Some might consider me an unlikely advocate for gun rights because I sustained terrible injuries in a violent shooting,” Giffords wrote in an Op-Ed published Monday in USA Today. “But I’m a patriot, and I believe the right to bear arms is a definitive part of our American heritage.”

2. Jeep leads a list of America’s most patriotic brands, writes USA Today. Jeep beat out Coca-Cola, Levis, Harley-Davidson and Disney in the top 25 list, in a survey of 4,500 consumers.

“As marketers traditionally operate on the Independence Day theory that a patriotic, flag-waving call-to-emotion will motivate consumers to behave more positively toward their brands, we wanted to see which brands actually led when it came to that particular value,” says Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys, in a statement.

Jeep resonates deeply as a symbol of American ruggedness and sense of adventure.

3. Records of the actions of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan as archbishop of Milwaukee in 2003 suggest that he had a full understanding of the seriousness of sex abuse cases in America. Dolan moved to protect church assets from any future claims, while moving to push out problem priests and even paying them to leave the priesthood. 

“The impact on his various victims has been significant,” Dolan wrote then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI. “The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has yet to even locate all of the potential victims that could come forward for assistance. Our new found awareness of the severity of damage caused by sexual abuse at the hands of clergy makes it impossible for us to ignore this situation.”

575 sex abuse plaintiffs are suing the archdiocese in bankruptcy court.

4. Twelve-year-old Maddy Paige had a very respectable season, playing football as a defensive end at Georgia’s Strong Rock Christian private school in Locust Grove, Ga. Paige was excited to return next fall, until the school ended her football future, saying “Our official policy is that middle school girls play girl sports and middle school boys play boy sports. “

Maddy’s mother says private conservations with school officials told another story. “In the meeting with the CEO of the school, I was told that the reasons behind it were… that the boys were going to start lusting after her, and have impure thoughts about her,” she said. “And that locker room talk was not appropriate for a female to hear, even though she had a separate locker room from the boys.”

Facebook is on the move for Maddy Paige.

5. The human brain’s ‘garbage truck’ could hold a key to treating Alzheimer’s and other health disorders. What scientists do know is that the body’s lymphatic system performs the task of ridding it of toxic and damaging molecules. However, the lymphatic system doesn’t extend to the brain.

Researcher Maiken Nedergaard, M.D. and her team used new imaging technology called two-photon microscopy that allows us to peer deep within a living brain. They observed an extensive plumbing system responsible for flushing waste using cerebral spinal fluid.