(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . This Week in Statehouse Action: Time of the Session edition [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-24 If there’s one universal pet peeve, it might be having your time wasted. It’s one of my top ones for sure. I mean, I hate it. HATE it. Gives me indigestion. So in the interest of demonstrating the respect you and your time deserve, let’s get straight to it. Remember The Time: First thing’s first: last week in this space, I gave a little preview of the interesting/consequential special elections that hit this week, and now we know how they shook out. So this is the part where I go on about how incredibly important this Wisconsin Supreme Court election is, so feel free to skip ahead if you’ve heard about it enough already. Currently, conservative justices (candidates are nominated by the parties but are ostensibly nonpartisan and appear without party labels on the ballot) have a 4-3 majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and Republicans have used it to protect their gerrymandered legislative maps and buttress unpopular GOP policies. Soon, the court will hear and rule on a case that will either uphold or strike down Wisconsin’s abortion ban, and they have and will continue to hear cases on voting rights, workers’ rights, public school funding, gun safety, and more. These justices serve 10-year terms, so whoever wins in April is gonna be around and ruling on stuff for quite a while. And if Democrats don’t flip the court this year, they may not have another chance to do so until 2026 (notwithstanding retirements and other intervening factors). Okay, enough Wisconsin for the moment. Let’s see what’s happening in some other states. Time Is On My Side: What if we … checked in on a wee bit of good news, just as a change of pace…? In Colorado , where Democrats have majority control of both legislative chambers, three anti-abortion bills died in committee last week. One bill would require a health care provider who performs an abortion at 20 weeks or later to administer a painkiller to the fetus. Another would require doctors and other medical professionals who administer abortions to foist state-prepared information on the mother about how to reverse the effects of an abortion pill. The third would just straight-up ban all abortions in Colorado. But Colorado Dems aren’t just in the business of blocking lousy legislation; they’re pushing some policies of their own, too. This week, they unveiled a slate of bills that aim to curb gun violence in the state by restricting who can possess and when they can purchase firearms. These Democratic measures would raise the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21 years (from the current 18), require a three-day waiting period for gun purchases, remove the state’s civil liability immunity protections for the firearm industry, and expand who can file a “red flag” petition to remove guns from people who pose a threat to themselves or others. And with healthy Dem majorities in the legislature (46-19 in the House, 23-12 in the Senate) and a Democratic governor, fans of gun safety can fairly expect these proposals to become law. Back In Time: A extremely not fun fact: As February speeds towards its end, state lawmakers have already introduced 321 anti-LGBTQ bills this year in legislatures – six more than were proposed in all of 2022. It’s hate, but it’s increasingly efficient hate It’d be kinda impressive if it weren’t so profoundly shitty. Time After Time: But Republican lawmakers can walk and chew gum, too. You can read the rest of this week’s edition here! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/24/2154754/-This-Week-in-Statehouse-Action-Time-of-the-Session-edition Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/