Latest news with #TRAP
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
Local organization hosts annual ‘Walk 2 Reduce Recidivism'
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — People across Shelby County were wearing their orange in honor of National Gun Violence Awareness Day. The holiday may have been officially recognized on Friday, but organizations are taking the weekend to show the community they are committed to fighting crime. Rain was in the forecast on Saturday morning. While many at Shelby Farms ran to cover, one group walked for a different purpose. The Transitional Re-entry Adult Program, also known as TRAP, hosted its second annual Walk 2 Reduce Recidivism. CEO Portia Moore said rain was not going to stop them from showing the community that there are those willing to put in the work to make a change. 'As a whole, we're all trying to come together to make Memphis better,' Moore said. Memphis Pride Fest, Pride Parade canceled; postponed until 2026 TRAP is an organization that supports and provides resources to individuals navigating life after incarceration. 'So, I have a job readiness and workforce development program that we focus on,' Moore said. 'Just skilling them up so that we can adjust their mindset for more of a career path.' Two of her clients are Thaddeus Young and Nautica Moore. Young said he was recently released from federal prison after serving more than 25 years. 'I didn't know what I was going to do when I got released. I gave up. I said I was going to the streets,' Young said. 'I said I was going to just do whatever came [my] way, but when I met Ms. Portia, she changed my life around. She changed my mindset.' This event is just one of many events hosted in collaboration with the Joint Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement for National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Shelby County offers $5K retention bonus for deputy recruitment 'We want organizations who are truly committed to public safety to come together to be more than just silos, to be a joint unit,' said Tamika Williams, the Deputy Director of the Joint Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement. 'How do we as a community make sure we are identifying the right individuals that need the support and making sure we're wrapping our arms around them?' Moore said that she believes providing support to people released from prison can help reduce crime. 'If you don't have the employment opportunity, how can you do better,' Moor said. 'You're going to fall into the same category that you did once before because you know that you can get some type of funding or income from that.' Young said he's thankful for the guidance and that someone believed he deserves a second chance. 'I work now. I got a job,' Young said. 'My mind strong. I got patience.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Voters Ended This State's Abortion Ban. Then Conservative Judges Got Involved.
Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Missouri voters in November chose to pass a ballot measure establishing reproductive rights in a state with one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation. Last week, because of a decision by the Missouri Supreme Court, abortion is again unavailable in the state. What happened won't necessarily last, but it's reminder that ballot measures won't always be enough to protect reproductive rights. Within days of the passage of Amendment 3, Planned Parenthood and other plaintiffs challenged the vast array of bans and restrictions in the state. Missouri not only banned virtually all abortions from the moment of fertilization but also enforced a variety of what are called TRAP (targeted regulation of abortion provider) laws. Clinics must have admitting privileges at a hospital within 15 miles and comply with state licensure rules and the rules governing ambulatory surgical centers. Other rules make patients wait 72 hours before getting an abortion or prohibit the decision to have an abortion for certain reasons. These laws made a big difference in dismantling abortion access even before the overturning of Roe. At one point, Missouri had more than 25 clinics. Before the state's absolute ban went into effect, only one remained open. In rulings handed down in December and February, a judge in Jackson County, Missouri, Jerri Zhang, blocked most of the TRAP laws ahead of a trial scheduled for early 2026. Abortions soon resumed in the state, even if access remained limited. Only three clinics opened, and these facilities performed only a handful of surgical procedures before the state Supreme Court's order was issued. The attorney general, Andrew Bailey, one of the most committed abortion opponents in the nation, appealed directly to the state Supreme Court, seeking a special order called a writ of mandamus. He agreed that the state's absolute ban couldn't survive under Amendment 3, but argued that other restrictions—the TRAP laws—were different because they protected women from dangerous procedures. He also argued that women wouldn't be harmed if every clinic in Missouri shut down because they could get abortion pills online or travel out of state. The state Supreme Court allowed the restrictions to go back into effect, all because of a technicality—the trial judge had applied an older standard for granting a preliminary injunction that asks whether the plaintiffs have a fair chance of succeeding. Missouri courts, since 2008, have followed a more demanding standard set forth by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals focused on whether a plaintiff is likely to succeed at trial. Because the trial court cited the wrong case, abortion in Missouri came to a stop. The three open clinics canceled appointments and counseled patients on how to go out of state. This is hardly a fatal blow for the plaintiffs. The judge may well already believe that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed, and the plaintiffs might have a relatively easy time making that case. Amendment 3 provides broad protections for reproductive rights, requiring not only that a state law serves a compelling interest but also that the government uses the least restrictive means of achieving its goal. And the state can't discriminate against abortion by treating it differently from other medical procedures. The judge might conclude that there are less restrictive and more effective ways of protecting maternal health, or that TRAP laws don't do much to improve patient health at all, as the U.S. Supreme Court did before Roe was overturned in a case about similar Texas regulations. But what is happening in Missouri is still a sign about the limits of ballot measures. Missouri Republicans already have crafted a new ballot measure that voters will face, most likely in 2026. The proposal asks Missourians whether they want to 'ensure women's safety during abortions,' 'ensure parental consent for minors,' and 'allow abortions for medical emergencies, fetal anomalies, rape, and incest.' It would ban all abortions from fertilization in every other case—a fact that it doesn't advertise. For good measure, it also asks whether voters want 'to protect children from gender transition,' even though gender-affirming care for minors is already illegal in the state. That voters adopted Amendment 3 less than a year ago is doing nothing to dissuade the state GOP. The ballot effort may fail. Republicans in other states have a poor track record when they ask voters to make it harder to pass ballot measures. If politicians ignore a result that voters just reached, that might not be popular either. But abortion opponents in the state will have a way forward even if Republicans' latest gambit fails. The attorney general can argue that any abortion restriction should survive, even under Amendment 3, just as he has with the TRAP laws. He could repeat that abortion hurts women, or that the state has a compelling interest in protecting fetal life. The attorney general may even seek to establish that an embryo or fetus has constitutional rights. Five of the court's seven supreme court justices were nominated by Republicans, including four selected by the current governor, Matt Blunt, who has made his opposition to abortion central to his political career. The court barely allowed Amendment 3 on the ballot, choosing to do so by a margin of 4 to 3. Voters just ensured that two of the three dissenters will serve another 12-year term. State judges, not voters, are ultimately the ones who will decide what Amendment 3 means. They won't have much fear, when they face retention elections, that an unpopular vote will matter. State judicial incumbents have a high rate of success; the two judges Missourians just retained won well more than 60 percent of the vote. As long as Missouri elects Republican governors and retains judges regardless of their rulings, the Missouri Supreme Court will become more conservative, and Republicans will experiment with new restrictions and bans to see what the state Supreme Court will tolerate. All of this makes Amendment 3 a cautionary tale, even if the effects of the state Supreme Court's latest rulings will only be temporary. For supporters of reproductive rights, ballot measures like Amendment 3 are critical, but what happens after the vote is just as important.
Edmonton Journal
30-04-2025
- Edmonton Journal
Police issue warning after rash of Toyota and Lexus vehicle thefts in Edmonton
Article content Edmonton police have arrested and charged three people from Montreal in connection to more than 20 high-end vehicles that were stolen this year. On April 16, the EPS Targeted Response to Auto-theft Prevention (TRAP) teams acted after a stolen Lexus was moved to a west end storage unit, said police in a Tuesday news release. Police said the high-end vehicles being reported stolen are Lexus and Toyota trucks and SUVs. So far, TRAP has recovered five of the stolen vehicles, and investigators believe the suspects were using sophisticated electronic equipment to commit the thefts and then shipping the stolen vehicles overseas for money.
Associated Press
28-02-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
Wyoming's only full-service clinic stops providing abortions after new regulations signed
CHEYENNE, Wyol (AP) — Wyoming's only full-service abortion clinic stopped providing abortions Friday, but it remained open after Gov. Mark Gordon approved a law requiring that such facilities be licensed as surgical centers. The clinic will still be staffed and continue to take phone calls from patients while challenging the new law in court, Wellspring Health Access President Julie Burkhart said. 'We want to ensure that we are navigating this process appropriately,' Burkhart said, adding that the clinic was 'not abandoning people.' The Casper clinic will provide neither surgical nor medication abortions while seeking a court order blocking the new law, Burkhart said. Wellspring filed a lawsuit Friday to challenge the new law in Natrona County District Court. Gordon spokesman Michael Pearlman, citing policy not to comment on matters involving pending litigation, said Friday the Republican governor would have no comment on the bill signed late Thursday. The law took effect immediately. It is the latest among a surge of state bans and other restrictions on abortion, lawsuits challenging the measures, and voter initiatives involving abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Many new laws are classified by abortion-access advocates as 'targeted regulation of abortion provider,' or TRAP, laws. Twenty-four states, including 16 that don't have total abortion bans in place, now have passed TRAP laws similar to the Wyoming measure requiring abortion clinics to be licensed surgical centers, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. In Wyoming, abortion has remained legal while a previous lawsuit filed by Wellspring and others challenging state abortion bans passed in 2022 and 2023 is pending before the Wyoming Supreme Court. In November, a Wyoming state district judge who earlier blocked Wyoming's abortion laws from taking effect ruled that those bans — both on surgical abortion and the nation's first explicit ban on abortion pills — violate the state constitution. Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens cited a state constitutional amendment that says competent adults have a right to make their own health care decisions. Voters approved the amendment in 2012 in response to concerns about their rights under the Affordable Care Act that expanded health insurance coverage nationwide. Gordon's office appealed the judge's ruling to the state Supreme Court. Wyoming's newest abortion law requires clinics providing surgical abortions to be licensed as outpatient surgery centers. Meanwhile, surgical abortions may only be provided by licensed physicians with admitting privileges at a hospital no more than 10 miles (16 kilometers) away. Though located three blocks from one of Wyoming's major hospitals, Wellspring has argued the bill would require costly renovations to its clinic. Wellspring opened in 2023 after almost a year of work to repair serious damage from an arson attack. All the while, attempts by the Wyoming Legislature to outlaw and regulate abortion have kept coming. They include six bills this year alone. 'As long as abortion remains legal in Wyoming we have a responsibility for the safety of women getting abortions,' Rep. Martha Lawley, a Republican, told a legislative committee in support of the surgical licensing requirement in January. The measure contained 'basic common-sense regulations,' Lawley said. But Wellspring's executive director, Katie Knutter, countered that the American Medical Association opposes such regulations and abortion is one of the safest medical procedures. 'We feel that this is specifically targeted to put us out of business and restrict health care services for people with punitive, detrimental measures that increase cost and restrict health care options,' Knutter told the committee. Gordon vetoed a similar measure in 2024, objecting to added provisions he said could have complicated the state's attempt to uphold Wyoming's abortion bans in court. A bill that would require women seeking pill abortions to first have an ultrasound awaits Gordon's signature after clearing the Legislature on Thursday.
