INDIANA

Judge sides with Evansville transgender woman seeking gender-affirming surgery in prison

A federal judge ruled the Indiana Department of Correction's ban on gender-affirming care is likely unconstitutional, and an inmate from Evansville is at the center of the lawsuit.

The ACLU of Indiana sued the DOC in U.S. District Court on behalf of Autumn Cordellioné, arrested and convicted as Jonathan Richardson in the early 2000s for the murder of her 11-month-old stepdaughter.

According to the initial complaint, Cordellioné was diagnosed in 2020 with gender dysphoria and prescribed a female hormone and testosterone blocker which she has taken since that time.

While the medicine has helped, the lawsuit states Cordellioné continues to experience symptoms of gender dysphoria including depression and anxiety.

"She has engaged in self-harm and has attempted suicide because she could not stand the fact that her sex at birth fails to match the fact that she is a woman and cannot tolerate her male body," the suit states.

The lawsuit states Cordellioné has lived as a woman to the "extent possible" while in a prison housing only men. She has been permitted gender-affirming items such as makeup and "form fitting clothing."
"Accordingly, at this point gender-affirming surgery is necessary so that her physical identity can be aligned with her gender identity and so her gender dysphoria can be ameliorated," the suit states.
Cordellioné was on a wait list for evaluation for the surgery, but a new Indiana statute does not allow the DOC to provide or facilitate "sexual reassignment surgery." The ACLU argues in its suit that for some, the surgery is a medical necessity. In this case, Cordellioné is seeking a orchiectomy, which removes the testicles, and vaginoplasty, which is the construction of the vagina.

"By prohibiting the surgery, regardless of medical need, the statute mandates deliberate indifference to a serious medical need and therefore violates the Eighth Amendment," the suit states. "Additionally, the statute discriminates against Plaintiff and other transgender prisoners in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution."

Judge Richard Young agreed with the argument the ACLU presented.
Last week, Young filed a ruling granting a preliminary injunction stating Cordellioné has shown the ban on gender-affirming surgery is unconstitutional, both for herself and others.

"Specifically, Ms. Cordellioné has shown that her gender dysphoria is a serious medical need, and that, despite other treatments Defendant has provided her to treat her gender dysphoria, she requires gender-affirming surgery to prevent a risk of serious bodily and psychological harm," the ruling states.

His order means the DOC must take "all reasonable actions" to secure Cordellioné the surgery at the earliest chance.

https://share.newsbreak.com/8vn8owk9?s=i4

INDIANA

GOP House hopeful co-authored bills to provide in-state tuition, driving 'cards' to illegal immigrants

State Sen. Mark Messmer is running to represent Indiana's 8th Congressional District

A Republican state legislator running for Congress in Indiana is stressing the need to tackle illegal immigration, but has supported legislation that would have provided driving "cards" and in-state tuition rates for those in the U.S. illegally.

"I am devoted to tackling pressing issues like illegal immigration, safeguarding our liberties, protecting the unborn, balancing the federal budget, stopping the woke agenda, and growing jobs in Southwest Indiana," state Sen. Mark Messmer, who is running to represent Indiana's 8th Congressional District, wrote on his campaign website.

However, Messmer co-sponsored SB200 in 2022, which would have provided for illegal immigrants in the state to "apply for a driving card learner's permit and driving card to obtain driving privileges."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-house-hopeful-co-authored-bills-provide-in-state-tuition-driving-cards-illegal-immigrants

Attached is an article from Springfield, Ohio on July 13, 2024 regarding the infiltration of Haitians. No one one in the government, business, not-for-profits, NGOs or etc are acknowledging prior notice of the invasion.

Their issue in Springfield is paralleling what is occurring in Evansville, Indiana. The difference between Springfield and Evansville…….We have connected the dots of specific people, organizations, and government officials that are involved.

Do know it began with United Way of Southwest Indiana under the leadership and direction of the former CEO, which is now running for VANDERBURGH County Commissioner. The Haitian Center is their pet project. Additionally The former Evansville Foundation representative is facilitating a program to provide resources to the TPS (Temporary Protected Status) Illegal Alien Haitians. The office is located in the former downtown Welborn Hospital above the VANDERBURGH Health Department.

SPRINGFIELD ARTICLE 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

The immigrants from Haiti have poured into Springfield the last five years, and the estimates grow monthly, with city officials now saying the number could be 15,000 to 20,000 new residents among a population that had numbered just under 60,000 prior.
The number of immigrants has strained city government, health care, schools, social services and nonprofits trying to provide assistance.


Here are five takeaways from our reporting in the last seven months about the Haitian community living in Springfield:

FULL
ARTICLE 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/thousands-of-haitian-immigrants-now-in-springfield-5-takeaways-from-our-reporting/QQFDZR6JAVCBNC6TGZGAEKE2JU/

https://news.1rj.ru/str/covidbc

☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻

This is a Telegram Channel reporting deaths related to MRNA vaccines 💉. Depressing? Yes. Necessary to know the truth? Yes.

In a future Colbertreport, we’ll discuss the impact of the vaccine participation and the substantial increase in my business.

Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales is asking federal agencies and departments to not engage in voter registration without the state’s permission in response to an executive order from President Joe Biden in 2021.

According to a news release from the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office, Morales said that federal agencies and departments that operate in Indiana are not permitted in engaging in voter registration and other election activity without state authorization.

A letter, which was recently sent to federal agencies with operations in Indiana, directs them to stop engaging in election activity, the release states.

Tuesday’s announcement comes in relation to Biden’s executive order on promoting access to voting, which was signed in March 2021. According to the executive order, Biden asked federal agencies to consider ways to expand the opportunity for citizens “to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process,” including:

• Asking the head of each agency to evaluate how they can promote voter registration and participation, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law.
• Provide ways to provide access to voter registration services and vote-by-mail ballot applicatoins
• Solicit and facilitate approved, and nonpartisan, third-party organizations and state officials to provide voter registration services on agency premises.

The executive order also asked officials to modernize the Vote.gov website and encourage federal employees to vote by giving them time off to vote in federal, state, local, tribal and territorial elections, either on Election Day or through early voting. It also covered topics including:
• Ensuring access to voter registration for eligible individuals in federal custody
• Ensuring access to voting for active duty military and overseas citizens
• Ensuring equal access for voters with disabilities.

In response to this executive order, Morales said that under Indiana and federal law, agencies “must be specifically designated by the state as ‘voter registration agencies’ to lawfully offer or provide voter registration services and absentee voting assistance.” Morales stressed this is “critical” to protect election integrity.

Morales argued that voter registration drives, specifically one by the Small Business Administration, are “well-meaning” but “not authorized by Congress, contrary to state law and a distraction” from the agency’s mission.

“The amount of enthusiasm I have towards increasing our state’s voter registration and turnout numbers is immeasurable,” Morales said in the release. “Since the start of my administration, an unprecedented level of direct and financial assistance has been allocated to counties. Alongside my team, we have blanketed the Hoosier state with voter outreach efforts; from festivals to county fairs to sporting events. In anticipation of the upcoming November election, those efforts are only going to amplify.”

https://fox59.com/indianapolitics/indiana-sos-asks-federal-agencies-to-not-engage-in-voter-registration-without-states-permission/

Rwandan Refugee Arrested for Threatening Mass Shooting at Indiana High School

A Rwandan refugee has been arrested for threatening to kill 1,000 students at an Indiana high school, following a series of prior run-ins with law enforcement.

A refugee from Rwanda, Merci Habimana, has been arrested after allegedly threatening to “shoot 1000 students” at Brownsburg High School (BHS) in Indiana. Habimana, 18, was charged with “intimidation with threat of a forcible felony” after sending messages to BHS expressing his intention to kill students and police officers, according to court documents obtained by local media.

The threats were made on May 28 when an anonymous user posted a comment on an Instagram account associated with BHS, stating, “I wanna kill three of them see u. Fc bhs I hate you all maybe 1 day in dis week I wish to shoot 1000 students before they going in summer break see you gloom Sunday.” School police alerted the Brownsburg Police Department (BPD), who traced the Instagram account and phone number to Habimana.
Habimana, who was enrolled at BHS at the time, was already facing a felony charge from a recent incident. Authorities noted that Habimana’s “home language is Swahili – Tanzania and is a Rwandan refugee,” as stated in a probable cause affidavit.

During questioning, Habimana admitted to writing the threatening comment, citing anger over being informed by the principal that he would be held back as a junior and would not graduate with the class of 2025. However, he claimed he had no intention of carrying out the threat. He was booked into Hendricks County Jail with a $1,000 cash bond.

Previously, on May 20, Habimana was arrested after being found passed out drunk in a parked car. During the arrest, he reportedly threatened an officer and his family, stating he would find and kill them, though the officer noted his accent made it difficult to understand.

Court documents show that Habimana has been involved in several incidents with the BPD from December 2023 to May 2024, including a simple assault where he was listed as an involved party while he was a sophomore at BHS.
Investigations and legal proceedings in both recent cases are ongoing.
For further details, see the court documents and additional reporting from Fox 59.

https://yournews.com/2024/06/05/2797784/rwandan-refugee-arrested-for-threatening-mass-shooting-at-indiana-high/

INDIANA

VANDERBURGH County Election 2022

Exasperated by poll workers whose mistakes invalidated 159 votes and by the hours-long wait for results on election night, Vanderburgh County officials turned a routine certification into a quest for answers.

About the 159 early voters whose ballots didn't count, nothing could be done Friday.

More:High-ranking local Republicans are lobbying people to run for mayor against Musgrave
Using Vanderburgh County's state-mandated "voter-verified paper audit trail," or "VVPAT," technology, during early in-person voting a voter seals a paper ballot produced by a marking device in an envelope. He then drops it into a box. The envelopes are opened by bipartisan teams on election day and the ballots are scanned then.
But Indiana election law requires the ballots be initialed by two poll clerks, Republican and Democratic, as a final step. In 159 cases across all early voting sites, that wasn't done.
The election board had to throw them out.

It's sad that people lose their vote because somebody didn't do their job," County Clerk Carla Hayden told the board Friday.
Hayden, Vanderburgh County's chief elections officer and a Republican elected official herself, said poll workers are instructed repeatedly in training sessions to apply both sets of initials.
More:Here are the biggest winners and losers from Tuesday's election in Vanderburgh County
"Other than sitting behind (the clerks) with a stick and beating them on the head when they don’t do it, I don’t know what else to do," she said after the election board meeting.

Cheryl Schultz, local Democratic Party chair, expressed dismay at the news. Schultz called the number of invalidated votes "stunning."
Election night was a problem, board says
Unofficial results showed 46,336 Vanderburgh County residents voted on Nov. 8. By the time the election board had finished Friday sorting through all the ballots held over for review, the final count was 47,815.
Ceasing work on one grouping of ballots to start work on another is impractical, Hayden said.
More:Vanderburgh County election night could be a late (and mystifying) night: Here's why

Election board chairman Joe Harrison, Jr. said — and the board agreed — that counting vote center ballots second and the smaller pool of mailed absentee ballots last is the best way to liven up election night. That way, Harrison said, 85-90% of votes could be counted by 9 p.m. or maybe earlier.
But that wouldn't mean final results would come any quicker, Harrison said. There just wouldn't be a four-hour gap between batches of results being reported.
Elections chief has her own solution
Sitting around a table in the Vanderburgh County Election Office's Civic Center room, the board and party chairs fired out a succession of alternative ideas for making things go faster.

Vanderburgh County got its VVPAT technology with more than $2.2 million from the Indiana Secretary of State after the agency got a federal Help America Vote Act grant. What about that money, Duckworth asked? Could any of it be used to pay for more than 12 teams of vote counters in an election that saw nearly 50,000 votes cast? No, came the answer. The money has been spent.
Hayden warned that the $3,500 she requested and received for vote counters this year won't cut it in the presidential election year 2024. She said later Friday that she spent all but $135 of that money — not enough to pay for another two-person bipartisan team.
The answer, Hayden said, lies in letting elections officials "start (scanning ballots) right from the get-go instead of putting them in these envelopes and waiting around."
Duckworth warmed to the idea.
"There should be a way that you could have them counted electronically and being held and secured," he said.
"That’s what we’re talking about," said Hayden.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: How many votes were discarded in 2022 in Vanderburgh County elections?

Full article 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

https://www.yahoo.com/news/stunning-number-votes-discarded-vanderburgh-100811327.html