Ohio GOP successfully bans child sex-change mutilations and men from women's sports after overriding Gov. DeWine's veto



Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed legislation last month that promised to save children in the state from sex-change mutilations and keep men out of women's sports. Unsatisfied with the governor's substitutive executive order and unwilling to give him the last word, Republican lawmakers have worked to surmount DeWine's veto.

Lawmakers in the Ohio House successfully voted on Jan. 10 to override DeWine's veto. On Wednesday, Republicans in the Senate followed suit, passing the law in a landslide 24-8 vote. They did so without the support of Republican state Sen. Nathan Manning, whose term ends in 2026.

Ohio has, as a result, joined over 20 other states that protect children from confusion-affirming medical interventions.

The law

HB 68 contains both the Saving Adolescents from Experimentation Act and the Save Women's Sports Act.

Like DeWine's Executive Order 2024-01D, the SAFE Act bars physicians from performing sex-change surgeries on minors; however, it goes much farther to protect children.

The law prohibits prescribing minors ruinous cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers "for the purpose of assisting the minor individual with gender transition" as well as aiding or abetting in such mutilations and prescriptions.

Blaze News previously noted that the SAFE Act also bars courts from denying or limiting parents' rights and responsibilities or parenting time based on their decision to:

  • "refer to and raise the child in a manner consistent with the child's biological sex";
  • "decline to consent to the child receiving gender transition services"; or
  • "decline to consent to the child receiving counseling or other mental health services for the purpose of affirming the child's perception of the child's gender or sex, if the child's perception is inconsistent with the child's biological sex."

The Save Women's Sports Act goes one step farther in countering the material and structural impact of social constructivism, requiring that interscholastic athletic teams be properly sex-segregated unless otherwise qualified as co-ed.

The Associated Press indicated the law is expected to take effect in roughly 90 days.

Children who went under the knife or were subjected to sterilizing drugs before the law could protect them will be permitted to continue their treatment. Hermaphrodites have also been granted exceptions.

Common sense

"The Ohio Senate deserves to be commended today for its commitment to protecting women and children by overriding the Governor's veto of House Bill 68," said the SAFE Act's initial sponsor, state Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery). "The SAFE Act and Save Women's Sports Act are the civil rights issues of our day, ensuring that children have the right to grow up intact and that women are no long subject to men invading their spaces."

Click was gracious in victory, suggesting that DeWine "acted from his heart."

"I continue to feel that with more time and opportunity it may have been possible for the governor to share in our understanding of this vital issue," continued Click. "Nevertheless, he did what he felt was right, as he should. The legislature, however, felt just as strongly if not more so that HB 68 was imperative to save lives, uphold medical ethics, and reaffirm women's rights."

"The citizens of Ohio were unequivocal in their demand that the legislature act and we did. The system worked," added Click.

Ahead of the override, the Ohio Senate Republicans cited recent polls indicating the general public was behind them in championing legislation such as HB 68.

A HarrixX poll conducted last year for Deseret News found that 61% of all voters said sex changes should be banned for minors.

The previous year, a Trafalgar Group survey showed that "78.7 percent of voters believe underage minors should be required to wait until they are adults to legally use puberty blockers and undergo permanent sex-change procedures." Even a majority of Democrats indicated prospective victims should wait until adulthood before undergoing medical interventions.

A Washington Post-KFF poll published last year revealed that 68% of U.S. adults opposed the provision of puberty blockers to children ages 10-14; 58% opposed hormone treatments for teens ages 15-17.

Anger and harm

LGBT activists are furious over the legislative expression of the will of Ohioans.

Siobhan Boyd-Nelson, the executive director of the radical activist group Equality Ohio, claimed in a Wednesday statement, "Lawmakers have made it clear that they are more concerned with protecting their political aspirations than protecting children, protecting women, or tackling the numerous pressing issues Ohioans are actually facing."

The Human Rights Campaign, a mammoth LGBT lobbying outfit, called the vote "shameful" and threatened, "This isn't over."

HRC campaign president Kelley Robinson stated, "These legislators have abdicated their responsibility to do what's right for the Ohioans they represent, casting votes that they know full well will harm innocent children, all to appease the leader of the MAGA agenda."

While various activists have accused GOP lawmakers of exposing confused children to harm, it appears the treatments they have just banned pose the real danger.

Blaze News previously reported that prominent physicians admitted during a September 2022 educational session conducted by the the World Professional Association for Transgender Health that puberty blockers can have disastrous effects on minors, including infertility, bone loss, and brain development disruptions.

A study published in September 2022 in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy revealed that puberty blockers deplete victims' bone density, hamper their cognitive development, and produce a myriad of harmful emotional effects.

A September 2023 study published in the European Journal of Endocrinology revealed that male transvestites taking feminizing hormones are 93% more likely to suffer heart disease than other males. Female transvestites taking testosterone are 63% more likely to suffer heart disease than other females.

The American College of Cardiology confirmed last year that "people with gender dysphoria taking hormone replacements as part of gender affirmation therapy face a substantially increased risk of serious cardiac events, including stroke, heart attack and pulmonary embolism."

Although captive to LGBT ideology, the World Health Organization recently admitted that the evidence concerning "longer-term outcomes of gender affirming care for children and adolescents" is "limited and variable."

Walid Farhat, chief of pediatric urology at the UW’s School of Medicine and Public Health, indicated in an April 2023 grant application that research on the impacts of cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers is "severely lacking."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Ohio sues Norfolk Southern over devastating and 'entirely avoidable'  train derailment in East Palestine



Ohio is taking Norfolk Southern to federal court over the disastrous Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine that turned the sky overhead black with toxic chemicals, poisoned nearby wildlife, and chased residents from their homes.

The state's 58-count federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by Republican Attorney General Dave Yost accuses the railway of "recklessly endangering" both the health of Ohioans and the state's natural resources.

Overview

This suit, which comes just days after another another Norfolk Southern train went off the tracks in Alabama, seeks to ensure that the scandal-plagued, politically invested, and accident-prone company pays to clean up its mess, continues monitoring groundwater and soil for years to come, and compensates those economically devastated by the derailment.

"Ohio shouldn’t have to bear the tremendous financial burden of Norfolk Southern’s glaring negligence," Yost said in a statement. "The fallout from this highly preventable incident may continue for years to come, and there’s still so much we don’t know about the long-term effects on our air, water and soil."

While the railway, which recently celebrated "double-digit percentage growth in revenue and ... record revenue and operating income," has suggested it will do right by its apparent victims, Yost isn't leaving anything to chance.

The Ohio attorney general underscored that this lawsuit "will make sure that Norfolk Southern keeps its word."

'Reckless'

The lawsuit notes that the Feb. 3 derailment resulted "in the release of over one million gallons of hazardous materials, hazardous substances, hazardous wastes, and/or other harmful pollutants into Ohio's air, streams, river, soil, and groundwater, killing tens of thousands of fish and other animals, and recklessly endangering the health of Ohioans throughout the region."

According to the suit, Norfolk Southern's "negligent, willful, wanton, and/or reckless conduct caused the contamination of the environment."

The Norfolk Southern train consisted of 141 loaded cars, nine empty cars, and three locomotives. Around 50 cars went off the tracks. A number of the cars contained hazardous material. After the cars went off the tracks, the railway conducted a "controlled release" of some of their contents, suggesting that a failure to do so could otherwise have proven deadlier.

"Defendants breached the duty of care by causing the Derailment and resulting fires," said the suit.

Among the toxic chemicals stored in the wrecked cars were vinyl chloride, hydrogen chloride, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate, and isobutylene.

"Defendants breached the duty of care by failing to promptly, effectively, and safely control, mitigate, and remediate the release of hazardous materials, hazardous substances, hazardous wastes, and/or other harmful pollutants at the time of and following the Derailment, including but not limited to intentionally burning vinyl chloride after the Derailment."

Burning vinyl chloride — as the railroad company ultimately did in the case of some of the over 877,000 pounds contained in train 32N's rail cars — turns it into hydrogen chloride and phosgene gas, the later of which was used as a weapon of mass slaughter in World War I.

TheBlaze previously reported that contrary to claims made by Environmental Protection Agency officials, a team of researchers from Texas A&M found that there continue to be abnormally high levels of airborne toxins resultant of the railway's hazmat spill and controlled burn that could jeopardize the long-term health of residents in the area.

According to the suit, pollutants from at least 39 rail cars have made their way into Sulfur Run, Leslie Run, Bull Creek, North Fork Little Beaver Creek, Little Beaver Creek, the Ohio River, and potentially other waterways.

The lawsuit underscores that the "derailment was entirely avoidable and the direct result of Norfolk Southern’s practice of putting its own profits above the health, safety and welfare of the communities in which Norfolk Southern operates," citing an 80% rise in the company's accident rate over the past 10 years and at least 20 derailments since 2015 involving chemical discharges.
It further notes that the company has "an extensive and tragic history" of similar derailments and hazmat releases resulting in calamity.
Federal data indicates that Norfolk Southern accounted for over half the hazmat damages involving rail transportation in 2022.

Rectification

Yost indicated in his release that Ohio is seeking injunctive relief, civil penalties, costs, damages, and court costs, including:
  • "A declaratory judgment holding Norfolk Southern responsible";
  • "Recovery of costs and damages under the CERCLA and Ohio law for emergency response";
  • "Repayment of damages under common law";
  • "Repayment of costs under common law, including present and future costs incurred by the state in responding to the emergency, providing public services, preventing future harm to the environment and public health, restoring natural resources, and abating the nuisance";
  • "Civil penalties under state environmental laws"; and
  • "Repayment of court costs."

The New York Times reported that Norfolk Southern has been in discussion with Yost's office.

In a statement the company said, "We look forward to working toward a final resolution with Attorney General Yost and others as we coordinate with his office, community leaders, and other stakeholders to finalize the details of these programs."

Extra to Ohio's suit, Norfolk Southern faces an investigation by Pennsylvania's attorney general into whether criminal charges are warranted as well as an order by the EPA to clean up any contamination resultant of the East Palestine derailment.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

PA governor suggests Norfolk Southern may have rushed 'controlled' release of toxic fumes above East Palestine to get rail line open, ignored other options



Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) suggested in a biting letter Tuesday that Norfolk Southern may have had options available to it other than conducting a so-called "controlled" burn of a dangerous carcinogen in the aftermath of the Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, right on the border of his state.

Extra to accusing Norfolk Southern of needlessly generating confusion and possibly exacerbating the problem, Shapiro implied that the rail company may have rushed the process in order to reopen the rail line.

Shapiro's claims come amid growing tensions and concerns about what precisely was done in response to the derailment and toxic leaks and what the fallout may ultimately be in terms of health and financial impacts.

Failure after failure

In his Feb. 14 letter to Alan Shaw, president and chief executive of the Norfolk Southern Corporation, Shapiro indicated that various elected leaders and emergency management officials in Beaver County and the surrounding area — reportedly impacted to a significant extent by the ecological disaster — are concerned "about Norfolk Southern's poor handling of this incident."

Shapiro noted that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the state's emergency management agency "were not immediately contacted by Norfolk Southern" after the incident. However, upon learning of the incident independently, the DEP and PEMA reportedly began monitoring for impacts to the residents, businesses, and environment in the state.

The agencies found that there were at least three major issues with the rail company's "management of the response that put the safety of our first responders and residents at significant risk":

  • "First, Norfolk Southern failed to implement Unified Command, creating confusion and resulting in a general lack of awareness for first responders and emergency management of the tactics Norfolk Southern planned in response";
  • "Second, Norfolk Southern gave inaccurate information and conflicting modeling about the impact of the controlled release that made protection action decision making more difficult in the immediate aftermath of the derailment"; and
  • "Third, Norfolk Southern's unwillingness to explore or articulate alternate courses of action to their proposed vent and burn limited state and local leaders' ability to respond effectively."
Concerning the rail company's first alleged failing, Shapiro claimed Norfolk Southern personnel "separated themselves from the rest of the incident management structure at the Incident Command Post."
Having gone on to do their own operational and tactical planning, they allegedly left state and local response agencies in the dark, forcing them to react to unilateral maneuvers without first soliciting informed input.

Perhaps more consequential was the rail company's alleged provision of inaccurate information, again imperiling planning, remediation, and protection efforts.

Shapiro claimed that Norfolk Southern "failed to notify state and local response agencies initially of their intention to vent and burn all five cars containing vinyl chloride, rather than just the single car Norfolk Southern personnel identified originally."

The governor further suggested that this failure to communicate critical information about the affected rail cars, their content, and the company's intention to expedite their combustion "led to confusion and wide variability in potentially affected population estimates in downwind plume impacting the Commonwealth."

TheBlaze previously reported that the thick column of smoke that Norfolk Southern personnel helped send skyward contained fumes from the toxic chemicals stored in the wrecked cars, such as vinyl chloride, hydrogen chloride, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate, isobutylene, and phosgene — a gas used for mass slaughter in the trenches during World War I.

Early reports indicated that the reasoning behind the controlled release of the deadly chemicals was to prevent a "catastrophic tanker failure," which allegedly could have resulted in a massive explosion, throwing fumes and shrapnel a far distance. However, the Pennsylvania governor implied in his letter that there were other options available that the rail company apparently discounted or failed to consider.

"Norfolk Southern failed to explore all potential courses of action, including some that may have kept the rail line closed longer but could have resulted in a safer overall approach for first responders, residents, and the environment," wrote Shapiro.

Silverado Caggiano, a hazardous materials specialist, told WKBN, "We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open."

At the time of the so-called controlled breach, villagers within a one-mile radius of the wreck were cautioned by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) and Shapiro (D) that remaining in the impacted area could put them in "grave danger of death" and were subsequently evacuated.

DeWine called it "absurd" that Norfolk Southern was not required to notify local officials about the train's contents before it came through, reported the New York Times. DeWine has also called for congressional and possible legal action in the event that the company fails to pay for the cleanup.

Responding to Shapiro's letter, a spokesman for the rail company told Yahoo News, "Norfolk Southern was on-scene immediately following the derailment and began working directly with local, state, and federal officials as they arrived at the unified command established in East Palestine by local officials, including those from Pennsylvania. ... We remain at the command post today working alongside those agencies to keep information flowing from our teams working at the site."

In its response, the company added it was "committed to ensuring health and safety through ongoing environmental monitoring and support for their needs."

Shapiro underscored that he intends to help the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission "facilitate holding [Norfolk Southern] accountable to Pennsylvanians."

Shapiro penned his letter after the EPA sent Norfolk Southern a general notice of potential liability over the weekend, outlining EPA cleanup actions and the possibility that the railway will have to foot the bill.

TheBlaze reported earlier that residents are now especially concerned about possible water contamination, granted that schools of fish have been spotted floating belly-up down nearby streams and rivers.

The Ohio EPA conducted an assessment in 2019 that found East Palestine's source of drinking water has a "high susceptibility to contamination" because of a lack of clay helping protect the aquifer and "the presence of significant potential contaminant sources in the protection area."

The assessment notes, "This susceptibility means that under currently existing conditions, the likelihood of the aquifer becoming contaminated is relatively high."

WKBN reported that the EPA recently castigated Norfolk Southern for simply covering up contaminated soil in the aftermath of the derailment.

"Five railcar tankers of vinyl chloride were intentionally breached; the vinyl chloride was diverted to an excavated trench and then burned off. Areas of contaminated soil and free liquids were observed and potentially covered and/or filled during reconstruction of the rail line including portions of the trench/burn pit that was used for the open burn off of vinyl chloride," said the letter.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Thick smoke, flames seen as controlled release of chemicals begins at East Palestine train site youtu.be

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signs bill legalizing permit-less concealed carry



Ohio citizens will soon be able to carry concealed firearms without a permit.

Cleveland.com reported that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday signed legislation backed by the Republican-majority Ohio Legislature that allows people in the state to carry concealed handguns without permits or prior training.

Oho residents will no longer be required to inform law enforcement if they are armed during traffic stops.

The newly signed Senate Bill 215 will go into effect 90 days after being signed into law and will allow people 21 or older to carry a concealed firearm unless they are prohibited from doing so by state or federal law.

With the passing of this law, Ohio became the 23rd state in the country to allow permit-less concealed carry.

Until the law goes into effect, Ohio residents are still required to take eight hours of training — and pass a federal background check — to receive a concealed carry permit.

That said, Ohio residents may still opt to pursue a concealed carry permit for a few reasons. States without permit-less carry might still allow out-of-state visitors to carry concealed weapons as long as they have a permit. And since a federal background check is required to obtain a concealed carry permit, having a permit can expedite the gun-buying process by enabling purchasers to circumvent the redundant federal background check process.

Currently, if motorists are stopped by a law enforcement official, Ohio law compels them to disclose if they have a firearm on their persons or in their vehicles. If Ohio motorists fail to truthfully disclose that they are in possession of a firearm, they could be charged with a first-degree misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to six months in jail, a $1,000 fine, and the suspension of their concealed carry permit.

Supporters of the legislation note that both the U.S. and Ohio constitutions guarantee the right to bear arms and that neither document mentions anything about training requirements. They also argue that permit-less carry will make Ohio residents safer by eliminating the time-consuming and cost-prohibitive requirements to obtain a concealed carry permit.

While running for governor in 2018, then-candidate DeWine suggested that he would be supportive of a law enshrining permit-less concealed carry. However, after the 2019 mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, that left nine Ohioans dead, Gov. DeWine flirted with the possibility of pushing gun control policies like a “red-flag” law.

When contemplating signing Senate Bill 215 into law, DeWine said, “The job of the governor is to make tough decisions. And I have a decision to make.”

Conservative groups celebrated the bill’s passage, while the Ohio Democratic Party accused DeWine of selling out to “extremists and special interests at the expense of Ohio families and law enforcement officers.”