THE OHIO MESSAGE: Voters in Republican-dominated Ohio approved a measure to amend the state constitution to guarantee a woman’s right to choose abortion. By a wide margin, Ohio’s issue 1 legalizes abortion up to 22 weeks, the point of fetal viability.

    The Ohio vote is sending shock waves to other Republican states where similar abortion measure may end up on the ballot. It’s a major signal that the Republican party’s efforts to limit or completely ban legal abortion have gotten ahead of their own voters. 

  The simmering issue was brought into focus in 2022 when a 10-year-old Ohio girl who had been raped had to go out of state to get an abortion. Ohio law at the time banned abortion after six weeks. 

  In another deep-red state, Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear won a second term, trouncing his Republican opponent in the state Donald trump carried by 25 percentage points in 2020. Again, abortion was a major issue. Beshear attacked his opponent Daniel Cameron, the state attorney general, for his support of state law that allows abortion only to save the life of the mother, not even making exceptions for cases of rape and incest.  

  And in Virginia, voters appear to have rejected Gov. Glen Youngkin’s push for a “moderate” ban on abortion after 15 weeks. Although Youngkin was not on the ballot, he had hoped the idea would win a majority in both houses of the legislature and make him a presidential contender in 2028. Instead, his entire legislature went majority Democrat. 

UTTER DESTRUCTION: A third of the buildings in northern Gaza are damaged or destroyed under Israeli attacks, the NY Times reports according to satellite analysis. In southern Gaza, at least 38,000 buildings appear to be damaged, an estimated 13 to 18 percent, also according to the satellite analysis.

 Israel is hitting hundreds of targets a day and says that its ground troops have reached the heart of Gaza City in what is at times intense and bitter fighting. They do not appear to be planning to just pull out if and when it’s over. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will be involved with “security” in the Gaza Strip “for an indefinite period,” which means a military occupation.

  The Biden administration warns that occupation is a bad idea. “We’re having active discussions with our Israeli counterparts about what post-conflict Gaza looks like,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters. “The president maintains his position that reoccupation by Israeli forces is not the right thing to do.” 

POINT OF THE GUN: Conservative Supreme Court justices in a hearing yesterday appeared ready to accept a law that would allow authorities to take guns away from people who are deemed to present a danger of domestic violence.

  If the court rules to uphold the federal law allowing gun confiscation in such cases, it’s a big change of mood from their ruling last year that gave Americans a broad right to carry guns in public.

  Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, “Someone who poses a risk of domestic violence is dangerous.” As the old saying goes, “The only difference between a battered woman and a dead woman is the presence of a gun.”

ORANGE ALERT: Ivanka Trump, the former president’s daughter, is scheduled to testify today in the New York Civil fraud trial for her father and adult brothers. She is not a defendant and claims she’s out of the family business, but prosecutors seem to think she knew what was going on.

THE OBIT PAGE: Gary Colson, whose efforts convinced the NCAA to introduce the 3-point shot to college basketball in 1986, changing and making the game more exciting, has died at age 89 at home in Santa Barbara, California.   In 34 years, Colson coached at Fresno State, New Mexico, and Pepperdine with a career win-loss record of 563-385.

  The 3-pointer was originally set at 19 feet 9 inches from the basket and later changed to 22 feet 1¾ inches. The NBA adopted it in 1979.

THE SPIN RACK: Investigators in Thousand Oaks, California are investigating the death of a 69-year-old Jewish man who died in a hospital after sustaining a head injury during a protest in which pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrators confronted each other. Paul Kessler is reported to fallen backward and hit his head on the ground. It’s unclear whether he fell on his own or was knocked over. — As a result of the rise in sexually transmitted disease in the US, more babies are being born with congenital syphilis. More than 3,700 cases of congenital syphilis were reported in 2022, roughly 11 times the number of ten years ago, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. — The major auto makers say they’ve had a slackening of sales for electric vehicles, causing them to question planned major investments in new models and factories. — An aide to Ukraine’s top military commander was killed by a grenade that was given to him as a birthday present. Authorities say Maj. Gennadiy Chastyakov found his son handling the grenade, took it away, and accidentally pulled the pin.

BELOW THE FOLD: In the most recent of a puzzling series, a pod of Orca whales last week attacked, repeatedly rammed, and sank a tourist yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar. All on board survived.

  Since 2020, there have been about 500 whale attacks with three boats sunk. There are a lot of theories floating around, but the most obvious to some people is that it’s the revenge of the whales.

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