Anti-Trans: The right wing movement against gender-affirming care for minors has become a major effort to neutralize the medical establishment dealing with what appears to be the growing phenomenon of gender dysphoria. 

  A troubling medical matter has become a major political issue.  Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was suspended from Twitter for posting anti-tans messages.

 The Kentucky legislature has overridden the governor’s veto of a new law that bans gender-transition care for young people, considered to be one of the most extreme in the country. West Virginia’s governor signed a similar bill yesterday and prohibitions appear to be coming in Idaho and Missouri.

  Both political and Christian conservatives are pushing laws likely to be challenged to the highest courts.

  The Kentucky law orders doctors to stop treating patients currently under gender-transition care, allowing exceptions in cases where treatment is likely to “harm the minor,” but also requiring a systematic phase out. 

  The law also limits what can be taught in schools, barring teaching on sexuality below the sixth-grade level and banning teaching at any grade level about gender identity or sexual orientation.

  The governor of West Virginia signed a bill that bans transition care for minors unless the child has been “diagnosed as suffering from severe gender dysphoria” by at least two health care providers and has parental consent.

Armed and Dangerous: About 1 in 20 Americans owns an assault rifle. Coinciding with the Nashville school massacre, The Washington Post has been examining the AR-15, its power, who owns it, and why.

   The biggest group, 33%, say they own one for self-defense. Only 12% say it’s a Second Amendment right and they own one, “Because I can.” Some key figures:

• 74% are white
• 81% are male
• 47% are in the South
• 41% are Republican
• 56% earn more than$100,000
• 67% have no college degree

Migrant Fire: Mexican authorities say they are investigating as a homicide the fire that killed 39 migrants held in a detention facility in Juarez, saying  that government and private security employees had not allowed detainees to escape the inferno.

 Authorities say they have identified eight suspects. “None of the public servants, nor the private security guards, took any action to open the door for the migrants who were inside where the fire was,” said Sara Irene Herrerías Guerra, a senior human rights prosecutor.

The War Room: Ukraine’s defense minister in an interview with Estonian television said that his forces will deploy Western tanks in a month or so in what may become a spring offensive against Russian occupiers. 

  Meanwhile, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told members of Congress that the Wagner group mercenaries are “suffering an enormous amount of casualties in the Bakhmut area; the Ukrainians are inflicting a lot of death and destruction on these guys.” He described the battle for Bakhmut as a “slaughter-fest” for the Russians.  

  The head of the Wagner private army, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed in a message Wednesday that the battle for the city “has already practically destroyed the Ukrainian army,” but admitted that Wagner has “been pretty battered” as well.

  The Institute for the Study of War assesses that “Russian forces have advanced into an additional five percent of Bakhmut in the last seven days and that they currently occupy roughly 65 percent of the city.”

The Obit Page: Bobbi Kelly Ercoline, the woman wrapped in a quilt by her boyfriend featured on the cover of the 1970 Woodstock festival soundtrack album has died after a long illness. That picture became the iconic image of Woodstock’s “Three days of Peace, Love, and Music.” 

  Bobbi married that 20-year-old boy, Nick Ercoline, and they were together for 54 years. “She lived her life well, and left this world in a much better place. If you knew her, you loved her. She lived by her saying, ‘Be kind,’” Ercoline wrote on Facebook. 

  The two had been dating for a few months when they went to the festival about an hour from where they lived in Middletown, NY. 

  “I vividly recall the atmosphere: the sky was orangey pink from the lights, and it was misty,” Bobbi wrote in a 2015 article for The Guardian. “I could hear the music and the announcements from a long way off. Around us were families, couples, people shouting, babies crying, yodeling, banjos, bongos. The air was damp and smelled of campfires and pot. I’d not seen anything like it before.”

Bases Loaded: The 2023 professional baseball season opens today with new rules to speed and spice up the game.

-Pitch Clock: Pitchers have 15 seconds to throw the ball with bases empty, 20 seconds with runners on. Batters must be set to hit at 8 seconds.

–Infield Shift Banned: Two players must be on either side of second base. Teams may no longer move players to the outfield or the other side of the infield to try to direct or defend against hits.

-Bases Bigger: The bases will be three inches longer on all sides.

  The intent of the changes is to create more action, more hits, and more stolen bases.

The Spin Rack: Two Army Blackhawk helicopters crashed on a training mission, but there’s no word yet on fatalities.— Pope Francis has been checked into a hospital with a respiratory infection, the Vatican says. He’s 86. It was the lead story on CBS, but we don’t agree. — The New York grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels is taking a break until sometime later in April. — The FDA has approved over-the-counter sale of Narcan, the nasal spray that counters a drug overdose.

Below the Fold: Dozens of tech leaders, including Elon Musk, are calling for artificial intelligence labs to stop developing AI systems for at least six months, citing “profound risks to society and humanity.”Musk prefers human intelligence for things like buying Twitter at twice its value.

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