Read through, and check the updates.

Of course, her family has been threatened and needs security because that's what MAGAts do -- they threaten people. I'm sure it's been awful since Fox News doxxed her.

An Olde School Sales Job Is The Order Of The Day

When behaviors are successful, shouldn’t you repeat them??  One of the best periods in my blogging career, view and advertising wise, happened when I took a part time sales job at Dick’s Sporting Goods.  I realized this week that due to freelancing, I spend a lot of time sitting around hoping to get paid on time and waiting for decisions.  I could fill that time with a part time sales job and…

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Indiana attorney general sues provider over violation of consumer protection, privacy laws

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is suing a northwest Indiana medical office over a ransomware event that put personal and protected health information at risk. The lawsuit alleges the provider was aware of security concerns before the data breach. The lawsuit filed last week against CarePointe — an ear, nose, throat, sinus and hearing provider — claims it was aware of security risks prior to…

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Hello! I'm a teacher in Indiana, and things have been getting steadily more dire since I started teaching. Indiana is not a great place to teach because we have a GOP supermajority and, wow, do those guys hate public educators.

Anyway our attorney general (who I have no kind words for so I'll keep them to myself) has set up an "Education Transparency Form" so concerned members of the public can report "socialist indoctrination." He didn't bother to tell the department of education or schools that he was doing this.

Anyway, would you all do me the kind favor of spamming this thing?

Jessica Valenti at Abortion, Every Day:

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita says that abortion reports aren’t medical records, and that they should be available to the public in the same way that death certificates are. While Rokita pushes for public reports, New Hampshire lawmakers are fighting over a Republican bill to collect and publish abortion data, and U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville has introduced a bill that would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to collect and provide data on the abortions performed at its facilities. Just last week, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed legislation that would have required abortion providers to ask patients invasive and detailed questions about why they were getting abortions, and provide those answers in a report to the state.   All of these moves are part of a broader strategy that weaponizes abortion data to stigmatize patients and to prosecute providers. And while most states have some kind of abortion reporting law, legislators are increasingly trying to expand the scope of the data, and use it to dismantle women’s privacy.

Rokita’s ‘advisory opinion’, for example, argues that abortion data collected by the state isn’t private medical information and that in order to prosecute abortion providers, he needs detailed reports to be public. In the past, the state has issued reports on each individual abortion. But as a result of Indiana’s ban, there are only a handful of abortions being performed in the state. As such, the Department of Health decided to release aggregate reports to protect patient confidentiality, noting that individual reports could be “reverse engineered to identify patients—especially in smaller communities.” Rokita—best known for his harassment campaign against Dr. Caitlin Bernard, the abortion provider who treated a 10-year-old rape victim—is furious over the change. He says the only way he can arrest and prosecute people is if he gets tips from third parties, presumably anti-abortion groups that scour the abortion reports for alleged wrongdoing. He wants the state to either restore public individual reports, or to allow his office to go after abortion providers without a complaint by a third party. (Meaning, he could pursue investigations against doctors and hospitals without cause.)

Most troubling, though, is his insistence that women’s private abortion information isn’t private at all. Even though individual reports could be used to identify patients, Rokita claims that the terminated pregnancy reports [TPRs] aren’t medical records, and that they “do not belong to the patient.” [...] As I flagged last month, abortion reporting is becoming more and more important to anti-choice lawmakers and groups. Project 2025 includes an entire section on abortion reporting, for example, and major anti-abortion organizations like the Charlotte Lozier Institute and Americans United for Life want to mandate more detailed reports.

[...]  As is the case with funding for crisis pregnancy centers and legislation about ‘prenatal counseling’ or ‘perinatal hospice care’, Republicans are advancing abortion reporting mandates under the guise of protecting women. And in a moment when voters are furious over abortion bans, anti-choice lawmakers and organizations very much need Americans to believe that lie. We have to make clear that state GOPs aren’t just banning abortion, but enacting any and every punitive policy that they can—especially those that strip us of our medical privacy. After all, it was less than a year ago that 19 Republican Attorneys General wanted the ability to investigate the out-of-state medical records of abortion patients. Did we really think they were going to stop there?

@jessicavalenti writes a solid column in her Abortion, Every Day blog that the GOP's agenda to erode patient privacy of those seeking abortions is a dangerous one.

ok sorry but i MUST share the idea i have for a multi chapter fic series that i will NEVER write because i don’t function like i used to

imagine me looking like this while explaining this idea. (i am stoned)

alright okay. so imagine reader is an intern for the new york times in 1986-1987. they usually ghost write things or edit articles (idk how newspapers work!!). they’re like the lowest level employee, cannot really be called a journalist even if that’s what they’d like to be.

cue in. mr and mrs harrington. BIG donors of the times. back from when they lived in nyc (where mr harrington got his start as an attorney) (he’s well connected with many celebrities and politicians). and mr and mrs harrington (john and. idk. some milf name) are GOBSMACKED with why the global media is not talking about hawkins. the town overran by the devil! so they reach out to nyt to coax them into coming. and nyt says no for whatever reason (haven’t thought of this yet - like is the government banning the media from coming? do they just rly not care about whatever weird environmental disaster is happening? chernobyl just happened for christ sake, who gives a fuck about indiana!) and the harringtons are like “if you don’t cover what’s happening in hawkins we’ll pull our funding” (which is like a fortune, they’re like top 5 biggest donors). so nyt sends down the little intern under the guise of gaining “real world experience” but in fact they just don’t want to send an actual reporter down here.

so reader heads down, government clearances given, and they’re staying with john and miss milf while they’re in. because they offered. because they have this big house that’s been REAL LONELY the past few years. and their darling son steve is hardly around anymore! and yeah they’re a little pissed they got sent an intern but it’s better than nothing!

and you know so steve finds out there’s a fucking reporter (intern) here that has 0 understanding of what they’re getting into and they’re staying in HIS HOUSE and steve really isn’t in the business of the world knowing what’s happening. he’s in the business of keeping people safe. so he’s pissed at his parents and tries very hard to keep this lil journalist (intern) away from him and everyone he knows. like literally tries to enact a curfew and whatnot but reader is smart and it’s fucking obvious something otherworldly is happening. if they go anywhere in town they need to be escorted by guards who have GUNS and the government people (i have a way with words) they met with already told them that they have to vette anything they write. and there IS a curfew and under no circumstances can anyone go outside after dusk!

but steve always gets to sneak out after dusk so why can’t reader!

so reader trails steve and you know general hijinks ensue. and it’s like only when nancy says “wow you’re interning with the new york times that’s crazy!” that steve’s like “oh MAD RESPECT love the times i love to read about news and also current events such as the weather and sports”. some angst about how reader reminds him so much of nancy who he’s PRETTY SURE he is in love with and who he definitely misses. you know all that fun stuff. sort of an enemies to lovers slow burn if that slow burn lasted over the course of a week.

anyway bottom line: i think if they’re going to give us a steve love interest it should be a journalist who is staying in his house because his parents are dip shits and want to look nice and hospitable and steve has to try to hide all of this information for fear of his own safety, the safety of his friends, and the safety of the journalist. and then they fall in love and have smart babies.

if u even read this thank u. and godspeed

Indiana just launched a “snitch line” for people to report schools for teaching about LGBTQ issues, Black history, and other topics.

On Monday, the AG, Todd Rokita, launched this “Eyes on Eduction” portal where students, parents, and teachers alike can report… “objectionable curricula, policies, or programs affecting children.” While they hide behind the suggestion that this is to stop “political ideology - either left or right” from being forced on kids, we all know that this is really a tip line for parents to complain that someone told their kid gay people exist or slavery was a real thing that happened to Black people.

I’m not going to lie, despite this being from the office of the attorney general, I don’t think this is much more than a wall of shame functionally. The AG’s office looks at submissions, takes the credible ones, and publishes them on the portal for anyone to see. The PDFs of the so-called evidence also include names of teachers.

Anyway, unsurprisingly, people have been flooding the portal with junk submissions, as pointed out by the wonderful Erin Reed (@/ErinInTheMorn on Twitter) in her article on the portal:

A report that Godzilla was witnessed with a trans flag

Indiana Jones slapping a Nazi

A report of a famous picture of Trump next to Rudy Giuliani in drag

Multiple reports citing the Bible for teenage pregnancy

A confession purporting to be from Breaking Bad character Walter White

The script for the Bee Movie (classic)

The script to Oppenheimer

The script for Eurotrip, with a note not to tell Scotty

Young Sheldon saying “Bazinga”

So ALL OF THAT IS TO SAY. Here's another link to the portal. Whatever you do, don't add to the list above and flood the portal, making it nearly impossible for the poor AG's office to sort through all the submissions and find credible submissions! That would be sooo uncalled for.

Anyway, side note for you: if you're thinking to yourself, "damn, Todd Rokita, that name sounds awfully familiar," you may be thinking of the time in 2022 he said he was going to investigate Dr. Caitlin Bernard for providing an abortion procedure to a 10 year old girl who had fled Ohio to receive care because Ohio's abortion ban did not provide an exception for minor children who became pregnant as a result of rape. Ultimately, Indiana state courts found him to have violated the law and engaged in attorney misconduct due to his public statements on the situation. Yet, he is still AG. This guy has sucked as long as I can remember. He was Secretary of State of Indiana from 2002-2010, then he was a member of the US House of Representatives from Indiana's 4th district (which my hometown is unfortunately a part of) from 2011-2019, and has now been AG since 2021. For perspective, I was born in 1997--the year he joined the Secretary of State's office as general counsel, then later became deputy secretary of state. He's been doing his damndest to ruin this state as long as I've been alive.

Also, his birthday is Friday (February 9th) according to his wikipedia page. Definitely don't give him any birthday presents by way of the submission portal, okay? Good talk

Indiana attorney general pushes to disclose terminated pregnancy reports

Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt released an informal opinion last December stating the information gathered by Terminated Pregnancy Reports, or TPRs, could be used to identify patients — “especially in smaller communities.”

Attorney General Todd Rokita released an advisory opinion Thursday that said the decision to not disclose the individual reports complicates enforcement of Indiana law.

Rokita said the reports have been publicly available since the 1970s, but there was “an abrupt change” in policy following the public access counselor’s opinion.

However, with fewer patients receiving abortions following the near-total abortion ban, the Indiana Department of Health raised concerns that releasing the full individual reports could violate patient confidentiality — especially with increased reporting requirements added in 2022.

Britt’s opinion said the statute requires IDOH to provide aggregated data in quarterly public reports, which suggests the individual forms are “non-public.”

Back To The Future

Back To The Future

Please notice I made a change this week.  This is some old school Utica stuff.  The Schedule appears late on Monday.  Sometimes after the Monday Blog is posted.  Y’all seem to like it better that way.  Just like you seem to enjoy emailing me instead of commenting on the Blog.  The only page that gets more hits than Ode to Mr. Turtle is my contact page.  As long as you’re reading and making calls…

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Using the First Amendment to end the First Amendment

In recent years, the First Amendment has been shoddily invoked to justify decisions that ultimately diminish its very raison d'être, quite possibly leading us to fascism. 

Alarmingly, we're now seeing state-level absurdities such as Florida removing sociology as a core course in its college curriculum and replacing it with a course teaching the “historically accurate account of America’s founding.” Indiana's Attorney General Todd Rokita has launched the creepily-named "Eyes on Education" portal for the public to report "indoctrination" in classrooms. The West Virginia House just passed a bill allowing for the prosecution of librarians if an "obscene" item falls into a minor's hands.

Help keep this work sustainable by joining the Sorensen Subscription Service! Also on Patreon.

Erin Reed at Erin In The Morning:

On Tuesday, Gov. Janet Mills of Maine signed LD 227, a sanctuary bill that protects transgender and abortion providers and patients from out-of-state prosecution, into law. With this action, Maine becomes the 16th state to explicitly protect transgender and abortion care in state law from prosecution. This follows several bomb threats targeting state legislators after social media attacks from far-right anti-trans influencers such as Riley Gaines and Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok. An earlier version of the bill failed in committee after similar attacks in January. Undeterred, Democrats reconvened and added additional protections to the bill before it was passed into law.

The law is extensive. It asserts that gender-affirming care and reproductive health care are "legal rights" in Maine. It states that criminal and civil actions against providers and patients are not enforceable if the provision or access to that care occurred within Maine’s borders, asserting jurisdiction over those matters. It bars cooperation with out-of-state subpoenas and arrest warrants for gender-affirming care and abortion that happen within the state. It even protects doctors who provide gender-affirming care and abortion from certain adverse actions by medical boards, malpractice insurance, and other regulating entities, shielding those providers from attempts to economically harm them through out-of-state legislation designed to dissuade them from providing care.

The bill also explicitly enshrines the World Professional Association of Transgender Health’s Standards of Care, which have been the target of right-wing disinformation campaigns, into state law for the coverage of transgender healthcare.

The bill is said to be necessary due to attempts to prosecute doctors and seek information from patients across state lines. In recent months, attorneys general in other states have attempted to obtain health care data on transgender patients who traveled to obtain care. According to the United States Senate Finance Committee, attorneys general in Tennessee, Indiana, Missouri, and Texas attempted to obtain detailed medical records "to terrorize transgender teens in their states… opening the door to criminalizing women’s private reproductive health care choices." The most blatant of these attempts was from the Attorney General of Texas, who, according to the Senate Finance Committee, "sent demands to at least two non-Texas entities." 

[...] Despite these threats, legislators strengthened both the abortion and gender-affirming care provisions and pressed forward, passing the bill into law. Provisions found in the new bill include protecting people who "aid and assist" gender-affirming care and abortion, protections against court orders from other states for care obtained in Maine, and even protections against adverse actions by health insurance and malpractice insurance providers, which have been recent targets of out-of-state legislation aimed at financially discouraging doctors from providing gender-affirming care and abortion care even in states where it is legal.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) signs gender-affirming care and abortion sanctuary state bill LD227 into law despite the best efforts of right-wing anti-trans extremists such as Riley Gaines, Courage Is A Habit, and Libs of TikTok who sought to thwart its passage and signature into law.