** It decided that sponsors of California’s “Proposition 8,” adopted by the state’s voters in an election almost five years ago, did not have a legal right to be in the Supreme Court or in a federal appeals court to try to defend that measure from constitutional attack. That is likely to have the early impact of putting into final effect a San Francisco federal judge’s 2010 decision striking down Proposition 8 under the U.S. Constitution. Some 18,000 California same-sex couples already had been married when they had a brief chance to do so as the issue developed in that state, but now millions are likely to gain the right to marry when the judge’s ruling is implemented by state officials. Happening perhaps in just a few weeks, that would make California the thirteenth — and largest — state to permit such marriages (along with Washington, D.C.).

Yesterday [June 25] a conference committee met to announce they had added language [view amendment] to the state budget — borrowed from the controversial heartbeat bill – that requires a physician to inform women in writing of the presence of a fetal heartbeat and the statistical likelihood that her fetus could be carried to term. The Department of Health would draft rules for how a fetal heartbeat can be detected, but those rules may only require an external exam. Civil, disciplinary and criminal penalties are included for doctors who purposefully perform or induce an abortion on a woman without fully meeting the new requirements

The amendment also contains some concerning changes to the definitions of ‘fetus’ and ‘pregnancy.’ The bill now defines fetus as: “human offspring developing during pregnancy from the moment of conception and includes the embryonic stage of development,” and declares that pregnancy begins with fertilization. Biological science defines pregnancy as begin at implantation in the uterine lining. Changing these definitions could have many unforeseen ramifications, including implications for many commonly-used forms of birth control.

All this occurred without testimony from medical professionals or an opportunity for input from the public. It joins many other provisions impacting women that are already in the budget.

HB 59 heads to the full House and Senate for floor votes on Thursday, and on to Governor Kasich’s for his signature, which must happen before July 1. Kasich has line-item veto authority to remove these provisions, and we hope he stands with both women and science to these major changes to Ohio law that have not been properly vetted and do not belong in budget legislation.

Earlier that evening, a Friday night, so as few people as possible would notice, big, rough, tough Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, and a guy some delusional souls believe is something more than a run of the mill conservative, vetoed a bill that would have banned a deadly sniper rifle [.50 cal] that fires rounds big enough to bring down, among other things, police helicopters. (That it was Christie's bill in the first place is merely an extraneous layer of chicken shit on the whole proceedings.) Chris Christie wants the presidential nomination of a demented political party, so Chris Christie had to veto his own bill and make sure that New Jersey residents can keep their personal anti-aircraft arsenals. I know I'll feel safer flying into Newark now. And, that night, in Newtown, all was dark. All was quiet. All was normal again. Another teachable moment in which the country learned nothing.

Forgive me, but it bears repeating: Chris Christie's political career is forever down the crapper. Main Justice, a legal news site, broke the news today that the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission is now working with the Manhattan District Attorney to investigate the Christie Crew's looting of Port Authority funds originally meant to help build a rail tunnel that would've been the nation's largest infrastructure project -- creating thousands of jobs in New Jersey, and easing the commute to and from New York City for hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans.

Christie killed that tunnel project in order to use the money to fix decrepit, neglected New Jersey roads that the state itself is supposed to repair, with money from its Transportation Trust Fund, which was entirely depleted. Faced with the option of raising New Jersey's gas tax -- the second-lowest in the land -- to pay for the road repairs, Christie preferred swiping the tunnel money from the Port Authority.

To do so meant twisting some arms, including those attached to the PA lawyers, who quite properly told Christie's goons that the Port could not legally reallocate the $2 billion of tunnel bucks to the New Jersey road-repair projects. Didn't faze Christie -- nor did the statute requiring that any such switcheroo be approved by both the New York and New Jersey legislatures. Christie's enforcer at the Port, Bill Baroni, told the PA lawyers to find a way, and so they did. They decided that the New Jersey roads were 'access roads' to the Lincoln Tunnel -- nonsense to anyone familiar with North Jersey terrain -- thereby koshering the shakedown, which was, of course, unanimously approved by the Port Authority Board of Commissioners, chaired by Christie's consigliere, David Samson.

By keeping all of this on the down low, Christie and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Christie's Port Authority business partner, managed to pull off this heist without either state legislature making a peep. Maybe they didn't know; maybe they didn't want to know. Nobody said a word. Never even came up.

Little problem, though: The Port Authority issues bonds, borrowing billions of dollars from investors to fund and maintain capital projects like bridges, tunnels, and airports. Those bonds are beloved by investors because they're secured by the stream of future tolls and fees generated by the same bridges, tunnels, and airports, but the PA -- as its own lawyers first told Christie -- can't just fork over its investors' money to a career pol more worried about grooming his tough-guy act and no-tax rep than he is about obeying the law or doing what's best for his constituents.

Enter the SEC, just one more hungry, patient diner tucking in at Chris Christie's all-you-can-eat grifters' buffet. The noise you're not hearing? That would be the muffled crunch of Christie's wishbone, breaking.