If you or a loved one are in crisis, please call or text 988 or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a live volunteer crisis counselor.
Sens. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, and Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, introduced a bipartisan bill on Wednesday to re-establish national emergency suicide prevention services for LGBTQ+ youth — which have been stripped by the Trump administration at a time when the vulnerable group needs it most.
In July, the Trump administration terminated the 988 hotline’s LGBTQ+ services, which connected young people in crisis with counselors trained in supporting LGBTQ+ youth. This new bill, backed by the LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention organization Trevor Project as well as the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, would modify the Public Health Service Act to reinstate those services and require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to maintain them. The bill now moves to committee.
The Trevor Project estimates that more than 1.8 million LGBTQ+ young people seriously consider suicide each year in the United States, as they face high rates of bullying, assault and discrimination. And when the 2024 presidential race was called for Donald Trump, calls and texts to the Trevor Project’s own crisis hotlines spiked by 700 percent, as LGBTQ+ youth felt afraid about the outcome of the election.
“Given that LGBTQ+ youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers, the need for these services remains pressing,” said Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, in a statement. “This is not about politics, or identity; this is about doing what is best to support our country’s highest risk populations — and save young people’s lives nationwide.”
During his first term in 2020, President Trump signed a bipartisan law to create 988 as a more accessible resource for mental health emergencies. The free hotline launched in July 2022. Since then, millions of people in crisis have turned to 988. And nearly 1.5 million of those calls, texts and chats were sent by young Americans seeking specialized LGBTQ+ services.
“We are in the middle of a mental health crisis, and the 988 lifeline saves lives, plain and simple,” said Baldwin, who wrote the original legislation to create the 988 hotline. Cutting funds for specialized services within 988 puts the lifeline in jeopardy, she said in a statement.
“There is absolutely no good reason that Donald Trump took away this specialized help for our LGBTQ youth. Mental health does not see partisan lines or geography,” the Wisconsin Democrat added.
Hello Everyone. First two notes before I do the cartoons. One I have not replied to comments in a week of so. I was not up to it and busy. But I should be able to start replying this after noon and tomorrow. Don’t worry if I don’t reply right way. I do love to hear what you all have to say and enjoy reading them.
The other thing is a few people have said that some of the cartoons don’t display and that the link is broken. Barry in New Zealand is an IT expert who has sent me an email on it. I will post it after this for anyone that can use the method he describes. These cartoons are all from the same site the one that Barry tells me is the one that the links are broken unless he uses a VPN. Cagle.com, and that is sad because those are some of the best ones. I have been posting them in the classic mode. This batch of cartoons will only be from the Cagle site but I will do it on the block editor mode to see if that will solve the problem. Plus I will be posting two versions of each one to see if that makes a difference. I just realized that there may be a way to embed them that automatically does to the URL what Barry suggested after the first two. One thing that would help is if the cartoons don’t display for you leave a comment and let me know the country you are in. Thank you. Best wishes for all and hugs for those that want them.
I love all his work, including boosting the indies, and preservation/conservation of U.S. natural resources. I can’t pick a favorite, but the first movie I saw with Robert Redford in it was “Inside Daisy Clover.” He was a genius in that, and in all that he did. This is a pleasant tribute. (And Newman’s Own products are actually high quality, and quite good; beloved by both human and pet.🌞)
Robert Redford was many things to many people: husband, father, heartthrob, Oscar-winning actor, trailblazer. But to fellow actor Paul Newman, he was both co-star and dear friend.
When Newman passed away in 2008, Redford wrote a touching tribute to him for Time Magazine.
“I first met Paul Newman in 1968, when George Roy Hill, the director of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, introduced us in New York City,” Redford wrote. “When the studio didn’t want me for the film–it wanted somebody as well known as Paul–he stood up for me. I don’t know how many people would have done that; they would have listened to their agents or the studio powers.”
One of their most powerful connections was laughter. “Whenever he’d make a mistake on set, he would enjoy it more than anybody,” Redford wrote. “I’d look at him, and he’d look at me, and I’d say, ‘You’re not fooling anybody. You’re not staring at me intensely; you’ve lost your line.’ And he’d roar with laughter.”
Redford shared their heartfelt pranks: “We played lots of pranks on each other. I used to race cars, and after he took this rare Porsche I owned for a drive, he began to get into racing. He had incredible reflexes, and he got really good, but he talked so much about it that I got sick of it. So I had a beaten-up Porsche shell delivered to his porch for his 50th birthday. He never said anything, but not long after, I found a crate of molten metal delivered to the living room of my (rented) house. It dented the floor. I then had it turned into a really ugly sculpture and dropped it into his garden. To this day, neither one of us has ever mentioned it.”
So it wasn’t surprising that even after Newman died, Redford would lovingly tease him. In a now resurfaced clip from the Pete’s Dragon press junket in 2016, film critic Kevin McCarthy compliments Redford on his performance in Captain America: Winter Soldier. He says, “There’s a moment in that movie where you walk up to your fridge and you open it up – and in your fridge is Newman’s Own spaghetti sauce.” Redford gives his trademark sly smile.
So it wasn’t surprising that even after Newman died, Redford would lovingly tease him. In a now resurfaced clip from the Pete’s Dragon press junket in 2016, film critic Kevin McCarthy compliments Redford on his performance in Captain America: Winter Soldier. He says, “There’s a moment in that movie where you walk up to your fridge and you open it up – and in your fridge is Newman’s Own spaghetti sauce.” Redford gives his trademark sly smile.
“Have you ever gone out and purchased Newman’s Own, like salad dressing?” McCarthy asks. Again Redford smiles and jokes, “No. Are you kidding? No, I like good food.” His face continues to brighten on the topic.
Redford adds, “Ready for a funny story? My wife and I were in a restaurant in Napa Valley and there was a table next to us of about seven people. And they kept looking over and commenting. And I thought, ‘We’re not gonna be left alone, they’re gonna come over and bug me’ and so forth. And sure enough, this guy comes up from the table and says ‘I’m sorry, I hate to interrupt. We’re all here and we are such fans. I just wanted to tell you how much we love your work.’ And I said ‘Well thank you.’ And he said, ‘And we love your salad dressing.'”
McCarthy laughs, then confirms, “They thought you were Paul Newman? Did you correct him or did you let it go?” Redford dryly, without missing a beat, says, “No. I was so stunned, I just stared into space for a while. But it was a great moment.”
Commenters point out how special their friendship was. “I love how he’s teasing his friend even beyond the grave,” one wrote. “I like to imagine that in that moment he knew Paul heard that comment and smiled.”
McCarthy goes on to talk about the magic of Pete’s Dragon and how it changed Redford’s character’s worldview. He asked, “Do you have something like that in your own life? Something that magical that happened that essentially changed the way you saw life?”
Redford answers quickly. “I did.” He describes being taken to the library as a child and says of the children’s books he read, “All the stories in the children’s section were about a life bigger than the one you were living in. And I got really taken with that. And the idea of fantasy. The idea of seeing a world larger than your own is where the magic was.”
Tributes to Redford are flooding in after news of his death. Director Ron Howard took to X to write, “RIP and thank you Robert Redford, a tremendously influential cultural figure for the creative choices made as an actor/producer/director. And for launching the Sundance Film Festival, which supercharged America’s Independent Film movement. Artistic game changer.”
Governor Spencer Cox of Utah, where Redford spent many cherished years until his passing, wrote on X, “Decades ago, Robert Redford came to Utah and fell in love with the place. He cherished our landscapes and built a legacy that made Utah a home for storytelling and creativity. Through Sundance and his devotion to conservation, he shared Utah with the world.”
October 18, 1648 I. Marc Carlson The Shoemakers Guild of Boston became the first labor union in the American colonies. Labor organization in colonial times
October 18, 1929 The Persons Case, a legal milestone in Canada, was decided. Five women from Alberta, later known as the Famous Five, asked the Supreme Court of Canada to rule on the legal status of women. Some decisions of Magistrate Emily Murphy had been challenged on the basis that she was not a legal person, and she was a candidate for appointment to the Canadian Senate. After the Supreme Court ruled against them, they appealed to the British Privy Council.The Privy Council found for the women on this day (eight years after the case began and eleven years after women received the federal vote), declaring that women were persons under the law. October 18 has since been celebrated as Persons Day in Canada, and October as Women’s History Month.
Sculpture by Barbara Paterson of the Famous Five in Ottawa, first on Parliament Hill to honor women The other women activists in the Famous Five: Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, and Irene Parlby. The Persons Case
They are trying to silence the free speech of the left, while embolden their side to become even more vile. Patel the FBI deputy Director called democratic senators Cowards and barons, shouted down and mocked democratic senators. The right seems to want the ability to say what ever horrible insults, lies, and misinformation they want about the left / minorities / the LGBTQ+ community but when the left points out what the right is saying it is the left who the right attacks as inciting riots or crime. Authoritarian play book 101. Vilify the other side and when they react make them the boogie man. Hugs
Texas State expels student who reportedly mocked Charlie Kirk shooting at campus vigil
Governor Abbott called for expulsion, and the university said the video ‘trivializing or promoting violence’ was reprehensible
Immigration judge orders Mahmoud Khalil deported to Syria or Algeria
Lawyers for the pro-Palestinian activist said they plan to appeal the immigration judge’s order, which was revealed in court documents filed Wednesday.
Democrats release competing funding bill as tensions over looming shutdown grow
The Democratic bill would fund the government until Oct. 31, extend health care funding and roll back Medicaid cuts from Trump’s “big, beautiful” law, among other provisions.
ABC suspends ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ “indefinitely” over Charlie Kirk comments
The network’s decision comes after affiliate group Nexstar said it would pull the late night show, and the chairman of the FCC suggested he might take action against ABC.
Scottie's Playtime 
