Good morning, Her Campus! With a break-neck news cycle, there is no possible way for you to stay on top of every story that comes across your feeds—we’re all only human, after all.
But, life comes at you fast. So grab a cup of coffee and settle in for this quick and dirty guide to stories you might’ve been sleeping on (like, literally. It’s early.)
Trump Picks LGBTQ Judicial Nominee
President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he is nominating Mary Rowland to be a federal judge, and, according to The Huffington Post, this is Trump’s first LGBTQ court pick while in office.
Rowland is being nominated for a lifetime seat on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. According to HuffPost, she has been a magistrate judge on the court, which basically means that she has been assisting the district judges, since 2002. Rowland also spent 12 years as a partner at a law firm and 10 years at the Federal Defender Program of Chicago.
But what makes Rowland’s nomination even more notable besides her impressive qualifications is that she is the only openly gay or lesbian nominee out of Trump’s nearly 140 district and circuit court nominees. And nearly a third of his nominees have anti-LGBTQ records.
Illinois Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth played an integral part in Rowland’s nomination and praised her and the three other individuals nominated to the Illinois court on Thursday.
“They have the qualifications, integrity, and judgment to serve with distinction as district court judges in the Northern District of Illinois,” Durbin and Duckworth said in a joint statement. “We appreciate the Administration’s willingness to work with us and with our nonpartisan screening committee to reach consensus on nominees who will serve the people of Illinois well.”
Rich Madaleno’s Campaign Ad Might Be the First-Ever to Feature a Same-Sex Kiss
Rich Madaleno, Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Maryland, may have had a first for a campaign advertisement: featuring a same-sex kiss.
Madaleno’s kiss with his husband in his recent campaign video has been making waves on social media and on cable news, Bustle reports.
“What’s the number one way I piss off Trump and Republicans?” Madaleno asks in his ad. He then plants a kiss on his husband, Mark Madaleno, and says, “Take that, Trump!”
I’m running to deliver progressive results and stand up to @realDonaldTrump. Check out our new ad and then help us send our #TakeThatTrump message by contributing right now – https://t.co/d9fcvlegi8 pic.twitter.com/GkgJVU8wm2
— Rich Madaleno (@RichMadaleno) June 7, 2018
The gubernatorial candidates introduces himself in his ad: “I’m running for governor to deliver progressive results and to stand up to Donald Trump. Here are few of the things I’ve done already that infuriate him.” The campaign ad goes on to discuss issues such as Planned Parenthood, gun control, public schools and LGBTQ rights, Bustle reports.
In the ad, Madaleno mentions how he helped protect Planned Parenthood from its federal opponents. In April 2017, Madaleno, as a state senator, co-sponsored a bill that would allow state-funding for Planned Parenthood if federal funding was cut off, Bustle reports. Maryland became the first state to do so, and became law without Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s signature.
Madaleno is also a strong supporter of curtailing gun violence, and called on the state’s governor in February to pass two bills on gun control, Bustle reports. He told Associated Press at the time: “I’ve been distressed by the number of people — the part-time political people — who have been put on this board who don’t have the same level of standards and legal expertise that an administrative law judge would have.”
It is definitely worth noting that Madaleno’s campaign ad arrives at the beginning of June, just in time for Pride Month.
Facebook Says Private Posts Made Public For As Many As 14M
Facebook recently announced that a software bug led to users’ posts being posted publically regardless of their previous privacy settings, ABC News reports.
While Facebook has since said the issue has been fixed, the company said the bug had automatically suggested to users to make their posts public, even if their previous privacy settings had restricted their posts to only be visible to friends, or another privacy setting. If users did not notice the suggestion, they unknowingly sent their post out to a far broader audience.
Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer, Eric Egan, said the bug did not affect past posts, but Facebook is notifying affected users and advising them to review their posts, ABC News reports.
The company says the bug was active from May 18 until May 27.
According to ABC News, the bug occured when Facebook built a new way for users to share “featured items” on their profiles. These featured items are automatically made public.
But this latest privacy mishap only adds to concerns after Facebook shared user information with device makers, such as China’s Huawei. The company is also still recovering from the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Facebook’s latest privacy gaffe looks like a viable Federal Trade Commission / state attorney general deception case. Facebook made a representation that its sharing setting would maintain the most recent privacy preference. That wasn’t true.
— Jonathan Mayer (@jonathanmayer) June 7, 2018
Jonathan Mayer, a professor of computer science and public affairs at Princeton University, said on Twitter that this latest privacy failure “looks like a viable Federal Trade Commission/state attorney general deception case” because Facebook had promised that settings users set in their most recent privacy preferences would be maintained for future posts. But that was not the case here.
What to look out for…
Oprah now has her very own official Smithsonian exhibit. Road trip to D.C. anyone?