Tuesday’s elections resulted in one big surprise, as Kansas voters overwhelmingly crushed an attempt by state Republicans to curtail abortion rights. Even in the hard-right state, voters weren’t having it, and that suggests Republicans aren’t going to be able to dodge their new anti-abortion bans in November’s elections either. But will it make Republican lawmakers back down from their efforts to criminalize abortion nationally? Don’t bet on it.

Conspiracy blowhard Alex Jones tried to defend himself in court as a jury considers damages to be doled out for his monstrous lies about the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass murder, and it could not possibly have gone worse for him. Good.

And the Department of Justice’s criminal investigation of the Jan. 6 coup attempt continues to … actually show movement, as Donald Trump’s former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone is hit with a new subpoena as investigators focus on those with firsthand knowledge of what Trump did, and tried to do, and didn’t do, before and during the violence.

Here’s some of what you may have missed:

• Kansas Republicans bet big on being on anti-choice agenda, and the price tag will be high
• About that national abortion ban congressional Republicans have been planning …
• Report: Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone hit with Justice Department subpoena
• Alex Jones sideswiped by exposure of his own texts in Sandy Hook trial
• Idaho nears the fulfillment of Aryan Nations leader’s vision for creating a white-nationalist haven

In Ukraine:

• Russia loses two supply trains in a day … but only one to Ukrainian attack