Category: Analysis
“No good choices”: HHS Is cutting safety corners to move migrant kids out of overcrowded facilities
After ignoring signs that shelters were filling quickly, agencies are scrambling to get thousands of kids out of Border Patrol jails. But new “emergency” facilities skirt safety standards, while facilities accused of abuse are still getting…
Arizona study examines health risks faced by female firefighters
By Emma Ascott/Cronkite News April 15, 2021 PHOENIX – Nicole Minnick had been a firefighter for seven years when she gave birth in 2008 to her first child, a girl named Kyndal. A few months later,…
With enough political will, all new US car and truck sales can be electric by 2035: study says
“Every year America stalls… we miss the ever-narrowing window to address the climate crisis and ensure a livable planet.” by Jake Johnson, staff writer Thursday, April 15, 2021 A study released Thursday morning by researchers at…
“I felt hate more than anything”: how an active duty airman tried to start a Civil War
The Effort to Overturn the Election Steven Carrillo’s path to the Boogaloo Bois shows the hate group is far more organized and dangerous than previously known. by Gisela Pérez de Acha, Kathryn Hurd and Ellie Lightfoot,…
Vape sellers are using popular music videos to promote e-cigarettes to young people – and it’s working
Teens and young adults spend several hours a day looking at their phones and watching videos, many of which might contain product placements for vaping. Flashpop/Getty Images. by Jon-Patrick Allem, University of Southern California Research that…
How Black poets and writers gave a voice to ‘Affrilachia’
by Amy M. Alvarez, West Virginia University and Jameka Hartley, University of Alabama April 4, 2021 ‘Untitled’ from the series ‘Imaging/Imagining.’, Photo by Raymond Thompson, Jr . Appalachia, in the popular imagination, stubbornly remains poor…
Biden endorses return to talking filibuster, Sinema mum
‘Democracy Is Having a Hard Time Functioning’ “That’s what it was supposed to be.” by Jake Johnson, staff writer Wednesday, March 17, 2021 President Joe Biden for the first time on Tuesday endorsed significantly overhauling…
America’s drinking water is surprisingly easy to poison
The cyberbreach at a plant in Oldsmar, Florida, which could have resulted in a mass poisoning, was a reminder of a disturbing reality: Despite a decade of warnings, thousands of water systems around the country are…
Critics say ‘scorched earth’ threat over Filibuster shows McConnell ‘getting scared’
“McConnell is clearly getting desperate as momentum grows to eliminate the filibuster as a weapon he can use to maintain power from the minority.” by Jake Johnson, staff writer Tuesday, March 16, 2021 Minority Leader Mitch…
Progressive takeover of Nevada Democratic Party sparks ‘mass exodus’ of staff, consultants
“What they just didn’t expect is that we got better and better at organizing and out-organizing them at every turn,” said Judith Whitmer, newly elected chair of the Nevada Democratic Party. by Jake Johnson, staff writer…
‘They run on shrinking the vote’: Tens of millions threatened by GOP attack on voting
Democrats can eliminate the filibuster to pass legislation to stop voter suppression, said journalist Ari Berman, “or they can allow [the] GOP to undermine democracy for the next decade.” by Kenny Stancil, staff…
6 Questions officials still haven’t answered after weeks of hearings on the Capitol attack
More than 15 hours of testimony failed to answer fundamental questions about the Capitol attack. Among them: Why national security officials responded differently to BLM protesters than to Trump supporters. by Joaquin Sapien and Joshua…
House Passage of Historic Union Rights Bill Intensifies Pressure on Dem Senators to ‘Stop Hiding Behind’ Filibuster
“Once again, the key obstacle in the way of passing this legislation is the Jim Crow filibuster.” by Jake Johnson, staff writer Wednesday, March 10, 2021 With the support of just five Republicans, the House…
Why white supremacists and QAnon enthusiasts are obsessed – but very wrong – about the Byzantine Empire
Roland Betancourt, University of California, Irvine Sunday, March 7, 2021 Inspiration for a mob of angry white men? Getty Images From Charlottesville to the Capitol, medieval imagery has been repeatedly on show at far-right…
Peace advocates welcome Biden move to limit war powers
‘We Need to Make Sure It’s Done Right’ The president and Congress, said one leading anti-war campaigner, “must work together to actually end the decades long fighting, killing, dying, and spending that is on automatic pilot.”…
As Manchin yells he will ‘Never…Jesus Christ!’ vote to kill filibuster, Warren and Sanders demand end to Jim Crow rule
“Moderate Democrats in the Senate have a choice to make: They can either defend democracy and the Constitution by passing H.R. 1 or they can save the McConnell filibuster. They can’t do both.” by Jake Johnson,…
After a wave of violent threats against election workers, Georgia sees few arrests
For nearly a year, election administrators across the country weathered the pandemic while facing attacks and threats — leading many officials to resign or retire. In Georgia, little was done to prevent it from happening again….
Rural Americans in pharmacy deserts hurting for Covid vaccines
by Markian Hawryluk March 3, 2021 As the Biden administration accelerates a plan to use pharmacies to distribute covid-19 vaccines, significant areas of the country lack brick-and-mortar pharmacies capable of administering the protective shots. A recent…
How inequity gets built into America’s vaccination system
People eligible for the coronavirus vaccine tell us they are running up against barriers that are designed into the very systems meant to serve those most at risk of dying of the disease. We plan to…
There was a time reparations were actually paid out – just not to formerly enslaved people
by Thomas Craemer, University of Connecticut Friday, February 26, 2021 No guessing who in this 1864 depiction may have been compensated after slavery ended. API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images The cost of slavery and its legacy of…
Lawsuit Reveals New Allegations Against PG&E Contractor Accused of fraud
Former PG&E employees are accused of taking bribes to funnel business to a waste-hauling company. by Scott Morris, Bay City News Foundation Co-published with Bay City News Foundation. Feb. 26, 5 a.m. EST Utility giant Pacific…
Nevada lithium mine kicks off a new era of Western extraction
The hastily approved project went forward without comment from the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe. by Maya L. Kapoor, High Country News February 18, 2021 the Great Basin Desert of northern Nevada and southern Oregon, Thacker…
John Thune’s childhood $6 wage—$24 adjusted for inflation—sure helps make the case for at least $15
“The worst thing is that these people aren’t dumb. They know about inflation… They just don’t think people who make their food and clean their bathrooms deserve the same things they got.” by Kenny Stancil, staff…
Tribes revive traditional hemp economies
A post-petroleum transition plan. by Winona LaDuke February 16, 2021 More than 20 years ago, Alex White Plume, a leader of the Oglala Lakota, planted his first hemp crop on Wounded Knee Creek, on the Pine…
