Today's Liberal News

After ticket violation, Texas mother argues her unborn baby should count as passenger in HOV lane

A pregnant woman has gone viral on social media after receiving a ticket for driving in the HOV lane. Brandy Bottone was pulled over after an officer noticed she was driving alone in the HOV lane meant for carpoolers. When questioned, Bottone replied that following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, her fetus now qualified as another person. Her story quickly went viral, with scores of people both praising and criticizing her actions.

They came for Roe. Now, one right-wing lawyer is coming for PrEP, the medicine that prevents HIV

As most of us have figured out by now, the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was likely just the beginning. If the court can reverse the hands of time on millions of Americans and their much-needed reproductive health care, they obviously have zero issue with reversing same-sex or interracial marriage, taking away contraception, or even the ability to get lifesaving medicine.

According to The Advocate, a conservative attorney in Texas is a prime example.

The Shame of the Secret Service

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.When people say the Secret Service’s job is to protect the president, they usually mean it in a physical way—not a political one.But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.

Joe Manchin’s Fickleness Is a Needless Catastrophe

For its many flaws, the world of cryptocurrency has bequeathed to the English language a vivid new verb: rug-pulling. As its idiom-derived name suggests, rug-pulling is when a crypto developer hypes up a new coin or new project, gets ordinary people to invest in it, and then—all at once—shuts it down in such a way that they take all of their investors’ cash with them.

It’s Joe Manchin’s America

On March 6, 2021, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia delivered the decisive 50th Democratic vote to help pass President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. The stimulus package provided relief checks to most American families, expanded a child tax credit to combat poverty, and bolstered federal support to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Seriously, What’s Making All These Mysterious Space Signals?

Astronomy can be, in some ways, a bit like the classic board game Clue. Scientists explore a sprawling but ultimately contained world, collecting pieces of information and testing out theories about a big mystery. You can’t cover every corner, but with the right combination of strategy and luck, you can gather enough clues to make a reasonable guess at the tidy answer—who, where, and how—enclosed in a little yellow envelope at the center of it all.

The Ways We Make a Living

When they write, authors can choose to imagine fantastical worlds, or to follow the lives of celebrities or presidents. Describing the banality of the day-to-day—our relationships, the spaces we inhabit, and our jobs—can seem less glamorous and more difficult. But there’s plenty of fascinating territory to explore in writing about the workplace—including the blurry line, especially in modern times, between our personal lives and our professional ones.

James Webb’s Role in Purge of LGBTQ+ NASA Workers Prompts Push to Name Telescope After Harriet Tubman

The release of the first images from NASA’s new flagship James Webb Space Telescope brought renewed attention to the controversy over naming the telescope after James Webb, who led NASA ahead of the Apollo moon landings in the 1960s. He also played a key role in purging LGBTQ+ people from NASA in what was known as the “lavender scare,” and before that at the State Department under President Truman.

A Look Back in Time: How NASA’s Webb Telescope Gives Humanity a Revolutionary New View of Cosmos

NASA released revolutionary new images of the cosmos this week that were taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful space observatory to date. Launched in 2021, the JWST was designed to study star and planet formation with exponentially more accuracy and detail than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope. “We can actually essentially watch the formation of stars,” says astrophysicist Katie Mack.

Jamal Khashoggi Would ‘Forgive’ MBS, His Widow Says

“I know that there are many who disagree with my decision to travel to Saudi Arabia,” President Joe Biden wrote last week in an op-ed in The Washington Post. Among those disagreeing is the publisher of The Washington Post, who denounced Biden for “going … on bended knee” (surely he meant “meeting on bended knee,” unless Biden is flying to Jeddah from Tel Aviv on a magic carpet) to “shake the bloody hand” of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

News Roundup: Secret Service erases Jan. 6 texts; Republicans lie, lie, lie about abortion

In the news today: The Secret Service had perhaps the best view of anyone into what transpired during the Jan. 6 coup attempt by Donald Trump, but the House select committee investigating the coup has now learned that the agency wiped all Secret Service text messages from that day. Coincidentally. And only after the House committee asked that they be turned over.

Dangerous far-right groups continue to gain power in America, and Republicans continue to back that rise.

Ivana Trump passes away at the age of 73; Donald Trump attempts to fundraise off the announcement

Ivana Trump, first wife of Donald Trump and mother of Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric Trump, passed away at the age of 73. Multiple news outlets report that the disgraced former president confirmed on Thursday that she passed away at her home in New York City. The Trump family released a statement saying, “Our mother was an incredible woman — a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend.

Vote against Judge Michelle Childs shows why it’s always foolish to make a deal with Mitch McConnell

In January, when President Joe Biden made it clear he intended to nominate a Black woman for the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell delivered what The New York Times called a “stern warning” to Biden against making a radical choice. Instead, declared McConnell, Biden needed to look for someone who would “govern from the middle, steward our institutions and unite America.

Measure to examine spread of extremism in police, military ranks opposed by every House Republican

House Republicans added yet another brick in their growing wall of far-right extremism this week: They voted unanimously against a measure requiring federal military and law enforcement officials to analyze and report on the breadth and depth of the presence of right-wing extremists, particularly neo-Nazis and white supremacists, within the ranks of the nation’s military and law enforcement.

Local Prosecutors Can’t Protect Abortion Rights

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.In the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, some prosecutors say they simply won’t enforce abortion laws. It’s an audacious gesture—that probably won’t make much difference.But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.
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