Today's Liberal News

The Pandemic Is Making Dads Reevaluate Their Work-Life Balance

Zac Eash had originally planned to be home for two weeks when he became a father. But his daughter was born in early March 2020, and, well, you know. “We both got to spend a lot of time with her the first four months of her life,” Eash, a middle-school teacher living in Ames, Iowa, who finished out the school year remotely, told me.When in-person classes resumed late last summer, Eash was acutely aware of how much less time he had with his wife and baby daughter, and he missed it.

Schrödinger’s Planet

Updated at 4:15 p.m. ET on August 27, 2021.In 2006, astronomers gathered in Prague to consider a very basic question: How many planets are in our solar system? Was it nine, or was it actually eight, or perhaps as many as 12? By the end of the conference, after several polite debates and “lots of heated hallway discussions,” the verdict was in. Under the new rules of planethood, the solar system had eight planets, and Pluto wasn’t one of them.

The Books Briefing: Cultivate a Love of Reading Early On

Patrick Zachmann / Magnum
This week, kids and teachers across the United States went back to school, after a year and a half of remote learning and Zoom fatigue. This school year is likely to be a mess—again—and among all of the pandemic considerations, teachers are also contending with keeping students engaged in and out of the classroom.

California Recall: Right-Wing Radio Host Who Once Mentored Stephen Miller Could Replace Gov. Newsom

The conservative talk radio host Larry Elder is now the Republican front-runner challenging Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom in a special election that could also shape national politics. California voters cast ballots on September 14 on whether to recall Newsom, after a right-wing campaign to unseat the governor garnered enough signatures to trigger the vote.

Who Is ISIS-K? Anti-Taliban, Anti-U.S. Terror Group Claims Responsibility for Kabul Suicide Bombs

We speak with Haroun Rahimi, assistant professor of law at the American University of Afghanistan, about the Islamic State affiliate that claimed responsibility for this week’s devastating suicide bombings at Kabul airport, which killed more than 110 people, including 13 U.S. troops. Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, is a puritanical group that is “critical of all other sects of Islam,” says Rahimi.

Haiti’s Villages Continue to Be “Cut Off from Help” More Than a Week After Massive Earthquake

We speak with Stéphane Vincent, a Haitian citizen journalist who is helping the BBC to cover the aftermath of the devastating August 14 earthquake for the BBC and says the destruction in Les Cayes is reminiscent of the 2010 earthquake that struck the country. “To relive that again was very heart-wrenching,” he says. “The people have been feeling left out and abandoned by government.

News Roundup: Deadly bombing in Kabul, but military evacuations will continue

Leading the news today: A suicide bombing at a checkpoint outside the Kabul airport has killed at least 60 people, including 13 American military members. Military evacuation efforts will continue. There’s new movement in the push to learn the full extent of the Trump White House’s involvement in a seditious attempt to nullify an American election, and a new lawsuit against Trump from some of the Capitol Police officers who defended lawmakers that day.

‘If you wouldn’t mind putting your pants back on’: Texas dad’s mask ‘protest’ draws laughter

States across the nation have handled the novel coronavirus pandemic very, very differently, thanks to irresponsible Republican governors. It’s no surprise, then, that when it comes to masks in public schools, districts are handling the matter with varying degrees of concern for public health and safety.

Again thanks to their Republican leaders, Texas and Florida are concerning both residents and the rest of the country with bans against mask mandates.

This Week in Statehouse Action: Doldrums edition

August is winding down, but statehouse action is … not.

And I’m not even talking about Virginia, which has gubernatorial and state House elections this fall!

(And if you’re fretting that I haven’t done a deep dive into that landscape yet, fear not, erudite reader—I will absolutely be talking about the Commonwealth at length in the near future.)

But for the moment, let us, despite the heat, return to Texas.