Today's Liberal News

Another Extremist Law That Americans Have to Live With

Once again, politicians and judges are limiting abortion without any understanding of what pregnancy can, and often does, ask of the human body. To conservative legislators in Texas, a new law banning abortion after about six weeks of gestation is a ploy to subvert Roe v. Wade. But to doctors like me, the measure reveals how thoughtless its designers are and how willing they are to let pregnant patients suffer and die.I’m an obstetrician who specializes in high-risk cases.

American Spies Are Fighting the Last War, Again

Twenty years ago, al-Qaeda hijackers carried out the worst-ever terrorist attack on American soil, killing nearly 3,000 innocents, terrifying the nation, and forever changing the course of history—ushering in America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.Yet September 11 was also something else: our worst intelligence failure in more than half a century. It was a surprise attack that should not have been a surprise.

“On the Kill Floors”: Essential Workers in Meatpacking Plants Still Lack Safety & COVID Protections

Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, we look at the experiences of meatpacking workers during the pandemic and beyond. Dulce Castañeda, a founding member of Children of Smithfield, a Nebraska-based grassroots advocacy group led by the children and family members of meatpacking workers, says conditions in the meatpacking plants during the pandemic remained as usual.

Dirty Work: Eyal Press on Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America

Ahead of Labor Day, we speak with journalist and sociologist Eyal Press about his new book, “Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America.” Press profiles workers like prison guards and oil workers — people who make their livelihoods by doing “unethical activity that society depends on and tacitly condones but doesn’t want to hear too much” about, he says.

News Roundup: Schools, hospitals, and workers fight the pandemic—and a conspiracy-minded public

In the news today: It may be a mostly-quiet holiday weekend, but there’s no respite from the times in which we live. As schools grapple with our children’s safety and essential workers grapple with their own safety, during a pandemic(!), there are no shortage of Americans to threaten violence against them and anyone else who might take a emergent deadly disease more seriously than the conspiracy-minded would prefer they do.

As the world reopens, remember: No one cares about your diet

As the world still continues to combat the novel coronavirus, parts of life are beginning to reopen (at least temporarily), bringing many people out of their homes for the first time in a while. Whether that means returning to in-office work, returning to the classroom in person, or simply socializing face-to-face again, there’s been a good bit of online hysteria focused on one health topic that isn’t face masks and vaccine booster shots. What is it? Weight.

Nuts & Bolts—Inside a Democratic campaign: Mayors matter

Welcome back to the weekly Nuts & Bolts Guide to small campaigns. Every week I try to tackle issues I’ve been asked about. With the help of other campaign workers and notes, we address how to improve and build better campaigns, or explain issues that impact our party.

When we think of executive officers, we tend to think of the president and governors. One other area in our government gains immediate executive experience, and that is our mayors.

The unemployment insurance system shuts out BIPOC workers. Here’s how to fix it

By Lakshmi Gandhi

This story was originally published at Prism.

Millions of Americans are entering Labor Day weekend knowing that one of the key unemployment benefits that has been keeping them afloat throughout the pandemic is coming to an end. States across the country have announced they will not be extending the specially created federal pandemic unemployment beyond Sept. 4, leaving workers and advocates scrambling to figure out what to do next.