Today's Liberal News

Over-the-counter birth control will give young people more control over their health

This story was originally published at Prism.

By Micaela Gaviola

I was 20 years old the first time I had a conversation with my parents about making an appointment to go to the OB-GYN. My parents were confused and not keen to talk about it—making an appointment didn’t seem necessary in their eyes since I wasn’t sexually active. I wanted to get more information, to take charge of my health, and to plan ahead, so I made the appointment myself.

The New York Times’ Charles Blow speaks truth to all Democrats

There aren’t that many columnists in the U.S. media today who have proven themselves to be completely aware of what the Republican Party has transformed itself into in the last four years. Charles Blow of The New York Times is one of them.

For those who haven’t already internalized them, Blow has some sage words of advice to Democrats at this strange point in time. The bottom line: Forget about any ideals of compromise with the Republican Party.

Progressive Buffalo mayoral candidate shocks in major election upset: ‘I hate to say I told you so’

On Tuesday night, India Walton, the socialist candidate for mayor of Buffalo, New York, won the Democratic primary election against four-term incumbent Byron Brown. The nurse and organizer’s victory over Brown has not yet been acknowledged by the Brown campaign (as of Wednesday morning and the writing of this story). The Washington Post reports, however, that there are not enough outstanding absentee ballots left to change the current results.

Schools can’t address racism until they acknowledge how they got to this point

This story was originally published at Prism.

By Frank Gettridge

The past year has been tough on educators as health and safety overwhelmed instruction and learning. Moreover, an abrupt shift to remote learning made it difficult for schools to prioritize much beyond ensuring students and families had the resources they needed to thrive in an unpredictable and unimaginable circumstance.

When ‘the Aliens Are Us’

For astronomers, a tiny blip in data can signal the existence of an entire world. It happens when a planet far beyond our solar system passes in front of its own star. The planet blocks a tiny bit of light, making the shining star appear fainter to us. Scientists have used these moments to discover thousands of exoplanets in the Milky Way—icy planets and lava planets, hot Jupiters and miniature Neptunes, planets with a thick atmosphere and planets with no atmosphere at all.

The Pride Flag Has a Representation Problem

Since its first flight at 1978’s Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco, the rainbow flag has evolved multiple times. That earliest iteration included pink and turquoise stripes, symbolizing sex and art, respectively—parts of queer life that the designers thought were worth fighting for. Later that year, though, the flag lost its pink stripe because of fabric unavailability at the local manufacturer, and turquoise fell off the year after for the same reason.

The Only Way We’ll Know When We Need COVID-19 Boosters

Midway through America’s first mass-immunization campaign against the coronavirus, experts are already girding themselves for the next. The speedy rollout of wildly effective shots in countries such as the United States, where more than half the population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, has shown remarkable progress—finally, slowly, steadily beating the coronavirus back.

Delta Variant Linked to COVID Surges Amid Slow U.S. Vaccination Rates as Global Inequity Persists

The White House says it will miss its goal of getting 70% of adults at least partially vaccinated by July 4. Vaccinations are available for anyone age 12 and up in the U.S., but just 45% of people in the U.S. are fully vaccinated, and only 16 states have fully vaccinated more than half of their populations. Epidemiologist Dr. Ali Khan says despite more than 150 million people in the U.S.

A Fight for Democracy: GOP Blocks Voting Bill as Democrats Renew Push to Reform Filibuster

As Senate Republicans use the filibuster to block debate on the most sweeping voting rights bill considered by Congress in decades, we look at what is in the bill and the next steps forward. Elizabeth Hira, an attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice’s Democracy Program, describes the For the People Act as “a massive democracy reform package” that seeks to address systemic flaws in U.S. elections.

Ex-Cop Eric Adams Takes Lead in NYC Mayoral Race in City’s First Election with Ranked-Choice Voting

We look at the early results from New York’s highly anticipated primary election Tuesday. In the heated mayoral race, Brooklyn borough president and former New York police officer Eric Adams is leading, but it will likely take several weeks to announce a winner with the new ranked-choice voting system. Civil rights attorney Maya Wiley is currently in second place, followed closely by former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia.