Today's Liberal News

News Roundup: Biden pushes policy priorities; House Republican civil war continues

In the news today: President Biden’s policy goals remain popular, but still face two big obstacles: The first is a Republican Party looking to sabotage both the White House and the recovery in hopes of winning back electoral power for themselves. The second? Democratic lawmakers worry that plans to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy back to where they were before the destructive 2017 cuts will result in blowback during their own campaigns.

‘Cold-blooded fraudster’: Judge sentences Students for Trump founder to 13 months in prison

A little over two years ago, Tennessee’s own John Lambert, 23 at the time, was charged with being a fraud and pretending he was a veteran lawyer. Like most modern day frauds, Lambert was working his darndest for the Republican cause, organizing “Students for Trump.” Lambert started the group along with fellow Campbell University student Ryan Fournier, shortly after Trump’s nomination in 2016.

Texas bill used ‘purity of the ballot box’ language to claim it will protect voters’ rights

Apparently being racist and not knowing it is a common theme in many places, especially Texas. A Texas legislator and bill sponsor found out he was racist while explaining why specific language was used in a bill. The video of his reaction has since gone viral, prompting people to ponder whether he understood the history of the language he used.

The language in question was the phrase “preserve the purity of the ballot box.

Biden administration gives go-ahead for Vineyard Wind ‘large-scale’ offshore wind farm

Only months into the new Biden administration, the United States is on track to get its first large-scale offshore wind farm. On Tuesday Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo gave approval for the Vineyard Wind project, a new wind farm 12 nautical miles from Martha’s Vineyard. Up to 84 turbines spaced no closer than 1 nautical mile apart will power up to 400,000 New England homes.

The Climate Clock That Starts Right Now

Every week, our lead climate reporter brings you the big ideas, expert analysis, and vital guidance that will help you flourish on a changing planet. Sign up to get The Weekly Planet, our guide to living through climate change, in your inbox.In February 2020, I traveled to New York to celebrate a zeroth birthday and an 80th birthday. First, I saw a close friend’s baby, who had been born only a month earlier.

32 shots fired blindly in Breonna Taylor’s death: ‘This is how the wrong person was shot and killed’

An internal report from the police department that hired the officers who shot and killed emergency medical technician Breonna Taylor revealed that officers did in fact violate department rules when they fired at Taylor, according to the report initially discovered by the Louisville Courier-Journal. Taylor, 26, was sleeping when officers executing a no-knock drug warrant smashed in her door after midnight and shot her at least eight times in her Louisville home.

St. Vincent and the Limits of Rock-and-Roll Mystique

If you’ve searched St. Vincent on Twitter in the past few weeks, you haven’t seen chatter about the goofy soul sound of the 38-year-old rock star’s latest singles. You’ve seen snarky tweets about an interview that is mainly of interest to die-hard fans and people addicted to Twitter drama.In late April, the journalist Emma Madden posted—and then deleted—a Q&A with St. Vincent that the artist’s press team had allegedly tried to stop from being published.

The Doctors Who Bet Their Patients’ Lives on COVID-19 Test Results

When the third coronavirus surge hit the U.S. last fall, the midwestern states were among the worst affected. Thousands of people in the region were being hospitalized with the virus every day. It was at this inauspicious time that a team of transplant doctors at University Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, received a pair of healthy-seeming lungs. According to a published case report, the donor had been in an automobile accident, and died from her injuries a few days later.

“Harm Is Still Being Done”: 36 Years After MOVE Bombing, Misuse of Children’s Remains Reopens Wounds

This week marks the 36th anniversary of the day the city of Philadelphia bombed its own citizens. On May 13, 1985, police surrounded the home of MOVE, a radical Black liberation organization that was defying orders to vacate. Police flooded the home with water, filled the house with tear gas, and blasted the house with automatic weapons, all failing to dislodge the residents. Finally, police dropped a bomb on the house from a helicopter, killing 11 people, including five children.

Israel Kills Dozens in Gaza While Imposing “Constant War” on Palestinian Residents of Jerusalem

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed at least 26 Palestinians, including nine children, as tension in the region has escalated sharply. Hundreds were also injured by Israeli forces Monday when they stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. Hamas responded by firing hundreds of rockets into Israel, which reportedly caused dozens of injuries but no deaths.

Unearthing an Origin Story for Gentrification

Historians have always assumed that the medieval city of Angkor, today located in Cambodia, was huge, simply based on how much land its kings commanded. From the ninth to the 15th centuries, Angkor was the capital of the Khmer empire, which at its zenith stretched across modern Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.

3 Explanations for the Vaccine Slowdown

For a few weeks this spring, the United States was a world leader in vaccines, administering shots to a larger share of its population than even the United Kingdom or Israel. But since the middle of April, our vaccine campaign has stalled. The average number of people getting a first or single dose is down almost 50 percent from its peak on April 13.