Today's Liberal News

Jail Took My Mom: Filmmaker on How His Mother Broke the Cycle of Incarceration & Shaping DNC Policy

The coronavirus crisis and the movement for racial justice have magnified the challenges faced by people released from prison, whose criminal record makes it hard to find a job and even housing, especially women. We feature a new AJ+ series by Messiah Rhodes, whose mother was in and out of jail throughout his childhood and was able to break the cycle of incarceration. Rhodes says his work serves as a response to calls to defund police.

Rashid Khalidi: Israel & UAE Deal to Normalize Relations Is New Chapter in 100-Year War on Palestine

In a deal brokered by the United States, Israel and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to fully normalize relations after years of secretly working together on countering Iran and other issues. Under the deal, Israel has also agreed to temporarily halt plans to annex occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank, which had already been on hold due to international condemnation.

General Strike & Blockade in Bolivia Enter Day 11 as Protesters Condemn Delayed Vote by Coup Gov’t

We go to Bolivia, where opponents of the coup government have entered day 11 of a general strike and nationwide highway blockade to protest the repeated postponement of Bolivia’s first presidential election since last year’s ouster of Evo Morales by the right-wing coup government of Jeanine Áñez, which was followed by an economic collapse and oppression.

Was Kamala Harris a Progressive Prosecutor? A Look at Her Time as a DA & California Attorney General

As Senator Kamala Harris makes history as the first woman of color on a major party ticket, we host a debate on her record as California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney, when she proudly billed herself as “top cop” and called for more cops on the street. San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Niki Solis says Harris was the state’s most progressive DA and advocated for “so many policies and so many alternatives to incarceration.

Tensions persist among attorneys representing detained children

A California federal judge on Wednesday denied non-profits’ attempt to join a long-standing class action and intervene on behalf of children detained alongside their parents in family detention centers.

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee’s decision came after attorneys with ALDEA –The People’s Justice Center and Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) filed a motion to intervene July 20.

The Postal Service scandal doesn’t belong only to Donald Trump. Mitch McConnell played a big role

Once upon a time, most Americans would have been hard-pressed to name the postmaster general. That fabled time was any time before May of this year, when Donald Trump replaced Postmaster General Megan Brennan with Louis DeJoy. And yes, I had to look up Megan Brennan.

What position of power did Brennan occupy before taking over the Postal Service under Barack Obama? None.

Senate Republicans give struggling Americans the finger, this week in the war on workers

It cannot be emphasized enough that on August 13, nearly three entire months after the House of Representatives passed a major coronavirus stimulus package, the Republican-controlled Senate went on recess until after Labor Day, having done exactly nothing to provide relief to millions people who’ve lost their jobs in the pandemic, or to state and local governments facing major budget shortfalls that could cost millions more jobs, or to schools being forced to deal with unprecedente

Beyoncé’s Search for Home Continues on Black Is King

In recent years, Beyoncé has prefaced her musical homecomings with a glimpse of the final destination. She released the song “Formation” well ahead of her 2016 visual album, Lemonade, which contained lessons in ballads and rock anthems alike about how to go through despair and return to oneself again.

How the Pandemic Has Changed Us Already

During the past five months, many prognosticators have prognosticated about how the coronavirus pandemic will transform politics, work, travel, education, and other domains. Less sweepingly, but just as powerfully, it will also transform the people who are living through it, rearranging the furniture of their inner life. When this is all over—and perhaps even long after that—how will we be different?For one thing, we’ll better understand the importance of washing our hands.

Dismiss Minor Misdemeanors During the Pandemic

My husband and I are both public defenders in Maryland. Last week, he attended his first scheduled bench trial since the courts were closed in March. The client, witnesses, court staff, and attorneys were all expected to appear in court and potentially be exposed to COVID-19. And for what? To adjudicate a misdemeanor charge of malicious destruction of property worth less than $1,000.

The Fun Police Should Stand Down

State and local officials across the country are unleashing a new weapon in America’s war against the coronavirus: the cops. Citing parties as the cause of recent clusters of infections in Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Baker recently authorized state and local police to crack down on public and private gatherings that violate social-distancing guidelines. The sheriff’s office in New York City took on new coronavirus duties, including the enforcement of party bans.

The Last Convention

So many simple pleasures are gone, casualties of the pandemic. Baseball games. Live concerts. Summertime parades. One civic ritual that’s neither simple nor necessarily pleasurable is also withering under the virus’s spread: the presidential nominating convention as we know it. Starting next week, the parties will hold stripped-down versions of the quadrennial gatherings to formalize the Donald Trump–Joe Biden matchup, creating, perhaps, a template for the future.