Today's Liberal News

There’s Nothing Historic About Biden’s NASA Pick

Since the Apollo era, when every astronaut was white, and a man, NASA has worked to expand its vision of who participates in space exploration. Women used to sew spacesuits; now they wear them. Women, especially Black women, once weren’t credited for their contributions; now they serve in the agency’s upper echelons. President Joe Biden could have chosen the first woman to lead NASA in its 62-year history. Many people in the space community expected him to do exactly that.He did not.

“The Sum of Us”: Heather McGhee on How Racism Undercuts the American Dream for Everyone

Amid a national reckoning with structural racism and the dangers of white supremacy, author Heather McGhee’s new book details how racism in the United States hurts not just people of color but also white people. In “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together,” McGhee details how zero-sum thinking has worsened inequality and robbed people of all stripes of the public goods and support they need to thrive.

“Suave”: New Podcast Follows One Man’s Journey to Freedom After a Life Sentence Without Parole at 17

A new Futuro Media podcast, “Suave,” tells the story of one person’s journey to freedom after receiving a life sentence without parole at the age of 17. David Luis “Suave” Gonzalez met journalist Maria Hinojosa in 1993 during a talk at the prison in Pennsylvania where he was serving a sentence for first-degree homicide. For years, Gonzalez and Hinojosa stayed in touch through letters, visits and phone calls that Hinojosa recorded.

Vaccine roll call! What’s your plan? (With poll)

The DKonversation: Something to talk about

Today’s questions:
 

Have you been vaccinated?
 
If not, what’s your plan?
 

Last weekend the U.S. crossed an important threshold: 100 million doses of vaccine administered. As a sign of hope, media captions and chyrons were switched from showing the death rate to the vaccination rate.

‘A proctological exam of the highest order’: Trump investigations really may be different this time

If you’re like me, you were continually frustrated by Donald Trump’s baffling ability to avoid real consequences for his serial perfidy over the past four (erm, 74) years, and you responded to this outrage by curling up into the fetal position, crawling into a giant bag of Kirkland Signature Rice Crackers, and treating it like some sort of artificial space placenta. If you’re not like me, you still probably hated all that unpunished lawbreaking.

This Week in Statehouse Action: Spring Cleaning edition

Confession time.

I … [[deep breath]] am a hoarder.

I hoard web browser tabs.

I open something I mean to read or use for research, and four times out of five it just … sits. Unused. Unread.

In the Chrome window I’m using to write this week’s missive, I have 38 tabs open.

I’m not proud.

It’s time to admit that I have a problem.

So I’ve decided: Out with them.

The Clearest Sign the Pandemic Could Get Worse

The number of people hospitalized with a confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States has been plummeting since early January. Until about three weeks ago, hospitalizations in Michigan were following the same pattern: More people with COVID-19 were leaving the hospital than were being admitted. But in the past few weeks, data from the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services have shown that hospitalizations have risen by 45 percent from the state’s recent low on February 25.