Today's Liberal News

ICE paying big bucks for empty beds adds to case for ending private prison contracts altogether

The number of people locked up in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention is right now at its lowest in two decades. That’s a good thing. But due to very lucrative agreements, private prisons contracted by the federal government to detain immigrants are getting paid for thousands of empty beds anyway. “At the median rate of $75 per bed, the estimated daily cost to taxpayers for these empty beds is $1.34 million per day,” NPR reports.

Louisiana Republican wants to make trans youth get parental approval for any gender-affirming care

Just a few months into 2021, we’ve already seen Republicans push dozens of anti-trans bills across the nation. Some bills, as Daily Kos has covered, center on keeping trans girls out of girls’ sports, even beginning as early as kindergarten. Other bills aim to prevent transgender and nonbinary folks from updating their birth certificates. And, in yet another area, some legislation seeks to bar transgender youth from receiving gender-affirming medical care.

‘Woke Capital’ Doesn’t Exist

Republicans are ready to take on “woke capital.”After losing elections for president and U.S. Senate, Georgia Republicans passed a series of restrictions that specifically targets the voting methods used disproportionately by Democratic constituencies during the unusual circumstances of the pandemic.

An Interstellar Visitor Had a Sad Story to Tell

In 2019, Gennady Borisov, an amateur astronomer in Crimea, discovered his seventh comet. This icy object wasn’t like the others Borisov had found, or like any of the other comets in the solar system. This one wasn’t orbiting the sun.Instead, it had been drifting alone in interstellar space, following its own path, until one day, it entered our solar system and grazed past the sun.

The Atlantic Daily: Index Funds Could Hurt the Economy

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.While meme stocks and NFTs draw headlines, a group of economists and Wall Street experts worries that a much more traditional style of investing is stifling the economy, our staff writer Annie Lowrey reports.

Canada’s Vaccine Mess

By the time you read this, at least a quarter of Americans will have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. It’s a stunning turnaround for a country where a bungled early response, inadequate financial support to keep people home, and a mishmash of mask requirements have led to more than 30 million infections and more than 554,000 deaths.Just north of the border, Canadians—usually so smug about our universal health care—are looking on with jealousy.

Biden’s $2 Trillion Infrastructure Plan Goes Beyond Bridges & Roads, But Its “Scale Is Inadequate”

We speak with economist Darrick Hamilton, founding director of the Institute on Race and Political Economy at The New School, about how U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is calling for a minimum global corporate income tax to help pay for President Joe Biden’s proposed $2.25 trillion infrastructure and jobs plan, aimed in part at combating the climate crisis and addressing racial inequities in housing and transportation.

New York’s “Excluded Workers” Demand First U.S. Fund to Secure Pandemic Aid for Undocumented People

More than a year into the pandemic and the economic crisis it generated, many workers continue to be excluded from receiving any government relief. These excluded workers include undocumented people — many of them in essential services — and people recently released from prison. Hundreds of essential workers across New York are leading marches and hunger strikes to demand lawmakers support a $3.

Homeroom: My Daughter Is Lying to Me About School

Editor’s Note: Every Tuesday, Abby Freireich and Brian Platzer take questions from readers about their kids’ education. Have one? Email them at homeroom@theatlantic.com.Dear Abby and Brian,I’m writing about my daughter, a seventh grader whom I’ll call Z. Her school has been fully remote since last spring. Z used to love school, but after a year of remote classes, she is totally unmotivated.I’m terrified that, with high school approaching, she is falling behind.