It’s Thursday. Guess who’s standing in the way of voting rights and the child tax credit? Yes, the same two duplicitous Democratic senators who have spent 2021 peddling GOP talking points. Republican officials have a plan for ending the pandemic: Do nothing and then attack trans children’s rights.
Democratic Rep. Alan Lowenthal, a longtime elected official in the Long Beach area, announced Thursday that he would not seek a sixth term in California’s 47th Congressional District. The current incarnation of Lowenthal’s constituency, which includes most of Long Beach as well as nearby communities in Los Angeles and Orange counties, is solidly blue turf at 62-35 Biden, though the state’s independent redistricting commission is still completing the new map.
A federal grand jury indicted three companies on Wednesday for their role in the October pipeline rupture in Orange County, California that spewed 25,000 gallons of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean near Huntington Beach. Amplify Energy Corp. and two subsidiaries—Beta Offshore and San Pedro Bay Pipeline Co.—face one misdemeanor count of negligent discharge of oil.
There were supposed to be “Big crowds!” for Trump and O’Reilly’s “History Tour” in Florida. Not so much, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Mike Lindell, CEO of the MyPillow thing, is supposedly spending a lot of his own money in pursuit of overturning our democracy—at least according to famed liar Mike Lindell. He told CNBC that he has spent $25 million of his own money since Nov. 3, 2020. That’s the day that America voted to make sure Donald Trump couldn’t continue to run our country into the dirt.
Thursday’s move is expected to prompt justices to issue a final decision on whether the mandate can take effect.
While applauding Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s announcement of the establishment of a memorial and archive of slavery in Barbados, which was featured in last week’s Caribbean Matters, it got me thinking about right-wing forces here in the U.S. pushing to abolish or whitewash what we learn about our enslavement history.
The former president is telling people he saved Christmas again.
In late May of 2020, the U.S. hit one of what has become so many grim pandemic milestones: our first 100,000 dead from COVID-19. I remember how heartbroken I was then—and how frustrated. The novel coronavirus, a stealthy pathogen, was bound to take a toll no matter how perfect Americans’ response was to the crisis. But Americans’ response was far from perfect. I was frustrated by people who refused to wear a mask.
Election conspiracy theorist Phil Waldron was ordered to turn over documents and sit for a deposition next month regarding his work to overturn the 2020 election.
Heightening the stakes is the Supreme Court’s pending decision on Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban.
Many people across the country will be able to access abortion pills through a pharmacy or by mail, which could revolutionize access to care.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky’s decision came hours after the agency’s vaccine advisory committee voted unanimously to update the recommendation.
The debate over child masking in schools boiled over again this fall, even above its ongoing high simmer. The approval in late October of COVID-19 vaccines for 5-to-11-year-olds was for many public-health experts an indication that mask mandates could finally be lifted. Yet with cases on the rise in much of the country, along with anxiety regarding the Omicron variant, other experts and some politicians have warned that plans to pull back on the policy should be put on hold.
For 20 months, I was haunted by two fears: that some things (the pandemic, isolation, anxiety) would last forever, and that others (dreams, loved ones, entire years) would be lost forever. Time warped around me, as it did for so many people. Some days, it moved like molasses. On others, like when I saw family and friends, it seemed to flow like a river that I couldn’t stop or outrun.Then, for two weeks at the end of 2021, I tried to control time for myself.
According to right-wing media figures, the January 6 sacking of the Capitol that disrupted the counting of the 2020 electoral votes was “a false-flag operation.” It was just “politicians” having their “jobs disrupted for two hours.” It was “mostly peaceful.” It was a “setup,” or perhaps it was the work of “antifa,” but those who were arrested and prosecuted are definitely “political prisoners.
“We’re frustrated and disappointed,” said Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat.
Afghanistan under the new Taliban government faces a humanitarian catastrophe this winter as the United States and other donors have cut off financial aid. The United Nations warns nearly 23 million people in Afghanistan — or more than half the population — face potentially life-threatening food shortages, with nearly 9 million already on the brink of famine. In addition, people face lack of proper healthcare, unemployment and housing shortages.
As Afghanistan spirals into a humanitarian crisis after the abrupt U.S. withdrawal earlier this summer, we look at years of failed U.S. diplomacy that allowed the Taliban to seize power and leave the small nation in a state of disrepair. A New Yorker magazine investigation shows how the U.S. repeatedly undermined the Kabul-based government in a rush to leave the country. “I’ve been reporting in general and around Afghanistan for a long time.
As the coronavirus variant Omicron spreads across the world at an unprecedented rate, a group of vaccine experts has just released a list of over 100 companies in Africa, Asia and Latin America with the potential to produce mRNA vaccine. They say it is the one of the most viable solutions to fight vaccine inequity around the world and combat the spread of coronavirus variants, including Omicron. We speak to Achal Prabhala, one of the vaccine experts who compiled the list.
The total is about equal to the population of Atlanta and St. Louis combined.
Costs for key goods and services soared 0.8 percent for the month and 6.8 percent for the year, the highest since 1982, the Labor Department reported Friday.
The middle class is facing serious economic hardship with little of the workplace flexibility now afforded to the well-off. Here’s how employers — and government — can help.
Powell’s comment came after the Fed already announced earlier this month that it would slow the pace at which it buys U.S. government debt and mortgage-backed securities.
As unionizing efforts have taken the U.S. by storm, we look at the history of the U.S. labor movement and how unions have acted as a bulwark against corporate power. Worker organizing at Starbucks, Kellogg’s and Amazon shows that unions help enforce health and safety measures and protect workers who speak out.
In the news today: There’s been significant public movement of late in multiple investigations of the Jan. 6 coup attempt, and all of it points to an organized, pre-planned effort to erase the 2020 U.S. presidential election by proclaiming that Trump’s loss was invalid—based entirely on a Republican hoax campaign pretending so.
If Republicans take over the House of Representatives in 2023, they intend to force the Biden administration into making drastic cuts to domestic social programs in exchange for “agreeing” to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. Goaded by Donald Trump, their plan is to hold the country hostage, threatening to push all of us over the brink into an unprecedented fiscal calamity if their demands are not met.
Tech is rising and taking over across the globe, but of course not without consequences. A tech company that gained popularity for its efforts to help law enforcement agencies through the use of nonviolent robots has come under fire after a promotional video surfaced.
After Texas Republicans enacted their virtual ban on abortion known as SB8, one of the ways Democrats in Congress responded was to pass a bill that would codify the constitutional rights laid out in Roe v. Wade into law. In the face of universal GOP opposition, the Women’s Health Protection Act passed the House on a strictly party-line vote … almost.
There was one Democrat who sided with Republicans in their escalating assault on reproductive rights: Henry Cuellar.
The Republican forwarded a message to Mark Meadows outlining a legal theory that the vice president had the authority to stop certification of the 2020 election.