Mother Jones
This story was originally published by Atlas Obscura and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. When Zemede Asfaw was growing up on a farm in eastern Ethiopia, he soaked up plant lore and other traditional knowledge the way a tree takes in sunlight and converts it to energy. “I knew the crops, and the […]
Mother JonesThe day before early voting started in the battleground state of Nevada, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto surrounded herself with Republicans and called out her Trump-backed opponent Adam Laxalt for embracing baseless allegations that the 2020 election was stolen. “There should be consequences for people who undermine our democracy and peddle the Big Lie and conspiracy […]
Mother JonesOn Friday, a federal appeals court issued a stay temporarily pausing the sweeping student debt relief plan President Joe Biden announced in August. The Eighth Circuit’s ruling comes days after applications had opened for the program, which promised to cancel up to $20,000 in debt for borrowers earning less than $125,000 a year and households […]
Mother JonesBaseball fans in California and Pennsylvania watching the playoffs last Saturday had to sit through commercial breaks that included racist, xenophobic ads filled with misleading and false claims. “You worked hard for what you have,” one of the ads says. “Followed the rules, paid your taxes, saved and sacrificed for your piece of the American […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Wired and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In late spring, as the days begin to lengthen, the mule deer of central Wyoming begin to “surf” the sagebrush landscape. Their break is found in the low flats where they spend their winters. That’s where the first buds of greenery […]
Mother JonesOn Thursday, Liz Truss announced that, after only serving 45 days, she will be stepping down as the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Truss made history as one of the shortest-serving world leaders. But during her time, she made the most of it, jampacking her tenure with controversies. Of course, the Brits are dealing with it […]
Mother JonesOn Friday, the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol issued a subpoena for testimony and documents from former president Donald Trump, ordering him to appear before a panel of lawmakers next month. The subpoena requests that Trump hand over any legally relevant documents by November 4 and testify under oath […]
Mother JonesIn the final weeks before the 2022 midterms, faced with multiple government investigations, Donald Trump has tripled down on a disturbing pattern of incitement. He continues to stoke grievance and fear and use inflammatory rhetoric that is likely to instigate random followers to violence, a technique experts call stochastic terrorism. In recent speeches, Trump has […]
Mother JonesOn Friday, Steve Bannon, the former Trump advisor, was sentenced to four months in federal prison for two counts of contempt of Congress. The sentence came a year after Bannon refused to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the January 6 attack requiring him to turn over records and sit for an […]
Mother JonesAmerica’s solar industry has boomed in recent years, and is slated for a big boost from the Democrats’ recently passed climate bill. Yet solar still only accounts for about 3 percent of electricity flowing into America’s grid—less than one-seventh the share from coal. If we want to phase out fossil fuels and accommodate an electric […]
Mother JonesIf you care about police accountability, abortion rights, or racial justice, you should be paying attention to district attorney races this election season. As chief prosecutors in their counties, DAs hold a lot of power to choose who gets charged with a crime and who doesn’t: They can flat-out decide to never prosecute a specific […]
Mother Jones“You don’t need books!” shouts Pennsylvania state Rep. Stephanie Borowicz, waving a battered Bible. “This is the only book that’s alive and living!” Applause and cries of “amen” float up from the crowd around me. I’m with about 60 others at a conference staged by Christians Engaged, a three-year-old, Texas-based outfit aiming to salt local […]
Mother JonesIs Glenn Youngkin running for president? Paul Ryan thinks he should. A voter in Tucson told him to. The Republican governor of Virginia smiled, perhaps a little too eagerly, when an ABC News reporter asked Youngkin again on Wednesday evening after firing up a crowd of conservative voters in Scottsdale, Arizona. “I haven’t really thought […]
Mother JonesAt this point, you know, it’s just all hands on deck. I’ll do it if no one else wants to. I’m not a Thatcherite or anything. Liz Truss to resign as UK prime minister after 45 days in office https://t.co/WdW4QyHMyl — BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) October 20, 2022 Oh but full disclosure: I have never […]
Mother JonesOne day leading up to winter break, administrators of the predominantly white New Trier Township High School in the wealthy northern Chicago suburbs announced that “Understanding Today’s Struggle for Racial Civil Rights” would be the theme for a school-wide topical event known as Seminar Day. One of its main goals was to help “students better […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Plastic recycling labels are everywhere: The ubiquitous “chasing arrows” symbol adorns everything from plastic bags and water bottles to kids’ toys. Most commonly, these symbols appear with a number—1 through 7—that identifies the type of plastic resin […]
Mother JonesWhen Cleotilde “Cleo” Juarez Ramirez emigrated to the United States from Puebla, Mexico, she thought she’d left her years of street vending behind. Once settled in East Elmhurst, Queens, her husband, brother and uncle all found work that allowed her to care for her children at home. But after they lost their jobs at the […]
Mother JonesIt wasn’t so long ago that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was publicly singing the praises of Covid vaccines. “If you are vaccinated—fully vaccinated—the chance of you getting seriously ill or dying from Covid is effectively zero,” he said at a July 2021 press conference. “These vaccines are saving lives.” Fast forward a year or so […]
Mother JonesAfter two full days of early voting in Georgia, the state’s remarkable midterm turnout was on track to exceed that of the 2020 presidential election. The contentious Senate race between former college football star Herschel Walker and incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock could help determine the makeup of the upper house of Congress. Georgians are also […]
Mother JonesA record $16.3 billion will be spent on 2022 state and federal elections, according to research published Wednesday. The eye-popping figure comes from a new report released by OpenSecrets, a non-partisan group that tracks campaign finance. OpenSecrets estimates at least $9.3 billion will be spent on federal races—a runaway record for a mid-term election year—and at […]
Mother JonesEditor’s note: This below article is a revised column that first appeared in David Corn’s newsletter, Our Land. The newsletter is written by David twice a week (most of the time) and provides behind-the-scenes stories about politics and media; his unvarnished take on the events of the day; film, book, television, podcast, and music recommendations; interactive audience […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The US funders of a climate activist group that poured tomato soup over Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London have vowed similar attention-grabbing stunts will take place in various countries in the weeks ahead. […]
Mother JonesSome Republicans would have you believe that voter fraud looks like a nefarious group of computer programmers rigging election machines. Others, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, say that the fraudsters are convicted felons who have done their time, completed parole, and registered to vote at the suggestion of Florida Department of Motor Vehicles employees. On […]
Mother JonesHere’s a video of one of the two people from Just Stop Oil explaining why they threw a can of soup at “Sunflowers” by Van Gogh last Friday at London’s National Gallery. listen to her explain the Van Gogh soup protest. she’s got a point, no? pic.twitter.com/cObcWNx8aP — michael mezz (@michaelmezz) October 18, 2022 “I recognize […]
Mother JonesSen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has paid a little more than $20,000 to a law firm tied to Donald Trump’s failed scheme to overturn the 2020 election. NBC News, which first obtained Johnson’s financial disclosure forms, reports that Johnson’s campaign made two payments to the law firm of James Troupis, Trump’s attorney in Wisconsin, including […]
Mother JonesMonday was a busy day in Georgia politics. In the morning, Georgians could begin early voting. In the evening, Georgia could see their options for governor—Republican incumbent Brian Kemp and Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams—participate in their first televised debate since they both ran for the Georgia governor’s mansion in the contentious 2018 gubernatorial election. The […]
Mother JonesDuring a Moms for Liberty summit session called Gender Ideology in Our Schools, a presenter introduced a term I’d never heard before: “rapid-onset gender dysphoria.” She cited the work of a former Brown University physician and researcher named Lisa Littman, who, in a 2018 study published in the journal PLOS One, had argued that the […]
Mother JonesIt’s become de rigueur for Republicans—especially Republican candidates—to blast away at Big Tech, assailing it for an assortment of ills, such as privacy violations and a presumed (and often unproven) bias against conservatives. Two GOP Senate candidates, in particular, JD Vance in Ohio and Blake Masters in Arizona, have pounded technology companies. Yet both have […]
Mother JonesAhead of the Florida primaries in August, Gov. Ron DeSantis went on an “Education Agenda Tour” across the state to endorse candidates for school board races. His efforts paid off. Out of a pool of 30 school board hopefuls who had been handpicked by the governor for aligning with his “parent-centered,” so-called anti-woke, platform, 19 […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Pattrn and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A beloved bird is in decline along coastal Louisiana, thanks to the effects of Climate Change. The brown pelican is seeing its habitat shrink as land sinks and sea levels rise. Experts estimate that the state loses a football field’s […]