Mother Jones
It wasn’t long after Jessica Madison graduated in 2009 that she realized her student loans were a terrible mistake. She had borrowed $21,000 for a paralegal program at Everest College in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the hope of building a more secure life, but instead she spent the next three years looking for a full-time […]
Mother JonesDonald Trump was summoned to appear Tuesday before a Manhattan judge, who warned the former president that he could face additional legal trouble if he publicly rants about the evidence against him in his criminal fraud case—a recurring problem during the E. Jean Carroll sexual assault lawsuit earlier this month. Trump’s virtual appearance was brief, […]
Mother JonesAmid high-wire negotiations over the nation’s debt ceiling and the increasing likelihood of a US default, House Republicans on Tuesday took a moment to turn their attention to a used chapstick belonging to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. That chapstick—which, according to Politico, was a cherry-flavored souvenir from Florida Congressman Aaron Bean’s campaign—was to be auctioned […]
Mother JonesThe NAACP is the latest organization to warn Black people and members of marginalized communities against traveling to Florida amid the relentless right-wing bills signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The travel advisory, issued on Saturday, condemned Florida as “openly hostile towards African Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ+” people and urged people to […]
Mother JonesThis morning, Andrew Yang announced that Krist Novoselic of Nirvana joined Forward—his political party that is “not left,” “not right,” but “FORWARD” (and pretty hard to take seriously). Yang is famous for running unsuccessfully for president and for mayor of New York City. He has staked his claim on the technocratic, centrist dream that problems […]
Mother JonesThe Texas legislature passed a series of bills on Monday that amounted to a sweeping power grab giving Republicans more control over how elections are run and administered in the state’s most populous Democratic county, which includes the city of Houston and is home to nearly 5 million people. One bill would allow the secretary […]
Mother JonesOne year after a suicidal 18-year-old opened fire with an AR-15 rifle inside Robb Elementary School, most of the public discussion remains focused on how a swarm of law enforcement failed for more than an hour to put an end to the attack. By the time police finally went into the classroom and killed the […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. After more than a year of intense negotiations, the states along the Colorado River have reached a deal to solve one of the most complex water crises in US history. The solution to this byzantine conundrum is deceptive in its simplicity: […]
Mother JonesIn his first interview since being charged with second-degree manslaughter in the killing of Jordan Neely, Daniel Penny said that he couldn’t be “a white supremacist” because he was, among other things, “planning a road trip through Africa.” In an interview with the New York Post, the ex-Marine said that allegations against him of racism are “a […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The world’s top fossil fuel companies owe at least $209 billion in annual climate reparations to compensate communities most damaged by their polluting business and decades of lies, a new study calculates. BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, Saudi Arabia’s state oil […]
Mother JonesThe specifics of Bill Gates’ relationship with Jeffrey Epstein have been an open question since details about their ties were revealed in 2019. In 2022, Gates’ ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, revealed that her then-husband’s relationship with the child predator financier even contributed to their divorce. On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal shed new light on their dynamic, […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. By the end of March, the surface temperature of the world’s oceans was above anything seen in the 40 years that satellites have been measuring it. Records were “headed off the charts” and, as the heat refused to fade for more […]
Mother JonesAfter Daniel Penny was charged on Friday with manslaughter for choking Jordan Neely to death on the F train, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) tweeted a link to donate to Penny’s legal defense fund. “We stand with Good Samaritans like Daniel Penny,” DeSantis wrote. “Let’s show this Marine…America’s got his back.” Other Republicans followed suit. “I […]
Mother JonesFormer President Trump is a twice-impeached sexual abuser, who possesses a unique ability to make people laugh—unfortunately or fortunately, to use his verbiage. He made that clear at a CNN town hall last week, when he had an audience of mostly Republicans laughing hysterically over the charming subject of an alleged rape. However odious his behavior, Trump’s charisma—or, […]
Mother JonesFirst, liberals canceled Christmas. Then, Thanksgiving. Now, they’re throwing Mother’s Day out with the trash. At least, that’s how Fox News sees it. In a recent article, the right-wing site accused “the left” of “trying to erase mothers.” Among the apparent culprits are trans people. “A mother is a woman who by birth or adoption […]
Mother JonesOn Saturday, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, vetoed a bill that would ban most abortions in the state after 12 weeks. But this is far from the end: The Republican supermajority in the state legislature is poised to overturn the veto and enact an abortion ban. It would be a blow not just […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. On a hot, dry August day in 2002, air tankers swooped over a small wildfire south of Bend, Oregon. The Forest Service hoped to suppress the flames by dropping over a thousand pounds of fire retardant on and around the […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. For as long as anyone can remember, the lack of a sanitation system in Lowndes County, Alabama, and resulting reliance on piping human waste directly into septic tanks and local creeks, has made life in the community miserable. After years of organizing […]
Mother JonesJust hours before the pandemic-era immigration rule Title 42 was set to lift on Thursday, a Florida judge blocked President Joe Biden’s plan to release some migrants on “parole,” a policy aimed at reducing overcrowding in migrant detention facilities. Late Friday, the Biden administration asked for an emergency stay of the judge’s order, saying it […]
Mother JonesIn this week’s New Yorker, JR Moehringer breaks all the rules of ghostwriting by ceasing to be invisible and asserting his hiding-in-plain-sight presence as the writer for Britain’s exiled Prince Harry’s blockbuster memoir Spare. Moehringer offers plenty to satisfy Royal obsessives, providing glimpses into their process, their relationship, and the genuine affection and respect that seems to have […]
Mother JonesOn Thursday, the Louisiana House passed a bill to make some juvenile criminal records public in three majority-Black parishes. Sponsors argue that providing the public with these records would offer transparency in crime-afflicted areas. If signed into law, the measure would serve as a two-year pilot program. Critics of the measure, House Bill 321, say the measure […]
Mother JonesThis piece was published originally by Capital & Main. Business groups are vigorously opposing Julie Su, President Joe Biden’s nominee for labor secretary, and they are counting on a handful of votes from swing senators to defeat her confirmation. Leading the charge are trade groups representing companies like McDonald’s and Uber that currently are not the employers […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Wired and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The Far North is both a massive carbon sink and a potent environmental time bomb. The region stores a huge amount of CO2 in boreal forests and underlying soils. Organic peat soil, for instance, covers just 3 percent of the Earth’s land area […]
Mother JonesGeorge Santos, the freshman New York Republican who admitted to lying about entire swaths of his personal biography, has surrendered to face federal criminal charges. The Justice Department on Wednesday announced the 13 charges: seven for wire fraud, three for money laundering, two for making false statements on Congressional disclosure forms, and one for theft […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Canada’s National Observer and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. American fishing boats catching threatened Canadian salmon was flagged as a top concern for federal Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray before meeting with the US ambassador to Canada in March. Briefing notes, which Canada’s National Observer obtained through an access-to-information request, […]
Mother JonesOn Tuesday, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson announced that he would be sharing his political views on Twitter—just like the rest of us idiots. Carlson, who was let go by Fox News a few weeks ago, said he would relaunch his show “soon” on the social media website now run by Elon Musk. It […]
Mother JonesOn Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) signed a bill banning Chinese nationals from buying land in Florida. He hopes the bill will go toward “counteracting” the “malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party in Florida,” according to a recent press release. “Today, it’s clear that we don’t want CCP in the Sunshine State,” said DeSantis at […]
Mother JonesA federal jury has found Donald Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a civil lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, who alleged that Trump raped her in 1996 in the dressing room of a New York City department store. The jury found that Carroll’s attorneys had failed to prove the rape allegation, […]
Mother JonesDonald Trump may have forgotten her birthday in between facing 34 felony charges related to allegedly paying off a porn actress he slept with four months after giving birth to their son. But Melania Trump is once again showcasing an extraordinary ability to ignore all that hideousness, telling Fox News that Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The Supreme Court could once again hinder the ability of the executive branch to address climate change when it reconsiders the precedent, set almost 40 years ago, upon which many of its efforts rest. The court announced last Monday that it […]