Mother Jones: Posts

Mother Jones

Booting 18-Year-Olds From Disability Rolls Has Lifelong Consequences

In September 2017, the Social Security Administration sent Gabriel Burgos’ family a letter warning that their income would be cut in half. Gabriel—a Brooklyn high schooler who lived with his mother, Marlena, and father, Jorge, in a public housing apartment—had recently turned 18. That meant the end of the monthly check he got because of […]

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How Immigrants Navigate the Complicated Politics of Military Service

Immigrant soldiers have served in every significant US conflict since the Revolutionary War, but their presence in the military is often overlooked. When sociologist Sofya Aptekar went searching for immigrant veterans to interview for her new book, Green Card Soldier: Between Model Immigrant and Security Threat, many workers in veteran support offices told her they […]

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When Wildfire Smoke Shrouds a City, People of Color Are Most at Risk

This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Morgen Bromell, a web designer in Brooklyn, had plans to visit their cousin in Los Angeles at the end of the summer, but last week air quality in New York City was so bad they […]

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Emails Show Missouri’s Student Loan Servicer Never Wanted to Be In the Lawsuit to Kill Debt Relief

Newly obtained records from the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA) show that executives and employees at the student loan servicer are surprised and dismayed at their company’s central role in the lawsuit before the Supreme Court that seeks to undo Biden’s student debt cancellation plan. MOHELA has never been a party to the lawsuit, […]

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Evictions Are Soaring Beyond Pre-Pandemic Numbers

Evictions are rising rapidly as pandemic-era moratoriums have ended nationwide. Citing data from the Eviction Lab, AP reports that some cities have seen eviction filings rise 50 percent higher than they were before Covid. “Across the country, low-income renters are in an even worse situation than before the pandemic due to things like massive increases […]

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Mike Pence Refuses to Defend Women Pastors in Southern Baptist Churches

Former Vice President Mike Pence said on “Meet the Press” Sunday that “Women pastors have had a big impact” on his family—but refused to say any more in their defense as Southern Baptist churches have recently moved to expel churches that include women in church leadership. WATCH: Fmr. VP @Mike_Pence says women ministers "had a […]

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Spirituality, Global Warming, and Grief: How Clergy Can Help Tackle Climate Anxiety

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. This story was co-published with Sojourners, a nonprofit publication covering faith, politics, and social justice. Rabbi Dean Shapiro recalls considering the future as he looked down at a baby’s head while giving her a Hebrew name and welcoming her into the […]

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Minneapolis Is Quietly Trying to Throw Out the Lawsuit Against the Cop Who Killed Amir Locke

The city of Minneapolis is asking a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit against the police officer who killed Amir Locke during a February 2022 raid that sparked protests. Locke, a 22-year-old Black aspiring musician, was sleeping on a couch in his cousin’s Minneapolis home, a handgun at his side, when SWAT officers entered without […]

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Native Americans Are Major Victims of Minneapolis Police Racism: DOJ

After George Floyd’s murder in 2020, Native Americans stood beside Black protesters in Minneapolis and called for changes to policing. Now, the Justice Department is highlighting how the city’s cops have been racist against them, too. On Friday, the department released a blistering report showing that for years, the Minneapolis police have discriminated against Native […]

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A Prisoner Turned Award-Winning Journalist Has Some Big Stories to Tell

Keri Blakinger, a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, hardly owns any furniture. She likes it that way, preferring to sleep on the floor rather than a cushioned mattress, and to keep her clothes permanently in suitcases. It’s not that she can’t afford a bed or dresser: Her career has taken off in the last […]

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The Coolest Library on Earth

This story was originally published by Hakai Magazine and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. This article is also available in audio format. In a narrow aisle of shelves packed with cardboard boxes, Jørgen Peder Steffensen grins like a mischievous child unwrapping a holiday present as he pulls out a plastic-wrapped hunk of ice from […]

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Mother Jones

UPS Workers Are on the Verge of a Strike

An overwhelming majority of UPS union workers voted Friday to authorize the right to strike, raising the possibility that the world’s largest package company could cease deliveries in the US as early as August 1. TEAMSTERS AUTHORIZE STRIKE AT UPS pic.twitter.com/AmO2pjKt3v — Alex Press (@alexnpress) June 16, 2023 The Teamsters union, which represents more than […]

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A New DOJ Report Paints a Damning Picture of the Minneapolis Police

After a two-year Department of Justice investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department—that involved a review of thousands of documents, incident files, body-worn camera videos, and department data—Attorney General Merrick Garland revealed his findings today. They were damning. If you look at “MPD as a whole,” Garland said in Minneapolis, there were clear “systemic problems.” The conclusion […]

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Convicted January 6 Rioters Returned to the Scene of the Crime This Week

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) knows that his political theater deploring the alleged abuses of the January 6 prosecutions is incomplete without the presence of a bona fide convict. “I did nothing wrong,” said John Strand in his testimony at a “field hearing” Gaetz staged at the US Capitol Visitor Center on Tuesday—coincidentally the same day […]

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Hollywood Has a Climate Problem

This past December, as my mailbox overflowed with screener DVDs of prestige films and television shows designed to capture my vote for the Writers Guild of America Awards, I did what any respectable resident of cozy season would do: I pressed play on Partner Track, a playful romantic comedy series that the Netflix algorithm had […]

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Explosive Photos of Portland Amid the George Floyd Protests

The summer of 2020 was hot, explosively so in Portland. Following the murder of George Floyd, few cities erupted as furiously and as long as Portland did. Knowing that protesters on both sides weren’t necessarily keen on the media—particularly photographers—Rian Dundon immersed himself in the thick of the action with an unobtrusive point-and-shoot digital camera. […]

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Today, Ron DeSantis’ Florida Will Conduct Its Fourth Execution of the Year

In the lead-up to his recently announced presidential run, Gov. Ron DeSantis ramped up Florida’s use of the death penalty and shepherded through two laws expanding capital punishment. The moves, part of a broader attempt to appear tough on crime, have helped turned the state into an executions epicenter. The latest planned killing is set for Thursday […]

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Kevin McCarthy Is Fundraising Off Trump’s Indictment Lies

There is no better representative of the moral slide of the Republican Party in the Trump years than House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. This congressman from California, as the ranking House Republican, excoriated Donald Trump after the January 6 insurrectionist assault on the Capitol, declaring that Trump “bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob […]

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Why Reddit Is Destined to Turn to Crap

Thousands of Reddit communities went dark this week to protest the webforum giant’s money-making plans. Ahead of an expected IPO later this year, the company’s CEO announced it would start charging for access to its application programming interface. APIs are a common feature of web platforms, essentially letting anyone peer more deeply under the hood. They […]

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The Supreme Court Just Handed Native Families a Huge Victory

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act, the landmark 1978 legislation aimed at preventing Native foster children and adoptees from being separated from their families and tribes. The ruling in Haaland v. Brackeen represents a victory for Native tribes, who argued that the case threatened the basic tenets of Native sovereignty, […]

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Ukraine Dam Breach May Be “Worst Ecological Disaster Since Chernobyl”

This story was originally published by Slate and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. As the Russia-Ukraine War rages on, its most devastating impacts are adding up and extending far beyond Eastern Europe. Last week offered an extremely grim example: The Kakhovka Dam, perched on the Dnieper River in Kherson province, was blown up on […]

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The Student Journalist Harassed for Reporting on Toxic Masculinity

More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. Last fall, Olivia Krupp, a student journalist at the University of Arizona’s newspaper, The Daily Wildcat, wrote a profile of campus […]

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Mother Jones

The Student Journalist Harassed for Reporting on Toxic Masculinity

More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. Last fall, Olivia Krupp, a student journalist at the University of Arizona’s newspaper, The Daily Wildcat, wrote a profile of campus […]

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Mother Jones

The Men Fight Back

More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. One of the consequences of the revelations that many prominent men behaved poorly in private was a very public effort to […]

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Mother Jones

The Policy Strategist Whose Personal Life Got Political

More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. Nikita Mitchell is the chief strategy officer of Me Too International, an organization founded by activist and advocate Tarana Burke in 2006 to […]

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Mother Jones

The Patient Who Pushed Legislation to Punish Abusers

More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. In 2012, when Evelyn Yang was pregnant with her first child, she was sexually assaulted by her OB-GYN, Dr. Robert Hadden, […]

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Mother Jones

After MeToo

MeToo was made up of millions of personal stories. There were the bombshell revelations about celebrities, politicians, and the powerful. But the core of the movement felt closer: posts from our neighbors, our teachers, our acquaintances, ourselves. Millions of voices rising into a crescendo screaming, “Enough.” Enough of the old ways, bad habits, and ignorance […]

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The Young Survivor Who Rocked a Wealthy Bay Area Suburb

More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. “During my four years at Los Gatos High School, I could name five well-known students who had raped young women at […]

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Mother Jones

The Researcher Whose Story Exposed a Prominent Geologist—And Changed Science for the Better

More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. During a 1999 weeks-long expedition to Antarctica with her adviser, Boston University professor David Marchant, Jane Willenbring says she […]

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Mother Jones

How MeToo Changed Music’s Relationship With Age Gaps

More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. When Phoebe Bridgers recounted a relationship that she felt was unequal in her song “Motion Sickness,” it was only a few months before the […]

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