Mother Jones
The largest American labor strike in over 60 years looks increasingly likely: Early this morning, negotiations between UPS and the Teamsters broke down, according to a press release from the union. In June, about 97 percent of the UPS rank-and-file voted to authorize a strike if the contract negotiations did not result in a new […]
Mother JonesHow did you spend your Fourth of July? I spent a considerable amount of time in the ocean, floating above the hum of anxieties, both personal and existential, that typically soundtrack my days. But outside the cocoon of cool waves, those gentle swells that numb the pain of existence, the earth around me apparently experienced its […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Oil and gas companies in West Texas released hundreds of tons of toxic gases into the air last week as a record-breaking heatwave drove pressure inside pipelines and compressors to dangerously high levels. One company, Houston-based Targa Resources, […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Some of the world’s best-known climate campaign groups have taken millions of dollars in donations from a foundation run by billionaire hedge fund bosses whose investment fund has invested in fossil fuel companies, the Guardian has learned. Groups including the European […]
Mother JonesThree Massachusetts-based civil rights groups are challenging donor and legacy admissions at Harvard University, arguing that the practice gives an unfair boost to mostly white students whose family members are either alumni or wealthy donors. The complaint comes days after the Supreme Court’s decision ending affirmative action in higher education. The 31-page complaint, filed with the […]
Mother JonesEditor’s note: The below article first appeared in David Corn’s newsletter, Our Land. The newsletter comes out twice a week (most of the time) and provides behind-the-scenes stories and articles about politics, media, and culture. Subscribing costs just $5 a month—but you can sign up for a free 30-day trial of Our Land here. Please check it out. This Fourth of […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Pastor Philip Schmitter waited more than 20 years for the Environmental Protection Agency to do its job. In 1992, he’d filed a civil rights complaint to halt the construction of a power station that would spew toxic lead into the air of […]
Mother JonesFor nearly 30 years, federal law has banned people who have domestic-violence restraining orders from possessing guns. It’s a sensible policy reflecting a set of stark statistics: Women whose abusers have access to guns are 5 times more likely to be killed than those whose partners don’t have guns available. About a third of female […]
Mother JonesEarlier this year, Abby Grossberg, a producer for Fox News, filed a pair of explosive lawsuits against the network, Tucker Carlson, and a group of other producers. Grossberg, who worked for Carlson’s show, claimed that Fox’s lawyers coerced her to give false testimony in the now-settled defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox. She […]
Mother JonesOn Friday, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3, along the usual lines, that a one-woman graphic design business in Colorado could not, theoretically, be forced to make a wedding website for a same-sex couple. The designer in question, Lorie Smith, wanted to put a statement on her website stating that she would not create websites “promoting and […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The reporting was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center. Comau Fjord is a sliver of sea framed by thickly forested mountain slopes. Melting glaciers peek between the crags. Waterfalls tumble down mountainsides, […]
Mother JonesToday, the New York Times released a damning investigation under the headline: “Everyone Knew the Migrant Ship Was Doomed. No One Helped.” It reveals the extent to which Greek authorities ignored the plight of the Adriana, the ship whose sinking last month led to the deaths of more than 600 people. The Times found that dozens […]
Mother JonesOn Saturday afternoon, Teamsters president Sean O’Brien delivered an update on the UPS contract negotiations that could lead to the company’s workers striking next month. O’Brien stressed at a press conference that if UPS doesn’t concede to the union’s demands “we will put 340,000 strong Teamsters on the streets until we get what we want.” […]
Mother JonesThis week, former Vice President Mike Pence made a surprise trip to Ukraine, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The trip draws a contrast between himself and fellow presidential candidates like Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, who’ve been skeptical of the United States’ involvement in Ukraine. Pence is the first Republican presidential candidate to meet […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A global increase of extreme precipitation, well outside the range of natural variability, has been well-documented by scientists. It’s one of the hallmarks of human-caused global warming, and new research published this week in Nature shows that high-elevation areas, including most […]
Mother JonesAfter the Supreme Court threw out his debt relief plan earlier in the day, President Joe Biden promised in a White House speech Friday afternoon to pursue a different legal strategy for canceling student debt. “I believe the court’s decision to strike down my student debt relief program was a mistake, was wrong,” he said. […]
Mother JonesWithin 24 hours, two rulings from the nation’s highest court—one striking down the use of race-conscious college admissions, and the second gutting Biden’s student debt cancellation plan—rolled back years of progress towards greater economic justice and educational opportunity for students of color. In these rulings, the Supreme Court has all but ensured the deepening of racial […]
Mother JonesNorth Carolina, once an “abortion destination” for women throughout the South, will prohibit abortion after 12 weeks’ gestation starting July 1. On Thursday, a federal judge allowed most of the law to go into effect as the court considers the measure. The ruling did temporarily block a provision requiring abortion doctors to document the existence […]
Mother JonesPerhaps it was foolish of me to assume that Aaron Rodgers’ keynote talk at last week’s Psychedelic Science 2023 conference in Denver—titled “How Psychedelics Can Unlock Elite Performance”—would touch on any actual neurological mechanisms at play. I had guessed that it might delve into the complex, controversial, but real science of how psychedelics can help […]
Mother JonesThe Supreme Court struck down on Friday the Biden administration’s plan to wipe out more than $400 billion in student loans for about 40 million Americans. The plan, announced last August, would have canceled up to $10,000 in debt for low- and middle-income borrowers, and double that amount for borrowers from the poorest backgrounds. The […]
Mother JonesThe Supreme Court on Friday allowed certain businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ people, creating a large loophole in federal and state civil rights laws that have protected Americans for decades. Justice Neil Gorsuch authored the opinion for the court’s conservative justices, who made up the 6 vote majority. The court’s three Democratic-appointed justices dissented. The […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Small island nations would rather fight than flee, but rising sea levels have prompted apocalyptic legal discussions about whether a state is still a state if its land disappears below the waves. The Pacific Islands Forum, which represents many of […]
Mother JonesAdvice columnist E. Jean Carroll’s yearslong court battle to hold the man who sexually abused her legally accountable has been extraordinary in many ways. First, because that abuser is former President Donald Trump, who used all the power of his office, from the Secret Service to the Department of Justice, in various attempts to shrug off […]
Mother JonesOn Thursday morning, the decades-long conservative crusade to upend affirmative action proved successful. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled against the use of race-conscious admissions, finding such programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard University to be in violation of 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice Roberts railed […]
Mother JonesThe Supreme Court’s conservative majority banned race-conscious admissions policies at colleges and universities on Thursday, ruling that using race as an admissions factor violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause. The decision invalidates the University of North Carolina and Harvard’s systems for making up their student body, and will, more broadly, make higher education whiter and […]
Mother JonesThe Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the use of race in college admissions at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, dealing a potentially lethal blow to affirmative action programs in colleges throughout the country. The decision, which civil rights groups say effectively bans affirmative action, a policy widely viewed as an “irreplaceable tool” […]
Mother JonesThe Supreme Court ruled today in a 6-3 decision that the use of race in college admissions violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and thus is unconstitutional, dealing a serious blow to affirmative action measures used by colleges to create diverse student bodies and remedy past discrimination against minorities. “Many universities have […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. When Dulce Ortiz wants to enjoy the beauty of Lake Michigan, walk in a green space, or see and touch the water, she has to leave her neighborhood, even though the second-largest of the Great Lakes is in her backyard. Ortiz lives […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Between 2015 and 2020, Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, along with small, local communities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, gained legal recognition to more than 247 million acres of land—an 85 percent increase. That’s according to a new report from Rights […]
Mother JonesOn Tuesday, Breitbart published a long report exposing racist and anti-semitic text messages from Pedro Gonzalez, a somewhat well-known writer who contributes to Newsweek and is an editor at Chronicles magazine—a paleoconservative publication loosely on the New Right. From afar, that might seem odd. Breitbart? Calling someone else (and specifically another figure on the right) racist? The publication […]