Mother Jones
Two and a half years after January 6, lawyers who helped former president Donald Trump use lies about election fraud to try to retain power are finally starting to face sanctions for their actions. On Friday, a legal ethics committee recommended that Rudy Giuliani, who helped Trump’s legal efforts following election day in 2020, be […]
Mother JonesOver the last two years, Republican state politicians have done their best to wipe out access to gender-affirming medical care for trans adolescents. In a flurry of lawmaking—coordinated by conservative Christian legal groups and think tanks, and backed by fringe doctors and activists who deny that anyone is truly transgender—a whopping 20 states have passed […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Solar power cells have raced past the key milestone of 30 percent energy efficiency, after innovations by multiple research groups around the world. The feat makes this a “revolutionary” year, according to one expert, and could accelerate the rollout of solar […]
Mother JonesIn May, Starbucks abruptly shuttered a unionized store in Ithaca, New York. This week, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled that Starbucks had violated federal labor law and ordered the company to reopen the store. The College Avenue store, near Cornell University, was one of three Ithaca stores that closed after workers unionized, a […]
Mother JonesBrazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva campaigned on a promise to stop the deforestation of the Amazon that had accelerated under former president Jair Bolsonaro. The early results are promising. Deforestation dropped 33.6 percent during the first six months of Lula’s term, according to government satellite data released this week. The new data present […]
Mother JonesTracie Bernardi Guzman felt betrayed by her governor. Back in 2018, Bernardi Guzman had shared her story with Ned Lamont, the Democrat who, at the time, was running to be Connecticut’s chief executive. She told Lamont about the two decades she’d spent in prison—and about her suicide attempt in her fifth out of seven years in […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A constitutional legal strategy is gaining traction as a way to potentially help bring about climate justice, boosted by a recent high-profile trial in which 16 young plaintiffs spoke movingly about how the climate crisis has affected their lives. That […]
Mother JonesIn MAGA World, Karoline Leavitt is a rising star. A former Trump White House staffer, she won national notice last year when, at just 25 years of age, she captured the GOP nomination for a New Hampshire congressional seat. In April, she was hired as a spokesperson by Trump’s SuperPAC. But earlier this year, her […]
Mother JonesIn MAGA world, Karoline Leavitt is a rising star. A former Trump White House staffer, she won national notice last year when, at just 25 years of age, she captured the GOP nomination for a New Hampshire congressional seat. In April, she was hired as a spokesperson by Trump’s super-PAC. But earlier this year, her focus […]
Mother JonesLast Friday morning, at the beginning of a hot June day in Philadelphia, I walked through a phalanx of about a hundred protesters in order to make my way to the Joyful Warriors Summit, the annual convention of the parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty. It was early in the day, but the bass from […]
Mother JonesFrom February to April, four men were found dead in Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas. The Austin Police Department said these were all accidental drownings, caused by a combination of alcohol and easy access to the lake, which can be challenging to see at night. At the time, I’d heard faint rumors of a […]
Mother JonesThe same day Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Daniel Penny with manslaughter for choking to death Jordan Neely—a homeless man who’d been acting in a way Penny perceived as threatening—Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) recorded a podcast. Elites, he told listeners, were making the common man fearful of defending himself while allowing criminals to roam […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. More than 1,500 lobbyists in the US are working on behalf of fossil-fuel companies while at the same time representing hundreds of liberal-run cities, universities, technology companies and environmental groups that say they are tackling the climate crisis, the Guardian can […]
Mother JonesWhy the hell did President Joe Biden nominate a one-time protector of war criminals to a top administration post? On the Monday before July 4—a black hole day for news—the White House let drop the word that it was appointing Elliott Abrams to the bipartisan US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. The commission’s job is […]
Mother JonesThe 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. […]