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Wildfires Are Killing Decades of US Clean Air Improvements

This story was originally published by the Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Smoke from wildfires across the continental US is stalling—in some places, reversing—years of progress on air quality. “The influence of wildfire smoke is broad, and it is affecting populations that did not used to be affected.” A new study published […]

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How Does the American Climate Corps Compare to Its Predecessor?

On Wednesday, the Biden administration launched the American Climate Corps, a climate-focused youth job training program. The plan will put some 20,000 people to work doing clean energy, wildfire prevention, and coastal resilience jobs and has already cost $150 million in investment. It’s far from the original vision, which Biden announced in 2021 and which would have invested $30 […]

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Mother Jones

How Does the American Climate Corps Compare to Its Predecessor?

On Wednesday, the Biden administration launched the American Climate Corps, a climate-focused youth job training program. The plan will put some 20,000 people to work doing clean energy, wildfire prevention, and coastal resilience jobs and has already cost $150 million in investment. It’s far from the original vision, which Biden announced in 2021 and which would have invested $30 […]

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Mother Jones

America’s New Climate Corps Will Need to be a Lot Bigger

This story was originally published by Wired and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Climate change is the greatest threat humanity has ever faced, and the United States has begun mobilizing an army to fight it: the American Climate Corps. Formerly conceptualized as the Civilian Climate Corps, the new initiative will “put more than 20,000 young […]

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You’re Sexually Assaulted. You Report. And Police Make You the Suspect.

This article is a collaboration between Mother Jones and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit investigative newsroom. Sequestered in a small interrogation room, sipping an iced coffee, Nicole Chase was trying to explain just how dysfunctional things had become at Nodine’s Smokehouse Deli and Restaurant, a family-owned place in Canton, Connecticut, that specialized in smokehouse meats […]

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We’re Living in a Kevin McCarthy Doom Loop

For the second time in three days, a group of far-right House Republicans on Thursday blew up a short-term plan to fund the government, setting fire to efforts to avoid a government shutdown at the month’s end. “This is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down,” House […]

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Is the Writer’s Strike Nearing an End? Today Will Be a Crucial Test for Negotiators.

Is the months-long writers’ strike finally coming to an end? We should have more answers as the strike enters its 146th day on Sunday. Negotiators from the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and their counterparts at the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents the major Hollywood studios, will meet for a […]

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Trump Really, Really Doesn’t Want More People to Vote in Pennsylvania

In an era of mounting threats to free and fair elections ginned up by Republicans, voting rights experts agree that automatic voter registration is one of the best ways to expand access to the ballot. So when Pennsylvania, a critical battleground state, enacted the program last week, Republicans pounced, claiming that it would prompt a […]

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Jimmy Buffett’s Music Lives On, but What of His Beloved Manatees?

This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The second line started at four, but it was five o’clock somewhere. Hundreds of people gathered here on a September Sunday—their Hawaiian shirts and flip-flops brightening the city streets—to participate in a walking parade in remembrance of Jimmy Buffett, who […]

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Why Did It Take So Long for Dems to Turn Against Bob Menendez?

Within hours of Sen. Robert Menendez’s indictment Friday on bribery charges, prominent members of his party were already calling on the New Jersey Democrat to resign. “These are serious charges that implicate national security and the integrity of our criminal justice system,” Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement. “The alleged facts are so serious […]

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Muhammed Bin Salman Says He Will “Continue Doing Sportswashing”

In 2018, according to the US government, Muhammed Bin Salman—the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia—personally ordered the assasination of a journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul. Five years later, MBS just might be the most powerful figure in international sports. The Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund that MBS […]

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Joe Biden Is About to Go Where No President Has Gone Before

On September 15, the United Auto Workers began a targeted strike against Ford, GM, and Stellantis (the conglomerate that includes Chrysler) in an effort to secure higher wages, a four-day work week, and other protections in the union’s next contract. The strike is a huge development for American workers, but it’s also a big deal […]

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Arctic Lakes Are Carbon Banks. What Happens When They Heat Up?

This story was originally published by Yale e360 and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A family of muskox rumbles along craggy hilltops overlooking the small parade of humans crossing the West Greenland tundra. Ecologist Václava Hazuková, in the lead, sets a brisk pace as we bushwhack through knee-high willow and birch. Leaning forward under […]

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Biden Flips the Script on Republicans in New Pro-Union Ad

In an effort to tout his support for unions, President Biden doesn’t appear to have to do much talking. In fact, a new campaign ad is relying on the real words of his Republican opponents to do just that. “When you have a president that’s constantly saying, ‘Go union, go union,’ this is what you […]

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Gold Bars, Cash and Halal Meat: The Wild Allegations Against Bob Menendez

Senator Robert Menendez was charged Friday with using his power to help three men and the Egyptian government in exchange for bribes. Prosectors say the New Jersey Democrat and his wife took hundreds of thousands of dollars via gold bars, mortgage payments, a Mercedes-Benz convertible, and cash that investigators found hidden in envelopes inside jackets […]

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Brazil’s Top Court Rejects Attempt to Thwart Indigenous Land Claims

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Brazil’s supreme court has blocked efforts to dramatically strip back Indigenous land rights in what activists called a historic victory for the South American country’s original inhabitants. Nine of the court’s 11 members voted against what rights groups had dubbed the “time limit […]

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North Carolina Republicans Just Passed a Massive Power Grab to Seize Control of Elections

North Carolina Republicans on Friday passed a major power grab, stripping the state’s Democratic governor of the authority to appoint a majority of members to state and county election boards and giving the heavily gerrymandered GOP legislature far more influence over how elections are run and certified in the battleground state. In North Carolina, the governor […]

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The UAW Strike Is Expanding. And There Are Signs It Is Working.

On Friday at noon, the United Auto Workers expanded its strike against the Big Three automakers. UAW President Shawn Fain announced in a Friday morning livestream that his members will be striking at all 38 of the Stellantis and General Motors parts distribution centers that are spread across 20 states from coast to coast. As […]

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New Battery Recycling Rules Could be a Game Changer

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The clean energy transition will require lots of batteries—primarily to power electric vehicles and to store renewable energy that can be dispatched to the electric grid on demand. European Union policymakers are growing more concerned about where the bloc will get all the […]

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“I’m Doing the Best I Can”: Stories From California’s Unsheltered Community

Nearly one-third of all Americans experiencing homelessness live in California. Each night, more than 170,000 people sleep outside or in temporary shelters across the state. The vast majority—90 percent—were living in California when they became unhoused. And 75 percent are homeless in the same county in which they lost their housing. In cities across the […]

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Mother Jones

“I’m Doing the Best I Can”: Stories From California’s Unsheltered Community

Nearly one-third of all Americans experiencing homelessness live in California. Each night, more than 170,000 people sleep outside or in temporary shelters across the state. The vast majority—90 percent—were living in California when they became unhoused. And 75 percent are homeless in the same county in which they lost their housing. In cities across the […]

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DeSantis Administration Recommends Against Boosters, Right as Florida Tops Nation for COVID Hospitalizations

Last Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration advised residents in his state under the age of 65 to not get the newly approved COVID-19 booster. It was only days later that new data came in: It showed Florida ranked number one in the country for coronavirus-related hospitalizations. DeSantis’s campaign for president has played up his […]

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Rupert Murdoch Is Retiring From Fox and Fox News

Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old media titan who built one of the world’s most powerful media empires, is stepping down. “I have decided to transition to the role of Chairman Emeritus at Fox and News,” Murdoch wrote in a memo to staff. Here's how Fox News announced the news about Rupert Murdoch pic.twitter.com/eSSYslHg50 — Brian Stelter […]

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“We Keep People Alive”: As Summers Get Deadlier, a Tiny Church Is Fighting Back

Pinch the skin on the top of your hand and then let go. It should drop back into place, a nursing student told me as we stood in a dim Sunday School room at Wesley United Methodist Church in South Phoenix last summer. If, however, the skin stays up, “tenting” as nurses say when they’re […]

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Are These $2,000 Water Bills Racist?

When Tyrone Pettway saw his water bill in October 2021, he thought it was a typo. The bill was for $2,384.51, some $2,300 more than what he usually owed the Prichard, Alabama water board every month. The document claimed Pettway, his wife, and their five kids had used 167,000 gallons of water over the course […]

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Mother Jones

Are These $2,000 Water Bills Racist?

When Tyrone Pettway saw his water bill in October 2021, he thought it was a typo. The bill was for $2,384.51, some $2,300 more than what he usually owed the Prichard, Alabama, water board every month. The document claimed Pettway, his wife, and their five kids had used 167,000 gallons of water over the course […]

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Journalism and Democracy Are on the Cliff’s Edge

Journalism is in trouble, and that’s nothing new. It’s been that way since I got started in the field, on the membership side here at Mother Jones, nine years ago. It’s been that way since Mother Jones itself got started as a nonprofit back in 1976, with a goal of doing things differently than the corporate […]

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Mother Jones

Trumpworld Lawyers Keep Getting Stiffed on Fees

Working as Donald Trump’s lawyer, or just being his lawyer’s lawyer, is a tough gig. The former president’s tight-fisted ways, not to mention his legal problems, are trickling down through Trumpworld’s legal ecosystem. On Tuesday, Rudy Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert Costello, sued the former New York mayor for more than $1.3 million in allegedly unpaid legal […]

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Pennsylvania Is Making it Easier to Register to Vote

On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) announced that the state will join more than 20 others and adopt automatic voter registration. It is a small change that could have a big impact. Now, those eligible will be automatically prompted to enroll to vote when they fill out their personal information for other government bodies, […]

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Nikki Haley and Tim Scott Are Here to Remind You Republicans Hate Unions

This weekend, Neil Cavuto of Fox News asked former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley what should have been an easy question about the ongoing UAW strike. Donald Trump had already made it clear how to respond from the right: Say something vaguely supportive about autoworkers, then pivot to claiming the Biden administration will send all […]

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