Mother Jones: Posts

Mother Jones

Republicans Are Standing by Their Man

Republicans are standing with Donald Trump in record numbers—and a majority consider him to be a “person of faith,” according to two polls that dropped this week. Republicans today are more likely to be sympathetic to Trump regarding his involvement in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, compared to the week after […]

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Federal Agency Accuses SpaceX of Illegally Firing Employees for Criticizing Elon Musk

SpaceX, the space flight company owned by Elon Musk, illegally fired eight employees after they criticized Musk’s social media behavior, a new complaint from the National Labor Relations Board alleges. The complaint stems from a June 2022 open letter that was shared on the company’s internal chat system in which the fired employees called on […]

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Electric Vehicles Just Became More Affordable

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A change to the federal EV incentive that took effect Monday could widen access for low and middle-income buyers who want to go electric but have been excluded by high prices. The clean vehicle tax credit, which offers up to $7,500 […]

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Americans Are Stockpiling Abortion Pills…Just in Case

More Americans are stockpiling abortion pills in case they need them in the future, according to new research published Tuesday. The relatively new practice of requesting a prescription for abortion pills before potentially needing them—known as advance provision—has spiked during two periods of recent uncertainty about the future of abortion access, the study published in JAMA […]

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Florida GOP Head Might Have Committed “Video Voyeurism” in His Sex Scandal

Florida authorities are trying to determine whether Christian Ziegler, the embattled head of the Florida Republican Party, engaged in “video voyeurism” by filming a sexual encounter with a woman without her consent. The new investigation, which was undertaken based on a police affidavit unsealed earlier this week and obtained by the Florida Trident, is the […]

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A Tearful Farewell to the 21 Species We Declared Extinct in 2023

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, a small black and yellow bird with glossy feathers and a haunting song, was the last surviving member of the Hawaiian honeyeaters. This year, it was officially declared extinct. The ōʻō was one of 21 species […]

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What Claudine Gay’s Resignation From Harvard Means for the Rest of Us

Claudine Gay’s resignation from her post as president of Harvard University is a shocking new twist in the ongoing saga over campus free speech. Gay resigned on Tuesday amid new allegations of plagiarism leveled through an unsigned complaint published in the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative outlet that has long criticized Gay. The news, which was broken […]

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Happy New Year: A Bunch of Minimum Wage Increases Just Took Effect

Workers across the country are kicking off the new year with bigger paychecks, thanks to minimum wage increases that took effect yesterday in 22 states and 43 cities and counties, according to a report from the National Employment Law Project. Six of those states—California, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Washington—now have a minimum wage that […]

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Your Utility Bills May Be Funding the Gas Lobby

This story was originally published by Slate and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The winter between 1917 and 1918 was a trying one for the gas industry. That year, household gas leaks had reportedly killed more than 300 New Yorkers—due to their own carelessness, the gas companies argued. But not everyone was convinced. […]

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Meet the Retired Women Bringing Switzerland to Court Over Climate Inaction

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The women, mostly in their 70s, strode up the mountain with dogged grace. Clacking their hiking poles against sun-cooked rocks, they set sure feet on shaky stones and held hands to cross slippery streams. They knew the heat and strain were […]

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Scores of Farmworkers Are Dying in the Heat

This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. For most of July 2019, stifling heat hung over the agricultural fields of California’s Central Valley, as farmworkers like William Salas Jiminez labored under the sun’s searing rays. Temperatures had dipped from 99 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit the […]

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Mayors of Sanctuary Cities Introduced Measures to Slow Down Surge of Migrants

After more than a year of Gov. Greg Abbott continuously busing as many as 150,000 migrants to US sanctuary cities, leaders in some of these destinations are implementing new measures in an effort to slow down the influx. Mayors in New York, Denver, and Chicago have ordered that bus drivers coordinate migrant arrivals with city […]

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California Coast Hit with Colossal Waves and Devastating Flooding for Third Day

Abnormally large waves, some as high as 40 feet, have been pummelling Southern California’s coastal communities since Thursday, plaguing the areas with massive flooding and dangerous rip currents. According to reports from CNN, the extreme conditions have forced beach closures, washed away cars, and flooded seaside businesses and residences. Several of these communities are still […]

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Why Are Builders Putting Gas Stoves In New Homes?

This story was originally published by the Guardian and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Dozens of US gas utilities, serving more than 35 million customers, offer builders and contractors incentives to keep fossil fuels in buildings, the Guardian has found. Washington state’s NW Natural offers builders $2,000 for each new single-family home they equip with gas appliances, while Texas’s […]

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In a Surprising Move, Ohio Governor Vetoes Trans Sports and Gender-Affirming Care Ban

At least 22 states have a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youths. But, as of Friday, Ohio is not one of them. In a surprising move, Gov. Mike DeWine, a staunch conservative who once signed a bill allowing teachers to carry firearms in class, vetoed Ohio House Bill 68, a gnarly resolution consisting of […]

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Climate Wrapped: Top 10 Terms That Capture the Climate in 2023

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. To say that 2023 is one for the record books is a vast understatement—the year was so out of the norm that you’re forced to go back at least 125,000 years for a point of reference. The last time anyone experienced a […]

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How I Bribed My Dog to Recognize Me on FaceTime

Going to undergrad hours away from home, in Québec, had its pros and cons: I could practice my French, but I had to leave my Havanese dog, Lucky, at home. Lucky was just under two years old when I left him, and while I knew he’d be fine, I did miss him. My dad tried […]

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Mother Jones

How I Bribed My Dog to Recognize Me on FaceTime

Going to undergrad hours away from home, in Québec, had its pros and cons: I could practice my French, but I had to leave my Havanese dog, Lucky, at home. Lucky was just under two years old when I left him, and while I knew he’d be fine, I did miss him. My dad tried […]

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Mother Jones

Rep. Lauren Boebert Swaps Colorado Congressional Districts

Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, the gun-slinging conservative firebrand who was caught on security footage groping her date at a September performance of “Beetlejuice” in Denver, announced Wednesday she will not run for re-election to her current seat in the United States House of Representatives and instead contest the 2024 campaign in Colorado’s 4th congressional district, which […]

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A 17th Birthday Party, a Stocked Bar, Beer Pong, and a “Parental Rights” Mom Facing Assault Charges

A Pennsylvania mom connected to the conservative so-called “parental rights” movement is facing criminal charges of assault, harassment, and furnishing minors with alcohol, according to a case filed in October and reported on by the USA Today Network’s PhillyBurbs. Bucks County’s Clarice Schillinger, a 2022 GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, was charged with punching a […]

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Mother Jones

A 17th Birthday Party, a Stocked Bar, Beer Pong, and a “Parental Rights” Mom Facing Assault Charges

A Pennsylvania mom connected to the conservative so-called “parental rights” movement is facing criminal charges of assault, harassment, and furnishing minors with alcohol, according to a case filed in October and reported on by the USA Today Network’s PhillyBurbs. Bucks County’s Clarice Schillinger, a 2022 GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, was charged with punching a […]

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Mother Jones

Is Dumping Twitter Your New Year’s Resolution?

Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter, people have occasionally asked themselves a question: “Is it okay for me to keep using this thing?” For many users, Musk has made Twitter—or as it is now technically known, X—a moral question by committing increasingly irresponsible missteps. There was the time he was publicly duped by a […]

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One of the Most Controversial US Spy Programs Just Got Quietly Renewed

On December 22, President Joe Biden signed a $886 billion defense bill that renewed one of the US government’s most controversial spy programs. Tucked in the 3,000-page legislation is an extension of the administration’s power to warrantlessly surveil foreigners overseas, and snoop on Americans in the process. The authority, known as Section 702 of the […]

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New Year, Same Congress: Politicians Block Livestock Emission Reporting Rules

This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Anyone feeling compelled to look into a bill passed recently by the House of Representatives will see some familiar language. It may seem wonky—the concern of agriculture or climate policy geeks. But the language relates to one of the country’s […]

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The New York Times is Suing OpenAI and Microsoft for Copyright Infringement

The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement—a major development in the ongoing, nationwide legal struggle between content creators and artificial intelligence firms. The paper warns AI firms face “billions of dollars” in damages. While previous lawsuits claiming intellectual property violations by AI companies have come from artists and writers, the Times […]

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Michigan Supreme Court Rejected Appeal to Remove Trump From Ballot

Donald Trump will remain on Michigan’s ballot for the 2024 presidential election. On Wednesday, Michigan’s Supreme Court rejected the latest appeal to strike the indicted former president from the state’s GOP primary ticket. The state’s top court ruled that the secretary of state has no authority to remove a candidate from the rolls under Section 3 […]

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Inside New York City’s Botched Response to Migrant Arrivals

The arrival of more than 150,000 migrants in New York City since the spring of 2022 has made the Big Apple the epicenter of a so-called migrant crisis. It spurred protests from Staten Island to Queens, became a useful talking point for conservatives, and created a political challenge for Mayor Eric Adams. After saying the humanitarian […]

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A New Breed of Climate Protesters Vows to Take the Fight to US Political “Cowards”

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A climate protest group backed by a cadre of Hollywood filmmakers is preparing to take action against “cowards” and “criminals” of all political stripes as the 2024 election approaches. Climate Defiance, which disrupted events featuring a string of Biden administration officials […]

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Mother Jones

Why Fake News About Climate Change is Still So Effective

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In 1995, a leading group of scientists convened by the United Nations declared that they had detected a “human influence” on global temperatures with “effectively irreversible” consequences. In the coming decades, 99.9 percent of scientists would come to agree that burning fossil […]

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The Far-Right Pushes a New Conspiracy Theory to Discredit Jack Smith

A new conspiracy theory rising on the right is being deployed to help Donald Trump. It claims that Jack Smith, the special counsel who is prosecuting Trump for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and for his alleged swiping of classified documents, was part of a multimillion dollar extortion scheme when he was the […]

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