Mother Jones
On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced it would forgive more than 150,000 borrowers’ student loans, totaling a whopping $1.2 billion. Nearly 153,000 folks who’ve enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) repayment plan, borrowed $12,000 or less, and have been making payments for at least 10 years will receive an email from Biden […]
Mother JonesIn May 2021, investigators from New York City’s child protective services agency showed up at the home of Ebony Gould, a Black mother living in Queens. They were checking on the wellbeing of Gould’s three children—ages 4, 6, and 16—and needed to search the home. The investigation proved to be unfounded. No children were removed, […]
Mother JonesNew York Times columnist Pamela Paul argued in a 4,500-word op-ed earlier this month that transgender health care procedures amount to “unproven treatments for children,” despite major medical associations’ support for gender-affirming care and the widespread view that it is lifesaving. The piece, which builds upon Paul’s record of espousing anti-trans views in the pages of the country’s […]
Mother JonesThe farm bill is one of the most important but least understood pieces of US legislation, and it’s overdue for renewal. But Congress couldn’t pass a new version in the fall, reflecting partisan dysfunction and also a contentious debate about what the bill ought to be—a debate that has become ensnared in the nation’s culture […]
Mother JonesAmid an ongoing measles outbreak in Florida, public health officials are bending the rules of quarantine for unvaccinated children. At Manatee Bay Elementary School in Broward County, Florida, six children have tested positive for measles, a respiratory virus so contagious that 90 percent of those exposed will contract it. Infection with measles can have serious […]
Mother JonesThe Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a bombshell case challenging an admissions policy at a magnet high school in Virginia that was designed to increase racial and economic diversity at the school. However, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas issued a strong dissent, signaling their willingness to embrace a radical view of racial […]
Mother JonesNikki Haley is…still running. Even if she’s almost certain to lose her home state. That’s essentially the summary of a speech the former South Carolina governor delivered Tuesday in Greenville, South Carolina, ahead of the state’s Republican primary on Saturday, as multiple polls predict a loss to Trump by a margin of anywhere from 20 to […]
Mother JonesA songwriter who produces rap songs with conspiracy theories about Covid; an academic who has championed debunked and bizarre notions about 9/11, the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, the 2020 election, and other public events; a polygraph examiner who wrote a novel tying Russian mobsters and sexual predators who exploit disabled children to a government […]
Mother JonesA songwriter who produces rap songs with conspiracy theories about Covid; an academic who has championed debunked and bizarre notions about 9/11, the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, the 2020 election, and other public events; a polygraph examiner who wrote a novel tying Russian mobsters and sexual predators who exploit disabled children to a government […]
Mother JonesAfter being the only member of the UN Security Council to twice veto resolutions calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, the Biden administration is preparing a ceasefire proposal of its own. Al Jazeera on Monday reported that the US-authored resolution would fall considerably short of what many critics of Israeli and American policy […]
Mother JonesThe long era of Republican gerrymandering in Wisconsin may finally be coming to an end. Last week, the Republican-controlled legislature approved new maps submitted by Democratic Governor Tony Evers that will significantly reduce GOP majorities in both chambers. Evers signed the legislation on Monday. “It is a new day in Wisconsin, and today is a […]
Mother JonesMidway through Leslie Jamison’s new memoir, Splinters, the writer takes her infant daughter to see a Garry Winogrand exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. In Winogrand’s photos, which depict patrons at the New York Aquarium and Coney Island, Jamison finds “a church of regular life,” as she calls it. “Instead of showing saints, or biblical scenes, or stations of […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Yale E360 and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Two months after its release in November 2022, OpenAI’s ChatGPT had 100 million active users, and suddenly tech corporations were racing to offer the public more “generative AI” Pundits compared the new technology’s impact to the Internet, or electrification, or the […]
Mother JonesTrump brags about pretty much everything—but particularly his wealth and his real estate. That was the basis of the civil fraud trial brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, which culminated on Friday when a judge ruled Trump must pay $355 million—or $453.5 million with interest, according to NBC News—after finding him liable of fraudulently […]
Mother JonesThe daughter of the once-oldest president, Ronald Reagan, who was 77 when he took office, thinks cognitive tests for presidential candidates would be “a good idea,” she said in an interview that aired Sunday. “Just what we know about what age can do, it doesn’t always do that, but it would probably be a good […]
Mother JonesHow will Trump pay his mounting legal bills? It’s a fair question, considering that a New York judge ruled on Friday that he owes $355 million for inflating his net worth to banks and insurance companies, as my colleague Russ Choma reported. The total amount comes to more than $453 million with interest, according to […]
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. Since the beginning of Donald Trump’s indictment-o-rama, the […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Trudging across the top of Bromley Mountain Ski Resort on a sunny afternoon in January, Matt Folts checks his smartwatch and smiles: 14 degrees Fahrenheit. That is very nearly his favorite temperature for making snow. It’s cold enough for water to quickly […]
Mother JonesThis week’s episode of Reveal features WNYC’s Kai Wright and the Nation‘s Lizzy Ratner, hosts of New York Public Radio and the History Channel’s Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows. Wright and Ratner take on the history and politics of the early AIDS crisis, surveying contemporary media coverage, community responses, and the enduring waves of activism […]
Mother JonesA Democratic candidate for the Ohio Senate is a transgender man who has long gone by the name Ari Faber, but a 1995 law will require the state’s upcoming March primary ballots to use the name he was given at birth: Iva Faber. Title 35, Section 3513.271 of Ohio Revised Code requires that “[i]f any […]
Mother JonesWho among us has not handed $50,000 cash in a shoebox to a purported undercover CIA agent in an SUV with tinted windows because a fake FTC investigator told us to? Well, I haven’t. Nor do I have a stray $50,000 to give. Still, a February 9 report from the real Federal Trade Commission reveals […]
Mother JonesAt a televised White House press conference Friday, President Joe Biden rebuked the Kremlin for insisting that leading Russian dissident Aleksei Navalny simply lost consciousness and died after taking a stroll in prison. “Make no mistake: [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death,” Biden said. “Putin is responsible. What has happened to Navalny […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Raw sewage and runoff in the Tijuana River is exposing communities at the US-Mexico border to an unusual and noxious brew of pathogens and toxic chemicals, according to a report released this week. Billions of gallons of sewage flow through the […]
Mother JonesEarlier this week, Meta decided to create the grandest of Gordian knots for itself when Adam Mosseri, its executive in charge of Instagram and Threads, announced that the company doesn’t want Threads to “proactively amplify political content from accounts you don’t follow”—in effect, announcing the company hopes to limit how “political” content is spread and […]
Mother JonesA key argument from anti-abortion activists bringing a case to the Supreme Court is that medication abortion—which accounts for more than half of all abortions nationwide, according to the Guttmacher Institute—is unsafe and ineffective. A new study provides even more evidence that this is not true and that medication abortion is just as safe when it’s prescribed […]
Mother JonesThis story first appeared on Meduza, an independent, reader-supported Russian newsroom based in Latvia. Officials in the Kremlin’s political bloc see Alexey Navalny’s death as “a very negative development” — for Vladimir Putin’s reelection campaign. At the same time, members of the Putin administration do not expect the opposition politician’s demise to seriously affect the […]
Mother JonesA New York judge ruled on Friday that former President Donald Trump must pay $355 million and cease doing any business in New York for three years after being found liable for years of deceiving banks and insurance companies about his net worth. While Trump has said he will appeal the decision, if the ruling […]
Mother JonesIn the past, former President Donald Trump has promised a consensus on abortion, criticizing Republicans for being too stringent but without getting more specific. According to a report published in the New York Times this morning, Trump has landed on a limit that he thinks will do the job: a 16-week abortion ban. Citing “two […]
Mother JonesAleksei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, has died in a remote prison near the Arctic Circle, the country’s penitentiary system announced on Friday. According to authorities, Navalny lost consciousness during a walk at the penal colony, where he had been imprisoned over charges of extremism. The high-security prison, known as “Polar […]
Mother JonesOn March 18, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the federal government overstepped its bounds by asking social media companies to adopt stricter policies in removing misinformation related to COVID-19 and tools to minimize its spread, such as masking and getting vaccinated. The plaintiffs—the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisana as well as private […]