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Mother Jones

Good Recipes for Tough Times

This article was produced by The Bittman Project and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. which supports independent journalists as they forward fresh narratives about inequality. It is co-published here with permission. EHRP’s high-quality journalism is co-published with mainstream media outlets, to help readers understand and address systemic hardship. Cooking and food shopping are very different in America […]

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Mother Jones

“We Need Shade”: America’s Hottest City Rushes to Plant More Trees

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. It was a relatively cool spring day in Phoenix, Arizona, as a tree-planting crew dug large holes in one of the desert city’s hottest and least shaded neighborhoods. Still, it was sweaty backbreaking work as they carefully positioned, watered and staked a […]

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A New Police Force Chased a 17-Year-Old Boy to His Death. Then It Vanished.

Cruising south down a two-lane highway in Montana, Braven Glenn looked out onto the open road, the evening sky chilly and dark. It was November 24, 2020—half a year into the pandemic and three months after his 17th birthday. He was a good student, on his way to pick up his girlfriend, a basketball player […]

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Police Loom as Pro-Palestine Students Occupy Columbia University

New York City Police gathered in force outside of Columbia University on Wednesday, after students convened in the pre-dawn hours to erect dozens of camping tents on a campus lawn. The demonstration backing Palestine was launched hours before president Minouche Shafik began testifying at a Congressional hearing addressing allegations of anti-semitism on campus in the […]

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Sen. Rick Scott Says He’s a China Hawk. But He’s Made Lots of Money With China-Related Investments

In November, ahead of President Joe Biden’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) issued a press release casting himself as a fierce opponent of China. It declared, “Since being elected to the U.S. Senate, Senator Scott has introduced dozens of bills to punish Communist China for its increased military aggression, continued […]

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Trump Could Use the 1873 Comstock Act to Ban Abortion Nationwide. Here’s How.

Last week, in a bid to clarify his historically nebulous stance on abortion, Donald Trump said that if reelected, he intends to leave abortion rights “to the states,” seemingly contradicting his prior stance in favor of a 16-week national ban. But Mary Ziegler, a law professor at UC Davis and leading abortion historian, thinks that […]

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A Firm Bought Up Land in a Tiny Arizona Town—Then Sold Its Water to a Faraway Suburb

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. One of the biggest battles over Colorado River water is being staged in one of the west’s smallest rural enclaves. Tucked into the bends of the lower Colorado River, Cibola, Arizona, is a community of about 200 people. Maybe 300, […]

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SCOTUS Justices: Why Isn’t DOJ Treating Dobbs Protesters Like January 6 Attackers?

Conservative Supreme Court justices on Tuesday questioned the Justice Department’s use of a 2002 statute against obstructing an official proceeding to prosecute a number of people involved in the January 6 attack on Congress. In pressing Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar on how broadly the DOJ can apply the law, several justices offered similar hypotheticals. “Would […]

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Conservative Groups Are Outraising Democrats on the State Level—By a Lot

State legislative bodies have always played a leading role in determining outcomes for fundamental but humdrum issues like state budgets, insurance regulations, road safety laws, and civil services. But the last few years have demonstrated their overriding importance in matters related to personal freedom and social wellbeing. One issue where this has played out powerfully […]

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Mother Jones

Conservative Groups Are Outraising Democrats on the State Level—By a Lot

State legislative bodies have always played a leading role in determining outcomes for fundamental but humdrum issues like state budgets, insurance regulations, road safety laws, and civil services. But the last few years have demonstrated their overriding importance in matters related to personal freedom and social well-being. One issue where this has played out powerfully […]

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Mother Jones

Indiana Will Test a Highway That Can Charge Moving Vehicles

This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Blake Dollier spoke excitedly as he watched the construction crews pulverize concrete along a quarter-mile stretch of US Highway 52 where it passes through West Lafayette, Indiana. Soon, the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT), where Dollier works as the public […]

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Trump’s Trial Marks the Return of “Individual-1”

The justice system finally caught up with Individual-1—a.k.a. Donald J. Trump. On the opening day of Trump’s historic trial for his porn star/hush-money caper—no former president has ever been on trial for criminal charges—New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan had to clear up a few pending legal issues before moving to the arduous task […]

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Donald Trump’s Historic Hush-Money Trial Finally Begins

So, here we are. The first day of the first criminal trial of a former US president. Can it get more extraordinary than that? “He keeps setting new Guinness Records in terms of unprecedented history,” Mother Jones’ own David Corn explained in a new video outside a Manhattan courtroom where Donald Trump’s trial kicked off this […]

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Your Turn: Mother Jones Readers Sound Off on Voting Third Party

Frustrated by the two-party system? Polling shows you’re not alone, with more Americans than ever supporting the idea of a third party. But the winner of November’s presidential election will be either Biden or Trump, and voters weighing other candidates need to consider if a protest vote to end the duopoly might instead help end […]

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Mother Jones

Ralph Nader Would Like to Stop Having to Explain Why the Spoiler Coverage Is Stupid

Frustrated by the two-party system? Polling shows you’re not alone, with more Americans than ever supporting the idea of a third party. But the winner of November’s presidential election will be either Biden or Trump, and voters weighing other candidates need to consider if a protest vote to end the duopoly might instead help end […]

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Mother Jones

The Spectacular Implosion of the Libertarian Party

Frustrated by the two-party system? Polling shows you’re not alone, with more Americans than ever supporting the idea of a third party. But the winner of November’s presidential election will be either Biden or Trump, and voters weighing other candidates need to consider if a protest vote to end the duopoly might instead help end […]

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Mother Jones

Party Poppers

With our winner-takes-all elections consigning them to the margins or casting them as spoilers, third-party candidates are typically a political afterthought. But in the coming election, RFK Jr., Jill Stein, and Cornel West—none of whom stand a chance of becoming our next president—could play a central role in restoring Donald Trump to the White House. […]

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Wenatchi-P’squosa People Target Solar Project on Washington’s Badger Mountain

This story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. On a Thursday morning in late March, a group of Wenatchi-P’squosa people and a few dozen supporters assembled amid patches of snow and mud atop Badger Mountain in central Washington. The foggy sagebrush-dotted bluff is among dozens of […]

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Mother Jones

Outside Influence: A Third Party Timeline

Frustrated by the two-party system? Polling shows you’re not alone, with more Americans than ever supporting the idea of a third party. But the winner of November’s presidential election will be either Biden or Trump, and voters weighing other candidates need to consider if a protest vote to end the duopoly might instead help end […]

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Mother Jones

America’s Voting System Is the Worst, Thumbs Down

Frustrated by the two-party system? Polling shows you’re not alone, with more Americans than ever supporting the idea of a third party. But the winner of November’s presidential election will be either Biden or Trump, and voters weighing other candidates need to consider if a protest vote to end the duopoly might instead help end […]

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Less Than a Day Before First Criminal Trial Begins, Trump Attacks Judge—Again

With less than 24 hours until his first criminal trial kicks off, Donald Trump is doing what you’d probably expect: attacking the judge presiding over the case. In a post on Truth Social, Trump alleged that Judge Juan Merchan might be “the most highly conflicted Judge in New York State history” and complained of a “Fake […]

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Biden Official: The US Is “Not Looking For a Wider War With Iran”

A Biden administration official said this morning that the United States is “not looking for a wider war with Iran” following Iran’s launch of retaliatory strikes against Israel yesterday. White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby told Kristen Welker of NBC’s Meet the Press that President Biden does not “want to see this escalate,” […]

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Berkeley’s People’s Park Is a Metaphor That Has Outlived Its Use

This essay was originally published on Dashka Slater’s Substack, A Sigh of Relief, which you can sign up for here. I was homeless when I started college at the University of California, Berkeley. First-year students weren’t guaranteed housing in those days, and I’d been unable to secure a spot in either the dorms or the […]

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Mother Jones

Sinking Cities Spell Slow-Motion Disaster for Critical Infrastructure

This story was originally published by Wired and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. With its expanse of buildings and concrete, Mexico City may not look squishy—but it is. Ever since the Spanish conquistadors drained Lake Texcoco to make way for more urbanization, the land has been gradually compacting under the weight. It’s a phenomenon […]

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Iran Launches an Aerial Barrage Against Israel in Retaliation for Embassy Strike

Israel and its allies were scrambling to shoot down a fleet of Iran-launched drones on Saturday evening, according to both countries’ militaries, in a major escalation of a regional conflict sparked by the Israel-Hamas war. Iranian state media claimed that the country was coordinating the drones with a barrage of ballistic missiles. The unfolding aerial […]

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Mother Jones

A Gazan Mother’s Harrowing Journey to Give Birth

In Gaza, the health care system has collapsed, but nearly 200 women each day still need to find a safe place to give birth. In this week’s episode of Reveal, reporters Gabrielle Berbey and Salmad Ahad Khan tell the story of one woman, 42-year-old Lubna Al Rayyes, as she deals with a complicated pregnancy in the midst […]

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Mother Jones

Kamala Harris Isn’t Letting Trump Dodge on Abortion

Days after the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that a near-total ban on abortion could be enforced in the state, Kamala Harris went after Trump for his position on abortion in a campaign speech Friday in Tucson. Harris said that the ruling, which granted abortion exceptions only when it was “necessary to save” a woman’s life, “demonstrated […]

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Mother Jones

As Monthly Heat Records Tumble, Scientists Are Increasingly Alarmed

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Another month, another global heat record that has left climate scientists scratching their heads and hoping this is an El Niño-related hangover rather than a symptom of worse-than-expected planetary health. Global surface temperatures in March were 0.1 degrees Celsius higher […]

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Mother Jones

How Famine and Starvation Can Affect Generations to Come

Famine is already happening in parts of Gaza, a top US humanitarian official publicly acknowledged this week for the first time. After six months of Israeli war and blockades, an estimated 2.2 million people are facing acute or catastrophic food shortages. One in three children in northern Gaza are malnourished, and deaths due to hunger […]

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John Bolton to Vote for Dick

On CNN, John Bolton, a former national security adviser to Donald Trump and rabid war lover who wants to bomb Iran and North Korea (among others), revealed that he is voting for a write-in candidate in 2024. “I might as well say it now,” Bolton said, “I voted for Dick Cheney [in 2020]. And I’ll […]

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