Mother Jones: Posts

Mother Jones

This Majority-Black City Has a Water Crisis That Privatization Won’t Fix

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In the summer of 2022, heavy rainfall damaged a water treatment plant in the city of Jackson, Mississippi, precipitating a high-profile public health crisis. The Republican Governor Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency, as thousands of residents were told to boil […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

January 6 Rioter Derrick Evans Could Return to the Capitol—as a Congressman

Derrick Evans had served only 37 days as a freshman West Virginia state legislator when he livestreamed himself storming the US Capitol on January 6. “Derrick Evans is in the Capitol!” he yelled, after pushing his way into the building with the mob. He was soon arrested, and in February 2022, he pleaded guilty to […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Columbia Just Triggered a Massive Campus Crackdown. Now the NYPD Will Stay for Weeks.

Police cleared and arrested protesters occupying Hamilton Hall at Columbia University on Tuesday night at the request of university administrators, marking a dramatic climax to the antiwar protesters’ occupation of the building. As the drama unfolded, campus officials asked police to remain on campus until at least May 17. The NYPD’s arrival on campus was its […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

A Family Member Finally Shows Up to Donald Trump’s Hush-Money Trial

The first criminal trial of a former US president is underway, with Donald Trump facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments allegedly made in 2016 to cover up an affair he had with adult film star Stormy Daniels. Here’s the latest—the key updates and absurd moments—from the historic trial. Threats of jail […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Report: The DEA Is Finally Reclassifying Pot As Less Dangerous

On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that the Drug Enforcement Administration is proposing that cannabis be reclassified from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, a classification that comes with steep penalties, to the less severe Schedule III, for drugs with significant medical use. If the White House Office of Management and Budget approves the decision, the DEA […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

How a Few Secret Donors Are Fueling the New Right-Wing Infrastructure

In early 2021, Stephen Miller—former White House senior adviser to Donald Trump and architect of the 45th president’s hopeful second-term mass deportation agenda—announced his next venture: America First Legal (AFL). Paraded as “the long-awaited answer to the ACLU,” AFL fights for Trumpist values in the legal system. And the group is prolific: In its three years […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Trump Says States Could Prosecute Women for Abortions Under His Watch

Eight years ago, in his 2016 run for president, Donald Trump said that women who have abortions should be criminally charged. “There has to be some form of punishment,” Trump said at the time. The comment caused a firestorm and his campaign walked it back within hours. It marked one of the few times that […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Students at Columbia Occupy Building—Echoing Protests of the Past

Early Tuesday morning, Columbia student protesters took over a building on campus, pledging not to leave until their demands—for the university to divest from Israel, financial transparency from Columbia’s endowment, and amnesty for pro-Palestinian protesters—are met. The group of “autonomous protesters” took over Hamilton Hall, an academic building on the Morningside Heights campus, shortly after midnight, […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Judge Fines Trump $9,000 and Threatens to Throw Him in Jail

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial fined the former president $9,000 on Tuesday for violating a gag order—and he warned Trump that any further violations might result in jail time. Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for his role in a 2016 scheme to cover up an alleged […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Report: Taxing Fossil Fuel Extraction Could Raise Nearly $1 Trillion for Climate Aid

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A new tax on fossil fuel companies based in the world’s richest countries could raise hundreds of billions of dollars to help the most vulnerable nations cope with the escalating climate crisis, according to a report. The Climate Damages Tax report, […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Five Titles This Black Video Game Guru Can’t Live Without

Below are five video game recommendations from the journalist, comic-book writer, and video game narrative designer Evan Narcisse, with commentary in his own words. Read more about Narcisse and his worldview in Jamal Michel’s Mother Jones profile, “One Man’s Mission to Make Video Games a Little Less White.” Rez United Game Artists (2002) In this […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

One Man’s Mission to Make Video Games a Little Less White

They might not know his name, but millions of video gamers have encountered narrative designer Evan ­Narcisse’s handiwork in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which showcases more Black and Brown characters in its first few minutes than most popular games do in their entirety. The action-packed 2020 release opens on a Harlem street scene where our […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Just Six Companies Create About a Quarter of Global Plastic Waste, Survey Finds

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The more plastic a company makes, the more pollution it creates. That seemingly obvious, yet previously unproven, point, is the main takeaway from a first-of-its-kind study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. Researchers from a dozen universities around the world […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Ruby Bridges Blasts Book Bans As “Ridiculous” Attempts to “Cover Up History”

Civil Rights icon Ruby Bridges is an integral part of U.S. history lessons in classrooms nationwide, given her status as the first Black child to integrate an elementary school in the South. But to the right-wing culture warriors behind efforts to ban books about American history—including systemic racism and discrimination against LGBTQ people—Bridges has become […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

“Shame On You!”: Anti-War Protesters Picket White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Before guests could get inside last night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, they had to wade through a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters who reminded them of the journalists who have been killed covering Israel’s war on Gaza. The annual dinner, nicknamed “nerd prom,” is hosted by the group of journalists who cover the White House and […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Trump’s Endorsement Helps Utah MAGA Candidate Notch a Win in the Battle for Senate

On Saturday, just as Utah Republicans were gathering for their annual nominating convention, former President Donald Trump endorsed Senate candidate Trent Staggs, an upstart small-town mayor who has been carefully cultivating endorsements from national MAGA celebrities. The endorsement helped Staggs prevail over nine other candidates in the crowded convention race to replace retiring Sen. Mitt […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Not Even Leonard Leo Could Turn Brent Orrin Hatch Into Utah’s Next Senator

It turns out that not even a famous last name, support from the conservative Federalist Society and its powerful leader, and a boatload of dark money can turn a Republican candidate into the next senator from Utah. In early January, Brent Orrin Hatch threw his hat into a crowded GOP primary race that will decide […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Congress Ponders Competing Bills to Aid Tribes and Wildlife

This story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Nine years ago, Glenn Olson joined a panel whose members, in ordinary circumstances, would rarely appear in the same room together—let alone work as a collaborative team. Olson, chair of bird conservation and public policy at the National Audubon […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Kristi Noem Defends Killing Her Own Puppy

Here at Mother Jones, we respect a wide spectrum of views when it comes to dogs. But a line must be drawn somewhere, and that somewhere is revealing that you killed your 14-month-old wirehair pointer for acting like a puppy. That’s what South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem admitted to in graphic detail in her forthcoming […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

The Spy Inside Your Smartphone

Known for its investigative reporting, El Faro has been referred to as “a breakthrough digital newspaper blazing an independent and ethical trail in Central America.” So when reporters at the Salvadoran news outlet noticed their cellphones acting strange all of a sudden—batteries draining, unexplained overheating—they had a weird feeling that someone was accessing their messages. […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Bill Barr Is Happy to Debase Himself for Donald Trump Again

Once again, there’s not much love lost between Bill Barr and the man he accused of betraying the Oval Office, Donald Trump. When the former attorney general confirmed this week that he would support the Republican presidential ticket in November, his former boss took the opportunity to mock Barr as “slow-moving” and “lazy.” “That’s classic Trump,” […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Trump Would Gut and Privatize US Climate and Weather Agency, Experts Fear

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Climate experts fear Donald Trump will follow a blueprint created by his allies to gut the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), disbanding its work on climate science and tailoring its operations to business interests. Joe Biden’s presidency has increased the profile of the […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

SCOTUS v. Pregnant Patients: Idaho’s Abortion Fight Could Blow Up a “Revolutionary” Health Care Law

Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in what could end up being its most consequential abortion decision since Dobbs. In a case pitting Idaho’s extreme abortion ban against a federal law known as EMTALA—that since 1986 has required hospitals to provide emergency care—conservative justices seemed to embrace the idea that states can deny […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

My Week Inside Columbia’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment

In the early morning, one can hear the birds perched on trees around the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University. Farther off, there are sounds of protest and counterprotest. But inside the camp itself—technically the second camp after the New York Police Department cleared out the first and caused even more national attention to focus […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Oklahoma Is Finally Trying to Cut Prison Time for Abused Moms

A year and a half after Mother Jones exposed how Oklahoma courts were imprisoning mothers for longer than their abusers, state lawmakers passed a bill that could allow some of those mothers’ sentences to be shortened. But this week, Gov. Kevin Stitt vetoed the legislation. In an award-winning investigation in 2022, I told the story […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Trump’s Happy Birthday Message for Melania Is a Gift for His Haters

The first criminal trial of a former US president is underway, with Donald Trump facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments allegedly made in 2016 to cover up an affair he had with adult film star Stormy Daniels. Here’s the latest—the key updates and absurd moments—from the historic trial. Public birthday wishes […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Raffi’s Guide to Fighting Fascism

I became reacquainted with Raffi in the spring of 2020, around my son’s first birthday. These were the early days of the pandemic: People had barely stopped hoarding toilet paper; we’d started going to the car wash for fun. It was on one of these drives that I first burst into tears to Raffi’s “All […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

G20 Ministers Get Behind a Global Wealth Tax on Billionaires

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The world’s 3,000 billionaires should pay a minimum 2 percent tax on their fast-growing wealth to raise about $313 billion a year for the global fight against poverty, inequality, and global heating, ministers from four leading economies have suggested. In a sign […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Trump Denies the Affairs at the Heart of the Hush-Money Case. Almost No One Believes Him.

Donald Trump is on trial in Manhattan facing 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of another crime: conspiring to influence the 2016 election. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg argues that, to squelch negative publicity that might hurt Trump’s 2016 campaign, Trump directed the creation of fake records to hide hush-money payments to women […]

Continue Reading…

Mother Jones

Samuel Alito Has a Very Strange Theory for How to Protect Democracy

On Thursday, the Supreme Court held oral arguments over former President Donald Trump’s claims that he enjoys absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for engaging in what he contends were his official duties while in office. And one justice, Samuel Alito, offered a particularly wild theory about how to preserve American democracy and the rule of […]

Continue Reading…