Month: September 2022

WaPo: “Jackson’s water crisis has been rightly described as a “climate justice wake-up call.” Decades of neglect led to a deteriorating water system that reached a breaking point this summer. When torrential rains caused a flood near Jackson’s largest water treatment plant in August — coming on top of staffing shortages and equipment failures — a major pump was damaged, a chemical…

WUNC: “Their daughter and a younger sibling found a gay-friendly church, College Park Baptist Church in Greensboro. They “started attending with our blessing because we knew if she continued attending our church, she’d be totally turned off to God,” Caroline Joyce said. The College Park church found itself in the news last week when the…

WaPo: “Imagine that instead of settling for one candidate in an election — perhaps the lesser of evils — you could rank multiple candidates according to your preference. It’s called “ranked-choice voting” (RCV), and it is slowly gaining traction as an alternative way to conduct elections. Some states are making limited use of it, including Maryland and…

Politico: “But DeSantis still hasn’t faced one of the toughest challenges a Florida leader can encounter: a major hurricane. That’s poised to change this week as Hurricane Ian, a 500-mile wide monster of a storm, builds strength in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and appears destined to slam into some portion of…

TX Tribune: “Texas banned more books from school libraries this past year than any other state in the nation, targeting titles centering on race, racism, abortion and LGBTQ representation and issues, according to a new analysis by PEN America, a nonprofit organization advocating for free speech. The report released on Monday found that school administrators…

NY Times: “We talked about how Democrats run against a politician, his or her policies and the Republican Party as a whole, while Republicans create enemies of classes of people: women, racial and ethnic minorities, L.G.B.T.Q. people, immigrants. This time it’s immigrants and immigration, a charged issue in Texas. O’Rourke said that Abbott’s plan to…

NY Times: “In late July, Norman Otey was rushed by ambulance to Richmond Community Hospital. The 63-year-old was doubled over in pain and babbling incoherently. Blood tests suggested septic shock, a grave emergency that required the resources and expertise of an intensive care unit. But Richmond Community, a struggling hospital in a predominantly Black neighborhood,…

TX Observer: “Now that Gray was finally facing a judge and jury, the evidence presented against him seemed flimsy at best—no weapon, no fingerprints, no DNA, no identifying witnesses, no surveillance footage, no motive, nothing actually connecting him to the crime. The prosecution’s case relied almost exclusively on cell phone tower data known to be unreliable,…

LA Voice: “A 21st Judicial District Judge has DISMISSED the defamatory lawsuit of a Livingston Parish middle school librarian’s defamation lawsuit against two men she says have attacked her in an effort to rally opposition to the inclusion of what they term “inappropriate” books in the Livingston Parish Library. In what has to be considered a major stretch…

TX Tribune: “Three Venezuelan migrants flown from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard last week filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Florida officials Tuesday after the firebrand Republican’s move to transport migrants to a Democrat-controlled state sparked national controversy and a criminal investigation. The lawsuit alleges the migrants were tricked into traveling on…