Month: October 2023

NC Health News: “The Autumn of 1982 was turbulent for Warren County, N.C., residents. Then-Gov. Jim Hunt decided to place a toxic waste landfill in the Afton community to house soil laced with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, that had been collected from sites where it was illegally dumped along a several-hundred-mile stretch of state roads. For six…

News4Jax: “A Florida lawmaker called for Gov. Ron DeSantis last week to push officials to enforce laws that stop protests at the state’s universities that he said support “Jewish genocide.” The call from Rep. Randy Fine of Palm Bay, the only Jewish Republican member of the Florida legislature, came after a number of protests across…

DemocracyNow!: “Back in the U.S., in Georgia, a man who was wrongfully imprisoned for 16 years for a crime he did not commit was killed by police Monday. Leonard Allan Cure, a Black man, was driving on a highway in Camden County, near the Georgia-Florida state line, when a sheriff’s deputy pulled him over, reportedly…

Reuters: “Tyson Foods (TSN.N) workers and activists rallied outside the U.S. meat company’s headquarters in Arkansas on Monday to protest child labor and push for improved working conditions in processing plants. Activists and the Biden Administration have pressured the U.S. meat industry to adopt safer labor policies after children hired by contractors were found doing dangerous jobs cleaning slaughterhouses….

Lexington Herald-Leader: “Nelson County Schools were closed for a second day as district staff protested middle school inequities, Superintendent Wes Bradley said in a letter to families. The district was seeing significant shortages among teachers and transportation team members Friday, Bradley said. It appears staffing shortages are in response to district facility planning decisions. More…

TX Observer: “States with abortion restrictions suffer a 16 percent increase in infant mortality rate, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. “What’s also notable is that the data is pre-Dobbs—it came from 2014–2018. That means these numbers are likely to get much, much worse,” abortion advocate Jessica Valenti said. The United States…

AL Political Reporter: “Alabama Republicans are again trying to make it harder for elderly and Black citizens to vote.  A new pre-filed bill would again place criminal restrictions on providing assistance to absentee voters, including elderly voters. Specifically, the bill makes it a Class A misdemeanor to request or provide an absentee ballot application for…

Political Wire: “Democrats knew the carnage was coming, but their outrage is still palpable: on Wednesday, North Carolina GOP state legislators released two different draft congressional maps that would gut Democrats’ representation in the Tar Heel State.” “The brutal gerrymanders would transform the current 7D-7R delegation into as lopsided as an 11R-3D breakdown, giving Republicans…

Slate: “On Thursday, Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to misdemeanor election interference charges in Fulton County, Georgia, becoming the highest-level figure to admit guilt in the vast conspiracy to try to overturn the 2020 election. To put it more colloquially, Powell flipped. This is awful news for Donald Trump, as Powell also immediately becomes the highest-level known…

Slate: “The morning after Louisiana GOP gubernatorial candidate Jeff Landry claimed victory in a lopsided race where he avoided a runoff, tenured LSU professor Robert Mann knew he had to quit his job. He submitted his resignation to his dean and announced it on social media. “My reasons are simple: The person who will be…