Prisoners In Just Two States Can Vote. Here’s Why Few Do.
Prisoners at the Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland, Vermont, register to vote in 2008. Only two states, Vermont and Maine allow people to vote while they’re in prison.Toby Talbot/AP This story was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit newsroom covering the US criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletter, or…
Is Our EPA Chief Stupid or Evil?
Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via ZUMA In most studies of new drugs, half the patients are given the experimental drug and the other half are given a placebo. It’s a “blinded” study because the patients don’t know which they’ve been given. In a double-blinded study, the doctors don’t know either. Andrew Wheeler, head of the EPA, is…
Biden Won’t Say If He Still Stands By His Crime Bill’s Ban on Pell Grants for Prisoners
Michael Dwyer/AP Growing up in South Philadelphia, Carl Upchurch dropped out of elementary school and was first locked up for stealing a bike when he was nine. By 13, he was involved with gangs; in his twenties, he was sent to prison for armed robbery. During his 10-year sentence, Upchurch returned to his education, earning…
Inside Johnson and Johnson’s Quiet Domination of the Opioid Market
Mother Jones illustration; Getty Johnson and Johnson, the company best known for its baby powder and soap, quietly dominated the opioid market for years, growing poppies in Tasmania and selling narcotics to leading drug companies, including OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma. “It was influences from companies like Johnson and Johnson that infiltrated and spread like a…
How Russia Can Spend Money to Influence the 2020 Election—Legally
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the 23rd St Petersburg International Economic Forum.Mikhail Metzel/TASS via ZUMA In April 2018, a steel pipe manufacturer called Wheatland Tube gave $1 million to the super-PAC supporting Donald Trump’s reelection and the campaigns of Trump-allied Republicans. Around the same time, the CEO of its parent company, Barry Zekelman, dined with…
Who Cares If Joe Biden Really Believes in Bipartisanship?
Tonight Joe Biden repeated something he’s said before: Biden at a fundraiser tonight, on his desire to work with the Republican Party post Trump. “With Trump gone you’re going to begin to see things change. Because these folks know better. They know this isn’t what they’re supposed to be doing.” — Sam Stein (@samstein) June…