“Beyond My Pay Grade”: When Pete Buttigieg Had a Chance to Stand Firm on Abortion Rights, He Dodged
Mother Jones illustration; Getty; Zuma Mayor Pete Buttigieg was keeping a low profile. It was last spring, and he was in the middle of deliberating what he would later call “one of the hardest decisions” he’s had to make during his tenure in South Bend, Indiana. An abortion clinic—which was hoping to offer service to…
Wasted Funds, Destroyed Property: How Sheriffs Undermined Their Successors After Losing Reelection
This story was originally published by ProPublica, which produced the article in partnership with AL.com, a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. Shortly after Phil Sims became the sheriff of Marshall County, Alabama, at 12 a.m. on Jan. 14, he found a cardboard box in a storage closet containing five government-issued smartphones, each with multiple holes…
Why It Matters That a City Council in Louisiana Repealed a Ban on Saggy Pants
A young man walks down a sidewalk wearing sagging pants.Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal/ZUMA Lawmakers in Shreveport, Louisiana voted 6-1 on Tuesday to repeal a 12-year-old ordinance banning pants that sag below the waist after outcry over the death of Anthony Childs, who was stopped by police for violating the law. Childs was walking down a sidewalk…
North Carolina’s 9th District Still Doesn’t Have a Congressman. The Guy Behind the “Bathroom Bill” Wants the Job.
In his ads, Dan Bishop wants everyone to remember what the “Right Dan” stands for.A still from Dan Bishop’s campaign ad / YouTube Voters in North Carolina’s 9th District may be a bit exhausted by their democratic duty. They’ve been voting to decide the 2018 midterm election—if you include primaries—for more than a year. The…
TSA Agents Say They’re Not Discriminating Against Black Women, But Their Body Scanners Might Be
John Bazemore/AP This story was originally published by ProPublica. Dorian Wanzer travels frequently for work. And almost every time she steps out of an airport body scanner, security screeners pull her aside and run their fingers through her hair. It’s called a hair pat-down. “It happens with my natural Afro, when I have braids or…
Can a Prosecutor Ever Truly Be Progressive? Ferguson May Be the Ultimate Test Case.
Credit: Mother Jones; Jeff Roberson/AP On the night Wesley Bell unseated longtime St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch, Kayla Reed celebrated a progressive electoral victory and a personal promise fulfilled. Reed has been protesting and organizing in the St. Louis area ever since Darren Wilson, a white cop, shot Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old, in…