“Ring Down the Curtain”: What Protests Mean for a Nation Already in Crisis
A protester holds up a portrait of George Floyd during a “Black Lives Matter” demonstration in front of the Brooklyn Library and Grand Army Plaza on June 5, 2020 in Brooklyn, New York.Angela Weiss/Getty For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.This piece was originally published in Grist and appears…
Coronavirus Is Not Just a Health Crisis—It’s an Environmental Justice Crisis
A family leaves Sunday church services surrounded by chemical plants in Lions, Louisiana.Andrew Lichtenstein/Getty For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.This piece was originally published in Grist and appears here as part of our Climate Desk Partnership. More than 50 years ago, despite a storm that was brewing…
Trump-Linked Lobbyist Brian Ballard Is Now Pushing Coronavirus-Related Products
For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.Washington, even when shut down by coronavirus, is still Washington. And K Street, even remotely, is open for business, selling help to firms seeking stimulus money or approval for products related to the pandemic. Unsurprisingly, this means that some of the characters in…
“An Open License to Pollute”: The EPA Has Halted Enforcement Due to COVID-19
Ron Sachs/CNP via ZUMA For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.In a wildly cynical turn of events, the Environmental Protection Agency has decided to broadly waive environmental law because of the coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, the EPA’s head of enforcement Susan Bodine sent a letter to “All Governmental and…
The Trump Administration Is Enshrining Its Anti-Science Policy in the Midst of an Epidemic
Ron Sachs/CNP via ZUMA As more states learned they have rising numbers of confirmed cases of coronavirus Tuesday evening—now 16 states report at least 135 cases—the EPA made an important announcement: The agency is moving closer to finalizing a policy for restricting what health studies it can consider for any of the EPA’s scientific work. That…
Racist Policies in Urban Neighborhoods Have Created Deadly “Heat Islands”
slobo/iStock/Getty This piece was originally published in The Guardian and appears here as part of our Climate Desk Partnership. Deadly urban heatwaves disproportionately affect underserved neighborhoods because of the legacy of racist housing policies which have denied African Americans home ownership and basic public services, a landmark new study has found. Extreme heat kills hundreds of people…