Offering asides, recommended links, blogworthy quotations, and more, In Brief is the Northwest Progressive Institute's microblog of world, national, and local politics.
“While court proceedings are likely to delay implementation of the ruling, the political impact was immediate, moving the abortion issue to the fore in a key battleground state, reminding voters of Trump’s role in overturning Roe vs. Wade and handing a gift to President Biden and fellow Democrats,” columnist Mark Z. Barabak writes.
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“Sales of the company’s electric cars dropped in the first three months of the year, even as other automakers sold more battery-powered vehicles,” The New York Times reports.
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“If we really want to end the overdose and homelessness crises — in Oregon and around the country — we have to understand and follow the evidence, not the fearmongering,” writes Maia Szalavitz.
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“Trains are still rolling through East Palestine, Ohio, at 50 mph — the same speed allowed last February when an accident spilled toxic chemicals in the rural town. Bipartisan safety legislation proposed a month after the crash is bogged down in the Senate. And derailments are happening at roughly the same pace,” writes Thomas Black for Bloomberg News.
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“Hospital ratings dive and medical errors rise when private equity firms are in charge,” Ars Technica’s Beth Mole reports.
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“More than three-quarters of child labor violations in the first nine months of 2023 were in food service, with most of those at franchised brands,” Lauren Kaori Gurley and Emmanuel Martinez report.
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The Massachusetts Democrat pointed out that the chamber has “become a place where trivial issues get debated passionately and important ones not at all.”
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“Money always helps, but for the very poor, one lump sum can last a long time,” Dylan Matthews reports.
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For much of the 2000s, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s serial governments and Hamas’s leaders have found each other useful for their own purposes, a The Washington Post analysis explains.
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Jacob Baynham: “A long-forgotten German economist argued that society and the economy would be better off if money was a perishable good. Was he an anarchist crank or the prophet of a better world?”
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The New Yorker’s Jonathan Blitzer on how the Ohio Republican built an insurgent bid for Speaker on the lies of Donald Trump.
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GBI is a proven tool for improving social, economic, and health inequities; it entails providing periodic cash payments to people, like the economic assistance payments provided to millions of Americans during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“Power and responsibility didn’t remold the man, or summon deep reserves of character and wisdom,” The Los Angeles Times’ Mark Barabak writes. “There is a hollowness at McCarthy’s core, which has long been evident, and it left him empty and bereft as he fought to stay in power.”
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Republican-dominated state policies on cigarettes, seat belts, and public health regulations are shortening life spans, The Washington Post reports.
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“Thomas has attended at least two Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network that has brought multiple cases before the Supreme Court,” ProPublica reports.
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Good news via The Associated Press: “The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it is providing $600 million in funding to produce new at-home COVID-19 tests and is restarting a website allowing Americans to again order up to four free tests per household — aiming to prevent possible shortages during a rise in coronavirus cases that has typically come during colder months.”
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“In Sandpoint, Idaho, the maternity ward closed down. Within months, medical care for women in the rural community was hollowed out,” explains The Guardian’s Kathleen McLaughlin.
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“It will be very difficult for us to fight alone with such a huge monster. But the civilized world has two options: to help us restore our 1991 borders, or to throw away all claims of shared values and just watch us bleed,” Serhiy Prytula says.
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“Novel climate-financing deals are promising to shut off dirty energy plants in developing countries and retrain their staff to work in the green economy,” Wired reports.
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The Los Angeles Times “spoke with several researchers and climate experts about how the recent string of record-breaking, precedent-setting events feel to them. Their comments have been lightly edited for clarity.”
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“The campaign of the Florida governor, who is known to be reliant on rich donors, worked with a Republican fund-raising powerhouse to prevent the disclosure of information on small contributors,” The New York Times reports.
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