“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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Offering asides, recommended links, blogworthy quotations, and more, In Brief is the Northwest Progressive Institute's microblog of world, national, and local politics.
“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.
LaunchGood 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.”
Launch“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.
Launch“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.
Launch“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.
LaunchThe 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.”
Launch“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.
LaunchThe New York Times unraveled a financial network that stretches from Chicago to Shanghai and uses American nonprofits to push Chinese talking points worldwide.
Launch“[T]hroughout history, speeches by dictators and autocrats have one thing in common: they use dehumanizing metaphors to instill and propagate hatred of others,” Marcel Danesi writes.
LaunchVia Ars Technica: “Amid the pandemic, Republican voters in Ohio and Florida had a significantly higher rate of excess deaths after the nationwide rollout of COVID-19 vaccines compared with those who voted Democratic, according to a study published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine.”
LaunchVia Deadline: “’The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,’ a studio executive told Deadline. Acknowledging the cold-as-ice approach, several other sources reiterated the statement. One insider called it ‘a cruel but necessary evil.'”
LaunchOn July 5th, 2023, Blue Origin hosted the 2023 Washington State Space Summit, organized by Senator Maria Cantwell’s office. NPI recorded the panel discussion in high definition and it’s available to watch on demand. Simply click play above to check out the event.
Launch“After spending years cultivating public apathy, the Russian president found his people indifferent to his fate,” Anne Applebaum writes.
Launch“Elon Musk’s automatic driving technology seems to be roughly an order of magnitude more deadly than human drivers,” writes Ryan Cooper.
Launch“Since 2000, growing wildfire pollution has reversed significant gains from the Clean Air Act, and over the coming decades, it is poised to become the country’s main source of particulate pollution,” David Wallace-Wells writes.
LaunchReporting by The Associated Press: “Earth has pushed past seven out of eight scientifically established safety limits and into the danger zone, not just for an overheating planet that’s losing its natural areas, but for the well-being of people living on it, according to a new study.”
Launch“America’s holiday travel quagmire is a reminder that we are a global laggard when it comes to high-speed rail,” writes Ray LaHood.
Launch“I have heard of long COVID clinics closing and dropping patients. At some point, the doctors that are researching it may just give up. Where does that leave all of us?” long COVID patient Frank Ziegler asked.
LaunchFrom Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington: “The FBI and Department of Justice routinely prosecute individuals, including high-level officers like former CIA Director David Petraeus, for misusing classified documents. There are several criminal provisions that may be implicated, depending on the exact contents of the documents.”
LaunchVia The Los Angeles Times, summarizing reporting from the German newspaper Handelsblatt: “How bad is Tesla Autopilot’s safety problem? According to thousands of complaints allegedly from Tesla customers in the U.S. and around the world, pretty bad.”
Launch“Large parts of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon and Washington to British Columbia are bracing for unusually high temperatures this weekend. Some areas could see daily averages up to 30 degrees above normal, which could pose health problems to people who have not had a chance to build tolerance to heat so early into the warm season,” The Washington Post reports.
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