Offering asides, recommended links, blogworthy quotations, and more, In Brief is the Northwest Progressive Institute's microblog of world, national, and local politics.
“A ban on abortion in Missouri violates our freedom as Jews to control our bodies in a way that is consistent with our religious beliefs. As Jews, we understand religious persecution very well. Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion is also deeply troubling because it reveals his disturbing view of pregnant people as mere birthing vessels,” Stacy Newman and Dana Sandweiss write.
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“The legislation was introduced after the Wall Street Journal reported in September that more than 130 federal judges had violated U.S. law and judicial ethics by overseeing court cases involving companies in which either they or members of their family owned stock,” Time’s Madeleine Carlisle explains.
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“The importance of abortion policy in the current midterms compared with four years ago has shifted the most among Democrats,” says the polling institute.
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“I don’t think the attention should be taken off of those that are causing obstruction, especially those Republican members that were once on board with some of these policies,” the New Mexico senator said.
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“Donbas could put the Russians back on a successful footing or bring them to what is essentially a defeat,” says General Sir Richard Barrons, the former commander of the UK’s Joint Forces Command.
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Watch Kim Schrier’s April 11th press conference in Issaquah celebrating the appropriation of funds for the Sammamish Plateau Water District, which plans to upgrade its water treatment facilities to protect Washingtonians in its jurisdiction from toxic PFAS chemicals.
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“Amid the current crisis, Fiona Hill and other former advisers are connecting President Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine to January 6th. And they’re ready to talk,” writes Robert Draper.
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“Homeowners and landscapers are learning what ecologists have known for decades: It’s time to shed the mighty American lawn in favor of native plants and perennials,” Chris Moody writes.
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Watch President Biden, Vice President Harris and former President Barack Obama deliver remarks on the Patient Protection Act and lowering healtcare costs for families. President Biden also announced additional actions to save families hundreds of dollars a month on their healthcare expenses.
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“The state Public Works Board is considering changes after private internet companies successfully objected to local government initiatives,” Crosscut’s Brandon Block reports.
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Watch President Biden deliver remarks on the united efforts of the free world to support the people of Ukraine, hold Russia accountable for its brutal war, and defend a future that is rooted in democratic principles.
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“They can’t get their hands on money or securities or goods or services. They are outcast and they will over the shorter term freeze to death,” financial services veteran George Ball said in comments to The Washington Post.
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“The war came and the money ran out — the money ran out sooner than the war ended,” said Sergei Aleksashenko.
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“Transplant recipients, cancer patients and millions of other Americans with risk factors feel ignored and abandoned as their neighbors, and their government, seek a return to normal,” Amanda Morris and Maggie Astor write.
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“The Beijing Olympics… are a big bowl of bad, unfolding in a country ruled by fear and oppression,” the Boston Globe columnist writes.
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“Despite being widely seen as mild, the omicron coronavirus variant has been brutal on children and adolescents—particularly babies and toddlers, who are still ineligible for vaccination,” Beth Mole writes.
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Megadrought in Southwest North America worst in 1,200 years “The extreme heat and dry conditions of the past few years pushed what was already an
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“The Russian leader may have thought NATO was in disarray and the U.S. in retreat, but we’ve already seen it’s quite the opposite,” David Rothkopf writes in a piece for The Daily Beast.
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“The two wings of Webb’s primary mirror had been folded to fit inside the nose cone of an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket prior to launch. After more than a week of other critical spacecraft deployments, the Webb team began remotely unfolding the hexagonal segments of the primary mirror, the largest ever launched into space,” NASA said in a news release.
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A year after the January 6 insurrection, how does America’s crisis end? Vox’s Zack Beauchamp says he has spent the past few months digging into
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“Once we’re inside our cars, we enter our own little bubbles and anything that prevents us from getting to where we want to go in the rushed time we need to get there becomes an inconvenience,” writes D.C.-based freelance writer Matthew Koehler.
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