“Environmentalists have long faced harassment, imprisonment and other forms of retribution in some parts of the world,” writes Sharon Lerner for @ProPublica. “The U.S. has largely been an exception, a place where people and organizations can freely and safely pursue efforts to protect human health and nature — sometimes working hand in hand with the government.” All that’s changed. Lerner spoke to Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice, about the escalating hostility environmentalists face, and what she thinks is behind the Trump administration’s targeting of groups who do environmental work.

propublica.org/article/earthju…

#Environment #Environmentalism #ClimateChange #ClimateAction #TrumpAdministration #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Earthjustice’s Abigail Dillen Describes a New Era of Hostility Facing Environmentalists

Dillen sees the increase of lawsuits targeting green groups as just one of the growing threats to environmental advocacy organizations — and the people who staff them.

^ProPublica

Time for some optimism and connection from the Lone Star State. @TexasObserver shares a poem from Catherine Lu, “What Connects Us.” Here’s a section:

Is our love the horizon? A line where the sky
appears to meet the earth’s surface—
which means if you are the earth, then I am the sky—
which means if you are this house,
then I am the house behind this house,

texasobserver.org/what-connect…

#Poem #Poetry #Culture #Arts #Lifestyle #Texas #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Poem: What connects us

is invisible. A natural gas pipeline. Cables above the eyeline, carried from pylon to pylon, past the horizon...

^{Catherine Lu (The Texas Observer)}

Since 2017, it’s been a requirement of Texas law that an outside authority investigate all jail deaths. That’s not happening in Tarrant County, where at least 70 people have died in jail custody since the current sheriff, Bill Waybourn, took office eight years ago. Waybourn — a Republican — was elected for a third term in November, but @bolts looks at how conservatives are starting to ask questions after gun rights activist Mason Yancy died in custody last December. “Some lawmakers’ answer to preventable deaths in county jails looks like a cover up: limit independent investigations, limit public information, limit oversight, limit liability,” Krishnaveni Gundu, co-founder and executive director of the Texas Jail Project, told Bolts.

boltsmag.org/texas-jail-death-…

#Texas #Law #Crime #USLaw #USPrisonSystem #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Officials Play “Accountability Ping Pong” With Jail Deaths in Texas - Bolts

A bipartisan push for more oversight comes after a sheriff flouted state law mandating independent investigations of jail deaths.

^{Michael Barajas (Bolts)}

It was Shakespeare’s birthday this week (and his death day too). @gbhnews celebrated this by sharing a story about the only surviving scrap of a script in Shakespeare’s handwriting. It’s a revision to a play, “The Book of Sir Thomas More,” and it’s about refugees and immigration. In it, an angry mob tells More that the king has offered safe haven to too many strangers. More urges compassion and empathy, asking the mob to imagine themselves in the position of the immigrants.

wgbh.org/news/2016-03-17/only-…

#Shakespeare #Literature #History @histodons #Culture #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Only Script In Shakespeare's Handwriting Urges Compassion For Migrants

This week the world’s been treated to a commentary on immigration reform from a surprising source: William Shakespeare.2016 being the 400th anniversary of…

^{Bob Mondello (GBH)}

Political leaders don’t just need confidence — they need competence, and America’s problem right now is that the system can’t distinguish between the two. @Daojoan writes for her Index newsletter about the need for discernment. We need institutions, parties and leaders that know how to measure actual competence, not just performance,” she writes. “We need politicians who are humble enough to say, ‘I don't know,’ and voters who don't mistake that for weakness. And we need journalists who can tell the difference between a compelling narrative and a grift.”

theindex.media/americas-next-t…

#USPolitics #Politics #TrumpAdministration #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

America's Next Top Conman

Trump wasn’t an accident. He was a feature, not a bug.

^{Joan Westenberg (The Index.)}

A U.S. federal judge has found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in contempt of court over its failure to halt deportation flights to El Salvador. Cassandra Burke Robertson, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Professional Ethics, Case Western Reserve University, explains to @TheConversationUS what it all means.

“It’s not too late for the government to comply. One option for the government is called “purging the contempt,” meaning the administration complies with the court order and brings the individuals who were sent to El Salvador back into U.S. custody,” Burke Robertson says. “If the administration does that, there will not be any further contempt proceedings. Normally, that would be attractive to the government in this position.”

theconversation.com/federal-ju…

#USGovernment #TrumpAdministration #ElSalvador #Deportation #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

14/15

Federal judge finds ‘probable cause’ to hold Trump administration in contempt – a legal scholar explains what this means

Judge James Boasberg’s order stops short of holding any government officials in contempt, but leaves open the possibility for these sanctions.

^{The Conversation}

Mount Kenya is one of only a few mountains in Africa to have glaciers, the largest of which is Lewis Glacier. This has lost over 90% of its mass since 1934 as a result of climate change. @thecontinent shares photos from Luis Tato of the mountain, an extinct volcano that sits in the middle of Mount Kenya National Park. It’s home to delicate ecosystems that are now under threat as a result of the glacier’s decline.

continent.substack.com/p/photo…

#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Environment #Photos #Photography #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

13/15

Photo Essay: Breaking the ice

Lewis Glacier, Mount Kenya's most studied, has lost over 90% of its mass since 1934. This dramatic loss is driven by rising temperatures and declining rainfall, both tied to climate change.

^{The Continent}

When she was 15, April Barber Scales was convinced by the man, twice her age, who had impregnated her, to set her grandparents’ house on fire. Her grandparents died, and Barber Scales received two consecutive life sentences without parole. In 2022, she had been in prison for 31 years when under a clemency program for juvenile lifers established by then North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, she was released. Since then, she has completed an associate’s degree and is now finishing a bachelor’s in criminal justice. She works, volunteers, studies, and thrives. @bolts reports on other successes from the program, and how those who remain in jail hope it continues under the governorship of Josh Stein.

boltsmag.org/north-carolina-ju…

#NorthCarolina #USPrisonSystem #Crime #USNews #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

11/15

In North Carolina, Juvenile Lifers See a Pathway to Freedom - Bolts

After the state’s previous governor granted clemency to people sentenced to life in prison as minors, others with juvenile life sentences are hoping the new administration also believes in second chances.

^{Michael Barajas (Bolts)}

Roseline Mgbodichinma is mourning her aunt. In her beautiful essay for thexylom@journa.host, she writes about grief, the need for witnesses in death, and a Nigerian vegetable soup called egburegbu, the translation of which is “cut” or “kill.”

“[My aunt] loved egburegbu and on the days we cooked it, she would sit cross-legged in the kitchen, patiently waiting for a serving of her favourite soup. This is how I choose to remember her, as someone who loved without caring about the origins of the life around her, or how it will all end.”

thexylom.com/post/perspective-…

#Bereavement #Grief #Death #Essays #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

10/15

Perspective: Grief Grows, Like Ugu

Among ugu plants, resuscitation is possible; dead ugu plants can come back to life. Maybe only such plants can belong in the world. 

^{Roseline Mgbodichinma Anya Okorie (The Xylom)}

Social interactions can help us stay healthier and happier, and according to a report from the University of Michigan, women aged 50+ are lonely. “At my loneliest, I’ve felt a nauseating emptiness in my chest during every waking hour,” writes Melissa Hart for @damemagazine.

“Rumination takes over my brain — if only I’d done, I should have joined, if only I were more like — and fills in the blank spots with a multitude of actions, organizations, and friends who seldom have a free hour in their social calendars.”

damemagazine.com/2025/04/17/ol…

#Aging #Lifestyle #Health #Wellness #Loneliness #Women #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

8/15

Remember when Nate Silver tipped New York City Mayor Eric Adams as a future U.S. president? How’s that going for you, Nate?

@nybooks takes a look at Adams’ hubris, the scandal that will likely come to define him, and how his mayoralty has “come to epitomize the spirit of Trump’s second term — from its ethos of aggrieved narcissism to its punitive approach toward the vulnerable.” [Story may be paywalled]

nybooks.com/online/2025/04/17/…

#NewYork #EricAdams #TrumpAdministration #USLaw #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

7/15

The President of Brooklyn | Nawal Arjini, Willa Glickman | The New York Review of Books

The saga of Eric Adams’s mayoralty has come to epitomize the spirit of Trump’s second term—from its ethos of aggrieved narcissism to its punitive approach toward the vulnerable. 

^{Willa Glickman (The New York Review of Books)}

If America wants to see how successful tariffs can be in the automotive industry, they should look to Ukraine, where they were first implemented in the early 1990s. The goal was to protect domestic car producers after the collapse of the USSR, which saw an economic crisis followed by an influx of foreign vehicles. “In the best years, the Ukrainian car market had 623,000 new cars and was Europe's No. 7 car market, according to Autoconsulting,” @timkmak’s Counteroffensive reports. “Today, it is almost zero.” The only hope for the resurrection of production? Making tanks for Ukraine’s army.

counteroffensive.news/p/tariff…

#Tariffs #AutomotiveIndustry #TrumpAdministration #Ukraine #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

6/15

Tariffs destroyed Ukraine’s automotive industry. Is the U.S. next?

The Trump administration recently imposed tariffs on imported cars. In Ukraine, this policy has already proved ineffective amid its inability to develop its local industry.

^{Myroslava Tanska-Vikulova (The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak)}

Texas is almost certainly getting school vouchers — Senate Bill 2 has passed in the state’s House and is likely to have a fairly smooth passage to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. It’s the culmination of a 30-year battle that has until now been blocked by Democrats and rural Republicans.

@TexasObserver takes a look at how it happened. Zeph Capo, the president of the Texas American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement: “Greg Abbott relied on a last ditch phone call from Donald Trump to bully Republican lawmakers to fall in line.”

texasobserver.org/abbott-trump…

#Education #SchoolVouchers #SchoolChoice #GregAbbott #DonaldTrump #USA #Texas #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

5/15

Ending 30 Years of Resistance, Trump and Abbott Break the ‘People’s House’

The Legislature’s lower chamber has finally blessed school vouchers—and denied ordinary Texans the chance to weigh in.

^{Joelle DiPaolo (The Texas Observer)}

“Harvard didn’t blink. The fight starts here,” writes @Daojoan for her Index newsletter. “[It] did not act quickly. But it acted clearly. That clarity must be contagious. Because unless every university in America is ready to say no to federal ideological coercion, this moment will not be a line in the sand. It will be a footnote in the obituary of academic freedom,” she writes. “The government has already decided it can control the curriculum by controlling the cash. What happens next is not up to them. It's up to everyone else.”

theindex.media/harvard-didnt-b…

#Education #HigherEducation #University #Harvard #TrumpAdministration #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

4/15

Harvard Didn’t Blink. The Fight Starts Here.

Harvard stood its ground. Now every university faces a choice: comply or resist.

^{Joan Westenberg (The Index.)}

A Wisconsin teenager is accused of killing his mother and stepfather as part of a white supremacist plot to assassinate President Donald Trump and overthrow the U.S. government. @ProPublica explains how this links to the Terrogram network — Telegram channels and chatrooms devoted to inciting white supremacist terrorism and anti-government sabotage.

propublica.org/article/trump-a…

#Terrogram #Telegram #WhiteSupremacy #USNews #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

3/15

After Downfall, Terrorgram Still Inspires Violence

Court documents reveal that Nikita Casap’s alleged manifesto calling for Trump’s assassination cited multiple Terrorgram publications and urged people to read the writings of a network member who murdered two people outside an LGTBQ+ bar in 2022.

^ProPublica

New York-based Massive Blue makes a product called Overwatch that it markets as an “AI-powered force multiplier for public safety” that “deploys lifelike virtual agents, which infiltrate and engage criminal networks across various channels.” The company currently has a $360,000 contract with Pinal County, Arizona, paid for with an anti-human trafficking grant from the Arizona Department of Public Safety — the Sheriff’s Office there called Massive Blue a “valuable partner.” @404mediaco’s Emanuel Maiberg takes a look at what the technology supposedly does, how bots engage with real people, and if it’s actually helped law enforcement make any arrests so far.

404media.co/this-college-prote…

#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #USLaw #CollegeProtests #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

2/15

This ‘College Protester’ Isn’t Real. It’s an AI-Powered Undercover Bot for Cops

Massive Blue is helping cops deploy AI-powered social media bots to talk to people they suspect are anything from violent sex criminals all the way to vaguely defined “protesters.”

^{Emanuel Maiberg (404 Media)}