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Trump's GOP war on abortion has only led to higher abortion rates None - “My goal, and the goal of many of those joining me here today, is to make abortion at any stage a thing of the past.” That line, spoken nearly 12 years ago by Texas’ then-Gov. Rick Perry while he was stumping outside a Houston-area anti-abortion pregnancy center, has been on my mind a lot over the past few days, thanks to new evidence showing more people are having abortions today than before Donald Trump’s hand-picked Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The latest Society of Family Planning #WeCount report shows in-person and telehealth abortion care with clinical supervision have increased, and new research out of the University of California-San Francisco shows self-managed abortion care is also becoming more common post-Roe. As a means of eliminating abortion in the United States, the Dobbs decision and the resulting proliferation of state-level abortion restrictions and bans seem to have failed spectacularly. As a means of eliminating abortion in the United States, the Dobbs decision and the resulting proliferation of state-level abortion restrictions and bans seem to have failed spectacularly. Today, Rick Perry’s political career is more a “thing of the past” than is abortion care. But I am not given to believe that eliminating abortion was ever the goal of the anti-abortion movement or of the Republican (and some Democrat) politicians who have backed abortion bans and sought to criminalize care. It’s more clear than ever — and it’s been plenty clear for a while — that anti-abortion politics and policies are about punishment, predominantly for perceived noncompliance with Christian, patriarchal sexual customs. Rhetoric around eliminating abortion, more recently couched by anti-abortion propagandists as making abortion “unthinkable,” is a smokescreen. It’s intended to divert attention away from the deeply misogynist, oppressive heart of anti-abortion thinking and policymaking, which are primarily concerned with writing the subjugation of pregnant people into law. The sooner the public — including the Beltway press and mainstream and legacy journalists, pundits and public intellectuals — get their heads around this, the better positioned we’ll all be to stamp out the GOP’s sexist chicanery and get moving on pro-abortion-rights and pro-family policies that will really make positive differences in people’s lives. But I worry we’re still a long way away. I was struck by a recent column in The Hill by the conservative law professor Andrew Koppelman, who wrote that “pro-life voters, who want more than anything else to minimize the number of abortions,” should vote for Kamala Harris. Now, sure: anyone whose goal is to “minimize” abortions would do well to support practically any Democrat over practically any Republican. Dems have long backed common-sense policies that enable people to make decisions about their reproductive lives that are less likely to result in unplanned pregnancies, from improving contraceptive access to promoting evidence-based sex education. And of course, Democrats also back the safety-net policies and institutions that are more likely to enable people who want to become pregnant and experience parenthood to do so. But presuming “pro-life voters” are those who “want more than anything else to minimize the number of abortions” begs the question to an incredible, even irresponsible, degree. Voters — and politicians — who oppose abortion have had the same opportunities anyone else does to support access to contraception, sex education, and safety-net programs. But, again and again, they’ve chosen not to. Perhaps they have other priorities — such as enriching America’s modern-day robber barons, attacking transgender kids and adults, or accelerating climate disaster to the benefit of the oil and gas industry. Even then, ushering in climate change and supporting bodily autonomy are hardly mutually exclusive. There’s plainly another motivation at play here: rank misogyny. The regressive, conservative desire to control strangers’ sexual behavior — especially women’s sexual behavior and our reproductive capacities — makes a hell of a lot more logical sense than the knotty mental gymnastics required to reconcile crowing about making abortion “unthinkable” with voting against the Right to Contraception Act. That people who do not wish to remain pregnant at the behest of the government have found the means to do so even after the fall of Roe is a testament to the ingenuity, resilience and resourcefulness of pregnant people themselves, and of the reproductive health, rights and justice movements and their political supporters, and especially of local abortion funds. Despite the closure of hundreds of clinics between the onset of TRAP laws in the early 2010s and the Dobbs decision, medical providers — notably, mostly independent clinics — have done all they can to stretch their capacity in places where abortion remains legal. Telemedicine shield laws are keeping options open for folks living in the most abortion-hostile geographies. Doulas, educators, accompaniers and other supporters of safe self-managed abortion care are sharing information despite the odds, and at great legal risk. Telemedicine shield laws are keeping options open for folks living in the most abortion-hostile geographies. But we should not assume the new data from SFP and UCSF means that everyone who needs an abortion can get one or can get care by the means they would prefer. There will always be abortions, and there always should be abortions, as many as are necessary to ensure that people have complete control over their reproductive lives. Even with abortion numbers going up, that’s not the case. We’re in a new status quo, and it’s totally unacceptable, and untenable in the long term (and the long term could be shorter than we think, with a Trump-Vance presidential ticket on the line). We know that, post-Dobbs, tens of thousands of people are likely being forced to carry pregnancies to term when they would have chosen otherwise. Infant deaths are on the rise, with thousands of families navigating terrible, and unnecessary, trauma and grief as a direct result of abortion bans. So-called “exceptions” to abortion bans, for rape or incest or medical emergencies, are demonstrably inadequate; even people with unviable ectopic pregnancies are being turned away by medical facilities unwilling to run afoul of abortion bans. Forced pregnancy, rising infant deaths and the despicable treatment of pregnant people seeking urgent medical care have one thing in common, and it isn’t reducing abortion: it’s the anti-abortion movement’s sadistic obsession with the subjugation of women.
As Walz and Harris court the union vote, Trump praises Musk for firing workers None - This is an adapted excerpt from the Aug. 13 episode of “Alex Wagner Tonight.” On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, held his first solo campaign event since joining the Democratic ticket. Walz addressed one of the country’s largest public sector unions, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. For years now, unions have been big fans of Walz. For years now, unions have been big fans of Walz. As governor of Minnesota, he banned noncompete agreements and guaranteed paid sick days for workers. He made it so companies can’t force workers to attend meetings where they argue against unionizing. The guy has even joined picket lines. The reason I bring all of this up is because it stands in sharp contrast to how the other side of this race thinks about labor. On Monday, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump sat for a livestreamed interview with the billionaire owner of Tesla and the social media site formerly known as Twitter, Elon Musk. In the past few years alone, Musk has fired nearly 80% of Twitter’s workforce. He’s also been found liable in court for illegally firing a Tesla worker who was trying to form a union. During his conversation with Musk, Trump offered his take on those job cuts, calling Musk “the greatest cutter.” During his conversation with Musk, Trump offered his take on those job cuts, calling Musk “the greatest cutter.” “I mean, I look at what you do, you walk in and you just say, ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike — I won’t mention the name of the company — but they go on strike, and you say, ‘That’s OK, you’re all gone.’” On Tuesday, the United Auto Workers union filed federal labor charges against Trump and Musk for that statement. The group’s president put out a statement that said, bluntly, “When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean.” The United Auto Workers has already endorsed Harris. With their backing — and the backing of other labor organizations like the UAW — the Harris-Walz campaign may just be able to buttress the "blue wall" and win in November. Join Alex Wagner, Rachel Maddow and many others on Saturday, Sept. 7, in Brooklyn, New York, for “MSNBC Live: Democracy 2024,” a first-of-its-kind live event. You’ll get to see your favorite hosts in person and hear thought-provoking conversations about what matters most in the final weeks of an unprecedented election cycle. Buy tickets here.
Kamala Harris can defeat Donald Trump by avoiding Democrats' familiar trap None - This is an adapted excerpt from the Aug. 13 episode of "Alex Wagner Tonight." No one should confuse the enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign for a lack of substance. Harris knows her stuff. She knows where this country needs to go. I’m sure her campaign will lay out detailed policy positions very soon. Those policies will be posted to her website, for the American people to research and think about for themselves. As a former Democratic senator, I know all too well the trap members of my party sometimes fall into. But Harris needs to be careful here. As a former Democratic senator, I know all too well the trap members of my party sometimes fall into. Democrats think, well, if I can just give one more detail about how we’re going to convert green energy into jobs or if I could just give the voters one more in-the-weeds factoid then that will do it. However, that approach will not appeal to the people who will decide who takes the White House. These people are not high-information voters. Many of the voters who will actually decide this election likely won’t pay attention until the final 60 days of the campaign. So while Harris has to have that substance ready to go, she also needs to keep her campaign where it is now in terms of messaging — “We’re not going back. We’re going forward. This is about you and it’s not about him.” That is what will likely convince the voters that Harris needs to win the White House in November. Join Claire McCaskill, Rachel Maddow and many others on Saturday, Sept. 7, in Brooklyn, New York, for “MSNBC Live: Democracy 2024,” a first-of-its-kind live event. You’ll get to see your favorite hosts in person and hear thought-provoking conversations about what matters most in the final weeks of an unprecedented election cycle. Buy tickets here.
MAGA podcaster Royce White's primary win is disastrous for Minnesota Republicans None - On Tuesday night, Minnesota Republicans sealed their fate as a pro-extremist party when they officially voted for bigoted podcaster Royce White as their nominee for one of Minnesota's Senate seats. The win is a political comeback of sorts for White, who waged a failed GOP primary bid in 2022 in the race to represent Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, a seat held by Rep. Ilhan Omar. But White’s win this year arguably makes a GOP loss in the Senate race more likely. White defeated Joe Fraser, who was running as a more mainstream, normal-sounding Republican — who, Fraser argued, would give the party a chance in the general election against incumbent Sen. Amy Klobuchar. White, on the other hand, is a former college basketball player who had a cup of coffee in the NBA before dropping out of the league over a conflict around his anxiety disorder. He’s since become an internet-based conspiracy theorist and the host of an aptly titled podcast, “Please, Call Me Crazy.” White (who is Black) is a mentee of far-right Trump adviser Steve Bannon and sees himself as a MAGA evangelist in Bannon’s hapless effort to lure Black men toward conservative Republicanism. One of the ways White has sought to do that is through rank misogyny. I wrote earlier this year about how White went viral over comments he made in a resurfaced podcast interview with Bannon, in which White claimed women have become “too mouthy” these days. Politically speaking, White is a walking red flag who is likely to provide his opponent with what seems like a library’s worth of sound bites to work with in the coming months. That includes his use of homophobic and misogynistic slurs to attack people online, his antisemitic rhetoric, his embrace of 9/11 conspiracy theories, and it's possible that his use of campaign funds at a Miami strip club in 2022 could come up. All these things were widely known before Tuesday. But a plurality of GOP voters in Minnesota rejected Fraser's electability argument. Instead, they selected an outspoken devotee of Donald Trump’s hypermasculine cult of personality, spurning the moderate candidate who might have given them a puncher’s chance at winning a Senate seat this fall.
The Kamala Harris camo hat phenomenon, explained None - During the 2016 election, I recall sitting on the beach with friends in a Jersey Shore town that was split down the middle between Republicans and Democrats. Someone told a joke: “How can you spot a Trump supporter?” The punchline: “Because they’ll show you.” The person was referring, of course, to the bright red "Make America Great Again" baseball hat that had just made political and cultural landfall. Today, the accessory is as ubiquitous as ever. While fashion has long been a medium to express personal ideology, political or otherwise, the MAGA hat ushered in something different. What may have begun as merely political support for a presidential candidate became a salient symbol of exclusion, divisiveness and an invitation for heated debate. There is no single item that is more of a political and cultural juggernaut than the MAGA hat. For certain Americans in liberal enclaves across the country, the cap is already a status symbol. But now it could have a challenger. A $40 camouflage baseball hat baring HARRIS WALZ in orange, boldfaced print sold out in 30 minutes last week. As of Thursday, sales reportedly totaled nearly $2 million including pre-order sales. I’m sure that number has since grown. Singer Bon Iver wore one to perform at a Harris-Walz campaign rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I saw at least one on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For certain Americans in liberal enclaves across the country, the cap is already a status symbol. Not to evoke Harris’ most viral moment to date, but the camo hat exists in a cultural context, joining a trend that is already seeing an incredible upswing. While camouflage never truly exits the general fashion milieu, it’s enjoying a real moment. This is especially true for men’s fashion, so-called Carhartt-core, in its embrace of ‘90s-era military trends and a subversion of traditionally masculine pieces that perpetually exist outside of high-end fashion. (Look at any TikTok fluent Angeleno or Bushwick transplant for some combination of white ribbed tank top, oversized well-worn jacket, and heavy, silver chain jewelry.) This aesthetic, camouflage baseball cap included, originated as practical and durable workwear for blue-collar Americans — a voting bloc that has been steadily leaving the Democratic Party since at least 2012. Walz’s place in the Harris campaign is clear: He is to be that Midwest everyman, that average-above-average working-class guy. And by, all accounts, he genuinely is. Walz even wore a black T-shirt, sneakers and, yes, a camouflage baseball cap, in the campaign video commemorating his place as a Harris’ vice presidential pick. This aesthetic, camouflage baseball cap included, originated as practical and durable workwear for blue-collar Americans — a voting bloc that has been steadily leaving the Democratic Party since at least 2012. The choice has sparked a lot of notable reactions. Meghan McCain, daughter of the late politician John McCain, seemed to read it as a grab for working-class voters, posting on X: “Putting someone in a camo hat doesn’t make them a moderate or appealing to red-state people. No one is that dumb.” That statement can be picked apart in another article, but it’s worth noting that even if McCain’s jaded assessment of the cap were entirely true, it still is an embrace of “red-state people,” as she calls them. That alone separates it from the inherent exclusivity of the MAGA hat. Then there’s Chappell Roan. The Missouri-born 26-year-old singer has emerged as the breakout star of the summer. Chappell Roan, already a cultural, fashion and LGBTQ+ icon in her own right, famously rejected an invitation to the White House to perform for a Pride celebration, citing her belief in “freedom in trans rights, that means freedom in women’s rights, and it especially means freedom for all oppressed people in occupied territories.” The official merch for her “Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess Tour”: a camouflage baseball with hat orange, boldfaced embroidered letters spelling “Midwest Princess.” In an alternate reality, in a timeline where the Harris-Walz campaign hadn’t already proven to be extraordinarily meme-literate and internet savvy, perhaps this camo baseball hat would merely be a bid to appeal to those lost working-class voters and a true celebration of Walz’s Midwestern background. We aren’t in that timeline. On the one hand, this hat is confirmation that the Harris-Walz campaign understands the social currency of trends and the power of virality. On the other, it signals, yet again, that the campaign is dedicated to appealing to the sprawling Gen-Z voting bloc. Many a political pundit and research poll have emphasized the power these young voters have to shape the election, and Harris is clearly listening. This is the second time in the month since Harris emerged as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee that she has embraced a powerful, young and zeitgeist-y singer. It’s naïve to believe that effective use of campaign merch is enough to win Gen-Z voters, long painted as fickle and disillusioned, the first generation of ostensibly liberal-leaning voters that won’t vote blue just for the sake of voting blue. Or that a trendy fashion statement will entice the votes of so-called red state people. But the hats are still selling. And they remain a powerful symbol for the reach and cultural impact of the Harris-Walz campaign in ways we can’t ignore.
Lawyers are rarely kicked off cases. This pro-Trump one just was. None - Michigan lawyer Stefanie Lambert was already facing multiple criminal charges in that state stemming from the 2020 presidential election. Now, she’s been disqualified from representing a client in a defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Systems in Washington, D.C., regarding allegedly false statements about the company’s role in that election. The company sued Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne for his baseless claims that Dominion ran the 2020 election, that its technology was developed by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and that it hired a truck to shred 3,000 pounds of ballots. Dominion said those statements were false and not only harmed the company’s reputation and business but also resulted in serious threats to its employees, their families, and election workers. It’s a high bar to disqualify a lawyer from representing a client. But Lambert cleared it for reasons explained by U.S. magistrate judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya. Indeed, the judge’s opinion Tuesday cited “at least five reasons that illustrate why Lambert’s conduct meets the high bar for disqualification”: 1) Lambert’s breach of the Protective Order was intentional, had significant consequences, and was without justification; 2) Lambert has since repeatedly violated court orders and made misrepresentations to the Court; 3) Lambert’s prior conduct and admonishment undermines her argument that she acted in good faith and reflects her disregard for the Court’s orders and rules; 4) Lambert has not refuted Dominion’s argument that if the Court should impose a sanction, disqualification is the most appropriate; and 5) Lambert’s conduct has already severely tainted this proceeding and will continue to do so if she remains counsel in this case. Upadhyaya noted that Lambert had disclosed confidential Dominion case material in one of her own criminal cases and that she shared documents with a sheriff (who had no role in this litigation) who also publicly spread the information. “This is not a case of an inadvertent breach or good faith disclosure,” the judge wrote, calling it “unfathomable for Lambert to believe she could do whatever she wanted with Dominion’s Litigation Documents.” The judge also said that Byrne himself violated the protective order and that Dominion might seek sanctions against him. But Byrne wasn’t the subject of this opinion. Lambert was, in the latest example of Donald Trump-aligned lawyers facing consequences for going off the rails in the face of Trump’s 2020 election loss — some of whom might not be lawyers anymore when all is said and done. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for updates and expert analysis on the top legal stories. The newsletter will return to its regular weekly schedule when the Supreme Court’s next term kicks off in October.
Rep. Ilhan Omar wins primary race after two 'Squad' members' defeats None - Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., handily won her primary race on Tuesday against an opponent, Don Samuels, who was boosted by fundraising from pro-Israel donors. Elected in 2018, Omar is now almost certain to clinch re-election in November to represent Minnesota’s deep-blue 5th District. She defeated Samuels in the 2022 primary. Omar told supporters on Tuesday night that she was "incredibly honored" by the results. “I am honored to represent the people who welcomed me and my family as refugees to this incredible state,” she said. The victory by Omar, a leading pro-Palestinian advocate in Congress and a vocal critic of Israel, comes on the heels of primary losses for Reps. Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman, fellow progressive "Squad" colleagues who have also condemned Israel's military assault on Gaza. Bush and Bowman were defeated by opponents backed by the pro-Israel group AIPAC. The United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with the group, poured millions of dollars into both races, buying ads attacking the incumbents. Bowman's race was the most expensive House primary in history, and Bush's the second-most expensive. As a candidate, Omar had fewer obvious vulnerabilities than Bush or Bowman. After narrowly winning her primary against Samuels in 2022, she stepped up her outreach to voters and spent more on ads. Another factor in her race was that AIPAC sat it out; in 2022, the United Democracy Project spent $350,000 trying to oust Omar. In AIPAC's absence, wealthy pro-Israel donors stepped in to raise funds for Samuels’ campaign, The Intercept reported this week. Samuels' campaign received a boost in donations after Wesley Bell won his primary against Bush last week, but Omar's financial prowess proved insurmountable.
California technology company Cisco says it is cutting 7% of its workforce as it shifts its focus to AI, cybersecurity None - California technology company Cisco says it is cutting 7% of its workforce as it shifts its focus to AI, cybersecurity California technology company Cisco says it is cutting 7% of its workforce as it shifts its focus to AI, cybersecurity
How major US stock indexes fared Wednesday, 8/14/2024 None - Wall Street ticked higher after the latest update on inflation came in almost exactly as economists expected How major US stock indexes fared Wednesday, 8/14/2024 The Associated Press By The Associated Press Wall Street ticked higher after the latest update on inflation came in almost exactly as economists expected. The S & P 500 rose 0.4% Wednesday, coming off one of its best days of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite ended basically flat. Treasury yields were steady after the U.S. government said consumers paid prices for food, gasoline and other things last month that were 2.9% higher than a year earlier. The data should keep the Federal Reserve on track to cut its main interest rate in September. On Wednesday: The S & P 500 rose 20.78 points, or 0.4%, to 5,455.21. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 242.75 points, or 0.6%, to 40,008.39. The Nasdaq composite rose 4.99 points, or less than 0.1%, to 17,192.60. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 10.87 points, or 0.5%, to 2,084.32. For the week: The S & P 500 is up 111.05 points, or 2.1%. The Dow is up 510.85 points, or 1.3%. The Nasdaq is up 447.30 points, or 2.7%. The Russell 2000 is up 3.40 points, or 0.2%. For the year: The S & P 500 is up 685.38 points, or 14.4%. The Dow is up 2,318.85 points, or 6.2%. The Nasdaq is up 2,181.25 points, or 14.5%. The Russell 2000 is up 57.25 points, or 2.8%.
Developers of stalled Minnesota copper-nickel mine plan studies that may lead to significant changes None - The developers of a long-delayed copper-nickel mining project in northeastern Minnesota have announced plans for a series of studies over the next year on potential ways to improve environmental safeguards and make the mine more cost- and energy-efficient MINNEAPOLIS -- The developers of a long-delayed copper-nickel mining project in northeastern Minnesota announced Wednesday that they plan to conduct a series of studies over the next year on potential ways to improve environmental safeguards and make the mine more cost- and energy-efficient, which could lead to significant changes to the design. The plan is for a $1 billion open-pit mine near Babbitt and a processing plant near Hoyt Lakes that would be Minnesota’s first copper-nickel mine and produce minerals necessary for the clean energy economy. It is a 50-50 joint venture between Swiss commodities giant Glencore and Canada-based Teck Resources. The project was renamed NewRange Copper Nickel last year, but it is still widely known by its old name, PolyMet. The project has been stalled for several years by court and regulatory setbacks, but company officials say they are still moving ahead with preparations at the site. “The bottom line is this is all about improving efficiency, looking for ways to improve our carbon footprint, reduce greenhouse gases,” NewRange spokesman Bruce Richardson said in an interview. “If there’s a net environmental benefit, which is one of the end goals here, then it’s pretty hard to criticize.” But environmental groups that have been fighting the project said the announcement is tantamount to an admission that the current mine plan is fundamentally flawed. They say mining the large untapped reserves of copper, nickel and platinum-group metals under northeastern Minnesota would pose unacceptable environmental risks because of the potential for acid mine drainage from the sulfide-bearing ore. “PolyMet is rethinking every aspect of their mine plan after the courts have told them they have to do it,” Kathryn Hoffman, CEO of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, said in an interview. The studies in four key areas will look at alternative options for storing mine waste, for water treatment, for speeding up production and for reducing carbon emissions. Any major changes likely would be subject to additional environmental reviews and new permitting processes, which NewRange officials said would include opportunities for public comment and feedback. They stressed that nothing has been decided, and they said that they were announcing the studies in the interests of transparency for stakeholders, communities and tribes. The current plan is to store the mine waste in the former LTV Steel iron mine tailings basin at the processing plant. Colin Marsh, NewRange’s government and external affairs director, said in an interview that they will study whether a different design for the dam at the upgraded basin, or storing waste in old iron mine pits in the area, might have advantages. They will also look at whether a conveyor system for transporting ore from the mine pit to the plant might make more environmental sense than the current plan for using diesel-powered trains, Marsh said. While the company contends the current plan for treating wastewater would meet the state's stringent standards for protecting wild rice beds downstream, he said they will also study whether it is feasible to improve treatment even further. And they are going to look at whether it would be advantageous to increase daily production from the currently planned 32,000 tons per day to 40,000 tons and run the mine for around 15 years instead of 20, without raising the total amount mined over its lifetime, Marsh said. The idea would be a more efficient mine, not a bigger mine, he said. The developers thought they had all the necessary state and federal permits in hand in 2018, but the project remains stalled by a series of court rulings. Its water discharge permit was sent back to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for more review. The overall permit to mine got sent back to the state Department of Natural Resources because of concerns about the waste-basin design. And the Army Corps of Engineers revoked a wetlands permit, saying it did not comply with the water quality standards set by a downstream tribe, so NewRange will have to apply for a new one to proceed. "The fact that Minnesota regulators permitted this flawed project and have spent millions of needless dollars defending its misguided decision shows that our regulators have failed the citizens they are charged to protect,” Chris Knopf, executive director of Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness. said in a statement. ___ This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of NewRange official Colin Marsh.
Hidden report reveals how workers got sick while cleaning up Ohio derailment site None - The creeks around East Palestine, Ohio, were so badly contaminated by last year’s disastrous Norfolk Southern derailment that some workers became sick during the cleanup The creeks around East Palestine, Ohio, were so badly contaminated by last year's disastrous Norfolk Southern derailment that some workers became sick during the cleanup. Workers who reported headaches and nausea — while shooting compressed air into the creek bed, which releases chemicals from the sediment and water — were sent back to their hotels to rest, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press about their illnesses. The findings were not released to the public last spring, despite residents' concerns about the potential health effects of exposure to the long list of chemicals that spilled and burned after the disaster. The workers' symptoms, as described in the report, are consistent with what Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workers going door-to-door in town had reported shortly after the Feb. 3, 2023, derailment. Since then some residents have also reported unexplained rashes, asthma and other respiratory problems, and serious diseases including male breast cancer. Researchers are still determining how many of those health problems can be linked to the derailment and how the disaster will impact the long-term health of residents in the area near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. Many wonder whether there will be cancer clusters down the road, which of course won't be clear for years. In the meantime, residents have until Aug. 22 to decide whether to accept up to $25,000 — as part of a $600 million class action settlement with the railroad to compensate them for any future health problems. Accepting that money though means giving up the right to sue later, when the cost of health care coverage and specific treatments needed will become more clear. Norfolk Southern spokesperson Heather Garcia said none of the workers who got sick during the cleanup “reported lingering or long-term symptoms." “The health and safety of our employees, contractors, and the community has been paramount throughout the recovery in East Palestine,” Garcia said. The creek cleanup work continued, but nearly three weeks later, another worker got sick. This time, it was halted altogether. While there've been other cleanup projects since then, they've stopped using high-pressure air knife tools. Independent toxicologist George Thompson who has been following the aftermath of the Ohio wreck said the cleanup contractors, overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency, should have known the work they were doing would release chemicals from the sediment into the air and water. In fact, that is what CTEH was monitoring while the project was underway. And with one of the main streams, Sulphur Run, going directly through town and in culverts under homes and offices, Thompson said those chemicals could have infiltrated buildings. “You’re just spreading out the chemicals for exposure,” Thompson said. “And I just think that it was not an informed decision to use air knifing at all.” Resident Jami Wallace said she lost her voice for two weeks after she got too close to one of the air knifing machines, which was placed near her driveway. She said when the machine was turned on, it felt like being hit by an invisible wall emitting a sweet chemical smell much like when the train derailed. The report from CTEH was submitted to Unified Command, the group overseeing disaster response — which included federal, state and local officials along with Norfolk Southern — but no one released it despite significant public interest. CTEH's principal toxicologist Paul Nony confirmed the report was given to the command center, and officials there were alerted about the illnesses. When CDC workers got sick — also with headaches and nausea — it generated headlines nationwide. East Palestine resident Misti Allison said not enough is being done to monitor long-term health effects on the community, and this report substantiates their health concerns. She said this report should have never been kept from the public. “It’s absolutely egregious, and that shouldn’t happen. I think that any type of information like that — just like when the CDC workers came to the area and got sick — that should be disclosed instead of diminished,” Allison said. “Especially when it comes to human health, nothing should be swept under the rug.” The East Palestine derailment that happened on the night of Feb. 3, 2023, was easily the worst rail disaster since a crude oil train leveled the small Canadian town of Lac Megantic and killed 47 people in 2013. It prompted a national reckoning with rail safety and calls for reform — although proposals for new industry rules have stalled in Congress. Thirty-eight cars derailed, including 11 carrying hazardous materials such as butyl acrylate and vinyl chloride. After the crash, a fire burned for days. Fearing the five vinyl chloride cars would explode, officials then needlessly blew them open, and intentionally burned the toxic plastic ingredient. That created a massive plume of thick black smoke over the area. The NTSB determined that the decision-makers that day never received the key opinion — that the cars were not likely to explode — from the chemical manufacturer. The major freight railroads responded by pledging to add hundreds more trackside detectors nationwide to help spot mechanical problems. They also reevaluated the way they respond to alerts and even before alerts, the way they track rising temperatures from an overheating wheel bearing. This summer’s completion of the NTSB investigation into the crash brought renewed hope that Congress might pass a rail safety bill, but little action has been taken outside of a House hearing on the subject last month. CTEH said that its environmental testing around the creeks confirmed there were elevated levels of an assortment of chemicals in the air and sediment. Still, the group didn't find either of the two chemicals of greatest concern: vinyl chloride or butyl acrylate. Sediment testing at nine locations along the creeks where cleanup workers reported strong odors did show 37 different chemical compounds that were primarily either hydrocarbons or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Because of that, CTEH said it was clear that some of the contamination in the creeks came from industries that operated in the area years before the 2023 derailment. Still, those compounds could have also been created from chemicals burning after the train crash. Nony, the head CTEH toxicologist, said that his company's responsibility during the air knifing operation was primarily to monitor air quality. The EPA has said that it doesn't believe people are being exposed to any toxic chemicals on an ongoing basis because concerning levels of chemicals haven't been found in their air and water tests since the evacuation order was lifted. In follow-up testing this year, the agency did find small amounts of vinyl chloride and other chemicals at the crash site, but citing only small amounts and the fact that the contaminated soil was removed, the agency said they don't represent a risk to human health. The overall clean up effort in East Palestine is expected to be completed sometime later this year.
Spain to investigate unauthorized Katy Perry music video in a protected natural area None - Katy Perry pretends in her new music video to be one of the thousands of tourists having the time of their lives on on Spain’s Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean MADRID -- In her new music video, Katy Perry pretends to be one of the thousands of tourists having the time of their lives on Spain's Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. But some parts, filmed in a protected natural enclave, could get her into trouble. The regional government is investigating the video for her latest song, “Lifetimes,” for the clips in which the 39-year-old American singer and songwriter appears jumping and running across dunes of the Ses Salines Natural Park, a protected area on the islands of Ibiza and Formentera, apparently without permission. The images taken on the dunes of the private islet of S’Espalmador, “one of the most ecologically valuable sites on the islands” and in an area cordoned off from the public with sticks and ropes, sparked the controversy, according to local media. The regional authorities have opened “preliminary investigation proceedings,” according to a statement released Tuesday, after the production company failed to apply for the appropriate permits. The filming wouldn't have been an environmental offense, because this type of production can be authorized with a permit, the department of natural environment added. The production company and Perry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The video, directed by Colombian-American photographer and director Matías Vasquez, Stillz, shows Perry sailing, swimming or clubbing on the islands, one of the most popular and crowded tourist resorts in the Spanish Mediterranean, especially during the summer. Perry's new album “143” will be released on Sept. 20.
Top official says Federal Reserve can't risk being too late with rate cuts None - A top Federal Reserve official warned that the central bank needs to cut its key interest rate before the job market weakened further or the Fed would risk moving too late and potentially imperil the economy WASHINGTON -- A top Federal Reserve official warned Wednesday that the Fed needs to cut its key interest rate before the job market weakened further or it would risk moving too late and potentially imperil the economy. In an interview with The Associated Press, Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said that because the Fed's rate decisions typically affect the economy only after an extended time lag, it must avoid waiting too long before reducing rates. With inflation steadily easing, the Fed is widely expected to start cutting its benchmark rate next month from a 23-year high. Goolsbee declined to say how large a rate cut he would favor. Most economists envision a modest quarter-point cut next month, with similar rate cuts to follow in November and December. The Fed's key rate affects many consumer and business loan rates. “There is a danger when central banks fall behind events on the ground,” Goolsbee said. “It's important that we not assume that if the labor market were to deteriorate past normal, that we could react and fix that, once it's already broken.” Goolsbee spoke with the AP just hours after the government reported that consumer prices eased again last month, with yearly inflation falling to 2.9%, the lowest level in more than three years. That is still modestly above the Fed's 2% inflation target but much lower than the 9.1% peak it reached two years ago. Goolsbee emphasized that Congress has given the Fed a dual mandate: To keep prices stable and to seek maximum employment. After two years of focusing exclusively on inflation, Goolsbee said, Fed officials now should pay more attention to the job market, which he said is showing worrying signs of cooling. Chair Jerome Powell has made similar comments in recent months. “The law gives us two things that we’re supposed to be watching, and one of those things has come way down, and it looks very much like what we said we’re targeting,” Goolsbee said, referring to inflation. “And the other is slowly getting worse, and we want it to stabilize.” Goolsbee's urgency regarding rate cuts stands in contrast to some of the 18 other officials who participate in the Fed's policy decisions. On Saturday, Michelle Bowman, who serves on the Fed's Board of Governors, sounded more circumspect. She said that if inflation continued to fall, it would “become appropriate to gradually lower” rates. The Chicago Fed president also stressed that as inflation falls, inflation-adjusted interest rates in effect rise. Higher rates mean that the Fed's policies are doing more to restrict borrowing and spending and to potentially cool the economy. “Inflation, it’s clear, has been coming down for some time, and we’re quite restrictive,” Goolsbee said. Adjusted for inflation, Goolsbee noted that the Fed’s key rate has increased even as inflation has fallen and is at the highest point in decades. And he pointed out that the job market is cooling. He noted that Fed officials, in their latest quarterly economic projections, predicted that they would cut their key rate at least five times by the end of 2025. Those forecasts assumed that the unemployment rate would be 4% at the end of this year, Goolsbee noted, yet the rate is now 4.3%. And the policymakers also forecast that inflation, according to the Fed's preferred measure, would be 2.8% by the end of this year. But it is already below that now, at 2.6%. “In the long arc, it’s clear inflation’s coming way down,” Goolsbee said. “That’s what the path to 2% looks like. It’s clear what the trend is. We’re way, way down from from where we were. And the job market is cooling, and it needs to settle at full employment.”
NASA still deciding whether to keep 2 astronauts at space station until next year None - NASA says it's still deciding whether to keep two astronauts at the International Space Station until early next year and send their troubled Boeing capsule back empty NASA still deciding whether to keep 2 astronauts at space station until next year CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA said Wednesday it's still deciding whether to keep two astronauts at the International Space Station until early next year and send their troubled Boeing capsule back empty. Rather than flying Boeing’s Starliner back to Earth, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams would catch a ride on SpaceX’s next flight. That option would keep them at the space station until next February. The test pilots anticipated being away just a week or so when they rocketed away as Starliner's first crew. But thruster failures and helium leaks marred the capsule’s trip to the space station, raising doubts about its ability to return safely and leaving the astronauts in limbo. NASA officials said they're analyzing more data before making a decision by end of next week or beginning of the next. These thrusters are crucial for holding the capsule in the right position when it comes time to descend from orbit. “We’ve got time available before we bring Starliner home and we want to use that time wisely,” said Ken Bowersox, NASA’s space operations mission chief. NASA's safety chief Russ DeLoach added: “We don’t have enough insight and data to make some sort of simple, black-and-white calculation." DeLoach said the space agency wants to make room for all opinions unlike what happened on NASA's two shuttle tragedies, Challenger and Columbia, when dissenting views were ignored. “That may mean, at times, we don’t move very fast because we're getting everything out, and I think you can kind of see that at play here,” he said. Switching to SpaceX would require bumping two of the four astronauts assigned to the next ferry flight, currently targeted for late September. Wilmore and Williams would take the empty seats in SpaceX’s Dragon capsule once that half-year mission ends. Another complication: The space station has just two parking places for U.S. capsules. Boeing’s capsule would have to depart ahead of the arrival of SpaceX's Dragon in order to free up a spot. Boeing maintains Starliner could still safely bring the astronauts home. The company earlier this month posted a list of testing done on thrusters in space and on the ground since liftoff. NASA would like to keep SpaceX’s current crew up there until the replacements arrive, barring an emergency. Those four should have returned to Earth this month, but saw a seventh month added to their mission because of the uncertainty over Starliner, keeping them up there until the end of September. Most space station stays last six months, although some have gone a full year. Wilmore and Williams are retired Navy captains who spent months aboard the space station years ago. They eased into space station work as soon as they arrived, helping with experiments and repairs. “They will do what we ask them to do. That’s their job as astronauts,” said NASA chief astronaut Joe Acaba. He added: “This mission is a test flight and as Butch and Suni expressed ahead of their launch, they knew this mission might not be perfect.” Eager to have competing services and backup options, NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing to transport astronauts to and from the space station after the shuttles retired in 2011. SpaceX’s first astronaut flight was in 2020. Boeing suffered so much trouble on its initial test flight without a crew in 2019 that a do-over was ordered. Then more problems cropped up, costing the company more than $1 billion to fix before finally flying astronauts. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Uncertainty over Port Talbot’s future ‘causing supply chain job losses’ None - Uncertainty over the future of Tata Steel in south Wales is already causing job losses in the broader industry, the Welsh secretary has warned, as the government scrambles to reduce the toll of redundancies in Port Talbot. Speaking on Wednesday ahead of announcing the first £13.5m tranche of funding to support laid-off workers, the secretary of state for Wales, Jo Stevens, criticised the former Conservative government for what she said was a failure to prepare for the possibility of thousands of jobs losses at Port Talbot. Tata Steel last September announced the replacement of the two blast furnaces at Port Talbot with an electric arc furnace. That will dramatically cut the carbon emissions produced at the plant – equivalent to nearly 2% of all UK emissions – but has also put 2,800 workers at sites in south Wales at risk of redundancy. Tata received a pledge of £500m in subsidies from the Conservative government to make the switch, but the incoming Labour government is negotiating over further support in return for the Indian conglomerate retaining more jobs. The talks are being led by the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, and are expected to be concluded well before the budget on 30 October. However, Stevens said the government needed to “address the immediate uncertainty” for workers and firms, with hundreds of jobs already thought to have been lost. The government set up a “transition board” that included ministers and Tata Steel’s top executives, and pledged £100m to help affected workers in September 2023. However, none of that money has so far been spent, after eight meetings of the board starting in October last year. Stevens criticised “the lackadaisical approach of the last government” in not disbursing the promised funding. At a visit on Thursday to Rototherm, a Port Talbot supplier of pressure gauges, Stevens will announce the immediate disbursement of £13.5m to local councils. The cash will be used to support businesses in Tata’s supply chain, and to help workers to find new jobs, training and qualifications. “We’ve seen jobs lost in the supply chain already,” said Stevens. “This is to put in place a safety net immediately because we know that business confidence has been hit.” Alun Davies, national officer for steel at Community, a union representing many of the workers, welcomed the prospect of funding, and particularly the support for contractors and the supply chain. However, he said the union “will continue to oppose the company’s damaging proposals, and we will fight to protect jobs”. Tata has already closed a blast furnace and other parts of the works such as ovens that make coke for the steelmaking process. However, no workers will be made redundant until September. The second blast furnace will be closed at the end of next month, when the bulk of 1,900 redundancies at Port Talbot are expected. Negotiations include discussions on potential investments in a new mill to make wide plates suitable for wind turbine towers or a plant to produce high-value galvanised steel for cars and construction. Asked about the plate mill option, Stevens said it would fit with proposals to develop floating wind turbines from the port next door to the steelworks. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion Stevens said: “It certainly should be considered at Port Talbot because it’s very important for the future of offshore wind.” The cabinet minister said she was drawing on her experience growing up near Shotton, north Wales, where 6,500 people at the steelworks were made redundant in a single day in 1980 under the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. It took years for the area to recover from the shock of those job losses. Port Talbot is dominated by the steelworks economically and culturally, and the works are visible from almost every street in the town. “We want to make sure there are as many jobs protected as possible,” said Stevens. “We don’t want to see compulsory redundancies.” Tata Steel UK’s chief executive, Rajesh Nair, said the transition board has an important role in “helping to mitigate the impacts those changes may have on our people, our supply chain and our communities”.
Reeves should nail down UK AstraZeneca deal. A collapse would be embarrassing None - The international going-rate for state aid to part-fund a large pharmaceutical facility costing a few hundred billion pounds, euros, dollars, or whatever, is hard to pin down. Governments don’t publicise sweeteners and a company’s thinking will be guided by many factors, including the wider tax regime. But a rough rule of thumb, say industry insiders, is a 15%-25% subsidy for capital costs. Singapore has a reputation for being more generous. Thus, if it is correct, as the FT reports, that Jeremy Hunt verbally offered AstraZeneca £65m towards a proposed £450m vaccine-manufacturing plant in Speke in Merseyside, one could say the last chancellor did OK with 14%. On the one hand, he was advantaged in the negotiation by dealing with the UK’s national champion in pharmaceuticals – a company that already manufactures in Merseyside as well as having a big research facility in Cambridge. On the other hand, he will have known Speke would have been a bad project to see slip overseas: upgrading domestic vaccine-making capacity is more important after Covid, and in 2021 AstraZeneca chose Ireland over Warrington for a facility making active pharmaceutical ingredients. The Speke project was announced in March this year, with the usual ra-ra boasts from the company and the government about a vote of confidence in the UK. The only minor uncertainty was in the last line which mentioned the company’s investment decision being “contingent upon mutual agreement with the UK government and third parties”. Now, five months and one change of government later, the agreement has still to be nailed down. Rachel Reeves, today’s chancellor, is hoping to cut the amount of state aid for the project to about £40m. AstraZeneca won’t comment and the Treasury says “positive discussions” continue, so harmony may still prevail. Yet any hint of doubt still looks terrible. It also jars horribly with Reeves’s rhetoric about boosting growth, firing up private-sector investment and setting a more stable climate for policymaking. One could argue that the chancellor is within her rights to revisit her predecessor’s commitments to try to save a few quid. And some may take the view that AstraZeneca, with a stock market value of £200bn, is rich enough to fund its plants itself, noting that a £25m gap would be only a few million less than Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s CEO, could earn personally this year. Unfortunately, the cold commercial reality is that big pharma firms have choices about where to invest. As with the energy sector and the Inflation Reduction Act in the US, companies react to financial incentives. Other European countries, one suspects, would be willing to cough up more than £65m to have a state-of-the-art vaccine plant on their soil. Pragmatism says Reeves should hurry up and get the Speke deal nailed down. Under the Conservatives, there was a long period of tension with the pharma sector over everything from research and development tax credits, the pricing of prescription medicines and the NHS’s capacity to conduct clinical trials. Investment undoubtedly suffered. Life sciences is “still the object of suspicion and incomprehension within parts of government”, said Dame Kate Bingham, the former vaccines tsar, in early 2023, arguing that short-term pressures were crowding out long-term solutions. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion It was only towards the end of the last administration’s time in office that the mood seemed to improve – and the Speke announcement was emblematic of that. It would be quite a reversal if the deal were to come unstuck now. “We are committed to making the UK one of the best places in the world to develop and manufacture new and innovative medicines,” says today’s Treasury. Very good, but very vague. Subsidies for £450m plants, sadly, are a fact of life and, like it or not, AstraZeneca holds a strong hand at Speke. To be pro-growth, chancellors sometimes have to play the game.
Indiana attorney general drops lawsuit over privacy of Ohio girl who traveled for abortion None - Just three days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, an Indiana doctor got a call about a 10 year old girl from Ohio who had been raped and was pregnant. The pregnancy was three days past the six week deadline for abortion in Ohio, so the Indiana doctor agreed to help the girl. The Indiana attorney general fought to suspend her medical license and sued her hospital. The suit has just been dropped. Dr. Bernard joins Chris Hayes to discuss the current state of reproductive rights in the country. Aug. 15, 2024
Kansas newspaper is getting justice after an illegal police raid None - A year after he led a fateful raid on the office of the Marion County, Kansas, Record newspaper and its publisher’s home, former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody was finally charged with a crime. A government’s attacking the free press cannot be tolerated, so it’s encouraging that in a time when journalists are routinely maligned and threatened, the special prosecutors assigned to the case charged Cody with wrongdoing, specifically interference with the judicial process. They say the chief asked a woman — whose driving record the newspaper had been looking into — to delete incriminating text messages they’d exchanged with one another. Cody’s not being charged with anything would have dishonored the memory of the 98-year-old co-owner of the Record, Joan Meyer, who yelled “Get out of my house!” to police raiding her home. It’s a low-level felony, but Cody’s not being charged with anything would have dishonored the memory of the 98-year-old co-owner of the Record, Joan Meyer, who yelled “Get out of my house!” to police raiding her home. She died the next day from what her family says was the stress of the encounter. Though prosecutors didn’t pin Meyer’s death on the police and their raid, the newspaper’s publisher, Eric Meyer, in a lawsuit links Cody’s actions to his mother’s death. The raid on the Record is a reminder that small-town journalists are among the bravest in the field. Exposing the scandals of heads of state and corporate titans is a low-risk, high-reward venture compared with calling out the misdeeds of, say, the winning football coach-turned-school board member or the beloved boy-done-good contractor. Especially when you know you’ll run into them or somebody close to them at the grocery store or the middle school band recital. Marion has an estimated 1,900 people, Marion County about 12,000. To conduct professional journalism in such small places takes a fearlessness that most journalists will never have to muster. A tribute to Joan Meyer, the late 98-year-old co-owner of the Marion County Record, outside the weekly newspaper's office in Marion, Kan., in August 2023. John Hanna / AP file Based on a tip, the Record was looking into whether a local restaurateur’s DUI and record of a suspended license disqualified her from getting a liquor license. A Record reporter obtained the woman’s publicly available driving record. The paper didn't run a story based on those records, but then the police (emboldened by a warrant that should never have been signed) decided that journalists examining public records had committed identity theft. In his lawsuit, the newspaper’s publisher, who’s also a college journalism professor, accuses the mayor of prompting the police chief to investigate the newspaper. Two weeks before the fateful raid, according to reporting by the news sites Kansas Reflector and The Handbasket, the mayor of Marion had said in a Facebook post on his personal page that the “real villains in America ... are the radical ‘journalists,’ ‘teachers’ and ‘professors’ who do nothing but sow division between the American people.” The police chief resigned in October when NBC affiliate KSHB of Kansas City reported that he had told the restaurant owner to erase the text messages they’d exchanged. The mayor decided against seeking re-election. The attack on the Record is also a reminder that small-town newspapers are disappearing, and fast. According to a November report from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern, the loss of 2.5 local newspapers a week last year means “more than half of all U.S. counties now have limited access to reliable local news and information.” That report found that 228 more counties are “at high risk of losing local news.” The disappearance of local news not only leaves people more in the dark about what’s happening around them, but it also foments the kind of cutthroat partisanship that we’ve seen play out at school board meetings and city council meetings. If the only news people get concerns Democrats and Republicans in Washington fighting tooth and nail, then they’re more likely to filter everything local through the same polarizing lens. The disappearance of local news foments the kind of cutthroat partisanship that we’ve seen play out at school board meetings and city council meetings. My journalism career began at a weekly newspaper not unlike the Marion Record, and the first crime story I wrote made me aware that journalism wasn’t as safe as I’d assumed. I quoted the sheriff in my part of rural Mississippi boasting of his department’s recovery of stolen goods at an unnamed pawnshop. The exceedingly large owner of another local pawnshop felt wrongly implicated and wanted an audience with me, the 17-year-old summer intern. As my editor was describing how he’d previously burst through the door yelling — and promising to order me to hide if she saw him approaching — I saw her eyes focus on the door behind me, and she said, “Oh, my God, here he comes!” From my hiding place, I heard her explain that the sheriff had declined to give the name of the pawn shop, and I heard him vow to come back and raise hell if the sheriff didn’t confirm what she said. There was no warning the next time. The office stood frozen as he threw the door open, stuck his head inside and said the sheriff had confirmed what she’d said and that he no longer had it out for me. A handmade sign on a door of the Marion County Record last year announces that the newspaper's latest weekly edition will be late because of a raid of its offices and the publisher's home. John Hanna / AP file In the decades since, I’ve written things that have upset big-city mayors, governors and members of Congress. But I can attest, as I’m sure Meyer can, that offending high-ranking officials is nothing compared to getting crosswise with local small-town potentates. The good news is that the readership of the Record has tripled since the raid: from 2,000 subscribers to 6,000. Still, Meyer is seeking $5 million in his lawsuit and says he doesn’t want to settle. He wants a precedent-setting verdict against those behind the raid. He said" “The whole point of doing this is not to get money. The whole point of doing this is to say ‘you can’t do this crap.’”
Dems unite around Harris, as GOP desperately tries to change Trump None - This is an adapted excerpt from the Aug. 13 episode of "All In with Chris Hayes." The Republican Party is stuck with Donald Trump. Now, they won’t say that publicly and they didn’t feel that way three weeks ago when many Republicans were talking about winning New Jersey and thinking about what jobs they would have in the second Trump administration. But a lot has changed since Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden on the Democratic side of the ticket. Trump is now losing a race that he was clearly winning before. Trump is now losing a race that he was clearly winning before. Let’s not overstate things. Trump is behind in the national polling lead and he’s behind in the key swing states but all of the leads are narrow. The race is still — because of the nature of American politics — close. As we have just seen in the last three weeks, things can change radically very quickly. One of the themes of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s short-lived presidential campaign still rings prescient. Haley frequently said that most Americans did not want a Trump-Biden rematch. She even predicted, “The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be the party that wins this election.” Remember that line? There was some real insight there. And it’s transferred to what you see in the polls. Trump is now the oldest man to run for a four-year term as president. He’s older today than Ronald Reagan was when he left office. And Trump has been doing the exact same shtick since 2015. He is very obviously deteriorating in terms of his capacity and his energy — as we saw in his glitchy, rambling, difficult-to-understand audio conversation with Elon Musk on Monday. During that conversation, Trump delivered important public policy messages to the American people like: “Kamala wouldn’t have this conversation. She can’t because she’s not smart, you know. She’s not a smart person, by the way. She can’t have this conversation. And Biden, we don’t even have to talk about it. I mean, he couldn’t have this conversation. He, he would have given up on the first half of a question. He would have walked out.” That appearance was the culmination of a three-week stretch in which Trump still attacked Biden, who, remember, is no longer running against him. He spread downright ludicrous and comical conspiracy theories falsely claiming the Harris campaign faked the size of its crowds with artificial intelligence. He suggested she only became a Black person recently, which is a racist lie, but also a weird product of a brain that’s been scrambled like eggs. Trump is the same guy he’s always been. Yet, Republicans still think he’s capable of being someone else entirely. Trump is the same guy he’s always been. Yet, Republicans still think he’s capable of being someone else entirely. I have, personally, covered seemingly hundreds of “new tone for Donald Trump” news cycles over all those years. Most recently, we heard it after he survived a genuinely terrifying assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. In the lead-up to the Republican National Convention, we heard that he’d changed. He’d mellowed. He was all about unity. As one convention delegate told reporters, “The real estate salesman, I think, is a different person. ... It’s a good thing. Humility goes a long way in politics and it attracts far more people ... I think he’s seeing God.” Sound familiar? Haven’t we been hearing this stuff for the better part of a decade? Like when CNN’s Van Jones praised Trump’s first address to a joint session of Congress in 2017, claiming he “became president of the United States in that moment, period.” Seven years. We’ve been doing this for seven years. At this point, it’s like Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. And yet, if you listen to what Republican insiders are still telling reporters, they want Trump to do a pivot. They want him to be more disciplined. They want him to be more presidential. And this time, it will be for real. This week, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Trump should stop questioning the size of Harris’ crowds at rallies and focus on the issues. Fox Business host Larry Kudlow and former Trump aide turned Fox News contributor Kellyanne Conway shared a similar sentiment, practically begging the former president to stay on message. And former Vice President Mike Pence had to remind his party that they can win “at every level by speaking the truth to [voters] respectfully.” “I have some familiarity with that; I did it for four years,” Pence said. The former vice president was threatened with hanging for it, but yes, he kept it respectful. Pence of all people should know you can’t change Trump. Yet people keep falling into the same old trap. Even the people who joined the Trump 2024 bandwagon at its peak right after the convention. Some of those supporters showed up to a Trump fundraiser earlier this month on Long Island, including billionaire hedge funders like Bill Ackman. According to The New York Times, at the dinner that evening: “Harrison LeFrak, the scion of a New York real-estate family, whose father is an old friend of Mr. Trump’s, asked how Mr. Trump planned to take the narrative back from Democrats, and what his positive vision for the country would be. It appeared to be a request for reassurance. Mr. Trump provided none. Instead, he criticized Ms. Harris on a range of fronts, before adding: ‘I am who I am.’” I’ll say this for Trump: He has more awareness about himself than a shocking number of people in Republican politics. He won’t change. Do you know who else understands this? Voters. Like the ones in a focus group held after Trump’s first joint address to Congress and the nation as president in 2017. The one that pundits like Jones called so “presidential.” One voter told CBS News, “That is no way the real Donald Trump. The real Donald Trump will surface in probably less than two hours.” Another said the next thing Trump needed to do was “delete his Twitter feed.” When asked if they did not like the way Trump behaved on Twitter, almost the entire room raised their hands. In advance of Monday's Twitter show with Musk, Trump got back to posting on the site. You know, the platform he was kicked off of for inciting an insurrection at the Capitol. Meanwhile, the Democrats have something new — an open horizon in front of them as they enter a convention united, with a popular energetic ticket and a messaging opportunity that we have not seen in our lifetimes. The Republicans? They have the same horse they’ve been riding since 2015. Join Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow and many others on Saturday, Sept. 7, in Brooklyn, New York, for “MSNBC Live: Democracy 2024,” a first-of-its-kind live event. You’ll get to see your favorite hosts in person and hear thought-provoking conversations about what matters most in the final weeks of an unprecedented election cycle. Buy tickets here.
Disney's 'surreal' claim for keeping a wrongful death suit from court None - Not many people read all (or any) of the fine print when they sign up for a Disney+ account (or any account, for that matter). Perhaps even fewer people would think that such a routine action would block their subsequent wrongful death lawsuit on their spouse’s behalf from being heard in court. Yet that’s essentially what Walt Disney Parks and Resorts lawyers have argued in their push to force such a case into arbitration. They raised the claim in response to the wrongful death suit in Florida state court from Jeffrey Piccolo, who said that his wife, Kanokporn Tangsuan, died from an allergic reaction after eating at a restaurant in Disney Springs. Disney’s lawyers argued that the matter should go to arbitration, citing terms they said Piccolo agreed to in creating a Disney+ account and in using a Disney website to purchase tickets to Epcot. In a lengthy court filing earlier this month, Piccolo's lawyer disagreed with Disney's stance, calling it “preposterous” that Piccolo somehow bound the then-nonexistent estate of his wife “to an arbitration agreement buried within certain terms and conditions.” The implications of the company’s position, he went on, is that: any person who signs up for a Disney+ account, even free trials that are not extended beyond the trial period, will have forever waived the right to a jury trial enjoyed by them and any future Estate to which they are associated, and will instead have agreed (on behalf of other survivors and the estate itself) to arbitrate any and all disputes against any and all Disney entities and affiliates, no matter how far removed from use of the Disney+ streaming service, including personal injury and wrongful death claims. He argued that logic “borders on the surreal.” It’s difficult to disagree, though the law can take on a surrealistic quality when suing a large company. Whether this case remains surreal will become more apparent after a court hearing previously set for Oct. 2. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for updates and expert analysis on the top legal stories. The newsletter will return to its regular weekly schedule when the Supreme Court’s next term kicks off in October.