Trump-Biden Race Could Hinge on How Florida’s Pinellas County Swings

Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News and Margo Snipe, Tampa Bay Times CLEARWATER, Fla. — Betty Jones voted for President Donald Trump in 2016, but the lifelong Republican has her doubts she will do it again this year. The federal response to the coronavirus pandemic that has killed about 200,000 Americans and forced older adults to restrict their activities has her contemplating a leadership change. It … Continue reading Trump-Biden Race Could Hinge on How Florida’s Pinellas County Swings

The hypocrisy is the point

Sure enough, a vacancy on the highest court in the United States has appeared. Far from being merely in an election year – as happened in 2016 – this vacancy has occurred during the election itself, a time when the political work of government comes to a slow drip while elected officials wait to see who has won the hearts and minds of the country. … Continue reading The hypocrisy is the point

The White House scrapped a plan to provide free masks because it couldn’t contradict the president’s message

In April, the United States Postal Service drafted a press release to announce that it would deliver, for free, face masks to every household in the country. It was a healthcare effort on a massive scale – though, admittedly, one the USPS has to deliver on every day – “beginning in areas which [the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] has identified as experiencing … Continue reading The White House scrapped a plan to provide free masks because it couldn’t contradict the president’s message

FBI Chief: Fear of rigged election in U.S. is “a perception, not a reality”

Testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee Thursday, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the U.S. has seen an effort by Russian-backed actors to interfere in the election but that those efforts do not appear to have been fruitful. But Wray also said he’s not as worried about foreign interference as he is about collapsing confidence in the integrity of American elections. “The steady drumbeat … Continue reading FBI Chief: Fear of rigged election in U.S. is “a perception, not a reality”

“Everybody’s uterus cannot be that bad”: Is the U.S. sterilizing Latina women… again?

For nearly four decades, local authorities in the United States pursued a policy of sterilization in poor Latina areas. Puerto Rico’s Law 113, a voluntary program that many women there felt they had to follow because of discriminatory practices towards mothers, led to the sterilization of one in three Puerto Rican women by 1965. In the 1960s and 70s, Mexican-American women in the Los Angeles … Continue reading “Everybody’s uterus cannot be that bad”: Is the U.S. sterilizing Latina women… again?

‘It Seems Systematic’: Doctors Cite 115 Cases of Head Injuries From Crowd Control Devices

Jordan Culver, USA Today September 14, 2020 At least 115 people were injured this summer when police shot them in the head or neck with so-called “less-lethal” projectiles at protests over racial injustice and police brutality, according to a report published Monday. It’s the most comprehensive tally of such injuries to date, with about twice as many victims as KHN and USA Today cited in … Continue reading ‘It Seems Systematic’: Doctors Cite 115 Cases of Head Injuries From Crowd Control Devices

The TikTok sale is getting weird

Late Sunday, the news dropped that ByteDance, the Cayman Islands-based but Beijing-headquartered parent company of the popular app TikTok, had picked Oracle to … do something. The initial news centered about how Oracle, a company that doesn’t really compete in the social media space or the advertising space, had beaten out companies like Microsoft – owner of LinkedIn and a fairly large advertising kingdom – … Continue reading The TikTok sale is getting weird

Most Adults Wary of Taking Any Vaccine Approved Before the Election

Jordan Rau, Kaiser Health News September 10, 2020 The public is deeply skeptical about any coronavirus vaccine approved before the November election, and only 42% would be willing to get a vaccine in that scenario, according to a new poll. The results of the poll by KFF reveal widespread concern that the Trump administration will bring pressure on drug regulators to approve a vaccine before … Continue reading Most Adults Wary of Taking Any Vaccine Approved Before the Election

9/11, Nineteen Years Later

PART ONE: EVERYTHING IS ABOUT COVID NOW As the COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly across the country and the death count in the U.S. crossed 100,000, observers noted the indifference that the Trump administration had to the whole thing. Whether by incompetence or by malice, the federal government seemed to be incapable of addressing the pandemic or showing any human emotions about it. “But wait,” said … Continue reading 9/11, Nineteen Years Later