The inhumanity of child labor that the MAGAt Republicans are pushing has become a trend in Red states. I think it is despicable.
MAGAt Republican Arkansas Governor. Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Republicans have been waging a push in recent months to pass bills weakening child labor protections. But even though these bills are being pushed across several states, a new investigation finds that a right-wing, Florida-based think tank is behind a large number of them — and that the think tank, in some cases, outright wrote the bills.
According to The Washington Post, the Foundation for Government Accountability and its lobbying arm, the Opportunity Solutions Project, are behind pushes for child labor bills introduced by Republicans in Arkansas, Iowa and Missouri.
The Republican sponsor of an Arkansas bill, now signed into law by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said that the legislation “came to me from the Foundation [for] Government Accountability.” The law eliminates the requirement for children under 16 to show documentation of their age before being able to work, making it easier for employers to violate child labor laws and illegally employ and exploit immigrant children.
The Foundation for Government Accountability is also backing the passage of an Iowa bill that Senate Republicans worked […]
There is so much bad news about the trends shaping America, that it makes me very happy to bring this good news to your attention. Fostering wellbeing is making some progress.
Our favourite positive environmental story from 2022: World’s oldest two-headed tortoise celebrates 25th birthday. Credit: Pierre Albouy/ Reuters
Eco-anxiety, climate doom, environmental existential dread – as green journalists, we see these terms used a lot – and often feel them ourselves.
While there’s a lot to be worried about when it comes to the climate and nature crises, we must not lose hope – because hopelessness breeds apathy.
The media has an important role to play in combatting climate doom. It’s our job to be truthful and accurate in our reporting, not trying to downplay or greenwash the situation. But it’s also our job to show that there is hope.
In 2022, as part of our ongoing effort to tackle eco-anxiety (both that of our readers and our own), we kept track of all the positive environmental news throughout the year – racking up over 100 stories of eco-innovation, green breakthroughs and climate wins.
In 2023, we’re confident the good news will keep on coming, as renewable power soars, vulnerable ecosystems gain rights, and climate protocols start to pay dividends.
FRED PEARCE, Contributing Writer - Yale Environment 360
Stephan:
Yet another alarm telling humanity we are not doing anywhere near enough to avoid catastrophe. And to be honest I don’t think we will ever do. Instead we are going to experience radical change in the environment and there will be millions who die, and millions more reduced to misery. Greed and power in the moment just seem to be priorities we cannot overcome.
The global ocean circulation system. Credit: Maphoto / Riccardo Pravettoni / Grid-Arendal
It is being hailed as a sea change in scientific understanding of the global ocean circulation system and how it will respond as the world heats up. A doomsday scenario involving the collapse of the circulation — previously portrayed in both peer-reviewed research and the climate disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow — came a lot closer in the last month. But rather than playing out in the far North Atlantic, as previously assumed, it now seems much more likely at the opposite end of the planet.
A new analysis by Australian and American researchers, using new and more detailed modeling of the oceans, predicts that the long-feared turn-off of the circulation will likely occur in the Southern Ocean, as billions of tons of ice melt on the land mass of Antarctica. And rather than being more than a century away, as models predict for the North Atlantic, it could happen within the next three decades.
Leading ocean and climate researchers not involved in the study who were contacted […]
Coming in addition to the corruption of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, we now have yet another report of corruption. This one is about Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, as you can see in this article. Do you notice something about this list? They are all MAGAt justices. It is clear these conservative justices believe they are above the law, and feel free to vote in accordance with their personal ideology instead of the justice of nonpolitical jurisprudence. I think this is why we are getting decisions like Citizens United, and Dobbs.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch. Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP
For nearly two years beginning in 2015, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch sought a buyer for a 40-acre tract of property he co-owned in rural Granby, Colo.
Nine days after he was confirmed by the Senate for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, the then-circuit court judge got one: The chief executive of Greenberg Traurig, one of the nation’s biggest law firms with a robust practice before the high court. Gorsuch owned the property with two other individuals.
On April 16 of 2017, Greenberg’s Brian Duffy put under contract the 3,000-square foot log home on the Colorado River and nestled in the mountains northwest of Denver, according to real estate records.
Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum greets then-U.S. President Donald Trump at Bismarck Municipal Airport on September 6, 2017. Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP / Getty
Republican Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota on Monday signed one of the nation’s most draconian abortion bans into law, just weeks after the state’s GOP lawmakers shot down a proposal to provide free school lunches to low-income students.
The new forced pregnancy law, which takes immediate effect, prohibits abortion care in nearly all cases. Abortion is allowed in cases of rape or incest, but only during the first six weeks of pregnancy—before many people realize they are pregnant. Abortion is also allowed without gestational limits if terminating a pregnancy could prevent the pregnant person’s “death or a serious health risk.”
North Dakota is one of several states where dormant abortion bans took immediate effect last June when the U.S. Supreme Court’s reactionary majority overturnedRoe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had legalized the healthcare procedure nationwide.
