Breaking News

This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in each source note. Quotation marks are not used.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/30/2023
  

  The Latest SCOTUS Case to Privilege Religion Over Civil Society

  by Linda Greenhouse

  Historically, the Supreme Court has viewed workplace accommodations for religious workers in terms of protecting minority faiths and relieving undue burdens on employers and coworkers. A pending case brought by a Christian postal worker promises to upend that balance. 

• 
• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  1/31/2023
  

  A Look Back at the 747 as Boeing Delivers Last Jumbo Jet

  Company historian Mike Lombardi says Boeing's giant jetliner "gave wings to the world." 

• 
• SOURCE: The Baffler
  1/25/2023
  

  The Tradition of Overambitious Public Works in Mexico

  Mexico's public works projects have often seen ambitious design outpace the will and capacity for maintaining them. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/29/2023
  

  Dutch Villagers Find Hunt for Nazi Treasure Less and Less Charming With Passage of Time

  The recent declassification of a map drawn by a German soldier in 1945 has brought treasure hunters to Ommeren. The 751 residents have mixed feelings. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  1/27/2023
  

  Review: New Book Worships the False Idol of the Responsible Corporation

  The idea of corporate social responsibility is an artifact of the domination of society by big business, a domination so powerful as to make alternatives exceedingly difficult to imagine. A new book internalizes that difficulty. 

• 
• SOURCE: HuffPost
  1/29/2023
  

  Inside the Neonazi Homeschool Community

  "A concerted, decades-long campaign by right-wing Christian groups to deregulate home schooling has afforded parents wide latitude in how they teach their kids — even if that means indoctrinating them with explicit fascism."

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  1/29/2023
  

  Ron DeSantis Battles the College Board—and History

  by Jelani Cobb

  "It’s scarcely surprising that a discipline built on an interest in exploring Black humanity would find itself in the crosshairs. That such a thing would happen in Florida is even less so."

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  1/27/2023
  

  If Conservatives Want to Use "Choice" to Punish Schools for "Wokeness", What Happens to the Kids?

  The annual "School Choice Week" has always been about trashing public schools and teachers unions. This year, it's also trying to scare parents about "woke indoctrination." 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/31/2023
  

  Florida Districts to Teachers: Hide Your Books or Risk Felony Charge

  After requiring that both classroom libraries and school libraries have their contents vetted by trained media specialists, Florida delayed publishing the training for six months; amid uncertainty two school districts have told teachers to cover up their books. 

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  1/30/2023
  

  What's Actually Happening in Florida Education?

  by Francie Diep and Emma Pettit

  Ron DeSantis has moved quickly on multiple fronts to alter the landscape of higher education in Florida. What are the facts behind the headlines? Will these actions be repeated in other states?

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/31/2023
  

  What's Behind DeSantis Push to Erase Black History?

  by Janai Nelson

  "Mr. DeSantis’s “Stop WOKE” law relegates the study of the experiences of Black people to a prohibited category. The canceling of any students’ access to accurate, truthful education that reflects their diverse identities and that of their country should chill every American."

• 
• SOURCE: WBEZ
  1/31/2023
  

  The Story of one of the Few Black Members of Chicago's Secret Abortion Rights Underground

  Recent attention to the Jane Collective's pre-Roe activities to help women obtain abortions has passed over the work of a small number of Black women like Marie Leaner within the group, and the struggle to connect reproductive and racial justice politics. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/29/2023
  

  100 Years After Rosewood, Just One House Remains

  The home of John Wright, a white merchant who helped shelter Black residents from mob violence, is all that remains of the former town of Rosewood. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/27/2023
  

  Florida's Vague Content Laws are Being Used to Intimidate Librarians

  The DeSantis administration has declined to issue clarification of the requirements of the "Don't Say Gay" and "Stop Woke" laws, which leaves school librarians fearful of potential prosecution if they leave books on their shelves. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  

  The Indigenous Sami Culture Shaped this Novelist's Fiction

  Ann-Helén Laestadius grew up among the Sámi, an Indigenous people living near the Arctic Circle, in Europe. Her fiction has brought the long-running conflict between the Sami and the Swedish government, and the racism and violence endured by the Sami, to the forefront of public debate. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  1/23/2023
  

  Posthumous Limbaugh Book Skirts His Toxic Legacy

  The collection of transcripts from Rush's radio program emphasizes the positive ways he built solidarity with his audience while occluding the negative ways he maintained it by stirring resentments against others and lying about his political opponents. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  1/24/2023
  

  "Argentina, 1985" Gets Oscar Nod

  The film has sparked debate in Argentina over its representation of events, but tells the story of the first successful civilian trial of a military dictatorship. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/25/2023
  

  Canada's Hottest Tourist Attraction Could be the Government's Doomsday Bunker

  Canada's Diefenbunker was decommissioned in 1994, and today is one of the few places where tourists can see the preparations made to preserve government in the event of the unthinkable. 

• 
• SOURCE: Mother Jones
  1/24/2023
  

  How Private Equity Cashed in on Medical Abortion

  The American effort to bring the French RU-486 medication to the domestic market made medical abortion much more widely accessible. But, in true American fashion, the involvement of private investors looking for profit also made it much more expensive—even more so after Dobbs.

• 
• SOURCE: Oxford American
  1/24/2023
  

  Who Gets to Sing About Revenge in Pop Music?

  by Jewel Wicker

  Do the racial politics of musical genre explain why songs about revenge are celebrated in country music and turned into evidence for the prosecution against hip hop artists (even when the songs in question are fiction)?