Wednesday, September 25, 2019 The First Line of Trump's Obituary Has Been Written William Rivers Pitt, Truthout Dragooning foreign countries into an election campaign is a crime. Strong-arming countries to assist in an election campaign by withholding aid is a crime. Refusing to hand over a whistleblower report to the appropriate congressional oversight committees is a crime. At long last, the impeachment proceedings begin. Read the Article → Bans Won't Prevent the Mysterious Illness Linked to Vaping Mike Ludwig, Truthout Following reports about a severe lung illness linked to vaping, President Trump and politicians across the country have responded by moving to ban flavored nicotine vaporizers. But prohibition has never eliminated the supply of any drug. Instead, prohibition creates unregulated black markets where distributors have incentives to cut their drug supply with additives in order to make more money, which may be the cause of the lung illness in the first place, some suspect. Read the Article → As an Autistic Femme, I Love Greta Thunberg's "Resting Autism Face" Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Truthout People have attacked Greta before, casting her autism in familiar tropes of pathology, but in the last few days they've upped their abuse. Michael Knowles of Fox News called her "a mentally ill Swedish child." Fox News host Laura Ingraham compared her to kids who murder adults in the horror movie Children of the Corn. I knew this would happen. The attacks on Greta are a confluence of ableism and sexism and ageism. Read the Article → There's no time to mess around. We only have one day left to raise the $21,000 still urgently needed to continue our work. With what's unfolding in the White House, ethical, accurate reporting is needed more than ever. Please help us out and donate what you can! Donate Now → Activists Shut Down D.C. Streets as Climate Activism Heats Up Barbara Koeppel, Truthout Building on Friday's youth-led climate strike, which saw 4 million people protesting worldwide, Monday's action was intended to disrupt "business as usual" in the nation's capital to highlight the climate crisis. It's just the beginning of a wave of climate action that befits the emergency. Read the Article → Trump Labor Department's New Overtime Pay Rule Leaves Behind Millions of Workers Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams The Department of Labor announced a final rule on overtime pay to replace a stronger Obama-era proposal blocked by a federal court in Texas. The new rule -- which omits cost-of-living salary adjustments -- prioritizes corporate interests by continuing to require far too many workers to work overtime without any additional compensation. Read the Article → What the U.K. Supreme Court's Ruling Against Boris Johnson Means for Brexit Amy Goodman and Juan González, Democracy Now! The U.K. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson had unlawfully suspended Parliament earlier this month in order to push through Brexit with or without a deal. Calls for Johnson's resignation have been mounting since the news broke, with opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn calling for a general election and demanding Johnson apologize to the country. Watch the Video and Read the Transcript → Migrant Families Sue Over Extraordinary Harms of Family Separation Vandana Ravikumar, Cronkite News Five asylum-seeking families have sued the U.S. government for the substantial and ongoing trauma they suffered after being separated from one another after crossing the border from Mexico into Arizona last year. While they seek compensation for the harm that was inflicted upon them, their larger goal is to prevent the U.S. government from inflicting the same trauma on other families. Read the Article → Facing Climate Crisis, Senators Have Millions Invested in Fossil Fuel Companies Donald Shaw, Sludge As the United States Senate fails to respond to the climate crisis, dozens of its members are profiting from investments in the oil, gas and coal companies that are fueling the crisis. Twenty-nine U.S. senators -- including top Democrats on Senate Energy and Environment Committees -- and their spouses own up to $13.9 million worth of stock in companies that either extract, transport or burn fossil fuels or provide services to fossil fuel companies. Read the Article → Amid a Water Crisis, California Officials Fan Flames of Confusion Andrew Whelton and Caitlin Proctor, Undark Ten months after the November 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California, the region's major drinking water systems are still contaminated with benzene and other cancer-causing chemicals. Community leaders and politicians, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, must recognize that their failures and the misinformation spread by the California Water Board may likely have already compromised the health of residents in the area. Read the Article → In Case You Missed It States, 2020 Candidates Push Back Against Facial Recognition Technology Candice Bernd, Truthout Rep. Beto O'Rourke is joining Sen. Bernie Sanders in calling for a federal ban on facial recognition technology as resistance spreads at the federal, state and local level amid California's recent passage of a state-level moratorium. New York, Michigan and Massachusetts are also considering bills to place a hold on the technology while lawmakers work to introduce federal legislation in Congress. Read the Article → Will 2020 Presidential Candidates Take On Corporate Tribunals? Michael Galant, Truthout Investor-state dispute settlement, an obscure system of corporate courts built into many trade and investment agreements, empowers corporations to sue countries that take any action expected to harm profit. Grassroots organizations must pressure Democratic candidates to take on this system, which is enabling corporate power grabs and eroding health, labor and environmental protections around the world. Read the Article → We need 25 more people to make a sustaining, monthly donation to Truthout. 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