Tuesday, October 1, 2019 Fearless, honest reporting has never been more needed. Support Truthout's nonprofit journalism today.
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Marijuana Legislation Passed by House Lacks Racial Justice Provisions Mike Ludwig, Truthout Last week, the House passed its first landmark marijuana reform bill since Democrats took the majority last year, advancing legislation that would allow banks to do business with cannabis companies without running afoul of federal law. Racial justice activists warned Democrats that the legislation would do little to undo the drug war's racist legacy. Meanwhile, "marijuana justice" legislation languishes in committee.
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Will Trump's Ukraine Scandal Turn Biden's Campaign Into Collateral Damage? William Rivers Pitt, Truthout Joe Biden is no longer the Democratic presidential front-runner, according to some polls. It will be one of the strangest ironies in modern political history if a scandal that threatens the presidency of Donald Trump winds up turning the Biden campaign into more collateral damage.
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Is Boris Johnson Prepping His Supporters for Violent Confrontation Over Brexit? Sasha Abramsky, Truthout British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his minions have implied that a failure to leave the European Union would result in street fighting and riots -- leading critics to claim he was prepping his supporters for violence. Johnson could exploit civic unrest as a reason to invoke the Civil Contingencies Act, which was passed in 2004 at the height of the war on terror, as a way to bypass Parliament again and try to force through a no-deal Brexit.
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Mike Pompeo Said He Knew Nothing About Ukraine Call That He Was On Lisa Needham, The American Independent Institute Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sought to deflect questions about the July 25 phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensk, saying he hadn't read the whistleblower's complaint in its entirety. That deflection might be more credible if Pompeo hadn't been in the same room.
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Ohio Firefighters Kept in the Dark on Drilling and Fracking Chemicals Kathiann M. Kowalski, Energy News Network Ohio law requires drillers to report which chemicals they use in fracking, but some information can be kept away from the public as a "trade secret." Companies injected trade secret chemicals into more than 1,400 wells in the state from 2013 to 2018, according to one report. The secrecy threatens public safety by preventing first responders from preparing for incidents involving chemical fires, spills or releases.
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In Rush to Discredit Whistleblower, Republicans Are Just Making Things Up Sophia Tesfaye, Salon President Trump and his allies have trotted out a tired defensive strategy against mounting allegations that Trump entangled a foreign government -- or perhaps several of them -- in his personal and political destiny. It reeks of desperation.
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Newark Mayor Ras Baraka Promises City Is Working on Solution to Water Crisis Amy Goodman and Juan González, Democracy Now! Lead contamination has plagued the city of Newark, New Jersey, for years, spiking even higher in 2019. The crisis came to a head last month following revelations that water filters distributed to residents may not have been effective. On October 2, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka will hold a "State of the Water" town hall meeting.
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How Have Health Workers Won Improvements to Patient Care? Strikes. Suzanne Gordon, In These Times On September 20, 2,200 nurses represented by National Nurses United went on a one-day strike at the University of Chicago Medical Center. The Chicago nurses were protesting unsafe working conditions and forced overtime. Meanwhile, the Medical Center's top officials went on a PR offensive, accusing striking nurses of engaging in "shameless behavior," and insisting they are recklessly endangering their patients.
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No-Fly List Has Been Declared Unconstitutional, But That's Only a Start Janine Jackson, FAIR A U.S. District Court judge ruled that the Terrorist Screening Database was unconstitutional. The Database, usually referred to as the "watchlist," represents the list from which other lists, like the No-Fly lists, have been derived. Maha Hilal, co-director of Justice for Muslims Collective, says it's crucial that we understand that this decision is not a conclusion but just a possible beginning.
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Why Arms Races Never End Rajan Menon, TomDispatch Hypersonic weapons are just the most recent manifestation of the urge to engage in an "arms race." Voices within the military-industrial complex insist that these are must-have weapons. Their refrain: Unless we build and deploy them soon we could suffer a devastating attack from Russia and China.
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In Case You Missed It
The Right Is Taking Over the Courts, and Trump Is Making It Easy Eleanor J. Bader, Truthout For nearly four decades, conservative organizations like the Federalist Society, aided by deep-pocketed conservative and Libertarian funders, have made filling the federal judiciary a top priority. Not surprisingly, the right has found a willing and eager ally in Donald Trump. The conservative legal movement is taking full advantage of the opportunity, ensuring that newly elected officials and newly confirmed federal judges are wined, dined and "educated" in conservative economic principles and theories.
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Neither Democrats Nor Republicans Will Admit the Problem Is Capitalism Itself Richard D. Wolff, Truthout Cycles of growth followed by downturns is how capitalism has functioned for 250 years. Amid recent fears of an impending recession, while there has been plenty of debate over alternative policies to limit recession, there has been no critique of capitalism itself. This taboo on what can be discussed concerning the causes of economic instability only compounds the problem.
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