Plus: Amazon’s first unionized warehouse in the U.S. and major news in the Ayotzinapa case.

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Saturday, April 2, 2022

In this issue of The Weekly Reveal:
* How our democracy could slip away, one “Big Lie ([link removed]) ” candidate at a time.
* Why big-name companies who have positioned themselves as climate leaders were conspicuously absent from a relatively mundane call to action ad ([link removed]) .
* Independent experts in the Ayotzinapa case ([link removed]) present drone evidence that they say shows the highest levels of the Mexican government and military were involved in a cover-up.

If you enjoy this week’s newsletter, forward it to a friend ([link removed]) . Feeling chatty? Drop us a line (mailto:[email protected]) with feedback or ideas!


** New: How the 2024 Election Is Being Stolen
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Credit: Illustration by Molly Mendoza for Reveal

The people who certify elections used to have one of the most mundane and bureaucratic positions in politics, but not anymore.

This week on Reveal ([link removed]) , we investigate how Michigan has become the test lab of the anti-democratic movement. It started in 2020, when then-President Donald Trump and his allies made Michigan a key battleground in their attempts to stop Joe Biden’s certification. It turns out the battle hasn’t ended. The state’s GOP has purged officials who certified the election and replaced them with people who say they wouldn’t have certified the election.

Jeff Timmer ran the Republican Party in Michigan from 2005 to 2009. He’s alarmed by what’s happening to his party in the Great Lakes State.

“They’ve been able to infiltrate the Republican Party right down to the precinct level in a way that I’ve been astounded by,” he said. “They have paid attention to those very obscure, small party positions … getting their people in place to chair county Republican parties all across the country – not just to Michigan.”

Indeed, Republican candidates nationwide are tapping into the myth that the 2020 election was stolen and campaigning for office on the promise to change how future elections are run.
* In Michigan, these candidates are targeting offices from the county level all the way up to secretary of state.
* And they’re not stopping there. The Republican-led state Senate in Michigan has introduced nearly 40 bills to change its election laws, all of which propose new barriers to voting.
* Across the country, there are around 20 candidates for secretary of state who are casting doubt on the integrity of our elections.

Our guest host Shereen Marisol Meraji, who you might recognize from NPR’s Code Switch, is also back again this week.

🎧 Listen online ([link removed]) or on Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) , Spotify ([link removed]) or wherever you get your podcasts.


** New: Google, Netflix and LinkedIn Wouldn’t Sign Onto Climate Action Ad
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Jamie Alexander, director of Drawdown Labs, holds the full-page climate action ad her organization ran in The New York Times. Credit: Courtesy of Jamie Alexander

You might have seen it ([link removed]) : A full-page ad in The New York Times in February that called on Congress to “ACT NOW” on the climate crisis.

The ad was organized by Drawdown Labs, part of Project Drawdown. The group has been engaging big-name companies since 2020 to go beyond reducing their own carbon footprint and go all-in on solutions to the climate crisis.

Twenty-five companies signed onto the ad, but the group’s big-name partners – Google, Netflix, LinkedIn and General Mills – were conspicuously absent.

The refusals proved to be a turning point for Jamie Alexander, director of Drawdown Labs. She’s now speaking out and reevaluating the premise her group set out to test: that some of the largest companies will go above and beyond to combat climate change.

If companies that tout themselves as climate leaders won’t endorse a generic call to action, what are they willing to do?

📄 Read the full story by Will Evans ([link removed]) .

The truth won’t reveal itself. Help us deliver the stories that make a difference. Donate today.
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** Update: Independent Experts in Ayotzinapa Case Say Mexican Government Fabricated Evidence, Knew Fate of Missing Students
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Grupo Interdisciplinario de Expertas y Expertos Independientes, or GIEI, present their latest findings on the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students in Mexico City on March 28, 2022. Credit: Screenshot from the livestream of the news conference

Our three-part After Ayotzinapa ([link removed]) series dug into the kidnapping of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in Mexico, and examined the Mexican government’s flawed investigation. If you’ve followed the case and listened to the series, you’ll know that the students’ families demanded that a group of international experts intervene.

Since 2014, the Grupo Interdisciplinario de Expertas y Expertos Independientes (GIEI) and their ongoing investigation have put pressure on the Mexican government to find answers, preventing officials from closing the case.

This week in Mexico City, the GIEI presented ([link removed]) its latest evidence and findings. It says:
* The Mexican government knew since day one that the students were kidnapped and killed by criminals, and hid evidence that could help find them.
* The theory that the students had been killed and burned at a garbage dump is a complete fabrication, and officials from the highest levels of the government and military were involved in fabricating evidence at the dump.

During its presentation, the GIEI showed drone footage ([link removed]) of the garbage dump being secured by the military days before an independent forensic team would arrive. The footage showed dozens of members of the military and government officials at the site for hours in the days leading up to Oct. 29, 2014, when the first piece of remains was found.

You could hear a pin drop in the room as the footage played, said the National Security Archive’s Kate Doyle, lead reporter in the After Ayotzinapa series.

Dig Deeper:

🎧 Our podcast series in English, After Ayotzinapa ([link removed]) , and in Spanish, Después de Ayotzinapa ([link removed]) , a collaboration with Adonde Media.

🎧 New findings show Mexican government tampered with missing students case ([link removed]) [Reveal’s Anayansi Díaz-Cortes, lead reporter in the After Ayotzinapa series, on The World]

📄 Ayotzinapa Investigations ([link removed]) [National Security Archive]

📄 Mexico armed forces knew fate of 43 disappeared students from day one ([link removed]) [The Guardian]


** Update: The First Amazon Warehouse in the United States Has Been Unionized
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An Amazon warehouse worker picks items off a robotically controlled shelf. Credit: GDP via AP Images

For the first time ever, workers at an Amazon warehouse in the United States have voted to unionize, signaling a major rebuke ([link removed]) of the company’s treatment of its employees.

We’ve been investigating Amazon’s workplace safety ([link removed]) for years, based on the company’s own internal records. Here’s some of what we have found:
* The company’s obsession with speed has turned its warehouses into injury mills.
* The rate of serious injuries for those facilities was more than double the national average for the warehousing industry.
* Workers said they had to break safety rules to keep up. They had to, they said, or they would lose their jobs. So they took the risk.
* If they got hurt, they would lose their jobs anyway.
* The company has used robots to ratchet up production quotas to the point that humans can’t keep up without hurting themselves.
* Company officials profoundly misled the public and lawmakers about its record on worker safety.

But, as the unionization drive shows, things appear to be changing. In the wake of our reporting, regulators have also begun cracking down ([link removed]) on the company for the mounting injury crisis.

📄 Read all our Amazon investigations here ([link removed]) .


** A Social Moment
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In case you missed it: Last week, we covered the climate cost of bitcoin ([link removed]) on Reveal, including how one bitcoin operation in Hardin, Montana ([link removed]) has given new life to a coal-fired power plant.
This newsletter is written by Kassie Navarro. Drop her a line (mailto:[email protected]?subject=Weekly%20Reveal%20feedback) with feedback and ideas!

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