THE WEEKLY REVEAL

Hello! In this issue:

• This legendary photographer chronicled the civil rights movement. But did he also betray it?
   
• The wave of election crime legislation continues.
   
• New York passes a law to improve working conditions at Amazon facilities.

THIS WEEK’S PODCAST

The Double Life of a Civil Rights Icon

Photographer Ernest Withers took some of the most enduring photos of the civil rights movement and earned the trust of leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. But Withers’ photos also served another purpose – one he kept secret from those who thought they knew him.

This week on Reveal, we explore whether the legendary chronicler of the civil rights movement also betrayed it.

NEW

Texas Republicans Look to Usurp Power of Local Prosecutors Who Don’t Pursue Their Voter Fraud Agenda
By Ese Olumhense

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton waves to the crowd during an October 2022 rally featuring former President Donald Trump in Robstown, Texas. Credit: Nick Wagner/Associated Press

In October, our investigation exposed the most threatening front in voter suppression efforts in generations. The proliferation of election crime legislation comes in direct response to false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and that legislation wave is continuing and intensifying.

This year, the Texas Legislature is considering at least nine bills that would increase criminal penalties for voting-related infractions or extend law enforcement’s ability to investigate voters.

Some of the bills, all with Republican authors, would:

• Allow the state’s Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, to send prosecutors from neighboring counties to investigate suspected cases of voter fraud in the state’s large Democratic counties.
   
• Allow the attorney general to remove from office a district attorney who chooses not to prosecute election crimes, effectively stripping local prosecutors of discretion over how they use their office’s resources.
   
• Make it a crime for a voter to cast a ballot in a party’s primary election if the voter is not a member of that party.

Threatening people with criminal prosecution is “the most extreme deterrent you can imagine,” said civil rights attorney Thomas A. Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “Even if someone has every right to vote, they may hesitate.”

NEW

New York Passes Law to Protect Amazon Warehouse Workers
By Will Evans

New York has become the second state to regulate warehouse work quotas in an effort to improve working conditions at Amazon facilities.

Gov. Kathy Hochul last month signed the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, which says warehouse workers can’t be forced to hit work quotas that would prevent them from taking meal and rest breaks and using the bathroom.

“We’re just getting started, baby,” said New York Senate Labor Committee Chair Jessica Ramos, who sponsored the bill. “I can’t let my state become one where we condone high-tech sweatshops.”

• As we reported in 2019, Amazon workers felt such pressure to achieve productivity targets and escape discipline that some delayed bathroom trips and even developed urinary tract infections.
   
• We’ve also documented how Amazon used tracking software to hold workers to specific productivity rates under threat of discipline. Workers, former Amazon safety managers and Washington state safety officials have said that constant pressure to work fast leads to injuries.

The New York law is the latest example of government officials taking action after years of mounting injuries from Amazon’s relentless drive for speed.

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