U.S. News
www.scientificamerican.com
[archive.is](https://archive.ph/MslY5) > Climate scientists are in clear agreement that in order to avoid ever-worsening disasters and disruptions to our societies, the world must rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The policies put in place over the next few years will determine what the future climate looks like and what threats the world will face. The U.S. is crucial to this effort. And in the 2024 presidential election contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump, voters have a choice between diametrically opposed visions of what the country must do. “When it comes to climate change, the contrast between Trump and Harris could not be more stark,” says Leah Stokes, a University of California, Santa Barbara, political scientist who focuses on energy and climate. --- > To provide a broad look at how potential policies under Harris or Trump would shape future U.S. emissions, Orvis’s team at EI used its Energy Policy Simulator, an open-source computer model. The researchers compared current policies under the Biden-Harris administration with more ambitious policies that achieve a target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and with the policies laid out in Project 2025. They found that the latter scenario “basically stops the progress that’s been made,” Orvis says. And even if current policies aren’t enough to meet international climate goals, any progress that can be made is crucial because “each tenth of a degree [of warming] is more damaging than the previous one.”
> A hopeful and unexpected drop in U.S. drug overdose deaths appears to be gaining speed. Fatal overdoses are down 12.7%, according to data released this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It marks another significant improvement from last month, when surveys showed roughly a 10.6% drop in fatalities from street drugs.
www.thenation.com
[Archive link](https://ghostarchive.org/archive/9S5Z5) Here's the salient line: *As soon as a Democrat loses the popular vote but wins an Electoral College victory thanks to the support of Black and brown people in currently red states, Republican white folks will suddenly become very interested in getting rid of the Electoral College.*
theappeal.org
> If Roberson’s execution goes forward, he will be the first person executed on the basis of the Shaken Baby Syndrome hypothesis in the history of the United States. > > Texas lawmakers say they passed a law to prevent miscarriages of justice like this from occurring. In 2013, they approved Article 11.073, known as the junk science writ law. The statute allows people to challenge their convictions based on developments in forensic science that “contradicts scientific evidence relied on by the state at trial.” --- > Several people testified at the hearing including Brian Wharton, the former lead detective on Roberson’s case. Wharton now says Roberson is innocent. > > “We should apologize to Robert and send him home,” Wharton told Texas lawmakers. “Don’t make my mistake. Hear his voice.” > > Roberson’s legal team says that his daughter died from a severe case of viral and bacterial pneumonia which developed into septic shock. Her condition was exacerbated by dangerous levels of promethazine in her system, which two doctors prescribed to her in the days before her death.
> This year’s flu shot will be missing a strain of influenza it’s protected against for more than a decade. > > That’s because there have been no confirmed flu cases caused by the Influenza B/Yamagata lineage since spring 2020. And the Food and Drug Administration decided this year that the strain now poses little to no threat to human health. > > Scientists have concluded that widespread physical distancing and masking practiced during the early days of COVID-19 appear to have pushed B/Yamagata into oblivion.
> On Monday, the Rutherford County sheriff’s office released a statement confirming that it had arrested an armed suspect for making threats against Federal Emergency Management Agency employees but had concluded that the suspect had acted alone and that there were not “truck loads of militia” targeting relief workers. > > Around 1 p.m. Saturday, an official with the U.S. Forest Service, which is supporting recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene along with FEMA, sent an urgent message to numerous federal agencies warning that “FEMA has advised all federal responders Rutherford County, N.C., to stand down and evacuate the county immediately. The message stated that National Guard troops ‘had come across ... trucks of armed militia saying they were out hunting FEMA.’” > > “The IMTs [incident management teams] have been notified and are coordinating the evacuation of all assigned personnel in that county,” the email added.
flatwaterfreepress.org
> Tenants at four Omaha-area apartment complexes voted to unionize this summer, and they all share a common landlord: Minnesota-based Elevate Living. > > Now renters with a local landlord are preparing to follow their lead. > > Though tenant unions have deep roots in cities like New York and Los Angeles, there’s little precedent in Nebraska for the organizations. > > Driving the unionization trend in Omaha is a growing feeling among tenants that landlords are charging more in rent but doing less to address issues at their properties, said Seth Cope, a founding organizer with OTU.
> If passed, the measure would give authority back to local governments to enact or change laws on rent control. For advocates, passing Proposition 33 would be a critical opportunity to address California’s housing crisis head-on. For the real estate industry, defeating Proposition 33 would mean maintaining the status quo in a market that has made billions for corporate landlords. > > While rent control — caps on rent increases — provides relief to tenants, some economists suggest there are significant trade-offs: Rent control policies can lead to higher rents for uncontrolled units, reduce landlords’ incentive to maintain units, and dampen the creation of new rental housing — exacerbating affordable housing shortages. > > Since January 2021, states and localities across the country have implemented more than 300 new tenant protections, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a nonprofit that pushes for housing affordability. > > And some housing advocates think that if Californians approve the ballot question, other states could follow suit, expanding rent control in the coming years as a way to prevent large rate hikes that can force out low- and middle-income tenants.
theconversation.com
The first time many Americans heard about Springfield, Ohio, came during the September 2024 presidential debate when Donald Trump falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants in the city were eating other residents’ cats and dogs. [...] What has gone mostly overlooked is the effect these racist lies have had on energizing Ohio’s nearly 50 white extremist groups. Members of the white supremacist group Blood Tribe marched through Springfield on Aug. 10, 2024, with with swastikas on their signs. Since then, members of the Ku Klux Klan and the right-wing extremist group Proud Boys have each marched in separate demonstrations through Springfield. [...] [Researchers] have found that the rapidly changing social conditions in Ohio have played a significant role in the growth of extremism. Between 1990 and 2019, for instance, manufacturing jobs shrank from 21.7% of all employment in the state to 12.5%, a loss of nearly 360,000 jobs. As a result, income disparities between the professional and working classes have widened – as has the heightened sense among some alienated white men that white conservatives are the real victims of bias in a society growing more racially and culturally diverse. For many of these alienated men, particularly those in rural areas that lack significant numbers of Black and Hispanic residents, extremist ideologies offer easy answers to complex questions that involve their sense of disenfranchisement [...] Though the emergence of white extremist groups goes far beyond the borders of Ohio, [researchers] have found that community-based, educational initiatives are effective in understanding and ultimately eradicating the root causes of racial and ethnic hatred on the local level. [...] Community engagement that emphasizes dialogue and understanding across different racial groups is crucial for demonstrating the dangers of intolerance – and the benefits of diversity.
www.rollingstone.com
> When tornadoes swept through Rockdale County, Georgia, this past spring, residents complained they had little warning. There was a similar silence when Buffalo, New York, was buried in multiple feet of snow in 2022. In Maui, Hawaii, and Paradise, California — the sites of the two deadliest wildfires in modern U.S. history — survivors believe a lack of warning contributed to the loss of dozens of lives. > > Each of these disasters was unique, but they also speak to shared, underlying issues that cut to the core of this system. Because when it comes to the who, what, when, where, and why of warnings, there’s no single, official standard. Instead, there is a patchwork of approaches, often relying on a few people shouldering the responsibility to warn thousands or even millions of others. And while money, attention, and energy are being poured into addressing the technological side, the very human challenges of bureaucracy, communication, trust, and fear are often ignored — until the next disaster.
www.canarymedia.com
> The complicated regulatory and financial requirements are some of the reasons why it has taken months for the consortiums to start dishing out green bank funds. But somebody eventually had to go first. > > That honor goes to Climate United, the consortium in charge of nearly $7 billion in federal green bank funding, more than any other group. On Tuesday, it announced what is both its first investment and the first project financed by the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: a $31.8 million loan for Scenic Hill Solar, a Little Rock, Arkansas–based solar developer. > > That money will provide pre-construction financing for solar installations that will help lower the utility bills and carbon footprint of the University of Arkansas system. At 66 megawatts across 16 sites, the project will be the largest commercial solar deployment in Arkansas and the fourth-largest university renewable energy deployment in the country.
www.propublica.org
> Intense Debate Over Solar: A large solar farm proposed in Knox County, Ohio, has drawn about 4,000 public comments — more than any other solar project in the state. > > Newspaper Misinformation: After the local paper was sold to Metric Media, part of a “pink slime” network, the Mount Vernon News published one-sided coverage and dubious claims about solar power. > > Fossil Fuel Influence: Opposition to solar was stoked by a group whose major donor — a retired gas-industry executive — also leads a pro-gas dark-money organization.
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A jury on Friday acquitted a former police officer in Virginia of involuntary manslaughter after he fatally shot a shoplifting suspect outside a busy shopping mall. But the jury did convict the former police sergeant, Wesley Shifflett, of reckless handling of a firearm in connection with the shooting. Prosecutors argued that Shifflett, then a sergeant with Fairfax County Police, acted recklessly when he shot and killed an unarmed man, Timothy McCree Johnson, after a short foot chase outside Tysons Corner Center in February 2023. Shifflett testified in his own defense and claimed self defense. He said he saw Johnson, 37, reaching into his waistband after falling down during the chase, and he was worried that Johnson might be drawing a weapon.
www.msnbc.com
**Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is back to doing what she’s best known for: spreading conspiracy theories.** **The Georgia Republican, who infamously boosted a conspiracy theory about Jewish space lasers in 2021, seemingly tried to imply that Hurricane Helene was the product of someone — an ominous but otherwise unidentified “they” — who can control the weather.** Greene wrote on X[itter] late Thursday: > Yes, they can control the weather. > It's ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can't be done. [...] To state it plainly: The idea of weather-inducing technology that’s powerful enough to generate a weaponized hurricane has been debunked by experts. (Is cloud seeding a thing? Yes, but that doesn’t seem to be what’s under discussion here.) [...] Together, Greene’s posts certainly give the impression that she thinks Hurricane Helene was the result of some artificial technology to harm Republicans. Which is taking a claim that Donald Trump and others in the GOP have been making — suggesting that federal agencies are deliberately denying aid to Republican residents and giving it to undocumented immigrants instead — and really launching it into the stratosphere, so to speak. For the record, FEMA has denounced and corrected Trump’s claims.
www.bbc.com
The White House swiftly rebutted the claims and accused Republicans of spreading "bold-faced lies" about funding for the disaster response. [...] Trump and his allies expressed outrage that the agency had spent over $640m (£487m) on housing migrants. But officials pointed out that this funding, authorised by Congress, was part of an entirely different programme run by Fema unconnected to disaster relief. [...] Republicans have attempted to link the disaster relief effort to immigration - an issue seen as a strength for Trump - but have spread misinformation about how government money is used. At an event in Evans, Georgia, on Friday, Trump said, without evidence, that: "A lot of the money that was supposed to go to Georgia and supposed to go to North Carolina and all of the others is going and has gone already. "It's been gone for people that came into the country illegally, and nobody has ever seen anything like that. That's a shame." Fema did receive a budget from Congress - $640m in the last fiscal year - to provide housing to immigrants applying for US citizenship.
www.bbc.com
Speaking at an event in her home state of Tennessee on Friday, the 78-year-old said the money would come "from my own bank account". Parton's local commercial ventures - including the Dollywood amusement park - would also donate the same amount to the Mountain Ways Foundation, which is aiding those affected by flooding in the region. [...] Helene is the deadliest mainland storm since Katrina in 2005. Making landfall as a category four hurricane, Helene damaged structures, caused flash flooding and knocked out power to millions of homes. Over half a million properties remain without electricity as of Saturday. The US government has said the clean-up effort could take years.
thelensnola.org
During pregnancy, the amount of blood in the body increases 50%. But it can dip to low – and deadly – levels within minutes. Pregnancy complications, most often during delivery and miscarriage, can trigger critical, excessive bleeding. That bleeding, postpartum hemorrhage, is the leading cause of maternal death worldwide. To combat it, doctors routinely reach for the medication misoprostol. “I have it in every single delivery room,” said an obstetrician who’s practiced in New Orleans since 2017. “ I can have it in 45 seconds.” He needs it that fast, he said, because obstetric hemorrhage can progress quickly, making it possible for a patient to lose a significant amount of blood in a short amount of time. “It’s terrifying,” said the obstetrician, who asked that his name not be used because of the divisive politics of abortion in Louisiana. To him, misoprostol at the bedside is “tantamount to maternal health.” Come October 1, that will change. [...] [A] new law limits not only people’s reproductive rights, but their very ability to survive common life events, like a miscarriage or the delivery of a child.
yaleclimateconnections.org
> Some of the worst flooding from Helene was in western North Carolina. The full scope of damage in this mountainous area was still difficult to assess on Saturday, as Interstate 40 as well as countless smaller roads were either shut down or washed out, and many residents lacked power and/or cell service. The French Broad River at Asheville crested on Friday afternoon at 24.67 feet, and the Swannanoa River at nearby Biltmore crested at 26.10 feet; both crests topped the respective records of 23.1 and 20.7 feet produced by the destructive Gulf Coast Hurricane of July 1916. > > The colossal storm surge and catastrophic rains produced by Helene – as well as Helene’s jaw-dropping rapid intensification prior to landfall – reveal some likely fingerprints of human-caused climate change, as discussed in a Sept. 27 post by Dr. Jeff Masters. Among the records set by Helene: > - Highest storm surge ever measured at three of the six long-term tide gauges along Florida’s west coast. Cedar Key, Clearwater Beach, and St. Petersburg all recorded high-water marks near midnight Thursday night that were roughly 2 to 2.5 feet above all prior marks in data extending back 50 to 110 years. > - Heaviest multiday rainfall on record in Asheville, with 9.89 inches for the period Sept. 26-27 (pre-Helene record 7.94” on Oct. 24-25, 1918) and 13.98” for the period Sept. 25-27 (pre-Helene record 8.49” on Oct. 24-26, 1918). Atlanta had its second wettest three-day span on record, with 11.12” on Sept. 25-27 just behind 11.75” on Dec. 7-9, 1919.
newrepublic.com
[Archived version](http://web.archive.org/web/20240926113748/https://newrepublic.com/post/186374/gop-republicans-dog-killers-pet-slaughter) Heritage Foundation president and Project 2025 architect Kevin Roberts stands accused this week of killing his neighbor’s dog with a shovel circa 2004. Three people who knew Roberts during his time at New Mexico State University told The Guardian that they remember Roberts telling them that he had killed the dog because it was barking too much. Three more people reportedly recall hearing the story at the time from those colleagues [Roberts, however, denies it, calling the allegation “patently untrue and baseless.” In some ways, that denial is the most unusual part of this whole story.] [...] The most striking example [of a Republican killing pets and other animals] is Kristi Noem, who stunned the country this spring by bragging in her book about shooting her 14-month-old puppy and a family goat, portraying the story as an example of her grit and fortitude. [...] In 2003, Vice President Dick Cheney participated in a so-called “canned hunt,” shooting pheasants that had been raised in captivity and then released specifically for this event. [...] [While] George H.W. Bush banned ivory imports to protect African elephants, the younger Bush proposed reversing the ban on importing hunting trophies of endangered species into the U.S., and later named a top lobbyist for the trophy hunting organization Safari Club International as acting director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. [...] Then, of course, there were the Trump children. In 2011, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump traveled to Zimbabwe with a safari firm that Zimbabwean conservationists later said was not registered in the country. They killed an elephant and leopard, among other animals, posing with the dead bodies. “I AM A HUNTER I don’t hide from that,” Trump Jr. tweeted when the photos surfaced the following year. In late 2019, ProPublica reported that Trump Jr. had received “special treatment” during a trip to Mongolia, shooting an endangered argali sheep, for which he was retroactively given a permit after meeting with Mongolia’s president. (The hunting trip was later reported to have cost American taxpayers over $75,000.) [...] This isn’t a comprehensive list, because the examples are too numerous to recount. In 2022, Trump’s former secretary of the interior, Ryan Zinke, posted a picture of himself pressing a hot cattle brand into a strapped-down calf during his congressional campaign. As Jan Dutkiewicz and Gabriel Rosenberg memorably wrote for The New Republic last year, meat eating is now so entrenched as a masculinity marker on the American right that vegetarian men minding their own business are now mockingly referred to as “soy boys.” [...]
www.bbc.com
Tropical Storm Helene has intensified into a hurricane and is predicted to turn into a dangerous Category 3 storm before hitting the US Gulf Coast on Thursday. Forecasters warn the major hurricane could bring "life-threatening" storm surge, damaging winds and flooding to a large portion of Florida and the south-eastern US.
www.thenation.com
Explaining the rave scene and the appeal thereof has always been an uphill battle.
www.mercurynews.com
[archive.is link](https://archive.ph/WLis1) > The area, which includes popular spots like Pismo Beach and the Gaviota Coast, is home to humpback whales, sea otters, leatherback sea turtles, kelp forests, rocky reefs and more than 200 shipwrecks. Under the proposal, it would cover 4,543 square miles — an area nearly four times the size of Yosemite National Park — and extend out to 60 miles offshore. > The Chumash sanctuary will be the first national marine sanctuary in the nation proposed by a Native American tribe. The Northern Chumash Tribe, based in Los Osos, near Morro Bay, began advocating for the idea in 2015.
A federal judge has partially sided with the family of a Black man who was fatally shot by a now-imprisoned white Kansas City, Missouri, police detective, ruling that the officer should not have entered the man’s backyard. U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips ruled Wednesday that Eric DeValkenaere violated 26-year-old Cameron Lamb’s Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure by entering his property in 2019 without a warrant or other legal reason to be there. However, Phillips declined to issue a summary judgment on the family’s claim that the ensuing shooting amounted to excessive force, and made no immediate decision on any damages in the wrongful death case filed against the Kansas City police board and DeValkenaere.
www.kctv5.com
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A sight previously thought to be science fiction is very real at a southeast Kansas City shopping center. Instead of a police officer, a security robot has been patrolling sidewalks and shoppers are taking notice. Since Marshall the robot has been on the job, shoppers say the experiences have completely changed when they come to these stores. The robot can spend 23 hours a day monitoring the parking lot from all angles which gives people a new sense of protection and ease they don’t always have when out. Marshall took over security at Brywood Centre in April. Before that, Karen White noticed a lot of trouble outside the shopping center. “Sometimes it’d be concerning for your car like someone could take it or something,” White said. Knowing now that Marshall is always watching, the risk of crime does not worry her or others as much. “It made it very better, like you can’t be in the parking lot without seeing the robot,” White continued. “So, I think it scared them off.”