Новости за 30.08.2023

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis rejected $350 million in federal funds meant to help tackle climate change—just months before Hurricane Idalia flooded his state.

The Labor Department on Wednesday proposed to extend overtime protection to 3.6 million salaried workers.

Back in 2021, then–Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel posted—of all things—a Pride Month greeting on X, the website formerly known as Twitter. “Happy #PrideMonth!” McDaniel’s post read. “@GOP is proud to have doubled our LGBTQ support over the last 4 years.” McDaniel’s message was hailed at the time—at least by some Republicans interviewed in Politico—as a sign of a changing political climate.

A new poll from Gallup shows the vast majority of Americans approve of labor unions.

On Wednesday, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell froze midway through a press conference, requiring aides to escort him from the scene after he was seemingly unable to respond.

Ohioans will vote on two ballot initiatives this November, centered on critical issues that could inspire either passionate or awkward debate at the Thanksgiving table a few weeks later: One is an amendment to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state constitution, and the other a proposal to legalize the purchase and possession of marijuana. Despite the lower turnout inherent in a year without a presidential or even midterm contest, the salience of these issues will likely raise the profile... Читать дальше...

Voters in a small pro-Trump county in Iowa have voted out an election auditor who repeatedly shared conspiracy theories, including about QAnon and the 2020 election. Then they replaced him with a Democrat.

A judge issued a default judgment against Rudy Giuliani Wednesday in a defamation lawsuit brought by two women who worked during the Georgia 2020 election.

The front page of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s student newspaper has gone viral for showing the terror of being caught in a school shooting.

Georgia’s far-right state Senator Colton Moore suggested that a civil war will break out when Donald Trump goes to trial for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Canada has issued a travel advisory for LGBTQ people thinking of going to the United States, warning them about the increasingly restrictive local laws.

Paying the National Labor Relations Board a backward compliment, Republican senators seem to be celebrating Labor Day this year by trying to shut it down. The good news is that they’re making a terrible hash of it.

Most Americans don’t give much thought to the “administrative state” in our daily lives. But the constellation of federal agencies and other institutions that translate public interest laws into concrete policies and programs is ever-present, humming in the background. This is true even as we grab food off store shelves without worrying about whether it will sicken our children or deposit our hard-earned money in banks, assured it will be there tomorrow—all thanks in part to America’s civil service. Читать дальше...

Serge Langunu is a graduate student in botany at the University of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In May, he and I were sitting on a bench in the parking lot of a hospital just outside Lubumbashi’s downtown, looking at photos of plants on his laptop.  

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration officials opposed the College Board’s new Advanced Placement African American studies course due to its lack of “opposing viewpoints” on slavery.