By Robert Reich – With congressional Republicans in the majority in Congress and unwilling to cross Donald Trump, the job of containing Trump’s incipient tyranny falls to three centers of independent power: the nation’s courts, its press and a few state governments. Which is why Trump is escalating attacks on all three. The Judiciary After…
A lawsuit in the 1990s had Alabama poised to fund poor black school districts as fairly as wealthy white schools. As state attorney general, Sessions fought the effort passionately. – By Ryan Gabrielson – ProPublica – In the early 1990s, children across Alabama’s large rural stretches still attended faltering public schools, some with exposed wiring…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – It is with a heavy heart that I bring you this news today, word that the amazing and historic Standing Rock Sioux protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline is coming to an end north of Cannon Ball, North Dakota. While most of the official tribal leadership is…
By Glynn Wilson – The gerrymandering plan rammed through the state legislature by Alabama Republicans after they took control in 2010 has now been thrown out by a three-judge panel of federal judges in Montgomery as an unconstitutionaly overtly race-based map. A three-judge panel of the Federal District Court in Montgomery unanimously agreed that in…
By Glynn Wilson – Less than two weeks into Donald J. Trump’s tenure as President of the United States, already 40 percent of Americans say they want him impeached and removed from office in an unprecedented public backlash to his policies, according to a new survey just out from Public Policy Polling. Yet it is…
By Robert Reich – Donald Trump has reorganized the National Security Council – elevating his chief political strategist Steve Bannon, and demoting the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Bannon will join the NSC’s principals committee, the top inter-agency group advising the President on national security. Meanwhile, the…
By Emma Niles – While President Donald J. Trump sharply changed the federal government’s approach to the environment this week as he cleared the way for two major oil pipelines that had been blocked by the Obama administration by signing presidential memorandums calling for the continued construction of the Dakota Access pipeline and the Keystone…
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the latest move by the Trump administration and the Republicans in Congress to weaken federal regulations and conduct a war on science and the environment, Congressman Paul Gosar, a Republican from Arizona, introduced a bill on Tuesday that would pave the way for more oil and gas…
UPDATE: After this story was published, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Tuesday to confirm Senator Jeff Sessions as attorney general of the United States, sending President Donald Trump’s pick to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer to the full Senate for a final vote. By Lauren McCauley – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Democrats…
VIDEO – Leaders of the state and national NAACP and other groups protest and get arrested again – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — After hearing the news in municipal court Monday morning that the city was not going to press charges against NAACP protesters for staging a sit-in January 3 at Republican Senator…
A federal judge in Brooklyn issued an emergency stay Saturday night against President Donald Trump’s executive order banning immigration from certain predominantly Muslim countries, temporarily allowing people who have landed in the United States with a valid visa to remain. The ruling — a stunning defeat for Trump at the end of his first week in…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – The mainstream, corporate news media in America is in a quandary over what to do about the new U.S. president, Donald J. Trump. He calls them all “horrible people” and “liars” and purveyors of “fake news.” So what do they do? The broadcast media, so far, has…
By Garrison Keillor – What we know so far is that the man is who he is. There is no larger, finer man inside him trying to get out. Everyone who is paying attention knows this. Flags flying at the Capitol, the U.S. Marine Band, gray eminences in black coats, and He Who Is Smarter…
By Bernie Sanders – MEDIA SHAPES OUR VERY LIVES. It tells us what products we need to buy and, by the quantity and nature of coverage, what is “important†and what is “unimportant.†Media informs us as to the scope of what is “realistic†and “possible.†When we see constant coverage of murders and brutality…
By Catherine Rainey – Arts Editor – While Mardi Gras in Mobile holds its own captivating charm, another spectacle will take place during the long-standing tradition this year. In early February, Venardos Circus and Alabama Contemporary Arts Center, formerly Space 301, are collaborating by putting together a performance art piece for all audiences entitled Cirque…
By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — One of new president Donald Trump’s biggest issues during the campaign was his promise to rebuild America’s “crumbling” infrastructure. People who watch politics closely seem to think this may be the one good thing Trump might be able to accomplish out of all his zany Twitter campaign promises…
Full Scale War on Science Begins – By Lauren McCauley – Though the majority of President Donald Trump’s controversial cabinet nominations have not yet been confirmed, his so-called “beachhead” teams have arrived at their respective agencies, carrying out orders that make clear that the “War on Science” has begun. On Tuesday, the news broke that…
By Glynn Wilson – U.S. Senate Democrats are delaying a key vote on Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions’s nomination as President Donald Trump’s attorney general, according The Hill and other news outlets. They say Senators need more time to review the candidate. “As we have done for most nominees … I’m asking that the vote for…
By Robert Reich – Donald Trump is such a consummate liar that in coming days and years our democracy will depend more than ever on the independent press – finding the truth, reporting it, and holding Trump accountable for his lies. But Trump’s strategy is to denigrate and disparage the press in the public’s mind…
BREAKING NEWS – By Glynn Wilson – A paper mill explosion Sunday night at the International Paper plant in Cantonment, Florida, generated typical local news coverage where the newspaper and television news stations are more concerned about a road closing and the status of schools than a deadly, toxic substance contaminating the area for workers…
