February 23, 2021 The Park Center for Independent Media circulates the Indy Brief. Subscribe for a weekly selection of news stories from journalists operating outside traditional corporate systems. Subscribe The Headlines U.S. Politics FBI Seized...
Month: February 2021
What’s On Interior’s To-Do List? A Full Plate of Public Lands Issues—and Trump Rollbacks—for Deb Haaland
Public lands are set to play a pivotal role in the Biden administration’s ambitious climate change agenda. The national parks, wildlife refuges and national recreation areas overseen by the U.S. Department of the Interior have been little-appreciated as...
Demands Grow for Texas to ‘Forgive All Utility Bills’ as Price Gouging by Energy Companies Sparks Outrage
$3,000. $6,500. $7,000. $17,000. Those are just some of the sky-high electricity bills that Texans have reported receiving from their private utility providers in the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri, which overwhelmed the state's deregulated and fossil fuel-dependent...
Fossil Fuel Shock Doctrine: Naomi Klein on Deadly Deregulation & Why Texas Needs the Green New Deal
Millions of Texans are still suffering after severe winter weather devastated the state’s energy and water systems. About 8 million Texans remain under orders to boil water, and 30,000 homes still have no power. Around 70 deaths have now been linked to the winter...
Pandemic May Have Left 265 Million People With Acute Food Shortages in 2020
Beyond the questions surrounding the availability, effectiveness and safety of a vaccine, the COVID-19 pandemic has led us to question where our food is coming from and whether we will have enough. According to a United Nations World Food Program...
Why We Can’t Make Vaccine Doses Any Faster
President Joe Biden has ordered enough vaccines to immunize every American against COVID-19, and his administration says it’s using the full force of the federal government to get the doses by July. There’s a reason he can’t promise them sooner. Vaccine...
Crediting Xenophobia—Rather Than Organizing—With Raising Workers’ Wages
The Economist (2/15/20) ran a brief article last year with a startling headline: “Immigration to America Is Down. Wages Are Up. Are the Two Related?” Maybe, the article’s anonymous author answered, at least for the short term. A few on the right were quick...
The Labor Movement Has a Card to Play—And We Need to Play It
card check noun 1. The ability for workers to form an official, legally recognized union by simply telling everyone they’re a union (and signing cards that say as much) Is this a new idea? Nope! Card check, also called “majority sign-up” (because...
‘Justice Rooted in Compassion’: Asian, Black Progressives Stress Unity and Understanding Amid Attacks on Asian Americans
As violent attacks on Asian Americans, many of them elders, increase across the nation amid the coronavirus and economic crises and the still-frothing wake of racist rhetoric from former President Donald Trump, Asian and Black progressive organizers are standing in...
Andrew Cuomo Isn’t the Only One Who Needs to Answer for COVID-19
Agroup of Republican senators are pressing President Joe Biden’s Justice Department to investigate Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mismanagement of nursing home policy during the pandemic — and conservative media outlets are excitedly touting...