Archived version

A federal judge on Monday struck down key parts of an Arkansas law that would have allowed criminal charges against librarians and booksellers for providing “harmful” materials to minors.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks found that elements of the law are unconstitutional.

“I respect the court’s ruling and will appeal,” Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The law would have created a new process to challenge library materials and request that they be relocated to areas not accessible to children. The measure was signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in 2023, but an earlier ruling had temporarily blocked it from taking effect while it was being challenged in court.

“The law deputizes librarians and booksellers as the agents of censorship; when motivated by the fear of jail time, it is likely they will shelve only books fit for young children and segregate or discard the rest,” Brooks wrote in his ruling.

A coalition that included the Central Arkansas Library System in Little Rock had challenged the law, saying fear of prosecution under the measure could prompt libraries and booksellers to no longer carry titles that could be challenged.

archive link

To understand how the bird flu got out of hand, KFF Health News interviewed nearly 70 government officials, farmers and farmworkers, and researchers with expertise in virology, pandemics, veterinary medicine, and more.

...

Virologists around the world said they were flabbergasted by how poorly the United States was tracking the situation. “You are surrounded by highly pathogenic viruses in the wild and in farm animals,” said Marion Koopmans, head of virology at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands. “If three months from now we are at the start of the pandemic, it is nobody’s surprise.”

...

As President-elect Donald Trump comes into office in January, farmworkers may be even less protected. Trump’s pledge of mass deportations will have repercussions whether they happen or not, said Tania Pacheco-Werner, director of the Central Valley Health Policy Institute in California.

Many dairy and poultry workers are living in the U.S. without authorization or on temporary visas linked to their employers. Such precarity made people less willing to see doctors about covid symptoms or complain about unsafe working conditions in 2020. Pacheco-Werner said, “Mass deportation is an astronomical challenge for public health.”

archive link

DFCS spends a minimum of $830 to $980 a month to house a child in foster care, according to the state’s published daily rates for foster parents. That’s roughly equivalent to the monthly fair market rate to rent a one-bedroom apartment in most of Georgia outside of metro Atlanta, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s estimates.

The cost for foster care can be significantly higher if a child has complex mental health or behavioral needs, as some of Wise’s kids do. Under the state’s current rates, specialized foster care for a single child in an institution or group home can reach $6,390 a month.

Josh Gupta-Kagan, who directs the Family Defense Clinic at Columbia Law School, said it’s baffling that DFCS would not provide housing assistance instead of removing children. “Why do we allow kids to be separated from their parents who we won’t help with housing — only to place them with strangers who we will help with housing?” he asked.

Archived version

The owners of a 70-story Panama City hotel tower formerly managed by President Donald Trump’s companies are accusing them of stiffing the Panamanian government.

In a legal filing Monday in an ongoing lawsuit in Manhattan federal court, private equity manager Orestes Fintiklis and the company he leads, Ithaca Capital Partners, claimed that two Trump companies failed to pay Panamanian taxes equal to 12.5% of the management fees they drew from the hotel.

The Trump entities were allegedly supposed to withhold those fees in advance and pay them to the government regardless of whether the property was profitable or not. Instead, the Trump companies simply kept the money, the suit claims, “thus intentionally evading taxes.” That and other financial irregularities exposed Fintiklis and the companies he represents “to millions of dollars in liability,” according to the suit, which also claims Trump companies sought to cover up their actions. The filing does not say whether a tax penalty has been levied by Panamanian authorities.

[...]

Trump companies also “artificially deflated” the hotel’s expenses and underreported Trump’s management fees in financial statements presented to Ithaca, the suit alleged, leading the hotel to appear to be in a better financial position than it was.

The suit alleged other improper financial behavior, saying that instead of making the necessary distributions to hotel room owners, “Trump hoarded their cash.” It said Trump companies failed to make appropriate financial disclosures and drained reserve accounts to pay operational costs, “all the while Trump lined its pockets with ill-gotten management fees.”

[...]

It's almost like financial services exist to shaft the poor.

The clemency action applies to all federal death row inmates except three convicted of terrorism or hate-motivated mass murder: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted of carrying out the 2013 Boston marathon bombing attack; Dylann Roof, who shot dead nine Black church members in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; and Robert Bowers, who stormed a synagogue in the heart of Pittsburgh's Jewish community and killed 11 worshippers in 2018.

archive link

Yale historian and author Timothy Snyder’s 2017 book, 'On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century,' came out just a month after Trump began his first term, and opened with the warning: “Do Not Obey in Advance.”

Niw in 2024, that message has been widely cited following ABC News’s decision to settle a Trump defamation case by donating $15 million to his future presidential library.

Major tech leaders have also cozied up to the president-elect in recent days, including with major donations to Trump’s inauguration. “There is a problem when the people who have the most money set the example of yielding to power first,” says Snyder. “It’s textbook anticipatory obedience.”

Archived version

The FBI has held classified briefings warning a handful of U.S. lawmakers that the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] is working to create fake stories to portray them in a negative light because of their hawkish views of Beijing and support for Taiwan, two U.S. officials familiar with the briefing said.

The U.S. officials, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the briefings, said that one of the false stories being concocted by the CCP, cited by FBI briefers, is that these lawmakers are espousing pro-Taiwan views because they were taking “bribes” from Taiwan.

“The CCP is trying to undermine congressional support for Taiwan’s democracy, to paint it as corrupt and not in the American public interest,” one of the two U.S. officials told NBC News. “It will not work.”

The officials said the briefings occurred in the fall.

[...]

Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., the chairman of the select House committee on the CCP, had no comment about any specific plot by the CCP, but said it was no secret Beijing has been targeting U.S. officials and other Americans.

“The CCP will try to discredit our way of life, our freedoms and will use every means necessary,” Moolenaar told NBC News. “So you know, whether it’s hacking high-level officials’ communications, we can expect all these things.”

[...]

archive link

Amite School Center, like many private schools across the Deep South, opened during desegregation to serve families fleeing the arrival of Black children at the once all-white public schools. ProPublica has been examining how these schools, called “segregation academies,” often continue to act as divisive forces in their communities even now, five decades later.

In Amite County, about 900 children attend the local public schools — which, as of 2021, were 16% white. More than 600 children attend two private schools — which were 96% white. Other, mostly white students go to a larger segregation academy in a neighboring county.

“It’s staggering,” said Warren Eyster, principal of Amite County High until this school year. “It does create a divide.”

The difference between those figures, 80 percentage points, is one way to understand the segregating effect of private schools — it shows how much more racially isolated students are when they attend these schools.

A stark pattern emerged across states in the Deep South — Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina — where about 200 majority-Black school districts educate 1.3 million students. Alongside those districts, a separate web of schools operates: private academies filled almost entirely with white students. Across the majority-Black districts in those states, private schools are 72% white and public schools are 19% white.

Many of those districts are home to segregation academies, which siphon off large numbers of white students. In many areas, particularly rural ones, these academies are the reason that public school districts scarcely resemble their communities — and the reason that public schools are more Black than the population of children in the surrounding county.

Which county has the largest chasm? Amite.

From Atlanta’s Westside to Chicago’s South Side, Black neighborhoods are driving bold, innovative climate solutions rooted in community pride and collective action. These efforts aren’t just about survival in the face of systemic neglect — they’re building a future that thrives despite political hostility.

Archived version

The Chinese government allegedly used a Chino Hills man in an effort to advance policies favorable to the People’s Republic of China in Southern California local government, according to a criminal complaint released Thursday.

Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 64, was charged with acting as an illegal agent of a foreign power and conspiring with another man — John Chen — who had been plotting to target U.S.-based practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice banned in China. Chen was sentenced last month to 20 months in prison for acting as an unregistered agent of the People’s Republic of China and bribing an Internal Revenue Service agent.

Sun, a Chinese national, served as the campaign manager and business partner for a Southern California politician, described in court records only as Individual 1. The politician was running for local elected office in 2022.

[...]

U.S. Atty. Martin Estrada called the case “another example of a very disturbing trend” of the Chinese government seeking to influence foreign and domestic policies in the United States. China takes a broad approach, he said, including connecting with local government officials who might not yet be on the national stage.

[...]

There have been growing signs that China is attempting to influence state and local governments. In 2022, federal authorities issued a notice warning that the Chinese were collecting personal information about state and local leaders and trying court those who might rise to higher office.

[...]

Earlier this year, federal authorities charged a woman who had served as a senior deputy to two New York governors with being a Chinese agent working to push that government’s agenda. Prosecutors alleged that Linda Sun’s actions included preventing representatives of the Taiwanese government from having access to the governor’s office.

Yaoning Sun was arrested Thursday morning. If convicted of all charges, he faces up to 15 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.

[...]

Archived version

Women experiencing pregnancy loss in states with abortion bans told us they wished they had known what to expect and how to advocate for themselves. The independent media platform ProPublica created this guide for anyone who finds themselves in the same position.

archive link

if you're not in Seattle, you probably haven't followed this incredibly stupid saga up until now:

May 2024: Adrian Diaz Out as Police Chief Amid Mounting Harassment and Discrimination Allegations

Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz has stepped down as chief after a series of scandals and lawsuits, many of them by women alleging discrimination and sexual harassment by Diaz and other officers in the department, multiple sources have confirmed.

Diaz will reportedly remain at the department in a special projects director instead of being fired—allowing him to retain a substantial six-figure salary without having to go back to his previous rank of lieutenant.

June 2024: Diaz Comes Out as Gay to Right-Wing Radio Host, Who Says this Proves His “Innocence”

Former police chief Adrian Diaz told conservative talk-radio host Jason Rantz that he is a “gay Latino man,” and suggested that his being gay undermines the claims of the women who have accused him of with sexual harassment, discrimination, and creating a hostile work environment toward women as well as Black officers.

July 2024: Former Police Chief Adrian Diaz Threatened PubliCola Over Post Describing His Coming-Out Interview

Former Seattle police chief Adrian Diaz, who was removed from his position earlier this year, threatened to sue PubliCola, and me personally, unless we removed a post describing the interview he did with conservative talk show host Jason Rantz.

so he gets accused of sexual harassment by multiple women, steps down as chief (but without getting fired, and retaining his salary)

then he tries to pull a Kevin Spacey by appearing on the radio show of a local two-bit Rush Limbaugh wannabe, and claiming to be gay, which means he obviously couldn't have harassed any women.

then he threatens to sue news outlets for reporting on that radio show appearance, because they reported on it skeptically rather than uncritically repeating "well, I guess he must be innocent then".

until finally an internal report into part of the harassment allegations is released (direct link to the 41-page PDF for my fellow primary source nerds)

the tl;dr of the investigation is that Diaz hired his girlfriend into a $200k/year job at the police department, where she reported directly to him. and that's too much even for our very pro-cop mayor, so he gets fired.

oh, and he bragged to other people at SPD about fucking his girlfriend, and showed them nude pics of her. which...uh...kinda lends some credence to those sexual harassment allegations.

Archived version

The guilty plea marked a significant development in U.S. efforts to curb foreign interference as China is suspected of running covert police outposts across North America, Europe and other regions with significant Chinese diaspora communities.

While China has dismissed these allegations, claiming the facilities are merely service centers assisting citizens with tasks like renewing driver's licenses, critics and officials argue the operations serve a more sinister purpose.

[...]

Chen Jinping, 60, pleaded guilty on a single count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday.

Prosecutors say Chen and his co-defendant, Lu Jianwang, opened and operated a local branch of China's Ministry of Public Security in Manhattan's Chinatown neighborhood starting in early 2022.

According to federal prosecutors, the station offered seemingly mundane services like assisting Chinese citizens in renewing driver's licenses. However, its darker purpose was to surveil and identify pro-democracy activists living in the U.S., aligning with the People's Republic of China's broader agenda of transnational repression.

[...]

Here we go again.

(edited title to revise death toll down per latest reporting; we'll see if it stays that way)

0027CST update: The shooter has been identified as a 15-year-old girl, whom I won't name given standard journalistic practice for minors. That's available in the link, alongside an inexplicable reference to her sometimes using another name, as though this is somehow relevant. The good news is two have been released from hospital, but two remain in critical condition.

archive.is link

Florida’s ban on local governments adopting heat regulations drew national attention and criticism with nearly 90 environmental, faith-based and labor groups writing to Gov. Ron DeSantis asking him to veto the legislation before he signed it.

Proponents of the bill, which included lobbying groups for the construction and agriculture industries, promised the additional oversight was unnecessary.

“I don’t think we need a nanny government standing over every person who might get too hot today,” said then-Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, while speaking in support of the legislation during a February hearing. “It’s over-regulating.”

Companies are supposed to report work-related fatalities to OSHA within eight hours. That prompts the agency to investigate and determine whether the employer holds blame.

The 19 deaths identified by the Times that are missing from OSHA’s tally included day laborers, roofers, construction workers and landscapers. Many died after working for lawn care companies on private homes, some just hundreds of feet from air conditioning and running water.

All were men, leaving behind wives and children in Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti and Florida. Most weren’t even 40.

The youngest was 20. The oldest 70.

At least four died during their first week on the job. Three died on their very first day.

Their internal body temperatures averaged over 106 degrees. The hottest day reached a heat index of over 109. The average was over 100.

This lawsuit is the first attempt to test what happens when state abortion laws are at odds with each other. New York has a shield law that protects providers from out-of-state investigations and prosecutions, which has served as implicit permission for a network of doctors to mail abortion pills into states that have banned the procedure.

Texas has vowed to pursue these cases regardless of those laws, and legal experts are divided on where the courts may land on this issue, which involves extraterritoriality, interstate commerce and other thorny legal questions last meaningfully addressed before the Civil War.

“Regardless of what the courts in Texas do, the real question is whether the courts in New York recognize it," said Greer Donley, University of Pittsburgh professor who studies these kinds of laws.

Friend and former roommate of Luigi Mangione R.J. Martin joins Katy Tur to talk about what the 26-year-old murder suspect was like, saying he was always "giving, considerate and thoughtful."

What the actual fuck? He wasn't found "liable for rape," he was found guilty of it. But I think we all knew this would come in some form. As societal norms are somewhat irritating to rapists, this isn't really a surprise.

What I now posit is: Why should anyone else follow the law? It clearly doesn't matter, so what system of government do we have at this point?

We have Luigi, and I'm sure there'll be a Mario. But I'm sorry ... look, I'm not a fan of Stephanopoulos, yet forcing a network to pay millions for accurate reporting is direct Nazi shit. If you are not afraid of who we are becoming, well, you aren't paying attention.