TruthOut

Over 7,000 nurses, represented by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) and employed by two major hospitals in New York City, ended their strike in the wee hours this week on January 12. Management had returned to the negotiating table to meet the nurses’ primary demands for increased staffing and wage increases. These nurses, from Montefiore Medical Center and Mount Sinai Hospital...

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California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Thursday sued the six major companies that dominate the U.S. insulin market, ratcheting up the state’s assault on a profitable industry for artificially jacking up prices and making the indispensable drug less accessible for diabetes patients. The 47-page civil complaint alleges three pharmaceutical companies that control the insulin market — Eli Lilly and...

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Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin have indicated that they will not support efforts to legalize or decriminalize the recreational use of marijuana, despite the fact that such efforts are backed by a majority of the state’s residents. Lawmakers are considering making marijuana accessible for medical reasons in the state under very specific circumstances. Currently, every state that borders...

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Twenty-four volunteer rescue workers connected to the group Emergency Response Centre International face trial for human smuggling in Greece for giving life-saving assistance to thousands of migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, fleeing violence, poverty and persecution. A European Parliament report described the trial as Europe’s “largest case of criminalization of...

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The right to strike is on trial in the Supreme Court. At stake is a 64-year-old precedent that shields workers and unions from state lawsuits while they pursue unfair labor practice claims in the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). If unions have to defend against costly lawsuits, it will likely discourage them from going on strike. On January 10, the high court heard oral arguments in...

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The top aide of Sen. Joe Manchin, a close ally of the fossil fuel industry, is leaving the West Virginia Democrat’s office to work directly for Big Oil as a lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute, one of the most powerful influence-peddling organizations in the United States. Axios, which first reported the news of Lance West’s departure to API on Thursday, noted that “through the on-again...

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A Republican member of Wisconsin’s six-member state elections commission is facing calls to resign after a reporter uncovered that he bragged about a “great and important decrease in Democrat votes” in the 2022 election in an email to fellow Republicans last month, the latest stunning show of the GOP’s willingness to openly state their goals to suppress voters and rig elections.

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An updated excerpt from a book about the Trump presidency reveals that the former president had considered issuing a nuclear strike on North Korea and blaming it on another country. The book, “Donald Trump v. The United States,” authored by The New York Times’s Michael Schmidt, has been updated in a new edition that will be available next week. NBC News, which obtained copies of the new edition...

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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) vowed on Wednesday to keep his promise to bar Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) from serving on committees in the Republican-controlled House — a move that she says can be chalked up to pure Islamophobia. McCarthy confirmed in an interview earlier this week that he plans to bar Omar from serving on House committees and that Representatives Adam Schiff (D...

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Republicans in the Virginia state legislature have submitted a bill restricting access to abortion, even after a special election earlier this week indicated that the measure has little chance of passing. The bill was submitted by Rep. Kathy Byron, a Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates, and would ban all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy — a time frame that abortion rights...

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The latest study from Harvard researchers who analyzed internal documents showing the extent to which Exxon Mobil knew about the climate crisis decades ago has found that Exxon’s climate studies were incredibly accurate in predicting the effects of global warming as early as 1977 — further confirming that Exxon knowingly perpetuated a decades-long campaign to deny the existence of the climate...

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In California, at least 19 people have died as storms continue to batter the region, leading to widespread flooding, mudslides and power outages. The National Weather Service says large portions of Central California have received over half their annual normal precipitation in just the past two weeks — and more rain is coming. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says 34 million...

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A federal judge overseeing the jury trial for members of the Proud Boys accused of seditious conspiracy for their role in the January 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol ruled on Wednesday that prosecutors can use a statement made by former President Donald Trump months prior to the attack as evidence. Judge Timothy J. Kelly from the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia made his...

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Local residents and environmentalists warn that the rush to export fracked gas to energy-strapped allies in Europe and the rest of the world threatens to create an “industrial wasteland” in southern Louisiana. At least two export terminals near the Gulf Coast are already releasing toxic air pollution as massive ships are loaded with liquified natural gas, or LNG. The climate crisis demands a steep...

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A “wide-ranging” subpoena sent to Trump campaign officials last month shows that special counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 investigation is increasingly focused on new areas of interest, including fundraising efforts and potential efforts to influence witness testimony, according to The Washington Post. The DOJ issued the four-page subpoena to multiple Trump campaign officials in early December...

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“We know that capitalism, which is already racial, gendered and violent, is not inevitable. And there’s nothing natural about it,” says Robyn Maynard. In this episode of “Movement Memos,” host Kelly Hayes talks with Rehearsals for Living authors Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson about about organizing and parenting amid catastrophe, and how organizers can build new worlds...

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On December 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill into law that significantly expands restrictions on activities seen as promoting LGBTQ rights in the country. The bill, which calls for a “ban on LGBT propaganda” is, in essence, an effort to make LGBTQ existence illegal in Russia — not unlike similar measures in the U.S., such as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill or the restrictions on...

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New York City nurses and two major hospitals reached a tentative agreement on Thursday that the healthcare workers’ union celebrated as a “historic victory” after three days of striking for a fair contract. The more than 7,000 striking nurses agreed to return to work Thursday at Mount Sinai Hospital and Montefiore Medical Center, privately owned hospitals whose management previously refused to...

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Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee reportedly told fellow Congressional Black Caucus members in a private meeting on Wednesday that she will be running to replace California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein in 2024. Lee has not publicly announced a run, though sources informed Politico and NBC of her announcement. She later told reporters that she would officially announce her plans “when it’s appropriate,”...

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The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week in a case that has the potential to upend the ability of unions to strike without facing retaliatory lawsuits from corporations. The case, Glacier Northwest, Inc. v. Int’l Brotherhood of Teamsters, involves a concrete company that had previously attempted to sue a union over an action taken by its workers during a strike in 2017.

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