Author: Syndicated

“It’s really a way to cause change and cause action to happen on behalf of these people that are affected in one way or another by the story. And to have people form opinions to make their mind up about what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s real and what’s not. And the only way for us to do that is to tell the stories.” – Bryan Woolston, photographer for Reuters Comparing the pandemic to war, as some stories have been doing over the past month, is fraught for many reasons — among them the skewed framing it may convey. The...

Stop me if you have heard this sentiment before. “We’re all in this together.” At least outwardly, a spirit of fraternity is abundant these days. Celebrities are donating and raising money for charitable causes. Commercials from businesses across industries pledge their services and solidarity “in these uncertain times.” Average people are dotting their lawns with signs thanking first responders, medical professionals, and other essential workers, and are delivering meals to neighbors in need. When many of us express our appreciation for people “on the front lines” of the COVID-19 response or feelings of conviviality, I don’t doubt that we...

As the coronavirus spreads across the United States, VA health care facilities are struggling with shortages of workers and the equipment necessary to protect employees from contracting the virus. The Department of Veterans Affairs is responsible for the health care of 9 million military veterans. In recent weeks more than 1,900 VA health care workers have become sick with the coronavirus, according to agency documents. Twenty have died. Another 3,600 of the 300,000-plus VA health care employees are quarantined and unable to work because they have been exposed to the virus, according to VA figures. More than 5,700 veterans...

For the past 40-plus years, a group of “conservative” billionaires have been working as hard as they can to reshape our federal government from one that provides education, health care, housing, food and other necessities into one that does nothing more than run the military and fight wars. It’s time to give them what they’ve worked so hard to get. The coronavirus crisis is highlighting how dysfunctional states run by Republicans are. This is a feature of GOP rule, not a bug. For the past 40-plus years, a group of “conservative” billionaires have been working as hard as they...

April 2020 will be the month when mass incarceration becomes mass murder in America: large-scale, foreseeable, preventable. Amidst all the tragedy that COVID-19 will inflict upon us, the reckless and avoidable deaths of tens of thousands of people in prisons, jails, and detention centers may be our nation’s greatest source of shame. Infection curves will be maximally steep in incarcerated populations Right now, the virus is insinuating itself into every one of the nation’s 6,000 prisons, jails, and detention centers. It is arriving on the breath or bodies of employees arriving for work or of prisoners being booked in...

Foxconn’s Wisconsin offices remain empty a year after the company said it would “correct” statements about them being unoccupied. The Verge published a report in April 2019 stating that the offices were empty after taking photos through the windows. Foxconn claimed that the report was inaccurate, and that it would issue a statement of correction. ‘I can assure you that they are not empty,’ Alan Yeung said. ‘But we also don’t want people to climb up on trees and look over to make sure we have occupancy.’ (For the record: No one ever climbed on trees. We simply looked...