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Protecting the Water. Mni Wiconi. Water is Life. Over the last few weeks, thousands of Indigenous people, representing hundreds of tribes, have gathered together on the banks of the Cannonball River, on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, and in other places, to protect the lands, and the waters, and […]
...moreOn Wednesday evening, police shot and killed St. Paul Minnesota resident Philando Castile after stopping him for a broken tail light. More than five hundred police shootings have occurred so far this year, and Alton Sterling’s Philando Castile’s death might have simply become another statistic on an interactive graphic except for one pesky citizen who […]
...moreIf the regular mass shootings have been the distraction you needed to forget about America’s ongoing police violence, Baton Rouge, Louisiana would like to remind everyone that, too, is still a problem. On Monday evening, police shot and killed 37-year-old Alton Sterling while he lay pinned on the ground. Nearly a thousand fatal police shootings occur […]
...moreLast week, tech billionaire Peter Thiel admitted to funding lawsuits against Gawker Media, including the lawsuit brought by Hulk Hogan. Hogan won a $140 million judgment against Gawker after the site published a small portion of a recording of Hogan having sex with a friend’s wife and talking about eating too much sushi. Suspicions of […]
...moreOver the weekend, journalists announced a leak of 11.5 million files from the law firm of Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm specializing in corporations designed to take advantage of offshore tax havens. On April 1st, Mossack Fonseca sent a warning letter to clients suggesting they had suffered a data breach. It was no April […]
...moreAt the end of October, ESPN announced that Grantland, the sports and culture website it had acquired, would cease publication. Some commentators claimed the site should have been shuttered sooner when Bill Simmons, the “voice” of Grantland, parted ways with ESPN. Now ESPN says it might have underestimated Simmons’s cult-like following. The site’s closure raises […]
...moreNew Zealand, an otherwise seemingly modern nation, has just banned a book. Ted Dawe’s Into the River was banned this week in the island nation where it is now a crime to supply, display, or distribute the book with fines starting at $3,000. In 2013, the New Zealand Post named Into the River the Book of the […]
...moreOn Friday, Ellen Pao resigned as CEO of Reddit, one of the largest sites in the world by traffic. She left amid a controversy created by efforts to civilize an online community often seen as hostile towards women and other groups. Reddit is more than just a singular message board system. It is comprised of […]
...moreOn June 26th, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that states must allow same-sex couples to marry and that they must recognize marriages performed in other states. The ruling ends the bans against same-sex marriage that existed in 14 states. This decision comes two years to the day since the Court’s decision in […]
...moreSix months ago, Rachel Dolezal, an academic and the president-elect of NAACP Spokane chapter, wrote an op-ed piece piece describing the importance of the #BlackLivesMatter protest movement. On Monday, she resigned her post at the NAACP surrounded in controversy. Dolezal was profiled back in February where she revealed she is a cervical cancer survivor and […]
...moreEarlier today, the United States Attorney General charged 14 FIFA officials with 47 counts of corruption, racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering. FIFA is the international association that oversees football (soccer), including the World Cup. Pundits have already begun to ponder what these corruption charges mean for upcoming World Cups in Russia (2018) and Qatar […]
...moreEmma Sulkowicz graduated from Columbia University yesterday. She might have gone unnoticed had she not also been carrying around a mattress. In her sophomore year at Columbia, Sulkowicz was raped. Like many rape victims, Sulkowicz considered her attacker a friend, and he was someone she had slept with twice before. On the night of the […]
...moreDr. Saida Grundy, a recently hired Assistant Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies at Boston University, turned to Twitter to gripe about white privilege, writing, “White masculinity isn’t a problem for America’s colleges, white masculinity is THE problem for America’s colleges,” among other things. A college student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst saw the […]
...moreOn April 12th, four Baltimore bicycle police arrested 25-year-old Freddie Gray. Gray sustained injuries while in police custody. He asked for medical assistance repeatedly before slipping into a coma. A week later, he died.
...moreJonathan Franzen is an avid bird lover, as anyone who read Freedom might have guessed. Two weeks ago, Franzen wrote a piece for the New Yorker that, among other things, condemned the Audubon Society for focusing too much on climate change and not enough on conservation, the society’s original mission. Focusing on climate change is […]
...moreThis American Life spinoff Serial is a nonfiction podcast told over multiple episodes. Premiering back in October, Serial explores the case of Adnan Syed, who has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. Much of the intriguing drama around the story stems from the fact that many aren’t convinced […]
...moreLast month, Rolling Stone ran an article by Sabrina Rubin Erdely detailing the gang-rape and attempted coverup of a student at the University of Virginia known as “Jackie.” . Today, Rolling Stone issued an apology. Editors at the magazine did not contact the men Jackie accused of rape. Part of the problem was the fear […]
...moreIn July, unarmed black man Eric Garner died after he was placed in a chokehold by a white police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, on Staten Island, a suburban borough of New York City. This might sound eerily similar to the case of Michael Brown. Or similar to Akai Gurley. Or to any of the hundreds of […]
...moreEarly in August, unarmed black teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, in Ferguson Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. While protests broke out in the weeks following Brown’s death, Wilson remained free, awaiting a grand jury indictment. Grand juries decide whether or not a crime has been committed, not […]
...moreTaxi app Uber is in some serious trouble. Since its launch, lawmakers and users have had plenty to complain about. Now the company faces charges of sexism, bullying, and even abusing its software to stalk a reporter.
...moreSunday marked the start of Banned Books Week, a celebration of freedom, and a recognition of the threat of censorship. Libraries around the US are hosting events. Books are banned for a variety of reasons, and by a variety of organizations. Although mostly, its about sex.
...moreMore than 900 authors signed a full-page New York Times advertisement scolding Amazon for drawing them into their continuing fight with publisher Hachette. The ad has drawn the ire of self-published authors who see traditional publishing houses as gatekeepers protecting an elite few. In the most meta coverage of the fracas, the New York Times […]
...moreIn February, Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice knocked out his fiancée at Atlantic City’s Revel Casino. He was caught dragging her limp body out of the elevator. They later married. Domestic violence is so common in the United States—every 9 seconds a woman is assaulted—it rarely makes headlines. But Ray Rice plays football.
...moreLate last month, employees of Book Culture, an independent New York City bookstore, voted to unionize. Five employees were promptly fired. Punitively firing employees who participate in labor unions violates federal labor law. On July 2, the remaining workers went on strike in protest of the illegal firings. Book Culture claimed the dismissed employees were […]
...moreThe Islamic State of Iraq in Syria, known better as ISIS, has operated in Syria and Iraq since 2003 as an offshoot of al-Qaeda—at least until al-Qaeda disavowed any connection. The military organization is neither a political party nor religious group, though membership primarily consists of Sunni Muslims, the “orthodox” branch of Islam and the […]
...moreVirginia State Senator Phillip P. Puckett, a Democrat, resigned on Monday. His resignation gives Republicans control of the state legislature. Puckett had planned on taking a new job as deputy of the state tobacco commission, an appointed position controlled by Republicans. Puckett’s seat in the state senate was also preventing his daughter, a provisional juvenile […]
...moreAmazon and Hachette Book Group have been locked in an epic battle over e-book pricing since early May. Amazon began by delaying shipments of Hachette books and then escalated to removing Hachette titles from the site entirely. The leader of this rebellion is Hachette executive Michael Pietsch, once responsible for discovering and editing a little book titled […]
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