For two years, I walked the lower yard track at San Quentin State Prison, watching construction crews tear down an old furniture factory to build a $239 million Scandinavian-styled learning center. They have now removed the fence blocking the incarcerated population’s view of the new facility. Last week marked the opening of the building, only for incarcerated people who have designated…
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing criticism for saying in a recent interview that he “reveres” Israel, just weeks after he labeled it as an apartheid state. “I revere the state of Israel. I’m proud to support the state of Israel,” Newsom said in an interview with Politico released on Tuesday, when asked whether he considers himself a Zionist. Newsom said that he is opposed to…
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Former schoolteacher Theo Henderson had been unhoused for six years when he launched the “We the Unhoused” podcast in 2019 from a park in Los Angeles’s Chinatown. Henderson became unhoused in 2013 when he was evicted after losing his job and falling into medical debt due to spiraling costs related to his diabetes. When he began documenting his experiences and those of his unhoused neighbors…
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Scores of Democrats are calling for Americans to receive refunds on expenses incurred from President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs, which were struck down by the Supreme Court on Friday. “The Supreme Court struck down Trump’s tariffs, but this ruling won’t undo the damage to Americans paying higher prices on everything from groceries to housing,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D…
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We speak with journalist Jacob Soboroff about his new book and ongoing reporting about the Los Angeles fires one year ago, when destructive infernos razed entire neighborhoods, killing 30 people and displacing over 100,000 more. The book Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster provides a detailed look at how the fires unfolded, the emergency efforts and the…
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Tien Mo is still awaiting a response to her 2017 clemency application. As previously reported in Truthout, at age 20, she was sentenced to life without parole in her classmate’s death. As the years pass, the 44-year-old’s hopes dwindle. Now, a proposed statute gives her renewed optimism. Clemency typically takes two forms — a pardon, which removes the consequences of a criminal conviction…
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