Breaking News

This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in each source note. Quotation marks are not used.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/25/2023
  

  How Tina Turner Escaped Abuse and Reclaimed her Name

  by Gillian Brockell

  She escaped Ike Turner's abusive and controlling grasp with 36 cents in her pocket. Escaping the marriage required her to surrender all claim to their shared assets in exchange for the rights to use her stage name and have a second chance at stardom on her own. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/25/2023
  

  The Biden Administration Wants to Undo the Damage of Urban Highways. It Won't be Simple

  In cities across the nation, highway projects blighted working class communities, especially nonwhite ones. Is it possible for new policies to heal that damage? 

• 
• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  5/24/2023
  

  AAUP: Fight Tooth and Nail Against Florida's Higher Ed Agenda Because Your State is Next

  Historian Henry Reichman, one of the preliminary report's authors, said the committee studying Florida's higher ed system under Ron DeSantis found abuses of academic freedom and institutional regulations to be more widespread than they expected, and warned more political interference is coming. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  5/24/2023
  

  Texas GOP's Ten Commandments School Bill Fails

  The Texas House did not have the votes to pass a bill approved by the state senate that would have required the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/23/2023
  

  Former Alabama Governors: We Regret Overseeing Executions

  As evidence mounts of the number of wrongful convictions in capital murder cases, one Democrat and one Republican former governor argue that it's time to stop capital punishment and reform the prosecutorial immunity that allows unfair prosecutions to proceed. 

• 
• SOURCE: Science News
  5/16/2023
  

  Former East Germans Largely Eschewed Opportunity to Read their Stasi Files—What that Says about Ethics

  Few of the former residents of East Germany have chosen to view the files kept on them by the communist secret police; scholars have investigated this as an example of strategic ignorance that can help individuals function and preserve social harmony. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  5/22/2023
  

  If Football is America's Religion, Jim Brown was its Leading Saint

  Dave Zirin, a Brown biographer, says that the hall of famer's complicated politics, advocacy for players in the pre-union era, and mistreatment of women all demand treating his life as a subject of study, not veneration.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/23/2023
  

  Vivek Murthy's Advice Against Social Media Use for Kids Latest in Surgeon General Warnings

  While past surgeons general succeeded in warning the public away from cigarettes and drunk driving, other public health issues have been more difficult subjects for persuasion. 

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  5/22/2023
  

  The Rise of the SCOTUS "Shadow Docket"

  An increasing amount of the court's consequential business is being conducted through emergency orders in response to lower court rulings, without public argument or signed opinions, argues legal scholar Steve Vladek. Although there are reasons for fast action in some cases, the court's public legitimacy is undermined.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/23/2023
  

  Most Book Bans Driven by Tiny Minority of Activists; LGBTQ Themes Central to Objections

  Individuals who filed 10 or more challenges to books were responsible for two thirds of all complaints about books, suggesting a small group of political activists is driving the phenomenon. 

• 
• SOURCE: Osage News
  5/22/2023
  

  Watch Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" with Attention to the Resilience of Native Women

  The new film examines the greed, racism and murder that followed the discovery of oil on Osage land, but puts the experience of Osage women at the center of its narrative. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/21/2023
  

  Ron DeSantis's Book on the Founders has been Disappearing Online. We Found a Copy

  by Gillian Brockell

  Written during his days as a Tea Party Congressman, DeSantis's 2011 book cherry-picks quotes from the Washington and Hamilton to argue that Barack Obama was engaged in an unconstitutional power grab that would have appalled the founders. It also makes bad arguments about the centrality of slavery to the early Republic. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/23/2023
  

  Texas Schools to get Chaplains and the Ten Commandments under Legislation

  After a Supreme Court ruling favored explicitly Christian prayer led by school officials at school functions, Texas conservatives feel empowered to put more religion into public schools. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/22/2023
  

  Dept. of Ed Charges Georgia Book Removal May Violate Civil Rights

  A review by the department's civil rights unit concludes that Forsyth County, Georgia may have created a hostile learning environment for Black and LGBTQ students through its book removal policies. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Hill
  5/22/2023
  

  CA's Newsom Demands Info on Florida Textbook Revisions

  “You don’t get to rewrite history in a back room. You don’t get to erase basic facts around segregation, the holocaust, or Rosa Parks’ story. The extremists in Florida and textbook companies that are colluding with them are about to be exposed.”

• 
• SOURCE: Tampa Bay Times
  5/22/2023
  

  New College Faculty Vote to Censure College's New Trustees

  The censure motion, which was supported by 80% of the faculty, called the new majority of the Board of Trustees negligent in its fiduciary duty to the college because of noncompliance with transparency laws, failure to disclose financial conflicts of interest, and disregard for procedure in reviewing tenure applications. 

• 
• SOURCE: Slate
  5/22/2023
  

  Neil Gorsuch's Understanding of Major Civil Liberties Infringement May Have a Few Gaps

  When the Supreme Court Justice called COVID restrictions "the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country" he seems to have revealed his own view that the rights of white men are the ones that count. 

• 
• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  5/15/2023
  

  Meet the Other Grassroots Moms Movement—The One Fighting For the Freedom to Read

  Jen Cousins of the Florida Freedom to Read Project won't let the right claim the political mantle of "parents' rights" in increasingly contentious education politics. 

• 
• SOURCE: Capital B News
  5/16/2023
  

  Feds Confirm Alabama Discriminated Against Rural Black Residents, Leading to Sewage Crisis

  The state failed to connect rural Black residents in Lowndes County to subsidized septic system upgrades, leading many into debt to private contractors or to neglect updates leading to a wastewater crisis. A new agreement will upgrade the infrastructure. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/17/2023
  

  Florida's Book Banners Face New Opposition—and Their Lawyers

  While there is a groundswell of opposition to book removal policies and other restrictions on educational content, it remains to be seen whether Democratic politicians will commit to defending the importance of public education in a multicultural democracy.