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"The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent."

-- Gore Vidal

News and Opinion

Tyre Nichols Was One of Too Many

Every news outlet was talking about it. On January 7, 29-year-old Tyre Nichols was brutally beaten by Memphis police officers, and he died three days later. The incident was captured on video, and the gruesome footage sparked nationwide outrage.

Calls for police reform were reignited (NPR, 1/31/23), echoing the uproar regarding George Floyd’s murder in 2020. Political leaders paid their respects, with Vice President Kamala Harris speaking at Nichols’ funeral, and President Joe Biden acknowledging Nichols’ parents during his State of the Union address. Biden, Harris and other Democrats pushed to revive the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which has twice failed to pass in the Senate (Washington Post, 2/1/23; Guardian, 2/6/23).

The attention was warranted. And yet, in the month of January 2023, at least 17 other Black men were killed by police—with next to no media coverage.

A search for Tyre Nichols’ name returns 65 results at the New York Times in January. The same search returns 58 results at the Washington Post and 49 at the Wall Street Journal.

Compare that with the coverage of three other Black men killed by police in January 2023—selected out of more than a dozen others because these particular police killings got more coverage than most other such deaths. A search of the Post’s archives over the same time frame returns three articles for Keenan Anderson, and none for Takar Smith or Anthony Lowe. Both the Times and the Journal were silent on these killings.

Since these major news outlets rarely if ever mentioned their names, let us tell their stories now.

On January 2–3, Los Angeles police killed three men in less than 48 hours: Takar Smith, Keenan Anderson and Oscar Leon Sanchez (Center for Policing Equity, 1/13/23). Smith and Anderson were Black, and Sanchez Latino. Note that a Washington Post report (1/13/23) obscured the timeframe of these killings: “Three men have died after encounters with Los Angeles police officers in recent days,” it said, and “the killings occurred in the first week of January.” The LAPD released body-cam footage of these separate incidents.

The first victim was Smith, who was tased and then shot by police after picking up a knife (LA Times, 2/11/13). His wife, who called to request police help due to his violent behavior,

warned that he had threatened to fight police if they were called and that there was a knife in the kitchen. But she also relayed that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was not taking his medication.

Despite the clear warnings, the LAPD failed to call the Mental Evaluation Unit, which is specifically trained to de-escalate situations like Smith’s.

Out of the three victims killed on January 2–3, Keenan Anderson got the most attention, as he was the cousin of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors. On the same day Sanchez was killed, Anderson, a 31-year-old high school teacher, was stopped after a traffic accident and tased repeatedly to death (Guardian, 1/12/23). Like Nichols, he was unarmed, and the chilling video showed he

was begging for help as multiple officers held him down, and at one point said, “They’re trying to George Floyd me.” One officer had his elbow on Anderson’s neck while he was lying down before another tased him for roughly 30 seconds straight before pausing and tasing him again for five more seconds.

(We focus in this article on Black victims of police violence because they are killed disproportionately; African Americans made up 26% of police killing victims in 2022, while making up only 13% of the US population. Sanchez’s story is just as horrifying and tragic, and representative of the fact that Latinos are also at heightened risk of being killed by police in the United States. People of all ethnicities are killed by police at much higher rates in the US than in other wealthy democracies. This analysis of specifically Black victims is one part of a larger conversation on police violence in the US.)

Police killed Smith and Anderson just weeks before the news of Nichols’ killing exploded. Yet even after Nichols’ death put “police violence” in the abstract on the national agenda, more Black men were killed by police with little media attention.

Anthony Lowe, who had lost both his legs, was shot and killed while attempting to flee from LAPD officers on January 26. Lowe had stabbed a person with a butcher knife, and police claim he threatened to throw the knife at them.

Police expert Ed Obayashi, according to NBC News (2/1/23), “said that to justify a shooting, officers must show they had been under immediate threat and had considered reasonable alternatives, including using a Taser.” NBC quoted Obayashi’s response to the footage of Lowe’s killing:

But here we see an individual that, by definition, appears to be physically incapable of resisting officers…. Even if he is armed with a knife, his mobility is severely restricted…. He’s an amputee. He appears to be at a distinct physical disadvantage, lessening the apparent threat to officers.

These are just a few of the Black people killed by police in January. Mapping Police Violence is a nonprofit organization that “publishes the most comprehensive and up-to-date data on police violence in America”; according to its database, 104 people were killed by police in January 2023. Of the 61 victims with race identified, 28% were Black and 20% were Latino. In all of 2022, Mapping Police Violence found that police killed at least 1,192 people.

What is it about Tyre Nichols’ death, unlike these other deaths of Black people killed by police, that shook the nation to the core? Why is the media contributing multiple articles per day to one person, but only a few in total for the other victims?

Of course, the video evidence of Nichols’ killing made police responsibility hard to dispute, and easy to sell in a media ecosystem that puts a premium on sensationalism. But there is video footage of Takar Smith, Keenan Anderson and Anthony Lowe. Why was the reaction not similar?

Nichols certainly comes across in coverage as a sympathetic character. The New York Times (1/26/23) described him as having

loved to photograph sunsets and to skateboard, a passion he’d had since he was a boy…. [He] worked for FedEx and had a 4-year-old son…. His mother, RowVaughn Wells, said that Mr. Nichols had her name tattooed on his arm. “That made me proud,” she said. “Most kids don’t put their mom’s name. My son was a beautiful soul.”

Smith and Lowe both wielded knives, and the latter had stabbed someone, making it easier to present these individuals in an unsympathetic light, although the crux of the problem is that their deaths, like Nichols’, appear to have been completely preventable. Smith and Lowe both had disabilities; they were at a clear disadvantage, yet police decided to shoot anyway.

In the death of Anderson, like Nichols, it’s perhaps especially difficult to blame the victim. He was also unarmed, only stopped because he got into a traffic accident. His cries of “Please help me,” and “They’re trying to kill me” (Guardian, 1/12/23), are just as heartbreaking as Nichols’ cries for his mother. One would think that Anderson, killed in similar circumstances, would have gotten similarly extensive coverage—but such was not the case.

Needless to say, the problem is not that the killing of Tyre Nichols got too much coverage. He deserves the public’s passionate anger on his behalf. The problem is that major news outlets have a bad habit of treating cases like Nichols’ as isolated incidents, lavishing short-term, specific attention that makes the chronic seem exceptional.

It’s not just Tyre Nichols. It’s George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin and a depressingly long list of lesser-known names. Their killings are by no means isolated.

But news outlets look for easy clickbait—disturbing videos, viral trends on social media, humanizing backstories. These can play a role in coverage, but, without more, the template seems rehearsed and disingenuous.

Media need to do better. They should actively and urgently report the dire statistics. Every time an incident like Tyre Nichols’ killing happens, they should remind people of the big picture—that police brutality is a national, systemic issue, and Black people are disproportionately targeted and killed. Recognition of that reality and concrete plans for change should play a bigger role than performative hand-wringing.

The thing is, media have shown the ability to do better. The Washington Post (2/2/23) outlined the (lack of) progress made between the deaths of George Floyd and Tyre Nichols, where they hyperlinked to their database of police shooting deaths since 2015. (Note: The Post‘s database specifically records deaths from police shootings, not those resulting from beatings, electric shock and other forms of violence.)

Even in this example of better coverage, there are some glaring red flags. In an attempt to address both sides, the Post article tries to reason why police have killed so many people:

Most people shot and killed by police have been armed, the Post’s database shows, and the overwhelming majority of shootings are deemed justified. In many of these cases, defenders of police have said officers feared for their lives while confronting people armed with weapons, usually guns.

But that’s not the point, is it? The point is that the police kill, on average, more than 1,000 civilians every year, armed or unarmed, and they disproportionately target Black men.

Regardless, the Post at least has a limited database, and some articles addressing the trends of police killings. The Los Angeles Times maintains a database of LAPD killings, which while significant, still only covers one region. The Guardian published an investigative series covering US police killings in 2015–16, but the series has not been updated to include more recent years. USA Today responded to George Floyd’s death by creating a database of police disciplinary records, as well as a specific list of decertified police, but it added a clear disclaimer that the records are not complete.

The collection of this data is commendable, but to be valuable, this information should be foregrounded in reporting on individual incidents of racist police violence. Without continual contextualizing of the problem, it can be difficult for the average news reader to see Tyre Nichols’ killing as both a specific horrific crime, and a representation of a problem even bigger than that.

Ray McGovern: The Last Chance to Avoid World War III?

They’re lobbying for Ukraine pro bono – and making millions from arms firms

Some of Washington’s most powerful lobbyists are providing their services to Ukraine for free – but at the same time, they are taking in millions in fees from Pentagon contractors who stand to benefit from the country’s war with Russia.

Following Russian president Vladimir Putin’s internationally condemned decision to invade Ukraine there was an outpouring of support to the besieged nation from seemingly every industry in America. But, arguably, one of the most crucial industries coming to Ukraine’s aid has been Washington’s powerful lobbying industry.

The invasion has led some of the lobbying industry’s biggest players to do the unthinkable – lobby for free. While the influence industry may have altruistic reasons for representing Ukraine pro bono, some lobbying firms also have financial incentives for aiding Ukraine: they’ve made millions lobbying for arms manufacturers that could profit from the war.

Media LIES On Ukraine's 'Democracy'

'Gas station masquerading as a country,' must be running out of ammo

The US Endgame In The Ukraine

Seems to be what most of us thought it was before the war ever started: try to replicate Afghanistan in the 80s. Keep Russia tied down till Russia collapses, supplying weapons and letting masses of Ukrainians die, avoiding US casualties. The country will be in ruins and not recover for decades if ever.

There are a few problems with this.

Russia is not the USSR. In many ways the USSR was stronger, but Russia is far more resilient. The USSR had a food deficit, while Russia is a net food exporter: one of the world’s largest. They still have a vast market for hydrocarbons and for their weapons. There is nothing the West can sanction that they must have. This is especially the case because while China and India have pretended to go along with the sanctions, both countries are moving into Russia in a big way to replace the Western businesses which left. ...

Internally, as I’ve pointed out repeatedly, the Russian leadership cannot afford to lose. If Putin is seen by Russians to have lost the war, he will lose power and he may not survive that, nor may his family. Further, people who think Putin losing power would be good for Ukraine or the West are deranged. The people who will replace him are to his right, and they will want another go. Their primary complaint is that Putin hasn’t gone all in: hasn’t full mobilized, hasn’t used all the weapons available (Russia has been far more restrained than the US was in Iraq), and hasn’t moved to a war economy. ...

This is a fantastically stupid war, with no good end and it’s not going to replicate Afghanistan and the USSR because Russia is not the USSR, Ukraine is not Afghanistan and America is not the America of the 80s, still vastly dominant economically.

Surviving a Pogrom: Palestinian in Huwara Decries Israeli Settler Attack as "Ethnic Cleansing"

Israeli police arrest five over settler rampage in West Bank

Israeli police have arrested five suspects over a Jewish settler rampage in the occupied West Bank earlier this week that an Israeli general described as a “pogrom” and which followed a deadly Palestinian gun attack.

Shops in the Palestinian village of Huwara remained closed on army orders on Wednesday amid a heavy Israeli military presence, residents said. A Palestinian gunman killed two Israeli brothers there on Sunday, prompting assaults by settlers on houses and cars during which one Palestinian was killed. Israeli police said on Wednesday they expected to make more arrests during a continuing investigation into the settler violence in and around Huwara.

The Palestinian prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, speaking during a visit to the village on Wednesday, said the arrests were not enough. “We see an organised crime perpetrated by the Israeli government and carried out by the settlers,” he said.

Maj Gen Yehuda Fuchs, who commands the Israeli military in the area, said his forces had prepared for attempted settler retribution but had been surprised by the intensity of the violence, which he said was perpetrated by dozens of people.

“The incident in Huwara was a pogrom carried out by outlaws,” he told N12 News late on Tuesday. A “pogrom” is a mob attack, approved or condoned by authorities, against a religious, racial, or national minority. The term is usually applied to attacks on Jews in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

‘Havana syndrome’ not caused by foreign adversary, US intelligence says

The mysterious set of symptoms known as “Havana syndrome” was not caused by an energy weapon or foreign adversary, US intelligence has concluded.

The assessment concludes a multi-year investigation into approximately 1,000 “anomalous health incidents” (AHIs) among US diplomats, spies and other employees in US embassies and missions around the world.

Victims reported brain injuries, hearing loss, vertigo and strange auditory sensations, among other symptoms. Many suspected they had been victims of a targeted attack using some kind of directed energy weapon.

Of the seven intelligence agencies that undertook the investigation, five determined that “available intelligence consistently points against the involvement of US adversaries in causing the reported incidents”, according to an unclassified version of the report released on Wednesday by the House intelligence committee. Those five agencies deemed foreign adversary involvement “very unlikely”. One considered it “unlikely” and one declined to state a conclusion. The findings were first reported by the Washington Post.

The assessment involved a painstaking effort to analyze syndrome cases for patterns that could link them, as well as a search, using forensics and geolocation data, for evidence of a directed energy weapon, unnamed officials told the Post. “There was nothing,” one official said.

Republican CIVIL WAR Over East Palestine Aid

East Palestine, Ohio and the Oligarchy

The U.S. is an oligarchy. Stating this fact explains events that may seem mysterious if this simple truth is not spelled out. The ruling class are fully in control and ensure that their needs are met. They disregard the public good and any claims of democracy are easily exposed as a cruel hoax. Americans have no representation in congress or the white house and the corporate media are also part of the oligarchic class. They expose nothing that their partners in crime want to hide. Governmental action and inaction if the wake of a freight train derailment exemplify all of these dynamics. ...

Despite photographic and video evidence of an environmental catastrophe, the accident initially received little media attention. Nothing is covered unless the Biden administration wants it to be and East Palestine didn’t make the cut when there was war propaganda about Ukraine to stir up. In addition, Biden had already made clear that the railroads are in the class of corporate untouchables who are to be placated. They are among those who were promised that “nothing would fundamentally change” and he kept his promise to them by giving the derailment little attention. However he did give these corporations all the attention they demanded. When railroad unions rejected a contract that didn’t include paid sick leave provisions the Biden administration forbade them to strike. There was a phony show among “progressives” about having made a good deal but they were lying. ...

The duopoly worked together to cover up their mess. Ohio’s republican governor Mike DeWine and Biden’s EPA Administrator Michael Regan took a page out of Barack Obama’s Flint, Michigan book by dramatically drinking East Palestine water . Fortunately the U.S. still has plenty of lawyers, and one of many lawsuits filed in recent days specifically names the stunt as having made a “mockery of Ohio citizens.”

The back and forth over freight train regulations isn’t complicated. Trump undid regulations that Obama enacted but Biden didn’t undo what Trump had done. But even worse, regulations currently on the books allowed Norfolk Southern to get away with not labeling the train as carrying hazardous materials because it also carried wheat and vegetables. All over the country trains go through residential areas carrying hazardous materials but the law doesn’t require anyone to be informed of the dangers. And yes, the oligarchs like it that way. ...

Next year in 2024 the people will be subjected to the quadrennial political hoax, i.e., a presidential election. Let’s tell the truth before the theater begins anew. The power doesn’t rest with the presidency. It rests with the people who do the presidential hiring, and they don’t care about railroad workers or any other workers or people who have hazardous chemicals traveling through their communities. Should an accident happen, their hirelings will just drink water for the camera.

Historic Labor Ruling Slams 'Egregious and Widespread Misconduct' by Starbucks

Building on a series of blows to Starbucks on Wednesday, a federal administrative law judge found the coffee giant "committed hundreds of unfair labor practices" at stores in and near Buffalo, New York, the origin of a national unionization wave.

In a lengthy ruling, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) judge, Michael A. Rosas, called out the Seattle-based company for "egregious and widespread misconduct demonstrating a general disregard for the employees' fundamental rights."

The judge ordered Starbucks to cease a long list of anti-union activities, rehire illegally fired employees, reimburse those impacted by unlawful conduct, rescind disciplinary actions, and reopen closed stores.

Rebecca Givan, an associate professor of labor studies at Rutgers University, toldThe Washington Post that "to order a company to reopen stores that it's closed should be embarrassing for Starbucks."

Rosas also ordered "a meeting or meetings scheduled to ensure the widest possible attendance," during which a notice to the employees and an explanation of rights will be read by CEO Howard Schultz, senior vice president of U.S. operations Denise Nelson, or an NLRB agent. A video of the reading must be distributed to workers electronically or by mail.

In an emailed statement to Bloomberg, Starbucks said that "we believe the decision and the remedies ordered are inappropriate given the record in this matter and are considering all options to obtain further legal review."

The outlet noted that "rulings by NLRB judges can be appealed to labor board members in Washington, and can then be appealed into federal appeals court. The agency can order policies changed and workers reinstated, but lacks authority to hold executives personally liable or make companies pay punitive damages for violations."

Meanwhile, Starbucks employees from the area and across the United States celebrated the "historic" ruling. Local organizer and barista Michael Sanabria declared that "after waiting through months of stalling tactics and the slow wheel of justice to turn, this will reinvigorate and re-energize the momentum of this movement."

Drugmaker Eli Lilly says it will cut insulin prices by 70%

Eli Lilly will cut list prices by 70% for its most commonly prescribed forms of insulin, Humalog and Humulin, beginning from the fourth quarter of this year, the drugmaker said on Wednesday.

The move comes amid criticism of healthcare companies by US lawmakers over rising costs of insulin, with Joe Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act including a $35 cap on insulin for those enrolled in Medicare health insurance plans.

“While we could wait for Congress to act or the healthcare system in general to apply that standard, we’re just applying it ourselves,” the company’s chief executive, Dave Ricks, told CNN in an interview.

The drugmaker will also lower the price of its non-branded insulin injection Lispro to $25 a vial and expand its Insulin Value Program, under which the $35 cap will apply to about 85% of US pharmacies.

Rick said patients using other pharmacies that do not participate in the program can get a rebate through the drugmaker’s website.

First Biden Veto Expected After Senate Votes to Sacrifice Pension Rule to Corporate Greed

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to issue his first veto after two Democrats—Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana—partnered with the GOP on Wednesday to pass legislation that would block his administration's rule allowing retirement plan managers to consider climate and other factors in investment decisions.

The 50-46 Senate vote came a day after a 216-204 House vote in which Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) joined with Republicans to advance the resolution about the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) rule on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors—which is notably opposed by fossil fuel companies.

"The DOL rule simply restores the longtime status quo of allowing retirement plans to consider important financial factors like how a company is run, whether its practices match its values, and the risks it faces from global disruptions like climate change," said Rachel Curley, democracy advocate with the group Public Citizen, in a statement Wednesday.

"Repealing a rule protecting retirement savings for millions of workers is irresponsible and puts personal political ambitions above long-term financial responsibility," Curley continued. "Leaving investors in the dark is a disservice to our entire economy. Anyone claiming to care about workers voting to overturn such a reasonable rule is clearly playing politics with workers' retirement savings in a way that flies in the face of common sense."

Public Citizen is among dozens of groups—including Americans for Financial Reform, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), League of Conservation Voters, and Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility—that have warned against blocking the rule this week.

"It's wrong that some lawmakers would play politics with Americans' financial futures by preventing retirement fund managers from considering all risks—including financial risks related to climate—when making investment decisions," declared EDF senior vice president for political affairs Elizabeth Gore. "The standards they're trying to undermine help fund managers make the best possible decisions when investing our money."

In a policy statement on Monday, the Biden administration stressed that the DOL rule "is not a mandate—it does not require any fiduciary to make investment decisions based solely on ESG factors. The rule simply makes sure that retirement plan fiduciaries must engage in a risk and return analysis of their investment decisions and recognizes that these factors can be relevant to that analysis."

"The president will continue to deliver for America's workers," the statement pledged, concluding that if the resolution reached his desk, "he would veto it."

Ohio senators introduce safety rules after toxic train derailment disaster

Railroads like the one involved in last month’s crash and toxic chemical release in East Palestine, Ohio, would be subject to new federal regulations and financial consequences under legislation introduced on Wednesday by the state’s two US senators. The Railway Safety Act of 2023 is cosponsored by Sherrod Brown and JD Vance, a Democrat and Republican, and others of both parties. ...

The new bill aims to address questions including why the Ohio state government was not made aware the hazardous load was coming through and why the crew did not learn sooner of an impending malfunction.

“Through this legislation, Congress has a real opportunity to ensure that what happened in East Palestine will never happen again,” Vance said. “We owe every American the peace of mind that their community is protected from a catastrophe of this kind.”

Brown said it shouldn’t take a disaster for elected officials to work for their communities. “Rail lobbyists have fought for years to protect their profits at the expense of communities like East Palestine and Steubenville and Sandusky,” he said. “These commonsense bipartisan safety measures will finally hold big railroad companies accountable, make our railroads and the towns along them safer, and prevent future tragedies, so no community has to suffer like East Palestine again.”

FBI LYNG? Director DENIES Agency Asked Twitter To Censor Speech, But Fox News BROUGHT RECEIPTS

Outcry after New York mayor dismisses separation of church and state

Civil rights groups blasted the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, after he said he believed God had made him mayor, appeared to support compulsory prayer in public schools and said: “Don’t tell me about no separation of church and state.”

The head of the New York Civil Liberties Union led the condemnation. “We are a nation and a city of many faiths and no faith,” Donna Lieberman said. “In order for our government to truly represent us, it must not favor any belief over another, including non-belief.”

The mayor made the controversial remarks at an interfaith breakfast at the New York Public Library on Tuesday.

Discussing his rise to power, the former police officer said he “strongly believe[d] in all my heart” that “God said, ‘I’m going to take the most broken person and I’m going to elevate him to the place of being the mayor of the most powerful city on the globe.’ He could have made me the mayor of Topeka, Kansas.”

Deflecting sun’s rays to cool overheating Earth needs study, scientists say

The controversial concept of purposely deflecting the sun’s rays to cool down an overheating Earth should be further studied, according to a group of scientists headed by James Hansen, the renowned former Nasa climate researcher. An open letter from more than 60 scientists across the US, Canada and Europe warns that it is “increasingly unlikely” the world will remain below 2C of heating beyond pre-industrial times, due to a failure to slash greenhouse gas emissions, requiring a “rigorous, rapid scientific assessment” of previously outlandish proposals for solar geoengineering to provide rapid cooling.

The letter’s signatories include Hansen, the veteran climate scientist credited with alerting the world to the dangerous escalation of global temperature in the 1980s. While they make clear that cutting emissions is the primary priority, the scientists argue that the full ramifications of the geoengineering, also called solar radiation management (SRM), needs to be understood before it is tried in desperation by a country.

“Since decisions on whether or not to implement SRM are likely to be considered in the next one to two decades, a robust international scientific assessment of SRM approaches is needed as rapidly as possible,” the letter states.

There are a range of different potential climate interventions to try to artificially curb global heating, such as the brightening of clouds to make them more reflective of sunlight, but the option considered most likely by scientists is the spraying of aerosol particles, such as sulphur, into the stratosphere.

These particles would deflect the sun’s rays and rapidly cool the planet, by 1C or maybe even more, although they would only linger temporarily, requiring a constant series of trips by aircraft to spray more aerosols and replenish the reflective material.

Fossil fuel companies donated $700m to US universities over 10 years

Six fossil fuel companies funneled more than $700m in research funding to 27 universities in the US from 2010 to 2020, according to a new study. Such funding at universities that conduct climate research can shift not just research agendas, but also policy in the direction of climate solutions the industry prefers, the report’s authors argue.

Those solutions typically include biofuels, carbon capture, and hydrogen, according to the research by the thinktank Data for Progress and the nonprofit group Fossil-Free Research. Oil majors also invest in public policy and economics research that favors deregulation.

“$700m is probably an absolute bare minimum,” Grace Adcox, polling analyst for Data for Progress, said. “There’s so little transparency around these gifts.” The top five schools on the list, include some that champion their climate research, like University of California at Berkeley ($154m), Stanford University ($56.6m) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology ($40.5m), as well as those with long-standing fossil fuel ties, like George Mason University ($64m), the largest recipient of funding from the Koch Foundation.

These schools have also long been the targets of campus divestment campaigns, with students and faculty urging administrators to pull university funds from fossil fuel companies; Berkeley fully divested in 2020, Stanford and MIT’s resistance to the idea has resulted in a student-led lawsuit. Asked about the new research, several universities described measures they had taken to mitigate concerns, or pointed to more recent reductions in accepting donations.

California braces for more snow as record storms shutter Yosemite

The first day of March offered little relief from the severe winter weather hammering California this week. Strong storms have set the stage for record breaking snow accumulation across the Sierra Nevada mountains, choking off entry and exits from tourist towns, piling snow as high as rooftops, causing dangerous travel conditions and leaving thousands without power, with more snow on the way.

California’s famous Yosemite national park has been closed indefinitely, citing concerns about dangerous travel in and out of the park, as photos on social media showcased popular cabins and campgrounds buried in white. Locals in Tahoe, who began referring to last month as “februburied”, are bracing for more whiteout conditions as a series of winter storms pushed snow levels this season past 12ft – the highest they have been in decades.

Mammoth Lakes, traditionally one of the snowiest places in California, had nearly 4ft (1.2 meters) of snow over the past three days as crews worked around the clock to keep roads and sidewalks clear. ...

And the storms are not letting up. “We will have calm conditions over the next few days but snow returns Saturday,” researchers with University of California Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab tweeted on Wednesday morning, noting that levels had reached 205% of average to-date. Over the course of the last three days a whopping 87.2in fell on the lab housed near Donner Pass and totals for the season have reached above 531in – more than 44ft – an amount second only to the record of 66.7ft (20.3 meters) set in 1952. ...

The weather service predicted that a powerful weather system would affect most of the lower 48 states into Thursday, with heavy snow across the south-west and some portions of the high plains, but also record high temperatures in the Gulf coast into the Ohio Valley and a threat of tornadoes from the southern plains to the mid-south.

Areas in the dividing line between hot and cold, such as the lower Mississippi Valley and Tennessee Valley, could see heavy rain, thunderstorms and some flash flooding. The high could top 100F (38C) across far south Texas, and windy, dry conditions would make for a critical risk of wildfire conditions across in parts of the south-west for the next few days, according to the weather service.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Hersh: US bombed Nord Stream to prolong the Ukraine proxy war

US Berates Georgia for Not Being Sufficiently Anti-Russian

How Private Equity Bribes Public Pension Fund Officials: Subsidized/Fund-Paid Lavish Travel and Entertainment

Corporate Media CAUGHT Running Railroad Propaganda

Video: Dead Deer & Toxic Chemicals in East Palestine River

How Much Does Chicago Hate Mayor Lori Lightfoot?

A Little Night Music

The Champions - Come On

The Champions - I'm So Blue

The Champions - Cute Little Baby

Champions - No Good Woman

The Champions - Keep A-Rockin’

The Champions - Mexico Bound

The Champions - Annie Met Henry

Cadets - Baby Ya Know

The Cadets - Stranded In The Jungle

Young Jessie with The Cadets - Mary Lou

Cadets - Love Bandit

The Cadets - Let´s Rock´n´Roll