Month: September 2020

Anti-war groups and progressive lawmakers expressed cautious optimism this weekend after the Trump administration announced it would end its policy of refueling Saudi planes that are engaged in Saudi Arabia’s assault on Yemen—but called for bolder and broader policy changes to ensure an end to the attacks that have killed more than 15,000 civilians. On Friday, the Washington Post reported that the refueling practice would end, with Saudi Arabia claiming in a statement that it…

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Daniel Ricciardo is keeping an eye on young Australian charger Oscar Piastri, the Renault driver admitting to being impressed by the newly-crowned FIA F3 champion’s skills. Melbourne-born Piastri rose through the ranks to make his single-seater debut in 2016 in selected rounds of the Formula 4 UAE Championship. He subsequently moved up the ladder to race and win in Formula Renault for two seasons before joining Prema Racing to contest this year’s FIA Formula 3…

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A North Carolina Republican running to replace a GOP lawmaker he defeated in a May primary has reportedly preached extensively on the need for married women to submit to their husbands. Roll Call reports that Mark Harris, the Republican nominee in North Carolina’s 9th District, often told worshipers at his Baptist services that women should “submit” unto their husbands as they would to God. ADVERTISEMENT In an interview with Roll Call, Harris, who is running to replace Rep. Robert PittengerRobert…

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The Democrat who won Tuesday’s gubernatorial primary in Vermont on Wednesday said she is proud to be the first transgender nominee of a major party for a governor’s race. Christine Hallquist told CNN that the “historical significance” of her victory was starting to “sink in.” ADVERTISEMENT “We were all working hard every day, and I didn’t necessarily think about what it would look like to win,” Hallquist said. “But it is starting to sink in,…

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New York Democratic House candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday night congratulated her “sister in service” Ayanna Pressley, a progressive who won her district’s primary in an upset win over longtime incumbent Rep. Michael CapuanoMichael (Mike) Everett CapuanoInside the progressive hunt for vulnerable House Democrats Progressive mayor launches primary challenge to top Ways and Means Democrat Ex-GOP Rep. Roskam joins lobbying firm MORE (D-Mass).  Many have already drawn parallels between Pressley’s stunning victory and that of Ocasio-Cortez, another progressive woman who edged…

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As deadly wildfires continue to rage in California—destroying hundreds of homes, threatening thousands more, and forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate—experts believe the blazes are part of “the new reality” that climate scientists have warned about for decades. “This past month shows climate change for real and in real time,” The Fresno Bee declared in an editorial published Monday. The ferocious California fires, the Guardian reports, have “spawned bizarre pyrotechnics, from firenados to…

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Activist Ady Barkan—a terminally ill ALS patient who has garnered national attention protesting against Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—and reproductive rights advocates including former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards traveled to Portland, Maine on Sunday for events that aimed to raise awareness about the threat that President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh poses to Americans’ healthcare. Partnering with Mainers for Accountable Leadership and Moral Movement Maine, Barkan ended his…

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New York congressional candidate and democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defended a key (and widely supported) pillar of her progressive platform—Medicare for All—on Sunday, saying such systems are “not just pie in the sky” but have been proven in other Western democracies and would be “good for our future.” Ocasio-Cortez made the comments on CNN‘s “State of the Union” when pressed by host Jake Tapper about how she proposes to fund a platform that also includes…

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As inmates across the United States continue to carry out a multi-week strike to protest prison conditions and forced labor, the ACLU on Wednesday unveiled state-level blueprints to reform the American criminal justice system and curb mass incarceration. “The Smart Justice 50-state blueprints are the first-ever analysis of their kind and will serve as tools for activists, advocates, and policymakers to push for transformational change,” the ACLU announced in a statement introducing the state reports.…

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A group of progressives elected to the U.S. House in November came together for a #PeoplesOrientation rally on Tuesday night, skipping out on a speech by Elaine Chao—the Trump administration’s transportation secretary and wife of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell—at an orientation for new members of Congress. “I was not sent to Washington to play nice.”—Rep.-elect Ayanna Pressley While many incoming lawmakers participated in the supposedly bipartisan conference hosted by Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute…

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