WHAT'S BREWING
NADLER: CALLS FOR BARR'S IMPEACHMENT ARE A 'WASTE OF TIME' House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said that calls from his Democratic colleagues to impeach Attorney General William Barr are a “waste of time” because Senate Republicans would not remove him no matter what. Barr, who has sacrificed independent leadership of the Justice Department to do Trump's bidding, sparked fresh controversy with the firing of Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman, whose office was investigating associates of Trump. On Friday, the Justice Department announced that Berman was stepping down. Berman said he was doing no such thing. The next day, Barr notified Berman that Trump had fired him. [HuffPost]
IS IT TIME TO GUARANTEE PUBLIC SERVICE JOBS? Economist Pavlina Tcherneva’s new book, ”The Case for a Job Guarantee,” makes the case that delivering on President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s nearly century-old promise of a job for every American who wants one would both set a modern living standard, and marshal the power of the nation’s workforce to do work that so desperately needs doing. Rather than provide dubiously enforceable incentives for for-profit businesses to meet urgent societal needs, pay Americans directly to do those jobs. Then, during cycles of economic growth, allow the private sector to pay higher wages and reap the benefits of workers with new on-the-job training. [HuffPost]
FLORIDA GOV. RIPPED FOR TRYING TO PIN SPIKE ON HISPANIC WORKERS Angry health experts and worker advocates raged at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for claiming that “overwhelmingly Hispanic” day laborers and agricultural workers are a key driver of a record spike in the state’s COVID-19 cases. DeSantis, who was one of the last governors to issue a statewide stay-at-home order and one of the first to reopen the economy, told reporters the surge was mostly among nursing homes, construction workers and other day laborers and farmworkers. [HuffPost]
WHAT MIGHT REFORMING POLICE UNIONS LOOK LIKE? The political power of police unions has helped them secure strong job protections ― too strong, reform proponents have said. Collective bargaining agreements for police often have provisions that erase disciplinary records after a certain period of time, grant police broad access to investigative files in misconduct cases and have an appeals process that can get officers rehired after unjustified shootings. Other unionized public sector employees often benefit from similar protections. But those workers typically don’t end up shooting and killing Black citizens in the course of their jobs. So what might reforming police unions look like? [HuffPost]
THE REAL LOOTERS OF THE BRONX Last week, a few dozen protesters gathered at a busy intersection near the northern tip of New York City for “A People’s Tour of the Real Looters of the Bronx.” Over a week earlier, the New York Post and other media outlets had painted a grim portrait of the borough. “Bronx streets turn chaotic as looters run wild,” screamed one Post headline. “Fires, mayhem in the Bronx,” said the Daily News. “Looters run wild in Bronx,” Fox News declared. But the dedicated activists at the June 12 demonstration were here to tell a much different story. The activists were here, they said, to defend their neighbors from racist narratives crafted by multimillion-dollar media companies. [HuffPost]
WHO OWNS A RIVER? When Dan Perry moved from Texas to 1,500 acres in the arid reaches of northern New Mexico in 2010, the portion of the Rio Chama that ran through his property was contaminated with pollutants from the wastewater treatment plant upstream. The banks were eroded, so shade trees and shrubs no longer kept the river cool enough for native rainbow and brown trout. Perry invested over $300,000 of his own money, treating erosion and restoring the natural course of the river. Now, the once-deteriorated stretch is a thriving fishery. But to environmental activists and local anglers, it portends a future in which wealthy landowners seize control of public lands. [HuffPost] |
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