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Social Issues
Atlanta Wants To Build An 85-Acre ‘Cop City.’ These Groups Are Trying To Stop It.(HuffPost, April 2023)
Black, Indigenous, environmental and abolitionist activists have come together to block a training facility that they say will militarize police and endanger the community.
Advocates Say Montana Bill Would Erase Trans And Nonbinary Identities (HuffPost, March 2023)
The Republican-backed legislation seeks to legally define sex based solely on reproductive biology.
Only 15 states and Washington, D.C., have passed legislation to provide students with free access to menstrual products in schools.
'Vaginal preppers' braced themselves for a post-Roe world, but experts warn against stocking up on abortion pills (Insider, May 2022)
Like survivalists preparing for the apocalypse, "vaginal preppers" have been gearing up for the criminalization of abortion.
Sex workers' use of unconventional medicine for unwanted pregnancies offers a window into a post-Roe world.
Climate change protesters abandon 2-week hunger strike and swarm Sen. Joe Manchin's Maserati (Business Insider, November 2021)
With a banner that said, "Joe Manchin is burning our future for profit," over 100 protesters confronted Sen. Manchin at 6 a.m. ET.
For sex workers of color, OnlyFans' reversal doesn't go far enough. How censorship and bias puts their careers at risk (Insider, September 2021)
OnlyFans' quick rise was met with widespread backlash last month after announcing (and later reversing) a decision to ban adult entertainment.
Black creators say TikTok's algorithm fosters a 'consistent undertone of anti-Blackness.' Here's how the app has responded. (Insider, July 2021)
Insider spoke with influencers and experts about allegations of anti-Black racism and censorship on TikTok. How has the app responded?
We watched the Black Lives Matter Movement reignite in all its vigor as videos and articles of the murders of black men and women circulated the Internet.
Black women deserve more than protection.
Criminal Justice
Why A Victim Of Police Brutality Chose Restorative Justice For The Cop (HuffPost, July 2023)
A Portland, Oregon, police officer released a video apology three years after beating a photojournalist who sought restorative justice.
At least 42 people have been charged with domestic terrorism in connection to the Stop Cop City movement, and one person has been killed.
Shanquella Robinson's death is being investigated as a femicide, a crime that only 16 countries recognize despite gender-based violence being a global issue (Insider, December 2022)
The US does not differentiate femicide from homicide, but prosecutors in Mexico are looking into 25-year-old Robinson's death as femicide.
Inmates across Alabama's notoriously macabre prisons are on strike: 'I'm just a slave' (Insider, October 2022)
Thousands of Alabama inmates are participating in a labor strike to draw attention to the cruel conditions behind bars.
Lethal injection is supposed to be a 'peaceful' way to execute death row inmates, but experts say it violates the US Constitution (Business Insider, February 2022)
Two Oklahoma death row inmates sought death by firing squad instead as an alternative to the three-drug lethal injection protocol
2 Black death row inmates were executed despite one having an intellectual disability and the other having a severe mental illness (Insider, January 2022)
The executions of Black inmates Donald Grant in Oklahoma and Matthew Reeves in Alabama raised concerns, advocates told Insider.
Shaka Senghor — a best-selling author who spent 7 years in solitary confinement during a 19-year sentence for murder — discusses forgiveness and flaws in the criminal justice system (Insider, January 2022)
Senghor spoke to Insider about incarceration the journey toward healing for victims, perpetrators, and communities.
The brother of a bystander killed by LAPD in 2018 says Valentina Orellana-Peralta's death is just like his sister's: 'There's so many parallels' (Insider, December 2021)
Albert Corado told Insider the death of a 14-year-old last week reminded him of the 2018 police shooting of his own sister, Melyda.
Critics say the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse and plight of Ahmaud Arbery highlight racial bias in criminal justice (Insider, November 2021)
The verdict of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, and justice for Ahmaud Arbery, are the latest in a series of criminal cases exposing institutional racism.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signs bill into law allowing for sweeping law enforcement reform in California (Business Insider, August 2021)
The law adjusts qualified immunity — the defense that protects government officials from individual liability— for law enforcement.
Miya Marcano's family attorney said police didn't treat her disappearance as a 'high-priority case' like Gabby Petito's (Insider, October 2021)
Daryl Washington said Gabby Petito and Miya Marcano's cases gave "the world an opportunity to see some of the differences that you have" when it comes to police resources.
Culture
'And Just Like That...' Is Back With More Sex And Drama — And We Can't Get Enough (HuffPost, June 2023)
The "Sex and the City" spinoff gives audiences more storylines with our favorite gals and gays in New York City.
Teyana Taylor tells us what it means to be the first Black woman Maxim named 'Sexiest Woman Alive' (Insider, July 2022)
Taylor told Insider that sexiness is about your charisma and how someone chooses to carry themself.
Revisiting the infamous Oscars slap and breaking down the difference between edgy comedy and being mean(Insider, March 2022)
A comedian said there is a difference between "edgy comedy" that explores new or untouched topics and using comedy to be "mean."
Additional reads
He sidestepped the much anticipated but rather unlikely perp walk.
Former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas says he is a 'wonderful' person with 'originalist' views, but 'he will be judged for what he does as a justice' (Business Insider, July 2022)
Thomas has called for the review of rulings granting Americans the right to birth-control access, gay relationships, and marriage equality.
Ex-cult member Ginni Thomas may have fallen back into old habits with QAnon-backed conspiracy theories (Business Insider, July 2022)
Her history as both a former member of Lifespring and an anti-cult activist has prompted questions about her alignment with far-right conspiracy theories.
Aliteracy, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is “the quality or state of being able to read but uninterested in doing so.”
This is about the shortcomings of the students themselves. I have to ask: Where is your passion? Where is your drive?