In Texas’ third-largest county, the far right’s vision for local governing has come to life

In Texas’ third-largest county, the far right’s vision for local governing has come to life

By Robert Downen, The Texas Tribune, and Jeremy Schwartz, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune This story was originally published by ProPublica Over the past two decades, Tim O’Hare methodically amassed power in North Texas as he pushed incendiary policies such as banning undocumented immigrants from renting homes and vilifying school curriculum that encouraged students to embrace diversity. He rode a wave of conservative resentment, leaping from City Council member of Farmers Branch, a suburb north of Dallas, in 2005 to…

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The Northern Lights make music

The Northern Lights make music

Caspar Henderson writes: Old stories about the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, show the full play of human imagination at work across the sky. In Greenland some said the lights were the spirits of children who had died at birth but were now dancing in the heavens. Others said they were made by spirits playing ball with the skull of a walrus—or by walrus spirits kicking around human skulls. To the Algonquin people of eastern Canada, the lights were the…

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Trump is already laying the groundwork for contesting an election loss

Trump is already laying the groundwork for contesting an election loss

Dennis Aftergut writes: “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.” That is, according to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s recent evidentiary filing in his case against Donald Trump for the January 6th insurrection, what Trump said at a crucial moment in 2020. That was his plan then—and all signs indicate that it is his plan now. There’s nothing normal about Trump’s campaign this year. Even the standard features—the rallies, fundraising, and…

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Trump’s small-dollar donor fundraising is beset by confusion and fatigue

Trump’s small-dollar donor fundraising is beset by confusion and fatigue

The Associated Press reports: Donald Trump’s contributions from small-dollar donors have plummeted since his last bid for the White House, presenting the former president with a financial challenge as he attempts to keep pace with Democrats’ fundraising machine. Fewer than a third of the Republican’s campaign contributions have come from donors who gave less than $200 — down from nearly half of all donations in his 2020 race, according to an analysis by The Associated Press and OpenSecrets, an organization…

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FEMA spent nearly half its disaster budget in just eight days

FEMA spent nearly half its disaster budget in just eight days

Politico reports: Eight days into the fiscal year, the federal government has spent nearly half the disaster relief that Congress has allocated for the next 12 months. The rapid spending — which is likely to accelerate as aid flows to states pulverized by Hurricanes Helene and Milton — soon will force the Federal Emergency Management Agency to restrict spending unless Congress approves additional funding. “I’m going to have to evaluate how quickly we’re burning the remaining dollars in the Disaster…

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Trump & GOP push misinformation on hurricanes as climate crisis intensifies across globe

Trump & GOP push misinformation on hurricanes as climate crisis intensifies across globe

  As we continue to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, we speak with Manuel Ivan Guerrero, a freshman at the University of Central Florida and an organizer with the Sunrise Movement, who says young people are extremely worried about the impact of the climate crisis on their communities. “This just has me more scared for what the future’s going to look like in Florida,” he says. “We’re having these thousand-year storms every three, four years now.” We also speak…

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Russia shares AI images of Hurricane Milton as disinformation abounds in U.S.

Russia shares AI images of Hurricane Milton as disinformation abounds in U.S.

The Guardian reports: Disinformation and conspiracy theories surrounding Milton began long before the storm even made landfall. Since last week, Donald Trump has been spreading lies about the Biden administration’s response to Hurricane Helene, accusing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) of “abandoning” North Carolina residents in what is a hotly contested state in the November presidential election. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), an extremism and disinformation watchdog organization, told the Guardian that hostile actors are known for using…

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Esmail Qaani under guard and questioned as Iran probes Nasrallah killing

Esmail Qaani under guard and questioned as Iran probes Nasrallah killing

Middle East Eye reports: Esmail Qaani, the leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, is alive and unhurt but under guard and being questioned as Iran investigates major security breaches, multiple sources have told Middle East Eye. Qaani has not been seen in public since Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a massive air strike on Beirut on 27 September, an event that rocked the anti-Israel Axis of Resistance alliance. Since then, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps…

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The ‘beautiful confusion’ of the first billion years comes into view

The ‘beautiful confusion’ of the first billion years comes into view

Rebecca Boyle writes: The galaxies were never supposed to be so bright. They were never supposed to be so big. And yet there they are — oddly large, luminous objects that keep appearing in images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Kevin Hainline is part of a team that uses the JWST to find these galaxies, whose brightness, apparent mass, and sheer existence a virtual eyeblink after the Big Bang are among the biggest surprises from the three-year-old…

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Why the Supreme Court might cast the final vote for president

Why the Supreme Court might cast the final vote for president

Aziz Huq writes: The new Supreme Court term that began this week isn’t overflowing with obvious blockbusters. The justices have taken one big culture-war case — a challenge to Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming health care for trans youth — but turned down invitations to deepen the court’s assault on the administrative state. Will such modesty last? One reason to think not is this: The presidential election cycle is just getting to the point where political conflicts could mutate into constitutional…

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In Florida Senate race, two candidates with vastly different views on the climate

In Florida Senate race, two candidates with vastly different views on the climate

Inside Climate News reports: Florida’s narrowing Senate race, between two candidates with vastly different views on the environment and climate, is shaping up to be consequential as each party pursues control of the chamber in November. The incumbent, Rick Scott, a Republican, faces a formidable challenge from former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Democrat. Various recent polls indicate the contest is tightening. In one poll last month Scott led Mucarsel-Powell by a mere percentage point. Forty-five percent of would-be voters…

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Meteorologists get death threats as Hurricane Milton conspiracy theories thrive

Meteorologists get death threats as Hurricane Milton conspiracy theories thrive

Rolling Stone reports: As Hurricane Milton approaches Florida, meteorologists are staying awake for days at a time trying to get vital, life-saving information out to the folks who will be affected. That’s their job. But this year, several of them tell Rolling Stone, they’re increasingly having to take time out to quell the nonstop flow of misinformation during a particularly traumatic hurricane season. And some of them are doing it while being personally threatened. “People are just so far gone,…

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Daughters to dads who support Trump: ‘You chose him over me’

Daughters to dads who support Trump: ‘You chose him over me’

A good father knows how important it is to protect his daughter. This November, fathers need to protect their daughters from Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/q7oQUDKXEp — The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 8, 2024 NJ.com reports: The anti-Donald Trump group, The Lincoln Project, is out with a new digital ad that’s focused on abortion and access to reproductive health care. The ad comes as the former president has been trying to thread a divide between his own base of anti-abortion supporters and…

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‘The first live-streamed genocide’: Al Jazeera exposes war crimes Israeli troops filmed themselves

‘The first live-streamed genocide’: Al Jazeera exposes war crimes Israeli troops filmed themselves

A new documentary from Al Jazeera takes a look at evidence of war crimes in Gaza in the form of social media posted by Israeli soldiers recording and celebrating their own attacks on Palestinians. We play excerpts from the film Investigating War Crimes in Gaza, now available online, and speak to two of the journalists involved in its production, director Richard Sanders and Gaza-based correspondent Youmna ElSayed. “Israelis themselves were telling us precisely what they were doing and why they…

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