Dear Subscribers, 

We broke a story this week! 

Actor Liam Neeson, Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and former advocate for vaccines recently narrated a conspiratorial documentary that spread misinformation about vaccinations, the origins of COVID, and pandemic mitigation measures. Plague of Corruption: 80 Years of Pharmaceutical Corruption Exposed also frames Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as our saving grace, despite MAHA policies and rhetoric already leading to deaths of children due to preventable diseases like measles and pertussis. 

The film is based on a book co-authored by disgraced researcher Dr. Judy Mikovits—known for her role in the Plandemic series, for having a central paper of hers debunked and retracted, and for getting arrested for stealing notebooks from the lab where she worked—and COVID contrarian attorney Kent Heckenlively. The book, unsurprisingly, was published by Children’s Health Defense, the multimillion‑dollar anti-vax group founded by Kennedy.

Learn more about the documentary, its creators and the dangerous propaganda Neeson helped peddle in our latest. 

It’s since been cited in outlets like Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, the Guardian, HuffPost, and covered in many more!  

We also need your help this week! We’re conducting a reader survey to help us better understand our audience, their backgrounds and their interests. It should take less than five minutes to complete. Help us get to know you. Click this link for the survey.

Last but not least, please continue supporting our work through tax-deductible donations. As a small nonprofit, your contributions directly contribute to our reporting stories like these. Help us stand up for public health and scientific reality this giving season!

Thank you. 

—Walker & Olivia

This week, the CDC updated its vaccine safety page to include several debunked claims linking vaccines to autism. Despite RFK Jr. saying during his Senate confirmation hearings that he would “work within the current vaccine approval and safety monitoring systems” and “maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes,” the Department of Health and Human Services has made a swift and dangerous anti-scientific shift. 

Dr. David Gorski, an AJI Scientific Advisory Board member, oncologist, and managing editor of the blog Science-Based Medicine told Important Context that the CDC “is now aligned with three decades of anti-vaccine narrative designed to cast doubt on the strong scientific consensus that infant and childhood immunization do not detectably increase the risk of autism, no matter how many large, well-designed studies fail to find a link.”

Read our full coverage here. 

Important Context also spoke with David Vickrey, a Daily Kos blogger Kennedy has spent the last five years pursuing in court for alleged “defamation.” Vickrey was granted summary judgment in September.

Read our story here.

As we enter the end of 2025, we want to thank you for helping us grow. We began this year with the goal to launch a nonprofit that would speak truth to power and uphold scientific reality and democracy in the face of disinformation and fascism. We have our work cut out for us, but together, we can grow our movement and hold bad actors accountable. 

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today to support AJI and Important Context’s work, to help us grow our reach and spread reliable, science-based information that protects the health of our communities. 

Thank you for being a part of AJI. 

Dear Subscriber, 

This week, Dr. George Tidmarsh was added to the ranks of fringe public health contrarians recruited to work in the Trump administration’s Food and Drug Administration under Commissioner Marty Makary. 

Tidmarsh’s job will be to lead the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), which oversees over-the-counter and prescription drug regulation and approval. Tidmarsh, a former biotech executive, current professor of pediatrics and neonatology at Stanford University, cancer specialist and physician, has also been a close ally of the medical fringes. Last year, he helped organize and fund, and then participated in a pandemic policy conference at Stanford University that was criticized for featuring a number of contrarian voices including anti-vaxxers. AJI’s investigative newsletter, Important Context, covered the event at the time, which featured a number of future Trump administration public health officials. It was at this event that Tidmarsh first connected with Makary.

Read our full story on Tidmarsh here. 

We are able to cover these figures so thoroughly because we are not new to this subject. Important Context has been aggressively uncovering the lies between COVID contrarianism and the anti-vax movement since 2020. We know that efforts to chip away at public health go hand-in-hand to chip away at democracy. 

We are a small nonprofit that does big work. Your donations help us bring these investigations to life! Please donate today and/or consider upgrading your Important Context subscription to paid.

Thank you!

Best, 

Your Friends at AJI

Dear OptOut Subscribers,

We have some significant changes underway that we have been teasing for months. As we approach our organizational pivot, I wanted to take a moment to update you all.

Almost five years ago, during the COVID quarantine of early 2020 in Brooklyn, NY, Walker Bragman and I had many phone calls and Zooms about the state of our country, and where the news business fit in. We were concerned about the direction things were headed, but were energized by the new possibilities that could come out of a global crisis.

Over a number of these conversations, we dreamed up a news app that curated journalism produced by financially independent news sources, like the ones we worked for. Unlike the dominant, corporate news apps, we'd pull from news outlets and independent writers that the mainstream overlooked—and put facts and positive social change before profits, access, and status. And, unlike the prominent apps at the time, we'd include podcasts and videos. We'd give news outlets and their journalists the credit they deserved by way of detailed profiles that app users could follow. If we could make this concept a reality and market it adequately, we'd change the national conversation and combat rampant disinformation and the radicalizing effects of social media. Perhaps we could move the needle just a tiny bit towards justice for all people.

A few months later, we pitched the idea to a cohort of activist tech developers, the Progressive Coders Network, and more than a dozen people were interested in helping create the app. We had no money, but everyone involved was passionate about our mission—we were all volunteers. We worked with the devs to build a cutting-edge news app and had a working prototype by early 2021. It was an exciting time. We were meeting with scores of independent news outlets, large and small. We were aggregating Substack before Substack made its own app!

Meanwhile, we started a newsletter and founded a nonprofit charity, the OptOut Media Foundation, and began meeting with foundations and individuals about potential donations to our cause. We were able to score three years of modest seed funding and rope in a few hundred small donors. It wasn't a lot, but it was a start.

Over the next few years, we sent hundreds of newsletters and created programs focused on climate, LGBTQ+ issues, and New York news. We put together a social media team, hired a fundraiser, and got several small grants from foundations. We perfected our v. 1 of the app and launched it on the Apple and Google Play stores. The app was downloaded over 15,000 times.

But we hit a roadblock. Aside from our main seed funder, we weren't able to secure any other substantial grants. We didn't have enough money to truly market the app and newsletters so we could grow the way we wanted. Fundraising stagnated. Our biggest annual budget wasn't much more than $100,000. Still, we continued improving the app, sending out newsletters, and began publishing original investigative reporting. We did a heck of a lot of quality work on a shoestring budget.

Last year it became clear that we couldn't afford to maintain the app without a significant amount of new funding. Despite our efforts, most foundations that funded journalism said no. Most weren't willing to take a risk with a new tech product. They seemed to stick mostly to funding news production and education directly.

We had a fantastic tech product, but we failed to adequately fund it. Therefore, we decided to shut down the app as of Jan. 1 of this year. ProgCode has taken over stewardship of the tech, which is offline as they figure out its next incarnation. But that doesn't mean we're going anywhere. Instead, we are shifting our resources to where they are needed most in this vital moment for the country. 

As our core mission—to educate the public about current events and advance democracy and social justice—remains the same, the OptOut Media Foundation is becoming the Accountability Journalism Institute (AJI), focused on producing hard-hitting investigative reporting to combat misinformation and dark money influence. As such, all further newsletters and other correspondences from our organization will be under the banner of the AJI.  Our newsroom, Important Context, has already broken critical, impactful stories related to business-backed efforts to undermine public health. We will still send out a newsletter, but it will largely pull from our own work.

The name and shift of focus are not the only changes. I am stepping down as executive director. I’ll remain on the board, which we’ve expanded (announcement coming soon). My co-founder Walker Bragman is taking my place, heading up the organization. We are also pleased to welcome Olivia Riggio, who has been our fundraising consultant, as deputy director.

I have a lot of thank you’s to make. First, I can’t thank the OptOut team over the last five years enough: the original volunteer tech team from ProgCode and the more recent additions; our editorial squad, both past and present; our administrative, fundraising, and social media staff. After our initial volunteer phase, we couldn’t have grown OptOut into what it became without our donors, both large and small. And we wouldn’t be anything without the incredible reporting from the more than 200 independent news outlets that joined our news network. Thank you so much to everyone who has been a part, even a very small one, of our work since 2020.

We’ll have some exciting announcements over the coming weeks about our new direction. I want to emphasize that we are continuing our work, and I encourage you to remain a tax-deductible donor to our organization. You’ll be getting a lot more original reporting, as the new administration viciously attacks our health care system, the environment, LGBTQ+ rights, and press freedom. We would be ever grateful if you stick with us during this transition.

It’s going to be a tough year in the U.S., and, as a result, around the world. If you’re reading this, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that fact-based journalism that’s free from conflicts of interest couldn’t be more important. Thank you for supporting independent media, and I hope you’ll continue doing so.

All my best,

Alex Kotch

Co-Founder and former Executive Director of the OptOut Media Foundation (Accountability Journalism Institute)

This report was originally produced by OptOut’s investigative newsletter, Important Context. You can subscribe here.

With all eyes focused on Trump administration confirmation hearings, the Biden White House released its “roadmap” for combating infectious diseases. The 16-page document released Tuesday represents a public version of a 300-page report the outgoing administration is providing its successor.

The document, which comes as the U.S. enters its fifth year of living with COVID-19 and amid warnings from experts that the country is not doing enough to combat avian flu, touts the efforts of the administration to counter infectious disease threats. The report discusses efforts to contain threats like the SARS-CoV-2 virus, monkeypox, and H5N1. For example, it boasts that the Biden White House oversaw the creation of the largest free vaccine distribution program in U.S. history with the pandemic.

“In President Biden’s first year of office, the Biden-Harris Administration worked hand-in-hand with doctors, nurses, businesses, unions, community organizations, governors, mayors, and citizens across every state, Tribe, and territory to put vaccines at the center of the United States’ COVID-19 response,” it reads. “These vaccines still remain the best tools available to lower the risk of hospitalization and death.”

The roadmap is organized by headings like “Supporting Community-Based Organizations in Vaccine Outreach to High-Risk Communities” and “Ensuring an Equitable Pandemic Response and Recovery.” But what the document does not include is telling and reflective of the pressure the White House faced from the political right.

Political Pressure

The COVID pandemic hit the U.S. harder than its peer nations, killing more than 1.2 million Americans to date and leaving millions more suffering long COVID. Most of the deaths—at least 800,000–occurred after Biden was sworn into office in late January 2021. Yet, the roadmap the administration released does not include an acknowledgment of that staggering loss of life on the president’s watch, nor does it include an analysis of how those deaths could have been prevented.

There is no mention, for example, of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which had the power to create emergency safety rules for workplaces—something Biden promised to do on the campaign trail but ultimately abandoned. When the president did finally utilize OSHA it was to create a vaccine-or-test mandate for large businesses which was struck down in court. The mandate also does not make an appearance in the roadmap.

Similarly, there is no mention of air filtration or upgrading ventilation to address airborne disease threats in schools or workplaces. There is just one mention of paid sick leave in the context of partnering with local Chambers of Commerce to encourage employers to provide it to their workers. Quarantine measures are totally absent and there is exploration of the efficacy of closures, which are mentioned in the beginning of the report as a negative.

The most notable omission, however, is the lack of discussion about combatting misinformation. The roadmap only includes one reference to misinformation in the context of measles. Pediatric measles vaccination has plummeted since the onset of the pandemic, but the issue runs much deeper. The COVID pandemic saw the deliberate proliferation of vaccine misinformation for political reasons. The results were devastating: hundreds of thousands of preventable American deaths.

Business-aligned right-wing dark money groups like the Heritage Foundation, allied media, and Republican politicians, were already working to politicize public healthefforts to combat the spread of COVID when Biden took office. Measures like lockdowns and school closures were seen as simply too economically disruptive to justify the benefits.

These organizations and individuals worked to muddy the waters around the threat of the virus, downplaying the seriousness of the disease it caused and promoting an untested herd immunity strategy based on mass infection and “natural immunity.” They also cast doubt on the death numbers and politicized the origins of the virus to undermine faith in experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci, former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Evidence still points to natural spillover and that explanation has long been favored by virologists and epidemiologists.

While early on in the pandemic, support for mitigation measures was strong across the board, over time, COVID cautiousness became a partisan indicator, putting pressure on political leaders looking to protect their constituents. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, for example, faced angry, armed right-wing crowds outside her home and at the state capital demanding normalcy and was even targeted in a kidnapping plot. Although opponents of mitigation measures never constituted anything near a majority, their demeanor and aggressiveness made up the difference.

Biden rode a promise to control the pandemic into the White House. But with victory came the fraught political landscape. It was not just right-wing groups opposing COVID mitigation measures, it was major industries. Between that opposition and an increasingly radicalized contingent of Americans demanding normalcy, the pressure was on. But promising early data about the efficacy of the new vaccines developed through Operation Warp Speed against transmission offered a potential easy solution—one seemingly everyone could get behind. As one administration staffer told The Washington Post, the plan quickly became “vaccine our way out” of the crisis.

The new president quickly pivoted away from closures, even announcing before taking office that school reopening would be a first 100-day priority. The focus became inoculation—getting shots in arms as quickly as possible. For a time, the virus and the public seemed to cooperate. Deaths were already dropping by Inauguration Day and the trend would largely continue until early summer.

It wasn’t long, however, before the same forces that had politicized pandemic closures came after the vaccines too, casting doubt on their safety and efficacy. Over time, the alignment between the mainstream political right and the so-called medical “freedom” movement would become clearer, culminating in Robert Kennedy Jr.’s pro-Trump Make America Healthy Again movement.

Partisanship became a risk factor for COVID death and hospitalization as skepticism toward the vaccines became widespread, particularly on the right. By late summer 2021, COVID was roaring back thanks to the delta variant. In the face of the rising death toll, the Biden administration took two key steps: mobilizing OSHA to implement a vaccine mandate for large businesses and attempting to work with social media companies to address misinformation on their platforms. The latter effort involved private content moderation requests and, when that failed, public shaming of companies like Facebook. The administration’s limited efforts faced right-wing backlash—and legal challenges.

The vaccine-or-test mandate was struck down in court in January 2022. Several months later, two GOP attorneys general launched a lawsuit alleging that the administration had engaged in unconstitutional censorship of dissenting voices through communications with social media giants. The Missouri v. Biden suit—later Murthy v. Missouri—was later joined by private plaintiffs, including prominent COVID misinformation spreaders who were popular on the right represented by a lawfare group funded by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch.

Although the case ultimately failed at the highest level with the Supreme Court ruling 6-3 that the plaintiffs had failed to establish that the government had actually harmed them—a majority opinion authored by conservative Amy Coney Barrett—the lawfare worked to cow the administration. The new, public pandemic roadmap does not include anything about working with or pressuring social media companies into doing more to protect their users against dangerous misinformation.

In a recent interview, outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who oversaw the effort to combat online misinformation, admitted, “I can’t go toe to toe with social media,” citing the Murthy case and other litigation.

Unreceptive Audience

The release of the roadmap comes at a critical time. With avian flu spreading across the country, the need for cooperation between the outgoing and incoming administrations is clear. 

It is unclear, however, the impact the Biden White House’s roadmap will have on the incoming Trump administration. The president-elect, who is promising to slash government waste, has named a number of individuals to top public health positions who were instrumental in politicizing the COVID pandemic. Some of those individuals, like Dr. Marty Makary, the pick for Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who is set to lead the National Institutes of Health, were opponents of measures touted in the Biden White House report, like COVID testing.

In May 2022, for example, Makary took to Twitter to decry how the administration was trying to fund “the testing-industrial complex to over-test immune students.” Bhattacharya, meanwhile, who was also a plaintiff in the Murthy case, suing the administration for allegedly censoring him, suggested there may be ulterior motives for the testing push.

“As the Biden Administration spends billions more on "free" covid tests, a reminder from @unherd that there are politically well-connected experts who head up testing companies who stand to gain financially from the decision,” he tweeted in September 2023.

---

The OptOut Media Foundation (EIN: 85-2348079) is a nonprofit charity with a mission to educate the public about current events and help sustain a diverse media ecosystem by promoting and assisting independent news outlets and, in doing so, advance democracy and social justice.

Download the app for Apple and Android.
Sign up for OptOut's free newsletters.
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Become an OptOut Member

]]>http://localhost:3000/newsletters/2024-climate-wrap-up/67742d350d51b40001007500Tue, 31 Dec 2024 18:48:43 GMT

Hi, Everyone! 

I’m Amanda Magnani, a Brazilian (photo)journalist and OptOut News’ climate editor. Every other week, I bring you the most important climate news from our network—with an extra serving of decolonial perspectives. ✨🌿

Want to keep the OptOut newsletters and app free?

WE ARE A NONPROFIT AND RELY ON YOUR SUPPORT TO CONTINUE OUR WORK!

DONATE HERE!

The hottest year on record, 2024 was a big one for the climate crisis—and most of the time, not for good reasons. Over the past 12 months, we saw hurricanes Helene and Milton, the dangers of climate disinformation, a failed agreement on global climate finance, and the election of a climate denialist as the President of the United States. 

As this year has illustrated, there is a clear need for hard-hitting, honest reporting. Independent media plays a critical role in holding power to account. As the year comes to an end, we urge you to consider donating to OptOut, so we can continue doing our work. 

🌿🌿🌿

The year kicked off with Biden’s freeze of all new LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) projects across the U.S. in January. Gas Outlook reported that the pause was meant to last while the Department of Energy reviewed how to regulate new LNG exports, weighing in the climate impacts before any new approval. 

But it didn’t take long for the GOP to challenge the decision. In February, House members called a hearing, arguing that the move would undercut the economy, Colorado Newsline reported. That same month, EOS reported that the one-to-five hurricane intensity scale was no longer enough to categorize the worst cyclones the world is experiencing.

In March, however, we received some good news. Solar energy in the U.S. hit a milestone not seen since WWII: for the first time in decades, renewable energy made up more than half of the country’s added energy, accounting for 23.6 of the 32.4 gigawatts added in 2023, Grist reported. 

In April, the Biden administration raced to approve as many climate rules as possible, with announcements on a near-daily basis, Gas Outlook reported. Regulations included blocking oil and gas in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve (NPRA); fuel-economy standards for passenger vehicles; funding for residential solar programmes; and requiring chemical companies to pay for the clean-up of PFAS, the so-called “forever chemicals”.

In May, another win: small island nations succeeded in obligating all state parties of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Grist reported. 

In June, however, The Lever reported on how fossil fuel companies used legal gymnastics to criminalize protests against pipelines, trying to widen the definition and punishment for attacks on pipelines by using vague language that could lead to the understanding of protests as a form of attack criminally punishable by up to 20 years in prison. 

July was a big month, with curtains closing on both Biden’s pause to LNG exports–as reported by Grist–and his announced candidacy for a second term as President of the United States was ending following a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump.

In August, climate activists and lefty green groups officially endorsed the candidacy of Kamala Harris for president, HEATED reported. That same month, Grist reported on how, after a series of heat-related deaths, workers across the country rallied to demand on-the-job heat protection. 

Hurricane Helene arrived in September, devastating five states across the Southeastern United States and leaving over a hundred dead. In Georgia, more than 1 million lost power and in Tennessee, more than 50 people were stranded on the roof of a hospital and in Western North Carolina all roads were closed. All that was worsened and made more likely by climate change, Grist reported. 

A few weeks later, in October, Grist reported that hurricane Milton hit Florida, leaving at least six deaths and over 80.000 people in shelters, which was still not the worst-case scenario. Also in October, lies and disinformation surrounding hurricane Helene, including from then Republican candidate Donald Trump, were so extreme that FEMA’s chief Deanne Criswell publicly begged for the lies to stop, The Ring of Fire reported.

November was probably the most consequential month of 2024 for the climate crisis. The U.S. elected Donald Trump for a second term and gave his party a trifecta—with grave implications for the planet, The New Republic reported. It was also the month when COP 29, the U.N. climate conference took place, with the mission of  agreeing on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). That too was a major failure, as the final deal promised US$ 300 billion a year, much less than the necessary US$ 1 trillion, Grist reported. 

I wrote a story for OptOut’s investigative newsletter, Important Context, about the representation of fossil fuel interests at the conference.

The Climate Disinformation Machine at Work at COP29

Beyond the 1,773 fossil fuel lobbyists currently in Baku, COP29 is attended by over a hundred members of climate disinformation organizations across all levels.

Important ContextAmanda Magnani

To end the year with a bang, in December, petro-states managed to spoil the international plastics treaty negotiations Yale Environment 360 reported. Finally, President-elect Donald Trump nominated fracking ally Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency and pledged to slash climate regulations and weaken environmental protections, Alabama Reflector reported.

🙏

Please join our mission to boost independent media, challenge the dominant corporate and legacy outlets, and move things forward towards a stronger democracy, a healthier planet, and a more equitable society.Please consider donating $20, $100, $1,000, or whatever you can here!

🌿🌿🌿

That’s all for now, folks! Thank you for accompanying and supporting us throughout 2024. If you have any questions or suggestions, hit me up at amanda@optout.news. 

Obrigada and a happy new year to us all!

---

The OptOut Media Foundation (EIN: 85-2348079) is a nonprofit charity with a mission to educate the public about current events and help sustain a diverse media ecosystem by promoting and assisting independent news outlets and, in doing so, advance democracy and social justice.

Download the app for Apple and Android.
Sign up for OptOut's free newsletters.
Learn more about OptOut.
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Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Mastodon, and Facebook.

Become an OptOut Member

]]>http://localhost:3000/newsletters/optout-the-holiday-special/676b3b180d51b40001003443Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:56:37 GMT

Well, it’s that time of year again. The holiday season is upon us. OptOut has big changes in store for 2025–some of them good, some not so good. More info on that to come.

But for now, it’s a time for families to get together and enjoy favorite movies and a break (if possible) from the daily grind. With that in mind, we wanted to share our holiday picks in a brief newsletter to allow you to get back to it!

Want to keep the OptOut newsletters and app free?

WE ARE A NONPROFIT AND RELY ON YOUR SUPPORT TO CONTINUE OUR WORK!

DONATE HERE!

We’ll begin with IMPORTANT CONTEXT, OptOut’s official investigative reporting newsletter focused on the intersection of money-in-politics, disinformation, and dark money.

We‘ve had two important stories this month. The first piece revealed the political spending of major health insurers.

Here’s How Much UnitedHealth Group and Other Major Insurers Spent Influencing Both Parties This Cycle

Health insurance giants poured millions into politics.

Important ContextWalker Bragman

The second piece was a doozy. We found that Donald Trump’s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, promoted a conspiracy theory about the anti-viral drug ivermectin in a pseudo documentary released over the summer. If he ascends to the position, Bhattacharya will lead the largest funder of biomedical research on the planet.

Trump NIH Pick Pushed Ivermectin Conspiracy Theory in Documentary Linked to Chinese Cult

Jay Bhattacharya made remarks supportive of the discredited COVID treatment in a film released this year.

Important ContextWalker Bragman

🗞️

OptOut exists because of tax-deductible donations from readers like you. Become an OptOut 🎟 Member, 🏀 Baller, or 👑 OG for exclusive content and to help us keep doing our work!

In Other News

The new report on Matt Gaetz from the U.S. House Committee on Ethics is out. It reveals that the former congressman regularly paid for sex and took illegal drugs on multiple occasions. The committee also noted there was “substantial evidence” that Gaetz paid for sex with a 17-year-old girl. STATES NEWSROOM had the story.

‘Substantial evidence’ Gaetz paid for sex with minor, U.S. House Committee says • Oregon Capital Chronicle

Former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, paid for sex, including with a minor, used illegal drugs and sought to obstruct investigators.

Oregon Capital ChronicleAshley Murray

President-Elect Donald Trump has been hinting at what CNN called “U.S. expansion,” into Greenland, Panama, and NATO founding member Canada. The global implications of such a policy are immense and potentially catastrophic, but Trump’s advisers are defending him. THE NEW REPUBLIC reported on one of those defenders.

Trump Adviser Somehow Makes Greenland Threat Even Worse

Corey Lewandowski had a terrible answer when asked about Donald Trump’s recent threats against Greenland and Panama.

The New RepublicEdith Olmsted

Trump is planning deep cuts to America’s social spending and regulatory state. To that end, he named Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to create a “Department Of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, based on the meme cryptocurrency. But how the pair will actually do anything without authority from Congress is an open question. STATES NEWSROOM also had that story.

Musk and Ramaswamy to confront Congress in struggle for control of the public purse • Nevada Current

President-elect Donald Trump enlisted Washington outsiders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to tell members of Congress how they should run things. But Musk and Ramaswamy as they build their Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, don’t actually hold any elected or bureaucratic positions in the federal government — giving two hard-driving businessmen far […]

Nevada CurrentJennifer Shutt

In a surprise move, outgoing President Joe Biden had commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal inmates on death row. THE INTERCEPT reported on the response from inmates.

“And I Was Surprised”: On Federal Death Row, They Feared Biden Would Set Up Another Trump Killing Spree

Joe Biden’s commutations for 37 of 40 people on federal death row brought relief for those who feared another killing spree by Donald Trump.

The InterceptLiliana Segura

Meanwhile, in the wake of the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, Israel has launched an invasion of the country and carried out aerial raids to cripple its military capabilities. COUNTERPUNCH had a commentary on the turn of events.

Israelis Invade Syria: Who Will Stop Israel?

The United States, Turkey and Israel all responded to the fall of the Assad government in Damascus by launching bombing campaigns on Syria. Israel also

CounterPunch.orgNicolas J S Davies

Another piece of interesting news is the fact that the infamous study that popularized hydroxychloroquine as a COVID treatment has finally been retracted. But that retraction comes after years of damage. SEQUENCER had a rundown of the story.

The hydroxychloroquine COVID-19 study is retracted, after the damage is done

Grifters have used science to make money and produce societal schisms

SequencerDan Samorodnitsky

With that, we hope you all have a happy holiday! Stay tuned for more updates on OptOut!

---

The OptOut Media Foundation (EIN: 85-2348079) is a nonprofit charity with a mission to educate the public about current events and help sustain a diverse media ecosystem by promoting and assisting independent news outlets and, in doing so, advance democracy and social justice.

Download the app for Apple and Android.
Sign up for OptOut's free newsletters.
Learn more about OptOut.
Merch

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Mastodon, and Facebook.

Become an OptOut Member

]]>http://localhost:3000/newsletters/support-a-media-that-sees-us-all/6761f678efd85e0001e1cba1Tue, 17 Dec 2024 22:17:31 GMT

Hi all!

My name is Liana DeMasi, and I’m the LGBTQ+ Editor here at OptOut. I’ve also been involved with fundraising, curating our app and website, and social media, so really, I’m the wearer of many hats! But every one of us here at OptOut can say the same. We take the news seriously—a sort of all-hands-on deck, holistic approach. We’re invested in creating a better world, in helping you do the same. 

We’re working to raise $10,000 before the end of the year. Can you help us?

Our current work is a collaborative situation, and each of us plays a role, from the writer to the editor to the fact-checker to the app curator who carefully selects what is most pressing and important. And even—especially—the news consumer. 

Whether you’ve been here since our beginnings or you’re just starting out, you’re with OptOut because you understand the importance of diversifying your news. You know the world is composed of millions of microcosms, and having a handful of corporate news outlets speaking for all of them feels misguided at best and downright harmful at worst. 

There’s a world out there that sees and advocates for all of us, and I know that OptOut understands what role the news places in that world. As a queer, nonbinary journalist, writer, and professor, I have to believe a better world is out there, and I’m also compelled to play a role in its happening. 

Donate today to support this vision!

We need you to help continue our mission: to provide independent, diverse news to people without paywalls. If you’re here already, you trust us, and your support will ensure that we’ll be able to become a trusted news source for others, too.

So thank you. We hope to see more of you in the world we’re building together. 

Sincerely, 

Liana DeMasi | LGBTQ+ Editor, OptOut

]]>http://localhost:3000/newsletters/murder-in-the-first-world/675896cb54e7660001f2d806Wed, 11 Dec 2024 00:08:30 GMT

What was so unusual about the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was not that it happened at all—although that was unusual. High-ranking corporate executives are not typically victims of violent crime. Nor was it the location and time of day—although those too were unusual considering Thompson was slain around 6:45 AM in midtown Manhattan on his way to an investor meeting. Nor was it the political aspects of the killing—shell casings discovered at the scene had the words “Deny,” “Defend,” “Depose“ etched onto them in an apparent reference to common health insurance tactics to avoid paying out claims. Similarly, a bag full of Monopoly money was found nearby allegedly belonging to the shooter.

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No, what made the murder so unusual was the public reaction to it. The news was not met with sadness or even pensive acknowledgment. Instead, the internet erupted in jubilant celebration.

UnitedHealth Group’s Facebook post noting the loss of its top executive was met with a barrage of laughing emojis and scornful comments about how “thoughts and prayers” were “out of network.” The responses were so one-sided and brutal that the company limited who could comment and who could see the total numbers of reaction emojis. Across social media, Americans began sharing their horror stories of dealing with insurance companies.

“I was told I could get mutiparametric MRI of prostrate to detect/rule out cancer instead of painful biopsy,” one BlueSky user posted. “But then UnitedHealthcare--the ‘good’ tier plan--reversed and said since I had no symptoms they wouldn't pay. I wasn't sick enough to determine how sick I was.”

“And or course I did have it, and am happy to say I had radiation and that was a few years ago and all is well,” the added. “But still had to pay several thousand bucks, out of pocket limit, before they covered.”

“I’ve had UnitedHealthCare for years, but the last 2 yrs. they’ve SIGNIFICANTLY CUT BACK ON WHAT THEY’LL PAY,” another user wrote. “I’ve been going through cancer treatments & I’m having to pay higher out of pocket deductibles to get certain procedures done. It’s almost like not having insurance at all. Very frustrating.”

Journalist Taylor Lorenz published an article in her User Magazine Substack titled, “Why ‘we’ want insurance executives dead,” giving voice to much of the outrage and contextualizing it.

Why “we” want insurance executives dead

No, that does not mean people should murder them. But if you’ve watched a loved one suffer and die from insurance denial, it’s normal to wish the people responsible would suffer the same fate.

User MagTaylor Lorenz

But for the political and media establishment, the response to Thompson’s murder was horrifying and seemingly surprising. The New York Times ran a headline that “some” online were treating the murderer like a folk hero. Right-wing commenters began blaming the left for the killing. Ben Shapiro posted a video accusing the “EVIL left” of cheering on violence. Political figures on both sides of the aisle also got in on the action. After a suspect was taken into custody in his state, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro chided that the shooter wasa no hero and that Americans “do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences.”

But all of their criticisms of the murder and those celebrating were met with scathing rebukes and trolling.

“It’s not left or right,” one commenter responded to Ben Shapiro’s video. “It’s not black and white. It’s rich vs poor. Your true colors are showing.”

“The right are really siding with this CEO,” read another. “Seeing now I am parting ways. Billionaires don’t care about us.”

“You want us to turn this guy over to the police? Lol,” one X user posted in response to a tweet by Donald Trump Jr. calling for the internet to “find this guy,” meaning the suspect. “You’re rich- of course you wouldn’t understand.” The response got 21,000 likes.

“I didn’t see shit…what guy?” another popular response read.

It wasn’t merely leftists celebrating. Across the political spectrum, there was a near total lack of empathy for Thompson and an outpouring of support for his killer. The shooting exposed a deep vein of resentment toward health insurance companies—and corporate America more generally—reflective of a loss of faith in America’s institutions and system. After all, one top Wall Street banker went to jail for the 2008 financial crisis. Fossil fuel companies have been destroying the planet with impunity, leaving communities to pick up the pieces—and cover the costs.

Health insurance giants like UnitedHealthcare have been particularly unsympathetic corporate actors. Highlighting exactly how unsympathetic, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield came under fire this week for adopting—and subsequently reversing—a policy limiting coverage of anesthesia for surgeries that run too long.

The facts are fairly devastating. Americans pay more for healthcare than people in other developed countries and that cost is not reflected in health outcomes. America has a lower life expectancy than all but eight nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Meanwhile, medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. Americans routinely skip doctor visits due to cost. Research from 2020 published in The Lancet found that 68,000 American deaths could be prevented by the implementation of a Medicare for all system.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. harder than most of the developed world—likely due to gaps in our system, including the lack of universal healthcare. Yet, in the 2024 presidential race, the issue of healthcare and insurance was virtually nonexistent.

With the suspect now in custody, revealed to be Luigi Mangione of the prominent Maryland Mangione family, more details will surely emerge in the coming days and weeks. Mangione has been charged with murder in the second degree.

For now, the killing of Brian Thompson has sparked a larger discourse about what violence we focus on in America—individual over systemic. Some also pointed out that the stabbing of two migrants the next day in a possible hate crime failed to generate even a fraction of the coverage.

Whether these discussions result in any changes remains to be seen. With the incoming Trump administration aiming to scale back government and regulations, it is seems unlikely.

CORRECTIONS: The version also claimed the shooting happened in broad daylight.

For more on this evolving story:

Manhattan Medicare Murder Mystery

Only about 50 million customers of America’s reigning medical monopoly might have a motive to exact revenge upon the UnitedHealthcare CEO.

The American ProspectMaureen Tkacik

Why Many Americans Are Celebrating the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Murder

The assassination of Brian Thompson—and the reaction to it—suggests Americans are fed up and feel powerless.

The New RepublicMatt Ford

UnitedHealthcare Shooting Suspect’s Manifesto Finally Revealed

Luigi Mangione laid out his motivation.

The New RepublicEdith Olmsted

Future episodes will be available in full only to recurring donors to the OptOut Media Foundation, which is funded almost entirely by individual contributions from listeners like you.

Support Project Mushroom! Their Kickstarter ends on Dec. 15.

See you next week!

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]]>http://localhost:3000/newsletters/a-week-of-labor-rights-and-protest/63962d02562f360001c68937Sun, 11 Dec 2022 22:07:07 GMT

This is the general newsletter of OptOut News, a free news aggregation app for exclusively independent media that's available for Apple and Android devices. Find out more about the app at optout.news.

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People Over Profit. The OptOut Media Foundation recently launched its end-of-year fundraising campaign. We need to raise $50,000 in individual contributions by the end of 2022 so we can continue advocating for independent news organizations and challenging the dominant corporate media. Please consider helping us hit our target by making a tax-deductible donation today.

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This was a big week for organized labor and protest movements around the U.S. and beyond.

As the COVID-19 pandemic progressed, workers became empowered. Some were told that their work was "essential." Others got to experience, however briefly, what it was like to be paid to stay home for the greater good. Now we're seeing the biggest strikewave in the U.S. in a generation.

This should be good news if you want our economy to be more equal or you're more concerned about the GDP. Higher unionization, and, thus, more collective bargaining, leads to higher average income and improved health, quality of life, and democracy. Unionization can even raise worker productivity and spur overall economic growth.

It's a win-win, right? Well, despite the data, apparently not if you're part of the management of most major corporations, corporate media companies, and even left-wing liberal arts universities.

Part-time faculty at The New School, a New York City-based arts university known as an intellectual hub for progressives, just ended a three-week strike for better wages. A shocking 90% of the university's faculty are adjuncts. To me, the whole business model is wrong: to boost its revenue, The New School hired mostly part-time, underpaid professors and increased its enrollment. It's not surprising that the workers revolted.

Parents threatened a lawsuit. A mediator got involved. New School administration cut off pay and health coverage for striking faculty, and students and faculty occupied the school in response. Finally, the parties came to an agreement that gave the faculty what it wanted regarding health insurance benefits and increased their compensation. "Power concedes nothing without a demand," folks.

🗽

Read more about the strike and other New York City and state news in our special newsletter, "It's Not You, It's the Subway," from OptOut New York editor Samira Asma-Sadeque. Sign up for free here.

Meanwhile, over 1,100 New York Times employees went on an historic 24-hour strike to protest meager salary increases and health benefit cuts in spite of big profits and hefty paychecks for executives, reports THE REAL NEWS.

New York Times workers take the ‘Paper of Record’ to task

Over 1,000 New York Times workers walked off the job on Dec. 8 after nearly two years of bargaining failed to produce a contract.

The Real News NetworkTeddy Ostrow

Two prominent journalists didn't join their colleagues in solidarity, however. Top White House correspondents Peter Baker and Michael Schear opted to side with the bosses, seemingly happy with a lopsided pay structure they benefit from. Jack Mirkinson of DISCOURSE BLOG wasn't pleased.

The Traitors at the New York Times

Peter Baker and Michael Shear scabbed during a staff walkout. There is no more vile betrayal than that.

Discourse BlogJack Mirkinson

The Times' IT specialists, security guards, and sales coordinators struck alongside their editorial comrades, as THE CITY reported.

The Other New York Times Workers On Strike

The newspaper’s IT specialists, security guards and sales coordinators — some of whom earn as little as $52,000 a year — strike alongside reporters for better wages.

The CityClaudia Irizarry Aponte

Other strikes are ongoing, including at the University of California. Read OptOut network coverage of the massive strike.

CAPITAL & MAIN: In Its Fourth Week, the Massive University of California Strike Reaches a Pivot Point

KNOCK LA: Inside UCLA Student Workers’ Fight for a Truly Public University

And regarding the potential rail worker strike, which President Biden managed to crush, check out THE LEVER's podcast episode, "Why Biden Betrayed Railroad Workers." Listen on the OptOut News app (Android or iOS), Apple, Google, or wherever you get your 'casts.

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Please Help OptOut Empower Independent News!

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Support OptOut!

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Workers weren't the only ones protesting this week.

In Southern Arizona, protesters blocked the construction of Arizona's illegal border wall, as documented by UNICORN RIOT.

Since Nov. 29, a loose collection of locals, environmental activists, hippies and migrant solidarity workers have been putting their bodies in the way of the machines. They have successfully delayed the work crews for a week and a half, who had been rushing to drop as many shipping containers into the wilderness as possible before Arizona Governor Doug Ducey leaves office in early January.

​​Blockaders Halt Border Wall Construction in Southern Arizona - UNICORN RIOT

Cochise County, AZ – Seventeen feet above the ground, towering over the native Sonoran grasses and oak saplings of the surrounding bajadas, a group of young people stretched out languidly in the sun, chatting and laughing and playing guitar. In a line to their east, the double-stacked shipping conta…

UNICORN RIOTLucy Fur

At the U.N.'s biodiversity conference in Montreal, Indigenous people are fighting to prevent the U.N.'s 30x30 policy from evicting them from huge amounts of land around the world.

How Indigenous people are fighting to stop ‘the biggest land grab in history’

At the United Nations biodiversity conference, known as COP15, Indigenous leaders fight to be included in 30x30 talks.

GristTristan Ahtone

THE INTERCEPT looks at the recent U.N. climate conference, COP27, in Sharm-al-Sheik, Egypt, and how environmentalists managed to come together in the country's repressive regime.

Egypt’s Climate Summit Was a “Rehearsal” for COP28 in Dubai

Even in a police state, climate justice and human rights advocates found ways to come together and make their voices heard, but some worry about what comes next.

The InterceptBen Kalina

🌍

For more on COP27 and regular independent climate coverage, sign up for OptOut Climate, a newsletter by editor Cristian Salazar.

Quick Hits

Here's some more important news from around the OptOut network.

POPULA: What Is On the Bookshelves at Puck? Maria Bustillos examines the fairly barren bookshelves at the corporate news outlet.

FAIR: Media’s Crime Hype and Scapegoating Led to Crackdown on Unhoused People. Julie Hollar explains how corporate media have hurt some of society's most vulnerable.

ECONOMIC HARDSHIP REPORTING PROJECT: Many Nursing Homes Are Poorly Staffed. How Do They Get Away With It?

CENTER FOR MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY: CMD Launches Insurrection Exposed Website. The investigative reporters and researchers at CMD have released an informative website that holds numerous people and groups accountable for the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

SLUDGE: Leonard Leo-Tied Group Pushing Radical Election Theory Got $66 Million Recently From ‘Dark Money’ Hub

ARIZONA MIRROR: Kyrsten Sinema has left the Democratic Party, registered as an independent

JEWISH CURRENTS: The Unbearable Ignorance of the ADL

PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE: DHS Open for Business: How Tech Corporations Bring the War on Terror to Our Neighborhoods

THE MAJORITY REPORT: Elon Musk Accidentally Exposes Twitter's Preferential Treatment For Hate Account Libs Of TikTok. Musk's Twitter has been shielding a notorious anti-trans account from censorship.

🏳️‍🌈

For more on anti-trans hate and other LGBTQ+ news, sign up for OptOut LGBTQ+, a newsletter by editor Liana DeMasi.

Project Mushroom

Speaking of the hostile and imploding Twitter, our friends at weather and climate news site CURRENTLY have set up an alternative social media hub, Project Mushroom. It's a community-led effort to build a safe place on the internet, and we wholeheartedly support it.

Project Mushroom is now the largest Mastodon project with climate justice as a priority — and one of the fastest growing in the English language. More than 10,000 people signed up for our waitlist in our first 48 hours.

Keeping our creators safe is our utmost priority. We will be working with the Project Mushroom community to develop moderation protocols with strict bans on behavior like harassment, racism, and climate denial.

It costs money to set up a server, host content, and moderate a large community, so we hope you'll consider helping fund the space.

Support Project Mushroom

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As always, thank you for following the important work of the 175+ independent news outlets from the OptOut network. See you soon!

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The OptOut Media Foundation (EIN: 85-2348079) is a nonprofit charity with a mission to educate the public about current events and help sustain a diverse media ecosystem by promoting and assisting independent news outlets and, in doing so, advance democracy and social justice.

Download the app for Apple and Android.
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]]>http://localhost:3000/newsletters/fossil-fuels-fighting-climate-action/63908f2a562f360001c6853aWed, 07 Dec 2022 13:45:22 GMT

This is the newsletter of OptOut Climate, a program of the OptOut Media Foundation led by Cristian Salazar. OptOut maintains a free news aggregation app for exclusively independent media that's available for Apple and Android devices. Find out more about the app at optout.news.

🌍

We started OptOut Climate because we face an existential threat, and corporate and legacy media are beholden to fossil fuel advertisers. Please join us in our mission to elevate independent media and accurately inform the public about our planet by making a tax-deductible donation today!

---

The fossil fuel industry is waging a war on climate action across the globe. Oil and gas companies are funneling money to friendly political campaigns, investing in disinformation, and trying to greenwash their efforts to shut down renewable energy projects. Taken together, these actions demonstrate the lengths to which polluters will go to stay in business at the cost of the planet.

As voters in Georgia went to the polls Tuesday to cast their ballots in the pivotal U.S. Senate race between incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) against Republican challenger Herschel Walker (Warnock won), a dark money group connected to fossil fuel companies was attempting to influence the outcome.

THE INTERCEPT (the latest addition to the OptOut roster!) reports that super PAC the Empowerment Alliance was expecting to inject $1.5 million in the race, largely to influence the so-called “ground game,” including get-out-the-vote efforts.

Fossil Fuel-Funded Super PAC Eyes $11.5 Million Spending Operation for Herschel Walker in Final Days

Leaked documents show the Empowerment Alliance, a dark-money group tied to the energy industry, is planning to inject $1.5 million into the Georgia runoff to turn voters out.

The InterceptNick Surgey

In California, voters lodged complaints that the oil and gas industry was misleading people about a potential referendum, getting them to support it by claiming it would keep oil companies from drilling near homes. In fact, the referendum would do just the opposite, CAPITAL & MAIN reports. “It’s unscrupulous what they’re doing, and it’s misleading,” said one voter who complained.

Reports of Misleading Voters About Oil and Gas Referendum Surface Across California

Petition circulators have reportedly claimed that a ballot measure would ban new oil and gas wells near homes. In fact, it would do the opposite.

Capital & MainLiza Gross

Perhaps a more pernicious campaign against renewable energy is being waged by the Koch-funded Texas Public Policy Foundation, which has filed a lawsuit to stop all offshore wind development, according to HEATED, in a joint edition with new climate newsletter Distilled. The foundation's efforts include launching a public relations campaign to greenwash its message to make it seem as if offshore wind is a danger to the environment.

“The effort disguises anti-climate extremism as pro-environmentalism, using a common climate disinformation tactic called ‘woke-washing,’ which experts say is on the rise,” they write.

The fossil fuel industry’s deceptive campaign to kill offshore wind

A climate denial group is trying to turn public opinion against clean energy by disguising their agenda as pro-environment.

HEATEDEmily Atkin

Also in HEATED regarding corporate media's financial conflicts of interest: Semafor climate editor leaves over Chevron ads

📲

DOWNLOAD the OptOut app for Android!

The Promise and Plight of the Salton Sea

California’s modern-day Salton Sea was once a recreational destination, yet today it is evaporating due to climate change, water policies, and conservation measures. As it disappears, what is left behind is a toxic, dry lakebed where poisonous dust blows off into surrounding, predominantly working-class Latino communities.

“A lot of people get money and come to the community and ask what we want, but at the end nothing happens,” Sandra Ramirez, who lives on the sea’s north coast, told HIGH COUNTRY NEWS.

Hopes are high that things will change soon, as $250 million in federal funds will go towards improving air quality, strengthening the ecosystem, and combating public health hazards. The deal to help the ailing sea was announced late last month.

Federal, state and local agencies reach agreement to address Salton Sea crisis

The $250 million commitment will support public health and habitat while conserving Colorado River water.

High Country NewsCaroline Tracey

As THE AMERICAN PROSPECT’S David Dayen reports, policymakers have been frustrated over the years in their attempts to revive surrounding Imperial County. But, as he writes, “The latest salvation can be found deep beneath the Salton Sea.” An underground reservoir is home to one of the largest deposits of lithium, critical for a future of electric battery technology.

Building Steam in Lithium Valley

Imperial County, one of the most depressed areas in America, has a clean-energy fortune stored deep in an underground reservoir. Can it be extracted, and will downtrodden residents see the benefits?

The American ProspectDavid Dayen

And also in California, whether a radioactive former Navy shipyard in San Francisco can be cleaned up is a test case for environmental justice that could have national repercussions, EARTH ISLAND JOURNAL reports.

The Elusive Quest for Environmental Justice at Hunters Point

The failed cleanup of a Navy site in San Francisco is a worrisome test of federal policies.

Earth Island JournalGreg M. Schwartz

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People Over Profit. The OptOut Media Foundation recently launched its end-of-year fundraising campaign. We need to raise $50,000 in individual contributions by the end of 2022 so we can continue advocating for independent news organizations and challenging the dominant corporate media. Please consider helping us hit our target by making a tax-deductible donation today.

Solutions

ATMOS reported on 10 environmental justice wins in 2022, including the landback movement’s success in restoring lands to First Nations.

10 Environmental Justice Wins in 2022 to Celebrate | Atmos

We didn’t save the world in 2022, but there were notable wins in the climate and environmental justice space. Let’s take time to celebrate.

AtmosAtmos

Congressional Democrats proposed legislation to reduce plastic manufacturing, protect communities from plastic-related pollution, and restrict “chemical recycling,” GRIST reported.

Democrats have a new plan to combat plastic pollution

Proposed legislation would limit plastic production and restrict new petrochemical facilities.

GristJoseph Winters

🌍

Are you a climate journalist? If so, apply to join our forthcoming networking community!

Eric Holthaus On Meteorology, Climate Journalism, and Twitter

Holthaus is a leading climate journalist and the founder of CURRENTLY, a weather and news service that recently joined the OptOut network. He is also the author of the speculative nonfiction book The Future Earth: A Radical Vision for What's Possible in the Age of Warming. In an interview earlier this week, we spoke about climate journalism and his latest effort to create a safe online space for climate action. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Currently is called a weather service for the climate emergency, and it brings together weather reports in various cities along with news reports about the climate crisis. What was the vision behind the platform and where are you going with it?

As we’ve seen in recent years, extreme climate events are escalating. Marginalized folks are experiencing the brunt of the harm when it comes to climate change. I think it's pretty clear at this point that existing weather services are not doing enough to specifically focus on folks who are most at risk when it comes to weather and climate. At the same time, we're also missing this opportunity when it comes to climate journalism as a whole of telling compelling, community-driven stories about possibility—solutions journalism as at a local level. And checking the weather is something that almost all of us do every day. So we decided to create Currently as a way for folks to enter into climate conversations through daily weather.

How do you tell a weather story with a lens of climate change? How does it differ from your typical news?

I think it's saying what’s on everyone's mind. Our Colorado reporter talks about the drought almost every day because it's on people's mind. It’s not something to skirt around. It's not something to just sort of pretend that it doesn't exist. It's a life and death situation for folks already. And the more that we talk about it, the more we're going to be able to be thinking about how to create some systemic change. At the same time, we're intentionally trying to have two focuses: one on safety, but one also on joy. We send out weather alerts when we have nice days coming. There's some fatigue when people are thinking about the climate every single day.

We’ve all been watching what's going on with Twitter, which seems to be imploding under Elon Musk. A lot of people are worrying about #ClimateTwitter and the return of climate change denialists like Jordan Peterson. But you have a solution, right? You’re working on Project Mushroom. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

The idea is that to do the work that we need to do to preserve the networks that we have built over the years on Twitter—whether that's journalists or activists or just regular folks who come to Twitter as a news source—we need a place to go. What we're trying to do with Project Mushroom is to build a life raft for #ClimateTwitter, and in general, folks who are focused on justice. These are people that are doing on-the-ground work every day, and they want to be able to have a space to talk about what work they do and to share resources and to communicate and build momentum for projects.

🔈

Stay tuned for the full interview in podcast form, which will be available to recurring donors to the OptOut Media Foundation!

Project Mushroom is raising money for the service. Want to help out? Learn more here.

Climate Agenda

Convention on Biological Diversity
December 7-19, Montreal, Canada
Learn more

UN 2023 Water Conference
March 22-24, 2023, New York, NY
Learn more

New York Clean Energy Calendar
See All Events

Climate Jobs

Development and Communications Associate
NYC Environmental Justice Alliance
Learn more here

Advocacy Director
Boston Climate Action Network
Apply Here

Science Reporter, Blacklight Investigative Unit
Amsterdam News (New York)
Apply Here

Various Positions
Wild Earth Guardians (Colorado)
Apply Here

Federal Campaigns Manager
Natural Resources Defense Council (Washington, D.C.)
Apply Here

Also check out BROWN GIRL GREEN’s jobs board here.

Hit Me Up!

Thanks for reading OptOut’s climate newsletter! If you have questions, tips, or anything else about our climate program, feel free to email me at cristian@optout.news or message me via Instagram or Twitter at @xtianpublic.

We’ll see you in two weeks.

Become an OptOut Climate Sustainer!

---

The OptOut Media Foundation (EIN: 85-2348079) is a nonprofit charity with a mission to educate the public about current events and help sustain a diverse media ecosystem by promoting and assisting independent news outlets and, in doing so, advance democracy and social justice.

Download the app for Apple and Android.
Sign up for OptOut's free newsletters.
Learn more about OptOut.

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]]>http://localhost:3000/newsletters/mental-illness-policy-in-nyc-black-farmers-and-food-justice-new-school-faculty-hold-the-line-weed/638f7e33562f360001c6820dTue, 06 Dec 2022 18:38:00 GMT

This is the newsletter of OptOut New York, a program of the OptOut Media Foundation led by Samira Asma-Sadeque. OptOut maintains a free news aggregation app for exclusively independent media that's available for Apple and Android devices. Find out more about the app at optout.news.

Become an OptOut Sustainer

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I’m OptOut New York Editor Samira Asma-Sadeque, here to bring you the most important New York updates from the best of independent media. Follow along for all things New York: our stories, rants, and GIFs.

Today we look at Eric Adams’ policy on the mentally ill, an initiative for Black farmers across the state, an epic faculty strike, and the main thing getting you and me through the news cycle: weed.

It’s been a bleak week for New York, with Mayor Adams announcing his new policy on involuntary evaluation, or hospitalization, of the mentally ill.

It’s a bit unclear, if not surprising, what Adams is really trying to address with his draconian new policy that will admit people with (or without) mental illness against their will. Adams issued the directive last week, which interprets a state law so as to give police, or "peace officers" (lol), the power to take into custody anyone who "appears to be mentally ill" and is exhibiting a "manner likely to result in serious harm to self or others" or who "displays an inability to meet basic living needs, even when no recent dangerous act has been observed," which is just a sanitized way of referring to the unhoused community.

where do the unhoused even go when they’re facing an "inability to meet basic living needs?" Earlier this year, while reporting on the targeted killings of two unhoused men, I learned that some members of the city’s unhoused community would rather live on the streets than live in the shelters. That’s how bad it can be out—er, in—there.

CITY LIMITS points out that Adams’ policy was announced as the weather got colder, pushing many unhoused people to resort to subway cars and stations. Advocates say this is not going to help anybody.

Donna Lieberman, the New York Civil Liberties Union's executive director, has called the policy “a page from the failed Giuliani playbook.”

Adams Orders Forced Removals of People Deemed Mentally Ill, While Housing Remains Out of Reach

The mayor issued a directive to the NYPD, emergency medical services and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene empowering them to “involuntarily transport” people experiencing acute mental health crises to hospitals, even if they do not present an immediate threat to themselves or others. But…

City LimitsDavid Brand

🗽

Can you pitch in to help grow our New York program? All donations are tax-deductible.

who has traditionally been left out of—or straight-up been discriminated against—in the agriculture industry? Black farmers, who are often offered discouragingly high-interest loans, or who find it challenging to trust lenders due to lack of representation. Not to mention that the pandemic already made it more financially difficult for farmers across the board to retain, or obtain, land. For Black farmers, this was just a pile-on atop a history of discriminatory practices.

THE CT MIRROR republished this story from Capital B News that says:

Between 1910 and 2007, the USDA denied loans to women and people of color at higher rates than it did to white men, which contributed to the billions of dollars in land loss. During that same period, Black farmers lost 80% of their farmland.

The Black Farmer Fund addresses these concerns and only in the last year raised over $1 million in funding to assist eight Black farmers, herbalists, and food businesses in the state.

Olivia Watkins, one of the founders, says this is their way of "just making sure that we’re contributing to the larger movements of food justice and racial justice that has been here way longer than we have."

This is the kind of story I want to be waking up to on a Tuesday morning. Read it here:

The government failed to help Black farmers. These women created a fund for them.

Rather than reach out to agencies and lenders, many Black farmers turn to neighbors - including the Black Farmer Fund - in times of need.

CT MirrorAallyah Wright | Capital B News

I know we’re on the brink of a recession and I’ve seen eggs priced at nearly $9 at my grocery store, but ‘tis the season to practice this energy while shopping:

what does the weed market look like more than a year after marijuana was legalized in New York? More like, what are some concerns that remain?

FAQ NYC speaks with journalist Ashley Southall, who expresses her concerns about the market being unregulated or having lack of enforcement. At the same time, the issue of enforcement is tricky for the city with a legacy of disproportionately punishing Black and Brown people over marijuana possession.

Listen to the conversation:

LISTEN: NYC’s New Weed Wild West

The CityFAQ NYC

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Come hang out at NEW YORK FOCUS' two-year anniversary and holiday party on Dec. 12 in Brooklyn!

when do falsely charged inmates in New York City get an opportunity to show their exculpatory alibi? It can take years for those in Queens because the District Attorney’s office makes it extremely difficult to get alibis to prosecutors, HELL GATE NYC reveals. Their report follows the stories of two men, Barry Hall and Pharaoh Ferguson, who spent three years on Rikers Island despite there being evidence, including surveillance footage, that would have cleared them.

The Queens District Attorney’s Office Has an Exonerating Evidence Problem - Hell Gate

Information that can set people free sits around for years while people suffer on Rikers—and both the NYPD and Queens DA’s office don’t seem to care.

Hell GateMax Rivlin-Nadler

why was a recent offer made by the New School rejected by 95% of the members of the adjunct faculty who have been on strike for three weeks? The offer included “higher costs for health care and reduced access to the grievance process,” according to striking members, as reported by THE CITY. Following this rejection, the New School and ACT-United Auto Workers Local (UAW) 7902, the union representing the part-time workers, entered mediation, which gave some members a glimmer of hope.

“It’s winning the battle but not yet winning the war. We remain committed to winning a fair contract,” Alex Robins, a fashion history professor at the New School’s Parsons School of Design, told THE CITY.

According to the ACT-UAW 7902, the mediation was ongoing as of Monday, and the New School is feeling the burn, with events being canceled and massive outrage over its attempted solicitation of “temporary ‘Progress Reviewers’” to fill the roles of the striking part-time faculty members. The New School has since partially denied this, claiming the memo was an “unapproved draft” not meant to be sent out. Oh well.

The New School and Part-Time Faculty Go Into Mediation as Strike Enters Third Week

President warns paychecks will cease for instructors at Village home to Parsons and famed liberal arts programs.

The CityClaudia Irizarry Aponte

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]]>http://localhost:3000/newsletters/pro-labor-legacy-averted/638d195c562f360001c669e7Sun, 04 Dec 2022 22:32:01 GMTDemocrats sided against labor this week in a stunning move, undermining three years of negotiations between rail workers and management.

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This week, President Joe Biden and Democrats in the House and Senate opted to force unpopular contracts on four rail unions whose members had previously rejected the terms in order to prevent a strike.

"It was tough for me but it was the right thing to do at the moment -- save jobs, to protect millions of working families from harm and disruption and to keep supply chains stable around the holidays," the president said of his decision.

As Ross Grooters noted in JACOBIN, the move ended three years of negotiations and preemptively broke the nation’s first national rail stoppage in three decades. Congress had the authority to impose the labor agreement on rail workers and management thanks to a 1926 law called the Railway Labor Act. The new contract that will take effect includes pay increases over five years and five lump-sum payments, but no paid sick days. The unions had asked for 15 and management offered one.

Conscious of appearances, Democratic lawmakers also voted on a separate measure to give the rail workers seven days of paid sick leave, but because it was not tied to the strikebreaking, it predictably died in the Senate. The separation of the measures into two votes came following the urging of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobby. Following the vote, the Chamber was crowing about its work.

It is a maneuver we have seen before. When the House separated the conservative bipartisan infrastructure bill from the larger Build Back Better spending package that included climate funding, it doomed the latter while allowing Democrats to blame Republicans and lament its failure.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Democratic leadership in the House, the Senate, and the White House have made clear that economic stewardship is their biggest priority — even over public health and labor considerations. That is why the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s emergency temporary standards never extended to every workplace despite an early draft of those standards acknowledging that the threat of COVID indeed reached that far. And it is why Democratic leaders and public health officials are not doing more to raise awareness about long COVID, which vaccines do not fully protect against, and the serious health complications that have been linked to prior infection — stroke, heart problems, neurological damage, diabetes, etc.

The big goal is economic normalcy.

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For more on the rail strike and labor, check out these stories from OptOut participating outlets.

THE LEVER analyzed how much paid sick days for rail workers would cost.

Senators Help Donors Derail Paid Sick Days

The rejected proposal to provide rail workers sick leave would have cost railroad barons just four days worth of their recent profits, according to financial records.

The LeverMatthew Cunningham-Cook

THE MAJORITY REPORT explained how House progressive votes came down.

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]]>http://localhost:3000/newsletters/the-increasing-costs-of-hurricanes-an-indigenous-climate-solution-climate-jobs/63469e1f578640000159b514Wed, 12 Oct 2022 11:15:33 GMT

This is the newsletter of OptOut Climate, a program of the OptOut Media Foundation led by Cristian Salazar. OptOut maintains a free news aggregation app for exclusively independent media that's available for Apple and Android devices. Find out more about the app at optout.news.

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Today’s increasingly intense hurricanes, made more powerful by climate change, can still shock us with their destructive energy.

Such was the case with Hurricane Ian, which battered Florida last month, shattering communities and leaving dozens of people dead. President Biden said Ian would likely rank among “the worst in the nation’s history.” Like other major storms, its impact will be felt for years to come as people assess the costs and try to rebuild.

“Hurricane Ian should make Florida’s politicians and Florida’s insurance companies rethink building on the coasts, the barrier islands, and the wetlands. It’s unaffordable. It’s unsustainable. It’s environmental suicide,” writes author Diane Roberts in a commentary for THE FLORIDA PHOENIX.

Hurricane Ian: This is climate change slapping us upside the head with a 2x4 - Florida Phoenix

Ian devastated Ft. Myers, reducing hundreds of buildings to filthy, soggy splinters, yanking houses off foundations, throwing trees around like match sticks. One woman, sheltering on the top floor of a resort said, “We saw everything get swept away.” Pine Island is in pieces. The Myakka and Peace Ri…

Florida PhoenixMORE FROM AUTHOR

GRIST reports that the storm may push the home insurance market to the point of collapse. Rebuilding after Hurricane Ian could cost between $30 and $60 billion, making it one of the most expensive weather-related calamities in U.S. history.

The ‘hurricane tax’: How Ian is pushing Florida’s home insurance market toward collapse

The storm is poised to be one of the largest insured loss events in U.S. history.

GristJake Bittle

Recovery from Ian will not only be expensive, but it may lead to greater disparities. In an interview in THE AMERICAN PROSPECT, sociologists Anna Rhodes and Max Besbris, the authors of Soaking the Middle Class: Suburban Inequality and Recovery From Disaster, speak about the pitfalls facing the rebuilding effort in Florida. “Inequality within communities is only going to grow in the wake of Ian,” Besbris says.

Q&A: Climate Change, Natural Disasters, and Growing Inequality

Recovery gets complicated by uneven insurance coverage, haphazard emergency programs, and a reluctance to admit that rebuilding in vulnerable places is too risky.

The American ProspectGabrielle Gurley

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Hurricane Ian wasn’t the only storm to have an impact so far this year. In Puerto Rico, Hurricane Fiona knocked out the island’s electricity for weeks and exposed the government’s inability to respond to even a mild storm. The painstaking recovery is being led by mutual aid and grassroots organizations, PRISM reports.

How to support Puerto Rico after Hurricane Fiona

Without proper resources from the government to recover from Hurricane Maria five years ago, many Puerto Ricans have turned to grassroots organizations for aid

PrismKimberly Rooney

As proof that hurricanes have a lasting impact years after they make landfall, you only need to consider Hurricane Sandy. A decade after the storm caused billions of dollars in damage and left dozens dead, communities in New Jersey are still struggling to prepare for the next major storm, according to the NEW JERSEY MONITOR.

Storm relief, climate progress still elusive decade after Hurricane Sandy, lawmakers told - New Jersey Monitor

Advocates and storm survivors say much remains to be done to make New Jersey more resilient from storms like Hurricane Sandy.

New Jersey MonitorDana DiFilippo

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AN INDIGENOUS CLIMATE SOLUTION

As the country marked Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday, we were reading up on the concept of LANDBACK, a growing movement led by indigenous people to reclaim their stolen land in the United States and Canada. While the exact mechanism of how this works varies widely, some examples include recovering public lands by tribes or creating indigenous cultural spaces in urban communities where they once lived.

In a three-part series on LANDBACK, PRISM argues that the concept could serve as a solution for fighting the climate crisis. Journalist Ray Levy Uyeda writes that LANDBACK is “a blueprint of how to tackle the ecological disruption caused by the exploitative practices at the heart of capitalism and white settler colonialism.”

How to address the cause of climate change? With LANDBACK

Settler colonial governments accelerated the climate crisis through genocide and mass displacement. The solution lies with LANDBACK

PrismLara Witt

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IN BRIEF

THE LEVER reveals how the actions of a major credit rating agency laid the foundation for the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, where residents lacked consistently safe water for more than a month beginning in August.

Wall Street Is Behind The Jackson, Mississippi, Water Crisis

A major credit rating agency jacked up interest rates in Jackson, Mississippi, curtailing infrastructure investments in the years leading up to the city’s recent disaster.

The LeverMatthew Cunningham-Cook

The U.S. Supreme Court will take up a handful of cases that could have far-reaching consequences on the environment, DRILLED reports. One potentially major case, Sackett v. EPA, could decide the limits of the Clean Water Act.

SCOTUS Is Back in Session: Here Are the Climate Cases to Watch For

The Supreme Court is open for business again, what impacts for climate mitigation and adaptation are lurking on the docket this time around? I spoke with Kirti Datla and Sam Sankar from Earth Justice earlier this month; here’s a rundown of what they’re watching this month (plus a big threat

DrilledAmy Westervelt

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CAPITAL & MAIN reports on a growing body of research showing that pregnant women and children who are exposed to toxins near oil drilling sites can suffer serious health problems.

Toxic Pollutants a Growing Concern for Pregnant Mothers and Babies

Links between environmental exposures and maternal health outcomes remain underexplored, despite recent efforts to catch up.

Capital & MainDan Ross

CLIMATE AGENDA

National Association of Science Writers Conference - #SciWri22
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]]>http://localhost:3000/newsletters/battle-for-congress/6343ec47578640000159a034Mon, 10 Oct 2022 10:16:25 GMT

I’m Cristian Salazar, OptOut’s Climate Editor, and I’ve written your weekly news roundup for today.

A month before the pivotal midterm elections, the fight over the control of the U.S. Congress is shaping up as Democrats and Republicans attempt to determine the narrative over abortion rights, the results of the 2020 election, and the state of the economy. The outcomes of these races have the potential to either support or stymie President Biden’s agenda and political wins.

STATES NEWSROOM is tracking elections in multiple states, including in Michigan where election deniers are on the ballot and where candidates are making abortion a core issue. The news organization also has guides on the races in Pennsylvania, how Kansas Republicans are trying to position themselves in the fight against the fentanyl crisis, and voting rights in Georgia.

State of the Races | News From The States

Campaign season is in full swing, and there’s a lot at stake for voters: Election-denying candidates are on local, state and national ballots; a referendum on the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent rulings is brewing across states; and Democrats’ accomplishments while controlling the White House and Congre…

News From The StatesNews From The States

In a review of state races, THE MAJORITY REPORT speaks with Aaron Kleinman, director of research for the States Project at Future Now, about the midterm elections.

The Majority Report

The Majority Report

IN THESE TIMES argues that the Democrats’ success in the midterm elections will pivot around how Biden is graded on the health of the economy. While giving Biden high marks for low unemployment, working-class benefits under the Inflation Reduction Act, and student loan debt relief, the publication argues “a whole lot more” could be done under progressive policies.

Grading President Biden’s Economic Record

Rapid job growth and increased worker bargaining power are very good—there’s a whole lot more progressive policy that could be done.

In These Times

Even though critical domestic issues are shaping the midterm elections, THE NATION says they have crowded out important discussions of the war in Ukraine, military spending, and disarmament. As Jon Nichols writes, “neglecting issues of war and peace doesn’t make them go away.” This is especially critical given that the specter of nuclear war breaking out in Europe is becoming even more plausible as Russian President Vladimir Putin gets increasingly desperate in his aggression toward Ukraine.

War or Peace Is the Most Neglected Issue on the November Ballot

But most Americans don’t know it because the media isn’t asking candidates about disarmament, diplomacy, and out-of-control military spending.

The NationJohn Nichols

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Your Independent News Roundup

Prison Industrial Complex

Evidence of the Alabama state prison system’s deteriorating conditions, lethal violence, lack of oversight and general disarray was made public by THE MARSHALL PROJECT. Prisoners staged a five-day strike beginning on Sept. 28 to call for changes to their living conditions, sentencing laws, and parole board policies.

Alabama Said Prison Strike Was ‘Under Control.’ Footage Shows System in Deadly Disarray.

While prisoners protest unsafe conditions, “it just doesn’t let up,” say advocates.

The Marshall ProjectKeri Blakinger

LABOR NOTES has additional details on the prisoners’ demands and history of organizing in Alabama state prisons.

‘Society Has Shut Down On Us:’ Prison Strikers Across Alabama Demand Change Despite Severe Retaliation

Across the state of Alabama, where the state’s longest-ever strike is currently ongoing at Warrior Met Coal after over 18 months, another historic labor stoppage is in its second week. Thousands of incarcerated people at every major male prison in Alabama have refused to report to their work assignm…

Labor NotesEnglish

THE APPEAL and NEW YORK FOCUS jointly published a look at how New York’s solitary confinement law has created a new type of isolation, under the guise of rehabilitation. While the reform was intended to improve conditions for those in punitive segregation, the news organizations report that prisons are failing to follow the law and are hardly progressing in making solitary confinement more humane.

How to Fight Mass Incarceration and Win

Criminal justice reform advocates in Los Angeles have amassed some impressive victories—laying out a model for reducing incarceration and providing care.

In These Times

Solitary By Another Name: How New York Prisons Are Using ‘Therapeutic’ Units to Evade Reform

New York’s landmark solitary confinement reform law created a new, “rehabilitative” type of isolation unit. State prisons aren’t on board with the changes.

The AppealChris Gelardi

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The New Labor Movement

Although railroad union members and their companies reached a tentative agreement in September to avoid a national rail shutdown after President Biden’s administration intervened, workers remain unhappy and a strike still remains a real possibility, PRISM reports.

Railroad workers have reservations about the tentative agreement

Though railroad companies and unions were able to reach a last-minute deal, workers remain unhappy with the agreement details

PrismKimberly Rooney

On the MAJORITY REPORT, labor journalist Jonah Furman provides details and context to understand what’s at stake for workers.