Mother Jones illustration; Susan Walsh/AP

It’s official. President Joe Biden is running for reelection. In a video released on Tuesday morning, Biden announced he was running to “stand up for democracy,” echoing a similar theme to his first campaign.

Every generation has a moment where they have had to stand up for democracy. To stand up for their fundamental freedoms. I believe this is ours.

That’s why I’m running for reelection as President of the United States. Join us. Let’s finish the job. https://t.co/V9Mzpw8Sqy pic.twitter.com/Y4NXR6B8ly

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 25, 2023

The announcement, anticipated for months now, follows many of the same debates that animated the lead-up to his 2020 run. Is the 80-year-old Democrat, the oldest president in US history, too old for this? Do Americans have the appetite for another potential rematch between Biden and potential Republican nominee Donald Trump? So far, polls have pointed to a familiar uneasiness. A recent one showed nearly half of all Democrats don’t want him to run for reelection but struggled to name another viable candidate. Meanwhile, many have once again expressed concern over how Biden would perform on the campaign trail.  

“While Biden was able to campaign virtually in 2020, in 2024 we will almost certainly be back to a grueling real-world campaign schedule, which he would have to power through while running the country,” Michelle Goldberg wrote in a February New York Times op-ed. “It’s a herculean task for a 60-year-old and a near impossible one for an octogenarian.” 

While much of the discourse reignites old debates, the obvious difference from 2020 is the Biden team’s ability to point to what’s been achieved since taking office. At the top of the list is Biden’s successful passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the landmark infrastructure bill aimed at improving American health care and fighting climate change. Though the IRA marked the largest-ever effort to combat the climate crisis in the US, Biden’s record on the issue is more mixed, particularly after last month’s approval of a massive oil drilling project in Alaska that’s expected to pump 600 million barrels of oil over the course of a few decades. Biden’s self-proclaimed goal of becoming the “most pro-union president” is dicey after he urged Congress to end the threat of a strike by the country’s rail workers fighting for paid sick leave and improvements to a notoriously unpredictable work schedule.

This time around, Biden will likely face questions surrounding the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, those classified documents discovered in his garage, and Hunter’s ongoing messes. But one thing’s for sure, we’re all but certain to keep hearing the word octogenarian.

Charlie Riedel/AP

In a historic move, the Environmental Protection Agency will propose limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, according to the New York Times. If implemented, it would be the first time that the federal government has restricted carbon dioxide emissions from existing coal and gas-fired power plants, which produce 25 percent of the United States’ planet-warming pollution. Under the plan, virtually all power plants would capture or cut almost all of their carbon emissions by 2040.

The Times‘ Coral Davenport and Lisa Friedman write: 

Read the entire New York Times piece here. 

Evan Vucci/AP

Twitter’s blue check marks used to verify the identities of celebrities, public figures, and members of the media. Now, all it verifies is that you’ve got $8 to spend every month. On Thursday, CEO Elon Musk finally fulfilled his promise of stripping every legacy account, from Beyoncé to the pope, of their check marks. Now, only subscribers willing to shell out for Musk’s brainchild, Twitter Blue, are allowed to be verified on the platform. And, predictably, no one really cared…at least not enough to pay for Twitter Blue. 

Actresses Alyssa Milano and Bette Midler both took Twitter to explain why they’re not bothering with Musk’s subscription. Other popular Twitter users, like @dril, have started a campaign called #BlocktheBlue, vowing to block any and all Twitter blue subscribers they come across. 

Take away my #BlueCheckMark
and think I’m going to pay for Twitter Blue? pic.twitter.com/bDTgYYhaYu

— Isiah Whitlock Jr. (@IsiahWhitlockJr) April 20, 2023

In a weird turn of events, celebrities like LeBron James and Stephen King, who both publicly announced their refusal to join Twitter Blue, were some of the few who still had their blue checks. According to Musk, he’s paying for their subscriptions. On Thursday, while responding to King’s tweet questioning his verification, Musk responded, “You’re welcome namaste.” He later clarified that he’s paying for King, James, and actor William Shatner to be verified. 

King was less than enthused:

I think Mr. Musk should give my blue check to charity. I recommend the Prytula Foundation, which provides lifesaving services in Ukraine. It's only $8, so perhaps Mr. Musk could add a bit more.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) April 22, 2023

At the same time, Elon’s loyal following of right-wingers and shitposters have embraced Twitter Blue with open arms. But they’re not happy that others have not: Several of Musk fans and far-right public figures have tweeted at and about celebrities to complain about their refusal to fork over money for Twitter Blue.

Take, for example, the Professionally Mad Online account of Catturd:

Hollywood celebrities are showing exactly who they are right now – arrogant elitist snobs worth $200 million dollars who won't pay $8 because they think they're better than everyone else.

— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) April 21, 2023

On the bright side, Twitter Blue is currently running a sale on blue check marks. $7 a month. What a steal. 

Mark Lennihan/AP

The much anticipated $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, widely viewed as one of the most consequential libel cases in decades, is officially over. On Tuesday, Dominion Voting Systems and the cable TV giant reached an eleventh-hour agreement. The details of the settlement are not yet public. News of the deal comes moments after a jury was selected in the trial.

Dominion had claimed reckless promotion of Donald Trump’s election lies caused the company to lose contracts and exposed vulnerable employees to vicious harassment campaigns.

Sparing the network weeks of public testimony by its top personalities and leadership, Fox News is likely to welcome the last-minute deal. But much of the reputational damage has already taken place. Numerous filings leading up to the trial revealed that some of Fox News’ most visible stars like Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham had promoted Donald Trump’s election lies despite privately expressing significant doubt over them. In one bombshell filing that included text exchanges between Tucker Carlson and a colleague, Carlson even fumed over hating Trump “passionately.”

This is a breaking news development. We’ll update as more news becomes available.

Susan Pfannmuller/The Kansas City Star/AP

6:00 p.m. CDT: Andrew Lester, 84, will be charged with assault in the first degree and armed criminal action, both felonies, a Clay County prosecutor said. Ralph Yarl has been released from the hospital, according to his family.

Ralph Yarl, a Black 16-year-old, rang the doorbell of the wrong house when he went to pick up his younger brothers from a playdate in Kansas City last week, according to his family. A white man in his 80s came to the door and shot him, according to reporting from CNN.

Yarl was shot twice, including once in the head, but is in stable condition, according to his family. The shooter, who has not been publicly identified, has been released from police custody and is under investigation. He has not been charged. Police Chief Stacey Graves told the Kansas City Star that police need a formal victim statement before they can arrest someone. Yarl has been unable to give a statement because of his injuries. Police confirmed that Yarl was supposed to pick his brothers up from a house on 115th Terrace. Instead, he went to 115th Street.

Hundreds of protesters marched in Kansas City over the weekend to draw attention to the outlandishly excessive response to a simple error.

In Missouri, where the shooting took place, Castle Doctrine gives homeowners wide latitude to use lethal force when they fear for their safety. The state’s “stand your ground” law, passed in 2016, could also make charging the homeowner complicated. While it’s perplexing why this lost teenager would instill such fear in an armed homeowner, studies have shown that both police and civilians are much likelier to fire at Black people than white people, even when they’re unarmed.

A GoFundMe for Yarl’s recovery has raised more than $1.4 million. “I don’t want anything special,” Yarl’s father told the Kansas City Star. “I just want justice.”

This story has been updated.

Mother Jones; GDA/AP

After Black workers at a Tesla plant in Fremont, California, came forward with explosive allegations of racism at the company last year, the state Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a major ruling in the case, allowing the workers to seek a public injunction requiring the company to acknowledge and address workplace discrimination. In other words, the electric car manufacturer could be legally required to stop being racist.

This decision is a major blow to Tesla, which has denied fostering a racist working environment. The decision comes one week after the company was ordered to pay more than $3 million to a Black Tesla worker who said that the company failed to prevent racist harassment, including the repeated use of racial slurs, from workers at Tesla’s flagship plant.

Tesla’s recent spate of bad PR isn’t limited to its apparent workplace racism. Last week, Reuters published a bombshell report alleging that Tesla workers obtained and shared intimate footage recorded in drivers’ cars, raising serious concerns about privacy inside these computers on wheels. On top of that, Tesla is under investigation by multiple state and federal agencies over the safety and marketing of Autopilot, its self-driving software. That leaves Tesla founder Elon Musk with a lot of messes to clean up—and that’s not even counting the fiasco over at Twitter.

Matt Dunham/AP

The burning question over whether Prince Harry will attend his father’s big boy party has finally been answered: Yes. Yes, he will.

“Buckingham Palace is pleased to confirm that the Duke of Sussex will attend the Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey on 6 May,” an official statement proclaimed Wednesday. “The Duchess of Sussex will remain in California with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.”

For some, the news ends months of feverish speculation over whether Harry would accept the palace’s invitation to join the festivities, which will include three entire days dedicated to fêting Kaiser Wilhelm’s and Tsar Nicholas II’s distant cousin, Charles Philip Arthur George, as he formally ascends to the throne.

But for me, relief has not come. In fact, dire questions abound. Here’s a sampling:

1. Why is Harry leaving Meghan and the kids behind? We can all assume, with reasonable accuracy, why Meghan would decline the opportunity to mingle with family members the duchess previously claimed have driven her to suicidal loneliness. Who in their right mind would leap at the chance to hang out with people all but certain to gawk at your kids’ skin color? But did the decision come from Monetico?
2. Or did Daddy instruct his estranged son to leave Meghan and their two children behind?
3. Does Meghan feel abandoned—or does she believe that the decision is the most drama-free?
4. Will Harry play a larger role in the events than Prince Andrew, who is reportedly fuming over Charles’ decision to bar him from wearing a gargantuan, ceremonial velvet robe to the family clambake?
5. How does the 4-year-old, who may not get to attend the big day because of his “past antics,” feel about all of this?

My most unhinged, conspiratorial guess is that Meghan and the president of the United States, who is also skipping the king’s coronation, are collaborating on an “anti-British” scheme that will bring delicious chaos to feed a Spare sequel. Whatever the case, I, your Burn-Down-the-Monarchy correspondent, will be sure to keep tracking the developments of Charles’ big boy party.

Carlos Osorio/AP

Michigan enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution last November, but a 1931 abortion ban remained on the books.

On Wednesday, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a law repealing that abortion ban, ensuring that Michigan’s laws align with its constitution and solidifying the right to an abortion in the state. Whitmer struck down three laws: one that banned abortion except when necessary to save the life of a woman, and another that made it illegal to advertise abortion drugs. She also signed a law striking abortion-related felonies from the state’s penal code.

In November, nearly 57 percent of Michigan voters approved an amendment to the state constitution that ensured the right to “reproductive freedom,” defined as “the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management, and infertility care.” That vote made the 1931 law unenforceable.

Whitmer’s repeal of the “zombie law” was a symbolic act and a display of Democrats’ newfound power in Michigan, where they have held a trifecta in state government since November.

“Today, we’re going to take action to ensure that our statutes, our laws reflect our values and our constitution,” Whitmer said before signing the laws. “I am about to slay three zombies with one pen.”

Seth Herald/Getty Images

A little over a week after a devastating shooting at a Nashville grade school, the Tennessee House of Representatives, in a historically rare move, took the first steps to expel three Democratic members for participating in a gun control protest. On Monday, Republican lawmakers filed resolutions to remove Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones, and Justin Pearson, alleging that the three participated in “disorderly behavior.” 

On March 27, a shooter armed with an AR-15 killed six people at The Covenant School, including three nine-year-olds. Only days later, hundreds of demonstrators took to the state Capitol to plead with the Republican-led legislature to pass more gun reform measures. Johnson, Jones, and Pearson led the charge. After the demonstration, House Speaker Cameron Sexton vowed that the representatives would face “consequences,” comparing their actions to the insurrection on January 6.

This is an unusual move for Tennessee’s House. According to CBS news, lawmakers have only expelled two other House members since the Civil War.

The House will now decide on whether or not to remove the three representatives. The vote is slated for Thursday at the earliest. The legislators have also been stripped of their committee assignments.

Gary Kramer/US Fish and Wildlife Service/AP/File

Last week, a bill introduced by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) received a hearing.

For some congresspeople, this would not be news. For Boebert it is: In her first term, she sponsored 41 pieces of legislation—one set out to impeach President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris; another to require the Department of Homeland Security to treat fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction; a third to prohibit the use of federal funds to research youth gender transitions—and none warranted a hearing.

This turned out to be a problem. Despite being predicted to comfortably win reelection, Boebert prevailed over her Democratic opponent by less than a percentage point. Voters in her district told me the reason was simple: “I don’t think she did shit,” one constituent explained. “She didn’t back one bill, she just talked a lot.”

Now, it seems Boebert has taken that message to heart. In proposing to remove the gray wolf from the Endangered Species Act, she has taken aim at a serious, complex issue in her home state.

In 2020, Coloradans narrowly voted to allow the reintroduction of gray wolves, which had been hunted out of their natural range in the 1940s. Environmentalists say that wolves are an important part of ecosystems, allowing aspens and willows to thrive by mediating the elk population that feeds on them. Because wolves are protected by the Endangered Species Act, it is illegal to kill them—except in the Northern Rocky Mountains, which encompasses Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, because those states have already successfully restored their gray wolf populations. (Endangered species can be killed in self-defense.) Wolves have not yet been officially reintroduced by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Still, some packs have migrated into the state from Wyoming. These wolves occasionally kill cattle, frustrating ranchers, who view the reintroduction of wolves as harmful and say that the state’s city-dwellers don’t know what it’s like to have their livelihood threatened by carnivorous animals. By removing wolves from the ESA, Boebert wants to allow Colorado ranchers to shoot wolves.

This seems exactly the type of issue that Boebert, a congresswoman from a rural district, would be sent to Congress to solve. But what might look like Boebert listening to her constituents and doing something to help them could backfire: Her arguments have been so error-ridden and nonsensical that they could hurt her cause.

First, the name. Boebert titled her bill the Trust the Science Act, “the science” being that the wolf population has recovered. This is only half true. In a press release announcing the bill, the words “scientific fact” link to a letter from wildlife management professionals saying that the wolf population has recovered—in the western Great Lakes states. This is hardly evidence that the gray wolf is, in Boebert’s words, “fully recovered.”

Ever the shitposter, Boebert began her hearing by holding up photos of aborted fetuses, the kind that adorn anti-choice billboards by the side of the highway. “Since we’re talking about the Endangered Species Act, I’m just wondering if my colleagues on the other side would put babies on the endangered species list,” she said. “These babies were born in Washington, D.C., full-term. I don’t know, maybe that’s a way we can save some children here in the United States.”  As many people have pointed out, the human population is well-established across six continents.

Lauren Boebert brought photos of human fetuses to a hearing on endangered species. pic.twitter.com/IpXCI14cWT

— David Edwards (@DavidEdwards) March 23, 2023

It begs the question: Why is Boebert seemingly trolling her own bill?

There is plenty to debate here. There are ways to regulate the wolf population without giving hunters carte blanche to kill them. One controversial proposed federal rule would keep wolves on the endangered species list but allow ranchers to shoot wolves on-sight if they are regularly killing their cattle. Colorado Parks and Wildlife is supposed to reimburse ranchers for livestock killed by wolves, but some ranchers have complained that they haven’t received the money. Ensuring prompt payments could be one solution. Hazing wolves with fladry—a flag-lined fence that flaps loudly in the breeze—is a short-term fix.

Then there is a potential to do nothing. Wolves account for a small percentage of livestock deaths. Ranchers, under this argument, would just have to learn to live with them, as they’ve done with other predators like mountain lions and coyotes.

All of that seems worth talking about in the halls of Congress. It could even help pass legislation. Or, as Boebert’s constituent put it, it could be considered doing shit.

Evan Vucci/AP

This evening, when the historic news broke that a Manhattan grand jury had voted to indict the former president (and leading GOP 2024 contender) Donald Trump in a hush-money scandal, our Washington, DC, bureau chief, David Corn, quickly sat down to issue this video warning: This is no time to celebrate; we are at a dangerous and uncertain moment.

Trump's chaos machine has already been unleashed following his indictment. And now the system is about to be tested like never before, warns @DavidCornDC. pic.twitter.com/gjOn4ztrPR

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) March 31, 2023

“There’s going to be a lot of information, misinformation, and maybe some disinformation out there in the tsunami of response and reaction,” Corn says. “And I don’t think people should be celebratory of this: It’s a sad day if a presidential candidate… is accused of a crime.”

Corn says now is the time to respect the rule of law, as the legal system is about to encounter an unprecedented test from a man capable of unleashing extreme chaos. “It will be very, very ugly, and I think in the midst of all that, what we need to remember is he is presumed innocent, and that is a good thing,” Corn remarks. “We have to say, ‘This is an indictment. We will let the system work.’”

Rick Bowmer/AP

Some three months after New York published its exhaustive guide on the meritocracy-bending phenomenon, nepo babies roared back into the discourse last week with the unexpected arrival of Romy Mars. But some two thousand miles west from where the teenage daughter of Sofia Coppola and Thomas Mars was prepping pasta alla vodka, another offspring of a famous Hollywood family was taking flight inside a Park City, Utah courtroom.

“Oh, I have studiously avoided learning about this,” a colleague remarked when I mentioned my sudden interest in the Utah civil trial involving Gwyneth Paltrow. 

Fair enough. I too had once been ignorant of the details surrounding Paltrow’s role in a 2016 ski crash that allegedly left a now-76-year-old man injured. But the glimpses of Paltrow’s testimony that have emerged on social media, in which the actress and Goop founder emphatically denied accusations that she was responsible for the collision, have held a soft grip on my addled brain—and I’m far from alone. The scenes have been captivating: There’s the moment Paltrow, with the insouciance and stabbing derision only the richest and whitest among us is capable of deploying, asks to be reminded of an attorney’s name. When Paltrow is asked whether the crash had caused her to lose out during a “very expensive” ski vacation, Paltrow responds, “Well, I lost half a day of skiing, yes,” making it clear to the rest of us that her wallet hadn’t noticed the ordeal in the slightest. Then we have Kristin Van Orman, the attorney representing Paltrow’s accuser, Terry Sanderson, who at various turns, could barely contain an obsequious squeal at questioning a real-life Oscar-winning actress.

This trial is so absurd 😭 pic.twitter.com/8cPPswllqG

— Steve Morris (@stevemorris__) March 24, 2023

Even Paltrow’s clothes, predictably impeccable, have drawn considerable interest, producing shopping guides should you ever need to look like a woman defending herself in a civil suit. Except, of course, you and I could never, ever, look like that. Personally, I’m more apt to faux pax myself with a giant purse you could slide across the floor after a bank job. 

“This entire Gwyneth Paltrow ski trial was written by Mike White,” a Twitter user wrote referring to the White Lotus creator who is reportedly in Thailand scouting locations for the next season of the soap-series. Indeed, it was easy, even fun, to imagine White taking caustic notes on the same clips, building a character wrapped in the same luxe neutrals as Paltrow. “Gwyneth Paltrow is dressing for where she’d rather be,” read a Washington Post headline on Paltrow’s courtroom fashion. But I beg to differ. It seems as though the witness stand inside a drab Utah courtroom is exactly where Paltrow wants to be. Consider that Sanderson is suing her for $300,000—a significant adjustment from his initial $3.1 million for injuries he claims include brain damage. One can reasonably assume that Paltrow could simply settle and avoid the public drama. But clearly convinced she’s being extorted for her celebrity, you’ve got to almost relate to—even admire—that Paltrow is choosing to take the stand to defend herself. 

This week, the trial is expected to see Paltrow’s family, including her two teenage kids, take the stand to testify against Sanderson’s claims. Though vastly different scenarios, I couldn’t help but draw a contrast to Sofia Coppola. The two women hail from some of Hollywood’s most exclusive corners and are effectively dowagers of the same nepo baby empire. They seem nothing alike, neither in personality nor approaches to their kids in the spotlight. (It’s worth noting that Apple Martin, the daughter of Paltrow and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, recently made her debut as a Chanel girl.) Yet both cases have struck me for their strange concoction of relatability, hateable privilege, and simple hilarity. Parenthood is a funny thing, I thought. That absurd moment of relatability was fleeting, of course, delimited by the boundaries of their extreme wealth.

Supporters of former President Donald Trump pose with a demonstrator who identifies himself as Steven Daniel Wolverton dressed like the Q-Anon Shaman outside Trump Tower.Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty

When I arrived at Trump Tower on Tuesday afternoon, a man was heckling one of the only Trump supporters who’d shown up to protest a potential indictment of the former president—who had posted on his platform Truth Social to “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK” after warning he would be arrested in connection with an investigation of hush money he paid to a porn star. The Trump supporter was an Asian woman; the heckler’s face was obscured by a bandanna. “Yo, you from Wuhan,” he shouted. “You brought the virus over.” Another man told him to cut it out with the racism. Then the small crowd’s attention snapped to a stranger spectacle: a counter-demonstrator with a Trump mask, a fake diaper, red tape over her nipples, and black tennis shoes. She stuck her tongue out, posing for photos. 

Despite Trump’s calls for “PROTEST,” there was no real protest to speak of outside Trump Tower, or seemingly anywhere else. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg appears to be on the verge of reviving a years-old scandal as he tests a novel legal theory against a former president who tried to steal an election. It is the type of thing that Trump’s supporters could be reasonably expected to get in the streets about. But at least so far, they’ve mostly stayed at their keyboards. 

“Yo, this shit is wack,” one man said. “Where is the action at?” There was only one upside. He boasted that he’d gotten “so much free content.” 

“It’s more cops than people,” the woman in the diaper, a self-described “attention whore,” said to those around her. “I was the best thing here.” She added accurately: “It’s just press.” Reporters and streamers far outnumbered the former president’s fans and critics.

One of the only obvious Trump backers was a man named Joshua. He was wearing a “Let’s Go Brandon” t-shirt and a hat featuring Trump’s face. “Wanted by the FBI. For Making America Great,” his baseball cap read. Joshua told me he’d flown in from Louisiana on Monday on the advice of a Rumble streamer who runs a page called “Professor Toto’s Conservative College.” In a video this weekend, Professor Toto said an indictment would backfire by reinvigorating Trump’s drifting base. Its imminent arrival was evidence that “Yahweh uses the enemy for good.”

“Professor Toto gettin’ on an airplane,” Professor Toto said at the end of the stream. “I’ll be in New York on Tuesday to watch the show.” It was unclear if he got an airplane, but Joshua did. I asked him if he’d been expecting more people. 

“I thought there would be,” he said. “I figured the crazies would show up, which they obviously did.”

“Who’s the crazies?” I asked.

“The naked lady with the shitty diaper,” Joshua replied.

Joshua was leaving town on Wednesday, which meant he’d miss the bigger protest he said had been pushed back until Thursday. He was confident the prosecution would fail. “They don’t have anything on him,” he said. “This is just another distraction.”

A few minutes later, a passerby shouted a different perspective to no one in particular. “They got Gotti,” he said about the federal government, who are not the ones expected to indict Trump. “What makes you think they’re not gonna get Trump?”

The event, if you can call it that, was dying down so I left to grab lunch at the Beach Cafe, New York Republicans’ Upper East Side haunt. As I ate an unusually good (and large) $21 cobb salad alone at the bar, a man with a Philly accent sat down looking for a Budweiser and a double of Cuervo. He settled for Bud Light, well tequila, and an avocado toast.

At a nearby table, I overheard someone asking the question, “Is Trump going to jail?” It appears he won’t today.

Jay LaPrete/AP

The state of Ohio is suing Norfolk Southern over the company’s train derailment in East Palestine last month, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced Tuesday.

“This derailment was entirely avoidable,” Yost said at a press briefing Tuesday, “and I’m concerned that Norfolk Southern may be putting profits for their own company above the health and safety of the cities and communities that they operate in.”

The 58-count complaint, filed in federal court, is the latest demand for accountability from a company that has been accused of prioritizing profits over safety, a systemic effort that laid the groundwork for the February 3 derailment that released toxic chemicals throughout surrounding communities near the Pennsylvania border. 

Yost’s lawsuit asks Norfolk Southern to cover costs associated with the emergency response, ongoing environmental cleanup, and property damage. Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the company’s safety practices.

That Yost—a Republican who used coronavirus lockdowns as a pretense to halt abortions and suggested that the media was lying about a 10-year-old rape victim who had to travel out of state for an abortion—is leading the lawsuit against Norfolk Southern makes it an even bigger deal. Last week’s bipartisan grilling of Norfolk Southern’s CEO showed that members of both parties seem willing to take the railroad industry to task. That’s a marked change from the Senate’s decision to override the will of railroad unions late last year. Maybe a catastrophic chemical spill is all it takes to spark some change.

People line up outside a Silicon Valley Bank branch in Wellesley, Mass., on Monday.Steven Senne/AP

Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on Friday amid a bank run. The reasons are complex, even for those well-versed in the jargon of finance. (I am not.) The gist is that the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates in hopes of taming inflation. That requires banks to pay higher rates on their deposits. But since SVB’s assets (like loans) were issued at lower rates, they earn far less. At the same time, the higher rates from the Fed caused Treasury bonds to go down in value. SVB over-diversified on Treasury bonds and had too much money in long-term assets at the moment depositors wanted to withdraw money, as Michael Hitzlik explained in the Los Angeles Times.

So, you can blame increased interest rates. You can blame deregulation for allowing SVB to act as more of an investment tool than a bank, which made it particularly susceptible to a bank run. You can blame the very idea that this is how financialized capitalism works. You can even maybe blame Peter Thiel? Or, if you choose not to attempt to understand what happened, you can blame some DEI programs and say the word “woke” a lot.

“I mean, this bank, they’re so concerned with DEI and politics and all kinds of stuff,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “I think that really diverted from them focusing on their core mission.” The idea, as a former Trump economist said on Fox News, is that SVB over-invested in green-energy products, leading to its doom.

“SVB is what happens when you push a leftist/woke ideology and have that take precedent over common sense business practices,” Donald Trump Jr. tweeted, not mentioning the role his father played in loosening bank regulations.

Investor Andy Kessler, in a Wall Street Journal opinion column, went so far as to suggest that SVB’s focus on diversity and inclusion was somehow responsible for the bank’s collapse:

Was there regulatory failure? Perhaps. SVB was regulated like a bank but looked more like a money-market fund. Then there’s this: In its proxy statement, SVB notes that besides 91% of their board being independent and 45% women, they also have “1 Black,” “1 LGBTQ+” and “2 Veterans.” I’m not saying 12 white men would have avoided this mess, but the company may have been distracted by diversity demands.

This is, of course, nonsense. As my colleague Michael Mechanic explained in a newsletter last week, American conservatives (and some Democrats) have been loath to accept any whiff of progressivism in our financial institutions. That’s why the Senate blocked a Labor Department rule that would have allowed retirement fund managers to let clients invest in ESG funds—those that consider environmental and social factors. And it’s also why they choose to focus not on Silicon Valley greed or lax government regulations, but on the bank’s stated support of LGBTQ causes.

Do you think Bear Stearns was “distracted by diversity demands”? Lehman Brothers? Bailey Building and Loan from It’s a Wonderful Life? Give me a break.

Andrew Harnik/AP

It’s another week in Washington, which for Rep. George Santos, means another week contending with new claims of wrongdoing and criminal activity.

“I’m innocent,” Santos said, rejecting the latest allegations on Friday. “I never did anything of criminal activity and I’m no mastermind of anything.”

So what is Santos vehemently denying this time? Could it be diverting voter registration money to a GOP-allied gay rights group? Potentially making up top donors? Dressing in drag but never being a “drag queen?”

No, the newest claims of malfeasance come from a former roommate, a Brazilian man named Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha who in 2017 pleaded guilty to a charge of “access device fraud” as a part of a Seattle-based credit card operation that involved skimming devices to steal personal information from people’s credit cards. In a sworn deposition this week, Trelha told federal investigators that Santos was the brains behind the scheme.

“Santos taught me how to skim card information and how to clone cards,” Trelha wrote. “He gave me all the materials and taught me how to put skimming devices and cameras on ATM machines.”

“We used a computer to be able to download the information on the pieces,” he continued, seemingly referring to the parts they’d installed on ATMs. “We also used an external hard drive to save the filming, because the skimmer took the information from the card, and the camera took the password.” According to Trelha, he and Santos split their illicit earnings 50/50. Trelha claims that after his arrest in the operation, Santos visited him in jail and told him not to say anything about him. At a 2017 arraignment, Santos told a judge that he was there to secure accommodations for Trelha, whom he called a “family friend,” in case Trelha was released on bail. 

Now that’s damning stuff, even against the heaping pile of admitted lies, shady campaign reports, and increasingly outrageous remarks that have emerged since Santos was elected in November. Trelha’s claims come amid multiple active investigations into the freshman Republican, as well as bipartisan calls for his resignation.

Francis Chung/Politico/AP

At a hearing before the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee on Thursday, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw insisted that he was “deeply sorry” for last month’s train derailment that spilled toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio. But throughout the hearing, he seemed hesitant to commit to measures that could begin to make it right.

Throughout the hearing, Shaw played a game of evasion. He answered question after question with “I am committed to…” before failing to commit to anything of substance. Shaw espoused ideals, but never endorsed the concrete examples that senators presented for how to enshrine them.

Take, for example, his baffling exchange with Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass). Sen. Markey mentioned that Norfolk Southern spent $3.4 billion in stock buybacks and that it made $3.3 billion in profit last year. Shaw said, “I am committed to making Norfolk Southern’s safety culture the best in the industry.”

“Well, you’re not having a good month,” Markey shot back, referencing the other Norfolk Southern train derailment in Ohio this weekend. Markey then asked if Norfolk Southern would compensate homeowners for diminished property values resulting from the derailment.

“Senator, I’m committing to do what’s right,” Shaw said.

“Well, what’s right is, a family that had a home worth $100,000 that is now worth $50,000 will probably never be able to sell that home for $100,000 again,” Markey said. “Will you compensate that family for that loss?”

“Senator,” Shaw repeated, “I’m committed to do what’s right.”

“These are the people who are innocent victims, Mr. Shaw,” Markey said. “These people were just there, at home, and all of a sudden, their small businesses, their homes, are forever going to have been diminished in value. Norfolk Southern owes these people. It’s an accident that is basically under the responsibility of Norfolk Southern, not these families. When you say ‘do the right thing,’ will you, again, compensate these families for their diminished, lost property values for homes and small businesses?

“Senator, we’ve already committed $21 million, and that’s a down payment,” Shaw said.

“That is a down payment,” Markey said. “Will you commit to ensuring that these families, these innocent families, do not lose their life savings in their homes and small businesses? The right thing to do is to say, ‘Yes, we will.'”

“Senator, I’m committed to doing what’s right for the community, and we’re gonna be there,” Shaw said.

Sen. Edward Markey questions the CEO of Norfolk Southern on the company's safety regulations following the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

"You're not having a good month," the senator says. https://t.co/zRa2mfDdWg pic.twitter.com/ZFYjMPSpkX

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 9, 2023

Shaw waffled once again when Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) asked, “Will you pledge today that you will do no more stock buybacks until a raft of safety measures have been completed to reduce the risk of derailments and crashes in the future?”

Shaw’s response: “Senator, I will commit to continuing to invest in safety.”

Senator Merkley pressed Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw to commit to halting stock buybacks for wealthy shareholders until he completes the major safety overhauls that the company admits it needs to undertake.

The CEO refused to commit. pic.twitter.com/3rlIXRKPg9

— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) March 9, 2023

OK, how about paid sick days? Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) asked Shaw if he would commit to guaranteeing paid sick days to his entire workforce.

“I will commit to continuing to discuss with [our employees] important quality-of-life issues with our local craft colleagues,” Shaw said.

“With all due respect,” Sanders said, “you sound like a politician, Mr. Shaw.”

WATCH: Complete exchange between @SenSanders and Norfolk Southern Railway CEO Alan Shaw. pic.twitter.com/9b45rLIW3p

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 9, 2023

Watch the full hearing here:

Mother Jones illustration; Jason Koerner/Getty; Getty

How much would it take for you to publicly pledge allegiance to a man you privately loathe? Not just once, but night after night, in a pair of stale khaki pants? Really think about it: How much would it take for you to sell out, knowing full well your own lies convince others to live in delusion? 

I posed the question in a newsletter this week upon learning that Tucker Carlson, a man who reportedly rakes in somewhere between $10 to $35 million a year, privately fumes about hating Donald Trump “passionately,” despite Carlson playing one of the most prominent MAGA diehards on television.

Now, we’d all like to believe that we’re above such moral depravity. And so, as expected, most of our readers responded with a version of “there isn’t enough money in the world.” A sampling: “There’s not enough money on this planet”; “No amount of money”; “NO AMOUNT OF MONEY”; “No price”; “There aren’t enough jewels, there isn’t enough money or real estate in the universe.”  

Others seemed to take blood oaths against such an act. “I would rather be put in front of a firing squad,” one reader said. Others imagined taking the money, then using it for good: “It would take all the wealth of the world which I would then redistribute to every single soul on this earth equally.”

But I appreciated those who did name a price. “10 million per year,” Doug said in a simple one-liner.

Fair enough. But I still know myself: I’m a woman in a deeply capitalist society where childcare can cost twice as much as a mortgage, my 401K has taken some recent hits, and I love martinis. So, the next morning, upon mindlessly chattering to my husband about the Carlson texts, the conversation took an unexpected turn: Well, so how much would it take for us?

As it happened, we were on hold with His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the United Kingdom’s version of the Internal Revenue Service, in order to finally get a sizable payment returned to our account after having left the UK two years ago. Which is to say, money was on the mind. I began to do some math.

But first, some parameters. Becoming Tucker Carlson would have to guarantee some basic, typically out-of-reach luxuries. For us, the two obvious ones would be: 1) a life without work, 2) being able to afford every piece of childcare assistance available to mankind to help raise our toddler. I’m talking nannies, car seats, tutors, the best snacks, soccer coaches, daycare, summer camp. Still, even in this unthinkably lavish scenario, we felt it was important to maintain our personalities. That means no yachts or fine jewelry.

When we tried to break that down annually, we agreed that roughly $500,000 a year would probably be a sufficient starting point. (Note: It’s become apparent that I need to emphasize that this number is based on our current real salaries and childcare expenses.) But lighting your soul on fire to become someone like Carlson is no small thing; we needed to think bigger—a lot bigger. After all, the rich parents of the world are apparently still miserable and if I’m going to ditch my values, the one thing I’d like to avoid is financial anxiety. We kept going.

In this plot, we agreed that we would probably lose all of our friends. But authentic human connection is important, even when you’re Tucker Carlson. So we figured more money could at least allow us to have more children and effectively raise people forced to forge personal bonds with us. So we tripled our initial numbers: $1.2 to $1.5 million annually. Stick in a bloated martini budget and you get about $1.5 million to $1.7 million. Then there’s the security detail we’d probably need for becoming some atrocious people. I couldn’t find how much Carlson pays for the stuff but according to one report, Trump spent at least $1.3 million in the 12 months since he left office. My husband and I adjusted that down to $500,000 for our new lives as toxic shitbags.

Totaled up, that’s still paltry compared to what Carlson gets paid to lie and spew hate for a living.

It was fun to imagine. But thinking about it for a few more beats, I realized that as incredibly flawed as I am, what it takes to be Tucker Carlson is something I simply do not have: a drive of personal ambition so hot that it burns every piece of moral restraint. I don’t have a worldview that could ignore mass hatred. The shame, which would justifiably pass down to my kids, would be unbearable. I’m grateful to have friends that would rightfully divorce me.

And so I’ll stay here I think, at my kitchen table; I’m still on the phone with His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. 

Evan Vucci/AP

The mother of a close friend, probably around the time I was 16, once told me to never put anything in writing. The way she saw it, the permanence of emails, handwritten notes, and text messages always posed a threat: Something could get yanked out of context to hurt you.

I found her warning mildly paranoid. And regardless, I’m now someone who commits word to digital paper for a living. But upon learning today that Donald Trump is publishing private letters he’s exchanged with prominent people over the years, I find myself muttering: Maria was right.

The forthcoming book, Letters to Trump, will feature letters from the likes of Princess Diana, Bill Clinton, and Kim Jong-Un, Axios reports, and will sell for $99 or $399 if you want a signed copy. A 2000 note from Oprah Winfrey reportedly includes the line, “Too bad we’re not running for office. What a team!”

 “Sadly, once I announced for President, she never spoke to me again,” Trump writes.

Such hints at nostalgia and regret come as Trump, like the rest of us, is discovering that some of his fiercest confidantes privately hate him. “I hate him passionately,” Tucker Carlson literally wrote in a text message revealed in this week’s latest Dominion Voting Systems filing. “Increasingly mad,” is how Rupert Murdoch described Trump in the days following the 2020 election.

I find it pretty impressive these letters have survived Trump’s alleged habit of clogging toilets and eating paper. But then again, the man still keeps suits and swords from his WWE days around, perhaps as mementos from an era when the world didn’t hate him. Anyway, it’s hard to see how publishing private letters will gain him any new penpals. But at $400 a pop, who needs friends anyway?

Michael Brochstein/Zuma

For someone who claims not to be anti-union, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) certainly seems to have it out for the president of the Teamsters.

On Wednesday, at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing, Mullin prefaced a diatribe by averring: “I want to make it very clear, I’m not against unions. I’m not at all. Some of my very good friends work for unions. They work hard and do a good job.”

But it didn’t take long for Mullin, who owns a plumbing company, to begin complaining about how union organizers (presumably none of his “very good friends”) had harmed him, personally.

“Back in 2009, you guys tried to unionize me,” he said, addressing Teamsters president Sean O’Brien. “They [union organizers] would show up at my house. They’d be leaning up against my trucks. I’m not afraid of a physical confrontation. In fact, sometimes I look forward to it…And then when that didn’t work, they started picketing our job sites, saying, ‘Shame on Mullin.’ Shame on Mullin, for what? For what? Because we were paying higher wages? Because we had better benefits and we wasn’t requiring them to pay your guys’ exorbitant salaries?”

Mullin pointed out that O’Brien’s salary was $193,000 in 2019. (A senator’s salary is $174,000 per year.)

Mullin then began attacking the nature of O’Brien’s work. “What do you bring for that salary? What job have you created?” he said, before becoming slightly incoherent. “One job, other than sucking the paycheck out of somebody else that you want to say that you’re trying to provide because you’re forcing them to pay dues.”

“No, we don’t force anyone to pay dues,” O’Brien said. “You’re out of line, man.”

As O’Brien and Mullin began talking over each other, committee chair Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) started pounding his gavel and told Mullin to allow O’Brien to answer the question. Then the exchange really heated up.

“We create opportunity,” O’Brien said, “because we hold greedy CEO’s like yourself accountable.”

“You’re calling me a greedy CEO?” Mullin said.

“Oh, yeah, you are,” O’Brien said. “You want to attack my salary, I’ll attack yours. What did you make when you owned your company?”

“When I made my company, I kept my salary down at about $50,000 a year because I invested every penny into it,” Mullin said.

“You mean you hid your money?” O’Brien shot back.

In 2013, Mullin earned more than $600,000 from his plumbing companies, in excess of the $27,495 limit on outside earned income for congresspeople, according to a report by the Office of Congressional Ethics. Instead of using his time to contribute to a debate about labor law, Mullin engaged in an ad hominem attack, and O’Brien gave it right back to him. At the end of his time, Mullin asked O’Brien, “If you’re really for the employee, then why are you against right-to-work? Why are you against private ballots?” But Mullin didn’t give O’Brien the opportunity to answer these questions. He had already made up his mind.

Watch the exchange beginning at about 48:50 in the video below:

🚨WATCH NOW: AFL-CIO President @LizShuler, @SEIU President @MaryKayHenry and @Teamsters President Sean O'Brien @TeamsterSOB testifying this morning before @HELPCmteDems defending our right to organize! https://t.co/kw6fprWSnc

— AFL-CIO #PassThePROAct (@AFLCIO) March 8, 2023