October 1, 2017

What’s the Deal With the Heathrow Express Train?

Twickenham Stadium, the home of rugby union in England. Also the home of the NFL in London, as well as occasional concerts, including U2, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna.

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We’re in London now. Kensington is our home away from home for the next three weeks.

I’ve never used the express train from Heathrow before, but I did this time. What’s the consensus on this? Is it worth it? That depends a bit on where you’re going, I suppose, but here’s how it seemed to play out to me. The starting point is the entrance to the tube station in Terminal 2/3:

Basically, we paid about $60 to avoid the 20-minute schlep with luggage. Which might be worth it, I suppose, but it seems kinda pricey. I think we would have been better off taking a taxi from the airport or else using the tube and then taking our chances on finding a taxi at Earl’s Court. Live and learn.

BY THE WAY: I forgot to mention this, but if you want to follow our vacation more regularly—and really, why wouldn’t you?—you can check out my Facebook page. I’m not much of a Facebooker, but for vacation photos and commentary it seems like the best tool for the job.

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“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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