Breaking News

This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in each source note. Quotation marks are not used.

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• SOURCE: them.
  2/23/2021
  

  These Portraits Revolutionized the Way Queer Women Were Seen in the 1970s

  Joan E. Biren (known as JEB) published a collection of photographs of lesbians in 1979, a pioneering representation of queer women living openly. It will be reissued in March with retrospective essays. 

• 
• SOURCE: Democracy Now
  2/25/2021
  

  “Decades in the Making”: How Mainstream Conservatives & Right-Wing Money Fueled the Capitol Attack

  Author Brendan O'Connor says the Capitol riots were decades in the making, and discusses the history of ideology and institution-building on the right that organized the riots. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Review of Books
  2/21/2021
  

  What the FBI Had on Grandpa

  by Molly Jong-Fast

  "I never considered my grandfather to be a danger to the republic, but J. Edgar Hoover disagreed." The FBI surveilled writer Howard Fast extensively, though, as he wrote in his autobiography, "the eleven hundred pages detailed every—or almost every—decent act I had performed in my life."

• 
• SOURCE: New York Review of Books
  2/21/2021
  

  What the FBI Had on Grandpa

  by Molly Jong-Fast

  "I never considered my grandfather to be a danger to the republic, but J. Edgar Hoover disagreed." The FBI surveilled writer Howard Fast extensively. 

• 
• SOURCE: BBC
  2/24/2021
  

  Franco: Melilla Enclave Removes Last Statue of Fascist Dictator on Spanish Soil

  The statue was the last standing after a 2007 law recognized the suffering caused by Francoism and began a process of removing memorials to the dictator. 

• SOURCE: The Guardian
  2/23/2021
  

  Lawrence Ferlinghetti Obituary

  Lawrence Ferlinghetti's influence lasted long past the Beat Generation (of which he was perhaps the last survivor) through his ownership of the landmark independent City Lights bookstore in San Francisco.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/18/2021
  

  Heating Up Culture Wars, France to Scour Universities for Ideas That ‘Corrupt Society’

  France's minister of higher education has pledged to investigate "Islamo-leftism" as a corrupting influence on society allegedly promoted by French university scholars. 

• 
• SOURCE: Hartford Courant
  2/19/2021
  

  West Hartford is Mostly White, While Bloomfield is Largely Black. How that Came to be Tells the Story of Racism and Segregation in American Suburbs

  Local historians in West Hartford are working to promote public knowledge of exclusionary zoning and other practices that built and maintained racial segregation in the suburbs. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  2/19/2021
  

  The Rise and Fall of the L. Brent Bozells

  by Timothy Noah

  The charging of L. Brent Bozell IV with disorderly conduct for entering the Senate chamber on January 6 prompts reflection on how a series of men named L. Brent Bozell trace the evolution of American conservatism. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  2/20/2021
  

  US Deports 95-Year-Old Former Concentration Camp Guard To Germany

  Friedrich Karl Berger, a German citizen, was sent back to Germany this month for serving as a guard of a Neuengamme concentration camp subcamp near Hamburg in 1945.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/22/2021
  

  The Legacy of Rush Limbaugh (Podcast)

  The Times Podcast "The Daily" looks at the career and legacy of the controversial radio host. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  2/22/2021
  

  The 150-Year Prosecution of White Supremacy

  Merrick Garland's answers to quesitons about domestic right-wing extremism show that he understands the through-line connecting post-Reconstruction racist terrorism, the 1990s militia movement, and the groups present at the US Capitol on January 6. It remains to be seen if he will have the support he needs to follow through on his pledge to prosecute them.

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  2/21/2021
  

  Texas Failed Because It Did Not Plan

  An analysis of three interrelated failures of planning, logistics, and markets that led to the Texas electrical disaster. 

• 
• SOURCE: Reuters
  2/21/2021
  

  Malcolm X's Family Releases Letter Alleging FBI, Police Role In His Death

  The family of the late leader released a letter they claim shows the involvement of a NYPD detective in a conspiracy to assassinate Malcolm X. 

• 
• SOURCE: Crain's Chicago Business
  2/21/2021
  

  America's Churches are Now Polarized, Too

  The Trump era has concentrated longstanding differences about the role of faith in American life and the obligations of the faithful to act in the world. During the McCarthy era, the Republican establishment pushed back against attacks on clergy by the far right. Will something similar happen today? 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/21/2021
  

  Why Texas Republicans Fear the Green New Deal

  by Naomi Klein

  The Texas blackouts show the political and social dead ends of the market revolution and the fossil fuel economy, says Naomi Klein. Politicians and industries wedded to the status quo are attacking the idea of a "Green New Deal" because it's encouraging people to imagine alternatives. 

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  2/19/2021
  

  A Georgia Lawmaker Asked How Colleges Teach ‘Privilege’ and ‘Oppression.’ Here’s How They Responded

  State legislative inquiries in Georgia about how public universities teach concepts like white privilege require a large burden of administrative work and internal review by the colleges, with the largest share of scrutiny falling on history classes. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/22/2021
  

  Lucky Luke, the Comic Book Cowboy, Discovers Race, Belatedly

  While Emmanuel Macron decries American obsessions with race and prejudice, right-wing French comics readers have reacted with anger to an effort to update the longstanding cowboy-themed comic franchise with heroic Black characters. 

• 
• SOURCE: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  2/23/2021
  

  Historical Markers About Notable Black Georgians Shot, Vandalized

  Markers in South Georgia paid tribute to Jackie Robinson and lynching victim Mary Turner.

• 
• SOURCE: Vox
  2/23/2021
  

  The Supreme Court is About to Hear Two Cases that Could Destroy what Remains of the Voting Rights Act

  Chief Justice John Roberts has a long record of hostility to the Voting Rights Act, and authored the decision that weakened it. The Supreme Court is preparing to hear cases that may allow him to destroy the VRA.