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Editor's Choice: Scroll below for our monthly blend of mainstream and alternative May 2023 news and viewsNote: Excerpts are from the authors' words except for subheads and occasional "Editor's notes" such as this.
June 5
Top Headlines
- New York Times, Editorial: Texas Is Silencing the Will of Millions of Voters, Editorial Board
- New York Times, Vigilante Justice Rises in Haiti and Crime Plummets
- Washington Post, Trump Investigations: Trump’s lawyers meet with Justice Dept. to argue against charging him in classified documents case
Washington Post, Opinion: Trump’s smoking gun recording gives Jack Smith all he needs, Jennifer Rubin
- New York Times, Schools Received Billions in Stimulus Money, It May Not Be Doing Enough
- New York Times, Live Updates: Russia Says Ukrainian Forces Are Trying to Break Through in East
- New York Times, Explosions hit Ukraine as both sides braced for a counteroffensive, while the death of a 2-year-old underscored the war’s toll
Trump Probes, Pro-Trump Rioters, Election Deniers
- Washington Post, Investigation: Georgia probe of Trump broadens to activities in other states, Amy Gardner and Josh Dawsey
New York Times, Trump Lawyer’s Notes Could Be a Key in the Classified Documents Inquiry
More On Ukraine War
- Washington Post, By arming Ukraine, Biden shows growing appetite to cross Putin’s red lines
- New York Times, Opinion: Here’s How We Can End the War in Ukraine, David French
- New York Times, Nazi Symbols on Ukraine’s Front Lines Highlight Thorny Issues of History
- New York Times, In Russian Schools, It’s Recite Your ABC’s and ‘Love Your Army’
- New York Times, A Pacifist Sect From Russia Is Shaken by the Ukraine War, and Modernity
More On U.S. Courts, Crime, Immigration
Washington Post, Opinion: Roberts should use the LBJ model on Clarence Thomas, Ruth Marcus
New York Times, California Officials Investigating Flight of Migrants to Sacramento
- Washington Post, N.J. Sen. Bob Menendez escaped legal peril once. Can he do it again?
- New York Times, New Hampshire Man Is Arrested After Threatening to Kill U.S. Senator
2024 U.S. Presidential Race
- Washington Post, DeSantis on the trail: Combative with critics, not yet cozy with voters
- New York Times, The 2024 G.O.P. primary field will balloon this week with the addition of three new candidates
- New York Times, They Distrust Voting Machines. Just Don’t Call Them Election Deniers
More On U.S. Economy, Default, Debt, Budget, Jobs, Banking, Crypto
- Washington Post, ‘You don’t have another option’: Inside the Biden, McCarthy debt ceiling deal, Tony Romm, Marianna Sotomayor, Leigh Ann Caldwell, Tyler Pager, Jeff Stein and Rachel Siegel
More Global News, Views, Terrorism, Human Rights
- New York Times, India Crash Investigation Looks at Possible Signal Failure After Rescue Efforts End
- New York Times, India’s Worst Rail Disaster in Decades Convulses Country Dependent on Trains
- New York Times, Macron Faces Fresh Test as Outlook for French Finances Dims
- New York Times, Prince Harry to Testify in Phone Hacking Case, and Royals Prepare to Cringe
- New York Times, Hong Kong Court Overturns Conviction of Journalist in Rare Victory for Media
U.S. Politics, Elections, Governance
- New York Times, Opinion: A Peek Behind the MAGA Curtain, David French
- Washington Post, Disney welcomes Gay Days in Florida as the feud with DeSantis rages on
U.S. Abortion, Birth Control, #MeToo
- New York Times, Oklahoma Supreme Court Rules New Abortion Bans Unconstitutional
- Washington Post, Bill Cosby is facing a new sexual assault lawsuit
Environment, Transportation, Energy, Space, Disasters, Climate
- New York Times, Arizona Limits Construction Around Phoenix as Its Water Supply Dwindles
New York Times, Climate Shocks Are Making Parts of America Uninsurable. It Just Got Worse
- New York Times, Can Technology Solve the M.T.A.’s Persistent Fare Evasion Problem?
Pandemics, Public Health, Privacy
Going Deep with Russ Baker, Investigative Commentary: More Indications RFK Jr’s Anti Vaccine Claims Have Little Basis, Russ Baker
- Washington Post, Medicare to expand coverage for new class of Alzheimer’s drugs pending FDA approval
New York Times, Covid Is Coming Back in China; Lockdowns Are Not
More On U.S. Media, Education, Arts, Sports, Culture
- New York Times, Could Jeff Zucker Fix CNN? He Seems to Think So
- New York Times, Chuck Todd to Leave NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’
New York Times, Twitter’s U.S. Ad Sales Plunge 59% as Woes Continue
- Washington Post, Disney welcomes Gay Days in Florida as the feud with DeSantis rages on
Top Stories
New York Times, Editorial: Texas Is Silencing the Will of Millions of Voters, Editorial Board, June 4, 2023 (print ed.). Gov. Greg Abbott, Republican of Texas, is expected to sign a bill in the next few days that would make it immeasurably more difficult for cities in the state to govern themselves. The bill would strip cities of the ability to set standards for local workplaces, to ensure civil rights, and to improve their environments, trampling on the rights of voters who elected local officials to do just that.
The bill, recently approved by the Texas House and Senate, would nullify any city ordinance or regulation that conflicts with existing state policy in those crucial areas, and would give private citizens or businesses the right to sue and seek damages if they believe there is a discrepancy between city and state. That means no city could prohibit discrimination against L.G.B.T.Q. employees, as several Texas cities have done. No city could adopt new rules to limit predatory payday-lending practices. No city could restrict overgrown lots, or unsafe festivals, or inadequate waste storage. Cities would even be banned from enacting local worker protections, including requiring water breaks for laborers in the Texas heat, as Dallas, Austin and other cities have done following multiple deaths and injuries.
Business lobbyists and Republican legislators who have pushed the bill said its purpose was to rid the state of a patchwork of conflicting regulations. In fact, that patchwork largely exists only in three or four mostly Democratic cities in an overwhelmingly red state, and the bill is the latest effort by Republicans to rid the state of any policies that conflict with their hard-right agenda — even if those policies are fully supported by voters in those cities, who elect representatives to serve their interests.
Already the state won’t let cities ban discrimination against low-income renters, and it prohibits them from cutting their police budgets. Dozens of other bills have been introduced to restrict election reforms by Texas cities and counties, including one that would let an official, most likely a Republican, overturn election results in a single place: largely Democratic Harris County, which includes Houston. “The bill is undemocratic,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg of San Antonio told The Texas Tribune. “It is probably the most undemocratic thing the Legislature has done, and that list is getting very long.
New York Times, Vigilante Justice Rises in Haiti and Crime Plummets, Frances Robles and Andre Paultre, June 5, 2023 (print ed.). Civilians have killed at least 160 gang members in recent weeks. Residents say they feel safer, but some worry that it will lead to even more violence.
The 14 presumed gang members under arrest were arriving at a police station in Haiti’s capital, when a group of people overpowered the police, rounded up the suspects outside and used gasoline to burn them alive.
The gruesome executions on April 24 marked the start of a brutal vigilante campaign to reclaim the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, from gangs that have inflicted terror on Haitians for nearly two years.
In a nation wracked by extreme poverty and violence, civilians have taken up arms and killed at least 160 people believed to be gang members in the six weeks since a citizens “self-defense” movement known as “bwa kale” kicked off its vigilantism with the brazen police station attack, according to data gathered in a new report by a prominent Haitian human rights group.
The result: a sharp drop in kidnappings and killings attributed to gangs in neighborhoods where people told The New York Times they had been afraid to leave their homes.
“Before the 24th, every day someone passed by and demanded that I give him money because of my little business,” said Marie, 62, who sells shoes on the streets of Port-au-Prince. The Times is withholding her full name and those of other residents quoted in this article for their safety.
“When I had no money, they took whatever they wanted from my table, and this happened at any time of the day,” she said.
But two weeks ago, members of the “bwa kale” — crude slang for erection — burned a man believed to be a gang member alive in front of her shoe stall.
Though she sees the revenge movement as “God beginning to make things right,” Marie has misgivings.
“I support vigilance groups, but I don’t like the way they do it,” she said. “He could have been punished in another way. He could have been arrested and put in jail.”
The outbreak of mob justice is worrisome, Haiti experts say, because it could easily be used to target people who have nothing to do with gangs, and could lead to an explosion of even worse violence if the gangs seek retribution.
That it took a movement of self-appointed vigilantes to bring some semblance of calm to parts of Port-au-Prince underscores the chaos ...
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Andrew Kreig
JIP Editor
The Justice Integrity Project (JIP) researches official misconduct
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Past News Reports
- June 2023 News
- May 2023 News, Views
- April 2023 News
- March 2023 News
- Feb. 2023 News
- Jan. 2023 News
- Dec. 2022 News
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- Oct. 2022 News (Pt. 2)
- Oct. 2022 News, Views
- Sept. 2022 News, Pt. 2
- Sept. 2022 News
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- July 2022 News, Views
- June 2022 News, Views
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- April 2022 News, Views
- March 2022 News, Views
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- Dec. 2021 News, Views
- Nov. 2021 News, Views
- Oct. 2021 News, Views
- Sept. News (Pt. 2)
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