How rightwing groups used junk science to get an abortion case before the US supreme court

Anti-abortion researchers ‘exaggerate’ and ‘obfuscate’ in their scientific papers – but by the time they’re published, it’s too late https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/23/anti-abortion-junk-science-supreme-court -The Guardian; 3/23/2024

Alabama is using the notion that embryos are people to surveil and harass women

Could a woman who is pregnant, or could be pregnant, have a right to do things that might endanger her embryo in a situation where an embryo is her legal equal, with a claim on state protection? Could she risk this embryo’s health and life by, say, eating sushi, or having some soft cheese? Forget …

‘Control the narrative’: how an Alabama utility wields influence by financing news

In the more than a decade since Alabama regulators allowed a landfill to take in tons of waste from coal-burning power plants around the US, neighbors in the majority-Black community of Uniontown frequently complain of thick air so pungent it makes their eyes burn. On some days, it can look like an eerily white Christmas in a …

Malaria drug Trump touted as Covid cure increased chance of death – study

People who took an anti-malaria treatment that Donald Trump touted as a cure for Covid-19 in the early days of the pandemic and waning days of his presidency were 11% more likely to die from the virus, according to a new scientific study. The study’s authors – who published their findings in the peer-reviewed Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy journal …

Ohio voted to protect abortion rights. Republicans are scheming to undo it

The referendum, which Ohioans passed by 57% of votes, established a constitutional right to an abortion, overriding laws passed by the Republican-dominated legislature to dramatically restrict access. In response, 27 GOP members of the Ohio general assembly signed a statement the next day arguing the abortion rights proposal “failed to mention a single, specific law”, and vowing …

Fossil Fuel-Funded Think Tank Claims Electricity Costs $17 Per Gallon

The Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative organization funded at least in part by Chevron and ExxonMobil, recently published a paper condemning the production and purchase of electric vehicles on the basis that they’re socialist nightmare garbage or whatever. [...] A gallon of gasoline is directly subsidized in a number of ways. Some estimates indicate the American taxpayer …

Anti-abortion misinformation mounting ahead of key Ohio vote, experts warn

On Tuesday, Ohioans will vote on whether to amend the state constitution to enshrine the right to abortion. But powerful anti-abortion forces are arguing that the amendment will go beyond guaranteeing access to the procedureto imperil parents’ rights when it comes to abortion and even gender-affirming care.Experts and abortion rights supporters say these claims are …

Opinion: The right-wing’s opposition to abortion is not about saving or protecting women lives

It turns out that the American public is broadly pro-choice, according to a CNN poll from August, and many voters are horrified by the predictable results of abortion bans: child rape victims unable to end dangerous pregnancies in their home states, women nearly dying of treatable pregnancy complications, mothers with much-wanted but tragically doomed pregnancies being denied the ability to choose how those pregnancies …

Pittsburgh in ‘extreme embrace’ with fossil fuel lobbyists, research finds

All told, Pittsburgh has engaged in a more “extreme embrace” of fossil fuel lobbyists than any other large US city, according to the new research from F Minus, a database of state-level lobbying disclosures released this year, and LittleSis, a research database project created by the non-profit corporate and government accountability watchdog Public Accountability Initiative. …

The propane industry’s weird obsession with school buses, explained

Propane is still a polluting fuel: While it is refined differently than diesel and natural gas and combusted in uniquely styled engines, it still has a measurable impact on air quality and the climate. If PERC’s deceptive marketing to children, parents, and school administrators is successful, the propane industry threatens to lock in fossil fuels and their polluting emissions …