The World Isn’t Less Free Than It Used To Be

Colorado will study the lingering effects of slavery and systemic racism on Black Coloradans under a law signed by Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday — but only if fundraising goals are met. The new law, Senate Bill 53, establishes the Black Coloradan Racial Equity Commission to conduct the study with History Colorado.

A slice of the nearly $29 million that Boulder collected during the first six and a half years of a voter-passed soda tax has provided low-income residents with extra money to buy fresh produce from local businesses. It’s one of many ways the city has directed revenue from that unusual tax to a range of programs focused on improving health equity in the community. Maria Fraire, one of nearly 1,500 people across 370 families now enrolled in the Fruit & Veg Boulder program, has relied on the monthly stipend to sustain her vegan diet, typically shopping at Whole Foods.

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris spent part of a Tuesday episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” rehashing how she found out about former President Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts in his criminal hush money trial. She deflected a light-hearted question from Kimmel about whether the people she watched the verdict with were “pretending to not be happy” when the conviction was announced.

To hear Michael Flynn tell it, he belongs in the pantheon of great American martyrs alongside President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., leaders who spoke truth to power and paid for it with their lives. “I’m surprised they haven’t killed me,” the former Trump National Security Adviser says in his new eponymous film.

This story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. This April, at a steak dinner with oil and gas executives at the Mar-a-Lago Club, in Florida, former President Donald Trump made a request backed by a hefty promise: If the CEOs in attendance raised $1 billion to support his reelection bid, he would lower their taxes and eviscerate environmental and public health protections once he became president, clearing away the “regulatory burdens” that stand in the way of their companies injecting more carbon into the atmosphere—and profiting handsomely from it. According to reporting by the Washington Post, Trump promised to reverse dozens of Biden administration policies, including a moratorium on approvals for liquefied natural gas exports, new restrictions on Arctic drilling, and many regulations of oil and gas drilling on public land.

Concentrating too many parts of the healthcare supply chain under one company can wreak havoc on the entire system.