Big Soda Is Outspending Its Opposition 10-to-1 to Fight a Soda Tax in Berkeley Big Soda Is Outspending Its Opposition 10-to-1 to Fight a Soda Tax in Berkeley
Berkeley residents overwhelmingly support the measure, but beverage companies are fighting back.
Oct 14, 2014 / Anna Lappé
How Can You Tell If US Hospitals Are Prepared for Ebola? Ask a Nurse. How Can You Tell If US Hospitals Are Prepared for Ebola? Ask a Nurse.
This is not a time to panic. It is a time to get things right.
Oct 13, 2014 / John Nichols
If Airport Ebola Screening Makes You Feel Safer, You Should Know What Workers Are Saying If Airport Ebola Screening Makes You Feel Safer, You Should Know What Workers Are Saying
Some airport workers have not been trained on handling exposures which could put them at risk of Ebola, hepatitis B and HIV infection.
Oct 12, 2014 / Michelle Chen
Before Ebola, Health Officials Thought the Age of Epidemics Was Over—It Wasn’t Before Ebola, Health Officials Thought the Age of Epidemics Was Over—It Wasn’t
How the WHO’s blindness and Western biases let the Ebola epidemic run wild.
Oct 10, 2014 / Annie Sparrow
Guess Who’s Holding Up Ebola Aid? Guess Who’s Holding Up Ebola Aid?
A Republican Senator criticized Obama’s plan because it “focuses on Africa.”
Oct 9, 2014 / Zoë Carpenter
Alabama’s New Law Will Let Fetuses Have Lawyers Alabama’s New Law Will Let Fetuses Have Lawyers
Laws requiring teens to tell their parents they’re having an abortion are a problem everywhere they exist, but Alabama’s represents a new low.
Oct 9, 2014 / Dani McClain
A Mental Health Crisis Shouldn’t End in a Jail Cell A Mental Health Crisis Shouldn’t End in a Jail Cell
Nearly $9 billion per year is spent locking up people struggling with mental illness.
Oct 9, 2014 / Kara Dansky
How the World Let the Ebola Epidemic Spiral Out of Control How the World Let the Ebola Epidemic Spiral Out of Control
A swift international response could have contained the outbreak.
Oct 8, 2014 / The Editors
Policing Pain Policing Pain
It’s been estimated that half of the people shot and killed by police officers in the United States have some type of mental-health problem. James Boyd was killed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, after a five-hour negotiation with police, who were trying to get the homeless man to leave his illegal campsite. Boyd had only two small camping knives, but he was shot in the back after the officers set off a stun grenade. When they aren’t killing people with mental-health issues, the police are arresting them, a harrowing and harmful experience in its own right. “Jails are the number one mental-health facilities across the country,” San Antonio Police Officer Joe Smarro explains in a new video series about overcriminalization, which launches at TheNation.com on October 9. Produced by Brave New Films in partnership with the ACLU, the series explores alternatives to the criminalization of social problems like mental illness, homelessness and addiction. Please support our journalism. Get a digital subscription for just $9.50! There’s a long history in America of imprisoning vulnerable populations. The criminalizing of homelessness harks back to the days after Reconstruction, when outdated vagrancy laws were suddenly applied to the newly freed black population. The “black codes” targeted formerly enslaved people, who were arrested for violations such as lacking proof of employment. They were then sent to prisons that had sprung up on former plantations, effectively re-enslaving them. This legacy carries on through stop-and-frisk policies and discriminatory immigration enforcement measures. Such policies criminalize everyday behavior, are enforced in a racist fashion, and designate police officers as the first and only solution to society’s problems. That’s why this series is not just about describing the problem, but about how you can take action. These videos focus on innovative and cost-effective solutions that actually improve people’s lives, making us less dependent on prisons and policing to address problems that are far too complex to be beaten into submission. Read Next: Steven Hsieh on the mentally ill veteran who “baked to death” at Rikers
Oct 8, 2014 / Mychal Denzel Smith
What’s Wrong With Comparing ISIS to a Disease What’s Wrong With Comparing ISIS to a Disease
While the Obama administration used cancer metaphors to sell a war, it ignored the spread of a real disease.
Oct 8, 2014 / Column / Richard Kim