Progressive Briefing for Friday, June 22, 2018

Bernie Sanders on income inequality, police shoot a fleeing 17-year-old in Pittsburgh, white supremacists plan more rallies, and more.

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A public defender who handles immigration cases said the government has no answers for parents separated from their children at the border. In a column published in the Washington Post, the attorney described some of the court cases he has experienced in which prosecutors and immigration agents demonstrate a complete lack of empathy for the families they have no answers for.

Bernie Sanders: A world for all of us, not just the billionaires

Senator Sanders pens a new column detailing the extreme inequality that not only threatens our economic well-being, but undermines our democracy. Sanders notes such decisions as Citizens United that need to be overturned in order to move closer to equality.

NRA TV attacks Rachel Maddow for crying over children separated at the border

NRA TV hosts went on a multi-tweet rant against MSNBC host Rachel Maddow after she broke down in tears during her coverage of the “tender age” detention centers and children being ripped from their families at the border.

Unarmed 17-year-old boy shot and killed by police in Pittsburgh

Police officers in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, shot and killed an unarmed, fleeing 17-year-old on Tuesday. A bystander captured a video of the police shooting and posted it on Facebook. It shows two people running away from police cars, with their backs to the officers, as police open fire.

Kris Kobach defies court order on voter id law, says it’s “open to interpretation”

Two days after a federal judge overturned his documentary proof-of-citizenship law and ordered him to register eligible voters, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is openly defying the court’s order. Kobach’s elections director instructed county clerks to continue demanding proof-of-citizenship from anyone registering to vote until they receive written instruction otherwise. “I think ‘immediately’ is kind of open to interpretation,” Kobach’s spokesperson says.

Charlottesville rally organizer plans ‘white civil rights’ event in DC

The organizer of last year’s deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., received a permit on Wednesday to host a similar rally this year in Washington, D.C., on the anniversary of the Virginia rally that resulted in a man driving his car into a crowd of protestors.

AT&T funded democrats in California just “eviscerated” the best net neutrality bill in the country

In an unprecedented move, the California Assembly’s Committee on Communications and Conveyance just bucked standard procedure and railroaded through a vote to amend net neutrality bill SB 822 by adding gaping loopholes asked for by ISPs like Comcast and AT&T, who are a top donor to the committee Chairman, Miguel Santiago.

New farm bill attacks nation’s hungriest families

House Republicans on Thursday forced through a “shameful” and “cruel” Farm Bill that would deprive about 2 million Americans of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), often called food stamps.

The bill will also harm endangered species, land conservation efforts and small-scale farmers and is a major win for the pesticide industry, which spent $43 million on lobbying this Congressional season. The bill will ax a requirement that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service assess a pesticide’s impact on endangered species before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approves it and relax the Clean Water Act’s provision that anyone releasing pesticides into waterways obtain a permit.

FALL FUNDRAISER

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