Dark Money's Influence on School Safety • Medicaid Purge • Anti-Trans Hate Machine
This is the newsletter of OptOut, a news aggregation app for exclusively independent media that's currently in beta testing for iOS (download it now!). Find out more about the app at optout.news.
This week's newsletter is a little shorter than usual because we are busy getting ready to launch this app for iOS! Stay tuned!
It’s been quite a week on the brink of World War III. Take a break from planning where you and your family will hide out when the big one drops and give this week’s selections a read. A lot has happened, and we’ve got some great content here from our OptOut participating outlets!
OptOut’s founders have a story in The Daily Poster and the Center for Media and Democracy tracking how dark money played a pivotal role in the pandemic school safety debate. You don’t want to miss this one. Find out how the shadowy nonprofit network of Charles Koch, in concert with business lobby groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, shaped school pandemic policies as part of a two-year campaign against public health measures.
Read the article at The Daily Poster.
Jacobin has a story about Tesla’s new electric vehicle gigafactory in Germany. The project has raised serious environmental concerns regarding industrial waste contamination and deforestation. But the good news doesn’t stop there: to construct its new factory, the company has skirted labor norms!
The Real News talks with Empire Files founder Abby Martin about "how the media’s manufactured 'bloodlust' for war makes us all less safe and how we must use independent media to advance the cause of peace."
Sludge has a scoop about Congress’ new $1.5 trillion omnibus spending package. Several provisions in the massive legislative package are designed to protect dark money groups and prevent accountability for nonprofit organizations engaged in political activity.
Sick Note, in collaboration with The Daily Poster, is warning of a coming Medicaid purge. At the start of the pandemic, the federal government declared a public health emergency and passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, paying states to stop cutting people from their Medicaid rolls. That money will stop flowing when the emergency ends, and there is a rightwing campaign pressuring the Biden administration, which has already shown willingness to put the pandemic in the rearview, to declare it over. Today, nearly 78 million people are on Medicaid, but millions could face loss of coverage if that campaign succeeds.
The Markup reports on a congressional antitrust subcommittee’s investigation into Amazon’s practices. At a hearing last week, representatives accused the behemoth of lying about how it treats third-party sellers, citing a Markup investigation. The committee sent a letter requesting an investigation by the Department of Justice.
Prism reports on parents in Texas speaking out against Gov. Greg Abbott’s new order directing public health agencies to treat gender-affirming care for trans youth as child abuse. The order flies in the face of medical consensus and threatens families across the state.
Translash's latest podcast episode continues its investigation of the "anti-trans hate machine."
First we talk with Lizette Trujillo, a mother fighting for her trans son in Arizona. She tells us how these bills have hurt her family, her son, and her community,
Next we talk to Vivian Topping, Director of Advocacy and Civic Engagement at Equality Federation. She shares with us her deep and unique understanding of the challenges we’re facing, and how to overcome them.
On Tech Won't Save Us, "Paris Marx is joined by Moira Weigel to discuss Peter Thiel’s history, how the network he cultivated has influenced Silicon Valley, and his recent move into funding Republican candidates."
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About OptOut
OptOut is an independent news aggregation app developed by the OptOut Media Foundation, a nonprofit charity devoted to assisting independent news outlets (EIN: 852348079). The app will launch in the Apple App Store in early 2022, and an Android version will follow. See the links below for more information.
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