Author: YES!

Invoking Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in mid-December, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced new legislation that allows parents to sue schools for teaching critical race theory. “You think about what MLK stood for. He said he didn’t want people judged on the color of their skin, but on the content of their character,” said DeSantis, a political ringleader in the latest chapter of the United States’ culture war. In using a quote from Dr. King to justify an attack on curricula that uplifts racial justice, the Republican governor inadvertently created a strong case for why critical thinking on the...

Every 10 years, legislators or appointed commissions across the country take the latest U.S. census data and redraw the boundaries of electoral districts to reflect the shifts of population. Too often, those new maps protect incumbents and partisan politics, not the interests of voters. In 2022, however, the redistricting cycle has been marked by a groundswell of citizen engagement to create fair maps that give greater political clout to communities of color. In many states, a history of gerrymandering along political and racial lines has led to a lopsided concentration of power, which activists are looking to correct. Unfair...

A newly released surveillance video of the Capitol tunnel in Washington DC on January 6, 2021, shows a sea of angry rioters pushing against dozens of helmeted police officers jammed inside the tunnel. The footage, which several media outlets, including CNN, sued to obtain from the federal government, shows a microcosm of the violent effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In the video, several men who appear to be White — and entirely unafraid of the well-armed militarized police line — can be seen climbing on top of one another, grabbing batons from the officers’ hands, and beating...

The sharp contours of our political landscape are such that we daily, even hourly, find ourselves set off by some passing comment, tweet, or news account and sent spiraling down into the valley of contempt for them, those who incredulously choose to live on the other side of the political divide. The forces driving these divisions are considerable, and their venom has spread into even the most mundane aspects of our lives — from where we will no longer shop and eat out to who we refuse to ride an elevator with. These hyper-political times are making us sick....

As she travels around Georgia to promote fair redistricting, Djemanesh Aneteneh has heard many tales of how partisan lawmakers create voting maps designed to take away the political voice of communities of color. She is not surprised. “Gerrymandering has always happened in the U.S., and both parties have always done it and will always do it,” said Aneteneh, a redistricting coordinator with Fair Count. “In the South, generally gerrymandering has hurt and continues to hurt communities of color.” Gerrymandering also tends to make many races uncompetitive. As a result of the last round of gerrymandering in Georgia in 2011,...

Milwaukee’s proposed 25-story Ascent tower sounds like a conventional housing project. Scheduled to open in September 2022, It offers 250+ apartments with beautiful views of downtown Milwaukee and Lake Michigan. But one thing sets it apart from other housing towers in the United States, it is supposed to be the world’s tallest timber tower. Why timber? Firms working on timber construction believe that compared to typical construction materials like steel and concrete, timber is easier and cheaper to use, and more durable in the long run. The best part: It could benefit the environment. “Mass timber construction [a method...