Tuesday, August 4, 2026
The Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse in Manhattan, where the Epstein and Maxwell cases were heard. Photo: Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Welcome to Dawn’s Barbecue: the Epstein files in a time of war

A meditation, part essay and part poem, on what the files show about power, impunity and the ease with which the harm of innocents is absorbed.
About three in ten workers say they use AI at work at least weekly. Photo: Unsplash (CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Two-thirds of US workers expect AI to make their jobs worse, Ipsos survey finds

Use of the tools is concentrated among college graduates and six-figure earners. Six percent of workers said they expect workers to be the main beneficiaries.
An EPA Superfund cleanup sign at the Clearview Landfill in Philadelphia. Omaha is home to the country's largest residential Superfund site. Photo: Jhbadger / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The EPA Heralds Its Omaha Cleanup as a Success. But We Found Many Yards...

The agency spent hundreds of millions on lead remediation in Omaha, Nebraska, home of the nation’s largest residential Superfund site. New soil tests by the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica show that many yards still have harmful levels of lead.
A grey U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer under way on open water

Fact-check finds U.S. strikes killed about 115 people before Venezuela raid

PolitiFact says the administration has offered no evidence of drugs aboard the targeted vessels, while analysts and rights groups question the strikes' legality.
Portrait of Nicolás Maduro in a dark suit and striped tie

Trump announces capture of Maduro after U.S. military strikes on Venezuela, prompting congressional war...

As the captured Venezuelan leader was flown to New York to face federal charges, Senate Democrats moved to check what they called an unauthorized march toward another open-ended war.

POPULAR

The headquarters of CalSTRS, the California teachers' pension fund at the center of The Lever's reporting. Photo: Coolcaesar / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Watchdog reporting examines a pension officer’s fossil fuel trades and a fire truck monopoly

The Lever's latest investigations trace a California retirement chief's oil and gas stock trading and a spreading set of antitrust suits over who builds America's fire engines.
Portrait of Nicolás Maduro in a dark suit and striped tie

Trump announces capture of Maduro after U.S. military strikes on Venezuela, prompting congressional war...

As the captured Venezuelan leader was flown to New York to face federal charges, Senate Democrats moved to check what they called an unauthorized march toward another open-ended war.
A Flock Safety automated license plate reader mounted on a solar powered pole. Photo: Tony Webster / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Movement Against Big Tech’s Flock Cameras Transcends Partisanship—and It’s Winning

Much like the resistance to AI data centers, the opposition to Flock surveillance cameras has brought the left and the right together against billionaires who are trying to force America into becoming even more of a police state.
Howard Zinn speaking in 2009. Photo: Jim from Stevens Point, WI, USA / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

“The People’s Historian”: Dave Zirin’s New Book Explores “Remarkable” Life of Howard Zinn

We speak to Dave Zirin, author and sports editor at The Nation , about his new book, The People’s Historian: The Outsized Life of Howard Zinn , chronicling the life and activism of the legendary historian Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States .
A grey U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer under way on open water

Fact-check finds U.S. strikes killed about 115 people before Venezuela raid

PolitiFact says the administration has offered no evidence of drugs aboard the targeted vessels, while analysts and rights groups question the strikes' legality.

ACTIVISM

Biden's approval plummets as key demographic support wavers: staffers voice concern over Gaza policy.
About three in ten workers say they use AI at work at least weekly. Photo: Unsplash (CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Use of the tools is concentrated among college graduates and six-figure earners. Six percent of workers said they expect workers to be the main beneficiaries.
Plastic pellets, known as nurdles, scattered through sand and beach wrack. Photo: Estevoaei / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A shrimp-boat captain with a high school education won a $50 million settlement against Formosa Plastics. The blueprint she built is being packaged for anyone else facing a polluter.