Dana Liebelson

Reporter

Dana Liebelson is a reporter in Mother Jones' Washington bureau. She contributes regularly to The Week. Previously, she worked for the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), covering defense and open government issues. Her work has also appeared on TIME's Battleland, Truthout, OtherWords and Yahoo! News. In her free time, she plays electric violin in an Indie rock band.

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MAP: Which Kills More People in Your State—Cars or Guns?

Plenty of states are hitting a grisly milestone; for the nation, it's only a matter of time.

—By Dana Liebelson and Stephanie Mencimer

| Mon Mar. 11, 2013 3:00 AM PDT

MAP: Which Kills More People in Your State—Cars or Guns?

Trying to Stop a Suicide Epidemic—While Loosening Gun Laws

Charts: Suicide, PTSD and the Psychological Toll on America's Vets

Mass Shootings More Lethal Than Homegrown Islamist Terrorism

Gun Enthusiasts' Hot New Idea: You Can't Regulate Guns We Make In-State

Known and Suspected Terrorists Can Buy Guns in America

Back in December, not long after the massacre at Sandy Hook school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, Bloomberg News published a study suggesting that by 2015, guns would kill more Americans than traffic accidents do.

The comparison struck a nerve, and the factoid has become a talking point in gun control debates on Capitol Hill. But it's clear from the data that the prediction wasn't just a hypothetical. A number of states have already hit this grisly milestone.

Check out the interactive map below to see where your state stands, according to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It's little surprise that many of these states—including Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Utah, and Virginia—are notorious for lax gun laws. What's more, the numbers aren't driven just by "bad guys with guns." Nationally, close to two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides, and the split is much higher in states such as Alaska, which reported more than twice as many gun suicides as traffic deaths in 2010. Utah (the "most depressed" state, whose suicide problem we cover in detail here), Nevada, Oregon, and Washington are also seeing more gun suicides than traffic fatalities. Idaho, Montana, and others are close behind. We'll leave you with this chart showing the most recent nationwide numbers available:

Chart art sources: James Bond Icons and Richard Pasqua from the Noun Project

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VIDEO: Heartwarming Story About Student's Sex Change Surgery Was Misunderstanding, College Says

—By Dana Liebelson

| Wed Mar. 6, 2013 4:33 PM PST

UPDATE: Collins posted a statement to his Indiegogo fundraising page on Wednesday night explaining that he received "very unexpected news regarding his insurance claim." Collins reports that his insurance will be covering most of the cost of his breast removal procedure, except for $2,000 needed for his co-pay, travel and care expenses. He says the rest of the money the fraternity raised (about $18,000) will be going to the Jim Collins Foundation, a charity that provides financial assistance for transgender patients. In a video Collins posted on YouTube last night, he said, "It's been a really incredible experience...I honestly couldn't be happier with the way things are turning out. Also, the Ironman 3 trailer came out! Which I'm super excited about."

Donnie Collins, a 19-year-old transgender student at Emerson College in Boston, was rejected by his student insurance when he tried to apply for sex reassignment surgery, so brothers at the fraternity he was pledging pitched in to raise money for the operation, according to a heartwarming story published last week by ABC News. But Wednesday, a spokesperson for the university told Mother Jones that, in fact, Collins' surgery was covered by his student health insurance all along, and the rejection was a mistake by the insurance company.

"Emerson College is pleased to have confirmation that its policy with Aetna will cover Donnie Collins' surgery," Carole McFall, a spokesperson for Emerson, told Mother Jones. "After the rejection of his initial request, the college contacted Aetna for clarification—knowing that transgender benefits have been part of its insurance policy with Aetna since 2006. The conversations that followed led to the discovery that the policy language had inadvertently not been updated by Aetna on their internal documents. This inaccuracy led to the rejection of coverage."

McFall adds that all treatments related to transgender patients are covered, including hormone treatment (which Collins' mother's insurance did not cover) and surgery, but could not comment immediately on whether that policy also applies to staff. As the New York Times reported, at least 36 other universities already offer insurance coverage with transgender benefits for students. McFall says Emerson was one of the first universities to do so, and expects that Phi Alpha Tau (which is a "professional communicative arts fraternity" and not a traditional national Greek organization) will issue a statement about the news this evening. The organization already told ABC News that it plans to donate excess funds raised to the Jim Collins Foundation, which provides financial assistance for transgender patients.

Boy Scouts Have No One Famous to Play at Their Jamboree Because They Kick Out Gay Kids

—By Dana Liebelson

| Tue Mar. 5, 2013 10:25 AM PST

The only musicians headlining the Boy Scouts' annual Jamboree, "proof that rock music is dead" band Train and "Call Me Maybe" singer Carly Rae Jepsen, announced this week that they refuse to play the event, which is expected to have up to 40,000 attendees, as long as the organization continues to discriminate against gay Scouts and scoutmasters. Train wrote on Friday that it will not perform unless the Boy Scouts "make the right decision" and overturn the ban before the Jamboree. Jepsen appears to have dropped out entirely today, according to her Twitter account. The announcements come after a Change.org petition asking the artists to step down garnered 62,000 signatures in four days.

So who is going to serenade the Scouts while they partake in community service, Buckskin games, pioneering, technology quests, 3-D archery, and shotgun shooting?

"I was trying to think of artists that are anti-gay that the Boy Scouts could get, and I couldn't think of any," Rich Ferraro, a spokesman for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) tells Mother Jones. "Perhaps they can ask Chuck Norris or Victoria Jackson." Ferraro adds that this is the first year he's aware of that the Boy Scouts have been without any entertainment because of the ban. Deron Smith, director of public relations for the Boy Scouts of America, told Mother Jones that the group remains "focused on delivering a great Jamboree program for our Scouts," but did not comment on who would be replacing Train and Jepsen.

The Boy Scouts announced in January that they would consider overturning its decades-old anti-gay policy, but they are putting off any decision until May (even if the Scouts do overturn the policy, however, troops on the local level will still be allowed to discriminate). Pressure to overturn the ban has been intensifying over the last few months, with funders dropping out, Scouts renouncing their membership, and even President Obama denouncing the policy.

"No fair-minded media outlet, corporation or celebrity will want to partner with the BSA as long as the organization puts discrimination and anti-gay bias before the needs of young people," GLAAD said in a statement. BSA's Smith says the Scouts "appreciate everyone's right to express an opinion" and "don't have anything to add at this time."

Image Source: GLAAD

Josh Ritter Releases the Cheeriest Breakup Album Ever

—By Dana Liebelson

| Mon Mar. 4, 2013 4:02 AM PST

Josh Ritter
The Beast in its Tracks
Pytheas Recordings

When one of the best living songwriters gets divorced, it's hard to know what to expect: Josh Ritter isn't one for "angry, over-the-top, knee-jerk breakup songs," as NPR puts it, but The Beast in its Tracks, out this week, is such a clean, joyful trip across the Americana landscape that you'd be forgiven for thinking that Ritter just got hitched to a new bride, wearing tweed. It's a little deceiving—like if your best friend got dumped, showed up to your birthday party insisting that everything was just peachy, God damn it, and then wandered off into the woods with a handle of whiskey.

Don't let that stop you from acquiring the album when it comes out on Tuesday. (NPR is streaming it in full, but don't be lame; artists need to eat, too.) Ritter's album convincingly recalls everyone from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen to Paul Simon, and I already have at least three favorite songs looping on my stereo ("A Certain Light," "New Lover," and "Hopeful").

[Read more in the Mixed Media blog]

MAPS: Did Your Congressmember Vote Against the Violence Against Women Act?

After a year and a half delay, VAWA reauthorization passed on Thursday. Here's how your elected officials voted.

—By Erika Eichelberger and Dana Liebelson

| Fri Mar. 1, 2013 7:00 PM PST

On Thursday, the House finally reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act—a full year and a half after it expired. VAWA had been held up by House Republicans in the last Congress after the Senate voted to add new provisions aiding Native American, immigrant, and gay victims of violence.

It looked as if the bill might suffer the same fate in the 113th Congress, after the House GOP leadership refused to schedule a vote on the version of the bill passed by the Senate 78 to 22, and instead pushed a stripped down version without protections for LGBT and Native American women. But in the end Republican lawmakers allowed a vote on the Senate's legislation, and it passed on Thursday, 286 to 138. Not one Democrat in either chamber voted against it. (Though one representative abstained.)

One major change to VAWA that drew objections from House Republicans were steps to give tribal courts greater jurisdiction over domestic violence committed by non-native men on Native American lands. The National Congress of American Indians defines congressional districts as having a "high concentration" of Native Americans when the community makes up .3 to 23 percent of the population. (Only a few such districts are in the higher range; most are in the low single digits, according to NCAI.) Here is how members of Congress from those districts voted:

The VAWA reauthorization also provides more access to services for immigrant victims of violence, and also helps them get special visas to stay in the US if they are victims of a serious crime. Here's how representatives from districts where Latinos make up over 25 percent of the population voted (Source: Proximity):