September 24, 2010

Help for the Chesapeake?

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This post is outsourced to regular reader rph3 from the great state of Virginia:

I know you’re all left coast and all that, but here we have long had one of the most open festering environmental sores in existence — the Chesapeake Bay and the cleanup efforts that have failed miserably for over 30 years. This is a classic case where Republican declarations that “states should work constructively with the fed to achieve our goals and not have the fed ram down our throats” have predictably resulted in states ignoring the fed and not working at all together. And that has resulted in extreme degradation of the Bay.

Anyway, it’s just in EPA blowhard stage, full of threats to maybe get angry and do something — but it’s more than anyone has done in 30+ years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/24/AR2010092402864.html

I’m sure progressives will loudly promote this bold (and it is bold) action by the Obama administration and give credit where it is due.

But this also has the classic risks of progressive policy — environmental improvement will likely result in increased taxes and will cause a significant backlash. And while I’d like to think people would understand the tradeoff, I …. uh. Yeah right.

Anyway this is change. And it could be dramatic. And it could financially hurt.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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