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Rob Sand starts every event on his 99-county tour of Iowa by leading a round of applause for the Republicans in the room, and for the independents and Democrats, too.

motherjones.com

Rob Sand says he isn’t trying to turn Iowa blue. It just might happen anyway.

In a midterms wave fueled by resistance and revenge, the Democratic candidate for governor is singing a different tune.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 1h

Buried away and completely hidden out of sight in a dense forest, more than 1,600 immigrants are imprisoned here on any given day in what is the largest immigration detention center in the Northeast.

motherjones.com

Trump’s mass detention machine in Pennsylvania

"ICE is just churning bodies into the detention system."

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 2h

Iowa farmers are desperately trying to tell leaders how difficult the economy has become for small business owners. Instead of listening, Trump blames Democrats for high prices and calls polls showing competitive Congressional races "fake."

motherjones.com

Trump says the polls are “fake.” Iowa farmers say they’re “bleeding money.”

As Republicans face competitive midterm races, Iowa farmers sound the alarm over soaring costs.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 3h

Perhaps Senator Eric Schmitt was a little too hawkish during his questioning of Jack Smith today. After accusing the former special counsel of perjury over whether he’d been at a Hawks basketball game, Schmitt was hit with an awkward moment of live fact-checking.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 4h

Rob Sand says he isn’t trying to turn Iowa blue. It just might happen anyway. In a midterms wave fueled by resistance and revenge, the Democratic candidate for governor is singing a different tune.

motherjones.com

Rob Sand says he isn’t trying to turn Iowa blue. It just might happen anyway.

In a midterms wave fueled by resistance and revenge, the Democratic candidate for governor is singing a different tune.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 5h

After we published “ChatGPT Helped Tumbler Ridge Shooter Focus on Guns, Tactics, and Terror,” Follman got a flood of media requests to discuss his investigation uncovering how OpenAI’s chatbot had fueled the Tumbler Ridge school shooter for months up to the attack.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 6h

“You can still be twisted. Just be clever about it.” How ChatGPT fueled the violent fantasies of the Tumbler Ridge school shooter, according to our new investigation. www.motherjones.com/media/2026/0...

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 6h

“This is about stepping up where the federal government has failed.” On Tuesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law banning law enforcement officers in the state from using electrical shock gloves.

motherjones.com

California bans ICE's favorite shock gloves

A DHS spokesperson has said that the agency "will not abide" by any state ban.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 8h

Content warning: Child sexual abuse What does it mean that someone who believes a fourth grader should be forced to give birth to her rapist’s child is now leading the anti-abortion mainstream? Meet Kristan Hawkins. At Texas Tech University, a young woman walked up to the mic to debate her.

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Mark Follman @markfollman.bsky.social · 8h

The current wave of stories on OpenAI's safety failures is all about hacking that appears to not have caused real-world harm yet (fortunately) — but meanwhile, my new investigation uncovers how ChatGPT fueled a school shooter who killed and harmed many people www.motherjones.com/media/2026/0...

motherjones.com

ChatGPT helped the Tumbler Ridge school shooter focus on guns, tactics, and terror, our investigation reveals

OpenAI’s chatbot fed the shooter’s violent fantasies and planning up to the massacre.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 9h

John Roberts has spent his entire career trying to kill the Voting Rights Act. Now his Republican-appointed majority is dusting off arguments once used to destroy Reconstruction to roll back the gains made during the civil rights era. Our latest cover story: tinyurl.com/3m6nawpj

Mother Jones magazine cover linking the Roberts Supreme Court to a revival of Jim Crow: a black judicial robe hangs next to a white KKK hooded robe with a hand reaching toward it; headline "The Southern Strategy" and subhead "Jim Crow was dead and buried. Then came the Roberts court."

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 10h

“Don’t worry, using taxpayer dollars to run ominous campaign ads of the President has been done before and is completely legal… in banana republics." www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 11h

Donald Trump and his minions have turned "a debate about AI technology into a debate about who’s got the phallus." www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/09/artificial-intelligence-masculinity-donald-trump/

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 11h

The senator who mistook the Atlanta Hawks for the Iowa Hawkeyes and tried to accuse Jack Smith of perjury? He could be the most dangerous man in the US Senate. What to know about Eric Schmitt:

motherjones.com

Is this the most dangerous man in the US Senate?

Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri is pushing a tribalistic ideology suggesting only descendants of white Christian pioneers are true Americans.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 12h

SCOOP: Nevada Republican David Flippo has reported spending millions on his congressional races in Nevada, while failing to file a financial disclosure for years. What is the source of the money?: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

motherjones.com

The mysterious millions powering a Nevada Republican’s bid for Congress

David Flippo, who has reported funneling nearly $2.5 million to his campaigns, has repeatedly failed to file financial disclosure forms since 2023.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 12h

Germany is building a digital Noah's Ark for US climate data www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 13h

“The clearest example of that is George Santos." David Flippo was required to file a financial disclosure in 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026. Instead, the Nevada Republican has turned in nothing while running for Congress. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 13h

motherjones.com

The mysterious millions powering a Nevada Republican’s bid for Congress

David Flippo, who has reported funneling nearly $2.5 million to his campaigns, has repeatedly failed to file financial disclosure forms since 2023.

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Tim Murphy @timothypmurphy.bsky.social · 14h

Iowa may be the quintessential state for this midterm—a place that powered Obama's hope and Trump's carnage, and where a decade of one-party rule has done little to fix, and quite a fair bit to exacerbate, a worsening series of crises www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

When I tagged along for 10 campaign stops over three days just ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday, the subjects Sand was asked about most often were toxic water, cancer, data centers, and a succession of healthcare horrors. Iowa is No. 2 for cancer-rate growth and 48th in economic growth. It has been teetering on the edge of a recession for more than a year, battered by a trade war with the world and a not-a-war with Iran. Its public schools, once memorialized on the state quarter, are sliding down national rankings, as teachers battle book bans and legislators drain the budget to pay private school tuition for kids who already attend one. Farmer bankruptcies are rising. The population in much of the state is shrinking. Iowa is dead last in OB-GYNs per capita, and one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws is keeping it that way. For these reasons and many more, 49 governors had a higher approval rating last year than Iowa’s retiring Republican, Kim Reynolds. The state was once synonymous with participatory democracy. Now its politics is stagnant and beginning to stink—an algae bloom where a reflecting pool once stood.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 14h

In her much-anticipated new novel, Min Jin Lee tackles dislocation and familial sacrifice to ask: Is elite schooling always a passport to a good life?

motherjones.com

The education of Min Jin Lee

In her latest book, the novelist tackles dislocation and familial sacrifice to ask: Is elite schooling always a passport to a good life?

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Inae Oh @inaeoh.bsky.social · 14h

Profiled @minjinlee.bsky.social for what turned out to be a soul-enriching conversation—like mining the wisdom of a great literary emo (iykyk!!)—and left with a new view into my own time as a teen cramming away at a New Jersey hagwon: www.motherjones.com/media/2026/0...

motherjones.com

The education of Min Jin Lee

In her latest book, the novelist tackles dislocation and familial sacrifice to ask: Is elite schooling always a passport to a good life?

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Sophie Hurwitz @hurwitz.bsky.social · 15h

Are you a nurse working in a hospital that’s using Palantir technology? Do you want to talk about how that affects your work for @motherjones.com ? Reach out on Signal at shurwitz.18–your anonymity will be protected

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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Yes, yes we are pushing back.

Publishers Push Back: The NYT, Chicago Tribune, and other publishers are asking a federal judge to disregard the Trump Justice Department’s defense of OpenAI in a landmark copyright case, suggesting the administration may have been influenced by “political and financial interests.” The move came after the DOJ filed a brief earlier this month backing OpenAI’s use of copyrighted news articles to train A.I. models qualifies as “fair use,” arguing that restricting A.I. development could hurt U.S. competitiveness. The publishers countered that the government’s position is separate from the copyright questions before the court. “By all measures, this Statement of Interest appears to be an effort to further enrich the world’s largest companies—and the Administration’s largest donors—while undermining this country’s free press,” a spokesperson for The NYT said in a statement.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 15h

At the FBI, Andrew Bailey was in a position to direct criminal investigations into the distribution of those medications—whether prescribed by clinicians across state lines or mailed by human rights groups to patients.

motherjones.com

A leading anti-abortion zealot just quit the FBI

Andrew Bailey has been hellbent on eradicating access to abortion pills. Conservatives have lost a key ally at a critical time.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 16h

Nearly a decade after the runaway success of "Pachinko," @minjinlee.bsky.social's latest tackles sweeping themes such as education, ambition, and familial sacrifice. But tucked inside the pages of "American Hagwon" is a central question: What constitutes a good life?

motherjones.com

The education of Min Jin Lee

In her latest book, the novelist tackles dislocation and familial sacrifice to ask: Is elite schooling always a passport to a good life?

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 16h

85 percent of those detained in MVPC have no criminal record. In 2025, two immigrants died in MVPC, including 32-year-old Chaofeng Ge, found hanging by his neck in a shower stall. Inside Trump's mass detention machine in Pennsylvania.

motherjones.com

Trump's mass detention machine in Pennsylvania

"ICE is just churning bodies into the detention system."

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 18h

“I do not think sexual assault survivors should have access to abortion, no,” Students for Life’s Kristan Hawkins told us. “The circumstances of a human’s conception do not change that human’s value.”

motherjones.com

Kristan Hawkins helped kill Roe. Now she’s fighting to control the movement she created.

How the Charlie Kirk of abortion moved from the fringes to the mainstream.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 19h

How was a Nevada Republican with a 30-year mortgage on a $565,000 home able to loan his Congressional campaign $1.6 million? We don't know, because he has repeatedly failed to submit required financial disclosures that would illuminate his personal financial position.

motherjones.com

The mysterious millions powering a Nevada Republican’s bid for Congress

David Flippo, who has reported funneling nearly $2.5 million to his campaigns, has repeatedly failed to file financial disclosure forms since 2023.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 20h

The FBI's deputy director, an anti-abortion hardliner, just left his job. But there’s nothing to suggest that his departure will deter abortion foes from continuing to press the administration to clamp down on abortion pills.

motherjones.com

A leading anti-abortion zealot just quit the FBI

Andrew Bailey has been hellbent on eradicating access to abortion pills. Conservatives have lost a key ally at a critical time.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 21h

Ireland goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu boycotted his team's match against Israel on Sunday. “My decision is based purely upon my personal belief that the killing of innocent people is wrong."

motherjones.com

Irish soccer fans call for boycotting matches with Israel

International politics and sports collide once again.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 22h

Well at least everyone agrees about one thing. "Using taxpayer dollars to run ominous campaign ads of the President has been done before and is completely legal…in banana republics."

motherjones.com

Trump’s taxpayer-funded ads are receiving bipartisan criticism

On Sunday, the president aired an ad saying he would “demolish the deep state” and “cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists.”

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 29/09/2026

Editors of the Cornell Daily Sun condemned administrators for creating an academic environment where “enough ambiguity, enough he-said-she-said, enough familial connections, enough money will allow you to get off scot-free.”

motherjones.com

Prosecutors are revisiting allegations of gang rape at Cornell

Intense public outrage and reporting from the school’s daily newspaper appear to have prompted the decision.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 29/09/2026

For the last year, the FBI’s co-No. 2 has been an anti-abortion hardliner oddly preoccupied with the earning potential of aborted fetuses. Now he's leaving.

motherjones.com

A leading anti-abortion zealot just quit the FBI

Andrew Bailey has been hellbent on eradicating access to abortion pills. Conservatives have lost a key ally at a critical time.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 29/09/2026

Students for Life’s Kristan Hawkins is just as extreme as ever. But the rest of the anti-abortion movement has moved so far to the right that she seems—almost—mainstream.

motherjones.com

Kristan Hawkins helped kill Roe. Now she’s fighting to control the movement she created.

How the Charlie Kirk of abortion moved from the fringes to the mainstream.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 29/09/2026

“First of all, the polls are fake.” On Monday, Trump predictably called Iowa Republicans’ lackluster polling numbers “fake” news and blamed the Biden admin for the high prices that farmers are experiencing. Never mind that he started a war in Iran that’s sent energy and fertilizer costs soaring.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 29/09/2026

ICE just spent $16.7 million on electric shock gloves that human rights organizations like Amnesty International warn “could be readily misused for torture.” When parents in Omaha, Nebraska, learned that school resource officers had these same devices, they decided to fight back. WATCH:

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