Police fired tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets at hundreds of animal rights activists in Wisconsin on Saturday as they attempted to rescue about 2,000 dogs from a facility that breeds beagles for medical experimentation. The crackdown by Dane County sheriff’s deputies left scores of activists injured; 25 people were arrested. Protesters were attempting to enter a property owned by Ridglan Farms, which agreed last fall to surrender its state breeding license and stop selling dogs to other laboratories by July 1 as part of a deal to avoid prosecution on animal mistreatment charges. A state judge found Ridglan Farms likely broke Wisconsin animal cruelty laws by housing beagles in brutal conditions, performing surgeries without […]

In cities across the country, from Los Angeles to Chicago to Minneapolis, residents have taken to the streets to oppose the militarized immigration sweeps, enforcement tactics and violence of ICE and Border Patrol under President Trump’s second term. A new ProPublica and Frontline investigation looks at law enforcement’s heavy-handed response to these protests, resulting in legally dubious charges that later unravel. “The Department of Justice was labeling the people who were in the streets as domestic terrorists, as agitators, as extremists. They were rounding them up in large numbers,” says A.C. Thompson, investigative reporter with ProPublica and correspondent for PBS’s Frontline documentary series. “So, we looked at 300 […]

As the Trump administration continues to rapidly expand its immigration jail system across the United States, we look at the rising death toll of people in ICE custody, the highest in over two decades. The causes of the deaths have varied, but they include at least one homicide. At least 17 people have died in ICE custody since January. “I have never seen anything like this, where I’m seeing ICE reporting out at least one death per week,” says Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director at Detention Watch Network. “People are reaching the point of emergency for issues that could easily be dealt with if proper medical care was given.” Ghandehari notes the rising opposition to the Department of Homeland Security’s conversion of […]

Confusion Reigns Over U.S.-Iran Talks as Trump Says a Ceasefire Extension Is “Highly Unlikely”, Military Veterans and Family Members Arrested in Capitol Hill Protest Against Iran War, Lebanese and Israeli Diplomats Prepare for Second Round of Talks as Lebanon Buries Its Dead, Israel Continues Deadly Attacks in Gaza, Reestablishes Evacuated West Bank Settlement, Amnesty International Blasts “Predatory World Order” of Netanyahu, Putin and Trump, Japan Abandons Ban on Weapons Exports in Latest Shift from Postwar Pacifism, Cuba Confirms Meeting with Senior U.S. Officials for the First Time Since 2016, ICE Reports 17 Immigrants Have Died in Custody, Justice Department Demands Wayne County, Michigan, Turn Over 2024 Ballots, FBI Director […]

The Trump administration in late March announced an extensive reorganization of the Forest Service, the federal agency responsible for managing 193 million acres of public lands across 43 states, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. As part of the changes, 57 of 77 research stations across the country will be shuttered, with the headquarters relocating from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City. While the overhaul is billed as an effort to improve efficiency, conservationist Jim Pattiz says it will effectively destroy the agency. “This is a critically important agency,” says Pattiz, co-author of the newsletter More Than Just Parks that tracks threats to public lands across the country. “The intent here is obvious. It’s to hollow out […]