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Experts offer guidebook on elections during Covid-19

Cleaning supplies for elections

Among the task force's recommendations: Make sure cleaning supplies are available at polling locations.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The relatively new National Task Force on Election Crises has issued its concise but thorough guidance to states on how to plan for elections during the coronavirus outbreak.

The laundry list of recommendations includes steps to promote more mail-in voting, while also preparing for in-person voting by making sure cleaning supplies are available, and recruiting additional poll workers to replace those that may cancel because of health concerns.


The cross-partisan task force of more than 40 experts on election law, administration, security, and voting rights was created last year in anticipation of challenges, which at the time did not include a major national health crisis.


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Presidential powers: Corporate abuses big concern after SCOTUS move

An oil production operation is shown in North Dakota. With the U.S. Supreme Court granting more presidential powers to the executive branch, environmental groups warned key agencies will have a harder time going after polluters.

(Adobe Stock)

Presidential powers: Corporate abuses big concern after SCOTUS move

A U.S. Supreme Court opinion issued last month expands presidential power over independent federal agencies, prompting warnings from environmental advocates about potential implications for states such as North Dakota.

The court’s conservative majority said President Donald Trump had the authority to fire a former Federal Trade Commission member without cause. Legal observers countered the opinion nullifies longstanding precedent involving the role of Congress in insulating certain federal agency officials from direct presidential control.

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Energy Costs Decide Power — Voters Demand Relief
selective focus photography of light bulb
Photo by ameenfahmy on Unsplash

Energy Costs Decide Power — Voters Demand Relief

Politics, for all its stagecraft and saccharine homilies, is not about "service" or "community" or any of the other treacly euphemisms politicians recite like Gregorian chants. Politics, as Christopher Hitchens might have acidly reminded us, is about power.

The taking of it.

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Composer uses music to connect Latino heritage and environmental justice

Cover Photo: Chris Oquist in Black and White.

Chris Oquist

Composer uses music to connect Latino heritage and environmental justice

CHICAGO — Climate change is often measured through scientific reports and statistics. For Chicago-based composer Chris Oquist, it is something audiences can hear.

On Saturday, Oquist performed “Derivas Liminares” as part of the Chicago Art Department’s fourth annual Contra Corriente Festival. The performance benefited the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO), a nonprofit that advocates for environmental protections in Pilsen, one of Chicago’s largest Latino neighborhoods. Oquist’s performance was one of several events held during the festival, which centers on environmental and racial justice.

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