The progressive candidate won a Democratic congressional primary after boldly staking positions on voting rights, datacenters and the US war machine

• Justin Pearson and Brent Taylor win primaries for key Tennessee House seat

Justin Pearson made national headlines as one of the “Tennessee Three” – the state lawmakers expelled from the capitol protesting for gun control after a deadly school shooting. Three years later, the state representative won a Democratic congressional primary after boldly staking positions on some of America’s most contentious fault lines: voting rights, datacenters and the American war machine.

“Republicans are responding to elected officials who stand up to billion-dollar datacenters, and the billionaires who own them. Democrats are responding to a vision of Medicare for All, ending genocide,” said Pearson. “The confluence that is happening between those issues, is [that] who profits off of war are the same people who are profiting off of polluting our communities and stealing our drinking water for their datacenters that replace our jobs.”

Mutual aid groups that started giving out PPEs during Covid are now loaning air purifiers and distributing masks to fume-addled communities

Miquette Thompson’s home in rural Mendocino county has been covered in smoke all week. There are the nearby Feliz and Woodside fires in northern California, which have burned more than 1,000 acres, as well as the wildfires devastating Oregon and Washington that are sending smoke their way, too.

“It’s become not unusual,” she said of walking outside and seeing a hazy sky.

Community organizers demand systemic changes after police killed Corey Ruiz, a 38-year-old Black man, in Madison

After bystander footage of police killing Corey Ruiz – a 38-year-old Black man in Madison, Wisconsin – spread online, many questioned why the officers were not wearing body cameras, a standard practice for more than 80% of police nationwide.

Police said Ruiz was wielding a knife and injured an officer; multiple bystander videos showed he was shot while already detained and on the ground. Ruiz’s family called for mandatory body cameras in the city, along with charges for the four officers involved. People across the political spectrum echoed the demand for cameras, including Madison’s police chief.