CAHOKIA HEIGHTS, Illinois — For most people, a glass of water and a rainy day are harmless, even comforting. For Earlie Fuse, they are a haunting reminder. When the forecast calls for storms in southern Illinois, he knows to brace for the possibility that his block will turn into a lake again, cutting him off […]
Adam Mahoney
Adam Mahoney is the climate and environment reporter at Capital B. He can be reached by email at adam.mahoney@capitalbnews.org, on Bluesky, and on X at @AdamLMahoney.
Posted inClimate Change, Criminal Justice, Economic Development, Environmental Justice, Policing, Politics & Policy
Atlanta’s ‘Cop City’ Makes a Black Neighborhood a Testing Lab for AI Policing
This story was published in partnership with Counterstream Media for The AI issue of Peace & Riot. ATLANTA — When he drives through his neighborhood now, Brian Page passes rows of police cars and AI‑powered cameras that track nearly every movement. For most of his life, Page, who goes by “Scapegoat Jones,” felt safest in […]
Posted inGun Violence, Mental Health
Shreveport Mass Shooting of 8 Children Exposes Toll of Domestic Violence
Just over a day after a mass shooting left eight children dead in Shreveport, Louisiana, community members are struggling to process the tragedy. On Sunday morning, Shamar Elkins, a 31-year-old father and military veteran, shot and killed the children and wounded two women, including his wife, in a domestic violence rampage that stretched across multiple […]
Posted inCulture, History, Incarceration
In New Orleans, Black Cowboy Tradition Collides With Prison Rodeo Spectacle
NEW ORLEANS — Outside, along Claiborne Avenue in the Algiers section of New Orleans, Sunday looked familiar. Black children slurped snowballs in the street, adults danced around them, and Black riders eased their horses through the crowds, past corner stores and shotgun houses, hooves clapping against the asphalt. For Black riders like Robert Pollar, who […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Politics & Policy
Residents Say Musk’s AI Supercomputer Is a ‘Death Sentence’ for Memphis Communities
The fight over who gets poisoned so Silicon Valley can train smarter chatbots has landed in federal court. The NAACP is suing Elon Musk’s xAI for allegedly skirting permits and running gas turbines that are spewing formaldehyde and smog‑forming pollution into Black communities already scoring failing grades for air quality. To keep its “Colossus” data […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Black Americans Warn Trump’s Threat to Iran Risks Dangerous Escalation
President Donald Trump may have announced a temporary ceasefire just 90 minutes before his deadline that the U.S. would annihilate Iran if it didn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Still, hours earlier, Black political and community leaders criticized the president’s handling of the war in recent weeks. Some had called his most recent comments about […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Politics & Policy, Unsafe Water
In Roseland, Black Residents Were Told They Were Safe as Toxic Chemicals Spread
ROSELAND, La. — First came the oily sludge that spotted homes, waterways, and gardens. Then the stomach aches, headaches, nosebleeds, brain fog, and dead chickens and fish that pastor Marvin Vernon began tallying in his notebook. Vernon joined other residents this past Saturday morning to protest what they describe as official neglect and a “cover […]
Posted inAir Pollution, Environmental Justice, Politics & Policy
An Oil Explosion in a Black Texas Town Traces Back to Trump’s Iran and Venezuela Crises
John Beard takes no pleasure in being right. In January, he told Capital B that he feared U.S. military action in Venezuela, which ultimately gave America preferential access to the South American nation’s vast oil reserves, would lead to disaster in southeast Texas. “The chickens have come home to roost,” Beard said over the phone, […]
Posted inHistory, Politics & Policy
U.S. Votes No as UN Calls Slave Trade ‘Gravest Crime’ and Backs Reparations
The United States joined Israel and Argentina on Thursday in voting against a Ghana-led resolution that declared the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans the “gravest crime against humanity” and urged countries to pursue reparations. The nonbinding measure, backed by more than 120 nations, calls for formal apologies, compensation, and other forms of reparatory justice for […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Politics & Policy, Unsafe Water
This Black Town Has E. Coli in Its Drinking Water, but Feds Just Cut Support
At 76, Patricia Greenwood has given up on trying to name whatever now grows in the yard. It isn’t grass, she said. That died many floods ago and never returned. The water in her kitchen has never run clear in her memory. Even the dog refuses to drink it. She is one of many Cahokia […]