In one sweeping move, President Donald Trump on Thursday erased the scientific and legal foundation of America’s clean air protections and modern climate policies. For the first time in a generation, the U.S. government no longer officially recognizes carbon pollution as a danger to public health. Black people are exposed to more pollution, on average, […]
Health
Partial Government Shutdown Looms as Battle Over DHS Funding Persists
Large swaths of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are poised to shut down on Saturday, as Democrats and the White House remain locked in a standoff over the Trump administration’s immigration measures. Some 13% of the federal civilian workforce would be affected by a shutdown, according to the Washington Post. Operations would be disrupted […]
Medicaid Tries New Approach With Sickle Cell
Originally published by KFF Health News. Serenity Cole enjoyed Christmas last month relaxing with her family near her St. Louis home, making crafts and visiting friends. It was a contrast to how Cole, 18, spent part of the 2024 holiday season. She was in the hospital — a frequent occurrence with sickle cell disease, a […]
This Texas County Is the Deadliest Place in the U.S. for Black Mothers to Give Birth
This article was produced as a project for the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s National Fellowship Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism and the Fund for Reporting on Child Well-being. HOUSTON — By the third trimester of an already difficult pregnancy, Moriah Ballard faced two new complications: relentless headaches and dizziness. Over the […]
‘Ticking Time Bomb’: A Pregnant Mother Died After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas.
This story was originally published by ProPublica. Tierra Walker had reached her limit. In the weeks since she’d learned she was pregnant, the 37-year-old dental assistant had been wracked by unexplained seizures and mostly confined to a hospital cot. With soaring blood pressure and diabetes, she knew she was at high risk of developing preeclampsia, […]
How Rosa Parks’ Legacy Inspired a New Fight Over Who Could Ride the Bus
Originally published by The 19th Decades after her act of defiance, Rosa Parks galvanized a cadre of activists to protest their own conditions and, though the scope of her legacy for them is still coming into focus, it remains just as powerful. They were fighting for disability access, and, like Parks, they used public transportation […]
Black Women in South LA Lead the Fight to End Urban Oil Drilling
LOS ANGELES — When the winds shifted last January and smoke from wildfires settled into South LA, the city’s low-lying neighborhoods, residents there didn’t need another study to tell them the air was unsafe. They could feel it. For Iretha Warmsley, the soot raining down was another reminder of what decades of fossil fuel extraction […]
Deaths of R&B and Hip-Hop Artists Reveal the Alarming State of Black Men’s Health
This story was originally published on Dec. 27, 2023. Neo-soul trailblazer D’Angelo, whose music defined a generation, died Tuesday after a “prolonged and courageous battle with cancer,” according to his family. He was 51. DJ Premier mourned the singer on X, writing, “Such a sad loss to the passing of D’Angelo. We have so many […]
Kyren Lacy’s Death at 24 Sheds Light on Black Male Suicide Crisis
Kyren Lacy was a 6-foot-2 Southeastern Conference football player with a broad, if often absent, smile, a love for Buffalo Wild Wings and lemonade. Some sports analysts even predicted that the Louisiana State University senior might go to a National Football League team as early as the second round of the draft this year. Instead, […]
Parents Fear Losing Disability Protections as Trump Slashes Civil Rights Office
Devon Price, a 15-year-old boy with autism, has attended the largest school district in North Carolina for 10 years, but he cannot read or write. His twin sister, Danielle, who is also autistic, was bullied by classmates and became suicidal. Under federal law, public schools must provide children with disabilities a “free appropriate public education,” […]

