Culture & Ethics
If Dodgers Don’t Quit Big Oil, the Olympics May Make Them
The Olympic Committee’s ban on most advertising could finally force the Dodgers to drop the 76 sponsorship from Dodger Stadium, which is now an LA 2028 venue.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have all but ignored the growing calls from fans, activists, columnists, researchers, and a state lawmaker asking the team to cut ties with Big Oil and remove the two huge, orange 76 gas ads that dominate the club’s picturesque scoreboards. But the team’s streak may be coming to an end: They …
Continue reading “If Dodgers Don’t Quit Big Oil, the Olympics May Make Them”
CONTINUE READING100 Days of Fear & Loathing in Climate World
The Drain is a weekly roundup of climate and environmental news from Legal Planet.
Are you tired of the words “100 days”? “In his first 100 days the Trump administration has slashed federal agencies, canceled national reports, and yanked funding from universities,” Grist puts it. “One hundred days of anti-environmental mayhem,” says Dan Farber at Legal Planet. My UCLA colleague Ann Carlson is quoted by the New York Times …
Continue reading “100 Days of Fear & Loathing in Climate World”
CONTINUE READINGDay After Earth Day, the Climate Pope, and the 89%
The Drain is a new weekly roundup of climate and environmental news from Legal Planet.
Environmental journalists everywhere are breathing easier this morning. They made it through Earth Day — one of two insufferable seasons of cliche, inane PR pitches clogging their inboxes. (The other? The 2-week UN Climate Conference each fall.) Environmental advocates are breathing a little easier too, because the White House blinked first in the war of …
Continue reading “Day After Earth Day, the Climate Pope, and the 89%”
CONTINUE READINGChevron’s Losing Play to Avoid Big Damages
Chevron sponsored Super Bowl LIX events and science classes for New Orleans children just weeks before a Louisiana jury ordered it to pay $745 million in damages.
In February and March, Chevron generated headlines for its charity at the Super Bowl in Louisiana. This month, the oil company made very different headlines for being ordered to pay $745 million for damage to the Louisiana coast after a jury verdict. One of these stories shows the company as a town hero in a …
Continue reading “Chevron’s Losing Play to Avoid Big Damages”
CONTINUE READINGWhat if DOGE Came for the NFL?
This is what it looks likes like when DOGE takes on a new task.
We know what DOGE is doing to the government. But why stop there? What if they got loose on another part of U.S. society, professional sports? Here’s a picture of what that could look like. June 2026 June 30. New Trump Order: DOGE to Fix Football (NY Times) Trump on Truth Social: “Too long have …
Continue reading “What if DOGE Came for the NFL?”
CONTINUE READINGGet Caught Trying
Donald Trump is committing extortion against law firms: Indict him. Now.
Bill Clinton knows a thing or two about how politics works. He famously said that the American people might not always expect you to succeed, but that they will demand that you get caught trying. And when it comes to Donald Trump’s illegal war against law firms, it’s time to get caught trying. Colloquially, it’s …
Continue reading “Get Caught Trying”
CONTINUE READINGAnd The Grift Goes On – This Time on Public Lands
Trump’s alleged plan for affordable housing on federal property is one more brick in a wall of corruption.
Today in the Department of FFS. The Wall Street Journal breathlessly reports, Trump Wants to Build Homes on Federal Land. Here’s What That Would Look Like. And then, not content with a series of graphics about where this housing could be, it also put out a big op-ed from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and HUD …
Continue reading “And The Grift Goes On – This Time on Public Lands”
CONTINUE READINGWhy Stand Up for Science? Ask Kim Stanley Robinson
The acclaimed science fiction author says at a UCLA talk that Trump’s attack on science is “a murder suicide” that won’t work because “you cannot kill the future.”
One day before thousands of Americans took to the streets to protest cuts to scientific research, Kim Stanley Robinson gave a barn burner of a defense of science in the “Optimist Room” of a UCLA conference center. The author of “The Ministry for the Future,” “The Mars Trilogy,” and other books with scientists and climate …
Continue reading “Why Stand Up for Science? Ask Kim Stanley Robinson”
CONTINUE READINGU.S. Resistance to Trump is Alive and Well
Thousands of people rallied at more than 100 Stand Up for Science events from Missouri to France. Where will the movement go from here?
Several thousands of people took to the streets this past weekend in more than 100 cities to protest the Trump administration’s wide-ranging attacks on vital scientific research, including its attempts to slash funding to the National Institutes of Health and hence local universities and research labs across the country. The result was small but potent …
Continue reading “U.S. Resistance to Trump is Alive and Well”
CONTINUE READINGA Disinformation Deluge on California Policies
Trump and House Republicans are trying to ‘flood the zone’ when it comes to wrongly blaming California environmental regulations for the LA fires.
Trump’s longtime strategy of ‘flooding the zone” — aka overwhelming opponents with a flurry of announcements and superficial initiatives — took a literal turn last week, when his administration ordered the release of a significant amount of water from two dams in the Central Valley to try to score political points. As the New York …
Continue reading “A Disinformation Deluge on California Policies”
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
