Heather Smith

Heather Smith

Signs of movement

Heather Smith (on Twitter, @strangerworks) is interested in the various ways that humans try to save the environment: past, present, and future.

Politics

Meet the BART-stopping woman behind “Black Lives Matter”

Two activists who devised the phrase "Black Lives Matter" discuss its origins -- and why they took their demonstration to the Bay Area's transit system last week.

Climate & Energy

Cheap gasoline summons the dread SUV from its jumbo grave

SUVs never had much on their cheaper, more efficient, safer compact-car competitors. But every time the price of fuel drops, the zombies return.

Climate & Energy

Long-weekend pastime: Look for oil-by-rail disasters near you

ProPublica's interactive 50-state map is the best tour guide yet for this increasingly common hazard of North America's energy boom.

Politics

This Native American activist was kicked out of the Senate for singing thanks

"Goosebumps crawled up my arms and I thought to myself, SING! Sing you fool!" says Greg Grey Cloud, the Sioux whose song made Elizabeth Warren grimace.

Politics

How oil ate the heart of North Dakota

A New York Times investigation traces how oil-money influence and federal absence left a state's environment open to pillage.

Food

How do Whole Foods’ $6 cupcakes help Detroit’s urban poor?

A reporter's deep dive into Whole Foods' Detroit launch suggests that it will take more to change the inner-city foodscape than one new store.

Food

Robots have done unspeakable things to your steak

And unless the FDA acts by year's end, labeling rules won't come to the tenderized meat market until 2018 at the earliest.

Cities

The Daily Show skewers Detroit over water shut-offs

The show's Jessica Williams cracks wise about ball washers as the city's water department continues shutting off accounts.

Politics

Would you like some spies with that right to peacefully assemble?

Forty different federal agencies are keeping themselves busy spying on the American public, according to a New York Times study.

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