Photo by scarletsails - Getty Images
Eric Garner/Police Brutality Protest - New York City - 2014
Protesters wearing 'Don't Shoot' and 'Unarmed Civilian' shirts march in protest against police brutality and the decision on the Eric Garner case in New York City (2014)
6. Underreported, Often Deadly Abuses of Police Authority
In 2024, U.S. police killed an average of nearly four people daily, disproportionately Black, Indigenous and Pacific Islander, according to Mapping Police Violence data
reported by Sharon Zhang in Truthout (February 2025).
Police killed 1,365 people—more than any year since 2013and nearly two-thirds were in response to 911 calls,
mostly involving non-violent or no offenses.
Black people were 2.9 times more likely than White people to be killed, American Indians and Alaska Natives 3.1 times more likely, and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders 7.6 times more likely. Only 10 days in 2024 passed without a police killing. Officers were charged in just nine cases.
The Washington Post, previously tracking police killings, stopped its reporting amid owner Jeff Bezos’s right-wing influence, while Trump ended the federal law enforcement
misconduct database established in December 2023. Mapping Police Violence, founded by Samuel Sinyangwe of Campaign Zero, remains largely ignored by corporate media,
aside from a February 2025 USA Today report and a May 2025 New York Times story noting that police killings continue rising since George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
Routine traffic stops are another overlooked danger. A Chicago Police Department investigation by Bolts and Injustice Watch (August 2024) revealed 200,000 unreported
stops, violating a 2003 state law. Journalist Pascal Sabino explained that these undocumented stops function as a new form of “stop-and-frisk,” disproportionately targeting drivers of color and undermining oversight. CPD shifted from pedestrian stop-and-frisk after the Laquan McDonald case but now conducts stops to “fish for guns and evidence,” a dangerous practice largely unreported by major media.
Project Censored notes that while some outlets cover deadly police encounters, the systemic underreporting of killings and undocumented stops obscures the true scale of
police abuse, limiting public awareness and accountability.
7. Antarctic Ice Sheets Approaching Tipping Point, Studies Find
Photo by Oleksandr Matsibura - Getty Images
Antartica
Antarctica
Rising ocean temperatures could push Antarctic ice sheets toward a tipping point, potentially triggering “runaway melting,” according to a June 2024 Nature Geoscience
article and two other studies. Scientists have long debated whether a tipping point exists—moment when melting becomes irreversible and catastrophic. Robert Hunzikera in
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CounterPunch summarized: “A new study raises the bet on sea level rise, maybe by a lot.”
The Geoscience study found that relatively warm ocean water can intrude beneath the ice sheet and reach the grounding line, where ice lifts from the seabed and begins to float. This accelerates melting, and prior ice-sheet models did not account for these effects.
Warm water under the grounding line could push the ice past a threshold, making collapse inevitable. Sea levels could rise far faster than currently predicted, displacing
millions of coastal residents over the coming decades.
Hunzikera noted that even small increases in ocean temperature can trigger massive melting, and oceans have set new temperature records for over a year. Another study
examined an 8,000-year-old ice core and found that at the end of the Ice Age, part of the ice sheet melted by 450 meters in roughly 200 years.
“Antarctic ice meltdowns can happen much faster than current sea level studies assume,” he wrote. Thwaites Glacier, known as the “Doomsday Glacier,” is nearing collapse, according to a May 2024 PNAS study. Satellite radar data show warm seawater flooding the glacier,
accelerating disintegration and posing major risks for global sea levels.
Project Censored noted that U.S. corporate media have largely ignored these findings, especially new models of grounding-line melting. Independent outlets, including Salon, CounterPunch and Common Dreams, have provided coverage. Together, these studies indicate Antarctic ice sheets are far more vulnerable than previously understood, and sea-level rise could occur much faster than projected, threatening millions of people worldwide.
8. Working Class Severely Underrepresented in State Legislatures
Photo by GummyBone - Getty Images
Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin
Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin
While working-class people make up half of the U.S. labor force, they account for only 1.6% of state legislators—116 of nearly 7,400—down from 1.8% in 2022, according to
a 2024 biennial study reported by Stateline. Political scientists Nicholas Carnes and Eric Hansen defined working-class occupations as manual labor, service industry, clerical, or union jobs. Ten states have no working-class state lawmakers at all.
Freshman Idaho state Rep. Nate Roberts, a lifelong electrician, noted, “The only person that’s going to advocate for working-class people is a working-class person.”
Minnesota state Rep. Kaela Berg, a former flight attendant, echoed the importance of lived experience in shaping policy. Low salaries, lack of access to family or partner resources, and gatekeeping by political networks deter working-class candidates. Only five states offer public financing options for state legislative races, further limiting access.
Roberts opposed labor rollbacks in Idaho, including a bill loosening child labor limits, and faced pushback for his stance. Berg in Minnesota helped pass the Minnesota Miracle, a package of labor-friendly and renter-protection laws, illustrating how working-class legislators can influence state policy even when colleagues from other backgrounds support similar reforms.
Meanwhile, wealth dominates politics: the majority of the 116th Congress were millionaires, with the 10 richest holding over $30 million each.
To address this imbalance, the Working Class Heroes Fund, a new political action committee, aims to organize working-class voters and fund candidates across party lines. It was founded by Dan Osborn, a pipefitter and union leader who ran a competitive independent U.S. Senate campaign in Nebraska in 2024.
Project Censored notes that while the corporate media have largely ignored the study, occasional opinion pieces in the New York Times and Washington Post have mentioned
the underrepresentation of the working class in state legislatures.
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