Former Justice Department attorney Thomas Tamm, who was one of the early sources for the December 2005 New York Times story on warrantless government surveillance and who is under threat of prosecution for having revealed classified information without authorization, yesterday received the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling.
The Ridenhour Prizes, named for the late Ron Ridenhour who exposed the 1968 My Lai massacre, are intended to “foster the spirit of courage and truth,” particularly when doing so involves defiance of official authority at some personal cost.
Other Ridenhour Prizes, presented at a ceremony yesterday, were given to New Yorker writer Jane Mayer, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, and reporter Nick Turse.
We won’t solve the cost-of-living crisis without improving the capacity of state public utility commissions to protect customers, find and implement new solutions to meet rising demand, and realign broken utility incentives.
Public service commissions should require utilities to quantify avoided healthcare costs, reduction in pollution exposure, and improvements in population health alongside traditional metrics.
California just took an important step toward making electric trucks more affordable and easier for businesses to buy.
In 2023 alone, more than 2,300 people died in the United States directly from extreme heat. Expanding access to residential air conditioning could reduce heat-attributable deaths and adult emergency department.