SWING STATE Trip Update: PA's Poisoned Water, Michigan STRIKE Fever, and More!
Lobbyists "overturn our politicians to change the fu*king laws so they can do whatever they fu*king want," Dimock PA's Ray Kemble tells us on Dimock's poisoned water. Now Jordan's headed to Michigan.
[Straight up: this INDEPENDENT ON-THE-GROUND reporting is extremely important—but even more expensive. For a 3-state reporting trip over 10 days, it is going to cost us between $4,000 to $5,000 between paying freelancers, gas, food, hotels, and equipment needs. Do you see any other corporate OR independent outlets doing this kind of work? SUPPORT THIS reporting as a paying Status Coup member and/or donate to help fund this trip]
Hey folks, it’s Jordan.
Writing to you from Western Pennsylvania as I line up more interviews and stories for our SWING STATE reporting trip. If you don’t know, we’re currently in the early stages of a 10-day reporting trip across critical swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Instead of doing the political horse race coverage that corporate media provides 24/7—obsessing over polls and which candidate is up or down—we’re revealing the stories THAT MATTER ON-THE-GROUND in these states…the kind of stories that corporate media can’t be bothered to cover. Over the last three days, independent journalist Jason Peters has reported across Pennsylvania on several important stories…
For example, did you know that Dimock, Pennsylvania has had poisoned water for 14 years? Yup, Cabot Oil and Gas’ fracking operation contaminated the small town’s water back in 2009…and TO THIS DAY, they still have contaminated water. Jason spoke with longtime Dimock resident Ray Kemble and Silver Lake Township resident Craig Stevens, both of whom have been fighting the fossil fuel company—and state government—for a decade and a half to provide Dimock with clean water (and to hold Cabot Oil and Gas accountable).
“We had a meeting with the [Pennsylvania] Speaker of the House and I kind of lost it in that meeting…and I kind of went off on him about lobbying. Lobbying should be illegal, it shouldn’t even be in this building…he responded ‘you’re right, the lobbyists outnumber us three to one. So you have this many lobbyists in that building spending hundreds of millions of dollars to overturn our politicians to change the fu*king laws so they can do whatever they fu*king want and we have no rights whatsoever," Kemble told Peters.
WATCH CLIP BELOW (full livestream here)
Over the next week we’ll be posting other interviews Jason did including:
A major Pennsylvania college censoring its own newspaper
Local residents in Philadelphia’s Chinatown community facing displacement in order to build a new sports arena
Controversial update on the infamous Three Mile Nuclear Plant—home to one of the worst nuclear accidents in U.S. history—reopening to become a Microsoft data center.
Today, Jon and I are headed to Michigan—about to embark on a 5-hour drive—to focus on important stories ON-THE-GROUND in this critical swing state. Tonight, I’ll be interviewing a Stellantis auto worker—one of the big three automakers at the center of the UAW’s historic 2023 strike—about the company breaking its contract promises to UAW workers and its plan to lay off 2,500 workers.
While in Michigan, we also aim to cover and update:
Ongoing Eaton Aerospace strike
Detroit issues: gentrification, transportation issues, why Black male voters seem to be shifting toward Trump, etc
Whatever else we stumble upon along the way!
Currently, our plan is to head to Wisconsin after Michigan. If you have a story in Michigan or Wisconsin that you think is important for us to cover, please email us at info@statuscoup.com!
As always, most people are not lacking compassion in this country…most people have no fu*king idea what the hell is going on all around them. Let’s wake up the masses.
Jordan
Great idea!