The Best of the Week’s News:

• The air you breathe on a jet plane comes directly through the engine, which is perfectly safe… until it isn’t. (LA Times)
   
• Amazon is turning warehouse work from a middle class career to a dead-end job. (Bloomberg) 
   
• “No Choice but to Do It”: A new analysis reveals how abusive men land women in prison. (New Republic) 
   
• Hillman Prize-winner Rachel Louise Snyder, an expert on the effects of domestic violence, pleads for a death row reprieve for Lisa Montgomery. (NYT)
   
• UM fires a distinguished history professor after he criticizes the carceral state and, most importantly, the university’s racist donors. (MS Free Press)
   
• How systemic racism destroys Black people’s kidneys and then pushes transplants out of reach. (ProPublica) 

The Best of the Week’s News:

• Google illegally fired and surveilled workers trying organize, the NLRB alleges. (VICE)
   
• As COVID radicalizes workers, ambulance attendants say the pandemic is pushing them to the brink. (TNR, WaPo) 
   
• How Maine lawmen run amok. (Bangor Daily News) 
   
• Unifor leader Jerry Dias triumphs, convinces GM to stay in Oshawa, Ontario. (Financial Post)

Attention journalists, editors, and awards coordinators, the Call for Entries for the 2021 Hillman Prizes in Journalism is on now!

The Hillman Prizes celebrate investigative reporting and deep storytelling that highlights social or economic injustice and contributes to meaningful public policy change. 

Prizes are awarded in the following categories:

• Book 
• Newspaper Reporting
• Magazine Reporting 
• Broadcast Journalism 
• Web Journalism 
• Opinion & Analysis Journalism 

Hillman Prize winners will be awarded a $5,000 honorarium and a certificate at an event to be held in New York City on May 4^th (or celebrated virtually, depending on the status of the coronavirus pandemic).

Deadline for applications is January 30, 2021. There is no fee to enter. 

Click here for full details, and to enter online. 

Attention, journalists, editors, and awards coordinators:

The Sidney Hillman Foundation is now accepting nominations for the 2021 Canadian Hillman Prize honouring excellence in investigative journalism!​

The Canadian Hillman Prize celebrates print, digital and broadcast reporting that highlights injustice and leads to public policy change. 

Winning entries will be judged on the following criteria: 

• Significance of journalism in service of the common good
• Resourcefulness and courage in reporting 
• Skill in relating the story and impact of the coverage

Eligibility: Entries must be published or broadcast in 2020 and have been made widely available to a Canadian audience. Nominated material and a cover letter explaining how the entry meets the requirements can be submitted here. Deadline: January, 15, 2021. There is no fee to enter.

The winner will receive a $5000 honorarium and a certificate at an event to be held in Toronto (or celebrated virtually) on March 25, 2021. The winner will also receive travel to New York City to attend the U.S. Hillman Prize Ceremony (if it will be held person).