The Environmental Protection Agency will not ban the widely used pesticide chlorpyrifos—even though the agency's own research shows that it can cause brain damage in children. The substance is sold under the commercial name Lorsban and is banned for household use. But it's still used by farmers on more than 50 fruit, nuts, cereal and vegetable crops. The announcement came Thursday. The Obama administration said it would ban the use of the toxic chemical in 2015, but the rule never took effect. It was suspended in 2017 by then-EPA head Scott Pruitt. We go to Seattle to speak with Patti Goldman, a managing attorney at Earthjustice who represented health and labor advocates in a lawsuit against the EPA's original decision in 2017.

A historic indigenous resistance is unfolding on the Big Island of Hawaii, where thousands have descended on Mauna Kea, a sacred Native site, to defend it from the construction of a $1.4 billion telescope. Scientists say the Thirty Meter Telescope will help them peer into the deepest corners of space, but indigenous resisters say the construction was approved without their consent and will desecrate their sacred lands. Last week, police arrested 33 people—most of them Hawaiian elders—as they blocked a road to prevent work crews from reaching the site of the telescope being planned atop Mauna Kea. And on Sunday, demonstrators reported that more than 2,000 people had gathered at the access road to stop construction. We speak with Pua Case, an indigenous organizer and activist defending Hawaii's Mauna Kea.

In Iran, authorities say they've arrested 17 Iranian citizens and charged them with being CIA-trained spies for the United States. Iranian media reports that some have already been executed. This comes as tensions in the Persian Gulf continued to mount over the weekend following Iran's seizure of a British oil tanker and its 23 crew members Friday in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran said it seized the tanker in retaliation for the British impounding of an Iranian tanker earlier this month off the coast of Gibraltar. The Iranian National Guard released video Sunday showing the vessel flying an Iranian flag. Britain says Iran forced the Stena Impero out of international waters and rerouted the tanker into Iranian territory. We speak with Narges Bajoghli, professor of Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University and author of the forthcoming book, "Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic."

Iran Says It Has Captured and Killed Spies as Oil Tanker Standoff Intensifies, Trump Revs Up Racist Attacks on Squad as AOC Hits Back: "We're Not Going Anywhere", Heat Wave Grips U.S. as July on Track for Hottest Month Ever Recorded, Fire Breaks Out at Brooklyn Jail as Prisoners Face Dangerous Heat Without Relief, Puerto Ricans Continue Mass Protests as Gov. Rosselló Says He Will Not Seek Re-election, Boris Johnson Expected to Become New U.K. Prime Minister, Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Protesters Face Police Tear Gas and Violent Mob, Israel Begins Razing Palestinian Homes in West Bank, Mueller to Testify Before House Committees Wednesday, 3 White Supremacists Sentenced to Jail for Violence in Charlottesville, VA, and California, LAPD Sent Informant to Spy on Anti-Trump Group, Bernie Sanders Introduces "Right to a Secure Retirement" Plan, Activists Protest Trump Admin Plan to Jail Migrant Children at Fort Sill

Trump Sells Out the Afghan People to the Perfidious Pakistan Army's Puppet PM; How Trump's Manipulation of the Media Overwhelms Damaging Stories; One Third of Puerto Ricans Protest Their Corrupt Governor

To Impeach, or Not to Impeach?; The Strategy Behind Iran's Seizure of the British Tanker; The Deafening Silence from Trump and Assange Supporters Following Revelations of Assange's Ties to Russian Intelligence

July 18, 2019 - Justin Levitt | Roger Morris by Ian Masters

July 17 - Jonathan Weiler | Eric Levitz | Garrett Epps by Ian Masters

FEATURING PAUL SEAMUS RYAN – Newly unsealed court documents made public last week showed that President Trump was closely involved in the 2016 hush-money payments made to Stormy Daniels, the woman he allegedly had an affair with. Daniels, an adult film actress,  whose birth name is Stephanie Clifford had apparently threatened to go public with...

FEATURING DR. HAMZA AL-KATEAB, WAAD AL-KATEAB, EDWARD WATTS – The war in Syria has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and continues to today with near daily headlines of dozens killed in attacks. Now a new documentary paints a horrifying and moving portrait of what it is like to live through the Syrian war. Told...

House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler and other Democrats have been speaking out ahead of Wednesday’s public hearing featuring testimony from Special Counsel Robert Mueller. In an interview on Fox News with host Chris Wallace, Mr. Nadler accused the President of being guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” If Democrats do pursue impeachment after the Mueller...

FEATURING NEGIN OWLIAEI – The House of Representatives on Thursday voted to raise the federal minimum wage from its current $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour, marking a significant victory for progressives and labor rights. Only three House Republicans joined Democrats in voting for it. If the bill became law, it would mark the...

On today's BradCast, we open up the phone lines to listeners on a number of things, most notably to hear what listeners expect from this week's upcoming, long-awaited U.S. House testimony by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller regarding his 448-page report on Russia's involvement in the 2016 Presidential election and the ten or more instances [...]

DOJ declines to prosecute NYPD officer who choked Eric Garner to death * * * Perry Dorrell blogs as PDiddie at Brains and Eggs, usually on topics concerning the strange brew of Texas politics. He's also on Twitter @PDiddie.

On today's BradCast, some potentially good news for Philadelphia voters (and, thus, voters across the entire country), after a citizen led effort has resulted in the state of Pennsylvania re-examining its certification of a shockingly vulnerable --- and wholly unverifiable --- new touchscreen voting system selected by the city earlier this year (under questionable circumstances) [...]

It's my birthday today. I'm working anyway. No matter how much older I feel this year than last. Not happy about it any of it, of course. But, as Desi always tells me....(See headline.) On the other hand, ya'll have been very generous in previous years come birthday time. So I hope you don't mind if [...]