A stunning, two year long investigation that just dropped from the AP found that goods tied to forced prison labor in our country have morphed into a massive multibillion-dollar empire, extending far beyond the classic images of people stamping license plates or working on road crews.

Incarcerated people are forced to work for pennies on the dollar—or for nothing at all—to produce foodstuffs that wind up in everything from Ball Park Franks to Frosted Flakes to Coca Cola. The workers are often excluded from protections guaranteed to almost all other full-time workers, even when they are seriously injured or killed on the job.

Meanwhile, big food companies get cheap or free labor to rake in multimillion dollar profits. Here are the key takeaways from the AP’s investigation.

It’s unsurprising this story got little to no play in corporate media: CNN, ABC, NBC, and other news outlets don’t give a damn about the human rights abuses in U.S. prisons, especially since they happen mostly to poor people of color.

🗞️ Also making news…

Here are some stories the algorithms may have kept out of your feed this week.

On the economy…

• The U.S. economy is booming—at least for the people at the top. So why are tech companies still laying off workers? Least spoiler-y spoiler ever: it’s about protecting their bottom line.

• Apparently Biden’s economy keeps messing up Trump’s message.

• Related: socially liberal, fiscally conservative MSNBC put together a montage of Fox Hosts praising the economy under President Biden.

On the climate crisis…

• California is bracing for a dangerous storm system that is set to deliver ‘life threatening flooding’ and heavy snow today.

• And no, cold weather doesn’t mean that global warming is fake.

• Need help teaching about the climate crisis? The New York times has put together these 30 instructive graphs for use in the classroom.

On healthcare…

• The pharmaceutical company that makes Ozempic is now worth five times more than the company that makes ChatGTP.

• Providence, Rhode Island has become the first city outside New York City to open a safe injection center.

And introducing our Right-Wing Nutjob Tracker™️…