Reading archive 2026-05-05

With gas prices so high, how much will you actually save with an EV?: Gas prices are expected to remain high because of the Iran war, increasing the cost advantages of switching to electric vehicles over gas-powered cars.

Multiple D.C. Police Leaders Face Termination Over Crime Data Manipulation

Indie music has been invaded by fake fans and cynical viral campaigns​. Here’s how deep it all goes

They thought their disabled daughter was safe. A pregnancy revealed her rape.: She’s blind and can barely speak, and her family is suing her group home, caregivers and state agencies. “The whole system failed Kamryn,” her mother says.

5 things mosquito experts do every summer to avoid getting bitten: Looking for pest prevention strategies that work? Researchers share how they prevent mosquito bites and keep the bugs at bay on their properties.

U.S. mission to reopen Strait of Hormuz will be temporary, Hegseth says: The defense secretary says the ceasefire holds despite Iranian attacks on U.S. forces. He said the United States would call on allies to take over the mission to reopen the waterway.

For a Time, the U.S. Protected Democracy: A requiem for the Voting Rights Act - "Like previous VRA-related decisions, Callais was 'narrow,' in that it did not strike down the law itself. But although the edifice built at great expense-by Fannie Lou Hamer, by John Lewis, by the bloodied limbs of Mississippi sharecroppers and Alabama marchers-has not been entirely bulldozed, only the facade remains. The VRA has not been dealt a "blow"; the decision did not merely defang it. The law is dead, and no matter what happens in the coming elections, politics in America has been forever changed. For most of the nation's history, the former Confederate states have worked hard to minimize the political influence of Black residents in particular. Now they have full cover to do so again."

Europe Without America: The Iran war has given European leaders new impetus to plan for self-defense. - "The Trump administration didn't bother making specific requests of its European allies for the war against Iran. Instead, each day brought new, conflicting signals. At first, the message was that the United States and Israel could handle it. Then Trump lashed out on social media, saying that allies 'should have been there.' But the Trump administration never told key European partners what specifically it wanted from them in Iran, multiple European officials told me. The Pentagon spokesperson told me that the administration 'has been consistently and repeatedly clear about the demand signal to allies to contribute to addressing a threat that affects Europe as much as America and our Middle East allies. The notion that the Department did not convey these requests widely and clearly is demonstrably false.'"

Why Stocks Keep Going Up: The boom is not as untethered from reality as it may look.

The One Tax the Rich Can’t Escape: New York’s proposed pied-à-terre tax is unlikely to chase anyone away. - "There is also a harder truth underneath the political rhetoric. Blue cities cannot keep taxing their way out of their budget problems. The differentials between high-tax and low-tax states are now too large, and the mobility of the rich too real, for that playbook to keep working. Cities like New York have to get serious about the cost side of their budgets-about efficiency, productivity, and what they spend. The revenue side alone cannot close the gap. A pied-à-terre tax is a useful tool if it is used smartly, but it is not a substitute for running the city well.

"None of this means the idea of taxing the rich is wrong. The inequality that has built up in this country has reached levels that are corrosive to the economy and to the fabric of our cities. But income taxes and wealth taxes cannot do the job at the city or state level. They have to be levied at the national level, where there is no state line to cross. Local governments should tax what cannot move, which means fixed assets and real estate above all. A pied-à-terre tax is one version of that idea, and there are others. For cities like New York, the lesson is straightforward. Stop trying to tax what the rich can carry with them, and start taxing what they want to keep."

The End of Cigarettes Is Coming The U.K. is phasing out smoking.: How long will Americans tolerate tobacco—and other vices?

The Iran War’s Ramifications Have Only Just Begun: U.S. goals haven’t been met, but the war will cause long-term disruptions.

Micah Lasher, Child Magician The race for New York’s Twelfth District keeps getting more interesting.

Making America’s Houses Bigger May Have Been a Mistake: Millennials are abandoning the idea of living in a giant home.

All the Sad Young Chinese Professionals: China’s urbanites are learning the price of prosperity.

She dreamed of a natural birth in Mexico. Now, she believes she was drugged.: In a complaint filed with Mexican prosecutors, Jennifer Nosek alleges that her midwife, Heather Baker, caused her baby’s death.

She dreamed of a natural birth in Mexico. Now, she believes she was drugged.: In a complaint filed with Mexican prosecutors, Jennifer Nosek alleges that her midwife, Heather Baker, caused her baby’s death. - "The couple also allege that after their son’s death, Baker [the midwife] urged them not to tell the police that she was a midwife or that they’d paid her but to identify her only as a friend. Lemos [the father], worried that an open investigation would delay the release of their son’s body, agreed. There was no autopsy, and the baby’s death certificate says he died of perinatal asphyxia, a condition in which a fetus or infant fails to get enough oxygen."

Reading archive 2026-05-04

The quest to save Outer Banks homes

Poisonous black rain falls in Russia as Ukraine strikes oil facilities: Residents of Tuapse, on the Black Sea, complained of an inadequate government response and coverup of what they say is a huge environmental and health disaster.

Iran fires on U.S. ships in Strait of Hormuz, in threat to ceasefire: The attacks followed the passage of U.S. warships and merchant vessels through the waterway despite Iran’s threats against attempts to “interfere” in the strait.

The fall of an African nation shows what Putin’s promises are worth: Jihadists are kicking Russia out of Mali. The U.S. should move in.

Bethesda bakery owner loses nearly $25,000 in phone spoofing scam, warns other small businesses: Susan Limb says she had no idea a phone number could be spoofed to look exactly like her bank's phone number.

A GOP lawmaker supported an immigration crackdown. Her husband paid a price.: The situation cost Idaho state Sen. Glenneda Zuiderveld and her husband most of their income and highlights an escalating split in the party.

The secret to making chores so fun that you look forward to them: Strategies such as a points system, timed challenges and even “the poop rule” can lend some excitement to mundane tasks such as decluttering or mopping the floor.

An island depends on him to run the ferry. Who will do it after Terry?: Terry Laird, following in the footsteps of his father and uncle, has spent his adult life keeping the people who live on a tiny Chesapeake Bay island connected.

About pain and other ailments: "What wound did ever heal but by degrees?" - Othello (William Shakespeare)

Reading archive 2026-05-03

Why America’s best fighter jets are being made with deadweight: China has a near monopoly on metal critical to modern warfare. - "More than 300 new F-35 fighter jets are reportedly being delivered without their next-generation radars. Instead, they are leaving the factory with ballast weights in their nose cones — deadweight placeholders for a device the United States cannot currently source at scale."

He spent 60 years building Black political power. He sees a wipeout coming.: Press Robinson was the first member of his family to vote and the first Black person to win a seat on the Baton Rouge school board. He thinks a Supreme Court ruling will erase political gains African Americans have made across the South.

Reading archive 2026-05-01

 I Turned Our Lawn Into a Meadow: And it’s been awesome.

A Catholic case against lawns: Catholic social teaching offers a framework for rethinking the use of outdoor space to nurture the shared flourishing of all creation. - "Lawn culture represents a mindset of control, consumption, and individualism. Lawns reflect not only questions about sustainability and creation care, but they also raise issues about wealth and human dignity and the use of resources that could benefit the common good. Catholic social teaching offers Catholics a framework for rethinking the use of lawn space not only to protect the environment but to nurture the shared flourishing of all creation."

Will labor unions destroy D.C. transit?: Quality is relatively high — at an unsustainable price.

Does drinking water prevent kidney stones? Here’s what experts say." Increased hydration is considered the best way to prevent kidney stones. A new study suggests it’s not that easy. May 1, 2026 at 5:00 a.m. EDT

Trump’s border wall expansion just bulldozed an ancient tribal site: Construction in the Arizona desert damaged an enormous Indigenous ground etching resembling a fish that is thought to be at least 1,000 years old. - "The Department of Homeland Security has issued waivers so that border wall construction does not have to follow laws that protect the environment or Indigenous sites, which normally require extensive study and planning to limit damages."

A long-standing Senate tradition is being quietly undermined: Senate Majority Leader John Thune has resisted Trump’s pleas to kill the filibuster, but Republicans circumvented it in trying to fund immigration enforcement agencies.

Trump’s allies float a specious theory about treaties: Another dubious attempt to justify aggrandizing power in the executive branch. - "The 'unitary executive theory' is an idea percolating in America’s political and judicial debates. Its radicalism includes insistence that the president may unilaterally withdraw the nation from treaties to which the Senate has consented."

America’s obesity problem isn’t about costs. We just love junk food.: Junk food is cheaper than healthful food, but a new study reinforces taste preferences play a bigger role than prices. - "Researchers recruited Type 2 diabetes patients who were at risk of food insecurity. Their average BMI was 36, which is classified as obese. All participants got standard-issue diabetes care information, but one group was also given a 'produce prescription,' a debit card good for $80 per month of fruits, vegetables or legumes. 

"The hypothesis was that access to free produce would improve the diets, and therefore some of the health metrics, of the group that got the prescription. 

"But it didn’t."

Reading archive 2026-04-30

Gun found during fight in Blake High School parking lot, police say: A short time later, a young man was taken to an area hospital with a gunshot wound. Police have not said if that victim is a student or not.

Trump administration seeks access to medical records of millions of federal workers

A D.C. mayoral hopeful’s close ties to unions are drawing new scrutiny: A complaint alleges Janeese Lewis George’s campaign is improperly sharing staff with unions tied to an independent expenditure committee backing her. The campaign denies it.

On chaotic day, Johnson navigates multiple internal revolts in House: Over hours on and around the chamber’s floor, the speaker and fellow Republican leaders cajoled holdouts on a surveillance bill, DHS funding and farm policy.

The invisible force making food less nutritious - "Ultimately, Myers said, the best way to protect human health is for people to stop releasing so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which not only depletes the nutritional value of crops but leads to escalating heat waves, intensifying floods and lengthening droughts that hurt food production around the globe."

Maine Gov. Janet Mills drops out of race to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins: The primary had become a referendum on the Democratic establishment.

The terrible Michael Jackson movie exposes a central cultural question: The film is indefensible. The impulse to see it is deeply human.

An Untapped Energy Goldmine Is Buried Beneath the US—and No, It’s Not Oil: Massive lithium reserves in eastern states could replace 328 years of U.S. imports, according to new research by the U.S. Geological Survey.

As Saudis pull funding, LIV Golf seeks investors to continue: The Saudis spent billions backing the upstart PGA rival and luring top stars, but the league never found its footing. - "The financial scale of LIV’S failed effort was enormous. The PIF’s total investment is projected to surpass $6 billion, according to figures from Money in Sport, with the PIF spending at a rate of roughly $100 million per month in recent years. Tournament purses and bonuses alone are expected to approach $2 billion, while many top players received nine-figure signing deals. LIV’s U.K.-based entity reported losses of $461.8 million in 2024, and the overall venture was widely viewed as losing hundreds of millions annually."

Russia scales back Victory Day plans as Ukraine’s military reach expands: Moscow is reducing the footprint of its foremost annual military parade amid a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks inside Russia.

The Real Fight for the Smithsonian: Its museums, more than any others, shape the nation’s narrative. No wonder the country argues about it.

‘We Are Learning to Bully Back’: How Europe got Trump to cave on Greenland

The Sports Conspiracy That’s Too Easy to Believe: When the 49ers lost in the playoffs, some fans embraced a theory about electromagnetic waves instead of facing reality.

The Real Reason ICE Agents Wear Masks: Face coverings may work less to protect federal agents from danger than to make it easier for them to do unconstitutional things. - "It is not 'doxxing' federal agents for the public to know who they are. We are supposed to know who they are, because that is how we hold them accountable. This is why police officers wear visible badge numbers and name tags. The responsibilities they are given are not compatible with anonymity.

...

"According to an analysis by Alex Nowrasteh at the Cato Institute based on data from last year, "law enforcement officers who don't work at ICE or Border Patrol have a death rate 6.3 times higher than that of immigration enforcement officers." In fact, the report found, immigration agents are at no greater risk than regular people: 'The chance of an ICE or Border Patrol agent being murdered in the line of duty is about one in 94,549 per year, about 5.5 times less likely than a civilian being murdered.'

...

"On Sunday, ProPublica revealed the names of the two agents involved in the Pretti shooting: Border Patrol officer Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez. Suffice it to say that two Hispanic Americans killing a white person trying to prevent them from harassing or deporting other Hispanic people, on the orders of Stephen Miller - a Jewish American whose ancestors fled pogroms in Eastern Europe - is a uniquely grotesque expression of the American melting pot in action."

Stop Meeting Students Where They Are: What I learned when I finally started assigning the hard reading again.

How America Lost Control of the Seas: Thanks to decades of misguided policy choices, the U.S. has an astonishing lack of maritime capacity.

Feudalism Is Our Future: What the next Dark Ages could look like - "In 2008, desperate for cash, Chicago privatized its parking meters, selling off the rights to all the revenue for 75 years to a group of investors led by Morgan Stanley. A 'true-up' provision in the contract requires the city to compensate investors for lost revenue when meters are taken out of service—a provision that weighs on decision making whenever the city considers projects that would eliminate meters or favor mass transit over cars. The rights to operate toll highways have been sold off by some jurisdictions to private companies, including foreign ones. The fine print in the contracts often prevents improvements to adjacent roads on the grounds that such enhancement would create undue competition. Private prisons generally put a quota clause into their agreements. States and municipalities may be hoping, as a matter of policy, to reduce their prison populations, but the beds in private prisons must be filled regardless."

Reading archive 2026-04-29

An ingenious way to sidestep the dismal Senate filibuster: Restrain the president, revive Congress, honor Madisonian principles. What’s not to like? - "Today’s Senate Republicans are mostly oblivious of — or, worse, indifferent about — how they appear. In 2024, they solemnly warned that if they did not win control of the Senate, 2025-2026, Democrats would degrade it by abolishing the filibuster. In 2025, however, Senate Republicans, in lockstep with House Republicans, crammed most of the president’s agenda into a single bill that they passed on a party-line vote using the parliamentary maneuver called “reconciliation,” which prevents a bill from being filibustered."

Colombians are divided over the fate of hippos linked to Pablo Escobar

The great Black GOP exit from Congress: Republicans squandered Trump’s gains with African Americans in 2024.

Alleged gunman at correspondents’ dinner led Christian group in college: Ex-classmates who knew Cole Tomas Allen, 31, at the California Institute of Technology say they were shocked by a message in which he appeared to use biblical teachings to justify violence.

So Nobody Is Going to Pay Taxes Now?: America actually needs a tax base. - "While tinkering with marginal rates, Democrats have threaded deductions, credits, and exemptions into the tax code, engaging in 'submerged' policy making, as Cornell's Suzanne Mettler describes it. Tax expenditures are easier for Congress to pass than spending programs, and they're easier to target at low-income households. Still, Americans don't really understand these policies. Two in three claimants of the home-mortgage-interest deduction say it doesn't do much for them. (The deduction can reduce a family's tax bill by as much as $15,000 a year.) Two in three people with a 529 college savings plan believe that they have never used a government program. The more tax breaks a person receives, the less likely they are to report that Uncle Sam has improved their quality of life, Mettler has found. Yet such initiatives cost the government hundreds of billions of dollars.

...

"Wages for hourly employees have crawled, while the paychecks of investors and executives have soared. At the same time, the wealth of investors and executives has skyrocketed, with the taxman scarcely tapping these fortunes at all. As the law professor Ray Madoff has observed, Amazon has paid Jeff Bezos a salary of roughly $82,000 a year since the late 1990s, 'low enough to make him eligible to claim the child tax credit (which he did!).' From 2014 to 2018, his net worth climbed by $99 billion, just 0.98 percent of which went to public coffers, whereas many middle-class families fork over 25 percent of their earnings. Plus, again, the cost of living has become brutally high. Even households making six figures are struggling to afford child care, rent, groceries, health insurance, summer camp, and student-loan debt."

A Mediocre Public-School Education for Just $40,000 a Pupil: How New York City’s education budget became an untouchable money pit - "As New York City becomes more expensive to live in, fewer families with children live there. The education budget nonetheless continues to go up, hurting taxpayers and diverting funds from other important services. This makes the city even more expensive to live in, and leaves young families even more squeezed, causing even fewer children to live there. The situation stems from the commendable liberal impulse to devote extensive resources to public education. But what's the point of public education without a public to educate?"

Anthropic’s Little Brother: OpenAI is racing to catch up to its greatest rival.

Why Did Trump Pardon the Former Honduran President? Follow the Tech Bros.: With Roger Stone taking a victory lap for having come up with the idea in the first place.

Untangling the Issue of Circling Roots

Physiology and root development of container-grown urban trees in response to root-shaving, root-washing, and root-slicing at planting - "Among the root modifications examined, root-shaving provided the optimal combination of improved root development while minimizing adverse effects to tree stress and crown dieback. Moreover, our results suggest that trees that are historically known to be difficult to transplant as bare-root stock are poor candidates for extreme root disturbance procedures such as root-washing when produced as container-grown trees."

What Would a Fiscal Crisis Look Like? - "Already, the U.S. is facing consequences from excessive debt. Excessive borrowing was a key driver of the recent surge in inflation and subsequent rise in interest rates, and real incomes are lower today than they otherwise would be as a result of the “crowd out” of past investment. Meanwhile, the cost of interest on the debt grew to roughly $1 trillion last year, which is more than the federal government spent on defense and about as much as it spent on Medicare. These high interest payments leave fewer resources for new spending initiatives and tax cuts. And with debt at 100% of GDP, the U.S. has less fiscal space than any time in history in case of another war, pandemic, or recession. A fiscal crisis would substantially worsen most or all of the costs of debt."

Cato Study: Immigrants Reduced Deficits by $14.5 Trillion Since 1994 - "The best way to balance the budget is to reduce spending—particularly on wealthy retirees—but rather than hinder our efforts to control deficits, immigrants are helping."

Global Trade Is Leaving the US Behind: The US’s retreat from the global economy is likely to make America less influential, less resilient, less secure, and poorer over the long term, as economic integration deepens elsewhere and other governments set new standards in trade agreements.

More Photos Emerge of Meals on Navy Ships As Pentagon Denies Shortages

This Scammer Used an AI-Generated MAGA Girl to Grift ‘Super Dumb’ Men: A med student says he’s made thousands of dollars selling photos and videos of a young conservative woman he created using generative tools. He’s not alone.

Is the tide turning for Ukraine in war with Russia?: With the EU approving a €90bn loan for Ukraine, a surprise visit from Prince Harry, and data suggesting Russian troops made almost no territorial gains in March – are there reasons for optimism in Kyiv?

Iran caused more extensive damage to U.S. military bases than publicly known: U.S. bases and equipment across the Middle East came under attack — including from an Iranian F-5, despite American air defenses — and repairs could cost billions of dollars.

They Were Michael Jackson's 'Second Family.' Now They Say He Abused Them.: The Cascio siblings are suing Mr. Jackson's estate after standing by him for years as he faced accusations of child molestation.

Farmers are bleeding money under Trump —but are doubling down on their support anyway

Reading archive 2026-04-28

Researchers say remote Lake Superior island’s wolves are thriving as packs prey on moose

Clean energy pushes fossil-fuel power into reverse for ‘first time ever’

An AI trained on 13,000 virtual worlds just projected our renewable energy future: It beat the International Energy Agency's forecasts—and it says 2°C is still on the table

Why Trump’s ballroom can’t host the White House correspondents’ dinner: The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is an independent celebration of press freedoms. - "Let us also note the irony that the current president has barred Associated Press reporters from White House events and that his Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, threatens the independence of television journalists with metronomic regularity. But now Trump wants to host at the White House a dinner supposedly celebrating the press’s freedom from government coercion."

Ukraine took Russia’s best punch. It wants to teach Europe what it learned.: The country’s fighters gave the continent's defense chiefs a blunt message: You forgot how to fight. We can help.

A Trump-branded nuclear power project thrilled investors. Then came the crash.: Corporate drama and a stock plummet at Fermi America are raising questions about the sustainability of the wider artificial intelligence boom.

UAE to leave OPEC amid Hormuz oil crisis, a blow to Saudi Arabia: The departure weakens the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, long criticized by Trump, as the global economy reels from the Iran war energy shock.

MAHA’s Perfect Villain: Glyphosate highlights the movement’s horseshoe politics and has nothing to do with vaccines.

The Age of American Caesarism: The legal right spent decades empowering the presidency. Now it must reckon with the system it helped create. [ed. note: a conservative attempts and fails to reckon honestly about how the conservative legal movement endangers the republic]

The Pentagon May Not Be Telling Trump the Full Picture About the War: Vice President Vance is worried that the U.S. is running low on weapons. - "Pentagon leaders' positive portrayals present an incomplete picture at best, people familiar with intelligence assessments told us. According to those internal estimates, Iran retains two-thirds of its air force, the bulk of its missile-launching capability, and most of its small, fast boats, which can lay mines and harass traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. At least in terms of resuming stalled maritime commerce, 'those are the real threat,' one person told us."