Reading archive 2021-05-28

What’s Happening In Arizona Is Not Really An Audit Or A Recount. It’s A Partisan Inquisition.  - "Arizona is drafting a dangerous blueprint. Because the normal requirements of an audit or a recount aren’t being followed, the results can’t be trusted. Repeating this kind of action in other states opens the door to a new era where our most important democratic process is undermined because there are two results in an election: the actual results, and the results of the partisan inquisition conducted by the losers."

Trump fires back after Paul Ryan criticizes former president’s hold on GOP

Five days, 100 vaccine doses and a wildfire of conspiracy theories

Opinion: Urban stream renewal is not helping the Chesapeake Bay

Home Depot? Assisted living? A hotel? Many options for one of D.C.’s last vacant parcels

Reading archive 2021-05-27

Mother and partner of fallen Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick request meetings with all GOP senators, urging them to back Jan. 6 commission

Yes, we’ll probably need coronavirus booster shots. But which one?

The best, most emotional and weirdest moments of the ‘Friends’ reunion, which has just one shocking revelation

After decades of waiting, D.C.’s Ivy City to get community center at Crummell School

The dog acknowledged they were a couple. The military did not.

D.C. police arrest suspect in shooting of mother, 5-year-old son

Bowser’s budget, flush with federal dollars, boosts spending on housing, mental health, violence prevention

Police searching for man who shot driver in apparent road-rage incident in Northeast Washington

Reading archive 2021-05-26

Opinion: The barrier of fear is breaking in Belarus

How the Public Helped Historians Better Understand What Happened at Tulsa: A century after the massacre of a prosperous Black community, Smithsonian volunteers transcribed nearly 500 pages of vital records in less than 24 hours

Son, ghostwriter of late senator say Trump intervened to stop probe of Patriots' Spygate scandal

Support natural habitats! Somerville passes first-of-its-kind native plants ordinance

Birds are going blind in the Washington region, and wildlife experts don’t know why

Doomsday believers Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell charged in murder of her two children

The new American status symbol: A backyard that’s basically a fancy living room

Influencers say they were offered money to discredit the Pfizer vaccine. In France, some suspect Russia is behind it.

Reading archive 2021-05-25

Timeline: How the Wuhan lab-leak theory suddenly became credible - "'When I first saw the furin cleavage site in the viral sequence, with its arginine codons, I said to my wife it was the smoking gun for the origin of the virus. These features make a powerful challenge to the idea of a natural origin for SARS2.'"

Justice Dept. releases part of internal memo on not charging Trump in Russia probe

Reading archive 2021-05-24

What if the Unorthodox Arizona Audit Declares Trump Won? That outcome is looking more and more likely.

Key impeachment witness Gordon Sondland sues Mike Pompeo and U.S. for $1.8 million in legal fees

Europe moves to isolate Belarus after Minsk forces airliner to land and detains dissident

ARTIFACTS FROM THE TULSA RACE MASSACRE: Objects and documents offer a profound opportunity for reckoning with a past that still lingers

Commerce Department security unit evolved into counterintelligence-like operation, Washington Post examination found

Reading archive 2021-05-22

Trump is sliding toward online irrelevance. His new blog isn’t helping.: The former president’s aides said his new online presence would ‘redefine the game.’ But his heavily promoted blog is seeing few visitors.

Opinion: Greed is destroying forests and the environment in Northern Virginia

America’s rich people could have saved local journalism — and perhaps democracy. They refused. - "'Chicago’s wealthy class failed the city by refusing to rescue the Chicago Tribune from a hedge fund,' wrote Mark Jacob, a former Tribune editor. 'A newspaper is both a watchdog and a binding agent. The weaker the media, the more inequitable a city is allowed to be. Rich Chicagoans sent a signal that they do not care.'

...

"'We’re slowly replacing a functional press with PR spam, hedge fund dudebros, trolling substack opinion columnists, foreign and domestic disinformation, brand-slathered teen influencers, and hugely consolidated dumpster fires like Sinclair Broadcasting,' tweeted the tech journalist Karl Bode, as news of the vote circulated online."

Sen. Ted Cruz insulted a ‘woke, emasculated’ U.S. Army ad. Angry veterans fired back. - "'Ted Cruz is obviously sharing this video that I’ve seen bouncing around some of the most violent and anti-American Telegram accounts that I monitor,' he said. 'It just struck me as odd.'

Reading archive 2021-05-20

Chris Cuomo took part in strategy calls advising his brother, the New York governor, on how to respond to sexual harassment allegations

A Texas family hunted for a teen vandal. Instead, they killed an innocent neighbor, police said.

Opinion: D.C. should end the felon-in-possession initiative

FBI probing possible illegal donations to Susan Collins PAC and congressional campaign, search warrant indicates - "In the summer of 2019, the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research awarded Navatek an $8 million contract to develop safer ship hulls. Collins advocated for that funding."

How Paul Mooney made SNL a cultural phenomenon with one legendary Richard Pryor-Chevy Chase sketch

Opinion: Why Republican opposition to a Jan. 6 commission could be a blessing in disguise - "This will play well on Fox 'News' but, like much of what the right says these days, it simply isn’t so. The bill to establish a January 6 commission was negotiated in good faith between Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and the ranking Republican member, Rep. John Katko (N.Y.).

...

"In 2014, the Republican House majority voted to create a select committee to investigate the Benghazi attack — a terrorist assault that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. Republicans treated this as a scandal akin to Iran-contra or Watergate — largely, as McCarthy later boasted, because they wanted to hurt the presidential prospects of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."

Body-cam video shows Louisiana troopers stunned, hit and dragged Black man before his death

65-year-old woman fatally shot in Southeast Washington

Russell Moore’s departure from the Southern Baptist Convention’s leadership prompts questions over its future

Reading archive 2021-05-19

I watched the GOP’s Arizona election audit. It was worse than you think.: Cyber Ninjas is hunting for bamboo fibers and cheese dust. - "What I saw in Arizona shook me. If the process wraps up and Cyber Ninjas puts together some kind of report, that report will almost certainly claim that there were issues with Maricopa County’s ballots. After all, Cyber Ninjas chief executive Doug Logan has publicly voiced his wild conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. But the real problem is the so-called audit itself."

Cryptocurrencies crash in brutal sell-off, with bitcoin down nearly 10 percent: The digital currencies have fallen sharply in recent days, and it’s unclear when it will end. - "'But at the end of the day, it drops like this for the same reason it previously skyrocketed the way it did — it is primarily held by rank speculators who lack a thesis for ownership rooted in fundamentals or reality or some definition of value. Speculation cuts both ways and reflects weak hands when things turn south.'"

House Democrats’ 2020 election autopsy: Bad polling hurt and GOP attacks worked

One of the last survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre — 107 years old — wants justice: Viola Fletcher, who lived through the Tulsa Race Massacre a century ago, testified before Congress Wednesday on the push for reparations

Reading archive 2021-05-18

Ike and the Alien Ambassadors

WHERE ARE THEY?: WHY I HOPE THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE FINDS NOTHING - "Consider the implications of discovering that life had evolved independently on Mars (or some other planet in our solar system).  That discovery would suggest that the emergence of life is not a very improbable event.  If it happened independently twice here in our own back yard, it must surely have happened millions times across the galaxy.  This would mean that the Great Filter is less likely to occur in the early life of planets and is therefore more likely still to come."

Let's say for whatever reason you're the first human to ever make alien contact [a graphic]

Apple’s Compromises in China: 5 Takeaways

In Gaza, grief, destruction and ‘all the anger of the universe’

How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously: For decades, flying saucers were a punch line. Then the U.S. government got over the taboo. - "Such a prospect, as Hynek wrote in the mid-nineteen-eighties, “overheats the human mental circuits and blows the fuses in a protective mechanism for the mind.” Its destabilizing influence was clear. I would begin interviews with sources who seemed lucid and prudent and who insisted, like Kean, that they were interested only in vetted data, and that they used the term 'U.F.O.' in the strictly literal sense—whether the objects were spaceships or drones or clouds, we just didn’t know. An hour later, they would reveal to me that the aliens had been living in secret bases under the ocean for millions of years, had genetically altered primates to become our ancestors, and had taught accounting to the Sumerians."

Reading archive 2021-05-17

Experimental drug shows potential against Alzheimer's disease: Removing 'garbage' from brain cells improves memory in mice

Company: Ex-Trump lawyer raiding nonprofit for personal use

Caitlyn Jenner voted in 2020 despite telling CNN that she didn't

Opinion: Elected Republicans like me must stop the Big Lie about the 2020 election: True Republicans would never dream of hiring an unknown cybersecurity firm with no experience auditing elections to chase insane rumors of fraud.

Republican Arizona election official says Trump “unhinged”

Off the Rails Episode 9: Trump's war with his generals

Supreme Court to review Mississippi abortion law that advocates see as a path to diminish Roe v. Wade

Black, Brown and extremist: Across the far-right spectrum, people of color play a more visible role

Chamber of Commerce draws fire after a risky bet on Democrats - "And Republican animus toward the business lobby has filtered down to congressional staff. At a recent meeting of Senate Republican committee staff directors, one suggested freezing out Chamber experts from testifying at hearings, two people familiar with the session said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to disclose private conversations. 'Once you taint yourself on a political issue taking a position in support of Democrats, we’re not going to call your staff and listen to them as nonpartisan experts,' one Senate Republican staff member said. 'There are a lot of people in the country to listen to.'"

Reading archive 2021-05-14

What Is Going On With Inflation? Vacations and Chips.

As protesters flee Hong Kong, Taiwan quietly extends a helping hand - "Taiwanese authorities brought the five ashore, housed them in a government complex and provided clothing, cigarettes, television, table tennis games — even English teachers. Eventually, the Taiwanese, who treated the presence of the five as a state secret, helped arrange flights to the United States, their new home."

Seth Rogen Says Tom Cruise Tried To Sell Him On Scientology: ‘Dodged That Bullet’: “If you let me just tell you what it was really about, you would say, ‘No f**king way,’” the comedian said Cruise told him.

Arab Israelis are rising up to protest. Here’s what you need to know about their status in the country. - "Because support for the Palestinian cause is widespread within the Arab Israeli community, Arab Israelis often report encountering hostility and suspicion from police, politicians and others who view them as a security threat. A 2016 Pew Research Center poll found that nearly half of Israeli Jews supported expelling Arabs from the country or transferring them elsewhere."

Cicadas are increasing in D.C. area and are poised to erupt next week

Army captain who spied for Russia sentenced to 15 years in prison - "He also tried and failed to get jobs at the FBI and on President Donald Trump’s National Security Council. Debbins was a graduate of and teacher at the D.C.-based Institute of World Politics, a small but influential school in conservative foreign policy circles. Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and military contractor Erik Prince both have ties to the school."

Opinion: A cop’s anger at GOP lies about Jan. 6 should put Republicans on the defensive

Opinion: Without swift action, the Chesapeake Bay will decline even further into national disgrace - "The Patuxent’s case demonstrates that the struggle for clean water is both intensely local and necessarily regional. Nature is agnostic to county and state boundaries. The Chesapeake Bay system, science instructs, must be managed as a single ecological system, even as it encompasses such a vast political geography. Only the federal government can serve this vital role."

Reading archive 2021-05-13

Opinion: America is having a Black Renaissance. We should learn from it.

Opinion: So much for the Abraham Accords. Trump made things worse in the Middle East. - "Right-wing Israeli settlers have been trying to evict six more Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem by arguing that the houses belong to Jewish owners who were dispossessed during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence. Netanyahu has tried to portray this as an ordinary land dispute that the Israeli Supreme Court will adjudicate; a decision was due Monday before the violence spiraled out of control. 

"But Palestinians rightly point out that the Israeli legal system is biased against them. The law allows Israelis to claim possession of houses they lost in 1948 but does not extend similar rights to Palestinians. Palestinians see the looming evictions as part of an Israeli plan to take such firm possession of East Jerusalem that it can never be the capital of a future Palestinian state. Again, Trump made the problem worse by seeming to recognize Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem when he moved the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv."

CDC says fully vaccinated Americans no longer need masks indoors or outdoors in most cases: The relaxation of restrictions incentivizes people to get the shots and helps pave the way for a full reopening of society.

Opinion: The GOP has lost its way. Fellow Americans, join our new alliance.

Gaetz associate signals he will plead guilty in federal case, a worrisome development for the congressman

Rep. Greene aggressively confronts Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, causing New York congresswoman to raise security concerns

Israeli forces escalate campaign in Gaza with tanks, artillery, planes; Hamas launches rockets

Opinion: In Virginia, Biden and Democrats face a major test

Bowser pledges $10 million for road safety after recent traffic deaths: More speed and red-light cameras are among the changes planned to address a spike in traffic fatalities

Reading archive 2021-05-12

The ‘Can men and women just be friends?’ trope dominates pop culture. ‘Together Together’ flips it on its head.

After spreading false claims, Michigan Republican wants to register, fine fact-checkers: ‘You better be right’

Students for Trump co-founder sentenced to prison for posing as lawyer

Ransomware gang says D.C. police won’t pay $4 million demand, begins leaking files: Hackers leak alleged police data and screenshots of their failed negotiations.

Officials opened 12 slots to kill bison at Grand Canyon National Park. 45,000 people applied.

A ‘beautiful’ female biker was actually a 50-year-old man using FaceApp. After he confessed, his followers liked him even more.: The middle-aged father’s big reveal sparked a debate over identity in the Internet age: ‘The only thing I’m creating is … my appearance. Everything else is me.’

Inside Liz Cheney’s plan to take on former president Donald Trump

House Republicans oust Cheney for calling out Trump’s false election claims, minimize Jan. 6 attack on Capitol

Liz Cheney’s Liberal Critics Are Missing the Point - "Cheney’s decision to challenge the party on democracy is remarkable for several reasons. First, she is putting the issue squarely. Rather than softening her line or couching her stance in the logic of messaging (i.e., Trump’s rhetoric will hurt Republicans with swing voters), she is straightforwardly instructing her fellow Republicans that their current path is a menace to the Constitution and the rule of law. Second, she has absolutely nothing to gain and a great deal to lose. 

"And third, the fact she is such a dogmatic right-winger on economic, social, and foreign policy gives her support for democracy more, not less, weight. The very point of her dissent is that support for democracy ought to be separated from policy outcomes. Republicans should not succumb to the temptation of siding with a would-be authoritarian merely because he promises to advance their policy goals. 'He’ll undermine the Constitution, but give us low capital gains taxes and friendly judges' is not a morally defensible trade-off. Democracy is the one question not subject to horse-trading."

In Iraq, powerful militias assassinate protesters with impunity

Ransomware attacks could reach ‘pandemic’ proportions. What to know after the pipeline hack.: Ransomware attacks in 2020 were estimated to have cost billions of dollars - "'The underlying enabling factors for this cybercrime explosion are rooted in the digital dumpster fire of our seemingly pathological need to connect everything to the Internet combined with how hard it is to actually secure what we have connected,' Krebs said in his testimony."

Reading archive 2021-05-11

Opinion: Sheikh Jarrah highlights the violent brazenness of Israel’s colonialist project

Girl, 15, pleads guilty to murder in fatal carjacking of Uber Eats driver in D.C.

Hamas and Israel exchange rocket fire following contentious ‘Jerusalem Day’ clashes - "Tensions have been rising amid a court effort by a Jewish settler group to evict six Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, a mostly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem."

After Jerusalem erupts, deadly strikes and clashes spread across Israel and the Palestinian territories

Trump endorses GOP’s Youngkin for Virginia governor as campaign mudslinging gets underway

Grievance, rebellion and burnt bridges: Tracing Josh Hawley’s path to the insurrection: From his teenage writings to his incendiary support for false 2020 election claims, the Missouri senator is staking out a place in today’s far-right Republican Party - "On one, he has pursued elite privilege, even relative to other senators, commuting to a private high school, attending Stanford University and Yale Law School, clerking at the Supreme Court, and working for a powerful Washington law firm, all while courting liberal professors and establishment Republicans who enabled his ascent. 

"On the other, he has expressed sympathy with some of the country’s most far-right, anti-government extremists, demonstrating a willingness to see the world through their grievance-infused prism even after horrific attacks — from Oklahoma City in 1995, when he was 15, to the Capitol attack in 2021.

...

"'I feel very responsible for Josh Hawley being in the Senate. I feel terrible about it,' said former senator John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), who recently called his encouragement of Hawley’s Senate run the 'greatest mistake of my life.' He added, 'Josh Hawley played a central role in creating if not the darkest day in American history, one of the darkest days in American history.'

...

"Hawley, an evangelical, had seen how Trump captured the presidency in 2016, in part by winning the White evangelical vote by 80 to 16 percent. 

"So, when Hawley spoke before a group of ministers in Kansas City in December 2017, he sounded like a different person than the one who had written five years earlier that there were 'distinct missions of church and state — is it really the role of government, for instance, to promote ‘Christian values’ or refurbish America’s Christian heritage?' The state, he had written, should not be used 'to convert non-believers.'

"But in his 2017 speech, he advocated going into 'the public realm and to seek the obedience of the nations, of our nation … to transform our society to reflect the gospel truth and lordship of Jesus Christ.'"

Opinion: Ted Cruz just sent a very important message to Joe Manchin

Opinion: Think Republicans in Washington are bad? They’re far worse at the state level.

Opinion: Jeff Flake: In today’s Republican Party, there is no greater offense than honesty

QAnon resembles the games I design. But for believers, there is no winning.: The trail of ‘clues’ plays the people who follow it

Liz Cheney strikes defiant tone in floor speech on eve of her expected ousting from House GOP leadership

Trump family members got ‘inappropriately close’ to Secret Service agents, book claims: Concerns over bonds involving Trump’s then daughter in-law Vanessa and daughter Tiffany revealed in Carol Leonnig’s Zero Fail

Reading archive 2021-05-10

Child care has bipartisan support. But the culture war could wreck that.

The Jean War between millennials and Gen Z cannot be won

An off-duty officer ‘terrorized’ a family displaying a BLM flag. Police drove him home without arrest.

German priests defy Pope Francis with blessings of same-sex unions

The making of a myth: Russell J. Ramsland Jr. sold everything from Tex-Mex food to light-therapy technology. Then he sold the story that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. - "The campaign foundered amid revelations she had previously appeared on Infowars, the right-wing website operated by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and on another occasion had said she believed data showed that military-grade explosives were planted inside the twin towers on 9/11. That comment prompted the Austin American-Statesman to retract its endorsement of her. (Pressley told The Post she had 'no opinion' on whether planes brought down the World Trade Center.) 

"The race was not close: Her opponent, a community organizer, defeated her by a margin of almost 30 points. 

"Pressley could not believe it. 

"'I knew in my heart that I had won,' she recently told a gathering of law enforcement officers outside Houston, one of hundreds of speeches she has given about the case, 'and I became convinced there was fraud.'"

Reading archive 2021-05-09

The Media Needs to Stop Pretending that Elon Musk is a Wise Sage rather than a Grifter

Why Is LaKeith Stanfield Flirting With Anti-Semitism on Clubhouse?

The Disturbing Rise of Anti-Semitism Among Black Celebs

Reading archive 2021-05-08

Liz Cheney’s months-long effort to turn Republicans from Trump threatens her reelection and ambitions. She says it’s only beginning.

Ransomware attack leads to shutdown of major U.S. pipeline system: The attack on top U.S. operator Colonial Pipeline appears to have been carried out by an Eastern European-based criminal gang

Reading archive 2021-05-07

Liz Cheney Has Only Herself to Blame: The representative from Wyoming is taking a stand against an authoritarian streak in the Republican Party that she helped cultivate. - "The Times reported that Republican leadership, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, hoped that “after surviving [a] February vote of no confidence, Ms. Cheney, as an elected leader, would make like the rest of the party and simply move on.” This is a ridiculous claim; the Republican Party has not moved on at all. The falsehood that the 2020 election was rigged against Trump has become the justification for voter-suppression laws in Republican-controlled states across the country. A majority of Republicans voted against certifying the election even after the Capitol riot; fully 60 percent of Republicans believe that the election was stolen.

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"Even a lifelong conservative Republican like Cheney becomes The Enemy if she is willing to uphold essential democratic rights—such as the opposition’s right to govern if it wins the most electoral votes—above the whims of King Trump. Cheney’s brave stand looks likely to cost her the leadership position she holds, and has left her isolated within the caucus, one of the few Republicans who have chosen their vow to the Constitution over their loyalty to the party. Yet the party’s rejection of the rule of law is also an extension of a political logic that Cheney herself has cultivated for years. 

"During the Obama administration, Cheney was a Fox News regular who, as was the fashion at the time, insisted that the president was secretly sympathetic to jihadists. She enthusiastically defended the use of torture, dismissed the constitutional right to due process as an inconvenience, and amplified the Obama-era campaign to portray American Muslims as a national-security threat."

Accused Capitol rioter had ‘Foxitis,’ his attorney says: He ‘started believing what was being fed to him’

China says out-of-control space rocket booster probably won’t cause any harm

An Australian mom was convicted of killing her 4 babies. Scientists say she’s innocent.

‘She didn’t deserve to die the way she did,’ says family of cult leader found dead and mummified

Opinion: This is why MAGA nativists are in a panic

Inside the housing showdown in D.C.’s Ivy City, where kids have no place to play

Only a few hundred California condors live in the wild, but about 20 teamed up to trash one woman’s deck

Pennsylvania man admits he voted for Trump with his dead mom’s name: ‘I listened to too much propaganda’

Reading archive 2021-05-06

Why Scotland’s Road to Independence Vote Is Rocky

Four months into Brexit, the UK and France have resorted to gunboat diplomacy over fish

They voted for Brexit. Now many U.K. fishermen feel betrayed.: Fishermen complain of broken government promises, while exporters say they are choking on red tape.

Caitlyn Jenner, speaking from her plane hangar, says friends are fleeing California because of homeless people - "As some critics pointed out on social media, however, Jenner herself appears to have competed in women’s golf events. In 2016, she competed in a major women’s golf tournament alongside likes of soccer star Abby Wambach.

...

"During her interview with Hannity, Jenner also blasted plans to build a high-speed rail in California — she can travel faster by plane, she noted — and said she supported forest management measures because she had managed to keep fire away from her Malibu mansion all on her own."

Opinion: Liz Cheney: The GOP is at a turning point. History is watching us. - "I am a conservative Republican, and the most conservative of conservative values is reverence for the rule of law. Each of us swears an oath before God to uphold our Constitution. The electoral college has spoken. More than 60 state and federal courts, including multiple Trump-appointed judges, have rejected the former president’s arguments, and refused to overturn election results. That is the rule of law; that is our constitutional system for resolving claims of election fraud."

A grandmother heard that a friend’s son was a Capitol rioter. Soon, the FBI heard as well.

National Guard soldier is fourth service member charged in Capitol riot

Despite GOP rhetoric, there have been fewer than two dozen charged cases of voter fraud since the election: One person has faced charges for every 10 million votes cast - "On Election Day last year, a man named Ralph Thurman allegedly walked into Sugartown Elementary School in Malvern, Pa., to cast his vote. He allegedly asked whether he needed to produce identification and was told he didn’t. He then allegedly asked if he could vote for his son and was told he couldn’t. He left. 

"Forty-five minutes later, Thurman (again, allegedly) returned, wearing sunglasses. He claimed to be his son and asked for a ballot. Somehow, the people at the polling place saw through his scheme. Thurman faces felony fraud charges."

Chris Ruddy and Newsmax went all-in on Trump. Now they might pay a price for it. - "Long before the Trump era, Ruddy was best known as the young New York Post reporter probing the 1993 suicide of Clinton White House aide Vince Foster — and exploring the wilder, false claims that he had been murdered. His work made its mark: Brett M. Kavanaugh, then working for Kenneth Starr's investigation into the Lewinsky affair, circulated Ruddy's articles to lawyers who joined the team."

Chinese greenhouse gas emissions now larger than those of developed countries combined: China now accounts for 27 percent of global emissions, while the U.S. accounts for 11 percent

An Ohio freshman died after drinking a bottle of liquor in a frat hazing. Now 8 men face charges.

Opinion: Elise Stefanik is a perfect leader of today’s GOP. Her own statements show why. - "It’s often said that GOP voters believe the election was stolen from them. But there’s a reason for this: Their elites relentlessly told them so. They had a 'firehose of falsehoods blasted into their brains for months on end,' as Sean Illing memorably notes.

"Worse, those elites have cited those same public beliefs to justify taking action to invalidate legitimate results. And since then, they’ve kept telling their voters that they’re right to suspect something was amiss about the outcome, to justify voter suppression across the country."

Judge blasts Barr, Justice Dept. for ‘disingenuous’ handling of secret Trump obstruction memo

Why young people are using preventive Botox, and what they need to know

A narrow path for Biden’s ambitious land conservation plan: New “America the Beautiful” report offers few specifics on how to protect 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030

What’s with these invasive “crazy” worms and why can’t we get rid of them?: They reproduce without mating and are rapidly chewing through soil across the US. But there’s still a lot we don’t know about “jumping” worms.

Reading archive 2021-05-05

Four years after a man’s execution, lawyers say DNA from the murder weapon points to someone else

‘Disgusting and horrific’ stabbing at San Francisco bus stop seriously injures two Asian women

Police ID man accused of stabbing 2 older Asian women waiting at SF bus stop

Video shows stranger attacking Asian woman with hammer in NYC: The woman was hit in the head by someone who demanded that she remove her mask, police said. A woman with the victim was not injured.

Retinoids remain the gold standard for fighting acne and wrinkles. Here’s what you should know.

‘Uncertainty is not our friend’: Scientists are still struggling to understand the sea level risks posed by Antarctica: Two scientific studies find the Paris climate goals could significantly reduce sea level rise by 2100 -- but also show scientists still grappling with how climate change will alter the world’s largest ice sheet.

Facebook’s Oversight Board upholds ban on Trump. At least for now.: The panel faulted the social network for making a hasty decision without clear criteria and told the company to reevaluate the decision within six months.

Japan should cut its losses and tell the IOC to take its Olympic pillage somewhere else - "The answer is that the IOC derives its power strictly from the Olympic 'host contract.' It’s a highly illuminating document that reveals much about the highhanded organization and how it leaves host nations with crippling debts. Seven pages are devoted to 'medical services' the host must provide — free of charge — to anyone with an Olympic credential, including rooms at local hospitals expressly reserved for them and only them. Tokyo organizers have estimated they will need to divert about 10,000 medical workers to service the IOC’s demands.

...

"The predicament in Tokyo is symptomatic of a deeper, longer-lasting illness in the Olympics. The Games have become a to-the-very-brink exercise in pain and exhaustion for everyone involved, and fewer countries are willing to accept these terms. Greed and blowout costs have rendered it an event that courts extreme disaster. In September, a report out of Oxford University’s business school found that the IOC has consistently “misled” countries about the risks and costs of hosting. Example: The IOC pretends that a contingency of about 9.1 percent is adequate to cover unforeseen expenses.

"The true average cost overrun on a Summer Games? It’s 213 percent.

...

"This is why virtually the only government leaders that will have anything to do with the IOC anymore are thugocrats such as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, who can coerce labor and spend limitlessly for prestige. Over the past 20 years, other potential hosts have dried up. Among those who have wisely said no to the IOC: Barcelona, Boston, Budapest, Davos, Hamburg, Krakow, Munich, Oslo, Rome, Stockholm and Toronto."

Opinion: Five former IRS commissioners: Biden’s proposal would create a fairer tax system

Strongmen who got cozy with Trump get the cold shoulder from Biden

Observers report ballots and laptop computers have been left unattended in Arizona recount, according to secretary of state

Reading archive 2021-05-04

New survey offers a glimmer of hope for declining native bee populations

How three major news organizations all got a story about Rudy Giuliani wrong

Facebook and Trump are at a turning point in their long, tortured relationship: Facebook’s Oversight Board is expected to announce a decision Wednesday on whether to reinstate the former president’s account

A woman was killed in an apparent bear attack while walking her dogs, officials say

He yelled at ‘yuppies’ in a park. Then he drove his truck into a crowd of picnickers, police said.

Reading archive 2021-05-03

One name stands out as a new moniker for the Washington Football Team

Amid rising homicides, District launches effort to target hot spots for violence

Reading archive 2021-05-02

Girl, 7, shot while playing in D.C. had just made a new friend before gunfire erupted

A pioneering study: Plant roots act like a drill: Plant roots screw themselves into the ground - just like a drill penetrating a wall