Reading archive 2021-10-18

Demolition has started at McMillan, but the legal saga continues

The Battle for McMillan: Why is the plan to redevelop the site of a decommissioned water treatment plant in Washington, DC so controversial?

McMillan, D.C.’s Most Cursed Development Project, Explained

D.C. approved a development at McMillan in 2014. Will it ever be built?

Northern Virginia Koran tutor convicted of receiving child pornography

Opinion: Joe Manchin’s ugly new demands expose the absurdity of arbitrary centrism - "Niskanen policy director Samuel Hammond calls Manchin’s position 'performative austerity,' and points to a deep perversity. The work requirement is supposed to avoid fostering dependency. As it is, such a requirement is misguided: People need the CTC not because they are unwilling to work, but because children impose additional costs.

"But beyond this, Hammond notes, means testing the program might create more dependency by creating incentives not to strive for a higher income, making it more like the sort of welfare program Manchin fears. 

"'If Manchin is worried about dependency, he should see the value in having the CTC be relatively universal,' Hammond told me. 'Narrowly targeting the credit to the lowest income families risks creating a stigmatizing poverty trap.'"

The WHO has a bold new plan to find covid-19’s origins. China could get in the way.

Opinion: Urban myths about economics have taken root — and the cost is high

The days of U.S. tech companies fighting back against authoritarian regimes are long gone

The Kyrie Conundrum: Kyrie Irving’s stance on the vaccine is a complicated and not very fun thing to talk about, because it’s a story in which two individually messy subjects intersect in compoundingly messy ways

Opinion: Kyrie Irving’s self-pitying refusal to get vaccinated is pathetic and dangerous

In search for coronavirus origins, Hubei caves and wildlife farms draw new scrutiny - "A reporter observed human traffic into Enshi caves, including domestic tourism, spelunking and villagers replacing a drinking water pump inside a cave. Defunct wildlife farms sat as close as one mile from the entrances."

At Alaska’s most popular national park, climate change threatens the only road in and out

‘More immediate, more visceral’ and a lot tougher on Eric Clapton: A plan for reviving Rolling Stone

Netflix fires employee for sharing information about Dave Chappelle’s special amid LGBTQ backlash

D.C. should consider excluding gun offenders from the Youth Act leniency, police chief says - "Five years ago, a Post investigation found hundreds sentenced under the Youth Act went on to commit rapes, robberies and homicides." [ed. note: JFC the My'onna Hinton story is insane]

Eric Clapton Isn't Just Spouting Vaccine Nonsense—He's Bankrolling: It Eric Clapton went from setting the standard for rock guitar to making ‘full-tilt’ racist rants to becoming an outspoken vaccine skeptic. Did he change? Or was he always like this?