Reading archive 2024-08-27

After virtual academy closes, student heads to classroom for the first time: Montgomery County Public Schools closed a virtual academy. Now, some of its students are bracing to go back to school in person.

This state calls itself the ‘most pro-life.’ But moms there keep dying.: Giving birth in Arkansas, especially its rural southeast, comes with more risk and less care. The challenges feel acute for someone like doula Hajime White. - "Arkansas already has one of the nation’s worst maternal mortality rates, and mothers in this area die at a rate exceeding the state average. Ninety-two percent of recent maternal deaths were preventable, a state review committee found.

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"Though teen birth rates are falling nationally, federal data shows the statistic for Arkansas is almost twice the U.S. average. Lack of access to contraception is a major factor; the rate at which teens in Arkansas have unprotected sex is 75 percent higher, according to a report from the nonprofit Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families."

Opinion How Rep. Mike Gallagher, a rising GOP star, was driven out of politics

More than 200 former Bush, McCain and Romney staffers endorse Harris: An open letter warned that a second Donald Trump presidency “will hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions.”

D.C. police starting new unit dedicated to street traffic safety: Traffic enforcement has dropped precipitously since the pandemic while traffic fatalities have gone up.

First day of school in D.C. brings new book bags and buildings: D.C. Public Schools reopened several schools after multimillion-dollar renovations.

Chinese government hackers penetrate U.S. internet providers to spy: Beijing’s hacking effort has “dramatically stepped up from where it used to be,” says former top U.S cybersecurity official.

Lawsuit to keep single-family zoning in Alexandria likely heading to trial: A judge ruled that a group of Alexandria homeowners can move ahead in suing the Northern Virginia city over its “Zoning for Housing” plan.

Scientists have more evidence to explain why billions of crabs vanished around Alaska - "Fishermen and scientists were alarmed when billions of crabs vanished from the Bering Sea near Alaska in 2022. It wasn’t overfishing, scientists explained — it was likely the shockingly warm water that sent the crabs’ metabolism into overdrive and starved them to death."

Cows obstruct Nigeria’s capital as climate change and development leave herders with nowhere to go

Why Democrats are so quiet about climate change right now: Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats have not made significant mentions of climate change or the environment in recent stump speeches.

Good and Bad Critiques of the Trump Civil Fraud Verdict - "But some of the defenses offered on behalf of Trump simply don’t hold water, chief among them the claim that Trump’s conduct was somehow victimless and that the counterparties, primarily banks and insurance companies, came out fine."

Thoughts on Judge Engoron's Opinion, A Response to Calabresi: A different take. - "They were able to repay the loans, true, but they wouldn't have gotten the loans without the lies.  And they reaped massive profits from lying, Judge Engoron concludes, as they were able to make deals they wouldn't have been able to make, and at rates they wouldn't have been able to get, had they been truthful."

YIMBYs' Premature Victory Dance at the DNC: Kamala Harris' promise to end the housing shortage and adopt rent control shows that YIMBY ideas are just one of several competing housing policy agendas within the Democratic Party. - "She has endorsed President Joe Biden's call for federal rent control, a disastrous policy with a long track record of reducing rental housing supply and quality. She's called for $25,000 down payment subsidies for first-time homebuyers, something that could increase supply somewhat but will also certainly increase home prices."

Plastics Are Better for the Climate Than Aluminum and Glass, Actually: Producing plastics from fossil fuels emits a lot of carbon dioxide, but a new study finds the life cycle emissions are actually lower than glass and aluminum. - "The good news is that some companies and researchers are developing nearly endlessly recyclable plastics. Currently, UBQ Materials turns unsorted household wastes including single-use plastics into thermoplastics that can be subsequently recycled as many as five times—a process that cuts greenhouse gas emissions by more than 90 percent. In addition, researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed an 'infinitely recyclable' bio-based plastic called polydiketoenamine that cuts greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 98 percent compared to conventional plastics."

The thread connecting Robert Kennedy Jr., chemtrails and Project 2025: Robert Kennedy Jr.’s exotic beliefs are no barrier to his having authority in a Trump administration. Nor will the Project 2025 authors’. - "'We are going to stop this crime,' Kennedy pledged to user 'Concerned Citizen.' The crime? 'Chemtrails,' the conspiracy theory that the lines planes trace in the sky are not water vapor (which they are) but at least occasionally dangerous chemicals being released for some nebulously explained population-control effort."