Reading archive 2024-12-17

They went to an ‘all-walking’ school. They died walking there.: The families of Sky Sosa, a 5-year-old boy, and Shalom Mbah, a 10-year-old girl, are suing over their deaths. - "Her lawsuit, filed Dec. 5, says that while Riverdale describes itself as an 'all-walking school,' Jiminez was driving a group of students that day. Neither intersection approaching the school, which 635 students attend, has traffic lights or pedestrian signals."

Bipartisan bill to avert government shutdown appears to hit snags: Competing demands over RFK Stadium and farm assistance have weighed down negotiations.

jonetta rose barras: How would eliminating the federal Department of Education affect public education in DC?

DC fails to enforce its own law, leaving wheelchair users stranded

FTC issues rules requiring hotels, ticket sellers to reveal ‘junk fees’: The industries must display the full price of a hotel room, concert ticket or sporting event upfront to customers or face potential federal punishment.

In online drone panic, conspiracy thinking has gone mainstream: Authorities are urging calm. But with trust in media and other institutions at all-time lows, fringe theories are winning the day. - "'Re those mysterious UFO drones over New Jersey: What could they possibly be? Let’s see … — long cylindrical tube — 2 big wings in front — 2 small wings in back — blinking lights matching FAA required pattern … I give up. I guess we’ll never know,' wrote Michael Shermer, a former columnist for Scientific American."

Democrats, readying to battle Trump, shake up House committees: House Democrats on Tuesday elected new leaders on three key committees, a shake-up that signals a generational shift as they prepare to take on Trump

How to deal with all the black plastic in your kitchen: Research suggests black plastic, which can be made from recycled electronic waste, could contain toxic chemicals that might leach into your food.

15-year-old girl named as shooter at Christian school in Wisconsin: One teacher and one student were killed, and the shooter died of a self-inflicted wound, police said.

America’s best decade, according to data: One simple variable, more than anything, determines when you think the nation peaked. - "The good old days when America was 'great' aren’t the 1950s. They’re whatever decade you were 11, your parents knew the correct answer to any question, and you’d never heard of war crimes tribunals, microplastics or improvised explosive devices. Or when you were 15 and athletes and musicians still played hard and hadn’t sold out.

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"YouGov didn’t just ask about the best music and the best economy. The pollsters also asked about the worst music and the worst economy. But almost without exception, if you ask an American when times were worst, the most common response will be 'right now!'"

California just made a big bet on the future of electric vehicles: The move offers a counternarrative as Donald Trump’s return to the White House is fueling uncertainty about the future of America’s shift to EVs.

Scientists just confirmed the largest bird-killing event in modern history: A marine heat wave in the Pacific Ocean that began a decade ago killed some 4 million common murres in Alaska, researchers say.