Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Reading archive 2026-02-02

What I discovered about Josh Shapiro at the Pennsylvania Farm Show: The governor champions a 67-county strategy to win voters in a critical battleground state.

Millions of gallons of sewage spilled into the Potomac. Here’s what we know.: Experts say clean up efforts could reach $10 million and environmentalists worry about impact to wildlife.

Trump wants to build a 250-foot-tall arch, dwarfing the Lincoln Memorial: The president is eyeing a plot of land near Memorial Bridge. The art critic who proposed the idea called for a smaller arch or for Trump to pick a new site.

Minneapolis’ Hotel Workers Are on Edge: Staff across the city told NOTUS how their lives have changed since the start of the federal immigration operation. “It’s frightening,” one said. - "The first woman, a foreign-born naturalized U.S. citizen, resents how her undocumented coworkers spend their days cleaning the rooms of agents who are 'hunting down their family members.'

"'When I see them in the hallways, they avert their gaze,' she said of the federal agents in her hotel. 'They know what they’re doing is shameful. They’re nearly all Hispanic, but they don’t speak Spanish! They’re the children of illegals. But they forgot where they came from.'

"A third woman at yet another hotel, who’s undocumented, said she observed what she called the 'typical' racial labor dynamic: a few polite white supervisors commanding Latino men. 

"'The supervisors are respectful. The agents — they aren’t really officers. These are delinquents,' she said.

For traditional Catholics, Charlotte Communion dispute is a battle line: A Charlotte bishop issued an edict about the preferred way to perform the sacrament: standing up. The backlash was fierce and speaks to a broader fight within the U.S. Catholic community.

The real reasons Sundance’s legendary film fest is done with Park City: Next year’s move to Boulder was foreshadowed by red flags and rising costs.

Inside Musk’s bet to hook users that turned Grok into a porn generator: Under pressure to boost its popularity, Elon Musk’s xAI loosened its guardrails and relaxed controls on sexual content, setting off internal concern.

Why do dead leaves stay on trees during winter?: Scientists are investigating the reasons some plants still wear last season’s tattered clothes.