Reading archive 2026-05-28

How Metro's cameras helped solve 3 recent gun crimes: In March, Metro General Manager Randy Clarke credited Metro’s safety in part to the cameras throughout the system.

Prosecutors say ex-CIA official stole $40 million in gold bars from agency: The former senior employee, who allegedly kept the gold in his Virginia home, is also accused of lying about his military and educational background.

How to stay happy in a relationship, according to long-married couples: It’s okay to go to bed angry, and other surprising marriage advice.

A couple died on Hajj pilgrimage. A law and foundation carry on their legacy.: The Don’t You Worry (Wurie) Act regulates travel service providers in Maryland.

Trump’s approval plunges among his White working-class base: In a striking shift, White voters without college degrees who voted to reelect Trump by a huge margin are now net-negative on his job approval. - "Dombrowski, the janitor, barely follows politics. She grew up poor with factory worker parents who taught her that Republicans were for rich people — not families like theirs who struggled and saved money by making their own clothes. 

"But she put her faith in Trump when he ran for president in 2016, opting for an outsider over Clinton and her decades in politics. 

"Now she trusts no one, believing politicians 'want your money and give you fake promises.' 

"The musical instrument company where she works, Conn Selmer, is shifting jobs overseas — even though the owner, Trump donor John Paulson, has echoed the president’s calls to keep manufacturing in the United States."

Texas School Police Pepper-Sprayed, Tackled and Tasered Students: School officers across the state turned to heavy-handed tactics on children, often in response to minor misbehavior, our investigation shows.

‘We Have Not Seen Ugly Yet’: Paxton versus Talarico is already awful.

John Cornyn Lost With His Boots Off: Like fellow Republicans exiled by the president, he still accepted Trump’s claim to inhabit the will of the party. - "Cornyn, like so many of his fellow soon-to-be-ex-politicians, staked his survival on the hopeless tactic of trying to beat Trump's team in a contest over who loves Trump more. Overcoming Trump's hold on the rank and file is not easy, but the method his victims have chosen-essentially to beg for Trump's mercy, and then not receive it-saps them of their dignity without meaningfully increasing their odds of political survival."

America Is Missing Out on the Ultimate Mosquito Weapon: Bring on the lasers.

Trump, the Wages of MAGA Sin, and the Dream of Flipping Texas Blue: Ken Paxton is the embodiment of MAGA rage and corruption. Can James Talarico win by transcending Paxton’s Trumpy acrimony?

Reading archive 2025-12-16

Is your lamp the right size? There’s an equation for that. You don’t need to be a math whiz to choose a lamp. You just need to consider function and know a bit about proportion.

She was MAGA’s favorite conspiracist. Then she dug into Charlie Kirk’s killing.: Candace Owens rose to prominence as a pro-Trump conspiracy theorist. Her latest claims have infuriated some of her former allies. - "Pool, for his part, said Owens’s defection on Israel and claims about Kirk are a “nihilistic” grab for attention from a person with a history of shifting her opinions to propel her career. Owens is adopting the conventions of true-crime storytelling, Pool said — foreshadowing, cliff-hangers and questions that never get answered — to tap into an appetite for conspiracy thinking on the right and the left."

Some Republican lawmakers call for mass expulsion of American Muslims: Comments from Rep. Randy Fine and Sen. Tommy Tuberville reflect a brazen Islamophobic sentiment being voiced by some in the party. - "Mitchell [ed. note: CAIR spokesman] expressed frustration with both parties for not doing more to formally sanction members for Islamophobic rhetoric. He said a double standard exists, pointing to a House censure on a bipartisan basis of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan), a Muslim Palestinian American, for comments following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel." [ed. note: lol maybe ask Jill Stein for help???]

Hunt for Brown University gunman starts anew as tension rises: Authorities released a person of interest and provided video and still images of a different man they want to locate.

How Much Water Do AI Data Centers Really Use?: The AI industry’s use of water and its effects on an increasingly parched world are more complicated than people think.

Can Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals Affect Gender Identity?: Some scientists see it as a question worth exploring. But others say it’s dubious — and fodder for right-wing prejudice. - "To be sure, the number of 18- to 24-year-olds who self-identify as transgender in the United States nearly quintupled between 2014 and 2022, increasing from 0.59 percent to 2.78 percent, according to a national survey run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The largest increase was among White transgender men. But while Kennedy and Jones see a chemical culprit, and still others suggest social influences may play a role, Hayes and Roepke remain skeptical that these increases reflect anything more than a cultural moment wherein transgender people feel more comfortable revealing or exploring their gender identity.

...

"The sex-determining process doesn’t always happen so neatly, however: The SRY gene can show up on the X chromosome, for instance, resulting in a genetic female with testes. If the SRY gene doesn’t work in the usual way, then a genetic male might develop a uterus and fallopian tubes. Some genetic males don’t have the working receptors needed to respond to male sex hormones called androgens — of which testosterone is the most common — or have only a partial ability to respond, which means that they can develop typically female or sexually ambiguous genitalia. (People whose anatomies are not typically male or female may be intersex, which is distinct from being transgender.)"

The Largest and Bloodiest U.S. Battlefield in 2025? Somalia: At least 87 drone strikes, raids and other U.S. military engagements have hit Somalia this year, by far the most ever. And it's likely an undercount

Ukraine could gain NATO-like security assurances in US-proposed Russia peace deal

University of Maryland president cleared of plagiarism allegations: University of Maryland President Darryll Pines was cleared of plagiarism allegations after an independent review, though the review did find his papers lifted some texts.

HBCU president sues professor who accused her of plagiarism and racism: A former University of Maryland Eastern Shore professor says she was illegally pushed out at the historically Black college because she is White.

What the new Purple Line looks like in action

‘Kind of embarrassed’: In Vance’s hometown, I saw patience running thin: Middletown’s regard for its most famous son was more subdued than I’d expected.

Chicago has lost its mind: The city’s fiscal situation is dire, and Mayor Brandon Johnson is determined to make things worse.

Jimmy Lai and the end of Hong Kong: The fate of the former British colony is a warning to any nation that cuts a deal with China.

Trump’s Top Aide Acknowledges ‘Score Settling’ Behind Prosecutions: In interviews with Vanity Fair, Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, said President Trump "has an alcoholic's personality," called JD Vance a "conspiracy theorist" and concluded that Pam Bondi "completely whiffed" the early handling of the Epstein Files.

Reading archive 2025-10-31

As Hong Kong waged shadow war in Britain, ex-Royal Marine became a casualty: U.K. officials have tracked what they describe as an escalating campaign of surveillance and intimidation against Hong Kong exiles living in Britain.

He’s cleared 35,000 pounds of trash from Miami’s mangroves and isn’t done yet

Judge says she’ll likely order Trump administration to send SNAP funds to states: The move could keep food assistance flowing despite the federal government shutdown.

D.C. police chief wants to make juvenile curfew zone policy permanent: Lawmakers declined to extend the temporary measure enacted in the summer because, they said, the public hadn’t weighed in.

Teen charged with killing girlfriend, shooting congressional intern: Naqwan Lucas, 18, is the third teen arrested in the slaying of Eric Tarpinian-Jachym on a D.C. sidewalk this summer.

Trump now plays by China’s rules: The U.S. wins through openness and innovation, not tariffs and centralized planning. - "President Donald Trump loves playing by China Rules. He seems to admire Xi Jinping’s power — personal, discretionary, centralized. In his second term he has threatened blanket tariffs, personally intervened in the semiconductor supply chain, demanded a government stake in Intel, carved out special permissions for selling Nvidia chips in China (while taking a 15 percent cut for the U.S.) and acted as the banker on TikTok’s sale."

Presidential power and the Supreme Court’s own stature ride on this case: The momentous tariffs case will undermine or buttress the Constitution’s separation of powers.

Ohio approves new House map giving Republicans a leg up in two more seats: The new map received rare bipartisan agreement because Republicans who control the state legislature did not want to risk an election challenge from Democrats.

As U.S. ramps up the pressure, Venezuela pleads with Moscow, Beijing for help: Documents show Maduro drafted letter asking Russia for missiles, radars and upgraded aircraft as U.S. forces amass in the Caribbean.

In Trump’s GOP, the once-mighty tea party is hard to find: Since the movement upended politics 15 years ago, Republicans have moved in a sharply different direction under MAGA — with many tea party veterans along for the ride. - "'We feared government tyranny. We feared a strong executive. We feared oppressive government, any president who would take a flamethrower to the Constitution,' said former congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois, a tea party Republican who has since become a podcaster and anti-Trump Democrat. 'Now, the very thing we feared is in office.'"

Reading archive 2025-08-19

Now it is the Old World’s turn to rescue the United States: As Trump met with European leaders on Ukraine, Churchill’s words from days long ago came to mind.

Maine police officer arrested by ICE agrees to voluntarily leave the country: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says a Maine police officer arrested by immigration authorities has agreed to voluntarily leave the country

Sherrod Brown raises $3.6 million in 24 hours for Senate campaign: The total includes $3 million raised by Brown’s campaign, and about $600,000 raised by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Ohio Democratic Party.

People Are Trying to ‘Deprogram’ Their MAGA Parents Through Book Clubs: Divisive politics have led people to go “no contact” with their right-wing parents. Some hope reading together could help bridge the gap.

The Only Plausible Path to End the War in Ukraine: Has the Trump administration misread Moscow? - "Ultimately, the diplomatic problem the Trump administration faces is how to persuade Russia to accept an independent and sovereign Ukraine. All the signs from Moscow are that it has not backed off from a maximalist position. The only plausible way to end the war is to create a battlefield reality that convinces Putin that he cannot make more gains, that he will pay a massive price for continuing the war, and that this reality is unlikely to change. That means that the United States and its allies need to, paradoxically, get serious about arming Ukraine for a protracted conflict and putting pressure on Russia. That is the only way to create the conditions for successful negotiations to end the war."

The Mainstreaming of Zohran Mamdani: Which flavor of socialism would the mayoral candidate bring to New York City? - "DSA's national political platform, rewritten when Mamdani was an assemblyman, is a gumbo of left-wing positions, many of which sit miles from the political mainstream. The organization would free all inmates from prisons and jails and decriminalize the drug trade, prostitution, and squatting in unoccupied homes. DSA endorses cutting police budgets 'annually towards zero,' disarming cops, and decertifying their unions."

A Nation of Lawyers Confronts China’s Engineering State: As the Chinese economy surges forward, the U.S. has lost its capacity for physical improvement. - "How did America lose so much productive capacity to China and end up in such a vulnerable position? Think about it this way: China is an engineering state, which treats construction projects and technological primacy as the solution to all of its problems, whereas the United States is a lawyerly society, obsessed with protecting wealth by making rules rather than producing material goods. Successive American administrations have attempted to counter Beijing through legalism levying tariffs and designing an ever more exquisite sanctions regime while the engineering state has created the future by physically building better cars, better-functioning cities, and bigger power plants.

...

"The engineering state is effective at making military goods too. China produces about 80 percent of the world's consumer drones, which can easily be adapted for the battlefield. China has approximately 200 times the shipbuilding capacity of the United States; according to the Government Accountability Office, many classes of U.S. Navy ships are delayed by up to three years. Last December, then National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said bluntly that the United States will experience 'exhaustion of munition stockpiles very rapidly' if it were ever to face the Chinese military. America has lost the productive capacity to sustain a major war. American manufacturing output has never recovered to its highs from 2008; the manufacturing workforce has shrunk by a million people since then."

Reading archive 2025-03-06

Neo-Nazis targeted a majority-Black town. Locals launched an armed watch.: Residents of Lincoln Heights, Ohio, are guarding their streets with rifles after criticizing the police response to a neo-Nazi rally.

Retinol: The Skin-Care Ingredient With a Horrifying History: The miraculous wrinkle-erasing, acne-fighting cream, is the result of decades of horrifying medical abuse.

What went wrong? Israel's spy agency lists failures in preventing Oct. 7 attack

Russia Is Chasing a Deal to Keep Its Military Bases in Syria: A lack of clarity from the Trump administration on Syria has left a void that Moscow is seeking to exploit - "The [Russian] cash injection came as Qatar and Saudi Arabia held off in providing the millions of dollars in budgetary assistance they had discussed providing to the new regime, these people said. They said those countries are awaiting clarity from Washington over whether U.S. sanctions against the former jihadists now in charge will be lifted."

Mike Johnson’s chief of staff charged with DUI shortly after Trump speech: Hayden Haynes backed into a parked car not long after speech ended, police allege.

Inside the scientific quest to reverse human aging: Can reprogramming our genes make us young again? A breakthrough in longevity research may be nearing its first human trials.

When you buy your childhood home, history conveys. Drama might, too.: Drawn by family lore (or hoping to avoid a bidding war), these people reclaimed the houses they grew up in.

Small federal agency blocks DOGE employees from entering its building: The U.S. African Development Foundation denied several DOGE employees access to its offices Wednesday, as DOGE makes sweeping eliminations across federal agencies.

What It Takes to Make Shane Gillis Funny: Sometimes, you need the SNL writers’ room.

The Man Who Would Remake Europe: Germany’s incoming leader is an unlikely force for change. - "Scholz once marketed himself as a 'peace chancellor,' to which Merz quipped: 'Peace you can find in any cemetery. It is our freedom that we must defend.'"

Russia Is Not Winning: At the current rate, Russia will control all of Ukraine in about 118 years.

What Ketamine Does to the Human Brain: Excessive use of the drug can make anyone feel like they rule the world. - "Even infrequent users those who used, on average, roughly three times a month scored higher on a delusional-thought scale than ex ketamine users, people who took other drugs, and people who didn't use drugs at all. Those who averaged 20 uses a month scored even higher. People believed that they were the sole recipients of secret messages, or that society and people around them were especially attuned to them. The psychological profile of a frequent ketamine user, Morgan and her team concluded, was someone who had 'profound' impairments in short- and long-term memory and was 'distinctly dissociated in their day-to-day existence.'"

The Simple Explanation for Why Trump Turned Against Ukraine: The president’s defenders ignore one possibility: He just likes Putin. - "A recent Politico story filled with inside-Trump-world reporting, for example, suggests that Trump was eager to cut a deal, if only Zelensky had flattered him sufficiently: The Ukrainian president 'infuriated Trump last week with his public suggestion he was swallowing Putin's disinformation a response to Trump's suggestion that Ukraine started the war.' Or perhaps the source of Trump's split with Ukraine is revealed by him regurgitating Russian propaganda blaming Ukraine for the war, rather than Zelensky correcting him."

The Rise of the Brutal American: This is how the bad guys act. - "Quite apart from their politics, Trump and Vance are rude. They are cruel. They berated and mistreated a guest on camera, and then boasted about it afterward, as if their ugly behavior achieved some kind of macho 'win.' They announced that they would halt transfers of military equipment to Ukraine, and hinted at ending sanctions on Russia, the aggressor state. In his speech to Congress last night, Trump once again declared that America would 'get' Greenland, which is a part of Denmark a sign that he intends to run roughshod over other allies too.

...

"But what was ominous in 2016 is dangerous in 2025, especially in Europe. Russian military aggression is more damaging, Russian sabotage across Europe more frequent, and Russian cyberattacks almost constant. In truth, it is Putin, not Zelensky, who started this conflict, Putin who has brought North Korean troops and Iranian drones to Europe, Putin who instructs his propagandists to talk about nuking London, Putin who keeps raising the stakes and scope of the war. Most Europeans live in this reality, not in the fictional world inhabited by Trump, and the contrast is making them think differently about Americans. According to pollsters, nearly three-quarters of French people now think that the U.S. is not an ally of France. A majority in Britain and a very large majority in Denmark, both historically pro-American countries, now have unfavorable views of the U.S. as well."

Reading archive 2024-10-07

The revenge of the middle-class anti-elitist: Why the comfortably well-off voted for Trump, Brexit and Italy’s Lega

Trump dumps on overtime. His Ohio supporters won’t comment

Journalist’s distress over Israel-Gaza war spurred self-immolation, writings show: Samuel Mena Jr. appears to have grown so disillusioned with his profession that he felt compelled to light himself on fire in D.C. on Saturday to promote his cause. [ed. note: queer, lit up left arm]

Alexandria man sentenced to 58 years in fatal shooting of landscapers Alexandria: Circuit Court Judge James C. Clark rejected prosecutors’ request to impose a life sentence without the possibility of parole. - "The Post previously reported that when Rose was arrested for the double shooting in Alexandria, he had been missing probation hearings in D.C. Superior Court after being convicted in 2019 of unlawful possession of a handgun. An attorney for Rose in that case said at the time that he had recently begun rehabilitation for a drug addiction at a suboxone clinic. Court records show his address in Alexandria was located on the same block as the double shooting."

A Maryland teen wasted away at home to 79 pounds. Was it murder?: The trial of Cynthia Moore, 41, is set to continue this week in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

A trail of alleged bribes: How a contractor got lucrative D.C. work: A D.C. contractor allegedly bribed two city officials, prompting concern about how contracts are awarded.

A young doctor’s final words offer a mental health warning for others: Will West, a 33-year-old who was training at George Washington University hospital in D.C., wrote in a suicide note that other residents are “at real risk”

Reading archive 2024-09-23

Tech giants fight plan to make them pay more for electric grid upgrades - "Chief among the power company’s concerns, according to the documents, is what will happen if it invests billions of dollars into new grid infrastructure only for the data centers to leave for greener pastures, or for the AI bubble to burst and the facilities to need much less power than initially projected. If the power company spends big on new infrastructure but the power demand it was built to serve doesn’t materialize, other customers — including business and residential payers — will be stuck with the bill, the utility said."

‘Agatha All Along’ star Kathryn Hahn casts an unforgettable spell: As the witch next door in Disney Plus’s ‘WandaVision’ spinoff, the longtime character actress steps into a role worthy of her charms.

Putin wants Russia’s youth to become ultranationalist patriots. Many are all in.

Opinion The U.S. military’s true advantage against any adversary: It’s the NCOs who set the U.S. military apart from the rest of the world.

GOP senator insults Arab American advocate at hearing on hate crimes: Sen. John Neely Kennedy used a hearing about hate crimes to accuse Arab American Institute Executive Director Maya Berry of supporting terrorists.

Russia expels U.K. diplomats; Putin warns against deep strikes with Western weapons: The Russian president issued his sternest warning to date about the use of Western weapons in Ukraine ahead of a meeting of British and U.S. leaders.

The disaster no major U.S. city is prepared for [ed. note: power outage from storm and then heatwave]

Taliban begins enforcing new draconian laws, and Afghan women despair: Afghan religious police wield new power to enforce a ban on women raising their voices in public and looking at men other than their husbands or relatives. - "Some Afghan women blame the outside world for their vanishing freedoms. 'The silence of the world over the last three years will go down as a dark chapter in history,' said Meena, echoing a widespread sentiment in the country that global attention has moved on from Afghanistan." [ed. note: we fought for them for 20 years]

These birds are almost extinct. A radical idea could save them. - "The sihek’s woes started shortly after World War II. Guam was a key battleground between U.S. and Japanese forces. After the war, residents began spotting invasive brown snakes slithering around the island’s trees, probably stowaways from military aircraft or cargo ships. 

"With no natural predators, the snakes proliferated, gobbling up the island’s small animals. Already, the snake has driven nine of Guam’s native forest birds to extinction."

Opinion Decades later, string theory continues its march toward Einstein’s dream: Why we must keep investigating physics’ most tantalizing theory — even without experimental results.

Cars with the most unpaid DC fines go to this impound lot

A survivor to her rapist: ‘I, too, am in prison’: He kidnapped, assaulted and raped multiple women. As activists try to give him a second chance, victims are speaking up about their rights. - "In that courtroom where Hubbard and her best friend from college faced their attacker — yet again — they were devastated that the man who assaulted and degraded them so violently has a real chance of getting out of prison. They now have to wait for the judge’s decision. 

"They were also gobsmacked at the array of help he had there for him — therapists, psychologists, a crusading attorney, anger-management programs."

Satellite footage suggests Russia ICBM launch test was a disaster: The apparent launch failure raised questions about Russia’s military capabilities and put in a dent in the Kremlin’s nuclear saber-rattling.

With nuclear option unlikely, Putin struggles to defend his red lines: There’s a growing realization in the Kremlin that the West is not falling for its nuclear threats and Putin is searching for new ways to enforce his red lines.

As Taliban starts restricting men, too, some regret not speaking up sooner: Beside imposing severe rules on women, new laws require men to grow fist-length beards and bar them from imitating non-Muslims in appearance or behavior. - "Amir, a resident who lives in eastern Afghanistan, said he supported the Taliban up until the latest restrictions. But he now feels bullied into submission by their morality police."

Where the sea wall ends: At a time of fast-rising seas, the ocean is eating away at this barrier island and others like it. But humans, who have held their ground here for over a century, are planning new condos.

The future of RFK Stadium should be up to D.C. — not a Montana senator: A Montana senator is blocking D.C.’s hopes for developing the RFK Stadium site. What if the roles were reversed? - "Close your eyes for a second. Imagine the role of Daines being played by, say, Phil Mendelson (D), the chairman of the D.C. Council. 

"Would the good senator from Montana take kindly to an elected official from the nation’s capital using political performatives to block, say, an economic development project in Bozeman? It sounds absurd because it is absurd."

Here’s how rich each candidate is compared with the average American: Trump, Harris, Vance and Walz span a wide range of financial circumstances. Here’s where they fit on the spectrum of American wealth.

Reading archive 2024-08-14

Opinion A different kind of remote work: Two jobs, two checks, one mess: Caroline Lian worked two full-time gigs at the same time by juggling remote and in-person days.

Harris faces N.C. voters skeptical of a promised tech boom: As the Democratic presidential candidate makes another campaign visit to the swing state, Biden’s promise of factory jobs hasn’t swayed voters. - "Even if its slow to get going, BEAD is the most exciting thing to happen to the fiber-optics industry in a long time: Its domestic production requirement is set to create a sales boom for made-in-USA equipment."

Opinion Israel is not the only target of Iranian assassination threats: Tehran has been plotting a violent retaliation campaign against the United States for years.

Ohio officer charged with murder after fatally shooting pregnant woman: The indictment marks the first time the officer, Connor Grubb, has been publicly named.

Congress didn’t recognize a race riot. Biden will make the site a monument.: The president will designate the Springfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument on Friday, the White House confirmed to The Post.

Indicted pro-Trump lawyer who leaked emails is removed from Dominion suit: Dominion Voting Systems lawyers say they will also seek sanctions against Stefanie Lambert’s client, former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, in $1.6 billion defamation suit.

The other big shift in the presidential race: Trump was running against Biden on crime, inflation and the border. Now Biden’s out — and those other issues aren’t as potent as they were.

Trump vs. Harris magnifies America’s generational and cultural divides: The candidates, their movements and their rallies embody two very different identities, setting up a stark contrast for voters.

Why Trump keeps talking about fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter: Trump is the “crypt keeper for the 1980s,” a Trump biographer said. Trump has mentioned Lecter while making baseless claims about immigrants.

Reading archive 2024-07-25

The Breathtaking Emptiness of J.D. Vance: How a Hillbilly Superstar Becomes the Thing He Once Loathed

William & Mary lands $100 million gift to expand marine sciences school: Philanthropist Jane Batten’s donation, the largest in William & Mary history, will fund the university’s coastal and marine sciences school.

U.S. flag set ablaze, 23 arrested as thousands protest Netanyahu’s D.C. visit: Thousands protested in D.C. as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress. Though most marched peacefully, there were some clashes with police. - "Outside Union Station, pro-Palestinian protesters set an American flag ablaze, along with an effigy of Netanyahu, and spray-painted the Christopher Columbus fountain and adjacent Liberty Bell reproduction with messages like 'Free Gaza,' 'All zionists are bastards,' and 'Free Palestine.' Police appeared to hit some demonstrators with a chemical irritant at multiple points during the day." [ed. note: burning the American flag is self-sabotage at work]

‘End of the people’s airline’: Southwest abandons open seating after 53 years: The carrier will end its practice of open seating and offer preferred seating with more legroom.

Refrigerating produce in jars looks great, but it can breed bacteria: Fresh produce has various needs, including air circulation, that a sealed jar won’t provide.

Biden the anti-icon: In his televised address, Biden was pragmatic, muted and self-effacing.

‘The Decameron’ is the best apocalyptic ensemble comedy since ‘Clue’: This is the pandemic show no one knew we needed.

‘Childless cat ladies,’ Jennifer Aniston, and Swifties take on JD Vance: Celebrities including Jennifer Aniston and Whoopi Goldberg cite many reasons women don’t have kids. Others are embracing being a childless cat lady like Taylor Swift.

In Vance’s ‘Hillbilly’ home, his story rings true — but not always his message: JD Vance shaped his image in his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” about his roots in rural Kentucky. Many there question his theories about the White working class. - "In fact, many in Jackson say government help is a key lifeline in a distressed region. At Jackson’s city hall, on a downtown street near closed-up storefronts, Mayor Laura Thomas ticked off the recent run of calamities that have required help from federal agencies: After the steep decline of coal-mining came the pandemic and then two successive historic floods in 2021 and 2022."

Opinion How the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling could really backfire: The recent decision could turn the CIA into a political tool once again. - "The Trump decision thus manages to turn the essence of the Nuremberg trials — that “just following orders” is not a defense to a war crime — on its head: It provides absolute immunity for the president, unqualified authority to pardon in advance underlings who follow illegal orders and no legal accountability for obvious criminal activity."

An online army rises, this time on Kamala Harris’s side: A grassroots network of TikTok creators, energized by the new likely Democratic nominee, are using their skill at playful video collages to build Harris a viral political powerhouse from scratch.

Reading archive 2024-06-25

Israeli Supreme Court rules ultra-Orthodox must serve in the military: The decision could result in ultra-Orthodox lawmakers pulling out of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and collapsing it.

‘Too many old people’: A rural Pa. town reckons with population loss: There is a deepening sense of fear as population loss accelerates in rural America. The decline of small-town life is expected to be a looming topic in the presidential election. - "As the presidential election approaches, many residents in this deeply Republican town say they view Trump as having a better vision for salvaging rural America, even though Biden has steered billions of dollars to initiatives that support rural America." [ed. note: then let it die, the morons]

More than 15 killed in Dagestan, Russia, as gunmen hit multiple sites: The dead included a 66-year-old Orthodox priest and over 15 police officers in what appeared to be a coordinated attack at a synagogue, church and police post.

He wanted to throw an Idaho town’s first Pride. Angry residents had other ideas.: Tom Wheeler envisioned a celebratory first Pride for rural Canyon County, Idaho. But in a state that has led the nation in passing anti-LGBTQ laws, the festival quickly sparked outcry.

Opinion New weapons will eclipse atomic bombs. Their builders ask themselves this question.: Autonomous weapons will be built. The only questions are who will build them and for what purpose. - "The engineering elite of our country rush to raise capital for video-sharing apps and social media platforms, advertising algorithms and shopping websites. They don’t hesitate to track and monetize people’s every movement online, burrowing their way into our lives. But many balk when it comes to working with the military. The rush is simply to build. Too few ask what ought to be built and why.

...

"For its part, the foreign policy establishment has repeatedly miscalculated when dealing with China, Russia and others, believing that economic integration can be sufficient to undercut their leaders’ domestic support and diminish their interest in military escalation abroad. The failure of the Davos consensus was to abandon the stick in favor of the carrot alone. Meanwhile, Xi Jinping of China and other authoritarian leaders have wielded power in a way that political leaders in the West might never understand.

...

"Our broader reluctance to proceed with the development of effective autonomous weapons systems for military use might stem from a justified skepticism of power itself. Pacifism satisfies our instinctive empathy for the powerless. It also relieves us of the need to navigate among the difficult trade-offs that the world presents. 

"Chloé Morin, a French author and former adviser to the country’s prime minister, suggested in a recent interview that we should resist the facile urge 'to divide the world into dominants and dominated, oppressors and oppressed.' It would be a mistake, and indeed a form of moral condescension, to systematically equate powerlessness with piousness. The subjugated and subjugators are equally capable of grievous sin."

We’ve been accidentally cooling the planet — and it’s about to stop: Humans’ fossil fuel burning has cooled the planet while warming it — presenting problems for the future.

Burn-off of toxics in Ohio derailment was unnecessary, NTSB investigators say: Federal agency releases final report on fiery train wreck that alarmed East Palestine and launched a national debate on rail safety.

There are better ways to protest climate change than spray painting: Stonehenge Just Stop Oil activists could take a page from the civil rights movement, experts say.

Infant death rate spiked in Texas after restrictive abortion law, study finds: The study led by Johns Hopkins University researchers after the restrictive Texas abortion law also found an increase in the rate of deaths from birth defects.

Opinion I’ve never seen Israelis as gloomy as they are today: The trauma of Oct. 7 remains, along with new worries, including the looming threat of war with Hezbollah.

Opinion The stage is being set for an American nuclear power revolution: There’s no telling how much clean energy the United States might produce.

How Biden’s promise to coal country became a warning for Democrats: A fading coal town in Pennsylvania is struggling to replace the jobs and money that the fossil fuel industry once offered.

The pope’s right-hand man is reshaping the church, becoming a target: Most Catholics have little sense of the liberal archbishop behind the Vatican’s pronouncements. But critics of the pope see Víctor Manuel Fernández as Enemy No. 2.

Reading archive 2024-06-10

Statues near White House vandalized during Gaza cease-fire protest: National Park Service workers power-washed sculptures in Lafayette Square that were graffitied and vandalized during a Gaza cease-fire protest on Saturday.

Opinion Is Donald Trump okay?: His story about hypothetically being electrocuted is another glimpse into a mind that is unwell.

Justice Alito talked about political divide on purported secret recordings: Recorded by a liberal filmmaker, the audio shows how hardball political tactics have landed at the court.

A home in Ohio for African immigrants with nowhere to go: Asylum seekers from the African nation of Mauritania are settling in a city drawing relatively little attention as immigration to the United States has soared.

OB/GYNs routinely experience sexual harassment, study suggests: Up to 70.9 percent of participants in the reviewed studies reported sexual harassment in the workplace.

What does Chinese repression look like? View these photos of Hong Kong

Opinion The U.S. military plans a ‘Hellscape’ to deter China from attacking Taiwan: But a top U.S. military commander for Asia says time is running out to put the plan in place. - "President Biden has repeatedly said he would send the U.S. military to defend Taiwan, although he added a new caveat in his latest interview with Time, saying, 'It would depend on the circumstances.' President Donald Trump seems less likely to intervene on Taiwan’s behalf, having told a GOP senator while in office that if China attacks, 'there isn’t a f------ thing we can do about it."

Reading archive 2024-05-17

Opinion  J.D. Vance wasn’t just some hillbilly after all: His journey from author to Trumpist senator is a fable for the GOP’s devolution.

Reading archvie 2024-01-03

Ready to discard your Christmas tree? You could eat it instead.

Opinion  How the battle for democracy will be fought — and won

Opinion  They opened the door. The dictators were waiting. - "The GAO has also suggested pressuring perpetrators that benefit from U.S. arms exports by using a provision of the Arms Export Control Act of 1976 barring arms sales to countries engaged in a pattern of intimidation or harassment directed at individuals in the United States. Saudi Arabia and Egypt are among the top 25 arms-transfer recipients."

Opinion  Is this who we are?

Fentanyl super labs in Canada pose new threat for U.S. opioid epidemic

A sinking nation is offered an escape route. But there’s a catch.

Complaints about home birth midwives languish amid Maryland backlog: After their babies died, Maryland parents sought help from the state Board of Nursing, which regulates midwives. They’re still waiting. - "The Maryland Board of Nursing licenses certified professional midwives, referring to them as direct-entry midwives. Distinct from certified nurse midwives, who have graduate degrees and nursing credentials, certified professional midwives have no hospital privileges and primarily learn through apprenticeships. They attend the majority of home births in the United States.

...

"A physician had delivered Naomi Puckett’s first child via Caesarean section in 2012. When she became pregnant again in late 2014, she wanted 'bodily autonomy, and a natural birth.'" [ed. note: hey, dumbass: stillbirth and dying in childbirth is "natural"]

Florida teen kills sister during fight over Christmas gifts, sheriff says

A rare deer became legendary in Richmond. Then poachers showed up.

After Sandy Hook, they voted no. Now these senators want new gun laws.: Reflecting on a decade of mass killings and surging AR-15 sales, four current and three former senators recant some or all of their 2013 positions on gun laws in emotional interviews with The Post - "In the meeting with the families, Portman told the group that he would not support the background checks measure even though he believed it could save lives. 

"Hockley said that she responded with a piercing personal question: 'So, you can vote to protect your son, but you can’t vote to protect mine?'

"Portman, who retired from the Senate this year, declined to comment for this story." [ed. note: Portman is truly gutless]

Genetic engineering was meant to save chestnut trees. Then there was a mistake.: A potential labelling error was the latest in a series of concerns for the American Chestnut Foundation, driving the nonprofit to pull support for a genetically engineered tree meant resurrect an iconic American species.

Rep. Lauren Boebert switches Colo. districts, avoiding likely tough rematch

Long after violent arrests, Ocean City keeps reviews from the public: A police leader testified that he could not recall in his 18 years at the department a routine review finding a use of force improper

Her story fueled anti-trans bills. Now, she’s fighting them.: Carey Callahan was once a prominent critic of gender-affirming care for minors. Then she began to worry her words were leading to outcomes she didn’t support.

CAN FLOW BATTERIES FINALLY BEAT LITHIUM?: Nanoparticles may boost energy density enough for EVs

50 YEARS LATER, WE’RE STILL LIVING IN THE XEROX ALTO’S WORLD The Alto transformed computing. And the changes stuck - "As should now be apparent, how the Alto came to shape our lives with computers a half century later isn’t the story of any one individual. In our culture, however, the history of technology is habitually presented as a sequence of remarkable individual achievements. But this is wrong. Innovation is the work of groups, of communities." [ed. note: or, how Steve Jobs most assuredly did not create desktops, laptops, or tablets]

D.C.’s troubled crime lab wins back accreditation

Plan for new Caps, Wizards arena in Va. stirs up its would-be neighbors: Just weeks after an official announcement, the sports complex proposed for Alexandria’s Potomac Yard has become the city’s biggest source of debate

What China’s new defense minister tells us about Xi’s military purge

Russia is working to subvert French support for Ukraine, documents show - "For part of the French establishment, the vision of France leading a grand Europe together with Moscow is 'a dream which will never go away,' said Sylvie Kauffmann, editorial director at Le Monde and author of the recent book 'Les Aveuglés,' or 'The Blinded Ones,' about how France and Germany misread Putin in seeking to build close ties with him. 'In this dream we are a big power and Russia is a big power and we are two big nuclear powers treating each other on an equal footing,' she said."

Trump says Liz Cheney deleted evidence of Jan. 6 troops. There isn’t any.

Water-hungry golf courses plague Arizona’s native javelina-filled landscape: A herd of javelinas damaged a ritzy golf course in Arizona. Golf courses have done more damage.

A global synthesis and assessment of free-ranging domestic cat diet

Want to help birds this winter? Plant native berries.: Many birds turn to calorie-packed berries in autumn for an energy boost

Bird-Friendly Plants for Winter Forage

Pollen theft by honey bees from wild bees

Reading archive 2023-12-19

Release of five wolves in the Colorado mountains begins first-of-its kind state reintroduction effort: Paws on the ground come after three years of planning

Why does mold on my walls come back, even after cleaning with bleach?

It’s time to start planning for the next thousand years: Climate change desperately needs “cathedral projects.”

Egypt under growing pressure as displaced Gazans crowd the border

America’s best example of turning around a dying downtown - "Young professionals are the main group moving in, especially because all the units are rentals. But empty nesters, judges, athletes and even a few young families have also leased properties so they can be near museums and Cleveland’s sports stadiums. For the first time in years, a yellow school bus makes a daily stop at the square to pick up kids living there. 'We’re a neighborhood church again,' said Rev. Stephen Blonder Adams, senior pastor of Old Stone Church, which has been on the square since 1820. His blessing of the animals is a hit with all the dog owners living by the square.

...

"Some cities have not used this concentrated 'node' approach. D.C.’s map of buildings slated for conversion, for example, shows a scattering of sites. That should be reconsidered in 2024. A denser population attracts grocery stores, coffee shops and pocket parks, among other amenities."

The nation’s capital, built on water, struggles to keep from drowning - "The African American museum was built on the lowest and last spot then available on the Mall. Engineers had expected to hit water, but the forces of nature they disturbed put the project in immediate peril."

New D.C. police training aims to defuse crisis situations without guns

Running short on Ukraine air defenses, U.S. looks to Japan: Tokyo is preparing a significant policy shift in its defense export rules that would allow Washington to transfer additional Patriot missiles to Kyiv

Judge again turns over Rep. Perry’s phone records to DOJ Jan. 6 probe: A federal judge turned over 75 percent instead of 90 percent of records the FBI seized from Perry’s phone, after a U.S. appeals court set a new precedent defining limits on Congress’s immunity from criminal investigation

Reading archive 2023-02-27

Grieving families trusted an Army financial adviser. They lost fortunes.

Fox News media analyst says network won’t let him cover Dominion lawsuit: Howard Kurtz told his ‘MediaBuzz’ viewers he ‘strongly’ disagrees with the network’s decision

Emboldened by its majority, House GOP turns up heat on federal workers

Opinion  5 good points the right is making about the Ohio train disaster - "The answer is competent government bureaucracy. Conservatives often cynically prey on public suspicion of bureaucracy to advance a pro-corporate deregulatory agenda, one that operates from the assumption that regulations are inherently bad and we should always seek to eliminate them. But these right-wing figures are preaching the virtues of expert regulators attuned to the complexities of getting regulation right — and declaring this a public good."

Reading archive 2023-02-24

BREAKING: A Train derailed in Washington, killing 3 people, injuring 62, and causing $40 million in damage. Biden & Pete Buttigieg will not be going to the scene and there will be no FEMA aid given. - "Now that I got your attention, this accident actually happened in 2017 under President Trump. Trump never visited the crash site, and neither did his Transportation Secretary  Elaine Chao. Instead Trump used the crash to try and tout his failed infrastructure plan, tweeting, 'shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly.'  He then went on to deregulate multiple safety precautions on trains. 

"No FEMA aid was given to anyone after this accident either and it was otherwise ignored by the administration." [ed. note: twitter post with video embed]

More than 43,000 aquatic animals are dead near Ohio train derailment

Opinion  The New York Times newsroom is splintering over a trans coverage debate

Protests in Russia denounce Ukraine invasion; antiwar rallies held worldwide

Oral history: Leaders recall dismay, fury on first day of war in Ukraine: Political, military and intelligence officials describe their reaction to the Russian invasion and what they did that first day

Reading archive 2023-01-29

Inside a US Neo-Nazi Homeschool Network With Thousands of Members: An Ohio couple has been unmasked as leaders of the neo-Nazi “Dissident Homeschool” Telegram channel that distributes lesson plans to 2,400 members.

Trump Calls For 'Certifying' Patriotic Teachers, Election Of Principals By School Parents: He also demands funds be slashed for schools teaching “critical race theory, gender ideology or other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content.”

Trump Financial Crimes Investigation Was 'Buried,' Kirschner Says

Israel appears to have been behind drone strike on Iran factory, U.S. official says

Reading archive 2023-01-07

Statehouse ‘coup’ — Ohio GOP members bitterly divided by deal with Democrats to elect 'moderate' House Speaker

On Musk's Twitter, users looking to sell and trade child sex abuse material are still easily found: A review conducted by NBC News found dozens of accounts and hundreds of tweets claiming to sell child sexual abuse material. - "CSAM has been a perpetual problem for social media platforms. And while some technology has been developed to automate the detection and removal of CSAM and related content, the problem remains one that needs human intervention as it develops and changes, according to Victoria Baines, an expert on child exploitation crimes who has worked with the U.K.’s National Crime Agency, Europol, the European Cybercrime Centre and Facebook."

Moscow’s war in Ukraine brought harsh tactics against gay Russians at home

Reading archive 2022-11-15

Diet changes can improve sleep apnea, even without weight loss: Healthy habits during the day can lead to remarkable improvements in the quality of your nightly sleep

What Kyrie Irving can teach us about noxious drivel and how to counter it

Ohio woman tells dispatcher gunman killed her husband because ‘he thought he was a Democrat,’ reports say

Community Input Is Bad, Actually: Angry neighborhood associations have the power to halt the construction of vital infrastructure. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Reading archive 2022-10-18

D.C. attorney general plans to take action on Daniel Snyder, Commanders

Ohio Senate debate filled with contentious exchanges

Soda pop, chips, hot dogs, etc. – they can take years off your life: No matter how old you are, or how much junk food you consume, it’s never too late to start undoing the damage caused by a poor diet

A battle for working-class voters in a key Indiana House race: The race in Indiana’s 1st Congressional District will test whether Democrats can halt Republicans’ gains with the White working-class voters — including union members — who played a crucial role in electing Donald Trump in 2016.

GOP to use debt limit to force spending cuts, McCarthy says - "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that if Republicans win control of the House the GOP will use raising the debt limit as leverage to force spending cuts — which could include cuts to Medicare and Social Security — and limit additional funding to Ukraine."

Most Ukrainians want to keep fighting until Russia is driven out, poll finds

China plans to seize Taiwan on ‘much faster timeline,’ Blinken says

Opinion  Republicans’ secret economic agenda? A global financial crisis.

Desperate pleas and smuggled pills: A covert abortion network rises after Roe: Amid legal and medical risks, a growing army of activists is funneling pills from Mexico into states that have banned abortion - "'I want those politicians to feel powerless,' the nurse said of her decision to join the ranks of the illegal abortion movement. 'I want them to feel the same way my patients feel.'"