Reading archive 2026-04-17 pt 1

A New Kind of Hybrid Car Is About to Hit America’s Streets: The car industry says it has an answer for drivers wary of going electric.

If your heart stopped right now, would a stranger save you? It depends on your sex.: Why women are less likely to receive CPR—and less likely to survive

DC Mayor extends juvenile curfew citing weeks of disorderly behavior, violence: The curfew zones were put in place in response to "teen takeovers," large gatherings of kids and teenagers promoted on social media.

D.C. police lieutenant charged with seeking to have sex with a minor: Matthew Mahl, a D.C. police lieutenant, allegedly exchanged sexually explicit text messages with a Maryland detective pretending to be a 15-year-old boy.

How to save money on tree work and still get good results: Even healthy trees need a little branch management from time to time.

Iran says Strait of Hormuz is now open amid push to end war: President Trump welcomed the announcement, but U.S. officials said the naval blockade on vessels leaving from and going to Iranian ports remains in effect.

Nothing ever dies. It merely becomes embarrassing.: OR: the Halo theory of science - "The secret sauce of science is supposed to be falsifiability: it ain’t science unless you can kill it. If I claim that all swans are white, and you show up with a black swan, then I’m supposed to bid a tearful goodbye to my theory and send it to that big farm upstate where it can frolic and play with all the other failed hypotheses. 

"Falsification sounds straightforward until you actually try it. You show up with your black swan, and instead of admitting defeat, I go, 'Hmm, well is it really black? Is it actually a swan? Seems more like a dusky-looking duck to me!' And we publish dueling papers until the end of our days.

...

"This is the situation we appear to be in with many theories in psychology. We can’t say whether they’re 'real' or not. Somewhere out there, the Spartans may live on. But if we’ve been studying something for decades and people look at all the evidence and they still doubt whether it exists at all, we have to admit: that’s cringe. 

"Cringe doesn’t mean wrong! Continental drift was cringe.2 Germ theory was cringe.3 Smallpox vaccination was cringe.4 All of them went from mortifying to undeniable. Maybe truly revolutionary theories must follow that trajectory. If a scientific idea is young and it’s not cringe, it probably has no promise. But if it’s old and it’s still cringe, it probably has no merit."

Another Energy Crisis Is Here. This Time, the Way Out Is Different. - "This is the first energy shock where clean energy is not a moral or long‑term bet, but the cheapest and fastest way for low‑ and middle‑income countries to protect macroeconomic stability, food security, and fiscal space."

This is the scariest question about Putin — and Trump: The Russian president's back is to the wall. That makes him more dangerous.

A Pillar of the Economics Establishment Admits That It Was Wrong: In a new report, the World Bank thinks better of its old free-market absolutism. - "In this context, the World Bank's implicit message to the rest of the world appears to be: Yes, industrial policy can work if done correctly. But please, for the love of God, don't do what America is doing."

Trump Voters Are Over It: A shocking number of the president’s supporters have turned against him.

The DNA Fix for Aging: Everyone’s DNA keeps mutating. Could correcting those errors lead to longevity?

The Quiet Way Authoritarianism Begins to Crumble: Among the many reasons for Viktor Orbán’s defeat was the rural clubs where citizens relearned democratic habits.

Israel Moderates Are Losing the Democratic Party: Their position has become untenable. But liberal Zionists can adapt. - "The theoretical case for a two-state solution remains as sound as ever. The trouble is that the Palestinian side has rejected repeated attempts by Democratic presidents to bring about the birth of a Palestinian state, and that Israel's longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his right-wing coalition do everything they can to subvert such a solution. At some point, supporters of the two-state solution have to take 'no' for an answer. The United States is effectively supporting a one-state solution whose entire strategy rests on an endless cycle of responding to terrorism with military force (a process of periodic attacks that Israel calls 'mowing the lawn') in place of any diplomatic path.

...

"Liberal Zionists can win an intra-Democratic argument against anti-Zionist radicals, but they can't win it while burdened with support for subsidizing settlements and a strategy of endless conflict. The most extreme anti-Zionist activists won't be satisfied with anything short of committing the Democratic Party to Israel's demise. But the most left-wing position in recent Democratic primaries - on Iraq in 2004, on health care in 2016 - has rarely been adopted by the candidate who emerges as the party's eventual nominee."

Reading archive 2025-12-08

Pssst. Even a healthy Jayden Daniels hasn’t been very good.: The second-year quarterback’s regression from a starry rookie season goes beyond the fact that he has struggled to stay on the field for the Commanders.

The ACC broke the College Football Playoff, and Notre Dame paid the price: The trickle-down effects of a bloated conference crowning an illogical champion led to the Fighting Irish missing the 12-team playoff field.

Ask a Vet: Is it cruel to neuter my dog?: The debate over a common procedure — and why some countries view it as a form of mutilation.

Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center is showier, emptier and more political: In 10 months, the president has transformed Washington’s cultural hub. Now comes his biggest night yet: the Kennedy Center Honors.

A show of Australian Indigenous art should have inspired awe. It’s a mess.: “The Stars We Do Not See” at the National Gallery of Art tells — and muddies — one of the most fascinating stories in 20th-century art.

Glyphosate safety article retracted eight years after Monsanto ghostwriting revealed in court - "This is how man created Astrology, which is effectively a random collection of lights in a 2-D view of a 3-D universe from Earth, correlated with some human affair."

I was a red state governor. What I saw at Harvard surprised me. The spirit of association remains alive in unexpected places. - "What I’ve experienced may be a natural return to Harvard’s more moderate bearings, following noisy displays of intolerance by campus agitators in recent years. Or it may be due to the Trump administration’s forceful executive orders and fiscal pressure. Either way (and it’s probably both), let’s take the win and learn the broader lesson." [ed. note: he wasn't there, so how would he know it has changed at all?]

How Florida lost track of 30,000 students, a ‘cautionary tale’ for vouchers: The state’s auditor general found “a myriad of accountability problems” in the nation’s largest voucher program.

Trump announces $11 billion tariff relief for farmers: Farmers — particularly those who produce soybeans — have felt the effect of the president’s trade policies.

GOP bill to overhaul D.C. bail system could balloon jail population: Republicans in Congress want to end cashless bail in D.C. and hold more suspects in jail before trial. Watchdogs say it could push the jail system to the brink. - "Data shows that such instances are rare. In D.C., in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2025, 90 percent of people did not reoffend while released, according to the federal Pretrial Services Agency; about 1.2 percent committed a violent offense while released."

Suspect in Jan. 6 pipe bomb case appears in court as probe continues: News of Brian Cole Jr.’s arrest came as a shock to a person who has been in regular contact with him for more than a decade.

D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith is stepping down: D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser praised Smith for her service but did not offer a reason for her departure. Smith said she resigned to spend more time with family.

The quest to slow aging leads scientists into the powerhouse of cells: Texas A&M researchers create mini mitochondria factories using tiny nanoflowers.

Democrats, who once lambasted Trump on immigration, have grown quiet: The lack of a unified voice comes as the crackdown on minority communities, including legal residents, has grown more aggressive.

Why Miami’s Trump backers are clashing with the ‘America First’ wing over Venezuela: As Trump threatens strongman Nicolás Maduro, Venezuelan and Cuban American supporters are urging the president to do whatever it takes to oust him. - "The Trump administration has said it is targeting Venezuela as part of a crackdown on drug trafficking, though the country is not one of the main suppliers of illicit drugs to the United States. Most fentanyl in the United States comes from Mexico, and most cocaine from Colombia. Very little of Venezuela’s drug production flows into U.S. borders, current and former U.S. officials say."

The tech fix that can clear the Western range of its barbed wire: GPS-based virtual fences clear migration corridors for wildlife while cutting costs for ranchers. - "This technology holds promise in part because ranchers themselves are not fence-lovers. Range fencing requires frequent repair, robbing ranchers of time they would prefer to invest in managing their herds. At upwards of $15,000 a mile, range fencing is also expensive, both to ranchers and to taxpayers. In 2018, the U.S. Agriculture Department subsidized more than $300 million of fencing on private ranch land.

"With virtual fencing, a cow is adorned with a solar-powered collar that communicates with a mapping app via satellite, cell or local reception tower to warn it — by an increasingly loud tone, followed by a mild electric shock — as it approaches a virtual fence line. Cows are not terribly smart, but they can be trained with the technology within a practice pasture in a few days. The current collars are a bit clunky. Cornell University scientists are developing an ear tag that does the same thing as the bulky collar."

The College Football Playoff Chose Outrage Notre Dame is out. Alabama and Miami are in. And the College Football Playoff committee just did what it does best. - "The conference title games exist to make money. To continue making money, they need teams to want to play in them. Telling the SEC runner-up that it would have made the playoff had it just stayed at home on Saturday, but now it’s been eliminated because it showed up and got its ass kicked, would undermine the entire point of college football: making people rich."

Reading archive 2025-05-13

A new fully charged EV battery in five minutes: Are China's swap stations the future of electric cars?

Trump promised U.S. dominance. Instead, energy companies are faltering.: Oil and gas firms are reeling, and major renewables projects are getting shelved as Trump’s policies rattle energy investors and executives.

MSNBC in five words: ‘I could not agree more’ Searching for dissent and debate on the cable news home for liberal America. - "No matter how it’s produced, television is a medium ill-equipped to cover Trump. My advice? Read newspapers."

What Pennsylvania factory workers say about Trump’s tariffs now: Business is flourishing at this furniture maker, but even here workers want certainty — and lower prices.

How you can shop for money-saving appliances if Trump ends: Energy Star Researchers and policy experts explain why Energy Star has been so successful and what we could do in its absence. - "If Energy Star dies, it would mark the demise of one of America’s most popular government programs — championed by industry associations, environmental groups, and Republicans and Democrats alike."

Land under the country’s largest cities is sinking. Here’s where — and why.: The movement is slow — sinking on the scale of millimeters per year in the United States — but the effects accumulate over years.

Why the Toupee Is Making a Comeback With Millennial Men: Long the butt of sitcom jokes, toupees—now called “hair systems”—have leveled up in recent years, and a growing number of balding men prefer the affordable flexibility they offer to the invasive risk of a transplant.

These Internal Documents Show Why We Shouldn’t Trust Porn Companies - "Stewart became afraid to leave her house. She recalled sending notes to Pornhub pleading that it take down the video, explaining that she was a minor and was shown being raped. Nothing happened, she said. 'I even posted comments on the video saying, 'I’m underage, take this video off,' and got no responses from anyone ever,' she told me."[ed. note: jfc]

Scientists in a race to discover why the Universe exists

Youth pleads guilty in juvenile court to fatally beating D.C. disc jockey: Authorities say the 16-year-old and a teenage companion attacked the man during a spate of street robberies in October; the victim died after weeks in a coma. - "At the time of the robberies, Superior Court officials said, the teen had five other robbery or assault cases that were pending."

Young teens arrested in carjacking of Capitol Hill aide: The gun was placed against the victim’s chest in the Navy Yard area, police say.

China Called Trump’s Bluff: There is a lesson here for anyone Trump threatens. - "'The consensus from both delegations is that neither side wanted a decoupling,' Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced at a press conference in Geneva, as if the whole thing had been one big misunderstanding. The decades of China allegedly 'ripping off' the United States were apparently forgotten, along with China's insolence in retaliating and the supposed need for the U.S. to reduce its reliance on Chinese imports. The administration isn't even pretending that it forced China to pay any special price for its defiance. It is memory-holing the entire 'do not retaliate' episode and moving on as if the point this whole time was to get along better with Beijing."

Retirement Is the New Resistance: The Democrats waging war on their gerontocracy

The Terrible Optics of ICE Enforcement Are Fueling a Trump Immigration Backlash: The president was elected, in part, on a pledge to crack down on immigration. But he may be overinterpreting his mandate.

Who Counts as Christian?: A new initiative will necessitate that the Trump administration makes difficult judgment calls about the faith. - "Or consider the case of an Episcopalian church in Sacramento whose rainbow Pride flag was stolen and burned: Would this task force agree that the attack was an act of aggression against the congregation qua Christians? The church's priest certainly thought so."

Md. woman who allegedly drove through festival to get to work will remain jailed: Kai Deberry-Bostick, 28, of Laurel, was charged with second-degree assault and resisting arrest.

RFK Jr. bathes in polluted D.C. creek on family outing: The health secretary reports on a Mother’s Day outing.

White South Africans arrive at Dulles as refugees under Trump order: The arrival of about 50 Afrikaners under allegations of racial discrimination restarts a U.S. refugee program that has been suspended for all other groups. - "On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security said that it will end temporary protected status for Afghans."

ChatGPT Is Everywhere — Why Aren't We Talking About Its Environmental Costs?: In this op-ed, politics editor Lex McMenamin explains why using AI to search "how to be sustainable" could be accomplishing the opposite. - "McMillan Cottom categorizes artificial intelligence as 'mid' tech — hardly the technological revolution worth the amount of waste and environmental damage it’s meting out: '[Most] of us are using [AI] for far more mundane purposes. AI spits out meal plans with the right amount of macros, tells us when our calendars are overscheduled, and helps write emails that no one wants. That’s a mid revolution of mid tasks.'"

Reading archive 2025-04-28 pt 1

Video casts doubt on Ed Martin’s apology for praising Nazi sympathizer: Trump’s pick for top D.C. federal prosecutor said he didn’t know about the man’s statements, but Martin had discussed the antisemitism allegations in podcasts.

U.S. attorney for D.C. accuses Wikipedia of ‘propaganda,’ threatens nonprofit status: Trump appointee Ed Martin accuses the online encyclopedia of “allowing foreign actors to manipulate information and spread propaganda to the American public.”

Big, big trouble at ‘60 Minutes’: Executive Producer Bill Owens steps down, for reasons that are way too predictable.

Amazon slows forecast on HQ2 job growth as D.C. region hurts for employment: The tech giant added a few hundred jobs at HQ2 in Northern Virginia last year — and requested almost $6.5 million in state subsidies — but seems less like the economic cushion for the region that many hoped it would be.

D.C., Commanders plan to announce deal for new stadium at RFK: Details of the deal — which must be approved by the D.C. Council — are expected to be announced by Commanders principal owner Josh Harris and Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) at a news conference Monday morning.

D.C., Commanders announce $3.7B deal to move team to RFK Stadium: The development, anchored by a roofed, 65,000-seat stadium, will be funded primarily by the Commanders, who would put up $2.7 billion, while D.C. taxpayers would pay $500 million.

Carolyn Hax: Friend demands constant attention, enforced by silent treatments: A friend turns to the silent treatment when the letter writer doesn’t keep her constantly informed of plans.

These experts on aging, now seniors themselves, see things differently: Their advice and thinking about resilience, adaptability and outlook have shifted.

CIA official’s son killed fighting with Russian army in Ukraine: Michael Gloss, 21, whose mother is a senior CIA official and father an Iraq War veteran, suffered from mental illness. He died in April 2024 in eastern Ukraine, fighting with Moscow’s forces.

How Lindsey Graham is accommodating himself to Trump’s foreign policy: “Yeah, I think Europe’s gone woke, don’t y’all?” the one-time hawk asked a crowd back home in South Carolina.

What to know to save a life: The key to heart attack survival: Bystander training on spotting and using defibrillators can greatly improve cardiac arrest survival, but many people don’t know what to do.

‘This Is Not How We Do Science, Ever’: The Trump administration is manipulating government-sponsored research to get the answers it wants. - "This is consistent with everything Trump and his allies have revealed about their views on science since January: that it is not a means to better understand objective reality, but a political weapon that they must guard against, or deploy themselves."

Congressional Republicans Might Set Off the Debt Bomb: Their new budget framework is the most irresponsible in modern history—and will put the American economy on a very dangerous trajectory. - "Budget deficits of $1.8 trillion—heading toward $3.6 trillion within a decade under current policies—can be addressed only by putting all spending and taxes up for reconsideration. The popular targets of government waste, defense cuts, and taxing the rich can contribute at the margins, but the unforgiving budget math will force most long-term deficit reduction to come from the lead deficit drivers of Social Security and Medicare, as well as middle-class taxes. Of course, those three reform categories face intense bipartisan opposition. Ultimately, the bond market will leave Washington with no alternative."

Inside the Fiasco at the National Security Council: Firings and leadership challenges have destabilized an institution that has little margin for error. - "The disorder at the NSC, officials told me, stems from Trump's impatience with process, disregard for the law, and insistence on loyalty in place of expertise. They also said it reflects the president's distrust of Waltz, a former Florida congressman and Green Beret who served in the George W. Bush administration as an aide to Vice President Dick Cheney."

Has Trump found a path to peace in Ukraine?: Security guarantees and other hard details remain, but there are signs of movement.

‘Bone collector’ caterpillar, a new species, wears outfit of body parts: The caterpillar species with a macabre fashion sense was discovered by researchers in Hawaii. Its casing is a disguise to fool the spiders with which it lives.

Pup’s death at D.C. luxury building sparks push for ban of deadly plant: The Carolina jessamine is widely known to be toxic to dogs and children.

China plans to build a nuclear power plant on the Moon: The plans come as China steps up its ambitious space programme

China asks Korea not to supply products using rare earths to US defence firms, paper reports

A Ticking Clock on American Freedom: It’s later than you think, but it’s not too late.

What Would Be Worse Than a Recession?: The loss of America’s economic hegemony - "In the words of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the onetime French finance minister, the role of the dollar as the world's reserve currency constitutes an "exorbitant privilege" for the United States, a privilege made more exorbitant by Treasury debt's role as the world's safe-haven investment. The country can borrow cheaply and power out of recessions quickly because of this privilege. Yet it depends on investors' trust in American financial institutions and American governance. Trump's trade war is making people question whether the United States deserves to have its privilege revoked."

I’ve Seen How This Plays Out for Ukraine: Appeasement won’t stop Putin. - "The Trump administration's proposed agreement would recognize Russia's illegal annexation and freeze the war's front lines. But nothing I've lived through suggests this would be the end of it. Each concession has been followed by another demand. Every new border has eventually been redrawn. Crimea wasn't the end. Neither was Donetsk. Neither was Mariupol. It's not difficult to see what comes next."

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 2024-08-15

Feeling old? Your molecules change rapidly around ages 44 and 60.: Shifts in abundance of over 135,000 types of molecules and microbes related to age did not occur gradually over time, but clustered around two ages, a study showed.

Surprise jump in retail sales casts aside recession fears: Retail sales rose 1 percent in July, reversing a June slowdown and marking the largest jump in more than two years.

How the world’s last wild red wolves are avoiding extinction: The endangered wolves face multiple threats, from cars to climate change. A renewed push to save them in eastern North Carolina has brought cautious optimism.

Ukraine unleashes attacks on Russian airfields amid Kursk offensive: After rushing reinforcements to Kursk and announcing a “counterterrorism” operation, Russian forces have failed to halt the nine-day incursion.

Ukraine offensive in Russia expands beyond Kursk region, soldiers say: Ukraine’s intelligence service announced the detention of more than 100 Russian troops, in what it said amounted to the “largest mass capture” of enemy soldiers at one time.

Ukraine gambled on an incursion deep into Russian territory. The bold move changed the battlefield: Ukraine’s stunning incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region was a bold gamble for the country’s military commanders, who committed their limited resources to a risky assault on a nuclear-armed enemy with no assurance of success

Stumpy 2.0: Clones of beloved Tidal Basin cherry tree are thriving: For the National Arboretum’s horticulturists, the problem with cloning Stumpy was . . . its stumpiness.

Man charged with killing unarmed 13-year-old says he feared for his life: Jason Lewis, who is on trial for the Jan. 7, 2023, fatal shooting of Karon Blake, spent 20 years working with D.C. teens.

Former D.C. Housing Authority head Brenda Donald alleges retaliation in suit: The suit also names the DCHA board and Council member Robert C. White Jr., and alleges that the board did not protect Donald as she faced questions about a controversial bonus.

Reading archive 2023-12-20

Opinion  The dressing-room encounter that made me get real about aging - "We know by a certain age the great palace lies of the culture — if you buy or do or achieve this or that, you will be happy and rich.

...

"We are so physically vulnerable in older age. We have caught each other a lot, have come through some periods of darkness and unsurvivable losses, but friendship makes it all a rowing machine for the soul. We can take it, as long as we feel and give love, and laugh gently at ourselves as we fall apart."

A baroness’s lies bring Britain’s covid spending scandal to a boil

GOP voter-fraud crackdown overwhelmingly targets minorities, Democrats: Black and Hispanic people made up more than 75 percent of defendants and Democrats nearly 60 percent in a controversial push by Republicans to prosecute election cheating, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis by The Washington Post - "But the election integrity units established or expanded in six states after Trump’s loss obtained only 47 convictions during a period in which tens of millions of votes were cast, and the units overwhelmingly targeted minorities and Democrats for prosecution, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis by The Washington Post of nearly every prosecution.

...

"Of the 115 cases that have been resolved as of mid-December, 42 ended in dismissal, acquittal or dropped charges — nearly the same as the number of guilty verdicts. 

"All of the convictions occurred in Florida, Texas and Ohio, while units in Virginia, Georgia and Arkansas failed to obtain a single guilty verdict, despite allocating dozens of staffers and millions of dollars to ferret out voter fraud.

...

"One was Nathan Hart. Hart, a White man and convicted sex offender from Tampa, said he was at the DMV in March 2020, when a worker hired by the local county asked him if he wanted to register to vote. He explained he had a felony conviction, Hart said, but the worker encouraged him to apply, saying that the state would let him know if he didn’t qualify."

WRITTEN IN THE WOOD

ANCIENT WARNING OF A RISING SEA - "A recent report from the International Monetary Fund found that coping with global warming will cost the Seychelles about 30 percent of its gross domestic product. The country is wealthier per capita than any other African nation, thanks largely to an economy fueled by carbon-intensive international travel. But its small size still leaves it short on the resources and expertise needed to protect against rising sea levels, surging ocean temperatures, intensifying rainfall and escalating heat. 

"'We are suffering, but we are not the ones damaging,” Ernesta says." [ed. note: then ban tourism]

Milankovitch (Orbital) Cycles and Their Role in Earth's Climate

Why Milankovitch (Orbital) Cycles Can't Explain Earth's Current Warming

Watch ‘Failure at the Fence’: The Washington Post and ‘Frontline’ examine how Hamas breached Israel’s security barrier on Oct. 7

Reading archive 2023-03-24

Metro just installed new fare gates. It’s spending $35 million to make them taller.: Fare evasion is rising at a time when the financially struggling transit agency is seeking to replace riders lost to telework

Opinion  The dollar is our superpower, and Russia and China are threatening it

This Midwestern factory was dead. Electric vehicles revived it.: A sweeping retooling of the U.S. auto industry is underway, as companies modernize old factories and break ground on new ones

Senior care is crushingly expensive. Boomers aren’t ready.: Long-term care options are too expensive for middle-income Americans, narrowing options for millions of seniors

RETREAT IN RODANTHE: Along three blocks in a North Carolina beach town, severe erosion is upending life, forcing hard choices and offering a glimpse of the dilemmas other coastal communities will face