Reading archive 2026-06-08

Trump’s plan for golf course threatens pillar of D.C. cycling culture: For more than three decades, an eclectic mix of bikers has been gathering daily for the “Noon Ride.” Now they worry it could end.

Yet More Damning Revelations About Graham Platner: Voters may be questioning the Senate candidate’s claims that he is a changed man.

Maine Has a Graham Platner Problem: Are we really going to do this again?

Reading archive 2026-04-30

Gun found during fight in Blake High School parking lot, police say: A short time later, a young man was taken to an area hospital with a gunshot wound. Police have not said if that victim is a student or not.

Trump administration seeks access to medical records of millions of federal workers

A D.C. mayoral hopeful’s close ties to unions are drawing new scrutiny: A complaint alleges Janeese Lewis George’s campaign is improperly sharing staff with unions tied to an independent expenditure committee backing her. The campaign denies it.

On chaotic day, Johnson navigates multiple internal revolts in House: Over hours on and around the chamber’s floor, the speaker and fellow Republican leaders cajoled holdouts on a surveillance bill, DHS funding and farm policy.

The invisible force making food less nutritious - "Ultimately, Myers said, the best way to protect human health is for people to stop releasing so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which not only depletes the nutritional value of crops but leads to escalating heat waves, intensifying floods and lengthening droughts that hurt food production around the globe."

Maine Gov. Janet Mills drops out of race to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins: The primary had become a referendum on the Democratic establishment.

The terrible Michael Jackson movie exposes a central cultural question: The film is indefensible. The impulse to see it is deeply human.

An Untapped Energy Goldmine Is Buried Beneath the US—and No, It’s Not Oil: Massive lithium reserves in eastern states could replace 328 years of U.S. imports, according to new research by the U.S. Geological Survey.

As Saudis pull funding, LIV Golf seeks investors to continue: The Saudis spent billions backing the upstart PGA rival and luring top stars, but the league never found its footing. - "The financial scale of LIV’S failed effort was enormous. The PIF’s total investment is projected to surpass $6 billion, according to figures from Money in Sport, with the PIF spending at a rate of roughly $100 million per month in recent years. Tournament purses and bonuses alone are expected to approach $2 billion, while many top players received nine-figure signing deals. LIV’s U.K.-based entity reported losses of $461.8 million in 2024, and the overall venture was widely viewed as losing hundreds of millions annually."

Russia scales back Victory Day plans as Ukraine’s military reach expands: Moscow is reducing the footprint of its foremost annual military parade amid a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks inside Russia.

The Real Fight for the Smithsonian: Its museums, more than any others, shape the nation’s narrative. No wonder the country argues about it.

‘We Are Learning to Bully Back’: How Europe got Trump to cave on Greenland

The Sports Conspiracy That’s Too Easy to Believe: When the 49ers lost in the playoffs, some fans embraced a theory about electromagnetic waves instead of facing reality.

The Real Reason ICE Agents Wear Masks: Face coverings may work less to protect federal agents from danger than to make it easier for them to do unconstitutional things. - "It is not 'doxxing' federal agents for the public to know who they are. We are supposed to know who they are, because that is how we hold them accountable. This is why police officers wear visible badge numbers and name tags. The responsibilities they are given are not compatible with anonymity.

...

"According to an analysis by Alex Nowrasteh at the Cato Institute based on data from last year, "law enforcement officers who don't work at ICE or Border Patrol have a death rate 6.3 times higher than that of immigration enforcement officers." In fact, the report found, immigration agents are at no greater risk than regular people: 'The chance of an ICE or Border Patrol agent being murdered in the line of duty is about one in 94,549 per year, about 5.5 times less likely than a civilian being murdered.'

...

"On Sunday, ProPublica revealed the names of the two agents involved in the Pretti shooting: Border Patrol officer Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez. Suffice it to say that two Hispanic Americans killing a white person trying to prevent them from harassing or deporting other Hispanic people, on the orders of Stephen Miller - a Jewish American whose ancestors fled pogroms in Eastern Europe - is a uniquely grotesque expression of the American melting pot in action."

Stop Meeting Students Where They Are: What I learned when I finally started assigning the hard reading again.

How America Lost Control of the Seas: Thanks to decades of misguided policy choices, the U.S. has an astonishing lack of maritime capacity.

Feudalism Is Our Future: What the next Dark Ages could look like - "In 2008, desperate for cash, Chicago privatized its parking meters, selling off the rights to all the revenue for 75 years to a group of investors led by Morgan Stanley. A 'true-up' provision in the contract requires the city to compensate investors for lost revenue when meters are taken out of service—a provision that weighs on decision making whenever the city considers projects that would eliminate meters or favor mass transit over cars. The rights to operate toll highways have been sold off by some jurisdictions to private companies, including foreign ones. The fine print in the contracts often prevents improvements to adjacent roads on the grounds that such enhancement would create undue competition. Private prisons generally put a quota clause into their agreements. States and municipalities may be hoping, as a matter of policy, to reduce their prison populations, but the beds in private prisons must be filled regardless."

Reading archive 2025-04-10

There Was Never a Master Plan: Trump backed down on tariffs. His supporters think that was the idea all along. - "The financier Bill Ackman, who had spent much of the past few days posting (and occasionally deleting) careful critiques of Trump's tariffs, posted, 'This was brilliantly executed by @realDonaldTrump. Textbook, Art of the Deal.' 

"What deal? Nobody has made a new trade agreement with Trump. To the contrary, other countries have found the administration unable to even articulate its goals or objectives, because Trump's 'reciprocal' tariffs are the product of a nonsensical formula putatively serving a grab bag of mutually exclusive goals."

Americans Want to Be Rich: That simple aspiration propelled Trump into office, but it is now threatened by his tariffs. - "Class-war conservatives rely on a romanticized vision of America's economic past. They long for a return to mass manufacturing employment. Yet working-class America has transitioned from manufacturing to service-sector employment for a reason: The jobs are, in general, of far higher quality. Being a nursing assistant or a maintenance worker can be just as challenging and meaningful as working in a 1950s coal mine, only the work is far less likely to leave you profoundly disabled. Today's manufacturing jobs are safer, more stimulating, more productive, and more remunerative than their mid-century equivalents. Yes, there are fewer of them, as the least safe, least stimulating, least productive, and least remunerative jobs have been either automated or offshored. We can certainly try to bring the lowest-paid, most physically demanding jobs home, perhaps by rolling back domestic labor standards or imposing a new 'robot tax' to deter labor-saving automation. But don't be surprised if those jobs become a magnet for low-skill immigrants."

Why Trump Paused the Tariffs: A stock-market swoon, or even a recession, might not frighten him, but the prospect of a 2008-style meltdown apparently still does.

High tariffs didn't make the U.S. rich in the 19th century. They won't this time.: On tariffs and 19th century economic growth - "When we look at one country in history, we face an N=1 problem. We have no control group. The late 19th century United States also featured explosive population growth, mass European immigration, rapid technological innovation, westward expansion, abundant natural resources, high literacy rates, and stable property rights. Any of these could be the real growth driver." [ed. note: hit paywall]

Justice Dept. withdraws case against alleged MS-13 leader two weeks after his arrest: Two people familiar with the matter said authorities decided to drop the case to fast-track Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos’s removal from the U.S. His lawyer asked the court to hold off on granting the government’s request, saying a case dismissal would likely lead to Villatoro Santos’s immediate deportation.

A Republican senator is taking aim at D.C. Council’s new privacy law: Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is introducing a measure to repeal a D.C. bill that significantly changes the city’s Open Meetings Act to allow council members to meet in secret.

The Smithsonian could be the beginning of Trump’s plan to edit history. Or the end.: The president may not like how the museum and research institution tells the American story — but Americans do.

Whitmer stands out from Democrats as she addresses Trump’s tariffs: The Michigan governor, a potential presidential candidate, signaled Wednesday that she sees some common ground with Trump on his trade vision. - "'As I’ve said before, I’m not against tariffs outright, but it is a blunt tool,' Whitmer said. 'You can’t just pull out the tariff hammer to swing at every problem without a clear, defined end goal.'

...

"But then, illustrating the political peril for Democrats seeking collaboration with Trump, the president signed executive actions targeting two officials who served in his previous administration and opposed actions Trump had taken. 

"'The governor was surprised that she was brought into the Oval Office during President Trump’s press conference without any notice of the subject matter,' Whitmer spokeswoman Kaylie Hanson said in a statement. 'Her presence is not an endorsement of the actions taken or statements made at that event.'

...

"Another Democrat who is considered a possible White House contender, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, directly rebuffed Whitmer’s speech.

"'The 'tariff hammer' winds up hitting your own hand rather than the nail,' Polis wrote on X. 'Tariffs are bad outright because they lead to higher prices and destroy American manufacturing.'"

Metro can’t automate more trains because some aren’t stopping in time: The rail agency is pushing back, saying automation is still much safer than human train control.

How to cook with less salt without sacrificing flavor: Use salt early to season from within, and purchase or make salt-free or reduced-sodium pantry staples.

Does beef tallow really make better french fries? We put it to the test.: Here’s how suddenly trendy beef tallow compared to canola oil in a blind french fry taste test.

At the Masters, policing language is a tradition unlike any other: There’s no rough at Augusta National; there’s a second cut. And there are no fans, only patrons. And there are no words for the pretension.

Michelle Obama addresses public absences that gave rise to divorce rumors: “People couldn’t even fathom that I was making a choice for myself...they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing,” Obama said of her newfound freedom to say “no.”

Why we assume ‘natural’ food is better, even when it’s not: Like RFK Jr., we can’t resist the idea that natural always means good, even when the evidence doesn’t agree.

Thanks, Ed Martin. You’re making defense attorneys like me look good.: Martin’s tactics and shortcomings undermine national security and the reduction of violent crime.

Redaing archive 2024-06-07

Coalition calls for delay to Rock Creek golf course rebuilding plan: D.C. residents and environmental groups say the National Park Service needs to engage more with the community about the proposed overhaul. - "The Park Service says that about half of the trees marked for removal were either dead, rotting, compromised by invasive vines or creating conditions that hampered turf growth on the course." [ed. note: dead and rotting trees are an important part of the ecosystem, and invasive vines are a problem that NPS and National Links Trust have allowed to fester]

Opinion The Biden administration is the most progressive in U.S. history: Biden’s aim: minimize the market by maximizing government’s role in allocating society’s resources

Opinion How to cover an abnormal presidential race: Could the media coverage adhere closer to reality? Hard questions must be asked. - "The United States has never had an election in which: a felon runs for president; a presidential candidate lays out a detailed plan for authoritarian rule; an entire party gaslights the public (e.g., claiming the president was behind their candidate’s state prosecution; pretending they won the last election); and, prominent leaders of one party signal they will not accept an adverse outcome in the next election. Yet, the coverage of the 2024 campaign is remarkably anodyne, if not oblivious, to the unprecedented nature of this election and its implications."

Retired judge David Tatel issues a stark warning about the Supreme Court: In a memoir, the retired D.C. Circuit judge reflects on his career and the high court, regret about initially hiding his blindness, and his love for his guide dog, Vixen.

Opinion As Biden rallies the free world, Trump serves a higher cause: Himself: In Phoenix, at his first post-conviction campaign rally, Trump portrayed a dark and desperate America.

Trump plans to claim sweeping powers to cancel federal spending: In a second term, allies said the former president would look at unilateral funding cuts for the World Health Organization and green energy initiatives.

Congress weighs delaying farm bill over SNAP and climate disputes: The sweeping agriculture law hasn’t been renewed since 2018.

Has tipping gone too far? Here’s a guide on when to tip.: Many Americans have tipping fatigue, with 1 in 3 adults calling the practice “out of control” in a recent survey. But there are good reasons to leave a gratuity.

Sen. Kaine wants more career, fewer political-fundraising ambassadors: Kaine’s bill says presidents should make competence, rather than political donations, the main qualification for ambassadors.

Reading archive 2023-05-26

LIV Golf arrives in Washington after major gains at PGA, Masters

Conservatives revolt as negotiators try to finish debt ceiling deal: Although not yet made public, the emerging agreement between McCarthy and Biden is already coming under fire from the right

Reading archive 2022-03-09

Letters from an American March 8, 2022

Oil, Gas Industry Stockpiled Drilling Leases Before Biden ‘Pause’ - "That 'makes the ‘sky is falling’ rhetoric from the industry and its allies a bit over the top,' Leshy said Thursday. 'Especially since many of the Trump-era lease offerings attracted no bids, or only minimum bids.'

"Oil and gas production was occurring on less than half of the more than 26 million acres of land already under a federal lease by the end of fiscal 2019, according to the most recent federal Bureau of Land Management data, which doesn’t include millions of acres leased in the Trump administration’s final year."

‘Massive fraud scheme’ raises questions about role of nonprofits in distributing pandemic aid

Demand for meat is destroying the Amazon. Smarter choices at the dinner table can go a long way to help.: ‘We are going to be eating the rainforest in our burgers. This is our moment as Americans to step forward and leverage some pressure to save the world,’ one scientist said.

The largest remaining tall-grass prairie in Texas is getting solar panels. Environmentalists can’t stop it.: A solar facility on a 3,594-acre tract of land has environmental groups searching for a way to save what they consider a living museum

Biden orders sweeping cryptocurrency review, setting stage for regulation: The long-awaited executive order aims to ensure that the U.S. fosters the surging industry while mitigating its potential threats.

How a Saudi challenge changed the PGA Tour and Phil Mickelson’s legacy