Reading archive 2026-01-30

Don Lemon arrested by federal officials in connection with church protest: The former CNN host was taken into custody in Los Angeles.

As ‘Heated Rivalry’ takes off, the NHL faces questions about inclusion: The hit show about a romance between two professional hockey players has brought new fans to a sport that has struggled to welcome the LGBTQ+ community.

Virginia Democrats seek emergency halt to ruling that blocks redistricting: A motion filed with the Virginia Court of Appeals on behalf of House Speaker Don Scott argues that a circuit court judge is interfering with the democratic process.

Tulsi Gabbard’s appearance at Fulton County FBI raid raises questions: Lawmakers called for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to explain the presence of the country’s top spy agency official at a domestic law enforcement action in Georgia.

Attending a Protest

The New Shadowbanning Panic: Is TikTok censoring users on behalf of the Trump administration?

What Tearing Down Housing Projects Did for Kids: Bringing rich and poor together has major benefits. - "There is another process that improves neighborhoods around poor children, both by bringing higher-income peers nearer to them and by reducing the violence they are exposed to. This process often occurs without explicit governmental intervention or cost. The problem is that it is regularly dismissed as gentrification, a phenomenon that is not usually cheered. The most common objection to gentrification is that it results in displacement of incumbent residents. The empirical evidence for this is weaker than conventionally assumed. One paper examining children who received Medicaid benefits in New York City from 2009 to 2015 found no elevated rates of moving for those in gentrifying neighborhoods. The HOPE VI study suggests that gentrification should improve outcomes for kids, so long as it actually improves social integration."

America Can Have the Oil: Venezuela’s riches were squandered, souring many on national stewardship.

Battles Are Raging Inside the Department of Homeland Security: Officials overseeing Trump’s mass-deportation campaign are fighting one another for power.

Why the moral corruption of MAGA is so deadly

Heartwarming: Miserable Man Frustrated In Ultimately Insignificant Way

Pluralistic: Sorry, eh (13 Jan 2026) - "I'm sorry. As a technology writer, I'm supposed to be telling you that this bet will some day pay off, because one day we will have shoveled so many words into the word-guessing program that it wakes up and learns how to actually do the jobs it is failing spectacularly at today. This is a proposition akin to the idea that if we keep breeding horses to run faster and faster, one of them will give birth to a locomotive. Humans possess intelligence, and machines do not. The difference between a human and a word-guessing program isn't how many words the human knows."

At Yosemite, Rangers Are Scarce and Visitors Have Gone Wild: After the Trump administration’s cuts, workers at the national park are spread too thin to stop people from littering, flying drones and cliff-diving.

A cloud of fear hangs over Minnesota immigrant communities: Even citizens are afraid to go outside

Gingrich: Time for ‘national conversation’ about immigrants living in country illegally who ‘obey the law’

Reading archive 2022-05-02

The drug trade now flourishing in Afghanistan: Meth Long a hub for opium production, the country could fuel a new global drug crisis

The ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ was never alive, Ukrainian air force says

After recession, a Black business boom: Black entrepreneurs who expanded during covid now face the challenge of labor shortages, supply chain delays and inflation

Israel wants apology after Russia’s Lavrov compares Zelensky to Hitler: ‘So what if Zelensky is Jewish,’ Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a television interview

Trump makes closing pitch for Nebraska candidate accused of groping: The former president is campaigning for Charles Herbster for governor with less than two weeks until the primary - "He mentioned his preferred candidates in other states including Ohio, which is holding a closely watched Republican Senate primary Tuesday. Trump recently endorsed author and venture capitalist J.D. Vance but on Sunday appeared to momentarily conflate his name with Josh Mandel, a rival Republican candidate. 'We’ve endorsed J.P., right? J.D. Mandel,' said Trump, who in the same rally mocked President Biden for stumbling over his words."

They support Ukraine. So they can’t support Alex Ovechkin.

Same name, new world: This basketball star’s uncle ran a polygamist cult. He hopes to help bring his small Utah town into a more modern world.

Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows: "We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled," Justice Alito writes in an initial majority draft circulated inside the court.

Reading archive 2020-02-27

Opinion: For bulldogs and some other breeds, man hasn’t been the best friend - "Its genes are replete with inbred ills, and the dogs — no matter how well-loved — all too frequently live short, difficult and unhealthy lives. That’s why a Norwegian court recently ordered a halt to further breeding of the dog — and the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, too — within that country, saying it amounts to cruelty to animals."

Opinion: What gay men’s stunning success might teach us about the academic gender gap

Opinion: Putin thinks he can win a new Cold War. He may be right. - "We won the Cold War not because we had better soldiers or more reliable weapons or more disposable income, although all of those were advantages. We won because we were right.

...

"There’s a pinched view on the left that America faces a choice between restoring its own liberties and protecting them around the world. 'The primary conflict between democracy and authoritarianism,' Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote in Foreign Affairs last June, arguing against a Cold War with China, 'is taking place not between countries but within them — including in the United States.' 

"If this was true before Putin’s Ukrainian gambit, then it isn’t now. The United States shouldn’t have to choose domestic investment over confrontation with global bullies; we can, and have, done both. We can afford to do it again."

The self-styled ‘Freedom Convoy’ rumbled up at an inopportune time for U.S.-Canada trade

This rural news start-up has two reporters and an editor with no broadband. Already, it’s made an impact.: In western Virginia, veterans of a once-great newspaper are starting something small with big ambitions for serving Appalachian readers.

‘Traumaversaries’ can be hard. Here’s how 4 sexual assault survivors honor theirs.

Barr calls prospect of Trump running for president again ‘dismaying,’ says GOP should ‘look forward’ to others

Opinion: The saddest irony of Putin’s war on Ukraine

RT was Russia’s answer to CNN. Now its pro-Putin spin on Ukraine is sparking new outrage.: Whether defending Putin or downplaying the war, the Kremlin-backed global news organization is drawing louder accusations of propaganda.

Opinion: The GOP’s real fear about Judge Jackson? That she’s every bit as good as Biden says.

Alex Ovechkin’s voice is powerful. His comments on Ukraine were a missed opportunity.

13 days: Inside Biden’s last-ditch attempts to stop Putin in Ukraine: A pair of urgent Situation Room meetings and the days that followed provide a revealing window into the Biden administration’s unsuccessful scramble to deter a full-scale Russian invasion

Putin says he will ‘denazify’ Ukraine. Here’s the history behind that claim.

Historic sanctions on Russia had roots in emotional appeal from Zelensky:: A video call by the Ukrainian wartime leader prompted jaded European leaders to act

Kosovo asks U.S. for permanent military base, speedier NATO membership

A Team Of American And British Special Forces Veterans Are Preparing To Join Ukraine’s Fight Against Russia: The group of 10 NATO-trained war veterans are taking up President Volodymyr Zelensky’s offer for people to join a new unit of foreign fighters for Ukraine.

‘Just short of nuclear’: the latest financial sanctions will cripple Russia’s economy