Reading archive 2023-05-17

In Black-led Compton, a Latino majority fights for political power: The city known for its Black culture has flipped majority Latino, but its leadership remains all Black. A group of Latino vaqueros want to change that. - "The city’s leadership still reflects its demographic past, with an all-Black city council and school board. It has never had a Latino mayor. ...

"'It’s like 'Game of Thrones' We have to keep this power. We have to keep the little bit that we have, which is all we have,” said Nina Childs, a Black local activist and filmmaker. 'And we’re not giving it up.' 

"The story of people of color calling on White leaders to cede power for more diverse representation is deeply rooted in American history. But Compton reflects a newer power struggle, which experts say the nation may see more of in the years to come as traditional White and Black strongholds grow more Latino and the Latino community demands more political representation. ...

"Latinos should have representation in leadership, she said, 'but as a Black woman I have to advocate for the representation of the people that look like me.' 

"Childs chimed in: 'We want you [Latinos] to have representation too. It’s just having to be the right representation.'" []

Computer in Russia breached Metro system amid security concerns, report says: The inspector general’s report surfaced deep-rooted problems that the watchdog’s officials say leave the transit agency open to attacks that could threaten train safety - "Those subpoenaed records showed more than one-third of background checks used the same last four digits of a social security number. Metro pledged to resolve the vulnerabilities."

Meet the Red Bike Guy, who in a viral video heckled white nationalists: D.C. resident Joe Flood said when he noticed counterprotesters weren’t present, he felt it was his duty to say something

Opinion  I’ve never seen the Kremlin so rattled

Mother whose son died in D.C. police chase is charged in courtroom outburst - "After the complaint was filed May 4, a summons was issued, ordering her to appear in U.S. District Court. But a prosecutor and a federal public defender told a judge Wednesday that authorities have been unable to locate Hylton to serve the summons." [ed. note: in the trial against the officers convicted of killing the guy via chase, "The judge would not allow jurors to be told that, at the time of the crash, Hylton-Brown was wearing an ankle monitor as part of his release in a criminal case and was carrying $3,128 in cash."]

Opinion  Bring the Commanders home

Reading archive 2023-05-16

Which fruits and vegetables are best to plant for the environment

Liberals grow fearful Biden may reward GOP for weaponizing debt ceiling: White House spurs concerns among Democratic allies as negotiators weigh new limits on spending in deal with Republicans

Opinion  How I became a ‘Christian nationalist’ [ed. note: author fluffs an issue with defining white Christian nationalism into conclusion that it hardly exists]

Ukraine intercepts missiles as Russia steps up strikes on Kyiv

IRS tests free e-filing system that could compete with tax-prep giants: The prototype program developed by the federal government could be available for a small group of taxpayers by January

Ja Morant’s friends aren’t the problem. His judgment is.

The odyssey of Hunter Dickinson, sponsored by college sports lunacy

Zelensky toured Europe seeking new weapons. Here’s what he came home with.

Reading archive 2023-05-15

Feds release updated $8.8 billion redevelopment plan for Union Station: The revised vision for the rail station includes less parking, an underground drop-off area, and integrated bus, pedestrian and bike access

"The biggest mistake moderate Democrats are making is that they are governing to preserve institutional credibility while hoping that Trumpism will blow over, rather than preparing with grim fortitude for a society-wide confrontation with a fascist movement playing for keeps. /1 ...

"It's time to understand that the battle isn't just to win the next election. You can't win EVERY election. There are too many variables. Also, the fascist fever isn't breaking. The battle is to stop the coup. That means changing the institutions to make the coup impossible. /9 ...

"That means BIG STRUCTURAL CHANGE, even if it feels a bit destabilizing. It means expanding the court, adding states, ditching blue slips, killing the filibuster, invoking the 14th, adding requirements for police hiring, and honestly talking about what the GOP is doing. /10"

Metro moving toward rail car design that allows for more space: Transit officials visited a rail yard in New York to see subway cars that use the "open gangway” style Metro is considering for its 8000 series cars

D.C. leaders to decide fate of long-planned K Street Transitway project: Amid a tight budget, some lawmakers want to pause one of the mayor’s most prized projects and use the money for other priorities - "A rendering Lott tweeted this month shows a more car-centric corridor, one that critics say goes against the District’s vision for a more pedestrian- and bike-friendly city. The image shows seven car lanes, an expansion from the design finalized in December that sketched five car lanes, including a parking lane. 

"'That’s more lanes of traffic than 295, Route 50, or any of our arterial streets,' Allen said. 'They’re putting in a K Street freeway. That’s not what we need.'"

Biden team aims to compete in North Carolina, test ground in Florida: The strategy could provide alternate paths to victory if the president falters in other battleground states

Church and state: Republicans revel in divine plan to turn Kansas into ‘conservative sanctuary’: Weeklong series to examine influence of religious beliefs on policy decisions at Statehouse

Opinion  His name is Kennedy. His campaign is pure Trump.

Vietnam is going all-in on a climate-change resistant coffee bean

He defied Alzheimer’s for two decades. Scientists want to know how.: Rare resilient patients may help researchers develop new therapies for the devastating disease

North Carolina beach houses have fallen into the ocean. Is there a fix?: New studies show that both beach nourishments and buyouts in Rodanthe, N.C., will be costly. But no funding for any fix is in sight.

Opinion  Why do Americans want guns? It comes down to one word. - "For all the talk of protection, gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States. Yet over and over, people told me they needed their guns to keep themselves safe."

DeSantis might have met his match in Disney’s Iger as both sides dig in: ‘The mouse brought in the big guns,’ a former Democratic state senator said

Clarence Thomas, Harlan Crow, and Leonard Leo’s Defenders Cannot Be Serious: Pretending the question here is whether the conservative activists had “business before the court” is absurd.

Clarence Thomas Reversed Position After Gifts And Family Payments: The Supreme Court justice switched sides on a landmark legal doctrine, satisfying his benefactors’ conservative advocacy machine.

Reading archive 2023-05-14

Soft Landings Diverse Native Plantings Under Keystone Trees

If You Stop Mowing This May, Will Your Lawn Turn Into a Meadow?: Not necessarily. Two new books offer some advice on what to expect when you decide to leave your lawn behind.

Neighbors Fight Over No Mow May: ‘What in the World Is Happening in This Place?’: Some say a break from grass cutting helps nature —others abhor the ‘shaggy raggy’ look - "Dr. Tallamy sees little logic in letting lawns grow longer for a few weeks. If people simply let their grass grow for a month and then revert to a clipped green monoculture, they are teasing pollinators with short-term snacks followed by starvation, he said. A nonprofit he co-founded, Homegrown National Park, urges homeowners to reduce space devoted to regularly clipped grass, add native plants and remove invasive ones."

Phosphorus Saved Our Way of Life—and Now Threatens to End: It Fertilizers filled with the nutrient boosted our ability to feed the planet. Today, they’re creating vast and growing dead zones in our lakes and seas. - "In a toxic algae bloom, tiny photosynthetic organisms reproduce explosively, then throw off chemicals that, in addition to nausea, can cause brain and liver damage. And, when the algae die en masse, a fresh hell ensues. Their decomposition sucks oxygen out of the water, creating aquatic dead zones where almost nothing can survive. ...

"In terms of CO2 emissions, corn-based biofuels are probably worse than gasoline; getting rid of them would thus benefit both the climate and the country’s waterways."

The composition of British bird communities is associated with long-term garden bird feeding

Bird Feeders Are Good for Some Species—But Possibly Bad for Others: Studies of bird feeding in the U.K. raise concerns about the ecological impacts of provisioning our feathered friends - "As feeding has ramped up over the past 25 years, they wrote, populations of adaptable and aggressive generalists—Great Tits, Eurasian Nuthatches and invasive Ring-necked Parakeets—have skyrocketed by 40 percent, 83 percent and 1,480 percent, respectively. Meanwhile woodland species that avoid feeders, such as the Wood Warbler and Marsh Tit, have suffered sharp declines. Willow Tits increasingly lose nest holes to feeder-using Blue Tits and lose hatchlings to hungry Great Spotted Woodpeckers, another feeder-using species whose numbers have jumped by almost 150 percent in the past 25 years. U.K. Willow Tit populations have crashed by 87 percent in the same time period. In essence, the researchers argue, the commercial feeding industry in the U.K. seems to have helped aggressive generalists take over entire bird communities and spill out from gardens into unprovisioned wildernesses."

Should we let nature feed the birds?: Exploring the problems posed by bird feeders

Her tiny native plant habitat garden is flourishing. And she didn’t even need a yard

Decline in wild bee species richness associated with honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) abundance in an urban ecosystem - "Although wild bee populations can fluctuate largely in space and time, our analyses of the bee and floral community in 2020, and the comparison to the bee community in 2013, strongly suggests a negative relationship between high-density urban beekeeping and wild bee richness."

7 doomsday scenarios if the U.S. crashes through the debt ceiling: Economists warn of worst-case outcomes should Congress fail to raise the federal borrowing limit by the “X-date” deadline

After red-state shootings, gun-control advocates see glimmers of change - "Between 2020 and 2022, death rates from firearms in states with GOP-controlled legislatures outpaced rates in blue states, according to a Post analysis of CDC data, including about a 50 percent higher rate of deaths from firearm assaults and around a 35 percent higher rate of mass killings."

Opinion  11 questions I wish Trump had been asked at the CNN town hall

Football bonded them. Its violence tore them apart.: They were roommates and teammates at Harvard, bound by their love of football and each other. Then the game -- and the debate over its safety -- took its toll. [ed. note: THE DEAD EX-PLAYER'S SON PLAYS FOOTBALL WITH THE WIFE'S BLESSING EVEN THOUGH THEY KNOW THE DEPRESSION AND ALCOHOLISM ARE FROM CTE]

How a rural Arkansas prosecutor advocated for her pedophile uncle: One of Barry Walker’s victims, now 22, blamed those close to Walker for not stopping him before he sexually abused more than 30 girls. “They failed us,” she told NBC News.

Reading archive 2023-05-13

MLK’s famous criticism of Malcolm X was a ‘fraud,’ author finds

With MLK and Malcolm X revelations, Alex Haley’s legacy takes new hit: Before questions about his Playboy interview with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Haley faced charges of plagiarism and inaccuracy in ‘Roots’ - "The book was an enormous success, though book reviewers and booksellers were confused about whether to classify it as fiction or nonfiction. Haley didn’t help matters with his insistence that while the dialogue was imagined it was all factually correct; he called it 'faction.'"

Opinion  The day free-market Republicans became Soviet economic planners

Alleged leaker fixated on guns and envisioned ‘race war’: Videos and chat logs reveal Jack Teixeira’s preparations for a violent social conflict, his racist thinking and a deep suspicion of the government he served

Reading archive 2023-05-12

Opinion  What does the GOP have on Biden? A whole lot of nothin’. - "It is also apparently true, as Comer revealed with great fanfare, that Hunter Biden, 'other Bidens' and 'Biden associates' at various times formed more than 20 companies to conduct business transactions — akin, on a much smaller scale, to the roughly 500 such business entities established by Trump. ...

"Comer vows to continue the so-far fruitless hunt. I have an idea: Why doesn’t he examine how President Donald Trump protected Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from meaningful international censure following the murder of Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi — and how the Saudis later invested $2 billion in the start-up hedge fund launched by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner?"

Opinion  U.K. Conservatives head right for the exit

Anderson Cooper scolds critics of CNN’s town hall with Trump: "Do you think staying in your silo ... is going to make that person go away?” Anderson Cooper asked his viewers the day after CNN’s widely reviled town hall with Donald Trump.

CNN leadership under fire after ‘disastrous’ Trump town hall: A furious backlash raised questions about the future of chief executive Chris Licht and the larger challenges facing the news media going into the 2024 election

Ukraine’s cultural counteroffensive: The rush to erase Russia’s imprint

Reading archive 2023-05-11

‘Afrofuturism’ navigates past, present and future of Black experience: Exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture examines history through the lens of the imagination

Mother of 6-year-old who shot Va. teacher says her son has ADHD

One butterfly to rule them all? Scientists introduce the world to Saurona.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins tried, and tried, to rebut Trump’s election lies: Collins, one of the network’s rising stars, attempted to meet the former president’s stream of falsehoods during Wednesday’s live town hall with composure and tough questions

D.C. hopes possible ‘Caribbean-like’ resort would bring economic boost

Bowser to propose law making it easier to detain people before trial

Opinion  Donald Trump steamrolls CNN’s town hall

Analysis: CNN faces harsh criticism after Trump unleashed a firehose of lies during its live town hall

To meet EV demand, industry turns to technology long deemed hazardous: Indonesia is richly endowed with nickel, but refining this crucial mineral poses a daunting environmental challenge

See how a quick-fix climate solution could also trigger war

We need an area the size of Texas for wind and solar. Here’s how to halve it.