Reading archive 2024-05-08

Student who raised $400K for D.C. homeless man refunds money to donor:s In a series of TikTok videos, Sanai Graden says she lost touch with Alonzo Douglas Hebron, who became evasive and stopped returning her calls.

A TikToker raised $400K for an unhoused man. Then things got messy.: A viral fundraiser has become tangled in a crossfire of internet backlash and questions about who deserves help - "'No progress has been made, and that’s because of GoFundMe,' she said. 'I feel as though I am being targeted because I am African American and he’s African American, as well, and his criminal history,' she said."

Life boomed on Earth half a billion years ago. You can thank magnets.: The near collapse of Earth’s magnetic field coincided with a spike in oxygen levels and a boom in biodiversity, according to a new study.

How to avoid a contractor nightmare when electrifying your home: Seven steps to cut your energy bill, upgrade your home and bid farewell to fossil fuels.

Trump’s classified documents trial blown apart by Cannon: Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump appointee in charge of the Florida prosecution, has repeatedly given Trump’s team exactly what it wants. His fans have noticed.

Opinion  In court, Stormy Daniels pulled a Trump on Trump: As Stormy Daniels testified in the hush money case, Trump’s angry response was unmistakable.

Opinion  GOP talking points are out of date. Border crossings have plummeted.: As it turns out, having good relationships with allies matters for immigration control.

Biden to tout Microsoft AI center on site of Trump’s failed Foxconn deal: The investment is expected to create 2,000 permanent jobs and 2,300 temporary union construction jobs.

In Arizona, election workers trained with deepfakes to prepare for 2024 “By the end of the second day, you’re like: Trust no one,” said one county recorder who completed the training.

D.C. Council overrides Mayor Bowser’s veto over housing program rules: The issue was another example of the power clashes between the lawmakers and executive that tend to surface in debates over housing.

Reading archive 2024-05-07

US Army sergeant arrested in Russia accused of theft [ed. note: this fucking idiot]

Reading archive 2024-05-05

How ancient Amazonians transformed a toxic crop into a diet staple Indigenous people devised a complex, multistep process of detoxification.

DEI is getting a new name. Can it dump the political baggage?: Under mounting legal and political pressure, companies’ DEI tactics are evolving.

Opinion  U.S. productivity is popping. And it’s not because of AI.: The country is seeing a surge in small business creation.

Opinion  The ideal number of kids in a family: Four (at a minimum) [ed. note: yikes]

Opinion  The surprising reason few Americans are getting chips jobs now - "Already, the companies have struggled to hire enough construction workers, especially welders and pipe fitters. Factory openings are being delayed until 2025 or later. And the industry needs up to 70,000 new workers to run the fabrication plants, known as 'fabs.' These are not your grandparents’ manufacturing jobs. Many will be engineers and computer scientists. About 28,000 will be technicians who don’t need a four-year degree but do need specialized skills. Think of them as digital tool belt jobs: Technicians program the machines that churn out the tiny chips that are so critical to smartphones, cars and missiles."

How Pope Francis opened the Vatican to transgender sex workers: The outreach, reflecting the most radical stage of his papacy, has prompted backlash while also altering the lives of the nearly 100 people he has met.

Reading archive 2024-05-04

5 Reasons for Environmentalists to Stop Blaming "Doom & Gloom" Narratives

Why We Have Lawns

In year of budget cuts, Mayor Muriel Bowser bets big on downtown D.C.: Bowser says reviving downtown will ultimately pay dividends to all D.C. — returning the city to a period of growth that shaped the early years of her tenure. - "Bowser’s pledge that the downtown investments will uplift all neighborhoods largely stems from the fact that the city’s core has long been its economic engine. Economic activity downtown brings about $2.3 billion to the District’s coffers each year, comprising about one-fourth of D.C.’s annual local fund revenue, according to the Downtown Action Plan released by her administration and downtown business leaders in February."

He was almost off probation in a murder case. Then a judge saw his videos.: Citing social media posts in which a teenager rapped about drugs and violence, a Maryland judge declined to end his juvenile court supervision

U.S. tells Qatar to evict Hamas if it obstructs Israeli hostage deal: Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered the message to Qatar’s prime minister, a U.S. official said, signaling Washington’s impatience as cease-fire talks have languished.

Toddler fatally shot in Southeast, D.C. police say: Preliminary information indicated the girl may have been accidentally struck in an exchange of gunfire, police said.

A 3-year-old is shot to death, and D.C. reels again: ‘Everyone loved her’: Ty’ah Settles was riding in a car that got caught in the crossfire of a gun battle, police said. She was the city’s youngest homicide victim this year.

Confident of victory over Ukraine, Russia exhibits Western war trophies: The exhibition comes just ahead of a May 9 Victory Day celebration that is very different from last year’s, when Russia was facing battlefield setbacks.

University endowments show few signs of direct Israel, defense holdings: School investments are targets of Pro-Palestinian groups calling for “divestment,” even if the ties aren’t always clear.

Survivors of Oct. 7 attack sue pro-Palestinian groups in U.S.: They allege that American Muslims for Palestine and National Students for Justice in Palestine spread terrorist propaganda from Hamas at U.S. colleges.

Young mothers at risk of homelessness after D.C. program is denied funding: Program leaders have until July 1 to raise enough money to keep the homes open, or else five mothers and their babies will be displaced. - "A program is ranked by how often it is used, the rate at which people leave it for permanent housing, and how often those who leave return to another program within two years, said Tom Fredericksen, the chief of policy and programs at the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness, which coordinates the local Continuum of Care program on behalf of the city. Olaiya’s Cradle was ranked 41 out of 43 projects, documents show."

Opinion  The New York Times, alone in its outrage over access to Biden: The White House is helping set a new norm, and a dubious one at that.

Opinion  To the Gaza protesters helping to elect Trump: Give it a rest: You must have been doing for the past eight years what Trump has been doing in court the past three weeks: napping.

The children who remember their past lives: What happens when your toddler is haunted by memories that aren’t hers?

Reading archive 2024-05-02

Opinion  China already manufactures too much. Now it wants to make more. - "China confronts an economic dilemma of lagging growth, low consumption and an elevated savings rate. This is partly the result of its highly unequal economy, in which workers are paid a smaller share of what they produce than in most maturing economies. A shift toward policies that support domestic demand, such as expanding the social safety net or even direct payments to households alongside more progressive taxation, could reduce inequality, increase consumption and support more sustainable economic growth. But instead, Beijing announced at its National Party Congress last month that it would ramp up investment in advanced manufacturing to export products overseas.

...

"Chinese manufacturing is more carbon-intensive than that of the United States and other nations. According to a 2021 study, solar panels manufactured in China produce 30 percent more emissions than those manufactured in the United States. And, as Matthew C. Klein recently explained, those who cheer the disparity between Chinese production and consumption of clean energy technologies tend to assume that 'the green transition requires that Chinese workers be exploited.'"

Reading archive 2024-05-01

Brave Little Hunter is free: Baby orca escapes lagoon for open seas

Finding space for wind farms might be easier than we thought - "But the huge structures topped with massive rotating blades only take up five percent of the land where they’ve been built, new research shows

"The rest of the space can be used for other purposes, such as agriculture, according to a study published recently in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Technology."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene launches her plan to oust Speaker Johnson: But Democrats have promised to ride to the House speaker’s rescue, at least for now

Two teens arrested in shooting during school ‘skip day’ at Md. park: Greenbelt police announced arrests after five teens were shot and wounded at Schrom Hills Park on April 19.

An assassination plot on American soil reveals a darker side of Modi’s India

Opinion  How the right U.S. chip strategy can keep Taiwan free

Journalism professors call on New York Times to review Oct. 7 report: A major investigative report into sexual violence in the Hamas attack on Israel has drawn criticism inside and outside

Bill Barr doesn’t mind a little autocracy if your politics are right

Tensions grow between Trump and Lake in Arizona race for Senate: The former president fears that GOP candidate Kari Lake might not win and will drag down his own prospects in the battleground state

America’s appetite for McMansions is devouring modern architecture: Chris Pratt demolishing a mid-century treasure is part of a larger, disturbing trend

Trump admits he told Secret Service to take him to Capitol on Jan 6 in rambling campaign rally: ‘It’s not my deal. I’m a lover, not a fighter,’ Mr Trump told a crowd of supporters in Wisconsin about his actions on January 6

How an inclusive gym brand became a battlefield over LGBTQ+ rights: At least 54 threats have been received by Planet Fitness locations following attacks by far-right influencer Chaya Raichik

Reading archive 2024-04-30

The threat: In a time of rising anger, what happened to one man who threatened Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene

In war-battered Gaza, residents grow angry with Hamas - "The attack, a terrifying rampage through southern Israeli communities, initially boosted the group’s support in both Gaza and the West Bank, according the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, which carried out polling in late November and early December.

"Even recently, in a poll conducted over five days in March, a majority of respondents in both places say Hamas’s decision to carry out the attack was 'correct.'"

Six people wounded by gunfire outside Dupont-area club

Opinion  Is the sun slowly setting on U.S. power? That depends on us.

Chiropractor works on giraffe, is nuzzled: ‘Giraffes are just giant dogs?’: Three quick videos of Joren Whitley adjusting Gerry the giraffe’s neck and jaw have been together viewed more than 48 million times on TikTok

5,000 miles away, a Michigan mayor at the center of the Gaza storm: Navigating between residents’ rage over Gaza and Democrats’ fears of Trump, Abdullah Hammoud must decide whether to back Biden in the fall - "Hammoud has also distanced himself on occasion from the more hard-hitting rhetoric coming from his community. When video emerged earlier this month of protesters in Dearborn chanting 'Death to Israel' and 'Death to America,' Hammoud publicly condemned it.

...

"Until the Gaza war, Hammoud considered Biden one of the best American presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt. His city has won tens of millions of dollars in grants under Biden’s infrastructure law. His residents have benefited from the president’s health reforms, including a $35 cap on insulin prices."

Biden roasts Trump (in a serious way) at annual press dinner: At the White House correspondents’ dinner, the president chuckled at his opponent’s expense but made it clear Donald Trump is no joke - "Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) gave a report on his own encounter with the protesters outside: 'I asked them about what was happening in Sudan. And they yelled louder. And then I asked them about the concentration camps full of Uyghurs. And they yelled louder. And then I went inside.'"

With U.S. aid resumed, Ukraine will try to dig itself out of trouble: Washington says Kyiv must address critical manpower shortages and shore up its defenses to enable major offensives in the future