Reading archive 2021-07-31

In D.C., high-profile crimes spur hard conversations: ‘Walk a mile in my shoes’

When will the summer coronavirus surge peak? It will get worse before it gets better, experts predict.

Reading archive 2021-07-30

Opinion: In vaccine-resistant Alabama, hospitals face a two-front war

These self-described trolls tackle climate disinformation on social media with wit and memes: Environmental activists, researchers, lawmakers and others are haunting corporate social media feeds to push back against greenwashing - "Oil and gas companies spent decades privately researching the effects of global warming and adapting their businesses, extensive research has shown. Publicly, giants like Shell, BP, ExxonMobil have sown climate change denial and portrayed themselves as allies of the environment while knowingly acting against its interests, said Genevieve Guenther, founder of the advocacy group End Climate Silence."

CDC study shows three-fourths of people infected in Massachusetts covid-19 outbreak were vaccinated but few required hospitalization

Opinion: Is D.C. wasting money on violence reduction programs? - "If recent events were not enough justification for such spending, the numbers should be: D.C. has seen about a 10 percent increase in the year-over-year homicide rate for the past three years. There’s only one problem. That same data shows that the city’s violence interrupter programs, one run by the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, and Cure the Streets, run out of the Office of the D.C. Attorney General, aren’t doing what they claim: preventing violence. Rather, they may be merely dispersing it, spreading the killings to nearby areas that previously did not have any."

China built the world’s largest facial recognition system. Now, it’s getting camera-shy.

Opinion: The Chesapeake Bay’s menhaden are in trouble

Trump to acting AG, according to aide’s notes: ‘Just say the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me’

Disney blasts Scarlett Johansson over Black Widow streaming lawsuit

Reading archive 2021-07-29

What is happening to the District’s personal income tax base?

FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE: Wildfires need fuel to burn. A key way to get rid of that fuel is to set it ablaze, very carefully.

Latino museum backers are pushing for a prime spot on the National Mall. But a turf war is looming.

jonetta rose barras: DC budget politics - "Initial passage this week of the Homes and Hearts Amendment Act by an 8-to-5 vote was declared a victory by lawmakers and advocates, many of whom are employed at nonprofit organizations that could benefit directly from the infusion of additional cash. There are more than 11,000 nonprofit corporations in the city, according to the DC Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO). In 2018, they outnumbered restaurants."

Reading archive 2021-07-28

Simone Biles said she got the ‘twisties.’ Gymnasts immediately understood.

Where was Caeleb Dressel? Question looms after U.S. 4x200 relay misses medal.

Pac-12 Leaders Suggest Realignment Response as SEC Growth May Compromise CFP Expansion: Texas and Oklahoma's imminent move to the SEC is only the beginning. The Pac-12, while comfortable with its core group, is also listening to expansion suitors of its own.

Republicans voice opposition to Jan. 6 investigation as police officers call for accountability - "The Capitol Police Board controls security at the Capitol. On Jan. 6, the board consisted of the House sergeant-at-arms, Paul D. Irving, who was hired under Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), and the Senate sergeant-at-arms, Michael Stenger, who was hired in 2018 when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was majority leader."

China hosts Taliban leaders as U.S. withdraws troops from Afghanistan

Our democracy is under attack. Washington journalists must stop covering it like politics as usual. - "As a model, they might have to swallow their big-media pride and look to places like Harrisburg, Pa., public radio station WITF which has admirably explained to its audience why it continually offers reminders about the actions of those public officials who tried to overturn the 2020 election results. Or to Cleveland Plain Dealer editor Chris Quinn’s letter to readers about how the paper and its website, Cleveland.com, refuse to cover every reckless, attention-getting lie of Republican Josh Mandel as he runs for the U.S. Senate next year."

Illegal cannabis growers are stealing water amid California’s drought, officials say - "In a recent sting in Antelope Valley in northern Los Angeles County, federal, state and local law enforcement officers disrupted hundreds of allegedly illegal marijuana cultivations in the area. They arrested 131 people and seized 65 vehicles, including two water trucks. Authorities recovered $28,000, 33,480 pounds of marijuana and dozens of firearms. Nineteen people were charged with water theft."

"You might not like it, but it’s smart politics.": 'Twas the savvy style that led the political press astray. By the time Trump showed up, they were too far gone to realize it. - "Recently someone else asked me for three or four changes in political journalism that might begin to right this ship. (Emphasis on begin to…) To wind this up, here is what I told him: Defense of democracy seen as basic to the job. Symmetrical accounts of asymmetrical realities seen as malpractice. 'Politics as strategic game' frame seen as low quality, downmarket, amateurish, silly— and overmatched. Bad actors with a history of misinforming the public seen as unsuitable sources and unwelcome guests."

Reading archive 2021-07-27

"Liberals against retirement 

"For conservative Supreme Court justices, 80 is effectively retirement age. 

"After Anthony Kennedy turned 80, he stepped down at the first convenient moment — in 2018, when a Republican was in the White House and the court wasn’t already welcoming a first-year justice. Warren Burger and Lewis Powell both retired at 79, during Ronald Reagan’s second term. Sandra Day O’Connor left the court at 75, during George W. Bush’s presidency. 

"To put the pattern in its starkest terms, no modern conservative justice has forfeited the chance to be replaced by a Republican president after turning 80. That’s part of the reason that Democratic presidents have so rarely had the chance to flip a court seat: The conservative justices try not to let it happen. 

"Several liberal justices have taken a different approach. John Paul Stevens could have retired at age 80 during Bill Clinton’s presidency but did not. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, having been diagnosed with cancer, could have retired at 81 during Barack Obama’s presidency but did not. And Stephen Breyer, now 82, could have announced his retirement this summer, with Joe Biden in the White House and the Democrats narrowly controlling the Senate, but Breyer has not. 

"There is no one explanation for the pattern. It involves so few people that it may partly be a coincidence. Whatever the reasons, though, it has huge consequences for the country." [ed. note: from NYT The Morning]

 - "As a result, the Soviets crushed countries that didn’t invest in female athletes. And if the West wanted to challenge the Eastern bloc in the medal race, they were going to have to find a way around those pesky amateurism rules, short of providing women with scholarships and other kinds of material support. For American women, the answer was simple: Use child athletes."

Time For The End Of The Teen Gymnast: Girls in gymnastics start very young and specialize very early, but that wasn’t always the case.

Reading archive 2021-07-26

An unvaccinated radio host is sick with covid. His family is ‘elated’ listeners are now getting the vaccine.

In Official Washington, Chasten Buttigieg is a stranger in a (very) strange land

Democrats move to elevate Cheney’s role on Jan. 6 committee, giving her prime speaking slot Tuesday

Reading archive 2021-07-25

‘Complete, dysfunctional chaos’: Oklahoma reels after Supreme Court ruling on Indian tribes - "The Supreme Court’s landmark decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma said prosecution of Native Americans for crimes in the expanded Indian country must be carried out in federal and tribal courts, rather than by state or local officials. It was celebrated across the country by Native Americans last July, who saw it as a historic affirmation of treaties signed with the U.S. government in the 1800s.

"But in the year since, the ruling has upended Oklahoma’s criminal justice system, imperiled convictions in thousands of cases, sowed confusion for police and emergency responders and led to the direct release of more than 50 criminals convicted on charges including second-degree murder and child abuse, state records show."