Reading archive 2024-03-31

Opinion  Want your city to thrive? Start by rethinking parking lots.

Biden’s plan for Gaza pier endangers U.S. troops, experts warn: Skeptics fear the humanitarian operation will be an enticing target for Hamas or other militants

Indoor farms are remaking the produce market — at a cost to the planet: Amid drought and record heat, high-tech greenhouses and vertical farms boast of being a more climate-friendly way to grow. But they come with an environmental toll. - "Energy use in the industry varies widely depending on greenhouse size and what crops are being grown. A study of 12 indoor farms by the nonprofit Resource Innovation Institute found that five of them used as much energy per square foot as a hospital. One vertical farm, an outlier, was guzzling as much energy per square foot as a data center.

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"In Westbrook, Maine, Vertical Harvest is building a four-story, 52,000-square-foot vertical farm and is negotiating a deal to supply it with renewable energy. However, company leaders said they can’t apply the same strategy to their next project, in Detroit, where the state’s energy mix is heavy on fossil fuels and the company can’t choose its electricity provider."

Reading archive 2024-03-30

Confronting introduced species: a form of xenophobia?

Half of senior staffers in Congress are so fed up that they may quit: Capitol Hill aides worry that lawmakers have increased their bombast so much that it makes it harder to do their jobs

GOP lawmakers replace trustees at historically Black college in Tennessee - "'Some years, the University of Tennessee even got more than its required funding levels,' Pearson said. 'But Tennessee State University was denied those resources, and because they were denied the resources, there were problems that occurred.'"

China is all in on green tech. The U.S. and Europe fear unfair competition.

Reading archive 2024-03-29

Preparing for a China war, the Marines are retooling how they’ll fight: U.S. troops are preparing for conflict on an island-hopping battlefield across Asia, against an enemy force that has home-field advantage

Biden’s $7.5 billion investment in EV charging has only produced 7 stations in two years: The network of fast chargers promised by the Biden Administration has had a painfully slow rollout

US sanctions two Russians for impersonating media outlets

Court ruling on ultra-Orthodox in the army imperils Netanyahu’s coalition - "In a decision that has deep ramifications for society — not to mention Netanyahu’s government — Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the suspension of state subsidies for ultra-Orthodox Jews studying in yeshivas instead of doing military service."

Electric trucks get a boost from Biden, worrying trucking industry: The EPA rule, which follows a separate one on cars, seeks a rapid transition away from diesel-powered trucks, vans and buses.

Reading archive 2024-03-28

Trump calls his globe-trotting ex-diplomat ‘my envoy.’ Neither is in office.: Richard Grenell is meeting with far-right foreign leaders, attacking President Biden and offering a glimpse at what U.S. foreign policy could be like in a second Trump term

GOP official who claimed 2020 election was stolen voted illegally 9 times, judge rules

The men who fell from that bridge are the people who build our nation: You can’t pray for the workers in Baltimore and also be against their dream to come to America

Republicans put forth unfounded and sometimes racist theories on bridge collapse

NBC offered Ronna McDaniel a better contract to appear on MSNBC: The cable channel was part of the broad push to clinch a contributor deal for McDaniel, whose hiring caused an uproar

Judge recommends conservative lawyer John Eastman be disbarred in California

Amid U.S.-Israeli strains, Pentagon pushes for a new approach in Gaza: The Biden administration fears a major military offensive in Rafah will worsen what’s already a grave humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian enclave

Opinion  Trump’s anti-Ukraine view dates to the 1930s. America rejected it then. Will we now?

Reading archive 2024-03-27

Study finds 3 big risk factors for dementia - "Diabetes, air pollution and alcohol consumption could be the biggest risk factors for dementia, a study has found."

Sick of flat tires, he’s picked up 400 pounds of metal bits with his bike: Alex Benigno hits the streets every day collecting loose debris with magnets attached to his ride

What we know about Diddy’s sex trafficking allegations: Before federal agents raided Sean Combs’s homes on Monday, the famed producer had been accused of sex trafficking in several recent lawsuits

Democrat who ran heavily on abortion rights, IVF wins Alabama special election: Marilyn Lands won a decisive victory in a state House district that Donald Trump narrowly won in 2020

The House GOP thought it was moving past internal drama. Then more showed up.: Republicans are once again dealing with the threat of removal for the speaker while critical legislation faces an unclear future

Kari Lake and the Trump movement’s billion-dollar defamation problem

Americans who’ve given up religion often point to anti-LGBTQ+ teachings: The unaffiliated skew younger, and younger Americans are more likely to reject moral condemnations of same-sex relationships

Alexandria, Va., nixes Caps, Wizards arena, killing plan to move teams there

Daniel Kahneman, Nobel laureate who upended economics, dies at 90: He found that people rely on shortcuts that often lead them to make wrongheaded decisions that go against their own best interest

Reading archive 2024-03-26

As coal companies point fingers, Wyoming County residents say they’re being poisoned by a contaminated creek: A year ago, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection ordered a coal mining company to stop polluted water from flooding into the Indian Creek area. But people nearby say as contaminants spread, their health and safety problems have worsened. - "As the coal industry has inevitably declined, courts have allowed bankrupt coal companies to evade restoring the lands they’ve damaged. Groups that promote clean water have also warned that state officials were failing to plan ahead by conserving funds for abandoned mine cleanups."

Why the Supreme Court abortion pill case is so fraught for the right

NBC facing on-air ‘insurrection’ over hiring of Ronna McDaniel: Rachel Maddow, other MSNBC hosts raised on-air objections Monday, saying the former RNC chair’s past support of election-fraud claims should disqualify her as a paid pundit

How to keep your kidneys working well: Hydration and exercise are just two of the keys to reducing the risk of kidney disease

Young people are getting Botox to prevent wrinkles. Does it work? Many dermatologists and plastic surgeons say preventative Botox can temporarily stop wrinkles from forming. But there are no high-quality clinical trials on the treatment.

‘The Truth vs. Alex Jones’: How Sandy Hook lies got peddled for profit: A new HBO documentary about the right-wing conspiracy theorist behind Infowars explores the mainstreaming of ‘grift’ in a post-truth era

She recalled attacker’s hand gesture. Police say it helped solve 2 sex assaults.: The woman’s description of the man who tried to sexually assault her sounded familiar to a Northern Virginia Community College detective, who helped investigators identify a suspect in that and another case, police say.

Qatari royal invested about $50 million in pro-Trump network Newsmax: Before and after the investment, senior newsroom leaders urged Newsmax staff to soften coverage of Qatar, current and former employees said

This $20 fix will improve your shower and cut your water bill

People Hate the Idea of Car-Free Cities—Until They Live in One: Removing cars from urban areas means lower carbon emissions, less air pollution, and fewer road traffic accidents. So why are residents so resistant?

Reading archive 2024-03-25

Is Kevin Hart funny?: He’s getting the Mark Twain Prize for humor. That, and $4 billion at the box office, must mean something … right?

D.C. AG to Leonsis: Caps, Wizards can’t leave arena for 23 years: Monumental Sports says it ‘fundamentally’ disagrees with the attorney general’s opinion

A woman lost $789K in a gold bar scam, police say. Then she turned the tables.: Police say an undercover detective posed as a fraud victim in her 60s to catch the alleged scammer

‘Hail Mary’ paired arena with Tysons casino. Youngkin and Leonsis say no.: Idea was pitched by the casino’s developer, a top Democrat and their consultant — who also works for the arena’s chief “roadblock”

3 Maryland middle-schoolers charged with antisemitic hate crime: The teens, all students at Plum Point Middle School in Calvert, allegedly displayed swastikas and made Nazi salutes.

Death toll from Moscow concert attack rises to 133 as more bodies found

Cupid the peacock was shot with an arrow. Neighbors united to help him.: ‘When I saw the extent of the injury, it’s a miracle he’s alive,’ said Donny Block, who worked with neighbors in Exeter, Calif., to get Cupid into surgery

Is it true that drinking alcohol makes you warm?

Why is my gas so smelly? Gender, diet and plane rides can play a role.: Female flatulence tends to have a greater concentration of foul-smelling sulfur, and high altitudes — such as on flights — lead to increased gas volume

Ronna McDaniel quickly demonstrates that her view isn’t worth the cost

Terrorist attack in Russia exposes vulnerabilities of Putin’s regime

Opinion  Democrats meddling in GOP primaries isn’t hypocritical. It’s necessary.

Metro cracks down on fare evasion in D.C., leading to jump in fines

Ronna McDaniel faces sharp criticism after NBC hiring — including on NBC: On 'Meet the Press,’ where McDaniel was interviewed, Chuck Todd and other journalists said hiring the former RNC chair raised credibility issues. More criticism followed Monday from the hosts of MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’

Opinion  Trump’s new stock deal is just another pig in a poke

STUDY FINDS PLANT NURSERIES ARE EXACERBATING THE CLIMATE-DRIVEN SPREAD OF 80% OF INVASIVE SPECIES: New research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst is the first to precisely map role of horticulture in spreading invasives, projecting ranges under 2 degrees Celsius of warming

INVASIVE PLANTS ARE STILL FOR SALE AS GARDEN ORNAMENTALS, RESEARCH SHOWS: UMass Amherst study finds that invasive species are widely available due to inconsistent regulation

state of the native-plant movement, with rebecca mcmackin

amsonias: dependable, beautiful bluestars, with mt. cuba’s sam hoadley

D.C. Residents And Businesses Pitch The City On A Real Chinatown

Candace Owens departs Ben Shapiro’s website after antisemitic commentary: Owens became a star right-wing pundit. Then she started promoting ideas about Jewish people drinking Christians’ blood.

Putting chaplains in public school is the latest battle in culture wars - "Lawmakers in mostly conservative states are pushing a coordinated effort to bring chaplains into public schools, aided by a new, legislation-crafting network that aims to address policy issues 'from a biblical world view' and by a consortium whose promotional materials say chaplains are a way to convert millions to Christianity."

Mother who left baby at home for 10-day vacation gets life for murder

Opinion  The bloodbath Trump promised has already begun

Suspect, 18, charged in D.C. robbery of Chanel handbags worth $116,000: Thieves swarmed the designer store in December, drawing gunfire from a security guard

Drone footage raises questions about Israeli justification for deadly strike on Gaza journalists

In Jerusalem and the West Bank, Ramadan is marred by violence and loss