Offering asides, recommended links, blogworthy quotations, and more, In Brief is the Northwest Progressive Institute's microblog of world, national, and local politics.
Welcome to In Brief, the Northwest Progressive Institute's microblog. In Brief provides a continuously curated collection of asides, recommended links, quotations, audio and video clips, still images, and transcribed dialogue. Click on a thumbnail to open an item.
“The United States’ favorability rating grew at least 23 percentage points from last year in France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, and a majority of respondents in all four view the country positively,” The Washington Post reported, summarizing findings from a new survey by Pew Research.
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ProPublica reports it that has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing.
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“He’s now the biggest threat to it reaching the finish line in the confidence vote, but if it crosses the line, Netanyahu could also become its greatest asset in keeping it together for longer than most are now willing to predict,” Haaretz’s Anshel Pfeffer writes.
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Stansbury’s arrival in the House will soon give Speaker Nancy Pelosi one more vote to work with, bringing the House Democratic majority back up to two hundred and twenty, which will make moving legislation through the House easier.
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Assembly Bill 126 would “do away with Nevada’s caucus system that has been used to determine each major party’s presidential nominee in the state since 1981,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal explains.
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Washington Post columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler makes the case for iOS Bill of Rights, allowing iPhone owners to break free of Apple’s “walled garden”.
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Watch highlights from the twentieth episode of SNL’s forty-sixth season, hosted by Anya Taylor-Joy with Lil Nas X as the musical guest, including Cecily Strong’s possibly final bit as Jeanine Pirro.
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Watch highlights from the nineteenth episode of SNL’s forty-sixth season, hosted by Keegan-Michael Key with Olivia Rodrigo as the musical guest, including Kate McKinnon’s appearance on Weekend Update as Liz Cheney.
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Check out this a county-by-county visualization of the exact percentage of households connected at broadband speed in the United States of America, based on anonymized data made available from Microsoft.
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“The Court finds, based on the totality of the circumstances, that the NRA’s bankruptcy petition was not filed in good faith but instead was filed as an effort to gain an unfair litigation advantage in the New York Attorney General Enforcement Action and as an effort to avoid a regulatory scheme,” Judge Harlin Hale ruled.
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This piece from The Washington Post previews the coming redistricting fight in the Lone Star State. Republicans have a firm grip on the Legislature and will control the process. They’re sure to produce a gerrymandered map that will likely be challenged in court.
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“[H]e is the proverbial tortoise who steadily moves ahead, pounding away at his message, talking to Congress and reaching out to the country at large. Unfortunately, the media does not seem to understand that these things take time,” Jennifer Rubin writes.
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Watch highlights from the eighteenth episode of SNL’s forty-sixth season, hosted by Elon Musk, with Miley Cyrus as the musical guest, including the cold open featuring the cast’s mothers.
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“A surge of attacks in one of Canada’s most multicultural cities during the pandemic is surfacing long-simmering racial tensions,” reports Bloomberg’s Natalie Obiko Pearson.
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The White House Press Secretary continually pressed Newsmax’s Emerald Robinson to name names, catching Robinson off guard.
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“On May 1, 1971, when the first Amtrak train rolled out of New York City en route to Philadelphia, no one could have imagined what lied ahead. Yet, here we are today with more than 17,000 dedicated employees and a national system connecting more than 500 destinations across 46 states, the District of Columbia and three Canadian provinces, on more than 21,400 miles of routes.”
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The lawmaker has been charged with misdemeanor counts of first-degree official misconduct and second-degree criminal trespass, according to court documents.
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The New York Times reports that one researcher said the number of discarded drums far exceeded his expectations. “It was hard to wrap my head around the density of targets,” he said.
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“I’m surprised that tech bosses can still appear clueless about the reasons behind the questioning of their industry,” Shira Ovide writes.
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Watch highlights from the seventeenth episode of SNL’s forty-sixth season, hosted by Carey Mulligan, with Kid Cudi as the musical guest, including the “Eyes on Minnesota” cold open.
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Climate research would get a massive boost if Congress agrees with the administration’s proposal to significantly bolster the agency’s funding. NOAA is one of America’s most important scientific agencies.
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