“If we really want to end the overdose and homelessness crises — in Oregon and around the country — we have to understand and follow the evidence, not the fearmongering,” writes Maia Szalavitz.
LaunchA year after East Palestine disaster, rail safety little improved
“Trains are still rolling through East Palestine, Ohio, at 50 mph — the same speed allowed last February when an accident spilled toxic chemicals in the rural town. Bipartisan safety legislation proposed a month after the crash is bogged down in the Senate. And derailments are happening at roughly the same pace,” writes Thomas Black for Bloomberg News.
LaunchHospitals owned by private equity are harming patients, reports find
“Hospital ratings dive and medical errors rise when private equity firms are in charge,” Ars Technica’s Beth Mole reports.
LaunchFast-food giants overwork teenagers, driving America’s child labor crisis
“More than three-quarters of child labor violations in the first nine months of 2023 were in food service, with most of those at franchised brands,” Lauren Kaori Gurley and Emmanuel Martinez report.
LaunchJim McGovern slams Republicans for turning the people’s House into a political theater
The Massachusetts Democrat pointed out that the chamber has “become a place where trivial issues get debated passionately and important ones not at all.”
LaunchThe first results from the world’s biggest basic income experiment
“Money always helps, but for the very poor, one lump sum can last a long time,” Dylan Matthews reports.
LaunchNetanyahu and Hamas depended on each other. Both may be on the way out.
For much of the 2000s, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s serial governments and Hamas’s leaders have found each other useful for their own purposes, a The Washington Post analysis explains.
LaunchWhat if money expired?
Jacob Baynham: “A long-forgotten German economist argued that society and the economy would be better off if money was a perishable good. Was he an anarchist crank or the prophet of a better world?”
LaunchJim Jordan’s conspiratorial quest for power
The New Yorker’s Jonathan Blitzer on how the Ohio Republican built an insurgent bid for Speaker on the lies of Donald Trump.
LaunchGuaranteed basic income could substantially improve economic security in the Pacific Northwest
GBI is a proven tool for improving social, economic, and health inequities; it entails providing periodic cash payments to people, like the economic assistance payments provided to millions of Americans during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
LaunchMcCarthy’s fall from speakership was sudden but no surprise
“Power and responsibility didn’t remold the man, or summon deep reserves of character and wisdom,” The Los Angeles Times’ Mark Barabak writes. “There is a hollowness at McCarthy’s core, which has long been evident, and it left him empty and bereft as he fought to stay in power.”
LaunchHow red state politics are shaving years off American lives
Republican-dominated state policies on cigarettes, seat belts, and public health regulations are shortening life spans, The Washington Post reports.
LaunchClarence Thomas secretly participated in Koch network donor events
“Thomas has attended at least two Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network that has brought multiple cases before the Supreme Court,” ProPublica reports.
LaunchBiden administration announces $600M to produce COVID tests and will reopen website to order them
Good news via The Associated Press: “The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it is providing $600 million in funding to produce new at-home COVID-19 tests and is restarting a website allowing Americans to again order up to four free tests per household — aiming to prevent possible shortages during a rise in coronavirus cases that has typically come during colder months.”
LaunchNo OB-GYNs left in town: What came after Idaho’s assault on abortion
“In Sandpoint, Idaho, the maternity ward closed down. Within months, medical care for women in the rural community was hollowed out,” explains The Guardian’s Kathleen McLaughlin.
LaunchFacing threat of Trump’s return, Ukrainians ramp up homegrown arms industry
“It will be very difficult for us to fight alone with such a huge monster. But the civilized world has two options: to help us restore our 1991 borders, or to throw away all claims of shared values and just watch us bleed,” Serhiy Prytula says.
LaunchThis bold plan to kick the world’s coal habit might actually work
“Novel climate-financing deals are promising to shut off dirty energy plants in developing countries and retrain their staff to work in the green economy,” Wired reports.
LaunchHow climate scientists feel about seeing their dire predictions come true
The Los Angeles Times “spoke with several researchers and climate experts about how the recent string of record-breaking, precedent-setting events feel to them. Their comments have been lightly edited for clarity.”
LaunchDeSantis, with a subtle maneuver, hides his small-dollar donations
“The campaign of the Florida governor, who is known to be reliant on rich donors, worked with a Republican fund-raising powerhouse to prevent the disclosure of information on small contributors,” The New York Times reports.
LaunchHow a U.S. tech mogul used nonprofits to sow Beijing’s propaganda
The New York Times unraveled a financial network that stretches from Chicago to Shanghai and uses American nonprofits to push Chinese talking points worldwide.
LaunchWhat Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán understand about your brain
“[T]hroughout history, speeches by dictators and autocrats have one thing in common: they use dehumanizing metaphors to instill and propagate hatred of others,” Marcel Danesi writes.
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