Simone Biles’ Gravity-Defying Moves Almost Didn’t Happen
Simone Biles competes in the floor exercise at the 2019 US Gymnastics Championships.Charlie Riedel/AP Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. She had taken time off. She finished fourth on Dancing With the Stars. Her coach since age 7 had…
Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos Are Scheduled to Speak at a Conference Organized by a QAnon Supporter
Alex Wong/Getty, Alex Wroblewski/Getty Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos, two former Trump foreign policy aides who both agreed in late 2017 to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, appear to have found some new allies: QAnon conspiracy theorists. Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general and former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, briefly served…
Flint Water Did Not Increase Stillbirths
A couple of years ago I wrote about a paper claiming that the fertility rate of women in Flint, Michigan, plummeted during their water crisis. Today I got a copy of a newly published study of lead levels in women of childbearing age during the Flint water crisis. It’s very carefully done and uses reliable…
Wall Street Journal Sounds Fake Alarm Over Mortgage Debt
The Wall Street Journal, in its persistent quest to mislead people about financial statistics, has this to say today: U.S. Mortgage Debt Hits Record, Eclipsing 2008 Peak U.S. mortgage debt reached a record in the second quarter, exceeding its 2008 peak as the financial crisis unfolded. Mortgage balances rose by $162 billion in the second…
DC Mayor Rejects Plan for Migrant Children Facility in the Capital
Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser in 2014Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo Scrambling for additional space to house migrant children, the Trump administration awarded a contract to a company that planned to open a facility in the administration’s own backyard of Washington, DC. But on Tuesday, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that she would not allow the center…
What the Border’s History of Racist Violence Tells Us About the El Paso Shooting
Handmade crosses memorializing the victims.Mario Tama/Getty Images After his arrest, the El Paso shooter admitted to targeting Mexicans. Days later, federal agents rounded up and detained hundreds of Latino workers in Mississippi. For Monica Muñoz Martinez, the author of The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas and an assistant professor of American studies and…