Climate Change Deniers Aren’t Getting Very Far With America’s Judges
Ronen Tivony/SOPA/LightRocket/Getty This story was originally published by Undark and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In September 2017, San Francisco experienced its hottest day on record, with temperatures reaching a searing 106 degrees. Weeks later, the city joined Oakland to announce it would sue five major fossil fuel firms—BP, Shell, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips—for the costs…
Facebook’s New “Cryptocurrency” Makes No Sense (to Users)
Andre M. Chang/ZUMA Facebook is developing a new competitor to Bitcoin: The closely guarded yet much-discussed cryptocurrency initiative, code-named “Project Libra,” could become a major e-commerce tool for Facebook users across the social network’s suite of services, from Instagram to messaging….The project is expected to be unveiled on Tuesday, where more details will be released.…
David Brooks Has Gotten Lazy
The topic of New York Times op-ed columists came up recently while I was chatting with a friend. He is, among other things, a fan of David Brooks, and I told him I wasn’t. Why? In the past I’ve been pretty tolerant of Brooks, but over the past few years I feel like he just…
How Did a Man Who Murdered Three Muslims Receive a Presumption of Racial Innocence?
Travis Long/The News & Observer/AP; Albin Lohr-Jones/Sipa USA/AP; Diedra Laird/TNS/Zuma In the old photos, the ones taken right after he was arrested for gunning down three Muslim students in their North Carolina home, Craig Stephen Hicks appears as a dumpy, chinless man with a mousy beard cut too high above the jawline. The style, if…
Why the IRS Will Probably Ignore the NRA’s Financial Implosion
Erik Mcgregor/Pacific Press/ZUMA Ever since the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in April descended into infighting and chaos among the group’s leaders, the nation’s leading gun rights group’s private drama has continued to spiral into a growing public crisis. The latest face-plant came last week, when the Washington Post published a pair of investigations detailing the NRA’s exorbitant…
California Is Considering Ending Criminal Court Fees and Wiping Out Billions in Debt
Susann Prautsch/Getty Three years ago, during Brandon Greene’s first week working as a lawyer in a new clinic affiliated with the East Bay Community Law Center, he was handed a stack of cases to review. Each involved a client who was struggling to pay down the fines and fees that easily accumulate in California’s criminal justice system. It was his job…