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PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.
Arizona County Quick to Bat Down Election Misinformation (Maria)
The author writes, “When the Republican candidate for Arizona governor accused the state’s most populous county of ‘slow-rolling’ the vote count to skew early election results, a local official fired back. ‘Quite frankly, it is offensive for Kari Lake to say that these people behind me are slow-rolling this, when they’re working 14 to 18 hours’ every day, said Bill Gates, the Republican chairman of the Maricopa County board of supervisors. On Monday, Democrat Katie Hobbs defeated Lake, a Donald Trump ally who falsely claimed the 2020 election was rigged and has refused to say she would accept the results of her race this year.”
Iran Protests: Tehran Court Sentences First Person to Death Over Unrest (Dana)
From the BBC: “A court in Iran has issued the first death sentence to a person arrested for taking part in the protests that have engulfed the country, state media say. A Revolutionary Court in Tehran found the defendant, who was not named, had set fire to a government facility and was guilty of ‘enmity against God.’ Another court jailed five people for between five and 10 years on national security and public order charges. A human rights group warned authorities might be planning ‘hasty executions.’”
Medicaid Expansion Remains on Hold in Texas as State Struggles With Medical Debt, High Uninsured Rate (Reader Steve)
From the Richmond Times-Dispatch: “The country’s medical debt crisis is at its most dire in several parts of Texas, which is home to three of the worst 10 US counties for medical debt, according to data analyzed by the Urban Institute. … Experts say medical debt is so pronounced in Texas because of the high number of uninsured people. More than 5 million Texans are uninsured, according to the US Census Bureau, or about one in five Texans.”
COVID-Denying Medical Group Implodes Over Founder’s Extravagant Spending (DonkeyHotey)
The author writes, “When employees at leading COVID pseudoscience group America’s Frontline Doctors tried to log in to work last week, they found themselves locked out of their email accounts. The nonprofit quickly fell into factions, with employees holding rival Zoom meetings to plot who would take over the group. The organization’s exiled founder, Dr. Simone Gold, tried unsuccessfully to gain access to a private Zoom call, only to find herself stuck in a waiting room. In internal emails, the group’s accountant worried about who could still access the $7 million locked in its bank accounts. The war for the right’s most prominent COVID quack group — and the millions of dollars it has raised through relentless fundraising and prescriptions for bogus coronavirus cures — had begun.”
Elon Musk Has Fired Even More Twitter Workers (Sean)
The author writes, “The layoffs continue apace at Elon Musk’s Twitter. Twitter reportedly laid off thousands of contractors this weekend with no notice or warning. Casey Newtown, a tech reporter who writes the Substack, Platformer, reported on Sunday that Twitter laid off approximately 4,400 of its 5,500 contract employees. Newton also reported that the contractors weren’t warned but rather just stripped of access to Slack and email.”
The Enduring Mystery of the Dragonfly 44 Galaxy (Sean)
From Quanta Magazine: “In 2016, astronomers led by Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University published a bombshell paper claiming the discovery of a galaxy so dim, yet so broad and heavy, that it must be almost entirely invisible. They estimated that the galaxy, dubbed Dragonfly 44, is 99.99% dark matter. A heated debate ensued about Dragonfly 44’s properties that remains unresolved. Meanwhile, more than 1,000 similarly big but faint galaxies have turned up. Dragonfly 44 and its ilk are known as ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs). While they can be as large as the largest ordinary galaxies, UDGs are exceptionally dim — so dim that, in telescope surveys of the sky, ‘it’s a task to filter out the noise without accidentally filtering out these galaxies,’ said Paul Bennet, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. The bright star-forming gas that’s abundant in other galaxies seems to have vanished in UDGs, leaving only a skeleton of elderly stars.”
Tunnel Discovered Beneath Egyptian Temple May Lead to Cleopatra’s Tomb, Archaeologist Says (Kiana)
The author writes, “Kathleen Martinez, an archaeologist at the University of Santo Domingo, has been searching for the lost tomb of Cleopatra for nearly 20 years. Now she believes she’s made a pivotal breakthrough. Martinez and her team uncovered a 1,305-meter (4,281-foot) tunnel, located 13 meters (43 feet) underground, the Egyptian Ministry for Tourism and Antiquities recently announced — an architectural design experts called an ‘engineering miracle.’ ‘The excavation revealed a huge religious center with three sanctuaries, a sacred lake, more than 1,500 objects, busts, statues, golden pieces, a huge collection of coins portraying Alexander the Great, Queen Cleopatra and the Ptolemies,’ Martinez told CNN.”
