At Baltimore’s National Aquarium, Climate Change Presents Challenges Inside and Out
Warren Zeroes In on Race ; Census Offices Are Being Cut Across the Country ; and More Picks
Warren Zeroes In on Race ; Census Offices Are Being Cut Across the Country ; and More Picks 5/9
Whistleblowers Describe Culture of Racism, Abuse, and Coverups at Florida Prison (Chris)
The author writes, “In interviews with the Times-Union, a dozen former and current employees at Santa Rosa Correctional Institution described a culture of abuse, bullying, racism and administrative cover-ups in the mental health dorms. Officers selected inmates they had problems with for unsanctioned forms of punishment: to include physical violence or withholding their food to the point where prisoners lost considerable weight, employees said.”
Warren Plan Puts Spotlight on Racial Disparities in Student Debt (Chris)
From Inside Higher Ed: “As Warren wrote in a Medium post announcing her plan, black college students are more likely to need student loans to attend college and, because of factors like employment discrimination, to owe more than their original balance 12 years after graduation. ‘We must do more to correct these historical injustices and to ensure that opportunities are fairly available to everyone,’ she wrote.”
Census Offices Are Being Cut Across the Country (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “Nationally, the Census Bureau plans to cut the number of local offices in half compared to 2010, with workers condensed into fewer offices. … That has alarmed some state and local government officials, who warn that the bureau’s shrinking physical footprint will only heighten other logistical challenges facing the Census. … In January, more than 50 House Democrats, including 17 Californians, signed a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross expressing concern that, ‘a heavy reliance on internet automation, compounded by the decision to dramatically reduce the bureau’s field presence, will disproportionately underrepresent rural, low-income and minority communities.’”
Voters Make Denver the First US City to Decriminalize ‘Magic Mushrooms’ (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “Organizers say their only goal in the mushroom measure is to keep people out of jail in Denver for using or possessing the drug to cope with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress and other conditions.”
Trump, the Billion-Dollar Loser — I Was His Ghostwriter and Saw it Happen (Judy)
The author writes, “We would sit around his office and shoot the breeze while (as we now know) out there someplace in the real world, his businesses were hemorrhaging cash. He’d talk about the Yankees, show me pictures of Marla Maples … and tell me obviously made-up stories, such as how he had just the other day seen a beautiful, completely naked woman on the street. ‘Put that in the book!’ he’d say, and I’d pretend to write it down.”
