’Chinese ‘Blackwater?’
Israeli Forces Go After Homes and Schools ; Kushner Critics CNN to Its Boss: Time Warner ... and more Picks
Israeli Forces Go After Homes and Schools ; Kushner Critics CNN to Its Boss: Time Warner ... and more Picks for 2/21.
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.
Shaky Dams Just the Start: Our Bridges are a Mess, Too (Jeff C.)
Nearly 56,000 bridges in the U.S. are “structurally deficient,” a new report finds. Among the highest- profile “deficient” bridges? The Brooklyn Bridge and the Arlington Memorial Bridge.
Israel Delivers Demolition Orders to 40 West Bank Homes, School (Trevin)
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, raiding Israeli forces on Sunday morning gave the residents just five days to vacate their homes.
Erik Prince Sets Up a “Chinese Blackwater”? (Jimmy)
The brother of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and former founding owner of the infamous private military company Blackwater, is setting up shop in China to “protect Chinese corporate and government strategic interests around the world, without having to involve the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.”
FBI’s Criteria to Determine if Someone is a Terrorist (Jeff C.)
The Bureau has been using a secret scoring system to judge the likelihood that someone will carry out a violent attack. The survey itself consists of 48 questions that agents are supposed to answer about terror suspects as part of an investigation. The Intercept now has a copy.
Jared Kushner Critiques CNN to Time Warner Exec (Jimmy)
White House counsel and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner recently met with a senior executive of Time Warner Inc., parent company of CNN, criticizing the subsidiary’s coverage of Trump. A merger between Time Warner Inc. & AT&T is planned pending approval from the Justice department.
Pro-Trump Militia With Semi-automatic Weapons Rally in Atlanta (Jeff C.)
Members of a militia group said they were there to protect President Trump supporters. “We’re using our second amendment rights to protect the first amendment rights,” one attendee said.
