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.
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For Striking UAW Workers, Picket Line Feels Different in the Middle of the Night (Maria)
The author writes, “The graveyard shift began at midnight with a handful of sign-carrying UAW strikers walking slowly along East Huron Boulevard as their union leaders continue to try and negotiate a contract with Stellantis. No security guards stood at the entrance of the National Parts Distribution Center in Marysville at this hour early Tuesday morning. No bus with tinted windows carried nonunion workers into the facility. No trucks crossed the strike line. Still, the workers showed up to sit in the cool darkness under the bright moon. ‘There are no days off when you’re fighting for your survival,’ Brandon Clark, 38, who works as a ‘switcher,’ driving a products truck in and out of docks at the site near Port Huron, told the Detroit Free Press.”
In Texas, Guns Are Everywhere, Whether Concealed or in the Open (Russ)
From The Washington Post: “To live in Texas is to live surrounded by guns. Each morning, men here strap guns inside suits, boots, and swim trunks. Women slip them into bra and bellyband holsters that render them invisible. They stash firearms in purses, toolboxes, portable gun safes, back seats, and glove compartments. Neighbors tuck guns into bedside tables, cars, and trucks. They take guns fishing, to church, the park, the pool, the gym, the movies — even to protests at the state Capitol. … It has been legal here to openly carry long guns like rifles for generations. But Texas’s gun-friendly attitude isn’t just a relic of the Old West and ranching: Many restrictions on handguns were loosened only recently.”
North Carolina Republicans Create ‘Secret Police Force’ (DonkeyHotey)
The author writes, “North Carolina’s new $30 billion state budget contains a provision that gives extraordinary investigative powers to a partisan oversight committee co-chaired by Senate Leader Phil Berger (R) and House Speaker Tim Moore (R). The Joint Legislative Committee on Government Operations — or Gov Ops for short — is empowered to seize ‘any document or system of record’ from anyone who works in or with state and local government during its investigations. The rule applies to contractors, subcontractors, and any other non-state entity ‘receiving, directly and indirectly, public funds,’ including charities and state universities. Moreover, Gov Ops staff will be authorized to enter ‘any building or facility’ owned or leased by a state or non-state entity without a judicial warrant.”
Man Who Put Girlfriend Through Meat Grinder Then Flushed Remains Down the Toilet Is Pardoned by Putin (Mili)
The author writes, “A Russian killer who throttled his lover then put her body through a meat grinder and flushed the remains down the toilet has been pardoned by Vladimir Putin for fighting in his war in Ukraine. Dmitry Zelensky, 41, had been serving an 11-year sentence at a high-security penal colony over the death of 27-year-old university graduate Tatiana Melekhina. Police later said his ‘exceptional cruelty’ in the killing had ‘shocked even hardened detectives.’”
Protecting Margaritaville: Jimmy Buffett, Bama, and the Fight to Save the Manatee (Laura)
From Inside Climate News: “The singer, who died September 1, grew up in Mobile and had a huge following in Alabama, even if many of his devotees in the state were less than thrilled by his liberal politics.”
Rapinoe Retiring, Yet She’s Just Getting Started (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “Retirement stories for athletes are often somber goodbyes: Here lies a career filled with successes that could never be surpassed by anything else in their life. Megan Rapinoe is defiant enough to try to top it. The US soccer star has won two World Cup titles, Olympic gold, three NWSL Shields, and has entrenched herself in the nation’s consciousness with her knee and her pose. Yet, about a year ago, Rapinoe decided soccer — with its necessary bedtimes, dietary restrictions, grueling training, and travel — is ultimately hindering her from more pressing passions.”
Where Is the World’s Smallest Skyscraper? (Al)
From City Monitor: “The most common definition of a skyscraper is a ‘multi-story building whose architectural height is at least 100m.’ By that measure, the Newby-McMahon building in Wichita Falls, Texas, which is widely known as the ‘world’s smallest skyscraper’ or the ‘world’s littlest skyscraper,’ isn’t actually a skyscraper at all. In fact, it’s not even close.”
