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.
House Lawmakers Are Considering 6 Bills Aimed at Big Tech (Maria)
The author writes, “House lawmakers on Wednesday began the process of considering a legislative package that would overhaul the nation’s antitrust laws in an attempt to rein in the power of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. Members of the House Judiciary Committee were expected to vote on six bills that could block the tech giants from prioritizing their own products online, force them to break off parts of their businesses and generate more resources for the law enforcement agencies that police Silicon Valley.”
All Recent US Population Growth Comes From People of Color, New Census Estimates Show (Gerry)
The author writes, “As we await the final 2020 census statistics for America’s race and ethnic populations (due later this summer), newly released Census Bureau estimates compiled independently of the 2020 census suggest something unprecedented: The 2010s could be the first decade when the nation’s white population registered an absolute loss. These new estimates show annual population changes by race and ethnicity between July 2010 and July 2020. They indicate that, for each year since 2016, the nation’s white population dropped in size. Thus, all of U.S. population growth from 2016 to 2020 comes from gains in people of color.”
Broken System Can’t Keep Track of Native Deaths (Dana)
From the Indigenous Investigative Collective: “In May of 2020, the Navajo Nation reported one of the highest per-capita COVID-19 infection rates in the United States. Since that milestone, official data reveals that the Navajo Nation has been one of the hardest-hit populations during the pandemic. The Navajo Nation boasts the largest population of any Indigenous nation in the United States, and thousands of Navajos live outside the nation, in towns along the border, cities across the country, and in other parts of the world, making it difficult to tally the virus’ impacts on Navajo citizens. It’s made worse by a labyrinthian system of local, state, federal and tribal data-reporting systems that often do not communicate with each other or share information.”
The Authoritarian Instincts of Police Unions (DonkeyHotey)
From the Atlantic: “In the apocalyptic rhetoric of police-union leaders, every victim of police misconduct is a criminal who had it coming, and anyone who objects to such misconduct is probably also a criminal, and, by implication, a legitimate target of state violence. Due process is a privilege reserved for the righteous — that is, police officers who might lose their jobs, not the citizens who might lose their lives in a chance encounter with law enforcement. In the Floyd case, the effectiveness of this rhetoric, so powerful in years past, was blunted by what Americans could see with their own eyes.”
US House Moves to Expand Protections for Older Workers (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to restore protections against age discrimination that had been stripped by a 2009 Supreme Court decision. The House passed nearly identical legislation last year but it died in the Republican-controlled Senate. With Democrats now in charge in that chamber, and two Senate Republicans on board to help shepherd it, this bill may stand a better chance. The vote was 247-178, with 29 Republicans joining all 218 Democrats in support of the bill.”
I’ve Cracked Zodiac, a French Engineer Says. Online Sleuths Are Skeptical. (Sean)
The author writes, “Fayçal Ziraoui loves a good challenge. As a teenager, he designed 3D animations. In 2018, he completed an Ironman race. More recently, he developed virtual reality software that allows people to experience life in a space capsule. ‘I’ve never set limits on what I can learn,’ Ziraoui, a 38-year-old French-Moroccan business consultant, said in an interview at his home in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil. And so, when Ziraoui stumbled across an article in a French magazine in December saying that no one had ever solved two ciphers attributed to the Zodiac killer, who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960s and ’70s, he thought, ‘Why not me?’”
