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.
|
Listen To This Story
 |
How To Prepare Your Body and Mind for the End of Daylight Saving Time (Maria)
The author writes, “The good news: You will get a glorious extra hour of sleep. The bad: It’ll be dark as a pocket by late afternoon for the next few months in the U.S. Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. local time next Sunday, Nov. 3, which means you should set your clock back an hour before you go to bed. … Some people try to prepare for a time change jolt by changing their bedtimes little by little in the days before the change. There are ways to ease the adjustment, including getting more sunshine to help reset your circadian rhythm for healthful sleep.”
A Century After Native Americans Got the Right to Vote, They Could Put Trump or Harris Over the Top (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “Native American communities were decisive voting blocs in key states in 2020, and with the 2024 race remaining stubbornly close both campaigns have tried to mobilize Native voters in the final weeks of the presidential election. But when it comes to messaging, the two campaigns could not be more different, many Native voters said. It’s been 100 years since Native Americans were given the right to vote, with the passage of the Snyder Act in 1924, and whichever campaign is able to harness their power in this election could swing some of the most hotly contested counties in the country.”
‘Anticipatory Obedience’: Newspapers’ Refusal To Endorse Shines Light on Billionaire Owners’ Motives (Dana)
The author writes, “When two American billionaires blocked the newspapers they own from endorsing Kamala Harris this month, they tried to frame the decision as an act of civic responsibility. ‘I think my fear is, if we chose either one, that it would just add to the division,’ Patrick Soon-Shiong, the biotech billionaire who owns the Los Angeles Times, said. … At the Washington Post, which reported that its billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos, was behind the decision, publisher William Lewis described the retreat from making presidential endorsements as ‘a statement in support of our readers’ ability to make up their own minds.’ Veteran journalists and media critics are using a very different phrase to describe Soon-Shiong’s and Bezos’s choice: they’re saying the two billionaires, among the richest men on the entire globe, are performing ‘anticipatory obedience’ to Donald Trump.”
Russia Amplified Hurricane Disinformation to Drive Americans Apart, Researchers Find (Reader Jim)
The author writes, “Russia has helped amplify and spread false and misleading internet claims about recent hurricanes in the United States and the federal government’s response, part of a wider effort by the Kremlin to manipulate America’s political discourse before the presidential election, new research shows. The content, spread by Russian state media and networks of social media accounts and websites, criticizes the federal response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, exploiting legitimate concerns about the recovery effort in an attempt to paint American leaders as incompetent and corrupt, according to research from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.”
Drug-Sniffing Police Dogs Are Intercepting Abortion Pills in the Mail (Mili)
From The Intercept: “It was a tip that brought a dog to the main post office in downtown Jackson, Mississippi. An employee there had reported seeing someone in the lobby putting pills into hot pink envelopes. Hours later, Ed Steed … a K-9 handler, arrived with Rip, his narcotics sniffer dog. Rip strode around and, when he got to the pink envelope, sat down. According to records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, Steed said this meant the dog had smelled narcotics. That claim became evidence to get a warrant to open the envelope. This, though, was no ordinary drug bust. As it turned out, there were pills inside the package, but they were not the kind that Rip or other police K-9s are trained to detect. The envelope contained five pills labeled ‘AntiPreg Kit.’ They were made in India, and their medical purpose is to induce abortion. Dwayne Martin, at the time the head of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Jackson, told me this was exactly what the initial tipster had suspected.”
Guess Who’s Suing the FTC to Stop ‘Click to Cancel’ (DonkeyHotey)
The authors write, “The cable industry, home security companies, and advertisers are suing to stop a rule requiring making it easier to cancel subscriptions.”
North Idaho College Was Taken Over By the Far-Right — It’s a Warning for the Future of Higher Ed (Bethany)
From Teen Vogue and Lux: “The charter violations that kicked off this accreditation scandal [at North Idaho College] four years ago never had anything to do with academics. The two-year community college offers a solid education and features the top nursing program in the state. Their finances are stable too. No, NIC might go under because the Board of Trustees has existed in a state of toxicity, chaos, and dysfunction ever since the far right gained a board majority four years ago.”
Shipwrecked: A Review of John W. White’s New Book About the Slave Trade and the Civil War (Al)
From VoegelinView: “Among the many reasons why White’s book deserves a wide readership is that it has a great deal to teach about the Lincoln administration’s role in finally bringing an end to American participation in the transatlantic slave trade. It is unfortunate that Lincoln’s efforts in this regard are not better known to the general public. There has always been a portion of Americans who believe — quite falsely, of course — that while Lincoln was devoted to preserving the union, he did not care deeply about the issue of slavery.”
