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‘Largest Illicit Online Marketplace’ Growing at an Alarming Rate: Report (Maria)
The author writes, “The scam ecosystem has been booming around the world, with criminals honing a handful of strategies to trick victims into voluntarily sending their money into the abyss. And as the cash — or, typically, cryptocurrency flows in, a set of digital services and infrastructure offerings have increasingly emerged. The scam economy helps criminals with everything from creating fake social media pages to buying SIM cards — and, crucially, money laundering. Now, researchers say that in the pantheon of dark web marketplaces, the ‘largest illicit online marketplace’ ever now sells services to other scammers. … New findings from the crypto-tracing firm Elliptic show how one of the biggest players in that sphere, Huione Guarantee, has likely enabled $24B in gray market transactions.”
The Final Days of ‘Dark Brandon’ (Reader Jim)
From Axios: “President Biden is infuriating critics in the twilight of his term, unburdened by optics as he resorts to raw instincts — and seemingly a bit of trolling — to write the final pages of his polarizing presidency. Why it matters: Biden’s legacy will be defined, in many ways, by Donald Trump’s reelection. But the 82-year-old president appears too proud to allow MAGA’s rising tide to sweep him into premature irrelevance.”
The GOP Is Rewriting What It Means to Be a Person (Gerry)
From The New Republic: “The Fourteenth Amendment was intended to extend full citizenship to formerly enslaved Black people, and it undergirds the right of all Americans to be treated equally under the law, no matter who they are or in which state they reside. Yet over the past year, conservatives have been increasingly open in their beliefs that pregnant women, transgender adolescents, affirming parents of trans kids, and immigrants are not legally entitled to the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections — all while arguing that fertilized eggs are. Republicans are using strategic litigation to effectively rewrite the Fourteenth Amendment to prioritize conservative white men and embryos above and beyond everyone else. They are warping something used to grant rights into a bludgeon to take them away, and are redefining who counts as a person in the United States.”
Texas Has a Point About Online Pornography (Al)
The author writes, “When does freedom for adults become cruelty to children? The Supreme Court will hear arguments this week in a case, Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, that raises exactly that question. The Free Speech Coalition (a pornography industry trade association) is challenging a 2023 Texas law that requires sites offering pornographic material to ‘use reasonable age verification methods’ to check whether a user is at least 18.”
Agency Approves Expanding Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge, Setting Up Possible Buyout of Mining Project (Laura)
The author writes, “A federal agency … has approved a plan to expand the Okefenokee Swamp’s vast wildlife refuge, setting up a potential buyout offer for land intended for a private company’s mining project that conservationists have fought for years. The plan approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could add 22,000 acres (8,900 hectares) along the boundaries of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, the largest federal refuge east of the Mississippi River. The service manages the refuge and is part of the Interior Department.”
Rising Tides Could Wipe Out Pacifica, but Residents Can’t Agree on How To Respond (Reader Steve)
From the San Francisco Chronicle: “Nearly a decade ago, an apartment complex was evacuated and demolished there because the bluff it perched upon was gradually crumbling into the sea. … Pacifica, a picturesque surf town of roughly 35,000 just south of San Francisco, has become an important case study for the increasingly urgent questions climate change raises for many coastal communities. Should residents stay to defend their homes from rising tides that grow fiercer by the year? Or, should they admit defeat and cede the land back to nature?”
How Window Dots at Chicago’s McCormick Place Are Saving Bird Lives (Dana)
From Block Club Chicago: “Bird collisions at McCormick Place’s Lakeside Center have decreased by more than 95 percent since the installation of bird-safe window film in summer 2024, according to data from Field Museum in a news release. This improvement comes after a catastrophic event on Oct. 5, 2023, when more than 1,000 birds collided with the building’s glass façade in a single night during migration.”
