Sinclair Media Takeover
Outdated Infrastructure Plans ; Senate’s Bloated Military Budget ...and More Picks
Outdated Infrastructure Plans ; Senate’s Bloated Military Budget ...and More Picks for 9/20
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.
We’re Building Roads to Withstand Last Century’s Climate (Jimmy)
Ars Technica writes, “Asphalt in use tolerates the temperature extremes of a period that ended in 1995.”
The Sinclair Takeover Begins (Reader Steve)
The Sinclair Broadcast Group, which is rapidly acquiring local media across the US, is mandating “pro-Trump” programs play across their local broadcasts. As Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan writes, “What Fox News is for cable, Sinclair could become for broadcast: programming with a soupçon — or more — of conservative spin.”
Senate’s Military Spending Increase Alone is Enough to Make Public College Free (Jimmy)
The author writes, “with $80 billion a year, you could make public colleges and universities in the U.S. tuition-free … If the additional military spending over the next 10 years instead went to pay off student debt, it could come close to wiping it out entirely.”
Exporting Foxconn (Dan)
Foxconn, known as the Taiwanese company that builds iPhones, recently touted a $10 billion dollar investment in Wisconsin that would create 13,000 jobs. This aligns with President Trump’s campaign pledge to have Apple “make their products in the US”. Yet labor troubles, changing power, and a host of other troubles have prevented Foxconn from achieving investments before. Will Wisconsin face the same fate?
