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.
The Eviction Moratorium Has Ended. Here’s What Renters Need to Know. (Maria)
The authors write, “The expiration over the weekend of the federal eviction moratorium puts the housing security of possibly millions of families in jeopardy. But if and when people could be evicted varies greatly depending on the laws where they live. As the court bureaucracy kick starts, here is what renters facing possible eviction need to know.”
Top Texas Court Rejects Case, Then Agrees to Hear It After Appellant Donates $250k to Reelection Pac (Reader Steve)
From the ABA Journal : “In October, the Apache Corp., a Houston oil company, was unable to persuade the Texas Supreme Court to hear its appeal of a paralegal’s retaliation award of about $900,000 in damages and attorney fees. But the top Texas court agreed to hear the case and ruled for the Apache Corp. last month after the company donated $250,000 to a political action committee that supported the reelection of four Texas justices, including two who ended up siding with the Apache Corp., the Houston Chronicle reports in a story noted by How Appealing.”
Emails Show UM Officials’ Concern Over Fired Historian Criticizing Private Prison Ties (Dana)
From the Mississippi Free Press: “Before the University of Mississippi terminated Dr. Garrett Felber, an anti-racist history professor, his public criticisms of its ties to the private-prison industry drew concern from administrators on campus who had monitored social-media activities, emails this publication obtained show. After news of Felber’s termination broke in December 2020, Provost Noel Wilkin said it was because the history department chair, Noell Wilson, had ‘lost confidence that an untenured faculty member would act in good faith and be responsive to her repeated efforts to help him succeed.’ But the historian claimed his termination was retaliation for his activism, his criticisms of administrators’ focus on appeasing wealthy donors, and the university’s role in mass incarceration.”
Why Newsmax Is Failing (Reader Jim)
From Vox: “Former President Donald Trump gave a speech [last] weekend, but you might not have known it even if you are a regular Fox News viewer. Instead, you would’ve had to turn to Newsmax, the right-wing cable news channel that’s sticking to its old-school strategy of being the Trumpiest channel on TV. But with Trump now more than seven months removed from the White House, out-Trumping the competition isn’t proving to be the ratings hit these days that it was in December and January. The wall-to-wall coverage of Trump’s speech on Saturday at a Turning Point event in Phoenix was a snapshot of how Newsmax is trying to stay relevant.”
The Jeffrey Epstein Cover Up: Pedophilia, Lies, and Videotape (DonkeyHotey)
The author writes, “Numerous procurers and perpetrators integral to Epstein and Ghislane Maxwell’s crimes against children have not been indicted, and current officials are finding new ways to obfuscate the sordid truth.”
Rosebud Ancestors Buried in Emotional Ceremony (Dan)
From Indian Country Today: “Dora Her Pipe (Brave Bull) just wanted to go home. After being ripped from her family in South Dakota at 16 and shipped 1,500 miles to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in 1879, she asked to be sent home in January 1881 because of illness. Just three months later, she was dead. It would take another 140 years before she returned to her family and her homelands, wrapped in a buffalo robe in a cedar box.”
When Fawns Perceive Constant Danger From Many Sources, They Almost Seem to Relax (Mili)
The author writes, “Burnout. It is a syndrome that is said to afflict humans who feel chronic stress. But after conducting a novel study using trail cameras showing the interactions between white-tailed deer fawns and predators, a researcher suggests that prey animals feel it, too.”
On the Trail of a Mysterious, Pseudonymous Author (Sean)
The author writes, “It arrived at the height of the pandemic, in a brown envelope with no return address and too many stamps, none of which had been marked by the post office. It was addressed to me at my parents’ New York City apartment, where I haven’t lived in more than a decade. My mother used the envelope as a notepad for a few weeks, then handed it off to me in July; it was the first time I’d seen her after months of quarantine. Inside the envelope was a small, stapled book — a pamphlet, really — titled ‘Foodie or The Capitalist Monsoon that is Mississippi,’ by a writer named Stokes Prickett.”
