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
 |
Unlike: How To Break up With Meta if You Don’t Like Its Changes (Maria)
The author writes, “Should I stay or should I go — from Meta’s social media platforms? That’s what some Facebook, Instagram and Threads users are wondering after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement this month that the company is relaxing rules on harmful content, such as hate speech, and abandoning its fact-checking program and replacing it with crowdsourced notes. The changes have renewed interest among some users about deleting their Meta social media accounts. If you want to stop using platforms owned by Meta, here are some pointers.”
There’s Reason To Be Worried About the Plethora of Pardons From Trump and Biden (Al)
From Politico: “The extraordinary wave of pardons Monday — from Joe Biden as he left the White House and from Donald Trump as soon as he returned to it — demonstrate the potency of the Constitution’s pardon power, but also expose its perils, constitutional scholars say. The pardon power — a relic of English monarchs that was adopted by America’s founders as a way to extend grace and mercy in exceptional circumstances — can’t be checked by Congress or the courts. And in a country gripped by political rancor, that power is increasingly prone to abuse, experts say. Both presidents, on the same day, stretched the pardon power to new, questionable frontiers in wildly different ways.”
Trump’s Perceived Enemies Worry About Losing Pensions, Getting Audited, and Paying Steep Legal Bills (Reader Jim and Reader Steve)
The author writes, “It’s not just criminal prosecutions that worry those who have crossed President Donald Trump. There are more prosaic kinds of retaliation: having difficulty renewing passports, getting audited by the IRS and losing federal pensions. For the many people who have made an enemy of Trump, his return to the presidency this week sparked anxiety. Some are concerned they could go bankrupt trying to clear their names.”
Unitedhealth, the Company That Employed Slain CEO Brian Thompson, Allegedly Overcharged Some Cancer Patients by More Than 1,000% for Their Medications (Dana)
The author writes, “A recent report from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has eventually revealed that the three largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in the US namely OptumRx of UnitedHealth, Express Scripts and CVS Caremark collectively profited by approximately $7.3 billion through significant price markups on essential medications between the year 2017 and the year 2022.”
Nations Are Exiting a Secretive System That Protects Corporations. One Country’s Story Shows How Hard That Can Be (Laura)
The author writes, “Bolivia was the first nation to begin leaving a legal system that allows foreign companies to sue governments behind closed doors. Now, other countries are following.”
Researchers Find Huge Buried Reservoir Atop Oregon’s Cascade Range (Reader Steve)
From The Oregonian: “A massive aquifer is stored just beneath volcanic rocks at the crest of the central Oregon Cascades — possibly the largest aquifer of its kind in the U.S., according to researchers at the University of Oregon. The discovery could have implications for water users in the region as drought and extreme weather limit snowpacks, rainfall and water availability.”
Cattle Gallstones, Worth Twice as Much as Gold, Drive a Global Smuggling Frenzy (Sean)
From The Wall Street Journal: “One of the most prized ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine, cattle gallstones have become so valuable that traders are willing to pay as much as $5,800 an ounce — twice the price of gold — for the nuggets of hardened bile. Herbalists use them to treat strokes as they grapple with a surge in hypertension, obesity and other conditions familiar in the affluent West. Such maladies are now widespread in China after a half-century of rapid development and the changing diets that have come with it. Surging demand for gallstones has sparked a global treasure hunt across the world’s top beef-producing regions, places as far apart as Texas and Australia, and especially here on the savannah of Brazil, the world’s largest cattle exporter.”
