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 Never Got Good at Recycling Plastic. Some States Are Trying a New Approach (Maria)
The author writes, “After recycling’s failure to appreciably reduce the amount of plastic the US throws away, some states are taking a new approach, transferring the onus of recycling from consumers to product manufacturers. In the past 12 months, legislatures in Maine, Oregon and Colorado have passed ‘extended producer responsibility’ laws on packaging. The legislation essentially forces producers of consumer goods — such as beverage-makers, shampoo companies, and food corporations — to pay for the disposal of the packages and containers their products come in. … Now, the New York legislature is deliberating two extended producer responsibility bills as its session nears its June 2 close.”
Florida Republicans Beat the Gun Lobby. Congress Hasn’t Followed. (Russ)
From The Washington Post: “After a teenage gunman killed 19 fourth-graders and two teachers inside a Texas elementary school Tuesday, Democrats on Capitol Hill quickly lamented Republican lawmakers’ years of intransigence on gun control. ‘No matter the cause of violence and no matter the cost on the families,’ Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday, ‘nothing seems to move them.’ But that broadside wasn’t entirely accurate: Not long ago, GOP lawmakers bucked ferocious pressure from the National Rifle Association to pass significant new gun restrictions after a deadly school shooting, which were then signed into law by a fiercely conservative Republican. It just didn’t happen in Washington.”
The Texas Shooting Is Another Vile Opportunity for Far-Right Trolls to ‘Monster’ Trans People (Sean)
The author writes, “It didn’t take long after an 18-year-old brutally murdered 19 schoolchildren and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, before the internet misinformation machine cranked into action. Starting on 4chan, a false rumor began to spread that the school shooter was a trans woman named Sam. Right-wing troll Candace Owens continued to push the false narrative long after it had been disproved. The online chatter even grew to the point where far-right Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona claimed the shooter was trans in a since-deleted tweet. The woman targeted by the false accusation eventually had to post a photo of herself holding a sign with the date, which was after the shooter had died by police fire during the attack, to prove she was not the shooter.”
How Raffensperger Went From Trump Outcast to MAGA Vanquisher (Dana)
From Politico: “As former President Donald Trump was trying to end Brad Raffensperger’s political career, connecting him to conspiracy theories befitting an outlandish spy thriller, the Georgia secretary of state took heart in a different type of film: Dumb and Dumber. ‘A year ago, people said that we only had 10 percent support,’ Raffensperger said in an interview. ‘I used to say, “10 percent, huh? So you say we got a chance,”’ calling it a ‘gallows-type humor’ paraphrase of Jim Carrey’s famous movie line. Raffensperger capitalized on that chance Tuesday night, dispatching his Trump-backed challenger, GOP Rep. Jody Hice, with a comeback that took him from being ostracized by the state Republican Party to cleaning up in nearly every corner of the state.”
Black Patients Often Never Given a Chance to Join Breast Cancer Trials (Mili)
From MedPage Today: “Nearly half of Black patients with metastatic breast cancer are never informed about clinical trial participation, despite the fact that most are open to the idea, according to a new survey. Among more than 400 respondents surveyed, 40 percent of Black patients said they were not told about the possibility of enrolling in a clinical trial versus 33 percent of patients who identified as being of another race or ethnicity, reported Stephanie Walker, RN, of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance in New York City.”
Get Ready for Possible Once-in-a-Lifetime Meteor Storm Monday (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “Keep your eyes on the cloud cover forecast for Monday night into Tuesday morning, when Earth will pass through the remnants of a comet and we could possibly see a once-in-a-lifetime meteor storm. We won’t know until we get there though, even for people in areas with forecasts for perfectly clear skies. Experts don’t know whether it will be a shower or a true meteor storm, the last of which was the Leonid meteor storm of 1966.”
Cockroach Reproduction Has Taken a Strange Turn (Sean)
The author writes, “When a male cockroach wants to mate with a female cockroach very much, he will scoot his butt toward her, open his wings and offer her a homemade meal — sugars and fats squished out of his tergal gland. As the lovely lady nibbles, the male locks onto her with one penis while another penis delivers a sperm package. If everything goes smoothly, a roach’s romp can last around 90 minutes. But increasingly, cockroach coitus is going really, weirdly wrong, and is contributing to roach populations in some places that are more difficult to vanquish with conventional pesticides.”
