Clik here to view.
America’s culture warriors are going after librarians
Amanda Jones awoke one morning in late July to the buzz of a text message. The air was balmy already — Louisiana summer weather. Jones, a middle school librarian with a slick brown bob, bright yellow...
View ArticleAntisemitism has never been new
Hate crimes skyrocket, Kanye West airs his support for Adolf Hitler and American antisemitism hits a high-water mark. Journalist Mike Rothschild is trying to make sense of it all. Antisemitic...
View ArticleThe year in conspiracy theories
A bumper crop of QAnon-aligned candidates ran for office during the U.S. midterms. Russia doubled down on its long-running bio lab conspiracy theory to justify its Ukraine invasion. Hard-right...
View ArticleThe year in authoritarian tech trends
From murderous machines to the looming abortion surveillance dragnet, the technology stories we covered in 2022 were enough to give even the most seasoned science fiction writers a run for their...
View ArticleWhat a law designed to protect the internet has to do with abortion
The United States Supreme Court unleashed a political earthquake when it overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, reversing nearly fifty years of precedent establishing a constitutional right to abortion....
View ArticleConspiracy theorists target your local TV weather forecaster
Severe winter storms have battered much of the United States this winter — most recently in Buffalo, New York — resulting in fatalities and injuries from tornadoes and dangerous travel conditions...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Be real or be stalked? Privacy pitfalls of Gen-Z’s favorite app
This app “won’t make you famous,” its creators say, but BeReal is “a chance to show your friends who you really are, for once.” The premise of one of GenZ’s favorite new social apps is simple....
View ArticleWhy Florida’s new university restrictions are ‘straight out of the global...
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis kicked off Black History Month last week by declaring a plan to dismantle the state public college system’s diversity and critical race theory programs. The proposed ban...
View ArticleForget Milk and Eggs: Supermarkets Are Having a Fire Sale on Data About You
When you hit the checkout line at your local supermarket and give the cashier your phone number or loyalty card, you are handing over a valuable treasure trove of data that may not be limited to the...
View ArticleTexas lawmakers want to erase abortion from the internet
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, state legislators across the country have introduced laws implicating the doctors who perform the procedure, reproductive health clinics,...
View ArticleFingerprinting employees could cost Illinois businesses billions
Each time Latrina Cothron, a manager at a local White Castle restaurant near Chicago, Illinois, wanted to access workplace computers or see her pay stubs, she had to provide her fingerprint. She sued...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Missouri librarians are risking jail time – for doing their jobs
Amy was busy at her job in the outskirts of St. Louis, Missouri, when the officer strode through her open doorway to investigate a sordid accusation: Someone had called the police department and...
View ArticleFlorida’s ban on transgender care pushes doctors to leave the state
Florida's ban on providing gender-affirming care to new patients went into effect this month after the state’s Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine voted to approve the rule last year. Under...
View ArticleCan the West curb its addiction to Chinese tech?
Calls to ban TikTok are growing ever louder in Washington, D.C. The sensational video-sharing app is in the pockets of 150 million Americans, a figure that explains, at least in part, the grilling of...
View ArticleA hotline to report teachers ratchets up tensions in US schools
Teachers in Arizona were put on notice last month with the launch of the Arizona Department of Education’s “Empower Hotline” that encourages parents to report “inappropriate” lessons being taught in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How 19th century silver mines could supercharge the US green energy economy
How 19th century silver mines could supercharge the US green energy economy It’s chilly inside the Creede Underground Mining Museum. For one thing, it’s winter. For another, the museum is located...
View ArticleTelehealth start-ups are monetizing misinformation – and your data
Even as the world bounces back from the Covid-19 pandemic, research has shown that more and more people are taking their healthcare into their own hands. The internet is a big part of how they do it....
View ArticleHow Somali workers in the US are fighting Amazon’s surveillance machine
Amazon’s unbelievably quick turnaround times on deliveries have become a given for many people in the U.S. Order a bottle of mouthwash on a weekday morning and your breath will be minty fresh within a...
View ArticleUtah’s online porn law puts teens’ digital rights at risk
A new Utah law intended to keep kids from accessing pornography and other kinds of “harmful material” online is raising critical questions about the First Amendment rights of young people and the...
View ArticleThe politics of teaching US history
For the better part of the last decade, Megan Threlkeld has been leading students on a tour of a nation at war with its past. Threlkeld, a history professor at Denison University in Ohio, teaches a...
View Article