Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“In a well-known folktale, young Goldilocks tests out three bears’ porridge (too hot, too cold, just right), as well as their chairs and beds. The story delights most children of preschool age. But when these children enter school, according to education experts in the United States, a ‘Goldilocks approach’ to developing foundational skills does not serve them well. Teaching and grading that aligns content and standards to a ‘just right’ fit, rather than challenging students to grow, is a disservice, in the view of University of Illinois Chicago literacy professor Timothy Shanahan. ‘This popular approach to teaching has been holding kids back rather than helping them succeed,’ he wrote in The Conversation last fall. ‘Students learn more when taught with more difficult texts.'” (02/17/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0217/Pupil-power-Why-the-US-South-is-seeing-education-gains
Source: Bloomberg
“New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced six new appointments to the Rent Guidelines Board, a nine-member panel tasked with governing rent-stabilized units. Mamdani said in a statement Wednesday that the newly composed board will ‘take a clear-eyed look at the complex housing landscape and the realities facing our city’s two million rent-stabilized tenants, and help us move closer to a fairer, more affordable New York.’ The new Mayor is seeking to fulfill one of his signature campaign promises to freeze rents on the city’s 1 million rent-regulated apartments. Landlords and business groups have contended that, despite rising rents on price-stabilized units, rental income isn’t keeping pace with faster inflation and escalating expenses.” (02/18/26)
https://archive.is/xpkre
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Trump’s Son Invests In Israeli ‘Low Cost-Per-Kill’ Drone Company.” (02/18/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1aJbdbbkeRBKX
Source: The Hill
by Max Burns
“The Lenten season offers us the opportunity to look beyond ourselves and our short-term interests. That call to humility and service feels more needed than ever. If Trump and his weak Republican enablers on Capitol Hill won’t humble themselves to serve the public, voters will be more than willing to do the humbling for them.” (02/18/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5741875-trump-moral-decline-lent/
Source: RealClearPolitics
by Adam Brandon
“Nearly half of Americans now refuse to identify as either Democrat or Republican. According to a recent Gallup poll, independents make up a record 45% of the electorate, compared to just 27% who identify as Democrats and 27% as Republicans. Yet our political system continues to operate as though this plurality doesn’t exist – until now. Both major political parties are facing widespread public dissatisfaction, with 58% of Americans viewing the Republican Party unfavorably and 61% expressing unfavorable views of the Democratic Party. As confidence in the parties erodes, 2026 is shaping up to be the year that we see a handful of independents elected to Congress, disrupting the balance of power in Washington.” (02/18/26)
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2026/02/18/the_year_of_the_independent_153850.html
Source: Cato Institute
by Kevin T Frazier
“Since early 2023, the AI discourse in the popular press and in legislative chambers has been defined by extremes. Then-Majority Leader Chuck Schumer invited AI experts to the Senate and heard extensively about the existential risks posed by AI. He wasn’t the only one to associate AI with the potential end of humanity. Then-FTC Chair Lina Khan shared that she had a p(doom) of around 15 percent — her odds that AI would cause a cataclysmic event. … Today, plenty of folks are convinced of exactly the opposite. Tech luminaries such as Elon Musk envision a bright future in which humanity is surrounded by abundance. Conversations around the end of work, universal basic income, and similar utopian outcomes (to some) pass for normal chatter these days.” (02/18/26)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/ai-future-between-certain-doom-endless-prosperity
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“One under-discussed ticking time bomb is the way Israel keeps saying it’s going to resume incinerating Gaza if Hamas doesn’t disarm while Hamas keeps saying it won’t disarm. Netanyahu’s office is saying that Hamas will soon be given a 60-day deadline to give up its arms, after which the full-scale bombing of the enclave will resume if these demands aren’t met. A lot of people don’t understand that Hamas has never at any point agreed to give up its weapons. To give up its weapons would be to surrender, which is a very different thing from agreeing to a ceasefire. … Israel and its allies have no legitimate basis upon which to demand that Hamas surrender. All they can legitimately do is stop murdering and abusing the Palestinians.” (02/18/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/02/18/the-ticking-time-bomb-looming-over-gaza-and-other-notes/
Source: Reuters
“U.S. import tariffs haven’t been enough to stop the United States losing another aluminium smelter, leaving the country with just five primary metal production plants. Century Aluminum suspended production at its Hawesville smelter in 2022 as energy prices spiked in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The company expected to resume operations within a year once power prices abated. But they didn’t, and Century has now sold the Kentucky site to digital infrastructure company TeraWulf. U.S. President Donald Trump hiked aluminium import tariffs to 50% last year with the stated goal of halting the decades-long slide in domestic primary metal capacity. The immediate impact has been limited to Century’s restart of 50,000 metric tons of annual capacity at its Mount Holly smelter in South Carolina. Tariffs helped, but an extension, opens new tab of the current power supply deal with local energy provider Santee Cooper was arguably more important.” (02/18/26)
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/power-trumps-tariffs-another-us-aluminium-smelter-shuts-2026-02-18/
Source: Cato Institute
“Ed Crane and the Ideas that Changed Washington — and the World.” (02/17/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/ed-crane-ideas-changed-washington-world
Source: Jacobin
by Jarrod Shanahan
“Some in the Trump administration may now regret calling Renée Good and Alex Pretti ‘domestic terrorists.’ The hasty application of this label by Kristi Noem, J. D. Vance, and other hard-liners generated justifiable outrage and helped mobilize opposition to Donald Trump’s terror campaign against immigrants. Meanwhile, however, a far less-publicized case threatens to provide an enduring legal framework by which virtually anybody involved in activism against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), or Trump’s agenda more broadly, can be labeled a ‘domestic terrorist’ and treated accordingly.” (02/18/26)
https://jacobin.com/2026/02/prairieland-trump-domestic-terrorism-ice/
