Source: SFGate
“Fifteen years after the 2011 nuclear disaster, color-coded radiation maps hang on the wall of Futabaya Ryokan, the family-run inn Tomoko Kobayashi operates in her near-deserted hometown in northeastern Fukushima. Kobayashi conducted her own radiation surveys before reopening the inn in 2016. Now, she and other monitors share radiation data as part of efforts to rebuild this once-bustling textile town. ‘These empty lots used to be filled with shops,’ Kobayashi says of the pre-disaster town as she heads to a radiation monitoring lab, walking past a kindergarten she attended as a child. It’s now used as a museum because there are too few children since the nuclear crisis. ‘There used to be businesses, community activity and children playing,’ she says. ‘We used to live our ordinary daily lives here, and I hope to see that again.’ Only about one-third of Odaka’s pre-disaster population of 13,000 have returned over the past decade.” (03/10/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/15-years-after-fukushima-meltdown-an-innkeeper-22058066.php
Source: Semafor
“Bilt’s Ankur Jain on solving the ‘four-banana problem’ and gamifying how, and where, we live.” (03/10/26)
https://traffic.megaphone.fm/OENRF1363137845.mp3
Source: Popular Information
by Judd Legum
“President Trump allegedly sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl who was trafficked to him by Jeffrey Epstein, according to documents released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) last Thursday. The White House insists the allegations are ‘completely baseless’ and ‘backed by zero credible evidence.’ … Since the initial release of the documents, two important developments have bolstered the credibility of the alleged victim. This new information has received little national media attention.” (03/10/26)
https://popular.info/p/trumps-alleged-sexual-assault-of
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“In the thin Himalayan mountain air of Nepal, the unambiguous results of the March 5 national elections are breathing new vitality into hopes for clean and effective governance in one of the world’s least-developed nations. The relatively new Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has so far won about 74% of the 165 directly elected seats in the legislature. Its sweeping success positions Balendra Shah, the capital city’s youthful, antiestablishment mayor (and ex-rap star), to become prime minister. Nepal is the third South Asian country in recent years – after Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – to demand both democratic and generational change in political systems characterized by entrenched leadership, nepotism, and inefficiency. In all three nations, youth-led street protests resoundingly called for honesty and accountability, and ousted longtime political leaders, including – last September – Nepal’s four-term Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli.” (03/09/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0309/Nepal-climbs-its-Everest-of-honesty
Source: CNN
“A federal judge scolded attorneys for the Justice Department and Live Nation for secretly negotiating a settlement to resolve allegations the ticket giant operated as a monopoly while the trial was underway. Judge Arun Subramanian called the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, Omar Assefi, and Live Nation’s chief executive, Michael Rapino, into court Tuesday to answer questions after he was blindsided by the deal. On Monday the Justice Department and Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, announced they reached a settlement they said will benefit consumers by giving them more options and lowering prices. More than 30 state attorneys general are also part of the case against Live Nation, but said in court filings they were only given one day to decide whether to join the settlement.” (03/10/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/10/politics/live-nation-ticketmaster-justice-department-settlement-controversy
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Evil of Attacking Iran.” (03/10/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ1hTQUfBCo
Source: Independent Institute
by Caleb Petitt
“The Senate is set to consider the ROAD to Housing Act of 2025, or as Rand Paul calls it, ‘Path Toward the Destruction of Property Rights Act.’ The bill would limit institutional investors from buying certain single-family homes. Previously, President Trump issued an executive order to limit Wall Street from competing for homes with Main Street in the single family rental market (SFR). Institutional investors (investors with 100 or more properties) in SFRs have been unpopular for a while and have faced political opposition, particularly from the left, though now Republicans are the chief sponsors of the legislation. However, the extent of institutional investment in SFRs has been wildly exaggerated and the benefits from having them in the market are frequently ignored.” (03/10/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/03/10/wall-st-housing/
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Ramesh Thakur
“The distortion between voting shares and seats won by the various parties highlights a crucial flaw in the universal belief that ‘representative’ democracy based on free and fair elections delivers governments that the majority of citizens voted into power. For in reality, voters propose but electoral systems dispose who gets to form government. With the same voting shares, the distribution of seats on the treasury and opposition benches would be dramatically different across the various Western democracies.” (03/10/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/is-the-uk-still-a-liberal-democracy/
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Yes, I know that as an American citizen I’m expected to make Iran my enemy, given that after decades of brutal and deadly U.S. sanctions, the U.S. government has now launched a war of aggression on Iran. But that doesn’t make one whit of difference to me. Iran is still not my enemy, especially since the U.S. (and Israeli) war is immoral, illegal, and unconstitutional. My enemy continues to be the U.S. government, specifically the U.S. national-security state and its deadly and destructive policy of foreign interventionism, which are responsible for bringing about this deadly, destructive, immoral, illegal, and unconstitutional war.” (03/10/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/03/10/iran-is-not-my-enemy/
Source: Politico
“An Iran off-ramp.” (03/10/26)
https://traffic.megaphone.fm/POLL8006810937.mp3