There Are Two Kinds of Cops

Source: The Atlantic
by Jill Leovy

“Over the dozen years I spent covering the police as a beat reporter in Los Angeles, I came to realize there are two kinds of officers: showboaters and real cops. The showboaters strut around and talk tough. They think they know a lot but they don’t. They get in your face when you turn up to cover a story and wax poetic about bad guys, knuckleheads, and gangsters. They praise blanket measures, crackdowns, sweeps. I had to learn how to get past them and find my way to the real cops, who tend to be quieter but know more. America is having a showboater moment, summed up by federal agents imprisoning alleged immigrant gang members and shipping them abroad. To make itself look strong, the government plays up the danger they pose. Meanwhile, it shrugs off the unglamorous work of following due process and avoiding mistakes.” (05/15/25)

https://archive.is/O166o

Joseph’s Stiglitz’s Strange Concept of Freedom

Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger

“Stiglitz apparently believes that when the government places conditions or strings on a taxpayer-funded grant to a university group that prohibits it from discussing or promoting certain positions, this constitutes an attack on the ‘freedom’ of the group or the academic freedom of the university itself. But that’s ridiculous because no one is forcing the group or the university to take the money. The group and the university are free to say: ‘We don’t agree with your conditions or ‘strings’ and, therefore, we are not going to take your money,’ in which case they are free to teach and discuss anything they want.” (05/15/25)

https://www.fff.org/2025/05/15/josephs-stiglitzs-strange-concept-of-freedom/

Never, Ever Let Anyone Forget What They Did To Gaza

Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“I will never forget the Gaza holocaust. I will never let anyone else forget about the Gaza holocaust. No matter what happens or how this thing turns out, I will never let anyone my voice touches forget that our rulers did the most evil things imaginable right in front of us and lied to us about it the entire time. I will never stop doing everything I can with my own small platform to help ensure that the perpetrators of this mass atrocity are brought to justice. I will never stop doing everything I can to help bring down the western empire and to help free Palestine from the Zionist entity. I will never forget those shaking children. Those tiny shredded bodies. Those starved, skeletal forms. The explosions followed by screams. The atrocities followed by western media silence. I will never forget, and I will never forgive.” (05/15/25)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/05/15/never-ever-let-anyone-forget-what-they-did-to-gaza/

SCOTUS Revives Lawsuit Against Cop in Fatal Houston Shooting

Source: US News & World Report

“The U.S. Supreme Court revived on Thursday a Texas woman’s civil rights lawsuit against a Houston police officer who fatally shot her son during a traffic stop. The justices, in a 9-0 ruling, threw out a lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit by Janice Hughes accusing the officer, Roberto Felix Jr., of violating the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures by using deadly force against her son. Ashtian Barnes, 24, was killed in the 2016 incident. The case tested whether lower courts should analyze police conduct by considering only the exact ‘moment of threat’ to the officer, while excluding the officer’s actions prior to the deadly episode — even by a few seconds.” (05/15/25)

https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2025-05-15/us-supreme-court-revives-lawsuit-against-cop-in-fatal-houston-shooting

We’re worrying about the wrong thing. Low birth rate isn’t the crisis: Child care is.

Source: USA Today
by Dawn Huckelbridge

“Let’s just get this out of the way: The birth rate is a red herring. It’s been a common refrain that if the Trump administration and congressional leadership truly wanted to make it easier for families in America to grow and thrive, they would turn to policies like national paid leave, affordable child care, maternal health care and home and community-based services for our aging and disabled loved ones. They would be investing in early education and the caregiving workforce. They would be supporting commonsense accommodations like remote work. They would be growing social safety nets. But they’ve done none of that. Their response to child care is to send in grandma. They’ve said next to nothing about paid leave.” (05/15/25)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2025/05/15/kids-parents-paid-leave-childcare-crisis/83369387007/

What the EPA’s partial rollback of “forever chemical” drinking water rule means

Source: SFGate

“On Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to weaken limits on some harmful ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water roughly a year after the Biden administration finalized the first-ever national standards. The Biden administration said last year the rules could reduce PFAS exposure for millions of people. It was part of a broader push by officials then to address drinking water quality by writing rules to require the removal of toxic lead pipes and, after years of activist concern, address the threat of forever chemicals. President Donald Trump has sought fewer environmental rules and more oil and gas development. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has carried out that agenda by announcing massive regulatory rollbacks. Now, we know the EPA plans to rescind limits for certain PFAS and lengthen deadlines for two of the most common types.” (05/14/25)

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/what-the-epa-s-partial-rollback-of-the-forever-20327806.php