Hannah McBride Archive Part 2
These are stories cover the first few months of this year. For my stories from 2016, see Part 3. For more recent stories from this year, see Part 1.
April 28, 2017
The creators of “This is Spinal Tap” — the most influential mockumentary ever made — have been paid almost nothing. Bloomberg’s Robert Kolker says the rock gods are angry. Poster via IMDB.
April 27, 2017
As Massachusetts begins to unravel the fallout of 40,000 convictions obtained with tainted evidence, Britni de la Cretaz asks a bigger question: Can the state really do justice by those defendants?
April 25, 2017
Tara García Mathewson wrote for the Atlantic about the early results from a Boston nonprofit that show improvement in households in a program meant to help family members “rewire” their brains by better dealing with stress. Photo via NICHD (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
April 21, 2017
Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” has become a kind of anthem for Planet Earth. How did this happen? Katie Kilkenny at Pacific Standard breaks it down.
BuzzFeed’s Azeen Ghorayshi talks about the extent to which the March for Science is making diversity a part of their message.
April 20, 2017
The Washington Post’s food trend writer Maura Judkis explains about how marijuana’s high holiday is becoming a marketing opportunity for some food and beverage brands. Image via Ben & Jerry’s.
April 19, 2017
Filmmaker John Waters turns 70 this week, but two decades ago, he showed up on Fox’s animated sitcom and kick-started a gay revolution on TV, writer Alan Siegel explains. Photo of John Waters via Edinburgh International Film Festival (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
April 14, 2017
Everyone knows a Nguyen, but how did that come to be? Writer Dan Nosowitz takes at a look at the history of family names in Vietnam.
April 13, 2017
The program is based on the idea that habit-forming behaviors start in childhood. Writer Sara Zaske explains how toy-free programs help kids develop skills to deal with boredom. Photo by 55Laney69 (CC BY-NC 2.0).
April 12, 2017
His hopes for a ‘very bipartisan’ bill are running into the same kinds of political forces that torpedoed the Obamacare repeal. Politico’s Lauren Gardner on what could conspire against his efforts.
April 11, 2017
STAT’s Sharon Begley explains how the genetic testing company 23andMe, which received approval this month from regulators to sell reports on an individual’s risk for 10 diseases, works. Photo by Andy Leppard (CC BY 2.0).
April 7, 2017
Melissa Hanham, researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, gives us a guide to some of the signs. Screenshot via YouTube.
April 6, 2017
President Xi Jinping of China has led anti-corruption campaigns targeting golf, but Trump’s made a sport of “golf diplomacy.” Author Dan Washburn on the politics behind golf in China and the Trump-Xi summit. Photo via Pixabay.
April 5, 2017
ProPublica’s Lisa Song explains how the president’s budget calls for ending an environmental program that has supported climate efforts in his and several Cabinet members’ backyards. Photo by Berjano Studios (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
April 4, 2017
The opium poppy is no longer the starting point for many of the opiates on the street. Kathleen McLaughlin explains how new compounds, often sold mixed with heroin, are from illicit Chinese labs. Photo by Emon Halim (CC BY 2.0).
March 31, 2017
This weekend’s protests proved one thing: From Vladivostok to Kaliningrad, everyone hates Dmitry Medvedev. Ola Chichowlas writes for Foreign Policy about the Russian revolt against the Prime Minister. Photo by Statsministerens Kontor (CC BY-NC 2.0).
March 30, 2017
For two decades, Oakland Raiders fans have heckled and cheered inside one of the most intense, hostile environments in sports history. But with the team’s move to Las Vegas now official, will the Black Hole vanish? Photo by JJ Hall (CC BY-NC 2.0).
March 29, 2017
The Washington Post’s Max Ehrenfreund on the GOP’s looming split over tax reform. President Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan both want to rewrite the tax code, but their proposals differ on how much tax relief to give the middle class. Photo by Aidan Morgan (CC BY 2.0).
March 28, 2017
The Atlantic’s Rob Meyer details new studies that show air quality in Beijing has a lot to do with snowstorms in Siberia. Photo by leniners (CC BY-NC 2.0).
March 25, 2017
Tay Wiles from High Country News explains what the ongoing legal battles tell us about protections for religious freedoms and government consultation with tribes. Photo by Oceti Sakowin Camp (CC BY-NC 2.0).
March 24, 2017
Tatiana Schlossberg of the New York Times explains new data released by Yale researchers that gives the most detailed view yet of public opinion on global warming. Photo via Berkeley Lab (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
March 23, 2017
Politico’s Adriel Bettelheim talks about the president’s tactics to help pass the GOP health care bill by dangling carrots and carrying one big stick. Photo by Phil Speck/Kentucky National Guard (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
March 17, 2017
The Washington Post’s Lena Sun explains president Trump’s embrace of discredited theories linking vaccines to autism has energized the growing anti-vaccine movement that public health experts warn is threatening one of the most successful medical innovations of modern times.
March 16, 2017
Ultrasound has been used to create sped-up videos that falsely depict a response to stimulus. Writer Moira Weigel traces the history of the ultrasound, from military technology to political weapon.
March 8, 2017
The proposed health-care bill has a different name for penalizing uninsured people. The Atlantic’s James Hamblin explains.
March 6, 2017
The Washington Post’s Brady Dennis explains why residents of Flint, Michigan, must start paying for water they still can’t drink without a filter.
March 3, 2017
The attorney general has recused himself from investigating anything connected to the Trump campaign after testimony about communications with Russian officials landed him in hot water. The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer explains. Photo by Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0).
March 1, 2017
Axios’s Ben Geman on the new executive order that launches the process of killing Obama-era regulations designed to provide expansive federal water-quality protections.
February 28, 2017
Tired of fake news and breathless hyperbole, two professors at the University of Washington are trying to strike a blow for science. STAT’s Usha Lee McFarling explains their new course: “Calling Bullshit In the Age of Big Data.”
February 25, 2017
Vox’s Alex Abad-Santos explains why the accent in Natalie Portman’s Oscar-nominated performance of Jackie is spot-on, even though it may sound odd to many people.
February 24, 2017
A picture is beginning to emerge of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s first three weeks as America’s top diplomat. Vox’s foreign editor Yochi Dreazen says it isn’t pretty.
February 22, 2017
Trump has rolled back protections to let school kids to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity, put in place by Obama last year. Press Secretary Sean Spicer called it a “states’ rights issue.” Writer Andrea Grimes talks about states’ actions on trans rights and so-called bathroom bills across the country.
February 22, 2017
Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster has staked out a decidedly more hawkish position on Russia and gone out of his way to assert that the war against terrorism must not turn into a war against Islam. Politico’s Jeremy Herb explains who Trump’s newest adviser is.
February 21, 2017
The Atlantic’s Kaveh Waddell explains what happens if border agents are allowed to demand access to your phone and online accounts — and turn you away if you don’t comply.
February 20, 2017
When Avery McRae decided to take on the government’s environmental policies, she had no idea who she’d be up against.
February 17, 2017
The Senate confirmed Scott Pruitt, former Oklahoma Attorney General, to run the Environmental Protection Agency. The Frontier’s Ziva Branstetter talks about Pruitt’s relationship to the agency, including the 14 lawsuits he filed against the EPA while AG of Oklahoma. Note: This story originally aired February 2.
February 17, 2017
Propelled by President Trump’s immigration rhetoric and recent ICE crackdowns, a number of churches and other houses of worship have declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants like Jeanette Vizguerra. The Washington Post’s Sarah Pulliam Bailey explains whether these sanctuaries are safe.
February 16, 2017
We here at 60dB set up a voicemail box for listeners and we want to hear what you’re doing today — a national “Day Without Immigrants.” Give us a call and leave a voice message: 701–630–6032. We could use it in an upcoming story.
Planned Parenthood will survive, says Vox’s Emily Crockett, but a lot of women will lose access to birth control.
February 14, 2017
The prospect that the president won’t make it through his term is big business for bookmakers.
February 10, 2017
Defenders of Trump’s choice for attorney general have cited an Alabama lynching case as evidence of his commitment to racial equality. As The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer explains, the real story is more complicated.
February 9, 2017
The question is trickier than you’d think for police, and the courts, to answer. The Marshall Project’s Beth Schwartzapfel explains.
February 8, 2017
The Washington Post’s Matea Gold discusses a retreat for the Koch network, where the conservative financiers assembled were forced to contend with a new uncertainty: whether the new president will be an ally or an obstacle.
February 7, 2017
Steve Bannon’s past statements, aired primarily on Breitbart and other conservative platforms, serve as a road map for the controversial agenda that has roiled Washington and shaken the global order during Trump’s first two weeks in office. Bannon’s worldview, which he laid out in interviews and speeches over the past several years, hinges largely on Bannon’s belief in American “sovereignty.” The Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold explains.
February 3, 2017
Love him or hate him, Brady at 39 is something of a biological miracle. Stat’s Andrew Joseph details how Brady’s stayed fit playing professional football for nearly two decades.
January 31, 2017
As late as Sunday afternoon, some travelers ensnared by President Donald Trump’s executive order were still being held in airports without access to legal counsel. Reveal’s Patrick Michels explains where this conflict came from and what could happen in these murky legal waters.
January 30, 2017
A four-mile stretch on Natural Bridge Avenue in St Louis — not in Chicago or Baltimore — is the place in America most plagued by gun violence.
January 27, 2017
Vox received six apparent Trump administration executive orders that suggest a harsh crackdown on immigration. Vox’s Dara Lind discusses the memos and what leaks like this might mean.
January 27, 2017
Buzzfeed has logged more than 1,700 people and organizations connected to the incoming Trump administration.
January 25, 2017
Critics worry that the incoming energy secretary has a massive conflict of interest.
January 24, 2017
Two years after the United States saw a record 27,000 deaths involving opioids, doctors and regulators are sharply restricting access to drugs like Oxycontin and Vicodin. But as the pendulum swings in the other direction, many patients who need drugs to manage their pain say they are being left behind.
January 23, 2017
The 1994 pact gradually eliminated most tariffs on several goods traded between Canada, Mexico and the United States. As the Texas Tribune’s Julián Aguilar explains, it’s turned Texas cities like El Paso and Laredo into key trade hubs but also displaced thousands of jobs that went to workers in Mexico and other countries.
January 20, 2017
On the campaign trail and after the election, Trump made dozens of promises of what he’d do on his first day in the White House. Here are eight of them.
January 19, 2017
After restricting access to just four computers in a room in Washington, DC, the CIA is finally putting 12 million declassified pages on the web for all to see.
January 18, 2017
Repeal cuts taxes for millionaires, even if millions lose insurance. Vox’s Matthew Yglesias explains how taxes for the 1% would drop.
January 17, 2017
The app’s stars presented Vine with a proposal but things didn’t go as planned.
January 17, 2017
End Rape on Campus launched the social media campaign asking Betsy DeVos to promise to protect and enforce Title IX rights for all students.
January 14, 2017
NBC’s Emerald City is just the latest Oz revival to fall flat on its face.
January 13, 2017
Right-to-buy program helps tenants stay put or receive higher payouts when building owners want to sell, undermining the idea of gentrification as a “natural” process.
January 12, 2017
News that President-elect Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met on Tuesday rang alarm bells throughout the scientific community, because both have aggressively promoted discredited anti-vaccination theories.
January 11, 2017
Can farmers in central Iowa save the world’s seafood supply? Mother Jones’s Maddie Oatman visited one landlocked fish farm to find out.
January 10, 2017
The bill would allow people to openly carry guns in airports. Vox’s German Lopez reports.
January 9, 2017
Brady Dennis from the Washington Post talks about President Obama’s national monument legacy, which may spur a Republican Congress to roll back the Antiquities Act of 1906.
January 6, 2017
Meet the “eco-right.”
January 5, 2017
Robert Lighthizer, a trade lawyer and veteran of the Reagan administration, is Trump’s pick for U.S. trade representative. And he’s long been an outspoken defender of the view that protectionism — not free trade — is the true conservative position.
