LETTER

The News

August 28, 2017

Perry K. Wong
Aug 28, 2017 · 3 min read

It’s Monday, the beginning of the workweek. Over the weekend, Hurricane Harvey struck the heart of Texas, displacing tens of thousands from Corpus Christi to Houston and leaving at least one reported death. The National Weather Service declared the rainfall unprecedented, as some areas received as much as 50 inches of rainfall and the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency claimed that it could take years for Texas to recover from the flooding that ensued.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration dropped several under-the-radar policy pronouncements as the hurricane struck Texas, issuing a memo outlining the military ban on transgender troops, firing White House national security advisor and alt-right affiliate Sebastian Gorka, and issuing a pardon absolving former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio of upcoming criminal charges.

In other top stories, thousands of anti-Trump protesters swarmed Berkeley on Sunday in response to cancelled protest organized by Trump supporters originally scheduled for that day; counter-protesters in San Francisco marched on Saturday to abort a planned alt-right rally and press conference; and Uber named former Expedia chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi as its new CEO.

As per usual, good luck on the week ahead and thanks for reading the newsletter.

Cheers,

The Wonks Team


Politics and Public Policy

Business, Science, and Health

Sports and Culture

  • Vulture interviews actor/director Justin Chon on his career in token Asian roles, his new film “Gook” and growing up in south L.A. during the riots, and the absence of Asian-American representations in conversations on diversity in Hollywood.
  • Albert Burneko of Deadspin reflects on the McGregor–Mayweather fight, arguing that it lived up to expectations as another boring technical feat by Floyd Mayweather, Jr., and that the media gave too much credit to Conor McGregor for simply being present.

Wonks This Way

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Perry K. Wong

Written by

Bureaucracy Enthusiast | News Junkie

Wonks This Way

Commentary, analysis, and occasionally irreverent takes on policy, sports, pop culture, data, and technology 🤖.

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