LETTER
The News
February 23, 2017
It’s Thursday. Yesterday, President Trump rolled back protections issued by the Obama administration that allowed transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms of the gender they personally identify with; emails emerged conveying active coordination between the new Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator Scott Pruitt and oil and gas companies during his time as attorney general in Oklahoma; and protestors of the Dakota Access Pipeline began to decamp from the Standing Rock protest site as the deadline to halt construction of the pipeline expired.
Good luck with the day ahead and thanks for checking out Wonks This Way.
Cheers,
The Wonks Team
Politics
- The Washington Post reports on the turmoil in the State Department as the cabinet-level office faces delays over hiring and absences of the Secretary of State during meetings with foreign dignitaries due to political intervention from the White House.
- Technology columnist Farhad Manjoo of The New York Times reflects on a week of avoiding consumption of news coverage on Donald Trump, remarking on the ubiquity of the president in all forms of media and how coverage of his actions crowds out other newsworthy stories.
Public Policy
- The Verge examines the crisis facing California’s vast system of dams, explaining how engineers designed them to endure during periods of drought rather than a deluge of rain from rising temperatures and a state population of nearly 40 million people.
- FiveThirtyEight evaluates the prospective effects of President Trump’s executive order increasing federal punishment for attacking police on existing state laws and the incidents most likely to cause the death of a police officer.
Business and Economy
- Bloomberg News assesses the impact of the president’s immigration orders on the housing market, noting how fears of deportations or revocation of work visas has discouraged foreign-born Americans from becoming first-time home buyers.
Science and Health
- The Atlantic writes about the discovery of seven Earth-like planets orbiting the red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, located 40 light years from Earth, and the suitability of these planets for holding water or supporting life.
Sports
- Chris Herring of FiveThirtyEight analyzes where DeMarcus Cousins’ style of play fits in with the schemes run by the New Orleans Pelicans — observing how Cousins holds onto the ball longer than average for centers — along with other interesting NBA trends.
Culture
- Bloomberg News maps out the profile of the typical Academy Award winners for best actor, actress, and picture in light of this year’s nomination of a record number of women and minorities following last year’s #OscarsSoWhite controversy.
- James Poniewozik of The New York Times reflects on the coverage of the Trump presidency on late-night talk shows, contrasting Jimmy Fallon’s agnostic takes on the president’s personality with Stephen Colbert’s pointed critiques of the president’s policies.
