LETTER

It’s finally Friday! In top news, the Juice is officially loose, as a parole board in Nevada decided to free O.J. Simpson in October having served a minimum nine years out of a nine to thirty-year prison sentence for armed robbery and kidnapping at a Las Vegas casino in 2007.
In other news, two protestors died in Venezuela during demonstrations against proposed changes to the country’s constitution; Secretary of State Rex Tillerson faces fines from the Treasury Department for violating U.S. sanctions against Russia in 2014 during his tenure as CEO of Exxon Mobile; and Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington was found dead in his Los Angeles home at age 41.
As always, have a great weekend and thanks for checking out the newsletter.
Cheers,
The Wonks Team
Politics and Public Policy
- The Washington Post reports on the efforts of President Trump’s legal team to undermine the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller by accusing Mueller and his legal team of having multiple conflicts of interest while also noting the research of Trump’s personal lawyers into the president’s authority to grant presidential pardons.
- Bloomberg News writes about the need for establishing rules for cyberwarfare, explaining the current round of cyberattacks between Russia and the U.S. as well as the importance of defining appropriate retaliatory measures and outlawing specific practices, like with the current ban on chemical weapons in militarized warfare.
- In Thursday’s episode of “Fresh Air” from NPR, host Terry Gross interviews cybersecurity reporter Kim Zetter on the frailty of America’s decentralized voting systems and how they’re susceptible to interference by foreign hackers.
Business, Science, and Health
- The Atlantic evaluates the effectiveness of payment for ecosystem services programs, where governments pay citizens to forego cutting trees for wood sales, on protecting the environment and reducing carbon emissions,
- FiveThirtyEight writes about sham surgeries, or placebo procedures for patients under the impression that they’re undergoing orthopedic surgery, while remarking on the ethical issues of faking the procedure for patients.
Sports and Culture
- The New York Times examines the unusual stride of sprinter Usain Bolt, a product of how Bolt compensates for his scoliosis, and assesses whether or not Bolt is the fastest person alive in spite of or because of his uneven stride.
- Quartz previews this year’s San Diego Comic Con, including the main events and discussion panels while commenting on whether or not the convention is still relevant with the cultural dominance of comics and era of internet spoilers.

