The News
October 14, 2017
It’s Saturday and we’re back with our newly-revamped weekly edition of the Wonks newsletter. Early Monday morning, a series of wildfires broke out across Northern California, destroying at least 5,000 homes and leaving 35 dead as of the time of this writing. Concentrated primarily in the wine producing Napa and Sonoma counties, the fires have so far displaced over 90,0000 individuals and remains 25 percent contained as of this writing. Given the magnitude of the story, we’ve dedicated a section to coverage of the fires and their impact on the people, economy, and environment of the North Bay.
In other top news, the White House sent a proposal to Congress regarding DACA, stipulating harsh restrictions on immigrants in return for preserving the program; President Trump signed an executive order curtailing regulations on health insurers created by the Affordable Care Act; Special Counsel Robert Mueller interviewed former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus regarding Mueller’s investigation into the Trump administration; the NFL threatened to punish players who kneeled during the national anthem ceremony (see below); and the MacArthur Foundation announced its annual list of McArthur Foundation genius grant winners.
As always, enjoy the weekend and thanks for reading the weekend of the newsletter.
Cheers,
The Wonks Team
Northern California Wildfires
- The San Francisco Chronicle factsheet on the Napa and Sonoma County fires, including government responses, details on closures and lost infrastructure, as well as unanswered questions on the causes of the fires.
- The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports on the local landmarks lost to the Napa and Sonoma County fires, including schools, wineries, businesses, and more.
- Kathleen Pender of the San Francisco Chronicle evaluates the effects of the fires on housing market in California, noting the shortage of housing in the North Bay and Bay Area at-large.
- The Los Angeles Times assesses the difficulties of counting the casualties resulting from the fires, such as deaths, missing persons, destroyed properties, and more.
- SFGate reports on the impact of the fires on air quality in the Bay Area, mapping out the severity of the health hazards by county and immediate areas encompassing the fires.
- NPR writes about how the Napa and Sonoma County fires fit into a larger pattern of increasing intensity for wildfires in the Western U.S. as a result of drier conditions and higher temperatures in the summer months.
Politics and Public Policy
- The Washington Post reports on the escalating travel expenses of White House officials for non-governmental purposes, tracking the trips taken by cabinet members for personal or political reasons and contrasting it with each members’ personal wealth.
- FiveThirtyEight analyzes the political impact of decertifying the Iranian nuclear deal, determining the limited options for the White House and Congress to sanction Iran’s nuclear program in the absence of the 2015 agreement.
- The New York Times reports on the EPA’s repeal of Clean Power Plan, which regulates the amount of carbon emitted by coal and natural gas plants.
- The Upshot examines the role of amnesty in the American legal system, remarking on how institutions exercise amnesty for tax and criminal justice matters and how the term differs on immigrant policies.
- FiveThirtyEight evaluates the policy disagreement within the Republican Party over tax reform, noting the competing interests of the party’s deficit hawks, tax cutters, and proponents for an overhaul of the tax code.
- The Atlantic analyzes how bureaucrats make decisions at welfare agencies, remarking on the extreme pressure they face in their work, their limited discretion for creativity or deviating established procedures, and why they receive unfair public scrutiny.
- Margot Sanger-Katz of The Upshot explains the potential effects of President Trump’s executive order cutting insurance market subsidies under the Affordable Care Act on health-care prices and how it could drive up costs for consumers.
- NPR examines why the Bureau of Alcohol and Firearms doesn’t regulate the use of bump stocks that enable a riffle to emulate a machine gun, despite the mass casualties created by the use of bump stocks during the Las Vegas shooting.
Business, Science, and Health
- The New York Times assesses the economic advantages that enable China to dominate the market for electric cars, as well as the factors that have held back Chinese companies from becoming popular internationally.
- Bloomberg Businessweek profiles Mike Moore and his crusade against pharmaceutical companies for misleading the public on the addictive side effects of opioids and how he’s modeling the litigation after previous cases against tobacco companies.
- The Atlantic writes about the human costs of space exploration and why the U.S. government has ceded funding for NASA and left progress to private companies hoping to establish luxury space travel.
- NPR writes about coffee culture in Guatemala, describing the growing popularity of artisanal coffee shops and roasting methods for a nation that primarily exported its coffee beans to other countries.
- The Ringer covers the tech industry’s antipathy towards regulation, writing about Silicon Valley’s cultural avoidance of discussing politics and protecting intellectual property as primary causes of the industry’s aversion to oversight, as well as the privacy concerns of public review of companies’ user data.
Sports and Culture
- The New Yorker reflects on the 25th anniversary of “Reservoir Dogs” and the career Quentin Tarantino, noting the misguided reactions of initial reviews of the film, the film’s depictions of Los Angeles, its pop culture-laden dialogue, and more.
- Jonah Keri of CBS Sports makes the case for an all-bullpen game in the MLB playoffs in response to the shelling starting pitchers have taken in the LDS and for the potential fun of beginning a game with a fast-throwing reliever.
- Deadspin reports on the NFL rule changes meant to punish players and teams for kneeling or deviating in any way during the national anthem ceremony before games.
- Dave Schilling of Bleacher Report profiles Deion Sanders’ two-sport day in 1992, when Sanders suited up to play football for the Falcons in Atlanta before flying to Pittsburgh to play baseball for the Braves in the NLCS.
- The Ringer explains the controversy surrounding McDonald’s chicken McNuggets and “Rick and Morty,” remarking on how a throw-away joke in the season premier inspired the worst elements in internet culture and the show’s fan base.
- Vulture breaks down the current state of the late-night wars, observing how political events have raised audience expectations for an immediate response, pushing Jimmy Fallon’s “The Tonight Show” into third place having previous ranked first place.
