The News
January 31, 2018
It’s the end of January! We’ve had lengthy set of events to close out the second half of the month, kicked off by a budgetary showdown and three-day shutdown of the federal government that ended when Senate Democrats agreed to keep the government open through February 8th in exchange for another round of negotiations on renewing the immigration status of over 690,000 DACA recipients known as dreamers. Elsewhere, President Donald Trump singled out immigration as a key area of policy issue during his inaugural state of the union address, criticizing illegal immigration and border security while offering little in the way of compromise to extend permanent protections for dreamers or refugees.
In other news, a suicide bombing in Kabul on Saturday killed over 100 people, as violence between Taliban and the Afghan government continues with increasing intensity in recent months; the New York Times reported that President Trump ordered the firing of Special Counsel Robert Mueller back in June, an action ultimately thwarted when his own White House counsel threatened to resign; Amazon, JP Morgan, and Berkshire Hathaway announced that the three companies would team up to find a solution to escalating health-care costs in the U.S.; the White House issued tariffs on sales of foreign-made solar panels and washing machines; the House Intelligence Committee voted along party lines in favor of releasing a memo alleging misconduct by Justice Department officials investigating the Trump administration; a long-standing cover up of sexual abuse by U.S.A. Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar upended athletics and the institutional integrity of Michigan State University; the Academy of Motion Pictures announced the nominees for the 2018 Oscars; and last night brought to Earth a Super Blue Blood Moon for the first time since 1866.
Anyway, thanks for checking out the newsletter and we’ll return in February to recap the headlines and stories you might have missed.
Cheers,
The Wonks Team
Politics and Public Policy
- The New York Times analyzes the role of federal district courts on shaping immigration policies following the recent ruling of a San Francisco-based court allowing for the continuation of DACA through early March.
- The Washington Post recounts the meeting between President Trump and congressional leaders on immigration and what spurred the president to describe Haiti and Africa as “shithole countries.”
- The Upshot lays out several possible maps of Pennsylvania congressional districts, illustrating how the current district boundaries favor Republican-leaning suburbs over cities led by Democrats and what the prospect of unpacking districts means for upcoming elections.
- NPR examines public opinion on the first year of the Trump presidency, finding that a majority of Americans disprove of Trump’s job as president along with polarizing favorability ratings between Democrats and Republicans on specific areas of policy.
- FiveThirtyEight examines the history of partisan politics in the U.S., comparing today’s divisions between and within the Democratic and Republican parties over immigration and race to past debates from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
- Harry Enten of FiveThirtyEight analyzes the historical impact of a government shutdown on party approval ratings, describing which party receives blame from the public and how it could affect the midterm election cycle.
- The San Francisco Chronicle reports on the Justice Department’s threats to subpoena 23 sanctuary cities across the country disputing their sanctuary policies protecting undocumented immigrants.
Business, Science, and Health
- Gizmodo investigates the reliability of genetic ancestry testing kits, finding wildly different responses from four separate DNA origin tests, and examines how the test results reveal more about the geographic origins of certain genes rather than the history of test taker’s ethnicity.
- The Upshot assesses how public health officials in California improved the state’s vaccination rate and mandated vaccination for children following an outbreak of measles at Disneyland in 2014.
- The Atlantic writes about the “forgetting curve” and why people tend to forget the books and articles they read or retain memories of the movies and TV shows they see.
- The Verge covers AlertSense, the company contracted to provide software for Hawaii’s emergency management system, and outlines how users of the software can accidentally authorize a statewide ballistic-missile alert.
- NPR reports on the financial statuses of contract and part-time workers, noting the lack of benefits for workers, the specific terms dictating their employment, and what the growth of contract employment illustrates about the job market.
- Quartz Obsession explains GeoCities, an early website-hosting service that catered to online fan communities and served as an entry point to the then-emerging culture of the internet.
- Tech columnist Farhad Manjoo of The New York Times covers the burgeoning industry for recreational marijuana and how tech companies have cashed in on cannabis legalization by marketing towards older consumers by selling non-smoking cannabis products.
Sports and Culture
- Jia Tolentino of The New Yorker examines the declining demand for blogging and the closure of websites that relied heavily on blogs such as Grantland, Gawker, and the Awl that all served as incubators for aspiring online writers.
- Wesley Morris of The New York Times reflects on the misuse of pop songs in movies by analyzing the themes of the John Fogerty song “Proud Mary” in the movie of the same name.
- Emma Baccellieri of Deadspin analyzes how the baseball model of free agency and luxury tax rules for teams has left so many players unsigned by teams with only a few weeks to go before the start of spring training.
- In Mike Freeman’s “10-Point Stance” column from Bleacher Report, Freeman assesses how the Philadelphia Eagles and New Patriots won their respective conferences and attempts to debunk the conspiracy theories explaining the Patriots’ success.
- NPR reviews the film “Have Nice Day,” a darkly comedic animated crime movie from China, which features hand-drawn animation and was previously banned from international distribution by the Chinese government.
- SB Nation explains the return of the XFL, the football league created by WWE chairman Vince McMahon, and details the rise and fall of the original XFL in 2001.
- Zach Lowe of ESPN evaluates the playmaking of the Miami Heat, remarking on how Erik Spoelstra and Pat Riley built a potential playoff contender following the departure of LeBron James and assesses what the team would need to make another leap forward.
- Michael Baumann of The Ringer writes about the Cleveland Indians’ decision to phase out Chief Wahoo, the team’s racist logo of a Native American, noting the history of the franchise’s nickname and its intention to continue to use the logo on team merchandise.
