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After a half-century of federal oversight, segregated neighborhoods are still pervasive across America

After a half-century of federal oversight, segregated neighborhoods are still pervasive across America

ABC News reports: Milwaukee resident Exie Tatum III grew up in heart of the city and still lives there. The African American father owns a home in a predominantly Black neighborhood but has been house-hunting in pricey, majority-white suburbs, searching for an affordable home that he might someday pass along to his young son Charles through inheritance. “It would really change the game,” Tatum said of owning a suburban Milwaukee home. But statistics suggest he’s fighting an uphill battle. Despite…

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Changing your diet could add ten years to your life – new research

Changing your diet could add ten years to your life – new research

By Laura Brown, Teesside University Everyone wants to live longer. And we’re often told that the key to doing this is making healthier lifestyle choices, such as exercising, avoiding smoking and not drinking too much alcohol. Studies have also shown that diet can increase lifespan. A new study has found that eating healthier could extend lifespan by six to seven years in middle-aged age adults, and in young adults, could increase lifespan by about ten years. The researchers brought together…

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Putin says the West is goading Russia into war with Ukraine—and many Russians agree

Putin says the West is goading Russia into war with Ukraine—and many Russians agree

The Wall Street Journal reports: Like many Russians, graduate student Anastasia Bukhteyeva hopes the current standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine doesn’t erupt into a full-scale war. But if fighting does break out, the 24-year-old is sure of one thing: It won’t be Russia’s fault. “I have a feeling that someone is trying to provoke Russia,” said Ms. Bukhteyeva, who is studying to be an elementary school teacher. “I don’t understand who this would be good for, but…

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Prosecutors’ witness list offers glimpse into January 6 trial strategy

Prosecutors’ witness list offers glimpse into January 6 trial strategy

Politico reports: Prosecutors late Monday began laying out their trial strategy for Jan. 6 cases in the clearest detail yet, indicating they intend to call multiple Capitol Police officers, a former Senate aide, a member of the Three Percenters militia who was granted immunity and the Secret Service agent who helped supervise then-Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to the Capitol that day. Prosecutors revealed their proposed witness list in the case of Guy Reffitt, a Texas man who was charged…

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Call it ‘codger power.’ We’re older and fighting for a better America

Call it ‘codger power.’ We’re older and fighting for a better America

Bill McKibben and Akaya Windwood write: Neil Young and Joni Mitchell did more than go after Spotify for spreading Covid disinformation last week. They also, inadvertently, signaled what could turn out to be an extraordinarily important revival: of an older generation fully rejoining the fight for a working future. You could call it (with a wink!) codger power. We’ve seen this close up: Over the past few months, we’ve worked with others of our generation to start the group Third…

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Rightwing lobby group ALEC driving laws to blacklist companies that boycott the oil industry

Rightwing lobby group ALEC driving laws to blacklist companies that boycott the oil industry

The Guardian reports: The influential rightwing lobby group the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) is driving a surge in new state laws to block boycotts of the oil industry. The group’s strategy, which aims to protect large oil firms and other conservative-friendly industries, is modelled on legislation to punish divestment from Israel. Since the beginning of the year, state legislatures in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Indiana have introduced a version of a law drafted by Alec, called the Energy Discrimination…

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Why Biden’s judges are different — and what that means for the Supreme Court

Why Biden’s judges are different — and what that means for the Supreme Court

Chris Geidner writes: President Joe Biden’s judges are different. Not only are they different from those of President Donald Trump, but Biden’s judicial nominees are different from those of any president before him. In three ways, the first year of Biden’s judicial selections tells an important story about the effect the president is looking to have on the judiciary — a story that provides the clearest available information about how Biden will likely choose his first Supreme Court nominee. First,…

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What’s behind the right-wing book-ban frenzy? Big money, and a long-term plan

What’s behind the right-wing book-ban frenzy? Big money, and a long-term plan

Jon Skolnik writes: Until very recently, “book bans” seemed like a term out of the past, or a phenomenon that erupted sporadically in a small school or library district in the most conservative areas of the country. But over the last several years, parents’ groups aggrieved by the left’s alleged influence K-12 education have been working tirelessly to bring them back. All kinds of books have been exiled from library shelves or school curricula in the latest book-ban frenzy, although…

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Satisfaction has nothing to do with achievement, money, or stuff

Satisfaction has nothing to do with achievement, money, or stuff

Arthur C Brooks writes: Abd al-Rahman III, the emir and caliph of Córdoba in 10th-century Spain, summed up a life of worldly success at about age 70: “I have now reigned above 50 years in victory or peace; beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call.” And the payoff? “I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to…

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U.S. intel indicates Russian officers have had doubts about full scale Ukraine invasion

U.S. intel indicates Russian officers have had doubts about full scale Ukraine invasion

CNN reports: Intercepted communications obtained by the US have revealed that some Russian officials have worried that a large-scale invasion of Ukraine would be costlier and more difficult than Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Kremlin leaders realize, according to four people familiar with the intelligence. Three of the sources said those officials include intelligence and military operatives. The officials have also grumbled about their plans being discovered and exposed publicly by western nations, two of the sources said, citing…

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Macron hopes for ‘historic solution’ to Ukraine crisis ahead of Putin meeting

Macron hopes for ‘historic solution’ to Ukraine crisis ahead of Putin meeting

The Guardian reports: French president Emmanuel Macron believes he can deliver “a historic solution” to the Ukraine crisis ahead of his arrival in Moscow for talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin. After a flurry of diplomatic activity that included talks with US president Joe Biden this weekend and three phone calls with Putin, Macron will land in Moscow on Monday seeking a “de-escalation” of the tense standoff on Ukraine’s eastern borders. Russia has denied planning to invade Ukraine but has…

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Lies are the building blocks of Trumpian authoritarianism

Lies are the building blocks of Trumpian authoritarianism

William Saletan writes: Americans like to think our country is immune to authoritarianism. We have a culture of freedom, a tradition of elected government, and a Bill of Rights. We’re not like those European countries that fell into fascism. We’d never willingly abandon democracy, liberty, or the rule of law. But that’s not how authoritarianism would come to America. In fact, it’s not how authoritarianism has come to America. The movement to dismantle our democracy is thriving and growing, even…

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Senate GOP backlash smacks RNC after Cheney-Kinzinger censure

Senate GOP backlash smacks RNC after Cheney-Kinzinger censure

Politico reports: Senate Republicans are not happy with the Republican National Committee. In interviews on Monday evening, GOP senators lashed out at their own national party’s overwhelming vote to censure Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) for working on the House’s investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. They warned that alienating a portion of the party for being overly anti-Trump is not a political winner heading into the midterms, a sharp message from sitting members that goes…

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Peter Thiel steps down from Meta’s board to support Trump-aligned candidates

Peter Thiel steps down from Meta’s board to support Trump-aligned candidates

The Wall Street Journal reports: Peter Thiel, one of Facebook’s earliest investors and its longest-serving outside board member, is planning to step down from his position at the social-media giant, parent company Meta Platforms Inc. said Monday. Mr. Thiel intends to focus his efforts on helping Republican candidates supporting the agenda of former President Donald Trump in the 2022 midterm elections, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Thiel, a multibillionaire who has made his fortune as one…

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