Mitigating the Inevitable

[California's Lake Oroville, the state’s second largest reservoir, has seen a precipitous 190-foot drop in water level from June 2019 to June 2021. (NASA Landsat Program/Twitter)]

What makes global climate change so difficult is it feels too big and overwhelming for us as individuals to have any impact.

But that isn't true.

In our daily lives, we can eat a more climate-friendly diet, including seasonal, local foods; install solar panels, recycle, invest in sustainable technologies, conserve resources and limit our consumption of fossil fuels, among other steps.

As citizens we can support leaders who get it and expel those who don't from office. Organizing efforts by environmental activists have been responsible for much of the progress we've made on the issue; so donating to non-profits who are working on the issue is another option.

But perhaps the most important step we can take is simply talking about it -- not as an apocalyptic inevitability but as a mitigable inevitability. Although it is far too late to stop climate change, we may be able to limit its catastrophic effects on our grandchildren.

In this context, converting government fleets to electric vehicles, promoting the collection of rainwater by agencies, and reducing public waste all will help. If governments mobilize for collective action, there may be ways to better prepare our populations for what is to come.

Explaining the impending crisis to young children is appropriate as long as it isn't done in ways that overwhelm them. After all, they will be dealing with this throughout their lives, so getting used to the tradeoffs early on may spur them to help us find solutions.

Most children instinctively want to make things better; they are our greatest natural resource.

I'm writing these thoughts as summer descends on California, normally a special time, but this year it feels like we are poised on a frightening precipice. The heat promises to be intense, the drought is historic, the forests are dry and the specter of last year's orange skies hangs over everything.

And as pitiably small and inadequate as everything I've described may seem in the face of catastrophic climate change, these steps represent our last best hope.

Future generations deserve at least *that* much from us...right now.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* This time of year, it’s always there — a kind of looming peril that tinges even the most perfect, blue-skied beach days and hikes. It’s the knowledge that at any moment, a fire could spark anywhere in the state and consume hundreds of thousands of acres, level homes and threaten lives. (California Today)

* Likely 'the most extreme and prolonged heat waves in the recorded history' for the Northwest start today (CNN)

* Satellite data shows California’s deserts have lost almost 40 percent of their plants. (Desert Sun)

* The drought is making Sacramento’s water taste like dirt. (The Guardian) 

* House Speaker Nancy Pelosi authorized a select committee to investigate the "many questions" about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and response. Republicans, including those who helped Donald Trump foment the violence, have furiously objected to a probe. [HuffPost]

* Justice Dept. to file lawsuit against state of Georgia over new voting restrictions (WP)

* They Seemed Like Democratic Activists. They Were Secretly Conservative Spies. -- Operatives infiltrated progressive groups across the West to try to manipulate politics and reshape the national electoral map. They targeted moderate Republicans, too — anyone seen as threats to hard-line conservatives. (NYT)

* ‘We can find common ground’: Biden’s faith in bipartisanship is rewarded — at least for now (WP)

* Unauthorized Settlement Creates Stress Test for Israel’s New Government -- The outpost of Evyatar is illegal under Israeli law. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will anger one wing of his coalition if he evicts the settlers, and another if he lets them stay. (NYT)

* Workers seized a McDonald’s in France and turned it into a food bank (WP)

* Under Pressure, a Japanese Official Killed Himself. Now His Story Is Revealed. -- Toshio Akagi told his wife that he had compiled a dossier detailing the pressure he had faced to alter documents at the center of a political scandal. This week, she won her fight to see them. (NYT)

* U.S. bars imports of solar panels linked to forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region (WP)

* Congressional Democrats have approved a measure reinstating rules aimed at limiting climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas drilling, a rare effort by Democrats to use the legislative branch to overturn a regulatory rollback under President Donald Trump. (AP)

* Why Police Have Been Quitting in Droves in the Last Year -- Asheville, N.C., has been among the hardest hit by police departures in the wake of last year’s George Floyd protests. About a third of the force quit or retired. (NYT)

* Afghan government could fall within six months of U.S. military withdrawal, intel assessment says (WP)

* U.S. to Move Afghans Who Aided Troops Outside the Country -- The relocations are meant to place interpreters and others who worked with departing American forces somewhere safe until visas for them to enter the United States are processed. (NYT)

* Roughly 650 U.S. troops are expected to remain in Afghanistan to provide security for diplomats after the main American military force completes its withdrawal, which is set to be largely done in the next two weeks. (AP)

* Texas Republicans, undeterred by a setback in the state House last month, renewed their push to restrict the participation of transgender students in school sports. [HuffPost]

* Rising seas have long pressured Miami coastal properties (WP)

* San Francisco will require all city employees to be vaccinated. Those who refuse will be fired. (California Today)

* U.S. to Search Former Native American Schools for Children’s Remains -- Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced a new initiative that would delve into the records of the federal schools to which Native American children were forcibly relocated for 150 years. (NYT)

* Canada labels the Three Percenters a terrorist entity (WP)

* Britain begins Amazon, Google fake review inquiry (Reuters)

* ‘Dragon Man’ Fossil Skull Found in China Tells Story of Unknown Human Ancestor (WSJ)

* U.S. unable to explain more than 140 unidentified flying objects, but new report finds no evidence of alien life (WP)

* The Truth Has Not Always Been Out There -- Rather than explaining when U.F.O. sightings were really just top-secret planes, the government has sometimes allowed public eagerness about the possibility of aliens to take hold. (NYT)

* What we learned while working from home, and how it can boost employees’ well-being (WP)

* Contractor Informs Biden It’d Be Cheaper To Just Tear Down U.S. And Start Over (The Onion)

***

"(Love is like a) Heat Wave"

Martha and the Vandellas

Whenever I'm with him
Something inside
Starts to burnin'
And I'm filled with desire

Could it be the devil in me
Or is this the way love's supposed to be

Just like a heatwave
Burning in my heart
Can't keep from cryin'
It's tearing me apart

Whenever he calls my name
So slow, sweet and plain
I feel, yeah, yeah, well I feel that burning flame

Has my blood pressure got a hold on me
Or is this the way love's supposed to be

Just like a heatwave (Heatwave)
Burning in my heart (Heatwave)
Can't keep from cryin'
It's tearing me apart

Heatwave
Heatwave

Sometimes I stare in space
Tears all over my face
I can't explain it, don't understand it
I'ain't never felt like this before

But that doesn't mean it has me amazed
I don't know what to do, my head's in a haze

Just like a heatwave (Heatwave)
Burning in my heart (Heatwave)
Can't keep from cryin'
It's tearing me apart

Don't pass up this chance
This time it's a true romance

Life's Too Short for That

One of the most frequent post-pandemic conversations I'm having with younger people is over the choices and dilemmas they face in their career choices and jobs. 

After such a long stretch working from home, many of them seem restless and ready to make a change. It's a natural thing; I'm sure many people are going through similar transitions.

A subtle feature of these conversations is the person asking my advice usually seems to already know the answer they want to hear.

In that way, I'm less of a sounding board than a mirror.

In the past, when I was still employed myself, I would have focused on providing the most practical advice possible. You know --- money, location, prestige, future opportunity for growth. Those kinds of things.

And I can still do that. But from the vantage of being retired and older and done with the pandemic's restrictions myself, I'm more likely to ask what their dreams are. 

This seems like a moment everyone should be pursuing their dreams.

***

So somehow I've migrated into the business of giving career advice, albeit unpaid, which at least guarantees people will get their money's worth.  But what I won't do is encourage people to try and get more power, a fancier title, or greater responsibility over the lives of others. 

They'll do that on their own without my help. And of course those who become the worst bosses never ask for advice.

A long career taught me that assuming responsibility over others at work is every bit as risky and dangerous and rewarding and scary and meaningful as becoming a parent.

In both roles, you can either rip away the underbrush in the jungle to clear a path for somebody to achieve their dream or you can crush their hopes like an aluminum can for recycling.

Recycling is a good thing, so you may think that is a very odd image for me to have chosen.

But it isn't. When I sense that an individual would make a bad manager, I want to help recycle them back into the workforce for more seasoning. 

Bad managers, like bad parents, crush people's dreams in pursuit of their own ego, power and prestige. They manage others for their own benefit and remain blithely oblivious to the harm they are doing in the process.

I've known plenty of bad managers. Many of them try to come off as nice guys, with good families and a sophisticated sense of humor.

But the truth is that they are dream-crushers.

The great irony of management is the best bosses turn out to be the people who don't think they want to be, and by far the worst managers are those who want to be.

Work is about the collective, not the individual.

But there is another side to this story of bad bosses. Encouraging anyone to pursue utterly unrealistic goals they will never achieve is not a service to them or the rest of us. And there is a sense of entitlement among certain classes of young people accustomed to get whatever they want, perhaps thanks to over-indulgent parents and well-meaning others.

At the end of all of this, you ask, how can any one of us, least of all me, be so presumptuous as to know what is best for somebody else at all?

Well, I don't presume. All I can do is listen, reflect, and share my own experiences.

And then I say, "Pursue your dreams,  but never at the cost of harming others. Life is way too short for that."

***

The news:

* A leaked UN report warns 'worst is yet to come' on climate change. -- The draft report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change paints the starkest picture yet of the accelerating danger. (PBS.org)

* Biden Aims to Bolster Police Departments as Homicides Increase -- The president made clear that he intends to approach crime prevention by investing in, rather than defunding, the police as he waded into an urgent national debate over policing. (NYT)

* 'We have deal’: Biden, bipartisan senators on infrastructure (AP)

* Tension grips Michigan as Trump’s attacks on election continue to reverberate (WP)

* Michigan state Senate Republicans who investigated the election for months concluded there was no widespread fraud and urged criminal investigation of those claiming otherwise "for their own ends." The panel's 55-page report dismantles the lies of ex-President Donald Trump and his allies in considerable detail. [AP]

* Trump's fixation on his election defeat and on exacting revenge on those who have crossed him appears to be driving away two of his closest advisers: his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. The couple reportedly cringe at Trump's "constant harping on the past and his inability to move on." [CNN]

* Many restaurants in California, faced with a severe shortage of workers, are being forced to cut operating hours or leave tables open. (AP)

* Inside the extraordinary effort to save Trump from covid-19 -- An excerpt from the book “Nightmare Scenario” details how Trump’s illness was far more severe than the White House acknowledged. Advisers thought it would alter his pandemic response. They were wrong. (WP)

* Canadian indigenous group finds 751 unmarked graves at former residential school (Reuters)

* Supporters Rally as Hong Kong Newspaper Prints Final Edition -- People cheered for staff outside the headquarters of Apple Daily on Wednesday. The pro-democracy newspaper said it would be forced to close after the government froze its assets and arrested top editors. (Reuters, AP)

* New polls released Thursday show just how far Republicans were willing to go to support then-President Donald Trump's unprecedented efforts to subvert the 2020 election. The research was conducted by the Democracy Fund, a nonpartisan foundation that studies voter attitudes toward democratic institutions and works to strengthen democracy in the U.S. Their polls found that after the election, a supermajority of Republicans backed Trump's efforts to overturn the results: 86% said his legal challenges were appropriate, 79% said they weren't confident in the national vote tally, and 68% said Trump really won. Another 54% said Trump should never concede, and a plurality said state legislatures should override the popular vote. (CNN)

* Voting reform cannot die. The future of democracy is at stake. (WP)

* Rudy Giuliani is suspended from law practice in N.Y. over false election claims (Reuters, AP)

* As shootings and murders rage out of control, President Joe Biden announced an effort to crack down on illegal guns and pour government money into law enforcement. He's ordering the ATF to yank licenses of dealers who peddle guns illegally (he actually had to tell the regulator to do its job!) and will work with state officials to hold gunmakers accountable for mayhem caused by their weapons. “This is not a time to turn our backs on law enforcement,” Biden said. [HuffPost]

* Microsoft challenges Apple's business model with new Windows 11 operating system (Reuters)

* Pentagon linguist sentenced to 23 years for exposing U.S. sources in Iraq to Hezbollah in rare terrorism espionage case (WP)

* Delta variant puts Africa at risk of third wave (AP)

* Why We Keep Telling Legends of Sea Monsters -- From the biblical Leviathan to the modern Japanese ningen, some of humanity’s favorite stories conjure creatures of the deep. (WSJ)

* Scorching heat breaks records in Europe, Russia (WP)

* 159 people still missing in building collapse that killed at least four, according to Miami-Dade police  (CNN)

* More Than Half Of U.S. Buildings Are In Places Prone To Disaster, Study Finds (NPR)

* To stop Republican authoritarianism, subsidize local journalism. (WP)

* Fed officials say employment is down significantly, businesses reluctant to hire (Reuters)

* Ken Burns is an optimist. But he’s very worried about America. (WP)

* NASA’s Perseverance Rover Begins Its Search for Life on Mars (WSJ)

* Pacific Northwest braces for triple-digit temperatures as historic heat wave develops (WP)

* Shortstop Brandon Crawford is a huge reason why the SF Giants (48-26) are in first place in the NL West and not the Dodgers (44-31) or Padres (45-32). He leads all shortstops in Win Probability Added (ahead of Fernando Tatis Jr.), which means he's making a real impact on his team winning games -- and San Francisco has the best record in baseball and is on track for an improbable 105 wins. (MLB.com)

* Infrastructure Talks Come To Halt After Giant Sinkhole Swallows Capitol Building (The Onion)

***

Life’s Too Short (outtake)

Kristen Anderson-Lopez

Anna: I came all this way, today
To give us a fresh start
But now that you're like WOW
It's all like warm in the heart
Elsa: I'm so glad you like it sis
'Cause this is the real me
You have no idea, how great it feels to be free
Anna: We've been falling out for way to long
So let's forget who's right
Elsa: and forget who's wrong
Both: Okay!
Elsa: Why don't you stay,
There's room for family in my court
Both: Cause life's too short
Anna: To always feel shut out
And unloved by the sister I long to know
Both: Life's too short
Elsa: To never let you celebrate me, the true queen of the ice and snow

***

Does Media Help Us Come Together?

One of my favorite news agencies, Reuters, is just out with its global digital news summary and here are a few key findings:

• Interest in news has fallen sharply in the United States following the election of President Biden – especially with right-leaning groups. 
• The media are seen to be representing young people (especially young women), political partisans, and people from minority ethnic groups less fairly.  
• Despite more options to read and watch partisan news, the majority of our respondents (74%) say they still prefer news that reflects a range of views and lets them decide what to think. Most also think that news outlets should try to be neutral on every issue (66%).
• The use of social media for news remains strong, especially with younger people and those with lower levels of education. Messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram have become especially popular in the Global South, creating most concern when it comes to spreading misinformation about Coronavirus. 
• Mainstream news brands and journalists attract most attention around news in both Facebook and Twitter but are eclipsed by influencers and alternative sources in networks like TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram. TikTok now reaches a quarter (24%) of under35s.
• The value of traditional local and regional news media is increasingly confined to a small number of subjects such as local politics and crime. Other internet sites and search engines are considered best for a range of other local information including weather, housing, jobs, and ‘things to do’ that used to be part of what local news media bundled together. 
• The use of smartphone for news (73%) has grown at its fastest rate for many years, with dependence also growing through Coronavirus lockdowns. Use of laptop and desktop computers and tablets for news is stable or falling.

There is much more in the report, but it is clear that both in the U.S. and elsewhere, a majority of people who follow the news do not want to be told by media figures how to think. Most people do not want narrow views but a range of opinions, so they can better decide for themselves.

This is good news for traditional journalists because that is how we operate, but then again, traditional journalists do not necessarily control the major mass media outlets.

So these data points should be uppermost in the minds of any media executives truly interested in serving their audiences.

In a deeply divided society, media executives have a moral dilemma: Whether to provide honest reporting based on diverse perspectives or biased reporting that deliver higher ratings. 

Which do they choose?

***

The news:

* Seattle scientist digs up deleted genetic data on virus, stirring new origin fight -- A computational biologist posted his findings on a server where papers that have not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a journal have been landing by the thousands, prompting instant reaction from scientists who have debated a flurry of theories about the coronavirus’s origin. (WP)

* The Capitol Hill riot in the United States and the global spread of false information and conspiracy theories about Coronavirus have further focused minds on where people are getting their news, which is why we have undertaken detailed research this year on understanding the role of different social networks for news and the complex ways in which they are being used to spread misleading and false information around the world. (Reuters) 

* The Delta Variant Is a Grave Danger to the Unvaccinated -- One half of America is protected. The other is approaching a perilous moment in the pandemic. (New Yorker)

* Republicans Block Voting Rights Bill, Dealing Blow to Biden and Democrats -- All 50 G.O.P. senators opposed the sweeping elections overhaul, leaving a long-shot bid to eliminate the filibuster as Democrats’ best remaining hope to enact legal changes. (NYT)

* States across the country are dropping barriers to voting, widening a stark geographic divide in ballot access (WP)

* Amazon, Others Race to Buy Up Renewable Energy --The race to secure electricity deals for power-hungry data centers has tech companies reshaping the renewable-energy market and grappling with a new challenge: how to ensure their investments actually reduce emissions. (WSJ)

* The rising cost of being in National Guard: Reservists and guardsmen are twice as likely to be hungry as other American groups (WP)

* For Americans struggling with poverty, ‘the safety net in the United States is very, very weak,’ expert says (WP)

* U.S. Supreme Court hands victory to cheerleader in free speech case -- The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a Pennsylvania public school wrongly suspended a cheerleader over a vulgar social media post she made after she didn't qualify for the varsity team. (Reuters, AP)

* Political newcomer India Walton appears to have knocked off Buffalo, New York's longtime incumbent in the city's Democratic primary, likely crowning her the first female leader of the upstate city and the first socialist mayor of any major American city in almost 60 years. No Republican is running in the fall election. [HuffPost]

* Nearly 900 Secret Service members were infected with the coronavirus. A watchdog blames Trump. (WP)

* Insurance companies are abandoning tens of thousands of rural Californians because of wildfire risk, forcing them to find replacement coverage at double or triple the rate. (Sacramento Bee)

* More than 500 firefighters are battling the Willow Fire, which is burning south of Big Sur in Los Padres National Forest. (AP)

* I’ve Cracked Zodiac, a French Engineer Says. Online Sleuths Are Skeptical. -- Fayçal Ziraoui caused an online uproar after saying he had cracked unsolved ciphers attributed to the Zodiac killer in California and identified him, potentially ending a 50-year-old quest. (NYT)

* Member of Oath Keepers to plead guilty to role in U.S. Capitol attack (Reuters)

* Uber, Lyft Drivers Race to Apps That Make Contract Work a Better Gig (WSJ)

* Scherzer passes every ‘sticky’ test Phillies throw at him; Girardi gets tossed (WP)

* Against Expectations, Southwestern Summers Are Getting Even Drier -- The finding by researchers runs counter to a basic tenet of climate change — that warming increases humidity because hotter air holds more moisture. It’s also bad news for fire seasons. (NYT)

* U.S. solar developers see opportunity in America's post-industrial lands (Reuters)

* Poll: Many Democrats want more US support for Palestinians (AP)

* An avoidable tragedy looms in Afghanistan. Biden must act quickly to avert it. (Editorial Board/WP)

* Saudi Operatives Who Killed Khashoggi Received Paramilitary Training in U.S. -- The training, approved by the State Department, underscores the perils of military partnerships with repressive governments. (NYT)

* Iran Says It Foiled Attack on Another Nuclear Facility (WSJ)

* U.S. seizes websites linked to alleged Iranian government propaganda (WP)

* Alien Planet-Hunters In Hundreds Of Nearby Star Systems Could Spot Earth -- Potentially, observers in plenty of solar systems could have detected Earth sometime in the last 5,000 years. More stars will soon move into positions that would let them see our planet. (NPR)

* Hummingbird Back At Feeder Again, Grandmother Reports (The Onion)

***

"Come Together" (excerpt)

The Beatles

Written by John & Paul

Here come old flat top
He come grooving up slowly
He got joo joo eyeball
He one holy roller
He got hair down to his knee
Got to be a joker he just do what he please

He wear no shoe shine
He got toe jam football
He got monkey finger
He shoot Coca-Cola
He say I know you, you know me
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free

Come together, right now, over me

He bag production
He got walrus gumboot
He got Ono sideboard
He one spinal cracker
He got feet down below his knee
Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease

Come together, right now, over me

He roller coaster
He got early warning
He got muddy water
He one mojo filter
He say, "one and one and one is three"
Got to be good looking 'cause he's so hard to see

Come together, right now, over me

-30-

Coming Together or Not

The longer I live, which is just another way of saying the older I get, the whole puzzle of life seems to become much simpler.

We need to find the right balance that allows us to exist happily with everybody else. That's it.

There's a synchronicity to your life and my life and all of our lives; what each of us does affects everyone else and on and on it goes.

My Canadian-born grandmother was in a nursing home in her 90s when we went to visit one winter's day to take her out on a day trip.

We went to a nearby hilly area where we parked and watched people go up and down a gentle incline, at least that's my memory of the day.

There was fresh snow and my ancient grandmother, tiny and shriveled, sat in the front seat watching for a while and then pronounced, "Round and round everyone goes, and where they stop nobody knows."

That was it. She apparently had nothing else to say. 

Since it was cold we soon took her back to the nursing home and ended our visit. I found out later that she hated it there and was always getting into trouble. Apparently she kicked an attendant who told her she had to stop hopping into bed with her boyfriend.

***

In order to function, society imposes controls in the form of social norms that all of us are expected to follow. One problem in a highly diverse place like America is many different types of people from different backgrounds must learn how to mix and find some sort of common ground.

That might seem like an achievable objective, but much of the time we seem to break up into warring tribes instead. Often as I listen to the conversations around me, focusing on the great questions of the day, one person is arguing one side forcefully, while another takes an opposing view.

There was a time when I would step in and try to forge a consensus and on occasion I still do. That seems to be a role that suited me throughout my career both at work and at home. So I would find myself mediating disputes, suggesting ideas for reaching the middle ground.

As a manager, I was the guy whose office door always remained open, so any employee could drop in for a chat if they wanted or needed to.

Over a 55-year career, many, many people did just that.

***

My grandmother is long gone and now I am elderly myself, thankfully not in a nursing home, but removed nonetheless from the daily tussle of choices that beset younger folks. They are always debating, worrying, wondering, choosing, staking out alternative positions and engaging each other in a search for...something.

Increasingly, I find myself growing silent on such occasions. It may be that I have an opinion or it may be that I am uncertain. And it may be that it no longer matters all that much to me.

All I know for sure is that they are riding the merry-go-round and therefore will keep going round and round.

And that where they will stop nobody knows.

But before you drop me off at the end of our day trip, please be grateful that I haven't kicked anyone yet.

***

The news:

* Deaths among Medicare patients in nursing homes soared by 32% last year, with two devastating spikes eight months apart, a government watchdog reported Tuesday in the most comprehensive look yet at the ravages of COVID-19 among its most vulnerable victims. (AP)

* What Biden — and a lot of other people — get wrong about journalists. Are journalists too negative? That’s not the problem. Our role is not to cheerlead for the people we cover, Margaret Sullivan writes. (WP)

* Covid-19 Delta Variant Threatens to Set Back Europe’s Recovery-- The Delta variant of the coronavirus is making inroads around the world, including in the U.S., where public-health experts expect it to soon become the dominant strain. (WSJ)

* The fortunes of America's 50 richest family dynasties has soared at 10 times the rate of typical U.S. families over the last four decades, according to a new study that warns of the increasing concentration of riches. And the five richest families -- the Waltons, Kochs, Marses, Cargill-MacMillans and Lauders -- saw their wealth soar 2,484% since 1983. [HuffPost]

* Wuhan lab’s classified work complicates search for pandemic’s origins (WP)

* California Has a Plan to Pay the Back Rent for Low-Income Tenants. All of It. -- The state is poised to embark on an ambitious, complex effort to cover the unpaid rent of low-income renters who struggled during the pandemic. (NYT)

* Record-high U.S. house prices, tight supply weigh on sales (Reuters)

* Retail workers are quitting at record rates for higher-paying work (WP)

* Johnny Paycheck sang "Take this job and shove it" in 1977. Today, it may well be the mantra for the post-Covid workforce. Getting "back to normal" in the American jobs market won't cut it for everyone. Especially in retail and hospitality, where "normal" was an army of low-wage workers juggling two or more part-time jobs to pay the bills. The past 15 months has been a reckoning for everyone. The pandemic forced families to re-order their health, family and work obligations. Schools closed. Child care and elder care was disrupted. Congress came to the rescue, opening its purse strings to prevent a coronavirus recession from becoming a depression. The year of extra jobless benefits and stimulus checks Congress authorized gave millions of workers breathing space for the first time. Today, as the engine of the American economy revs back to life, it's not as simple as plugging workers right back into the jobs they left. (CNN)

* Medicaid Enrollment Surpassed 80 Million, a Record, During the Pandemic -- The increase points to the program’s growing role not just as a safety net, but also as a foundation of U.S. health coverage. (NYT)

* In Oklahoma, the 1995 bombing offers lessons — and warnings — for today’s fight against extremism -- While Republican leaders focus on “both sides,” many Oklahomans are alarmed to see terrorist Timothy McVeigh’s far-right ideology spread in the state he attacked. (WP)

*  When U.S. law enforcement officials need to cast a wide net for information, they’re increasingly turning to the vast digital ponds of personal data created by Big Tech companies via the devices and online services that have hooked billions of people around the world. (AP)

* H. Heather Shaner, one of many Washington lawyers assigned to defend accused Jan. 6 insurrectionists who can't afford to hire an attorney, has found a way to educate her clients about the U.S. history their teachers may have glossed over. She assigns books and movies, opening them to slavery, racism and other ugly chapters. "I’ve learned that even though we live in a wonderful country things still need to improve," one changed client wrote to a judge ahead of sentencing. [HuffPost]

* U.S. judge tosses most claims against Trump in clearing of Lafayette Square -- Dabney L. Friedrich of Washington called allegations that federal officials conspired to enable a photo op of Trump holding a Bible too speculative. (WP)

* When It Comes to Big City Elections, Republicans Are in the Wilderness -- The party’s growing irrelevance in urban and suburban areas comes at a considerable cost, sidelining conservatives in centers of innovation and economic might. (NYT)

* India e-commerce rules cast cloud over Amazon, Walmart and local rivals (Reuters)

* Biden to address high crime rates, a political peril for Democrats (WP)

* Native Americans decry unmarked graves, untold history of boarding schools (Reuters)

* Appeals court blocks federal judge’s ruling to overturn California’s assault weapons ban (WP)

* What special relationship? Canada grimaces amid hail of U.S. trade blows (Reuters)

* Attacked and Vulnerable, Some Afghans Are Forming Their Own Armies -- With U.S. troops leaving, the Taliban advancing, and a steady collapse of security force bases and outposts, the Hazara and other ethnic groups in Afghanistan are raising militias. (NYT)

* Taliban fighters took control of a key district in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province Monday and encircled the provincial capital, police said, as the insurgent group added to its recent battlefield victories while peace talks have stalemated. (AP)

* Australia’s Great Barrier Reef should be listed as ‘in danger,’ U.N. body says (WP)

* As Seagrass Habitats Decline, Florida Manatees Are Dying Of Starvation -- The mammals were removed from the endangered species list in 2017, but algae blooms and overdevelopment have killed 46,000 acres of seagrass, leaving manatees without enough to eat. (NPR)

* Soon, the NCAA as we know it will no longer exist. Good riddance. (Opinion/WP)

* Experts Encourage Americans To Start Thinking About What Form Of Government They’d Like To Try After Democracy Crumbles (The Onion)

***

"Take This Job and Shove It"

Song by Johnny Paycheck

Written by David Allan Coe

Take this job and shove it
I ain't working here no more
My woman done left and took all the reason
I was working for
You better not try to stand in my way
As I'm a-walkin' out the door
Take this job and shove it
I ain't working here no more

I've been workin' in this factory
For now on fifteen years
All this time I watched my woman
Drownin' in a pool of tears
And I've seen a lot of good folk die
That had a lot of bills to pay
I'd give the shirt right offa' my back
If I had the guts to say

Take this job and shove it
I ain't working here no more
My woman done left and took all the reason
I was workin' for
You better not try to stand in my way
As I'm a-walkin' out the door
Take this job and shove it
I ain't workin' here no more

Well that foreman, he's a regular dog
The line boss, he's a fool
Got a brand new flattop haircut
Lord, he thinks he's cool

One of these days I'm gonna' blow my top
And that sucker, he's gonna' pay
Lord, I can't wait to see their faces
When I get the nerve to say

Take this job and shove it
I ain't working here no more
My woman done left and took all the reason
I was workin' for
You better not try to stand in my way
As I'm a-walkin' out the door
Take this job and shove it
I ain't workin' here no more

Take this job and shove it

-30-

The Winners

Like many parents, I spent countless memorable moments along the sidelines cheering on my kids as they played organized sports, pursuing their childhood dreams of glory.

Just as in millions of other homes, ours was stuffed with trophies, certificates, photos and newspaper articles commemorating their exploits.

But when it came time to go on to college, all of my kids put away their athletic gear in favor of books and laptops.

In America, that is the norm. Fewer than 2 percent of all high school athletes go on to compete in major college varsity sports, and less than 2 percent of that 2 percent go on to become professional athletes.

So although many share the dream of one day playing their favorite game as a pro on TV, only an infinitesimal fraction will ever actually do that.

That is why Monday's Supreme Court ruling lifting the severe limits placed by the NCAA on how colleges can compensate student athletes is so important. The vast majority of athletically gifted kids need financial help as they find their way into other careers when their sports fantasies melt away.

Including in some cases mental health support.

Many of them suffer injuries and academic setbacks in order to maintain the demanding schedules required by athletic programs. So the new rules allowing some compensation for academic and graduation achievements are not only appropriate but long overdue.

While teaching at Cal and Stanford, I had many gifted athletes as students and I loved every last one of them. They were often those who showed the most initiative and drive to succeed no matter what barriers they had to overcome.

More than once I received a midnight email or phone call from a player on the road asking whether I would extend her deadline for a paper because she had just finished a game and was up late writing. 

("BTW, professor, we won!" they would sometimes add.) They knew that I cared about that.

And I never once refused such an extension.

In one of my undergraduate classes at Stanford, the students chose as their class project to collectively investigate a series of campus sexual assaults on female athletes that had been occurring with some regularity along the campus's woodsy bike and jogging paths.

An unidentified man had been jumping out of the bushes to grope female students as they passed his hiding spots.

The students told me they were going to lay traps by having some of the women walk along the paths, while others, including the men, would trail nearby hoping to catch the suspect red-handed.

To be honest, I was a little bit worried approving this project, in case someone got hurt in the process and also because I wondered whether the suspect would react violently  if my students actually caught him.

"Don't worry, professor," one of them assured me, nodding toward a classmate standing quietly nearby. She was Stanford's women's shot-put specialist. "Once we nab him, she'll throw him all the way to Burlingame."

I wouldn't have bet against her ability to do just that. 

As it turned out, the class never did catch the guy, but the campus police did and he ended up jail. And I've never forgotten the way those students -- athletes and non-athletes alike -- came together to work as one united team on that project.

Everyone had played a role.

Oh, one more thing. They all got A's.

***

The news:

* Supreme Court Rejects NCAA Limits on Athlete Benefits --The high court ruled that strict limits on compensating college athletes violate U.S. antitrust law, a decision that could have broad ramifications for the future of college sports. (WSJ)

* New York Faces Lasting Economic Toll Even as Pandemic Passes -- The city’s prosperity is heavily dependent on patterns of work and travel that may be irreversibly altered. (NYT)

* Recovering U.S. economy is drastically changed and it’s not going back -- A new economic era has arrived, and it features greater worker power, higher housing costs and very different ways of doing business. Policymakers are also contending with inflation and how Americans will react to high rates. (WP)

* COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have dipped below 300 a day for the first time since the early days of the disaster in March 2020, while the drive to put shots in arms approached another encouraging milestone Monday: 150 million Americans fully vaccinated. (AP)

* Climate on agenda as Biden prepares to meet with top financial regulators (Reuters)

* Liz Cheney’s Unlikely Journey From G.O.P. Royalty to Republican Outcast -- Dick Cheney always saw doomsday threats from America’s enemies. His daughter is in a lonely battle against what both see as a danger to American democracy: Donald J. Trump. (NYT)

* Unmasking the far right: An extremist paid a price when his identity was exposed online after a violent clash in Washington (WP)

* IKEA, Rockefeller foundations to pledge $1 billion in clean energy push (Reuters)

* Soviets Once Denied a Deadly Anthrax Lab Leak. U.S. Scientists Backed the Story. -- The accident and a subsequent cover-up have renewed relevance as scientists search for the origins of Covid-19. (NYT)

* Scientists battle over the ultimate origin story: Where did the coronavirus come from? (WP)

* Taliban Enter Key Cities in Afghanistan’s North After Swift Offensive -- The setbacks come at a harrowing moment for Afghanistan, just as American and international troops are set to leave the country in coming weeks. (NYT)

* Iran’s sole nuclear power plant undergoes emergency shutdown (AP)

* Top diplomats reported major progress at talks in Vienna between Iran and global powers to try to restore a landmark 2015 agreement to contain Iranian nuclear development that was abandoned by the Trump administration. After the first official meeting since Iran's hard-line judiciary chief won last week's presidential election, the negotiators said it's now up to participating governments to make political decisions. [AP]

* In the Wake of India’s Covid Crisis, a ‘Black Fungus’ Epidemic Follows -- The deadly disease has sickened former coronavirus patients across the country. Doctors believe that hospitals desperate to keep Covid patients alive made choices that left them vulnerable. (NYT)

* Vaccine hesitancy puts India’s gains against virus at risk (AP)

* Can Biden save the Democrats from themselves? (WP)

* A wildfire raging since Thursday in Los Padres National Forest near Big Sur has consumed  2,000 acres and is zero percent contained. The blaze, in parched conditions and rugged terrain, has forced evacuations. [HuffPost]

* Scorching Hot in Phoenix: What it’s Like to Work in 115 Degrees -- Phoenix is facing a double heat and housing crisis that is falling hardest on people who have to suffer the sun. (NYT)

* The Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing to require public companies to disclose more information about how they respond to threats linked to climate change—and businesses are gearing up for a fight. (WSJ)

* The Fox News personality who has made media bashing a pillar of his us-vs.-them rage machine is actually a secret source for reporters in the very organizations he attacks. Tucker Carlson's willingness to dish on topics ranging from Donald Trump to internal Fox News politics is an "open secret," writes New York Times media columnist Ben Smith. [HuffPost]

* George Gascón, the district attorney of Los Angeles, was propelled into office by grass-roots activists after the police killing of George Floyd. He’s now facing an intense backlash, including an effort to recall him, for enacting long-sought policies. (NYT)

* New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard is first openly transgender athlete selected to compete at the Olympics (WP)

* ‘Jacket Required’ No More? How the Pandemic Changed Dress Codes (WSJ)

* How Do They Say Economic Recovery? ‘I Quit.’ -- With new opportunities and a different perspective as the pandemic eases, workers are choosing to leave their jobs in record numbers. (NYT)

* A man with Alzheimer’s forgot he was married to his wife. He proposed, and they wed again. (WP)

* Man In Kitchen Can’t Remember What He Got Married, Bought House, Had 3 Kids, And Came In Here For (The Onion)

***

"Glory Days" (excerpt)

Bruce Springsteen

[Verse 1]
I had a friend was a big baseball player
Back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you
Make you look like a fool boy
Saw him the other night at this roadside bar
I was walking in, he was walking out
We went back inside sat down had a few drinks
But all he kept talking about was

[Chorus]
Glory days, well they'll pass you by
Glory days, in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days

-30-