Lawyers, Guns and Money
News Roundup
‘Cop City’
In Georgia, 61 protesters have been hit with racketeering charges for trying to prevent the construction of a police training facility in Weelaunee Forest.
The proposed 381-acre facility — known as “Cop City” by detractors and estimated to cost tens of millions of dollars — is backed by a number of powerful corporate interests through the Atlanta Police Foundation, which views construction as an answer to rising crime. But the proposal has caused concern among activists that, among other things, it’s erasing one of the last “lungs” in Atlanta, one of the few remaining green spaces in the city. Neither police nor activists have relented. Arrests have stacked up, including for alleged “domestic terrorism” and trespassing. Police even killed an activist during a raid earlier this year.
The latest round of indictments were against members of Defend the Atlanta Forest, a group committed to blocking construction. The charges came from the same grand jury that greenlit racketeering charges against former President Donald Trump.
POLITICS and WORLD
LAWYERS, GUNS AND MONEY: Hunter Biden, the American president’s wayward son, will be indicted this month on gun charges, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
ANTI-DOLLAR? SWIPE RIGHT: BRICS, the alternative to the American-led financial system, is seeking allies. They want someone with whom to share a commitment to corrode the power of the U.S. dollar. A slate of new countries apparently fit the bill — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia and Argentina.
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE: Mohammad Alghamdi, a former teacher, was sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for posting criticisms of the government to his 10 followers on X, formerly called Twitter. It’s a grim and shameful first in Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s remorseless bid to crush dissent.
FIRST COMES QUID: Another update in the unfolding U.S. Supreme Court justice disclosures drama: Justice Clarence Thomas has finally admitted to a hidden real estate deal worth more than $130,000 with billionaire Harlan Crow, according to ProPublica. Thomas also fessed up to three more private flights he received from Crow. With plummeting support for the court, this ongoing scandal threatens to bring it to a new low.
TUNE IN, TOKE UP: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has indicated to the Drug Enforcement Agency that it wants cannabis reclassified as a Schedule III drug, a crucial step in normalizing cannabis businesses and research in the country. Plus, it’s a fun twist on going green.
ECONOMICS
PAPER PUSHERS: Countries are weighing whether to ditch physical cash. It’s a digital world, after all. Are the days of cash numbered? Not everyone is ready to let go. In Sweden, the Kontantupproret movement — “cash uprising” — led to a legislative guarantee of cash distribution. Those cash fans argue that digital finance can exclude groups of people.
FAIRER PAY, FOR NOW: The gender pay gap, an average of the difference in earnings between men and women, has never been smaller, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But it’s not clear that will last, especially with childcare subsidies — which have helped keep women in the workplace — drying up.
ALWAYS BE CLOSING: The Biden administration named the first 10 drugs for Medicare’s price negotiations. The list was thick with treatments for cancers, heart disease — the number one killer of Americans — and diabetes. Negotiations, the administration hopes, will dampen inflated prices for these drugs, keeping the American healthcare system from spiraling more out of control. But it has to deal with numerous lawsuits before the negotiations — expected to start in 2026 — even begin.
EMPLOYEE RELATIONS: The National Labor Relations Board, which oversees labor laws in America, released a new framework for when employers have to negotiate with unions. The ruling is more favorable to unions, at a time of slackened worker power.
EDUCATION and RE-EDUCATION
ROLE MODELS: Since the pandemic, the U.S. has made federal dollars available for communities to ensure everyone within the country has enough internet access and the knowledge needed to engage with modern society. It can be hard to tell what’s working, but some communities are providing effective models. So will the tide of money for developing broadband let loose during the pandemic actually improve digital equity? I talked with some experts to find out.
CHANGE EQUATIONS: “Math wars” are raging over attempts to increase equity by cutting calculus from the curriculum in favor of statistics or computer science. Meanwhile, a quieter revolution is taking place, aiming not to abandon calculus altogether but to change the way it’s taught, so that more students will succeed while studying it. I trekked to Harvard to get a firsthand look. (Picked up by USA Today).
ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL: Florida’s public university system is expected to approve the Classics Learning Test, an “anti-woke” alternative to the SAT and ACT tests used for college admissions. The test focuses on the “Western canon,” in Florida Governor presidential candidate Ron DeSantis’ campaign against the College Board. The test reportedly emphasizes Christian thought, though something tells me that turning the other cheek won’t feature heavily in this unholy culture war.
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