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Friday, December 20, 2019

A Pesticide the EPA Won’t Ban Is Sickening Low-Income Californians of Color
by Amy Roost
Communities sickened by chlorpyrifos say the ubiquitous pesticide causes developmental disabilities, cancer, and other seriousness illnesses.

The Trump Administration Has a New Stealth Approach to Kicking People Off Disability
by Matthew Cortland
The bureaucratic nightmare of proving you’re ‘disabled enough’ would get even worse.

I Went Into Debt for a Christmas Gift
by Alaina Leary
It's easy to get into Christmas debt. It's hard to get out.

Betsy DeVos’ Cruel Math Denies Relief to Defrauded Borrowers
by Ben Miller
From our partner, the Center for American Progress: A new Department of Education formula uses bad statistics and an even worse methodology to deny major relief to defrauded borrowers.

What We’re Reading

It's Technical. Our phones are spying on us — and giving away the data. Data collection like this continues to drive discriminatory Facebook ads. A decade ago, Amazon Prime was in its infancy, and now it's a juggernaut that includes an ever-expanding surveillance network.

A Real Racket. Having an incarcerated loved one can cost you thousands of dollars a year and private companies pocket a lot of it, as seen with video calling, which is being touted as an alternative to face-to-face visits. As to how people get to prison in the first place, in one New York precinct alone, misconduct reports involving evidence planting and interference with criminal cases have been on the rise for three years running.

Taxes For Thee, But Not For Me. What exactly is Foxconn doing, other than pocketing tax incentives? Speaking of tax incentives — or dodges — Google's Larry Page "gave" $400 million to charity this holiday season, but none of it actually ended up with charities. Meanwhile, an 84-year-old man was short $8.41 on his property taxes, so the county seized his home.

Piecing It Together

Black textile arts are a long American tradition, and Black quilters are famous for vibrant, political, beautiful work that makes the most of every scrap. These Georgia quilters are keeping the art alive with provocative, stunning work that speaks to far more than keeping warm on cold winter nights.

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