Today’s Headlines

Aug 19

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• State Dept. says $400m payment to Iran wasn’t ransom, but was delayed to create “leverage” in hostage return.

• Before and after views of Southern Louisiana, devastated this week by historic flooding.

• Worried by Trumputin, Congress wants to obstruct removing Russian sanctions—energy companies have already started.

• If Clinton wins, expect a new era of misogyny, just as Obama’s presidency brought racism to the fore.

• “Old-fashioned sexual exploitation has been sold to today’s teenage girls as their own ‘sex-positive’ choice.”

• For women, walking can be a radical declaration of autonomy and creativity.

• Should Hillary win, Bill will step down from the Clinton Foundation, which will also start refusing foreign donations.

• Ryan Lochte was right when he said someone pointed a gun at him. It was a gas station security guard telling him to stop peeing on the walls.

• Uber’s first self-driving fleet of Volvos will debut in Pittsburgh this month, but with backup drivers present.

• About 200,000 people are turning to GoFundMe to cover emergency medical expenses.

• Artificial intelligence researchers deploy autonomous internet defense bot for the first time.

• Caseworkers must deal with terrific ambiguity, which means plenty of kids are taken away from good parents. #longreads

• Justice Dept. says it will stop contracting with private prisons, which mostly provided low-security services at 13 locations.

• Behind the move to end private prison contracts: Shane Bauer’s “My Four Months as a Private Prison Guard.”

• Ancient Mexicans were said not to have raised any animals, but archaeologists at Teotihuacan just unearthed…a bunny farm?

• You think California is easy on pot, but this decade it arrested hundreds of thousands for marijuana-related offenses—most are black.

• “Until America’s mortgage monster is brought to heel, the task of making finance safer will remain only half-done.”

• Obamacare made a dent in extending coverage; a public option would bring down prices. #longreads