In America’s ‘Uncivil War,’ Republicans Are the Aggressors (DonkeyHotey)
From FiveThirtyEight: “In his inaugural address, President Biden described America as in the midst of an “uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal.” His invocation of a civil war and the American Civil War was provocative. It was also accurate. There is no formal definition of an uncivil war, but America is increasingly split between members of two political parties that hate each other.”
With Homeless People As an Audience, Federal Judge Brings L.A. Officials to Skid Row (Reader Steve)
From the Los Angeles Times: “‘This is not what I call a sound bite day,’ U.S. District Judge David O. Carter observed Thursday as elected officials shuffled in and out of a tent better equipped for a wedding than a federal court hearing. And yet here they were, at the heart of L.A.’s skid row, nearly a year into a court case seeking relief for homeless people in Los Angeles. Some offered specific remedies they’d like to see to help solve an ever-worsening homelessness crisis, while others spoke of the need for more collaboration and coordination.”
Ultra-Fast Fashion Is Eating the World (Bethany)
The author writes, “Last February, on a sunny afternoon in West Hollywood, two girls with precise eye makeup paused on Melrose Avenue and peered in the windows of a building whose interior was painted a bright, happy pink. Two pink, winged unicorns flanked racks of clothes: ribbed crop tops, snakeskin-print pants, white sleeveless bodysuits. One of the girls tugged on the door, then frowned. It was locked, which was weird. She tugged again. … Erin Cullison, the U.S. public-relations rep for PrettyLittleThing, a fast-fashion brand founded in 2012, watched the girls give up and walk away. She sighed. Although the West Hollywood showroom closely resembles a store, it is not, in fact, a store. It is not open to the public; the clothes on the racks don’t have price tags.”
The Brave, but Forgotten, Kansas Lunch Counter Sit-In That Helped Change America (Dan)
The author writes, “On a beautiful Saturday morning in July 1958, 19-year-old Carol Parks unexpectedly started a movement. She parked her yellow Chevrolet in downtown Wichita and walked through the revolving door of Dockum Drug Store. She took a seat at the lunch counter and ordered a Coca-Cola. She did this, she said, ‘as if I’d been doing it all my life.’ Only, she hadn’t. Not once. She was an African American woman and, at the time, lunch counters across the United States were segregated, with Black patrons relegated to takeout windows and standing sections.”
De Cecco Finally Reveals What the Heck Is Going on With Its Bucatini (Dana)
From Grub Street: “It’s been 40 days and 40 nights since I published my look into America’s Great Bucatini Shortage, wherein I discovered there was not only a temporary nationwide scarcity of bucatini but there was also some nefarious intra-pasta drama going on behind the scenes. Specifically, I learned that an as-yet-unknown pasta competitor had likely tipped off the FDA about De Cecco bucatini and its slightly out-of-spec iron content — which is required to meet a certain minimum to be sold in the U.S. — thus halting its import into this country for nearly a full calendar year. … Last week, I received an email from the National Pasta Association, letting me know that De Cecco was finally willing to talk and that the NPA itself would broker this crucial international summit.”
