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Katherine Johnson, NASA
Recognition: Hidden Figures author, Margot Lee Shetterly, and many government dignitaries will participate in the official opening of NASA’s Langley Research Center’s new Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility at 1 p.m. Friday, September 22. About this photo: NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson at her desk in 1962. Photo credit: NASA

Missing JFK Files

What’s Hidden in the New Spending Bill ; Manafort’s New Job ...and More Picks

PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.

Batch of Oswald CIA Records Missing from New JFK Files (Trevin)

By law, all seven volumes of the agency’s Office of Security files on Lee Harvey Oswald must be released by October 26. But Volume 5 has been missing since 1997.

Military Spending Bill Gives Unprecedented Sums to Israel and Ukraine (Jimmy)

The author writes, “Buried deep in the text of the mammoth National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is a gargantuan money dump into the Israeli defense industry, with $705 million specifically earmarked for ‘US-Israel missile defense cooperation.’ … the NDAA budgeted unprecedented funding for supposedly defensive weapons for the Ukrainian military, which has been locked in a destabilizing conflict with Russian-backed separatists since a U.S.-backed coup toppled its democratically elected government in

2014.”

Paul Manafort’s New Job (Dan)

The infamous Paul Manafort is again in a position of power. This time, it’s advising the Iraqi Kurdish leader in a push for Kurdish independence. Unsurprisingly, Manafort’s goal is at odds with US policy.

Trump’s ‘Quiet’ Civil Rights Pick (Reader Steve)

During the hoopla over Charlottesville, Trump picked Cameron Quinn to oversee relations with minority communities for the Department of Homeland Security. Reading about Quinn exposes just why the pick was made with little publicity.

 Koch Network ‘Piggy Banks’ Closed Until Republicans Pass Health and Tax Reform (Jimmy)

The Guardian writes, “Koch officials said that the network’s midterm budget for policy and politics is between $300m and $400m, but donors are demanding legislative progress.”

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