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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.
Nevada Says Goodbye to Grass Due to Climate Change (Maria)
The author writes, “In Las Vegas, Nevada, it’s come to this: climate change has helped make water ever more scarce, so under a new Nevada law, the grass has got to go. ‘When we look at outdoor water use in Southern Nevada, landscaping far and away is the largest water user, and of that, it’s grass,’ said Bronson Mack of the Las Vegas Water Authority. The city’s already pulled up about four million square feet of grass on public property so far this year, because thirsty green parkways are something they just can’t afford anymore. … ‘In fact, within the next couple of months to a year, this grass will be completely eliminated, and it’ll be replaced with drip-irrigated trees and plants.’”
Trump-Backed Michigan Attorney General Candidate Involved in Voting-System Breach, Documents Show (Sean)
From Reuters: “The Republican nominee for Michigan attorney general led a team that gained unauthorized access to voting equipment while hunting for evidence to support former President Donald Trump’s false election-fraud claims, according to a Reuters analysis of court filings and public records. The analysis shows that people working with Matthew DePerno — the Trump-endorsed nominee for the state’s top law-enforcement post — examined a vote tabulator from Richfield Township, a conservative stronghold of 3,600 people in northern Michigan’s Roscommon County.”
Trump Just Told Us His Master Plan (Reader Jim)
The author writes, “[Last month], an ex-president who had tried to overturn a democratic election by violence returned to Washington, D.C., to call for law and order. Again and again, the speech reversed reality. The ex-president who had spread an actual big lie against the legitimacy of the 2020 election tried to appropriate the phrase big lie to use against his opponents. The ex-president who had fired an acting FBI director days before that official’s pension was due to be vested lamented that police officers might lose their pension for doing their job. Yet scrape aside the audacity, the self-pity, and the self-aggrandizement, and there was indeed an idea in Donald Trump’s speech at a conference hosted by the America First Policy Institute: a sinister idea, but one to take seriously.”
A Very Dangerous Place to Be Pregnant Is Getting Even Scarier (Reader Andrew)
The author writes, “[Texas] is the national leader in maternity ward closures. In the past decade, more than 20 rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies. More than half the state’s rural counties don’t even have a gynecologist. Texas has some of the lowest income eligibility limits for Medicaid and has declined to expand them, as allowed by the Affordable Care Act. … Income eligibility limits jump for pregnant women — $36,200 for single mothers, $45,600 for married ones — but the application process takes at least a month. According to the March of Dimes, a fifth of all pregnant women in Texas don’t get prenatal care until they’re five months along. In other words, when a poor woman gets pregnant in Texas, it’s hard for her to find a doctor or even a hospital.”
‘Nothing Left in the Pipes’: Europe Tackles Unprecedented Water Shortages as Heatwave Rages (Russ)
From Euronews: “The French government has set up a crisis team to tackle a historic drought that has left more than 100 municipalities short of drinking water. Trucks are taking water to those areas, as ‘there is nothing left in the pipes,’ Minister for Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu said. ‘This is a situation like nothing we’ve ever seen… And the bad news is that, as far as we can see, there’s no reason to think that it will stop.’ Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has warned that France is facing the ‘most severe drought’ ever recorded in the country.”
California Man Appears to be Another Person Cured of HIV After a Stem Cell Transplant (Dana)
From NAM: “A man in southern California, dubbed the ‘City of Hope patient,’ appears to be the latest person cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant from a donor with a rare mutation, bringing the total to five. … The man remains free of HIV more than 17 months after stopping antiretroviral therapy (ART) and his leukemia also remains in remission. The man is older than the handful of other people previously cured after such a procedure, he has been living with HIV longer and he received a less harsh conditioning regimen prior to the transplant. This suggests that this approach may be possible for a wider subset of HIV-positive people with advanced cancer, but it is far from feasible for the vast majority of people living with HIV. Yet the case could provide clues that help researchers develop more widely applicable approaches for long-term HIV remission.”
Canada to Ban Import of Handguns Pending Total Freeze (Mili)
The author writes, “Canada is to ban imports of handguns — part of a move that could see a total freeze on their purchase and sale. The measure, starting on August 19, is designed to hold up until parliament passes strict new rules, including a permanent importation ban. Handguns have ‘one purpose only and that is to kill people,’ Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said. The government’s proposed total ban, unveiled three months ago, follows outrage over several deadly shootings.”
UCB Demonstrates ‘Incredibly Cheap and Easy’ Carbon-Capture Material (DonkeyHotey)
From New Atlas: “UC Berkeley chemists say they’ve created a simple, and very inexpensive way to capture carbon dioxide using a polymer called melamine, that’s far cheaper than metal-organic frameworks. It could capture carbon emissions from smokestacks or tailpipes.”
Enormous Sinkhole Wide Enough to Swallow the White House Opens in Chile (Dana)
The author writes, “An enormous sinkhole wide enough to swallow the White House has opened up on a plot of mining land in Chile, according to Sernageomin, the country’s National Service of Geology and Mining. The gaping, 104-foot-wide (32 meters) hole appeared Saturday (July 30) in a rural area outside the town of Tierra Amarilla, about 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of the capital city, Santiago. (In comparison, the White House measures about 85 feet, or 26 m, wide.)”
