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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.
NYC June Primary Election Is Today: Here’s What You Need to Know (Maria)
The author writes, “Voter turnout in New York City’s primary elections is often tragically low but it doesn’t mean these races are unimportant. In fact, local elections like the one on Tuesday have the most impact on voters’ everyday lives. On June 27, New Yorkers who are registered to vote will get to choose their preferences for City Council members and district attorneys. Because New York uses a closed primary, only registered party members can cast their ballot. Here’s what to know.”
Prosecution vs. the Presidency: Trump Cases Present Looming Legal Crisis for Nation (Reader Steve)
From the Los Angeles Times: “When he announced the federal indictment of former President Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith said there is ‘one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone.’ But that isn’t necessarily true. According to many legal and political scholars and the Justice Department itself, there are different rules for sitting U.S. presidents, including that they cannot be criminally prosecuted while in office. That rule — which is both long-standing and open to debate — is at the center of a staggering legal crisis looming before the nation as the twice-indicted former president seeks a second term.”
Biden Administration Releases Intelligence on Wuhan Lab (Sean)
The author writes, “American intelligence agencies don’t know how the Covid-19 pandemic started, declassified intelligence says. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence in a report released [Friday] said that all agencies of the government ‘continue to assess that both a natural and laboratory-associated origin remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection.’”
How Surgeons in Ukraine Are Saving Soldiers’ Lives With a Simple Tube Grown From Human Cells (DonkeyHotey)
From Insider: “Last year, a new type of medical device arrived on the battlefield in the war in Ukraine. It’s a small tube called the human acellular vessel (HAV) designed to treat traumatic vascular injuries mostly due to blasts and shrapnel. Dr. Oleksandr Sokolov, a vascular surgeon in Ukraine, told Insider that HAVs have been used in simple vascular reconstructions as well as in contaminated and complicated wounds.”
Climate-Smart Cowboys Hope Regenerative Cattle Ranching Can Heal the Land and Sequester Carbon (Laura)
From Inside Climate News: “Grazing livestock to mimic how wildlife forages can prevent the erosion of topsoil, protect water quality and keep carbon out of the atmosphere, but it requires big changes in how the beef industry operates.”
New Study Reveals Global Reservoirs Are Becoming Emptier (Mili)
The author writes, “Over the past two decades, global reservoirs have become increasingly empty despite an overall increase in total storage capacity due to the construction of new reservoirs. Researchers used a new approach with satellite data to estimate the storage variations of 7,245 global reservoirs from 1999 to 2018.”
Birds of a Feather Video-Flock Together (Al)
The author writes, “Over 20 million parrots are kept as pets in the US, often lacking appropriate stimuli to meet their high social, cognitive, and emotional needs. After reviewing bird perception and agency literature, we developed an approach to allow parrots to engage in video-calling other parrots. Following a pilot experiment and expert survey, we ran a three-month study with 18 pet birds to evaluate the potential value and usability of a parrot-parrot video-calling system.”
