Raising the Minimum Wage by $1 May Prevent Thousands of Suicides
Why Was an Alleged Rape Victim Convicted for Lying? ; Will Alleged CIA Misbehavior Set Julian Assange Free? ; and More Picks
PODCAST: Why Was an Alleged Rape Victim Convicted for Lying? (Chris)
From the Guardian: “[Last] week, a British teenager was finally allowed to return home after a Cypriot court handed her a four-month suspended sentence. The student, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been found guilty of public mischief by claiming she was raped by a group of male Israeli tourists while on holiday in Ayia Napa last July. The verdict led to widespread criticism of both the Cypriot justice system and the judge who heard the case.”
Will Alleged CIA Misbehavior Set Julian Assange Free? (DonkeyHotey)
The author writes, “A few days before Christmas, Julian Assange testified to a Spanish court that a Spanish security company, UC Global S.L., acting in coordination with the CIA, illegally recorded all his actions and conversations, including with his lawyers, and streamed them back in real time to the CIA. He will, at the end of February, make a similar complaint to a British extradition court about the CIA’s alleged misbehavior.”
Study Reveals New Possible Strategy for Treating Chronic Pain Due to Burns (Mili)
The author writes, “Treatment of burns normally entails localised treatment at the site of the burn, but this doesn’t address problems that the burn may cause in other parts of the body, such as the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), which is crucial for fully treating the burn and possible neurological complications, such as neuropathic pain. Siraj Patwa and his colleagues at Yale University and the US Department of Veterans Affairs studied spinal cord neurons in a burn injury mouse animal model and found that the skin injury affected the structural connections between neurons.”
He Exposed Nepotism at a California Tax Agency. Then He Lost His Job. (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “Three years ago state Treasurer Fiona Ma asked a California public employee to help uncover wasteful spending and nepotism at a tax agency that was collecting more than $60 billion a year in revenue. Mark DeSio delivered, funneling records to the state auditor, Finance Department and State Personnel Board for what became damning investigations into the California Board of Equalization.”
Networked Up: Cris-Crossing America, Alone and Interconnected (Chris)
From the Baffler: “I’d been on the road for six months, living out of a GMC Savana that was too new for a tape deck and too old for an aux port. I’d gutted the back and bolted a homemade bedframe to the body. I had a camping stove, a water tank, and a small solar generator. I … shaved in Walmart bathrooms, showered at truck stops, and idled in McDonald’s parking lots to play World of Warcraft on stolen Wi-Fi. I worked remotely and circled the country on $1,000 a month.”
