Politics
How the IRS Was Gutted — ProPublica
An eight-year campaign to slash the agency’s budget has left it understaffed, hamstrung and operating with archaic equipment. The result: billions less to fund the government. That’s good news for corporations and the wealthy.
The New Era of Political Violence Is Here - The Atlantic
The danger is not organized civil war but individual Americans with deep resentments and delusions.
Alternative Energy
The electric car Battery Belt is reshaping America’s heartland - Axios
The U.S. has shifted EV incentives from consumers to manufacturers
Responsible Investing
With his anti-ESG fund, Vivek Ramaswamy takes a page from the Infowars playbook - ImpactAlpha
Alex Jones is getting his overdue comeuppance, but this godfather of conspiracy theories has spawned a new generation of acolytes with marginally more ...
Health/Biotech
Vasectomies Among the Young and Childless May be on the Rise - The New York Times
Once the purview of middle-aged dads, this form of contraception is growing in popularity, according to doctors — and a few outspoken men on TikTok.
Science
Mosquitoes Are Going to Get Us, No Matter What - The Atlantic
The insects have infinite backup plans for hunting us down.
Culture
This group's wiped out $6.7 billion in medical debt, and it's just getting started - NPR
Nonprofit RIP Medical Debt buys up unpaid hospital bills plaguing low-income patients and frees them from having to pay.
McLovin It: An Oral History of ‘Superbad’ | Vanity Fair
15 years later, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Emma Stone, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bill Hader, and more remember making their seminal teen comedy.
Harlan Band’s Descent Started with an Easy Online Adderall Prescription - WSJ
The 29-year-old man got the amphetamine through a telemedicine startup where some clinicians felt pressure to prescribe the drug. “You can’t disappoint the patient.”
Survivor of White House Lightning Strike Embraces Third Chance at Life - The New York Times
On her 28th birthday, Amber Escudero-Kontostathis was struck by lightning in Lafayette Square. Three other people died. Her heart stopped twice, but she lived.
Sports
Before Wayne Gretzky was ‘The Great One,’ he made people in Indianapolis ask, ‘who’s that?’ - The Athletic
He was only 17 and admitted he was maybe "in a little over my head," but he showed flashes of his greatness even then.