IMPORTANT READS

HOUSING WATCH - It seems like everyone is talking about housing these days. For many, it is in a state of crisis.

CHILD CARE - Child care is one of the biggest expenses many families face — in much of the country, it can run higher than college tuition. Could a national child care program ease that burden?

FINANCE LEARNING - Taking a course in cryptocurrency is of utmost importance as some experts estimate that the crypto market should, by 2027, reach $1.7 billion. Learning crypto terminologies and garnering knowledge through the steep curve pattern are intriguing ways of getting started.

THE VIEW FROM HERE - Back on May 13, 2021, Joe Biden would have done well to remember the chorus to American Pie: 

CONSUMER WATCH - Confession time: this year, I don’t want to buy my kids anything for Christmas. Big one, right?

RACIAL RECKONINGS - We are at a tipping point in the racial history of the United States — perhaps the most important moment since the civil rights and more radical black/brown/indigenous movements of the 1960s and ’70s.

WORLD WATCH - Vladimir Putin is trying to accomplish two very dangerous tasks at once: the destruction of civil society in Russia, and the withering away of international support for a democratic Ukraine.

WORLD WATCH - After a 5-month hiatus, indirect negotiations between the U.S. and Iran resumed last week in Vienna in an attempt to revise the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA). The outlook isn’t good.

PRESS FREEDOM - “Let us look at ourselves, if we have the courage, to see what is happening to us”  – Jean-Paul Sartre

DEMOCRACY WATCH - Trump and his supporters do not mean by "democracy" a liberal democracy. They mean the popular sovereignty of "true Americans." 

UNION WATCH - The National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, just ruled that a historic union vote among Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama was not valid. 

LABOR VIEW - The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has just ruled that a historic union vote held earlier this year among Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) was not valid.

LAW & ORDER - “There are three objective constraints on policing… which had militated against its satisfactory fulfillment.

RACE POLITICS - The party favor on the Republican side has been the dog whistle. 

WORLD WATCH - The seeds for the crisis in Ukraine were planted 25 years ago when the Clinton Administration decided to expand the North Atlantic Treaty into East Europe, accepting membership from former members of the Warsaw Pact.

RICH GET RICHER - In the first week that the Omicron variant sparked global fears of a new wave of infections, a small handful of investors and executives with Pfizer and Moderna—currently the world's preeminent makers of Covid-19 vaccines—saw over $10 billion in new wealth, with the Moderna's CEO alone adding over $800 million to his personal fortune.

RANDOM LENGTH NEWS - One of the few pleasures I’ve found during the pandemic is the time to actually read books —not that I didn’t read them before — it’s just that with fewer distractions and social obligations, I actually had the luxury of time–uninterrupted! 

WORKFORCE REDUCTIONS - As a writer, I get stuck every so often straining for the right words to tell my story.

PROFITS ARE OUR LOSS - With vaccination rates on the rise, Americans are hoping for a return to some semblance of normalcy this holiday season.

SUPREME COURT - As journalists and other observers of the U.S. Supreme Court noted Wednesday that its right-wing majority appeared inclined to uphold Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban—and potentially overturn Roe v. Wade—while hearing oral arguments in a case challenging the state law, reproductive rights advocates rallied outside and demanded congressional action.

HIDDEN GEM--A lot of people who visit or even live in Los Angeles don’t realize that there’s an active casino just outside of downtown, in Inglewood.