December 16, 2016
In response to the possibility that Republicans may cancel funding for NASA’s atmospheric sciences missions (which provide the bulk of climate data), Jerry Brown says California will “launch its own damn satellite.” / The Sacramento Bee
Reminder: California’s ambitious climate leadership is now arguably the most important policy experiment underway in the United States today. / Vox
El Salvador’s brush with the virus is changing minds in the country with the world’s most restrictive abortion laws. / The Nation
“Aggregated data for all Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders’ socioeconomic indicators, such as median income, employment rate, and educational attainment, helps to preserve ethnic-based inequities among many sub-groups in this catch-all category.” Public policy largely treats Asian-Americans as a monolith, erasing the possibility of support for disadvantaged ethnic groups like Hmong-, Tongan-, and Bhutanese-Americans. / Washington Center for Equitable Growth
“This is not revenge. This is an adequate response to the aggression that comes from the US.” The head of a campaign pushing for California’s secession has deep ties to a Kremlin-funded group called the Anti-Globalist Movement of Russia—so deep that he lives in a Russian city you’ve never heard of. / Bloomberg Businessweek
Though Scotland will not be able to exempt itself from the Brexit proceedings or have another independence referendum, its parliament drew up a new independence bill in October anyway. / The Telegraph, BBC
The latest news out of the world’s newest country, South Sudan: / Outside
1. New UNICEF figures put the total amount of child soldiers enlisted in South Sudan’s bloody civil war (since 2013) at over 17,000, some 1,300 this year alone. Around 2,000 have been released. / un.org
“You either die, or kill your enemy. Everyone is treated the same way, whether young or old,” a 16-year-old soldier told Human Rights Watch last year. / hrw.org
2. The UN mission in South Sudan provided arms to a rebel general whose troops committed some of the war’s worst atrocities, per a Small Arms Survey report. The UN Security Council later sanctioned him. / The Washington Post, smallarmssurveysudan.org, un.org
3. Government agents forcibly removed an Associated Press reporter this month, putting him on a flight to Uganda. / Quartz
4. “There is already a steady process of ethnic cleansing underway in several areas of South Sudan using starvation, gang rape and the burning of villages,” a UN commission found last month. / Al Jazeera
“The institutions of the [Spanish] state should know that they cannot silence the will of a majority of our people.” Spain’s constitutional court blocks a bill approved by Catalan’s parliament to hold an independence referendum. / Financial Times
A brief history of Rough and Ready, a small town northeast of Sacramento that seceded until it ran out of booze. / Vice
A new report from the 2010 Census shows that Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown and Jones are still the most popular last names in the US. / philly.com
Michele Palazzo’s photograph of the Flatiron Building in New York’s big storm last January is among the BBC’s favorite architectural photos of the year. / Instagram, BBC
“When Gauvreau knocked on the barrel, it tolled like a gong. When he unscrewed the cap, he discovered it empty. At first, it seemed like this might have been a glitch.” The story behind Quebec’s multi-million-dollar maple syrup heist. / Vanity Fair
American politicians have often been criticized for wealth that doesn’t reflect their constituents; the average senator, for example, has a net worth of more than $1 million. So Trump has really outdone himself to find a cabinet of unprecedented wealth. / Bloomberg
In light of the Ghost Ship tragedy, an ode to Sacramento’s lost art and music scene. / The New Yorker, The Sacramento Bee
“My mom and dad allowed me to turn our first house into the demented childhood amusement park that lived in my brain... I hope some other weird little boy is being encouraged inside. A child’s lunacy is a terrible thing to waste.” Filmmaker John Waters remembers his childhood home. / Lapham’s Quarterly