March 5, 2015

• Justice Dept. investigation finds endemic civil rights abuses in Ferguson PD.
• Related: For evidence of racial bias in Ferguson PD, look to an impartial judge: radar guns.
• Fellow opposition leader Navalny blames Russian government for Nemtsov murder.
• Russia accuses the US of stoking mass protests and financing opposition movements within its borders.
• The favorite clothing brand of neo-Nazis is working its way into mainstream Eastern European fashion.
• The underpaid and overworked Afghan National Police are all that stand between the Taliban and rural villages.
• Jawbone found in Ethiopia dates human origins half a million years earlier than previously thought.
• The history of death threats in professional sports.
• From his 2013 Prince bio, Touré recalls shooting hoops and shit-talking at Paisley Park.
• States are systematically dismantling workers' comp, denying benefits and sending taxpayers the bill.
• A single business in Switzerland hoards all the country's lost items, then sells them after three months.
• A startup wants to improve the way we teach writing by tracking AO Scott's keystrokes.
• It's easy to forget Britain didn't conquer India; the East India Company did.
• Andrew Jackson wasn't that great—a great American woman should be on the $20 instead.
• Plastic companies and retailers go on the offensive against plastic bag bans.
• Quaker environmentalists succeed in convincing banks to cease investment in mountain-top removal.
• Halving prison populations means contacting the third rail of prison reform: softer punishment for violent crime.
• In the Bible, God's name can't be spoken; writing about the powerless, authors are using fewer names.
• Sunday is the last day you can pre-order your 2015 Tournament of Books T-shirt.