Conservative activist and Turning Point USA cofounder Charlie Kirk has a lot of opinions on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 2015, Kirk called him a “hero.” In 2022, MLK was a “civil rights icon.” In December 2023, speaking before a group of students and teachers at America Fest, a …
Read More »Women in the US Are Now Stockpiling Abortion Pills
When access to reproductive health care is threatened in the United States, a growing number of women stock up on abortion medications to keep on hand in case they need the pills in the future, new research shows. A study analyzed 48,404 requests for “advance provision” abortion medications made to …
Read More »Congress Sure Made a Lot of Noise About Kids’ Privacy in 2023—and Not Much Else
It’s been 15 years since suicides overtook homicides as the second leading cause of death for children ages 10 to 14 years old. Two years since the first Meta whistleblower warned United States senators that America’s children are at risk from “disastrous” decisions being made in Silicon Valley. (And a …
Read More »Congress Clashes Over the Future of America’s Global Spy Program
Two surveillance bills are barreling their way through the US House of Representatives this week. Both claim to achieve roughly the same goal: Enact sweeping reforms and save a dying surveillance program beleaguered by “persistent and widespread” abuse. Under this program, Section 702, the US government collects hundreds of millions …
Read More »Innovation-Killing Noncompete Agreements Are Finally Dying
One of the most stunning twists in the recent five-day crisis at ChatGPT creator OpenAI came when some 95 percent of the company’s hundreds of employees threatened to quit. The staff planned to follow CEO Sam Altman to develop successors to ChatGPT at Microsoft instead. The threat appeared to mark …
Read More »US Lawmakers Want to Use a Powerful Spy Tool on Immigrants and Their Families
Americans with family overseas who hope to visit the United States may soon face an increased risk of being surveilled by their own government. Support in Congress is growing for intensified vetting procedures at the US border, which would see immigrants and foreign visitors subjected to the same levels of …
Read More »The CDC’s Gun Violence Research Is in Danger
Moments before the kickoff of the 118th United States Congress in January, incoming GOP leaders ripped down Nancy Pelosi’s post-insurrection magnetometers, which had stopped at least one Republican, Representative Andy Harris of Maryland, from entering the House floor with a handgun. The first meeting of the House Natural Resources Committee, …
Read More »A Civil Rights Firestorm Erupts Around a Looming Surveillance Power Grab
United States lawmakers are receiving a flood of warnings from across civil society not to be bend to the efforts by some members of Congress to derail a highly sought debate over the future of a powerful but polarizing US surveillance program. House and Senate party leaders are preparing to …
Read More »A Controversial US Surveillance Program May Get Slipped Into a ‘Must-Pass’ Defense Bill
Rumors are rampant on Capitol Hill about an effort said to be underway by US congressional leaders to salvage a controversial surveillance program—a plan that sources say may include slipping a last-minute provision into a “must-pass” defense authorization bill. Republican and Democratic senior aides tell WIRED that word of private …
Read More »New Orleans Tried to Control Vacation Rentals With a Lottery. It Was a Mess
In the fight to regulate short-term rentals, New Orleans had a novel idea—it would hold a lottery. The plan was simple: Carve up the city into blocks and use a hand-cranked lottery machine to draw numbers, allowing one rental property per residential block. For the winners, the prize was a …
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