TheNewsGal is off next week, so I’ve packed this edition to last you a little while. Happy Fourth of July.
Black Lives Matter
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones makes THE case for reparations. Don’t miss it. (New York Times Magazine, ~39 min.)
“When will black women see justice?” (The Cut, ~7 min.)
Tiara Darnell lived in Portland for 7 years. She wrote this blunt, open letter to White People when she left. (Portland Monthly, ~11 min.)
In the era of Black Lives Matter, the Miami Herald’s Edna Buchanan, once crime reporting’s biggest star, isn’t looking so hot. (Popula, ~18 min.)
It’s not easy being a Black woman married to a white man right now. (Paris Review, ~6 min.)
But what if we don’t vote him out of office? (Air Mail, ~4 min.)
COVID19
The heart-warming story of a missing dog named Finn and a neighborhood on a mission — including a second-grade class of would-be detectives. (Washington Post, ~11 min.)
Meet Lee Duk-hoon, who’s been barbering in Seoul for 66 years(!), since she was 19. She’s soldiering on, pandemic be damned. (Los Angeles Times, ~7 min.)
Our virtual healthcare future was ushered in a decade early, thanks to the coronavirus. Now what? (New Yorker, ~24 min.)
It’s nearly impossible to work from home during a pandemic ... right? A delightful essay of distraction. (LitHub, ~12 min.)
Forty years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, and then came the coronavirus. This is the heart-breaking story of Anthony Blue. (Baltimore Sun, ~19 min.)
Roxane Gay on cooking during the pandemic. What more do you need to know? (Bon Appétit, ~6 min.)
This is what it’s like to be a New York City paramedic right now. I can’t stop thinking about this one. (Washington Post, ~8 min.)
We’re all showering too much ... ew. (The Atlantic, ~6 min.)
The best of the rest
(New York University and Joe McManus, New York Magazine)
New York City’s beaches have been run for 40 years by what is, essentially, a lifeguard mafia. This story, reported for more than a year, is damn near unbelievable. (New York Magazine, ~38 min.)
Inside the hot mess of American nursing homes. (And they were a hot mess even before coronavirus.) (Intelligencer, ~11 min.)
Most pieces about palm oil go on and on about how its production destroys the planet. Turns out there’s another side to the story. (Heated, ~7 min.)
The devastating stories of three American families torn apart by deportation. (Marshall Project, ~18 min.)
“How I became a poker champion in one year.” A sparkling excerpt from Maria Konnikova’s new book, The Biggest Bluff. (The Atlantic, ~26 min.)
RIP, Girlboss. You had a good run. (GEN Mag, ~12 min.)
A Q&A with a very pumped Chase Strangio, the ACLU lawyer behind the major Supreme Court win to protect LGBTQ+ rights in the workplace. (GQ, ~16 min.)
How the GOP turned itself white: a (sickening and disturbing) investigation. (FiveThirtyEight, ~28 min.)
Of course there’s an auction-calling school and of course it’s in Texas. A fun, anxiety-inducing week with a reporter-turned-auctioneering student. (Texas Monthly, ~26 min., audio option available)
If you read one thing this week
A masterful piece that weaves together Ahmaud Arbery’s life story; his final, fatal jog; and how running fails Black America. (Runner’s World, ~27 min.)
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Thanks for reading.
Kirsten