More states follow California's lead on vehicle emissions standards

An increasing number of states are looking to follow the precedent set by California and adopt stricter vehicle emissions standards as the Biden administration appears poised to green light those efforts.
Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/540795-more-states-follow-californias-lead-on-vehicle-emissions-standards?source=Snapzu

The Prices on Your Monopoly Board Hold a Dark Secret

The property values of the popular game reflect a legacy of racism and inequality.
Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/racism-your-monopoly-board/618098/?source=Snapzu

Uproar at KCRW as former producer accuses public radio giant of 'blatant racism'

Former producer Cerise Castle claims she experienced a pattern of racist behavior while working at KCRW. The station disputes some of her allegations.
Read more: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2021-02-25/kcrw-cerise-castle-racism-public-radio-npr?source=Snapzu

How Korea Became a Forgotten War

During the Korean War, the United States inflicted unimaginable horrors on the Korean people. Yet today Americans know almost nothing about their government's role in war crimes and atrocities.
Read more: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/02/korea-forgotten-war-owen-miller-north-south/?source=Snapzu

Democrats hesitant to raise taxes amid pandemic

President Biden declared during the campaign that he would repeal the Trump tax cuts on “day one,” but after more than a month in office, some key Democratic lawmakers say they are reluctant to raise taxes during an economic slowdown.
Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/540427-democrats-hesitant-to-move-on-taxes-amid-pandemic?source=Snapzu

SolarWinds hack was work of 'at least 1,000 engineers', tech executives tell Senate

Tech executives revealed that a historic cybersecurity breach that affected about 100 US companies and nine federal agencies was larger and more sophisticated than previously known.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/23/solarwinds-hack-senate-hearing-microsoft?source=Snapzu

US Army Is Building The World's 'Most Powerful' Laser Weapon

It appears the U.S. Army is developing and building a laser weapon capable of vaporizing its targets and disrupting enemy tech signals thanks to pulses and signals. This may well be the world's most powerful laser to date.
Read more: https://interestingengineering.com/us-army-is-building-the-worlds-most-powerful-laser-weapon?source=Snapzu

U.S. SEC suspends trading in 15 securities due to 'questionable' social media activity

The U.S. securities regulator on Friday suspended trading in the securities of 15 companies because of "questionable trading and social media activity," the latest in a string of temporary trading halts amid volatile trading in so-called "meme stocks."
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-retail-trading-sec/u-s-sec-suspends-trading-in-15-securities-due-to-questionable-social-media-activity-idUSKBN2AQ2VZ?source=Snapzu

Inside Xinjiang’s Prison State

Survivors detail the scope of China’s campaign of persecution against ethnic and religious minorities.
Read more: https://www.newyorker.com/news/a-reporter-at-large/china-xinjiang-prison-state-uighur-detention-camps-prisoner-testimony?source=Snapzu

Biden orders strikes in Syria, retaliating against Iran-backed groups

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Friday the bombing caused “casualties” but said it was too early to say how many fighters were killed or wounded.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/biden-airstrikes-syria-retaliating-against-iran-backed-militias-n1258912?source=Snapzu

Mom speaks out after school finds her OnlyFans account and expels her sons: 'It's body shaming and bullying'

Crystal Jackson claims that her three boys were expelled from their Catholic school all because of her account on the adult website OnlyFans.
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/mom-speaks-school-finds-her-141236022.html?source=Snapzu

Nikola admits ousted chairman misled investors as legal costs mount

Embattled electric truck start-up Nikola has admitted its ousted founder and chairman, Trevor Milton, made several inaccurate statements from 2016 through the company’s IPO last year that misled investors. The company highlighted nine comments by Milton from July 2016 through July 2020 that were “inaccurate in whole or in part, when made,” according to its annual filing Thursday to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/25/nikola-is-paying-8point1-million-in-legal-fees-for-ousted-chairman-milton.html?source=Snapzu

Pokémon at 25 is stronger than ever

Before I came to work at Engadget, I worked as an Associate Editor for The Pokémon Company for five years. It was always a bit weird trying to explain what I did back then, because I’d always get “oh, is that still around, I thought that was just a fad” comments, and I’d have to explain that no, it was still very much a thing.
Read more: https://www.engadget.com/pokemon-25th-anniversary-143049469.html?source=Snapzu

Van Gogh Paris painting goes on public display for first time

The street scene of Montmartre has been owned by the same French family for more than 100 years.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-56183086?source=Snapzu

The Disinformation Vaccine: Is There a Cure for Conspiracy Theories?

Inside one massive company’s plan to test whether the laws of public health can fight fake news
Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/disinformation-conspiracy-theories-inoculation-edelman-corporate-america-1132325/?source=Snapzu

She sued her enslaver for reparations and won. Her descendants never knew.

After the Civil War, Henrietta Wood made history by pursuing an audacious lawsuit against the man who’d kidnapped her back into slavery. Yet the story was lost to her own family.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/02/24/henrietta-wood-reparations-slavery/?arc404=true?source=Snapzu

Rare bee missing for a century rediscovered in Australia

Species which targets specific rainforest flowers was last seen in 1923
Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/bee-australia-extinct-found-rare-b1807608.html?source=Snapzu

Italian Graveyard Crumbles Off Cliff, Sending 200 Coffins Into Sea

Erosion along the coastline caused a landslide that utterly destroyed this seaside cemetery in northern Italy.
Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/italian-graveyard-crumbles-off-cliff-200-coffins_n_6036c062c5b68379f9853c1e?source=Snapzu

Twitch, owned by Amazon, pulls Amazon’s anti-union ads

Twitch is removing the anti-union ads that its parent company, Amazon, was running on the platform. The ads showed Amazon employees talking about why they want to vote no on unionization and directed viewers to Amazon’s “DoItWithoutDues” website. A Twitch spokesperson said the ads “should never have been allowed to run on [the] service,” as they violate its political advertising policies.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/25/22301352/twitch-removes-amazon-anti-union-ads?source=Snapzu

Green Party leader urges feds to consider universal basic income as 'safety net' beyond pandemic

Green Party leader Annamie Paul is calling on the federal government to launch discussions on creating a national guaranteed livable income. “A guaranteed livable income is almost inevitably going to have to be part of the solution if we’re going to ensure that everyone has a social safety net beneath them,” Paul said at a roundtable discussion Monday with Independent Sen. Kim Pate and co-founder of Revenu de base Québec Jonathan Brun.
Read more: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/02/23/news/green-party-leader-urges-feds-universal-basic-income-safety-net?source=Snapzu

Hackers Tied to Russia's GRU Targeted the US Grid for Years

A Sandworm-adjacent group has successfully breached US critical infrastructure a handful of times, according to new findings from the security firm Dragos.
Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/russia-gru-hackers-us-grid/?source=Snapzu

Lawyers have found parents of 105 separated migrant kids in past month

The parents of 506 separated migrant children still haven't been found, however. Lawyers say the parents of 322 of them were likely to have been deported.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/lawyers-have-found-parents-105-separated-migrant-children-past-month-n1258791?source=Snapzu

The Republican Party Is Now in Its End Stages

The GOP has become, in form if not in content, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of the late 1970s.
Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/the-republican-party-is-now-in-its-end-stages/618132/?source=Snapzu

Rare bird: 'Half-male, half-female' cardinal snapped in Pennsylvania

Jamie Hill said taking the stunning photos of the northern cardinal was "once in a lifetime".
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56189600?source=Snapzu

News Corp Bargaining Code

Honest Government Ad
Read more: https://snapzu.com/kxh/news-corp-bargaining-code?source=Snapzu

Belief in God Not Needed to Tell Right From Wrong, Surveys Say

One doesn’t have to believe in God to believe in goodness, according to an analysis published in PLOS ONE on Wednesday analyzing various values driving the morals of atheists and religious believers. This finding challenges many people’s belief in belief itself.
Read more: https://www.courthousenews.com/belief-in-god-not-needed-to-tell-right-from-wrong-surveys-say/?source=Snapzu

Equality Act: US House passes legislation protecting LGBT rights

The Equality Act would prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56202805?source=Snapzu

Entire school board resigns in shame after forgetting their WebEx call was public

"Are we alone?" Narrator: they were not.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2021/2/21/22294457/oakley-school-board-resigns-zoom?source=Snapzu

California can enforce net neutrality law, judge rules in loss for ISPs

Judge denies injunction, letting Calif. enforce law while ISPs' suit continues.
Read more: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/california-can-enforce-net-neutrality-law-judge-rules-in-loss-for-isps/?source=Snapzu

A Superpower, Like It or Not

Americans will need to stop looking for the exits and accept the role that fate and their own power have thrust upon them.
Read more: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2021-02-16/superpower-it-or-not?source=Snapzu

Canadian Atheist Group: Churches Breaking COVID Rules Must Lose Tax-Exempt Status

This shouldn't even be controversial.
Read more: https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2021/02/24/canadian-atheist-group-churches-breaking-covid-rules-must-lose-tax-exempt-status/?source=Snapzu

Hundreds of workers at cybersecurity agency vote to strike

Hundreds of cybersecurity workers at Canada's foreign signals intelligence agency have voted to strike, a move that comes amid growing conerns about cyber attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cse-cybersecurity-strike-1.5926825?source=Snapzu

The battery invented 120 years before its time

At the turn of the 20th Century, Thomas Edison invented a battery with the unusual quirk of producing hydrogen. Now, 120 years later, the battery is coming into its own.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210223-the-battery-invented-120-years-too-soon?source=Snapzu

Facebook says it will pay news industry $1 billion over 3 years

The pledge comes as Australia passes a new media law designed to make tech giants pay for news.
Read more: https://www.axios.com/facebook-pay-news-industry-1-billion-3-years-1155c23c-d4c6-4539-825c-25e1d6fe3536.html?source=Snapzu

‘Don’t be assholes’: Ted Cruz criticizes press reports over his Cancún trip

The main lesson from the scandal over his flight to Cancún while Texas froze, Senator Ted Cruz said on Tuesday, is that people should not be “assholes”, and should treat each other with respect.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/23/ted-cruz-press-cancun-trip-texas-freeze?source=Snapzu

Social Media Sites Must Remove Content in 36 Hours of Order, Says Govt in Draft Digital, OTT Platform Rules

The central government has finalized the rules to regulate internet-based businesses and organizations - social media companies, OTT streaming services, and digital news outlets, among others - as it plans to introduce a sea change in legislation to assert more control over powerful Big Tech firms.
Read more: https://www.news18.com/news/india/social-media-platforms-must-remove-content-in-36-hours-of-order-says-govt-in-new-norms-for-digital-straming-content-3472673.html?source=Snapzu

Not a single case of flu detected by Public Health England in 2021

Experts say decline in infections could justify continued use of hand sanitiser and masks following coronavirus pandemic
Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/flu-cases-covid-england-phe-latest-b1805124.html?source=Snapzu

Private Equity’s Ownership of Nursing Homes Is Killing Senior Citizens

A new study reveals some grim consequences of Wall Street's move into senior care: between 2004 and 2016, more than 20,000 Americans died as a consequence of living in nursing homes run by private equity firms.
Read more: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/02/nursing-homes-private-equity-deaths-covid-cuomo?source=Snapzu

Texas woman who received $9,300 electricity bill files class-action lawsuit against wholesale electricity provider Griddy

A Chambers County resident filed a class-action lawsuit against electricity retailer Griddy on Monday, accusing the provider of price gouging customers during last week’s freeze. She is seeking $1 billion in relief for affected customers.
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/23/texas-electric-bill-griddy/?source=Snapzu

Canada votes to recognize China’s treatment of Uighur population as genocide

Parliament’s move was not supported by Trudeau and likely to raise diplomatic tensions between the two nations
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/22/canada-china-uighur-muslims-genocide?source=Snapzu

Why are Victorian Houses Haunted?

There was a time when the Victorian facade was a prevalent status symbol in the United States.
Read more: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-are-victorian-houses-haunted?utm_source=pocket-newtab?source=Snapzu

SF City Lights Booksellers founder, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti dies at 101

One of the most famous poets in the history of the Bay Area has died.
Read more: https://abc7news.com/society/sf-city-lights-founder-poet-lawrence-ferlinghetti-dies-at-101/10364603/?source=Snapzu

Fry’s Electronics is shutting its doors for good

Remember electronics stores?
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2021/2/24/22298616/frys-electronics-going-out-of-business?source=Snapzu

Binning single-use plastic for good: how businesses are preparing for SA's plastic ban

The countdown is on until South Australia's single-use plastics ban begins to roll out, with business owners preparing for the change next week.
Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-24/south-australian-businesses-prepare-for-plastic-ban/13184934?source=Snapzu

B.C. farmer grabs lynx by scruff of neck, scolds it for killing chickens

A farmer in northern B.C. captured a wild cat he found in his chicken coop Sunday, picking it up by the scruff of the neck and gently scolding it before relocating it to the bush.
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-farmer-captures-lynx-chicken-coop-1.5923089?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar?source=Snapzu

'Living Hell' Ends for 5 Men Stranded at Sea for Years

They've called it "living hell," understandably. Five men who have been stuck at sea for years—some since July 2017—have finally set foot on land. The Guardian explains they had been crewing the 5,000-ton MT Iba when the oil tanker's owner, Alco Shipping, ran into financial troubles. It stopped paying them and abandoned the ship in the Persian Gulf. That was roughly three years ago.
Read more: https://www.newser.com/story/302654/living-hell-ends-for-5-men-stranded-at-sea-for-years.html?source=Snapzu

Hillary Clinton to publish thriller set in aftermath of US political turmoil

Hillary Clinton is teaming up with the award-winning thriller author Louise Penny to write an “international political thriller” in which a secretary of state joins the administration of “a president inaugurated after four years of American leadership that shrank from the world stage”.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/23/hillary-clinton-to-publish-thriller-set-in-aftermath-of-us-political-turmoil?source=Snapzu

Daft Punk Breaks Up

French electronic dance duo Daft Punk, made up of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, have been together since 1993
Read more: https://www.thewrap.com/daft-punk-breaks-up/?source=Snapzu

Myanmar coup: Protesters defy military warning in mass strike

Hundreds of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Myanmar in one of the largest demonstrations yet against the country's military coup. Businesses closed as employees joined a general strike, despite a military statement that said protesters were risking their lives by turning out.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56150616?source=Snapzu

Texas mayor resigns after telling residents desperate for power and heat "only the strong will survive"

"No one owes you [or] your family anything; nor is it the local government's responsibility to support you during trying times like this!" said the former mayor.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tim-boyd-texas-mayor-colorado-city-resigns-power-outages/?source=Snapzu