An Asian-American man who did not want to be identified pauses at a makeshift memorial on 17 March 2021 in front of Gold Spa, one of three spas in Georgia where Robert Aaron Long is accused of opened fire, killing eight people. Six of the victims were Asian-American women. Photo: Chris Aluka Berry / The Washington Post

Asian Americans see shooting as a culmination of a year of racism – Anti-Asian attacks rise along with online vitriol – “I’ve never been this afraid to be Asian in America”

By Silvia Foster-Frau, Marian Liu, Hannah Knowles, and Meryl Kornfield 17 March 2021 (The Washington Post) – As Helen Kim Ho learned that a White man with a self-described sex addiction was charged with killing eight people — including six Asian women — at spas in the Atlanta area on Tuesday, she imagined the stereotypes of Asian […]

Anti‐Asian hate crime incidents reported to police in select U.S. cities, 2019‐2020. Graphic: CSUSB Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism

Anti-Asian hate crimes increased by nearly 150 percent in 2020, mostly in N.Y. and L.A. – “What Trump did is that he weaponized it”

By Kimmy Yam 9 March 2021 (NBC News) – An analysis of police department statistics has revealed that the United States experienced a significant hike in anti-Asian hate crimes last year across major cities. The analysis released by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, this month examined hate […]

Aerial view of a power outage in Austin, Texas, on 25 February 2021, after the power grid failed during Winter Storm Uri. Austin residents with medical conditions struggled to survive amid widespread power outages and no water. Photo: Brontë Wittpenn and Ana Ramirez / Austin American-Statesman

Living in Texas feels like an exercise in survival – “The message is clear: You’re on your own”

By Karen Attiah 5 March 2021 DALLAS, Texas (The Washington Post) – As spring makes inroads down here in North Texas, the impending reopening of the state feels ominously like a death trap. At a Mexican restaurant in Lubbock this week, Gov. Greg Abbott (R)proclaimed that he would issue an executive order to open Texas up “100 […]

Western Monarch butterfly abundance at 149 overwintering sites in California, 2017-2021. These critically low numbers follow two years with fewer than 30,000 butterflies—the previous record lows, indicating that the western monarch butterfly migration is nearing collapse. Sites were visited during both the Thanksgiving and New Year’s Counts during the 2020–2021 count season. Graphic: Xerces Society

Western Monarch butterfly population closer to extinction – No Endangered Species Act protection in sight – “In only a few decades, a migration of millions has been reduced to less than two thousand butterflies”

PORTLAND, Oregon, 19 January 2021 – The Xerces Society today announced that only 1,914 monarch butterflies were recorded overwintering on the California coast this year. This critically low number follows two years with fewer than 30,000 butterflies—the previous record lows—indicating that the western monarch butterfly migration is nearing collapse. The final results from the 24th annual Western […]

Icicles hang from machinery at the Entergy power plant in Houston, Texas, after Winter Storm Uri, 16 February 2021. Photo: Lauren Talarico / KHOU / Twitter

Texas electric bills were $28 billion higher under deregulation – “Texas froze by design”

By Tom McGinty and Scott Patterson 24 February 2021 (The Wall Street Journal) – Texas’s deregulated electricity market, which was supposed to provide reliable power at a lower price, left millions in the dark last week. For two decades, its customers have paid more for electricity than state residents who are served by traditional utilities, a Wall […]

Construction crews work on a section of Highway 1 which collapsed into the Pacific Ocean near Big Sur, California on 31 January 2021. Heavy rains caused debris flows of trees, boulders, and mud that washed out a 150-foot section of the road. Photo: Josh Edelson / AFP / Getty Images

Floods after wildfires are washing California’s Pacific Coast Highway into the ocean – “It was great while it lasted”

By Joel Shannon and Doyle Rice 2 March 2021 (USA TODAY) – Soaring mountains on one side of the road and the Pacific Ocean on the other: It was 1956 and Gary Griggs was experiencing California State Route 1 for the first time. He was a child, but in the following decades he would drive […]

A western monarch butterfly balances on a flower in Vista, California. The number of western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast has plummeted to a record low. Photo: Gregory Bull / AP

Fewer butterflies seen across the warming, drying landscapes of the American West – Increasing fall temperatures may be a significant driver of declining butterfly populations

By Mike Wolterbeek 4 March 2021 (Nevada Today) – New methods of conservation and management of butterfly habitat may be needed to stem the consistent annual decline in the numbers of butterflies over the past 40 years in the western United States, according to a new study published in the journal Science. “The widespread butterfly […]

Ice drapes machinery at the Entergy power plant in Houston, Texas, after Winter Storm Uri, 16 February 2021. Photo: Lauren Talarico / KHOU / Twitter

Texas power coop seeks bankruptcy protection after Winter Storm Uri – “The consumer and the taxpayer are pretty much one and the same. Whether it comes out of your left pocket or out of your right pocket, it’s coming out of your pocket.”

By Michelle Chapman and David Koenig 1 March 2021 (AP) – The largest and oldest power cooperative in Texas is filing for bankruptcy protection, citing last month’s winter storm that left millions without power, and it is unlikely to be the last utility to seek shelter in the courts. Brazos Electric Power Cooperative serves distributors […]

A fitness instructor accidentally caught part of Myanmar's military coup unfolding on camera in the country's capital, Naypyitaw. Aerobics teacher Khing Hnin Wai posted the footage to Facebook on Monday morning (1 February 2021), in the background, a convoy of armoured cars can be seen streaming by, suggesting all is not as it seems. At the time, the Myanmar army was in the process of detaining Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratically elected leaders from her party National League for Democracy. Video: Khing Hnin Wai / BBC News

Militaries are getting better at overthrowing elected governments – “Coups over the last decade or so have a far higher success rate than in previous periods”

By Joshua Kurlantzick 25 February 2021 (The Washington Post) – Early this month, Myanmar’s armed forces took control of the country. Moving overnight, they detained most leading politicians and many civil-society activists, barricaded roads, cut off Internet access, arrested people in the darkness, and made an announcement of the coup on state television. In the […]

Total U.S. debt as a percentage of GDP, 1900-2021 and projected to 2051. In CBO’s projections, federal debt held by the public reaches 107 percent of GDP (surpassing its historical high) in 2031 and continues to climb. Federal debt held by the public is projected to equal 202 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2051, and the deficit is projected to equal 13 percent of GDP. Graphic: CBO

U.S. debt to break World War 2 record by 2031 – “Even if economic conditions were more favorable than CBO currently projects, debt in 2051 will probably be much higher than it is today”

By Niv Elis 4 March 2021 (The Hill) – The nation’s debt burden is on track to surpass its historic high point in a decade, reaching 107 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2031, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (pdf).  The debt surpassed 100 percent of GDP last year […]

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