Michelle Singletary, Reporter - The Washington Post
Stephan: Our lives in the U.S. are dominated and defined by credit agencies, from your credit card interest, to what you are paying for your mortgage or car loan. But, as this story describes, try correcting inaccurate data on your report. The entire system is structured for the corporate interest.
I’ve had the hair-pulling experience of trying to correct errors in my credit files. It was a journey to automation hell.
Credit: Andrew Kelly/Reuters
Let’s say a creditor incorrectly reported that you were seriously late on a payment. This information causes your credit score to drop considerably. So you contact the credit bureaus to file a dispute. (If the incorrect information is reported to only one agency, contact that particular bureau.) You provide proof of your financial innocence — copies, never the original.
The credit bureaus send an inquiry to the creditor that reported the incorrect information. The creditor (the industry calls them “data furnishers”) examines its records and sends the same erroneous data back to the bureau. The credit bureaus contact you indicating that the creditor has “verified” the information they have on you is correct. This back and forth goes on for months or, for the truly unfortunate, years.
Stephan: I live on an island whose electric power grid dates back nearly a century to the 1930s and 40s, much of America still uses similar technologies, change is expensive and eats into profits. This is what is happening in China.
The terminal of the world’s first 35 kilovolt superconducting power cable in Shanghai. Credit: Xinhua
The world’s first 35 kilovolt superconducting power cable was put into operation in Shanghai on Wednesday, making China among the global leaders in superconducting transmission applications, said its operator, the Shanghai branch of State Grid Corp of China.
The high-capacity superconducting power line, which is so far the world’s longest superconducting cable transmission project with the largest transmission capacity, marks a major breakthrough in core technologies of China’s construction of a new power system, according to State Grid Shanghai Municipal Electrical Power Co.
Installed in the commercial area of Xuhui district, the 1.2-kilometer cable connects two 220 kV substations with a designed current capacity of 2,200 amps. This is also the first superconducting transmission project built by the centrally administered State Grid in the country.
According to State Grid Corp of China, the nation’s largest power provider by generating capacity, the superconducting cables-one of the most revolutionary cutting-edge technologies in the power sector-represent an innovative power transfer technology that has the potential to offer numerous […]
Maureen Downey, - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Stephan: This is high school in America today. I find this appalling. This is where America's gun psychosis has taken us.
Credit: Atlanta – Constitution
Damian Galvan is a politically active studentin Forsyth County where he is a high school senior. In this guest column, Damian denounces the lack of efforts to reduce gun violence, which has become a constant and feared presence in the lives of American students.
Withhis best friend and fellow Forsyth student Varoon Kodithala, Damian started the podcast Polititeen, saying, “I believe that conversations, whether they be locally, nationally, or globally, are crucial to creating progress.”
You continue to fail us.
In late November, four students at Oxford High School outside Detroit were shot dead and an all-too-common pattern began. Headlines focused on gun regulations and school shootings. Politicians who have not been inside a classroom in decades attempt to persuade us on the matter. The NRA telling us that good guys with guns are the solution. News commentators tellingus that regulations and background checks are the way to overcome this epidemic of gun violence.
Then, as quickly as a bullet leaves the chamber of a gun, the discourse […]
Stephan: One of the most alarming social trends in America, in my opinion, is the transmutation of Christianity from a religious movement based on Jesus' teachings, to a White supremacy christofascist political cult that talks Jesus but lives Trump. It is distorting our culture injecting a nasty hateful pulse. This report spells it out.
Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump pray outside the U.S. Capitol January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Credit: Win McNamee/Getty
In the midst of the invasion of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Jacob Chansley, the bare-chested man in Viking horns who’s come to be known as the QAnon Shaman, stopped his fellow marauders in the Senate chamber to pray. “Thank you Heavenly Father for gracing us with this opportunity … to send a message to all the tyrants, the communists and the globalists, that this is our nation, not theirs,” he said. “Thank you for filling this chamber with patriots that love you and that love Christ. Thank you for allowing the United States of America to be reborn.”
The prayer, caught on video by New Yorker reporter Luke Mogelson, was just one moment among hundreds that day illustrating how deeply the insurrection was intertwined with Christian nationalism. Across the sea of protesters in and outside the building, t-shirt and ball-cap slogans proclaimed it: “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president”; […]
Stephan: This is a first click on a trend that is going to become a more and more prominent part of our lives. As I have been saying for years, water is destiny.
One-third of California continues to struggle under drought conditions despite a recent wave of heavy rain and snow. Credit: Haven Daley/AP
Californians will not be able to water their lawns for 48 hours after rainstorms or let their sprinklers run on to the sidewalk under new, mandatory water saving rules that could result in a fine of up to $500 a day.
The restrictions, adopted by state regulators on Tuesday, come as California continues to struggle under drought conditions, despite a recent wave of heavy rain and snow.
The rules could take effect as soon as the end of the month, though regulators stressed they want to encourage voluntary conservation and that it will be up to local authorities to decide on whether to enforce fines.
California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, had previously called for residents to voluntarily reduce water use by 15% compared with last year, but the state has continued to fall short. Between July and November, the state’s water usage went down just 6%.
Among the water uses that will not be allowed under the […]
