More from @ByMikeBaker

Mike Baker

@ByMikeBaker

1 Jun

The historic drought in the West is entering a volatile phase.

Here's the story at the Oregon-California border, where salmon are dying en masse and farmers are agitating after being cut off from water they've received every year since 1907.

1/
nytimes.com/2021/06/01/us/…

With not enough water to go around, Tribes and farmers are competing against each other for what remains.

“There are folks on both sides that would really like to throw down and take things in an ugly direction,” said Clayton Dumont, a member of the Klamath Tribal Council.

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Farmers are openly talking about forcing open the irrigation gates.

They have allied with Ammon Bundy, who led an armed takeover of a wildlife refuge in 2016. His take: “Who cares if there is violence? At least something will be worked out.”

3/

nytimes.com/2021/06/01/us/…

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Mike Baker

@ByMikeBaker

20 May

Content warning: Child sexual abuse

Mercy Corps has released a report detailing sexual abuse allegations regarding co-founder Ellsworth Culver. His daughter told investigators that he abused her and arranged for others to abuse her around the world.
nytimes.com/2021/05/19/us/…

Tania Culver Humphrey initially reported in the 1990s that her father had abused her. Mercy Corps largely dismissed her account. The latest report, initiated by Mercy Corps, is based on 100+ hours of interviews between independent investigators and her

Content warning: Child sexual abuse

Among the accounts in the Mercy Corps report, Tania Culver Humphrey described how she and another young girl suffered violent sexual abuse at a hotel. She reported that the other girl died. She tells me that the case happened in Thailand.

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Mike Baker

@ByMikeBaker

23 Apr

I'm still trying to process this factoid:

John Tyler, our 10th president, was born in 1790. One of his grandsons is still living in Virginia.

washingtonpost.com/history/2020/1…

This is nearly as confusing as when I learned that Kimberly Guilfoyle and Gavin Newsom used to be married.

Or that Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch went to high school together.

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Mike Baker

@ByMikeBaker

17 Apr

@NickAtNews

Air fresheners. They’ve been a ubiquitous accessory in American vehicles for decades. They’ve also become a justification for police officers around the country to initiate traffic stops.

w/ @NickAtNews
nytimes.com/2021/04/17/us/…

Police contend that dangling air fresheners (or tassels, or fuzzy dice, or pandemic masks) can obstruct driver views in ways that violate laws.

But like other low-level issues, such as loud mufflers, tinted windows or expired registrations, it is ripe for selective enforcement.

In one case we looked at, a traffic stop supposedly focused on a pink tree air freshener led a trooper to give a warning. But he also notified immigration officers, who came to the scene. It ended in prison time and deportation for the driver.

nytimes.com/2021/04/17/us/…

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