TikTok and the long arm of the Chinese government
It was a bad week for TikTok — and a good week for the long arm of the Chinese government under whose auspices the app’s parent company, ByteDance, operates. TikTok is virally popular among middle- and high-schoolers, but far less so among lawmakers skeptical of the video-sharing service’s implications for national security. (Wash. Post)Mosby: The Baltimore exonerees’ cases shed light on the need for reforming youth interrogations
Shortly after midnight on Thanksgiving Day 1983, teenagers Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins and Andrew Stewart were pulled from their beds and arrested for the murder of 14-year-old DeWitt Duckett. These three black teenagers were subsequently convicted and condemned to spend the rest of their lives in prison based on the now-recanted testimony of four teenage witnesses who were questioned without the presence of parents or legal counsel, and pressured to identify the suspects by Baltimore police officers and prosecutors. (Wash. Post)Read Full Article
Olen: Why Buttigieg is suddenly concerned millionaires might get a break
Rodricks: Hogan starts to fix a parole system infected with politics
Life is not fair, but a civilized society should do everything possible to make it so. We embrace the ideal of justice, after all, and being just requires being fair — not for the few, but for all. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s decision to grant parole to three middle-aged prisoners serving life sentences was just, particularly because the men were all teenagers at the time of their crimes. But the governor’s action also highlights how unfair the system has been for close to three decades. (Balt. Sun)
Matthews: Newspapers a natural workplace for the neurodiverse
What’s the fallout from the radical downturn in the influence of newspapers? To be sure, a less informed populace. More stories generated from press releases. Fewer in-depth articles. Less enterprise coverage of local and regional news. But I think there’s something else — nothing ground-shaking, nothing insidious. Just sad. In 2016, I learned that I have Asperger’s, considered a highly functioning form of autism. Aspies, as we call ourselves, often struggle with social interaction and form inflexible routines with our daily lives. (Balt. Sun)
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Marcus: Buttigieg returning the Kavanaugh lawyers’ donations was good politics. Was it good policy?
The Pete Buttigieg presidential campaign has announced it will return contributions from the lawyers who represented Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh at his confirmation hearings last year, saying that Kavanaugh “should have never been put on the Supreme Court and this campaign will not accept donations from those who played a role in making that happen.” As a political matter, this is a no-brainer. As a matter of legal ethics and good public policy, it leaves me uncomfortable. (Wash. Post)
Editorial: Outlawing flavored vaping likely wouldn’t kill the demand for e-cigarettes, but it’s a start
AT A White House meeting on Nov. 22, President Trump sent more alarming signals that he will water down his planned restrictions on flavored vaping products. After promising in September to ban flavored vaping liquids that appeal to teenagers, the president fretted that “if you don’t give it to them, it’s going to come here illegally.” He previously raised concerns about protecting “jobs” in the vaping industry. The policy debate should focus on preventing a generation of teenagers from getting hooked on nicotine, not on the fear that efforts to protect public health will upset vapers and vape shop owners. (Wash. Post)
Goldberg: Opponents of ‘unfettered capitalism’ are fighting a phantom
Enemies of unfettered capitalism, unite! For as long as I can remember, people on the left have complained about "unfettered capitalism." Moderate liberals do it, and of course flat-out Marxists do it. In his new book, "A Bit of Everything: Power, People, Profits and Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent," Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz contends that the only way we'll be able to confront climate change is through a new social contract. (Balt. Sun)
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