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    <title>Will Trump Direct FEMA to Fund Churches Hit by Harvey?  - The Atlantic</title>

    

        
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        <section id="article-section-1"><p>Hurricane Harvey blew the steeple off of Rockport First Assembly of God in Rockport, Texas. Harvest Family Church in Cypress got covered in a layer of mud and silt. Three feet of water filled the sanctuary of Hi-Way Tabernacle in Cleveland.</p><p>Despite this damage, the Tabernacle has served as an emergency staging area for government relief efforts in the aftermath of the storm, providing shelter for evacuees, emergency meals for families, and storage for food, water, clothing, and hygiene products. And despite the chaos, Hi-Way Tabernacle and these two other churches are involved in another effort: suing the federal government.</p><aside class="callout" data-omni-click="r'article',r' ',d,r'related',#data-omni-index,@data-article-id"><hr><h4>
        
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    <p><a href="/politics/archive/2017/06/trinity-lutheran/531399/" data-omni-index="0" data-article-id="840969" data-omni-click="inherit">The Supreme Court Strikes Down a Major Church-State Barrier</a></p>
    

    <hr></aside><p>According to the stated policy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, houses of worship cannot receive funding from the agency’s public-assistance program, which provides money for emergency fire and rescue services, medical care, urgent debris removal, and critical utility repairs in the wake of disasters. The three churches’ lawsuit is intended to challenge that rule and give religious organizations and other non-profits equal eligibility for this kind of FEMA funding. The case can also be read as a bid to expand the reach of a recent Supreme Court ruling on church-state funding, which if it succeeds, would have consequences far beyond Texas.</p><p>Faith-based organizations, including churches, synagogues, and mosques, provide an extraordinary amount of support during natural disasters. Greg Forrester—the president and CEO of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, an association of relief groups—<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/09/10/hurricane-irma-faith-groups-provide-bulk-disaster-recovery-coordination-fema/651007001/" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'0',r'539346'">told <em>USA Today</em></a> that non-profits are responsible for 80 percent of recovery efforts, and most of those are faith-based. Religious groups that largely serve a secular purpose in their broader communities are eligible for funding. But those that spend more than half of their time and resources on worship, outreach, religious education, or internal fundraising aren’t eligible—a rule that effectively excludes all houses of worship.</p></section><div class="ad-boxinjector-wrapper"><gpt-ad id="boxinjector1" targeting-pos="boxinjector1" class="ad ad-boxinjector" lazy-load="2" data-object-pk="1" data-object-name="boxinjector"><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[0, 0]" sizes="[[300, 250], [320, 350], [300, 350], [1, 3], [320, 520], [320, 430], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[760, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1010, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1050, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1024, 350], [1, 3], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset></gpt-ad></div><section id="article-section-2"><p>“We’re just picking up the pieces like everyone else. And we just want to be treated like everyone else,” said Paul Capehart, the pastor of Harvest Family Church, through his lawyers. “Our faith is what drives us to help others. Faith certainly doesn’t keep us from helping others, and we’re not sure why it keeps FEMA from helping us.” While churches are leading the legal case, Jewish groups including the Orthodox Union are also lobbying for a policy change, <a href="http://www.jpost.com/American-Politics/Amid-dual-storms-Jewish-groups-fight-over-FEMA-funding-504624" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'1',r'539346'">according to </a><em><a href="http://www.jpost.com/American-Politics/Amid-dual-storms-Jewish-groups-fight-over-FEMA-funding-504624" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'2',r'539346'">The Jerusalem Post</a>.</em></p><p>On Friday, President Trump tweeted his support for churches caught in disasters.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Churches in Texas should be entitled to reimbursement from FEMA Relief Funds for helping victims of Hurricane Harvey (just like others).</p>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/906320446882271232" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'3',r'539346'">September 9, 2017</a></blockquote><p>At least one FEMA official publicly cheered his pronouncement: “Amen!” <a href="https://twitter.com/JamieJohnsonUSA/status/906519523645431809" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'4',r'539346'">replied</a> Jamie Johnson, the director of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Homeland Security, where he focuses on disaster relief.</p><p>The president’s tweet “was a very good development,” said Daniel Blomberg, a lawyer who is representing the churches through Becket, an educational and legal institute focused on religious freedom. “All the churches are asking for is that when FEMA is making a determination, it’s no longer using religion as a criteria to keep parts of the community from asking for equal disaster relief.”</p><p>The timeline for FEMA funding is tight. The president has to declare an emergency or national disaster, and affected organizations generally have to request public assistance within 30 days. In their lawsuit, the three Texas churches requested expedited relief, arguing that they only have until that 30-day deadline—September 26—to win protection “against FEMA’s discrimination.”</p></section><div class="ad-boxright-wrapper" data-pos="boxright"><gpt-ad id="boxright1" targeting-pos="boxright1" class="ad ad-boxright" lazy-load="2" data-object-pk="3" data-object-name="boxright"><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[0, 0]" sizes="[[300, 250]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1010, 0]" sizes="[[300, 250], [300, 600]]"></gpt-sizeset></gpt-ad></div><section id="article-section-3"><p>Theoretically, the president could just direct FEMA to make all religious organizations eligible for funding under the public-assistance program. After all, FEMA is a federal agency under his authority. Similar things have happened in the past: In the wake of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005, the Bush administration agreed to reimburse religious organizations for the shelter, food, and supplies they provided to the general public.</p><p class="pullquote">“This seems to be policy that is made disaster by disaster.”</p><p>The Trump administration “could go ahead and do it,” said Robert Tuttle, a professor at George Washington University Law School. But the problem is that “this seems to be policy that is made disaster by disaster.” Even if the president directs FEMA to do something, the agency could later face lawsuits for doing so. In this case, critics could argue that such funding violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution.</p><p>This, however, is the strategic brilliance of the Texas church lawsuit. If the churches win an injunction or the government loses in court and FEMA is directed to give out money to churches, there’s “no guarantee that … the government will appeal,” said Tuttle. By then, the funds would have already been disbursed, and it would be up to an outside group like Americans United for the Separation of Church and State to challenge the decision—and find itself in the politically tenuous position of trying to take money away from churches that got destroyed in a hurricane.</p></section><div class="ad-boxinjector-wrapper"><gpt-ad id="boxinjector2" targeting-pos="boxinjector2" class="ad ad-boxinjector" lazy-load="2" data-object-pk="1" data-object-name="boxinjector"><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[0, 0]" sizes="[[300, 250], [320, 350], [300, 350], [1, 3], [320, 520], [320, 430], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[760, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1010, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1050, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1024, 350], [1, 3], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset></gpt-ad></div><section id="article-section-4"><p>The churches’ lawsuit relies heavily on a recent Supreme Court decision, <em>Trinity Lutheran v. Comer</em>. In that case, a Missouri church sued the state for excluding it from a playground-resurfacing program on religious grounds. Seven of the nine justices found in favor of the church. “<em>Trinity Lutheran </em>is, in some ways, a closer case than this one,” argued Blomberg. While the church in that case was asking to be part of a program that would enhance its facilities, “no one is asking for the church to be improved” in Houston, he said. “They’re just trying to get back on their feet [and] … get to a place where they’re no longer a public-health and public-safety hazard.”</p><p>It’s not clear how broadly the Supreme Court justices intended for <em>Trinity Lutheran </em>to be applied, or whether they would see these cases as similar. “I am deeply skeptical of that analogy,” said Tuttle. Two things distinguish this case from <em>Trinity Lutheran</em>, he argued. In the majority opinion for that case, Chief Justice John Roberts noted that the decision doesn’t reach the question of “religious uses of funding,” meaning that it might not apply in cases where state funding goes to rebuild a literal sanctuary used for worship. The second difference, argued Tuttle, is that it’s not clear that the three Texas churches would be eligible for FEMA funding even if they weren’t houses of worship. The agency’s public-assistance program only covers certain kinds of immediate relief. Other, non-critical repairs are generally referred to the Small Business Administration, which provides disaster-recovery loans. Organizations can get FEMA money for permanent repair work if the SBA turns them down or doesn’t cover all of the damages.</p></section><div class="ad-boxinjector-wrapper"><gpt-ad id="boxinjector3" targeting-pos="boxinjector3" class="ad ad-boxinjector" lazy-load="2" data-object-pk="1" data-object-name="boxinjector"><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[0, 0]" sizes="[[300, 250], [320, 350], [300, 350], [1, 3], [320, 520], [320, 430], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[760, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1010, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1050, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1024, 350], [1, 3], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset></gpt-ad></div><section id="article-section-5"><p class="pullquote">“It’s the kind of thing that we might cook up so that we can put it on exam questions.”</p><p>Constitutionally speaking, “the real question comes down to whether this is framed as a public-safety, emergency-relief action or whether it’s framed as helping a church get a new building,” said Richard Garnett, a professor of law and political science at the University of Notre Dame. “Nobody thinks it’s unconstitutional for a fire truck to put out a fire at a church, and clearly there aren’t different Establishment Clause rules for fires and floods. But are there different rules for putting out fires and repairing a building after it burns?”</p><p>Harvey, Irma, and other recent disasters have created a strong legal test case—“it’s the kind of thing that we might cook up so that we can put it on exam questions,” said Garnett. Tuttle offered a slightly more cynical read: “Lawyers are taking this opportunity to try to get relief for these particular congregations—and at the same time, to extend the reach of <em>Trinity Lutheran</em>,” he said. Blomberg described it differently: Becket has been pushing against FEMA’s church policy for years, he said, and <em>Trinity Lutheran </em>was just a sign that the law is moving in the right direction, at least in its view.</p><p>In weighing in on the case in Texas, Trump wasn’t just commenting about a few specific churches. He intervened in a long-standing debate about the proper line between church and state in public funding. In an instant, the president could change the terms of the debate, but “whether or not it’s constitutionally permissible doesn’t hinge on whether the president supports it or not,” Garnett said. A change to FEMA’s policy would not be the end of the storm—legally or otherwise. As the churches say in their lawsuit: “Mold will not wait for litigation process to spread through the churches’ buildings; storm and flood debris will not stop rotting while the government processes their claims.”</p></section>
    
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        <p class="dek">An investigation into a surprisingly divisive question</p>
        
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            <p dir="ltr">It seemed like an easy question.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The query came from <a href="https://twitter.com/cgpgrey/status/961700363131908096">a Twitter poll</a> I spotted on my news feed last week, from user @cgpgrey. “Please help resolve a marital dispute,” @cgpgrey wrote. “You would describe the color of a tennis ball as:” green, yellow, or other.</p>

<p dir="ltr"><em>Yellow, obviously</em>, I thought, and voted. When the results appeared, my jaw dropped with cartoonish effect. Of nearly 30,000 participants, 52 percent said a tennis ball is green, 42 percent said it’s yellow, and 6 percent went with “other.”</p>

<p dir="ltr">I was stunned. I’d gone from being so sure of myself to second-guessing my sanity in a matter of seconds. More than that, I could never have imagined the question of the color of a tennis ball—surely something we could all agree on, even in these times—would be so divisive.</p>


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        <p class="dek">Tech analysts are prone to predicting utopia or dystopia. They’re worse at imagining the side effects of a firm's success.</p>
        
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            <p dir="ltr">The U.S economy is in the midst of a wrenching technological transformation that is fundamentally changing the way people <a href="https://www.cydiageeks.com/best-sleep-tracking-apps-for-apple-watch.html">sleep</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/wework-story-how-adam-neumann-changing-way-we-work-live-aman-mehta">work</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-restaurant-robot-waiters-2016-7">eat</a>, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/11/future-retail/546119/">shop</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/style/tinder-relationship-dating-study.html">love</a>, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/06/the-rise-of-speed-listening/396740/">read</a>, and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-facebook-making-us-lonely/308930/">interact</a>.</p>

<p dir="ltr">At least, that’s one interpretation.</p>

<p>A second story of this age of technological transformation says that it’s mostly a facade—that the last 30 years have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/books/review/the-powers-that-were.html">a productivity bust</a> and little has changed in everyday life, aside from the way everyone reads and watches videos. <a href="https://som.yale.edu/blog/peter-thiel-at-yale-we-wanted-flying-cars-instead-we-got-140-characters">People wanted flying cars</a> and got Netflix binges instead.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Let’s call these the Disrupt Story and the Dud Story of technology. When a new company, app, or platform emerges, it’s common for analysts to divide into camps—Disrupt vs. Dud—with some yelping that the new thing will change everything and others yawning with the expectation that traditionalism will win out.</p>


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        <p class="dek">Students have mourned and rallied the public after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High that left 17 dead.</p>
        
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            <p>Something was different about the mass shooting this week in Parkland, Florida, in which 14 students and three adults were killed.</p>

<p>It was not only the death toll. The mass murder at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High became the deadliest high-school shooting in American history (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre">edging out Columbine,</a> which killed 13 in 1999).</p>

<p>What made Parkland different were the people who stepped forward to describe it. High-school students—the survivors of the calamity themselves—became the voice of the tragedy. Tweets that were widely reported as coming from the students expressed grief for the victims, pushed against false reports, and demanded accountability.</p>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">We are too young to be losing friends like this.</p>
— Javi 🥀 (@Javier_Lovera__) <a href="https://twitter.com/Javier_Lovera__/status/964183117350297600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2018</a></blockquote>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">When Malls Saved the Suburbs From Despair</h3>
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        <p class="dek">Like it or not, the middle class became global citizens through consumerism—and they did so at the mall.</p>
        
        <div class="excerpt">
            <p>“Okay, we’ll see you in two-and-a-half hours,” the clerk tells me, taking the iPhone from my hand. I’m at the Apple Store, availing myself of a cheap smartphone battery replacement, an <a href="https://www.apple.com/iphone-battery-and-performance/">offer</a> the company made after taking heat for deliberately slowing down devices. A test run by a young woman typing at a feverish, unnatural pace on an iPad confirms that mine desperately needed the swap. As she typed, I panicked. What will I do in the mall for so long, and without a phone? How far the mall has fallen that I rack my brain for something to do here.</p>

<p>The Apple Store captures everything I don’t like about today’s mall. A trip here is never easy—the place is packed and chaotic, even on weekdays. It runs by its own private logic, cashier and help desks replaced by roving youths in seasonally changing, colored T-shirts holding iPads, directing traffic.</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">Bari Weiss and the Left-Wing Infatuation With Taking Offense</h3>
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        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/shadi-hamid/" itemprop="url" title="Shadi Hamid" data-omni-click="inherit"><span itemprop="name">Shadi Hamid</span></a></span></li>
        

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    <meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2018-02-17T06:00:00" />
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    <div itemprop="description" class="article-content ">
        <p class="dek">Outrage mobs are chipping away at democracy, one meaningless debate at a time.</p>
        
        <div class="excerpt">
            <p>The mob was unusually vociferous, even for Twitter. After the California-born ice skater Mirai Nagasu became the first American woman to land a triple axel at the Olympics, the <em>New York Times</em> writer Bari Weiss <a href="https://twitter.com/splinter_news/status/963191268917567489">commented</a> “Immigrants: They get the job done.”</p>

<p>What followed that innocuous tweet was one of the sillier, manufactured controversies I have ever seen on Twitter. Twitter’s socially conscious denizens probably only realized they should be outraged at Weiss after they saw other people being outraged, as is so often the case. Outside of Twitter, some of Weiss’s <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-york-times-diversity-bari-weiss-tweet_us_5a833d4ee4b0cf06751f3f44"><em>Times</em></a><a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-york-times-diversity-bari-weiss-tweet_us_5a833d4ee4b0cf06751f3f44"> colleagues</a> were also offended by the tweet—and even hurt by it. <a href="https://splinternews.com/can-someone-explain-this-bari-weiss-tweet-to-me-1822942452">The</a><a href="https://splinternews.com/can-someone-explain-this-bari-weiss-tweet-to-me-1822942452"> critics’</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/soledadobrien/status/964009334178009088">objection</a> was that Nagasu isn’t herself an immigrant, but rather the child of immigrants, and so calling her one was an example of “<a href="https://twitter.com/chrissyteigen/status/963232760868425728?ref_src=twsrc%255Etfw&amp;ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%252Fentry%252Fchrissy-teigen-bari-weiss-mirai-nagasu_us_5a830bbbe4b00ecc923ed36d">perpetual othering</a>.”</p>


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                <img data-src="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/mt/2018/02/MLD_24087_R2/hero_wide_640.jpg?1518730058" alt="T&#39;Challa/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan)" class="lazyload">
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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline"><em>Black Panther</em> Is More Than a Superhero Movie</h3>
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        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/christopher-orr/" itemprop="url" title="Christopher Orr" data-omni-click="inherit"><span itemprop="name">Christopher Orr</span></a></span></li>
        

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    <meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2018-02-16T11:25:00" />
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    <div itemprop="description" class="article-content ">
        <p class="dek">The director Ryan Coogler's addition to the Marvel pantheon is a superb genre film—and quite a bit more.</p>
        
        <div class="excerpt">
            <p><strong><em>Note: Although this review avoids plot spoilers, it does discuss the thematic elements of the film at some length.</em></strong></p>

<p>After an animated introduction to the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda, <em>Black Panther</em> opens in Oakland in 1992. This may seem an odd choice, but it is in fact quite apt. The film’s director, Ryan Coogler, got his start in the city, having been born there in 1986. His filmmaking career has its roots there, too, as it was the setting for his debut feature, <em>Fruitvale Station</em>.</p>

<p>A bunch of schoolboys (a fictionalized young Coogler perhaps among them) play pickup hoops on a court with a milk-crate basket. But in the tall apartment building above them two black radicals are plotting a robbery. There’s a knock on the door and one of the men looks through the peephole: “Two Grace Jones–lookin’ chicks—with spears!” I won’t recount the rest of the scene, except to note that the commingling of two very different iterations of the term “Black Panther”—the comic-book hero and the revolutionary organization, ironically established just months apart in 1966—is in no way accidental, and it will inform everything that follows.</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">Mentorship Cut Short by Suicide</h3>
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    <div itemprop="description" class="article-content ">
        <p class="dek">The Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig discusses how Aaron Swartz's death shaped his own life's work.</p>
        
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            <p dir="ltr">Before he started working with Aaron Swartz, the Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig built his professional life around internet law and copyright policy. In the early 2000s, Lessig was at the top of his academic field, then working at Stanford. As an undergraduate student, Swartz, who had met Lessig at a computer conference when he was just 14, convinced the professor to radically change his career path.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The two developed a mentorship and partnership that would lead them to take on the complex goals of making information more accessible and demanding greater transparency from political institutions. Swartz became known for his involvement in Creative Commons and Reddit, and for his alleged attempt to make information from the academic-research site JSTOR free for public viewing. And then, in January of 2013, Swartz committed suicide. Lessig is still reeling from the loss.</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">The Full Text of Mueller's Indictment of 13 Russians</h3>
    </a>
    <ul class="metadata">
        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/priscilla-alvarez/" itemprop="url" title="Priscilla Alvarez" data-omni-click="inherit"><span itemprop="name">Priscilla Alvarez</span></a></span> and <span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/taylor-hosking/" itemprop="url" title="Taylor Hosking" data-omni-click="inherit"><span itemprop="name">Taylor Hosking</span></a></span></li>
        

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    <meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2018-02-16T14:30:51" />
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    <div itemprop="description" class="article-content ">
        <p class="dek">The special counsel indicted the Russian nationals and three Russian entities for allegedly interfering in the 2016 presidential election, the Department of Justice announced Friday.</p>
        
        <div class="excerpt">
            <p dir="ltr"><em>On Friday, February 16, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosentein announced that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, had indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities on charges that including conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft. This is the full text of that <a href="https://www.justice.gov/file/1035477/download">indictment</a>.</em></p>

<hr><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT</p>

<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA</p>

<p><br>
* * CRIMINAL NO. v. * * (18 U.S.C. §§ 2,371, 1349, 1028A)</p>

<p>UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</p>

<p>v.  </p>

<p>INTERNET RESEARCH AGENCY LLC</p>

<p dir="ltr">        A/K/A MEDIASINTEZ LLC A/K/A</p>

<p dir="ltr">        GLAVSET LLC A/K/A MIXINFO</p>

<p dir="ltr">        LLC A/K/A AZIMUT LLC A/K/A NOVINFO LLC,</p>

<p dir="ltr">CONCORD MANAGEMENT AND CONSULTING LLC,</p>

<p dir="ltr">CONCORD CATERING,</p>

<p dir="ltr">YEVGENIY VIKTOROVICH PRIGOZHIN,</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">Mueller's Message to America</h3>
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    <ul class="metadata">
        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/paul-rosenzweig/" itemprop="url" title="Paul Rosenzweig" data-omni-click="inherit"><span itemprop="name">Paul Rosenzweig</span></a></span></li>
        

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    <meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2018-02-17T08:13:40" />
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    <div itemprop="description" class="article-content ">
        <p class="dek">The clear goal of the special counsel is to speak to the American public about the seriousness of Russian interference.</p>
        
        <div class="excerpt">
            <p dir="ltr">With yet another blockbuster indictment (why is it always on a Friday afternoon?), Special Counsel Robert Mueller has, once again, upended Washington. And this time, it is possible  that his efforts may have a wider effect outside the Beltway.</p>

<p dir="ltr">For those following the matter, there has been little doubt that Russian citizens attempted to interfere with the American presidential election. The American intelligence agencies  publicized  that conclusion more than a year ago in a report issued in January 2017, and it has stood by the analysis whenever it has been questioned. But some in the country have doubted the assertion—asking for evidence of interference that was not forthcoming.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Now the evidence has been laid out in painful detail by the special counsel. If any significant fraction of what is alleged in the latest indictment is true (and we should, of course, remind ourselves that an indictment is just an allegation—not proof), then this tale is a stunning condemnation of Russian activity. A Russian organization with hundreds of employees and a budget of millions of dollars is said to have systematically engaged in an effort (code named “Project Lakhta”) to undermine the integrity of the election and, perhaps more importantly, to have attempted to influence the election to benefit then-candidate Donald Trump. Among the allegations, the Russians:</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">Why Don't More Female Figure Skaters Wear Pants?</h3>
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        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/ashley-fetters/" itemprop="url" title="Ashley Fetters" data-omni-click="inherit"><span itemprop="name">Ashley Fetters</span></a></span></li>
        

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    <meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2018-02-17T09:30:00" />
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    <div itemprop="description" class="article-content ">
        <p class="dek">Leggings and yoga gear are common sights at practice rinks. But in competition, gender-coded costumes still prevail.</p>
        
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            <p>Last weekend, one of the buzzier stories out of the Olympic ladies’ figure skating short program competition was one you might call … surprisingly surprising. The French figure skater Maé-Bérénice Méité made headlines: for the fact that she skated to a Beyoncé medley, and even more so, for the fact that she did it in pants.</p>

<p>More accurately, she did it in a bedazzled black unitard, but that didn’t stop news outlets and viewers on Twitter from pointing out Méité’s eye-catching, subtly subversive pants. “This French figure skater may not have won a medal, but her pants took people's choice,” <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/french-figure-skater-may-not-won-medal-pants-took-peoples-choice-181422813.html">raved</a> Yahoo! News, and AOL <a href="https://www.aol.com/article/lifestyle/2018/02/12/pyeongchang-2018-figure-skating-outfits-from-the-winter-olympics/23359525/">named</a> Méité’s bodysuit to its list of “most dazzling figure skating outfits” of these Olympic Games.</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">Beware the Northside Skull and Bone Gang</h3>
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        <p class="dek">For 200 years, this Mardi Gras krewe has kicked off the festival at the crack of dawn with a very important message.</p>
        
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