Fentanyl Express & Last Out in Oakland

Featured Articles

How fentanyl traffickers are exploiting a U.S. trade law to kill Americans

Reuters • 1 Oct 2024 • ~6750 words • Archive Link

I featured the first part of this article, "We bought what’s needed to make millions of fentanyl pills–for $3,600," back on July 25th. In the continuing investigation, Reuters explores how fentanyl traffickers are exploiting a U.S. trade law to smuggle Chinese-made chemicals into Mexico, where they are used to manufacture the deadly synthetic opioid that is devastating American communities. It investigates how a 2016 change to U.S. trade policy, which made it easier for imported goods to enter the country, has inadvertently enabled the flow of fentanyl precursors and fueled the opioid crisis. The article also explores the challenges faced by law enforcement in detecting and stopping this illicit trade.

They estimate that over the previous two years, the gray-bearded courier had ferried about 7,000 kilos of fentanyl-making chemicals to an operative of the Sinaloa Cartel. That’s 15,432 pounds, sufficient to produce 5.3 billion pills – enough to kill every living soul in the United States several times over. The chemicals had traveled by air from China to Los Angeles, were flown or ground-shipped to Tucson, then driven the last miles to Mexico by the freelance delivery driver.

Last Out in Oakland

The Atlantic • 1 Oct 2024 • ~2850 words • Archive Link

The Oakland Coliseum has been a cherished home for A's fans for decades, but now it's time to say goodbye. This heartfelt piece reflects on the end of the Oakland Athletics' 57-year tenure at the Oakland Coliseum. It explores fans' emotional connection with the team and the stadium, the team owner's efforts to relocate the franchise, and the broader implications of a city losing its last major professional sports team. The article raises questions about the nature of fandom, the role of sports in community identity, and the impact of corporate ownership decisions on local communities.

It seemed obvious what was happening, and not just because it was basically the plot of the movie Major League: Fisher was cynically and systematically working to make Oakland baseball harder to love and then blaming the fans for not loving it enough. He miscalculated: We loved Oakland baseball anyway'unconditionally. We just didn't like him. Last year, the A's had the lowest payroll in baseball. They also had a possum living in a broadcast booth and the lowest attendance of any team in the league. But on nights when the fans arranged it, the park was packed in reverse boycott, 27,000 people and hardly any official A's gear in sight, just an ocean of kelly-green shirts with a message for Fisher: SELL.

Recommended Articles

The Right to Stay Home

Chris Christou • 26 Sep 2024 • ~3950 words

This piece explores the complex issue of migration and its impact on the communities that people leave behind. It delves into the stories of individuals and communities in Mexico and Greece, raising questions about the obligations we have to our places of origin, the consequences of uprooting, and the balance between the right to migrate and the right to stay home.

. . . what do our migrations do to those who never leave home, to those who ‘stay behind’? What does the emptying of a village do to culture, language and lineage? How can one be responsible for a place by being elsewhere? How do we contend with what John Berger calls ‘the century of departure, of migration, of exodus, of disappearance: the century of people helplessly seeing others, who were close to them, disappear over the horizon’ – the century that refuses to end?

Is the World Really Running Out of Sand?

Practical Engineering • 1 Oct 2024 • ~3300 words

In a topic that will be familiar if you read our last weekend special on concrete, this article delves into the definition and properties of sand, its importance in concrete production, and the misconceptions around the potential scarcity of this resource. The article also examines the feasibility of manufacturing sand as an alternative to natural deposits and the economic and environmental factors that influence sand supply and demand.

Fine aggregates are found throughout the world. We can even make our own. And concrete is like baking; different ingredients can change the end results. But just like regional bread recipes evolved based on the availability of local ingredients, the construction industry has developed a lot of ways to use different local materials to achieve good structural properties. The real challenge, like many things in engineering, is cost.

Trapped in the Tide of Organized Crime

Hakai Magazine • 1 Oct 2024 • ~2750 words

In Ecuador's coastal mangroves, crabbers face not only the challenges of nature but also the looming threat of organized crime. This piece explores the delicate balance these communities maintain as they fight to protect their livelihoods and the mangrove ecosystems amidst violence and extortion.

Ruiz has been a cangrejero for more than 20 years, and in that time, he and his fellow crabbers have overcome pirates, unforgiving weather, and an aggressive shrimp farming industry. Now, organized crime and drug trafficking threaten to undo those gains. In addition to the day’s catch, Ruiz must also consider the armed group charging his collective a monthly extortion fee, the strain of safely getting to the mangroves and home again, and plummeting sales related to the violence that has largely taken over Ecuador’s coast.

A Pair of Billionaire Preachers Built the Most Powerful Political Machine in Texas. That’s Just the Start.

ProPublica • 30 Sep 2024 • ~6600 words

In Texas, a duo of billionaire preachers, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, have created a formidable political machine that’s reshaping the state’s landscape. This article explores their efforts to reshape the Texas legislature and their broader ambitions to transform the federal government in line with their religious and political beliefs. The article raises questions about the role of wealthy donors in shaping the political landscape and the implications of the Christian nationalist movement for American democracy.

Dunn and Wilks are often described as Christian nationalists, supporters of a political movement that seeks to erode, if not eliminate, the distinction between church and state. Dunn and Wilks, however, do not describe themselves as such. (Dunn, for his part, has rejected the term as a “made-up label that conflicts with biblical teaching.”) Instead, like most Christian nationalists, the two men speak about protecting Judeo-Christian values and promoting a biblical worldview. These vague expressions often serve as a shorthand for the movement’s central mythology: that America, founded as a Christian nation, has lost touch with its religious heritage, which must now be reclaimed.

Can Pro Sports and Drag Queens Coexist? A Mill Town Finds Out.

New York Times • 1 Oct 2024 • ~2700 words • Archive Link

This article explores how a gay couple's ownership of an English rugby league team in the town of Keighley has led to the incorporation of LGBTQ+ inclusion and representation at the club. Rory Smith takes us through their journey of transforming a struggling rugby club into a vibrant community hub, where both traditional fans and newcomers find a place to celebrate diversity.

The Keighley that Mr. Garcia and Mr. O’Neill have found is not the Keighley of popular perception. It is not even the Keighley that Mr. O’Neill remembers from his childhood. Every time they have worried they might be moving too quickly, they have found the club — and the town — running alongside them.

Hidden traces of humanity: what AI images reveal about our world

The Guardian • 1 Oct 2024 • ~4750 words

This article explores the rise of generative AI tools that can create images from text prompts, and the implications this has for the art and journalism industries. It delves into the complex datasets and human labor that underpin these AI systems, as well as the biases and limitations they inherit. The article also examines the debate around whether AI-generated images can truly capture the humanity of human-created art.

There are plenty of reasons to be cautious about the use of genAI for journalistic image production, the technology’s embedded biases and enormous energy footprint chief among them. As of late 2023, Stable Diffusion showed us that “Iraq” only ever looks like a military occupation and that “a person at social services” isn’t white, though “a productive person” usually is, and is always male, while “a person cleaning” is always a woman. Midjourney interpreted “an Indian person” with remarkable consistency as an old, bearded man in an orange pagri, and “a house in Nigeria” as a dilapidated structure with a tin or thatched roof. Meanwhile, a November 2023 study found that producing a single image with genAI can use about the same amount of energy as charging a smartphone halfway – much more than is required to generate text – and that as models have grown more powerful and complex, they have also grown more energy intensive.

Who Pays for the Arts?

Esquire • 30 Sep 2024 • ~3050 words • Archive Link

This article explores the uncertainty and challenges facing the arts ecosystem in the United States, particularly for nonprofit arts organizations. It examines the reliance on private funding, the decline in corporate and charitable giving, and the need for innovative funding models to ensure the sustainability of the arts. The article also delves into the role of government funding, the importance of community engagement, and the exploration of alternative approaches such as collective and regenerative funding.

“Philanthropy is unsustainable,” said Eric Gottesman, an artist and cofounder of For Freedoms, a socially engaged arts organization that operates both a nonprofit advocacy arm and a for-profit creative studio. “As an artist, arts philanthropy is not a sustainable way to make a living, and it’s not sustainable for an organization to depend on it, because philanthropists fund for some time and then move on.”

From Republican soldiers to ‘Tommies’: The Spaniards who wore British uniforms to fight in World War II

EL PAÍS English • 29 Sep 2024 • ~2500 words

This piece article explores the little-known story of Spanish soldiers who fought in World War II while wearing British uniforms. It delves into the experiences of these Spanish "Tommies" - their motivations, service records, and the challenges they faced.

At the end of World War II, many of the Spanish men in the British army had been fighting fascism for 10 years. Scullion stresses that, despite the paradox of now being on the winning side, they had to swallow the bitter pill of seeing how Franco’s dictatorship survived. “They were very disappointed to [not have been able] to go after Franco.” Their story, he points out, is also that of the Spanish Republican exile and its tragedy.

The Extortionist’s Doctrine - Boston Review

Boston Review • 26 Sep 2024 • ~8900 words

Elaine Scarry examines the critiques of nuclear deterrence theory by former U.S. Strategic Command commander General Lee Butler and contrasts them with the defense of deterrence by economist Thomas Schelling. It delves into the fundamental flaws of deterrence theory identified by Butler and explores whether Schelling's arguments can successfully rebut Butler's charges and defend the coherence and ethical standing of nuclear deterrence. This is not only a long read but also a dry one, so I can only recommend it if you have an existing interest in the topic.

Nuclear deterrence seeks to amass a second strike arsenal that will discourage (deter) the enemy from carrying out a first strike; but that defensive arsenal may be construed by the enemy as preparation for a first strike, thereby accelerating that opponent’s own advance toward a first strike. Deterrence, if this is true, continually threatens to bring about the very act it was designed to suppress.

The mothers who regret having kids: ‘I wished I were holding a cat and not a baby’

the Guardian • 26 Sep 2024 • ~2250 words

This piece explores the taboo topic of maternal regret, and it delves into the personal experiences of mothers who felt uncertain about parenthood but were told their feelings would change, only to find themselves struggling with the realities of motherhood. It also examines the cultural and social factors that make it difficult for regretful parents, especially mothers, to openly discuss their feelings without fear of judgment or stigma.

All of the 23 regretful mothers Donath interviewed for her analysis on the subject emphasized that the target of their regret was not their children, but the role of motherhood itself. Several felt regret from the moment they became pregnant, and linked their feelings to the realization motherhood was not suited for them, rather than their children as individuals.

A Lake Tahoe woman was driven off a mountain. Her husband almost got away with it.

SFGATE • 23 Sep 2024 • ~2550 words • Archive Link

The article explores the mysterious death of Rinette Bergna, who was driven off a mountain in Lake Tahoe by her husband, Peter Bergna, in 1998. It delves into the complex investigation that took years to uncover the truth behind the apparent accident and the subsequent trial that revealed Bergna's motive for murdering his wife.

Something about the movie-like crash scene didn't quite add up, Beltron said. Bergna was found wearing a winter jacket and gloves that seemed excessive for a summer night. He had minimal injuries – just a fractured foot — inconsistent with being ejected from a truck as it careened over the rocks. He was clean, except for his backside.

Bitter aftertaste: the fraught world of branding cultural food products

itsnicethat.com • 10 Sep 2024 • ~2700 words

In the world of cultural food branding, designers face a tricky balancing act: how to authentically represent diverse cultures without falling into the trap of stereotypes. This piece explores the challenges designers face when creating visual identities for "non-Western" food brands. It examines the tension between making products accessible to a broader market while still maintaining cultural authenticity and the risk of cultural appropriation when brands fail to adequately represent the heritage and significance of the symbols and motifs they use.

When designers use these elements without understanding or respecting their context, they strip them of their original meaning, reducing them to shallow marketing tools. By overlooking the deeper connections and meanings of these symbols, designers risk perpetuating stereotypes and diluting the cultural narratives they draw from, ultimately leading to a loss of authenticity and respect for the cultures that are being represented.