Morning Belz, May 7
Scientists believe they’ve found fungus on Mars — Futurist
U.S. added way fewer jobs in April than economists expected — Axios
Atlanta mayor Bottoms won’t seek reelection — AJC
Former DeSantis staffers are disgruntled — Playbook
This giant piece of space debris will land somewhere — NYT
Colombia’s ex-president censored by Twitter — Yahoo*
Scooter rental “redlining” in Minneapolis — MN Reformer
*and is set to speak in a virtual event at NYU, which is attracting some controversy. What’s interesting about this, to me, is that a tech company in San Francisco is deciding what people get to say on its platform in a sovereign country in South America. Not saying Uribe is a good guy or that what he said wasn’t incendiary. As an aside, though, I’m fascinated by him. My wife and I spent a couple weeks in Medellin, Uribe’s hometown, in 2016, and were struck by how popular his brand of law-and-order-down-with-the-Leftists politics was with the people we spoke to. While the wounds of class division and inequality are very real in Colombia, so are the wounds of guerilla warfare and narco-terrorism. FARC kidnappings and murders affected so many people (including Uribe, whose father was killed in a home invasion). At least in 2015, people hadn’t forgotten and they credited Uribe for bringing peace and security to the country in the early 2000s. How he did that, of course, is the question motivating the controversy over his appearance at NYU.
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The new video on guns is up on YouTube. Could use an upvote on Reddit if you have a second. Have a great weekend.
Quote
“We cannot predict the new forces, powers, and discoveries that will be disclosed to us when we reach the other planets and set up new laboratories in space. They are as much beyond our vision today as fire or electricity would be beyond the imagination of a fish.” — Arthur C. Clarke, 1965
About: I send this email most weekdays in an effort to stay informed and in touch.I was a newspaper reporter for 14 years, most recently at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. I explained why my family left Minneapolis here. Now we live just outside Chattanooga and I work on Scuffed News. Please share this newsletter with anyone you think might enjoy it. And please consider supporting this work with your money on Patreon.