Good morning! Here are some of the stories we’re reading on a beautiful spring morning in NYC…
Apathy –> Charles Blow writes in the NYT that we should be outraged by the fact that it’s easier than ever to buy an election but getting harder to cast a vote, and laments the reality that younger and poorer people are less likely to turn out in midterm elections.
“Could we become Mississippi?” –> At Slate, Jamelle Bouie cautions that changing demographics could continue to push white America further to the right.
Single-payer –> Vermont is moving in that direction. Sarah Kliff explains for Vox.com.
Are we doomed? –> Emily Atkin at ThinkProgress: “Senator Threatens To Block Nominee For Top Climate Post Because She Accepts Climate Science.” ALSO: Students at Florida State University charge that their economics department, which is largely funded by the Koch brothers, is becoming home to climate change-denying professors without any credentials in climate science.
“Shocking police overreach haunts Southern city” –> At Salon, Spencer Woodman tells a remarkable story of a how a federal law enforcement grant “incentivized a police department to go nuts on drug arrests — and terrorize its community.”
Good move –> A universal pre-K bill advanced out of committee in California, clearing the first hurdle to its passage. Sharon Bernstein reports for Reuters, via The Raw Story.
Welfare and dependency –> Wal-Mart would only need to raise prices by around 1 percent to move off the public dole by paying its workers enough that they wouldn’t need foodstamps, according to a study reported by HuffPo’s Alexander Kaufman.
Don’t know much about history –> Heritage Foundation chief Jim DeMint seems to think the federal government had little to do with freeing the slaves. He must have been out the day they discussed that whole Civil War thing in history class.
Guns or butter? –> At Truthout, Mary Zerkel on the “Global Day of Action on Military Spending,” a tax-day campaign for smarter budget priorities.
Progressive cities –> At Bloomberg View, Francis Wilkinson wonders why liberal cities tend to have such large black-white pay gaps.
Full circle –> Brian Beutler reports for TNR that Republican policy types are struggling to come up with a replacement for Obamacare that doesn’t look a whole lot like… Obamacare.
Not exactly rocket scientists –> In Minnesota, two suspected burglars were arrested after one of them accidentally pocket dialed the cops on his cell and they spoke about their crime while the line was open. Via: AP.
