Congress doesn’t have a clear plan to deal with guns
President Trump promised action on gun control, but Republicans might not be able to deliver. Nearly two weeks after a school shooting in Florida left 17 people dead, Republicans in Congress are nowhere near coming together on any plan to address gun violence.
Trump, for his part, has proposed a broad range of ideas, like raising the age requirement for purchasing certain guns, arming teachers, and changing the background check system. Many Republicans are reluctant to push significant changes to gun policy and challenge the NRA.
Trump told a roomful of Republican governors not to worry about the NRA: “You guys — half of you are so afraid of the NRA. There's nothing to be afraid of. And you know what, if they're not with you, we have to fight them every once in a while. That's OK.”
YouTube restores ads to Logan Paul videos, but he is still on probation
Eighteen days after suspending advertising on Logan Paul’s channel, YouTube has reinstated the controversial YouTuber’s ads. Paul’s ad revenue was cut off completely on Feb. 8 over complaints about his on-camera behavior.
The ads were restored after Paul’s team acknowledged reviewing the platform's rules and guidelines, according to YouTube. Paul's channel is still not eligible for Google Preferred advertising, and he remains on a 90-day probation period that keeps his content off the Trending tab and non-subscriber notifications.
Ads are Paul’s primary income stream, estimated by some experts to be worth more than $1 million a month. During the no-ad period, he continued to grow his fan base, adding more than 100,000 YouTube subscribers.
A federal court just ruled for gay rights in a major discrimination case
The court ruled that a decades-old civil rights law bans anti-gay workplace discrimination. Basically, the dispute was about whether a part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that bans discrimination on the basis of sex also bans workplace discrimination due to sexual orientation.
The decision is a significant loss for the Trump administration, which had argued against a gay worker in the case. It’s a win for progressives in their strategy to protect LGBT employees with a series of lawsuits.
Yet another European journalist was murdered for investigating corruption
And this time, they killed his girlfriend too. Jan Kuciak, a 27-year-old Slovak reporter specializing in tax fraud and corruption investigations for online news portal aktuality.sk, was found dead alongside Martina Kusnirova at their home in the town of Velka Maca.
It’s the second murder in the last five months of an investigative journalist specializing in high-level corruption in the European Union. In October, Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in Malta.
Reporters Without Borders, a journalism advocacy group, said that since Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico came to power in 2012, Slovakia has seen a huge jump in intimidation and harassment of journalists.
Quick catch-up
Michelle Obama: The former first lady is releasing an “unusually intimate” memoir called Becoming in November of this year. Back in February 2017, it was announced that Barack and Michelle Obama had sold the rights to their memoirs to Penguin Random House after a bidding war reportedly topping $60 million.
The Bachelor: The veteran reality show franchise, on air since 2002, is really not doing well this season. The show has seen a decrease of 14% in viewers, and a 26% drop in the key 18–49 demographic.
Ivanka Trump: The first daughter said it was “inappropriate” to ask her if she believes the women accusing her father of sexual misconduct. In an interview with NBC News, she said, “I don't think that's a question you would ask many other daughters.” At least 16 women have alleged the president sexually harassed them.
Another one: Brian Wansink, the Cornell University food marketing professor who faces scientific misconduct allegations, has withdrawn a paper about enticing children to eat vegetables — just a few weeks after it had been corrected. It marks a sixth retraction for Wansink.
If you call Uber or Lyft to go to the emergency room, you’re putting drivers at risk
Imagine you’re not feeling well, you need to get to the hospital, and you don’t have a car. If your instinct says you’ll use Uber or Lyft to get there, you’re not alone. Increasingly, sick people are using ride-hail services to get to the emergency room.
A recent (yet to be peer-reviewed) study found that, after Uber enters new markets, the rates of ambulance rides typically go down, meaning fewer people call professionals in favor of the cheaper option.
This might be a money-saving tactic, but it puts drivers in an uncomfortable position: “They’re forced to choose between assuming potential legal liability if something goes wrong, or...the fear of getting a lower rating if they decline or cancel the ride.”
I strongly recommend you don’t spend time under a subway train
Shon Mogharabi was on the platform, ready to get on the subway in New York, when a hand reached out from under the train. The hand waved a few times, then put a cigarette out on the train for good measure. Then a man emerged from the tracks.
The footage is wild, and I highly recommend you do not do this.