Yearly Archives: 2021

While accusing the giant social network of pursuing profits over safety, a former Facebook data scientist told Congress Tuesday she believes stricter government oversight could alleviate the dangers the company poses, from harming children to inciting political violence to fueling misinformation.

The forever war between America’s pharmaceutical industry and America’s public interest is approaching a climactic moment. At stake is whether Big Pharma and its allies will keep drug prices zooming upward, or whether the federal government can slow that rise by negotiating prices for some expensive drugs taken by Medicare beneficiaries. The U.S. House of Representatives is poised to vote on legislation requiring such negotiations in the next few days as a crucial element of the $3.5 trillion budget plan, and the drug industry is in overdrive to make sure that doesn’t happen.

One possible way to read “The Facebook Files,” The Wall Street Journal’s excellent series of reports based on leaked internal Facebook research, is as a story about an unstoppable juggernaut bulldozing society on its way to the bank.

By pure chance, I listened to “Science Friday” on National Public Radio while on a Florida road trip last September 24. I heard host Ira Flatow interview New York Times climate reporter Coral Davenport. The transcript is posted online at Congress Is Considering Two Climate Change Bills. What’s In Them? (sciencefriday.com). The podcast is at September 24, 2021 - Science Friday

The Palm Springs Police Department has made an arrest Tuesday morning for the shooting that injured a child. At about 5:30 p.m. Monday, police officers say they located an 18-year-old suspect in a vehicle in the 3700 block of North Indian Canyon Drive in Palm Springs.