How geography and urban sprawl combine to make Texas’ ‘Flash Flood Alley’
Texas floods are infamous in the collective memory of Americans, and the reasons are more far-reaching than this week’s deadly example. The Hill Country of Central Texas has earned the name Flash Flood Alley due to the prevalence of fast-moving water that can turn deadly during intense downpours. At least two people died in communities […]
Federal appeals court ends desegregation oversight in Louisiana schools — What does it mean?
Louisiana’s Concordia Parish School District has been under court order to desegregate its schools since 1965. In the district’s Ferriday High School, 92% of students are Black. Just twelve minutes’ drive away is Vidalia High School, where 62% of students are white. In the predominantly Black schools, court documents revealed considerably more deficiencies in the […]
South Carolina sued for treating tattoo parlors like strip clubs and pot shops
It’s common for businesses that dabble in adult entertainment, alcohol and cannabis to be forbidden from locating no closer than 1,000 feet from schools, churches or other places deemed sensitive areas. South Carolina decided tattoo parlors should join in on that restriction and is now getting sued over it. Two South Carolina residents and a […]
The National Guard’s deployment in DC will continue until 2029, Pentagon says
President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C. will continue through Jan. 20, 2029, “or until terminated by the President,” a Pentagon official confirmed to Straight Arrow in an email Friday. Trump first sent the National Guard to D.C. under an executive order in which he declared a “crime emergency” in the […]
Signers of the Declaration of Independence: Delaware
The 56 delegates who signed the Declaration of Independence are all considered Founding Fathers; three — Thomas McKean, George Read and Caesar Rodney — represented Delaware.
Wildfire smoke can harm more than your lungs. Here’s how to stay safe
Wildfires in Ontario have spewed a thick blanket of smoke across parts of Camnada and the U.S. from Minnesota to northern Virginia. Milwaukee reported its worst air quality in history, and two Toronto hospitals recorded an 80% uptick in emergency room visits. Millions of Canadians and Americans even thousands of miles from the flames may […]
Trump’s Truth Social posts move markets. Is selling early access to them legal?
Wall Street firms will soon have the ability to see the president’s social media posts before most. Some of those announcements move major markets. Truth Social now plans to sell those firms early access to those market-moving posts, according to Trump Media and Technology Group. That first-look access raises several questions about the legality and […]
AI data centers are popping up everywhere. What exactly do they do?
From people being forced to sell their family home or face it being taken by the state, to others being told to “consider selling” by a mayor facing complaints, stories about the impact of AI data centers aren’t hard to come by. They’re known to strain existing infrastructure and water supplies and create nuisance noise — […]
Which social media platforms act as ‘superspreaders’ of hate speech?
In the battle against extreme and hateful content, TikTok stands out as the most likely to take down top offenders, according to a report published this week by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. The organization found last month that white supremacist accounts were increasingly spreading on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. This week, the […]
