Lost Dream of Leaving Hometowns for a Better Life
Wall Street Journal
Americans by and large no longer believe they can pack up and leave their small towns to find a better life. A range of economic and social factors explain the decline in geographic mobility, but with incentives like welfare and Medicaid helping to persuade people to stay put, rural America faces problems once seen mostly in inner cities. This is an in-depth look at some poisonous dynamics threatening the American economy, American democracy and the American dream. Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?
The Atlantic
More comfortable online than out partying, post-Millennials are safer, physically, than adolescents have ever been. But they're verging on a mental-health crisis, writes Jean M. Twenge in an adaptation from her book "iGen." Quote: "The more time teens spend looking at screens, the more likely they are to report symptoms of depression." And: "The shift is stunning: 12th-graders in 2015 were going out less often than eighth-graders did as recently as 2009."
Forced to Rehire Rogue Cops
Washington Post
With so much scrutiny of law enforcement, police chiefs are motivated to get rid of bad apples -- but often they can't. If they don't carefully follow administrative procedures, the same rogue cops can be forced back into duty. The Washington Post looked into 1,881 cases of police firings, and found unions got more than 450 officers rehired.
Accreditors Allowed to Keep Hospital Reports Secret
ProPublica
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services decided against a new rule requiring accreditors to publish inspection reports on whether hospitals meet the safety standards required to get Medicare funds. Critics of the rule said it could prompt hospitals to hide conditions from inspectors. But as things stand now, state inspections often find things the accreditors miss.
Half of Detroit's Mayoral Candidates Are Felons
Detroit News
In an eight-way race, four of the Motor City's mayoral candidates are convicted felons. The two frontrunners do not have criminal records, but others have checkered pasts. One has felony convictions stretching back to 1977, including two shooting incidents from 1987. Another candidate got a year of probation after officers found a loaded pistol in her car.
Adios Venezuela, a Nation Sliding Into Catastrophe
Associated Press
Reporter Hannah Dreier describes the rapid changes in Venezuela from the time she arrived in 2014 to when she recently left. In the beginning, her Venezuelan friends would make lavish shopping requests for her to fulfill while she visited Miami. Later, they asked for heart medicine, abortion drugs, and gas masks. Bread lines circled the local bakery and violent crime became the norm.
Baccarat Binge Launders the World's Biggest Cyberheist
Bloomberg Markets
Anyone looking to launder money through a casino isn't gambling to win at the tables. The purpose is to exchange millions of dollars for chips you can swap for cool, untraceable cash at the end of the night. That's what two Chinese high-rollers orchestrated in Manila with money from the largest cyberheist in history: the hacking of $81 million from Bangladesh's central bank. Here's how they pulled it off -- although not without consequences.
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