RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
May 21 to May 27 Switchblades and gravity knives sparked a national panic in the late 1950s thanks to "Rebel Without a Cause" and "West Side Story." The Federal Switchblade Act of 1958 was just one of the restrictions passed in response, shaping the state and federal attitude toward knives for decades. While accounting for a small fraction of crimes, banned knives have led to thousands of arrests, as James Varney reports for RealClearInvestigations. That helps explain the success of Knife Rights, which has won repeal or reform of 23 knife-restrictive laws in 17 states, while defeating proposed restrictions in 7 more since 2006. Varney reports: While maintaining that knives are "arms" protected by the Second Amendment, the campaign also has a practical goal in the workplace: an end to laws that effectively criminalize tools that vast numbers of Americans carry with them to work as electricians, stagehands and other tradesmen - a fact that helps explain why the reforms usually enjoy union support. There is a civil-rights aspect to reform too: Among minority populations in crime-worn cities, such laws can be abused in searches as pretexts for unjust arrests by police. "This disproportionately affects people of color," said Assemblyman Dan Quart, a Manhattan Democrat sponsoring knife reform legislation in New York state. "You've got cooks, chefs, workers with the Department of Education who use a knife to cut wire - these people are getting arrested. The laws are absurd and something has to be done." Read Full Article
Other Noteworthy Articles and Series
Obama's NSA Illegally Spied on Americans for Years
Circa
The National Security Agency under former President Obama routinely violated American privacy protections while scouring through overseas intercepts and failed to disclose the extent of the problems until the final days before Donald Trump was elected president last fall, according to once top-secret documents. The normally supportive FISA court called the improper searches a "very serious Fourth Amendment issue." Sexual Abuse of Explorer Scouts Went On for Decades Across U.S.
Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal
Over the past 40 years, about 160 Explorer Scouts have been raped, sodomized, kissed, dated and otherwise exploited by 129 police, sheriff's deputies, firefighters and state police in 115 separate cases across the country. Seventy-five cases resulted in criminal charges and 19 in lawsuits. The youngest victims were 13. One was in the sixth grade. In Rhode Island, six officers had sex with one girl. Pentagon Fuel-Gouging Fills Slush Fund
Washington Post
The Pentagon generated a $6 billion surplus over the past seven years in its role as gas station to the single largest consumer of fuel in the world: America's armed forces. It billed the service branches (and ultimately taxpayers) excessive jet-fuel rates - sometimes more than $1 a gallon over what commercial airlines pay - then used the money to train Syrian rebels and shore up a fraud-riddled pharmacy program. Jared Kushner's Other Real Estate Empire, in Baltimore
New York Times Magazine/ProPublica
Baltimore-area renters complain about a property owner they say is neglectful and litigious. Few know their landlord is the president's son-in-law. America's Cities Are Running Out of Room
Bloomberg
If you build it (outside of the trendy part of town), will new residents still come? In many of America's most-expensive cities, builders are faced with an Apartment Complex of Dreams dilemma as they run out of space to build in the areas where people most want to live. 'Farm-to-Table' Economy Short on Slaughterhouses
Bloomberg
Sellers of high-end pork, beef and chicken agree: Despite rising customer demand, there simply aren't enough facilities to humanely and safely kill their animals. Why Some People Can't Handle Their Weed
Vice
What effect does the world's most widely used illicit drug have on the world's most common mental disorder? When some people smoke marijuana to calm their anxiety, the result might not be what they're hoping for. | 
