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Tyler Cowen: The hypocrisy at the core of America’s elite universities

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:50 GMT

Now that congressional Democrats have relaunched an effort to ban legacy admissions at top U.S. universities, virtually everyone can count on one thing: ideological embarrassment.Legacy admissions are part of a broader system whereby elite U.S. colleges and universities largely favor wealthy families in their admissions practices. It is possible to buy your way into those institutions — whether by being born into a legacy family that is considered likely to make a donation, or by being the child of someone who actually makes a large donation. Some 43% of white students admitted to Harvard are recruited athletes, legacies, from the “dean’s interest” list (which is often related to donations), or children of faculty and staff.There are any number of motives behind these admissions practices. But a major one is the desire to bring in money and boost endowments.As someone who stands to the political right of most of my fellow university faculty and administrators...

Northern Minnesota inventor hopes ice fishing rod holders catch on

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:50 GMT

HACKENSACK, Minn. — In a sport that has exploded with expensive technology in recent decades, like $400 battery-operated augers, $4,000 electronic fish-finding video-like sonar systems and $40,000 wheelhouse shelters, Dwight Kurz is hoping to sell you something far more basic: a better ice fishing rod holder for $23.99.Readers may remember a Duluth News Tribune story on Kurz’s rod holders from 2019. This year, he received a U.S. patent on one of his holders, with patents for the others scheduled to be final in December.Undated courtesy photo, circa November 2023, of Dwight Kurz, who believes he has invented the best ice fishing rod holders on the market — one that tips down when a fish bites and the other that locks a rod in place, either on the ice or on the wall of a fish house. (Courtesy of Holdersonice.com / Forum News Service)“Now I’m more willing to invest the time and effort and money to make this go … to not have to worry as much about the pirates charging something by 10% a...

Readers and writers: How Barbara Kingsolver’s daughter got her to team up to write first children’s book

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:50 GMT

Barbara Kingsolver and her daughter Lily remember the day “Coyote’s Wild Home” was born at Barbara’s farm in the Appalachian region of southwestern Virginia.(The Gryphon Press)This beautiful new picture book will be published Tuesday by Emilie and Dana Buchwald’s Edina-based Gryphon Press, and it’s a coup for a small publisher to attract an author such as Kingsolver, winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize and the British Women’s Fiction Prize for her novel “Demon Copperhead.”Barbara Kingsolver (Steven Hopp / The Gryphon Press)But Barbara didn’t want to talk about her previous literary honors during a conversation about “Coyote’s Wild Home,” co-written with Lily. She was concentrating on the new book and giving affectionate prompts to her daughter to help her tell their story.“I had just written a letter to Emilie for my secretary to type saying I didn’t do picture books,” Kingsolver recalled o...

Boxes in Forest Lake drugstore attic contain treasure trove of history

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:50 GMT

Dana Stachowski and Shelley Trimble reached into a banker’s box at Rolseth Drug in downtown Forest Lake last week and pulled out a yellowed sheath of paper that looked as if it hadn’t been touched since the 19th century.Inside was an insurance policy that their great-grandfather, J.L. Simmons, purchased in 1899 to cover his store in Forest Lake in the event of any “damage done by tornadoes, wind storms and cyclones.” Simmons paid $5.75 to Continental Insurance of the City of New York to insure J.L. Simmons Dry Goods, Clothing and Shoes – now the site of Rolseth Drug – for up to $1,500 in damages.“He probably would have used that – if he was still insured – when that devastating tornado came through here in the 1920s,” Trimble said.The insurance policy is one of hundreds of documents and artifacts belonging to J.L. Simmons that were found this fall in the attic of Rolseth Drug, the oldest commercial building in Forest Lake. Simmons, who also served as Forest Lake’s treasu...

Nicholas Kristof: Houston shows how to tackle homelessness

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:50 GMT

Dallas and Houston are two Democratic bubbles in Texas that have long faced the familiar urban ache of homeless people slumped on sidewalks and camping in parks. Both cities tried to address the challenge.But smart policy matters far more than good intentions. In Dallas, homelessness worsened for years, and that city now has the most unhoused people in Texas. Meanwhile, the Houston region has slashed homelessness by more than 60% since 2011.Homelessness is one of those topics that leaves Americans despairing, but Houston offers hope: It demonstrates what should be obvious, that a wealthy society doesn’t have to accept as inevitable throngs of people sleeping on sidewalks. Delegations from around the country now troop to Houston to seek lessons, with the mayors of Chicago, Los Angeles and Denver traipsing through this summer.Houston achieved its results on the cheap, spending very little of its own money even as West Coast cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, ...

Ask Amy: New girlfriend wants to go through his phone

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:50 GMT

Dear Amy: I’ve been with “Angie” for about six months.We are both in our late-20’s and are compatible in many ways. I could see planning a long future with her.There is one issue I’m concerned about, however.She asks to “go through” my phone on a regular basis. She says that her previous boyfriend cheated on her (they were engaged), and that going through my phone helps to ease her anxiety about being cheated on.She says that this is a great way to establish trust.I let her do this because I have nothing to hide, but this doesn’t feel right. I have no desire to go through her phone.I’m wondering if this is something I should be concerned about in terms of planning a future together.— Concerned BoyfriendDear Concerned: You should not submit to any behavior that “doesn’t feel right,” and this need of “Angie’s” to dive regularly into your personal data is a major red flag.All of us carry our previous experiences along with us — because we learn as we go — but she is reactin...

Four local employees of Germany’s main aid agency arrested in Afghanistan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:50 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Taliban authorities in Afghanistan arrested four local employees of Germany’s main government-owned aid agency, according to the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.“I can confirm that the local employees of GIZ are in custody although we have not received any official information on why they are detained,” a ministry spokeswoman told the Associated Press in a statement late Saturday.“We are taking this situation very seriously and are working through all channels available to us to ensure that our colleagues are released,” she added.The German Agency for International Cooperation, or GIZ, is owned by the German government. It operates in around 120 countries worldwide, offering projects and services in the areas of “economic development, employment promotion, energy and the environment, and peace and security,” according to the agency’s website.The Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, after the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces fro...

Novak Djokovic sufre dos derrotas el mismo día cuando Italia vence a Serbia en semifinales de la Copa Davis

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:50 GMT

(CNN) — La grandeza de Novak Djokovic en la cancha de tenis es tal que se espera que gane la mayoría de sus partidos, por lo que cuando el serbio perdió dos veces este sábado fue una sorpresa de proporciones sísmicas.Que haya perdido uno de sus partidos después de tener tres puntos de partido fue increíble, dado que no hay nadie más hábil para cerrar un partido que el número 1 del mundo.Fue derrotado tanto en individuales como en dobles en Málaga, España, cuando Italia venció a Serbia 2-1 para preparar la final de la Copa Davis contra Australia este domingo.Jannik Sinner sorprendió a Djokovic en una victoria por 6-2, 2-6 y 7-5 en su partido individual, y el italiano salvó tres puntos de partido en su camino hacia la victoria después de una épica de dos horas y 35 minutos que ayudó a la desvalida Italia a empatar con Serbia en la semifinal.Sinner consiguió el único punto de quiebre que había logrado contra Djokovic en el último set para conseguir una victoria memorable.Fue la s...

How a Northwest DC apartment building became a home and life-changing investment for 4 women

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:50 GMT

From left to right: Joanne Jenkins, Janice Washington, Earline Hendricks and Bettie Perry. (Courtesy Noelle-Kristine Spencer)In 1971, Joanne Jenkins was a single mom looking for an apartment to raise her family in. She discovered a six-unit building in Northwest D.C., then signed a lease and moved in.Jenkins soon became close friends with four other women who lived in the building.Then in 1983, the five ladies were given the chance to buy the building for $75,000. The owner was required to give tenants an option to buy.They decided to go for it.“When it was first offered to us, we just thought we would buy it and just live in it,” Jenkins told WTOP. “But it was such a good investment. We had no idea that all of us would still be here to this day.”With the help of a grant from the city and a nonprofit organization, they secured a loan. The four women are the only owners left. The original buyers’ group included Maud Patterson, who later died and Timothy ...

Fragile Gaza truce is back on track after an hourslong delay in a hostage-for-prisoner swap

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:50 GMT

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The tense cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appeared to be back on track early Sunday after the release of a second group of militant-held hostages and Palestinians from Israeli prisons, but the swap followed an hourslong delay that underscored the truce’s fragility.In a separate development, Hamas announced Sunday that one of its top commanders had been killed, without saying when or how.The exchange was delayed Saturday evening after Hamas accused Israel of violating the agreement, which has brought the first significant pause in seven weeks of war marked by the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades, vast destruction and displacement across the Gaza Strip, and a hostage crisis that has shaken Israel.Qatar and Egypt, which mediate with Hamas, announced late Saturday that the obstacles to the exchange had been overcome. The militants released 13 Israelis and four Thais, while Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners.Thousan...