With anger swelling over corruption, inequality and a devastating Islamist insurgency in the nation’s north, Nigerians by a wide margin chose an austere former general who once ruled with an iron handto be their next president, according to election results on Tuesday.
The election was the most competitive presidential race ever in Nigeria, one of the largest democracies in the world. Now, if power is handed over peacefully, it will be a major shift for the nation — the first transfer between civilians of different parties in a country that has spent much of its post-colonial history shaken by military coups.
Thai junta lifts martial law, but retains broad powers →
Thailand's ruling junta said on Wednesday it had lifted martial law imposed just before a coup 10 months ago, but it invoked a security clause in the country's interim constitution that will mean the military will retain broad powers.
The martial law order banned all political gatherings and gave the military other wide-ranging powers.
In a televised announcement, the junta said it would be replaced with a special security measure, known as Article 44, which allows security forces to continue to make arrests without a court warrant and to detain people without charge.
California drought goes from bad to worse as state grapples with heat wave →
Spring is starting to feel a lot like summer in California, as a record-setting heat wave punishes the parched state now in its fourth year of what is said to be the worst drought in a millennium.
...At fault is a warm and dry weather combination, which exacerbates the already dire drought conditions by drying soil, melting snow and driving up water usage.
Are Millennials More Likely to Switch Jobs and Employers? →
Short answer: yes. However, the article doesn't follow up with "why?" Perhaps because the economy blew up several years ago, and still inadequately provides job opportunities for this age range?
Wall Street’s new student loan scheme: Subprime loans are coming to financial aid →
This whole article is alarming. A number of new (ish) "investment vehicles" have been created around the education industry, including one similar to those which were used to hide the amount and (low) quality of loans during the housing bubble. Unlike then, however:
The income stream is nearly guaranteed to pay off because the loans are next to impossible to discharge in bankruptcy.
New Indiana Law: Truth is somewhere in the middle
As mentioned yesterday, there's a controversial new law in Indiana, which has prompted quite the backlash, including from businesses within the state.
It's hard to make sense of the yelling from both sides, but I've found a few articles to be particularly illuminating (and well worth reading in full):
PolitiFact dives in and tries to answer the question that's been raised from the right, Did Barack Obama vote for Religious Freedom Restoration Act with 'very same' wording as Indiana's?
Under Indiana’s post-Hobby Lobby law, a "person" is extended to mean "a partnership, a limited liability company, a corporation, a company, a firm, a society, a joint-stock company, an unincorporated association" or another entity driven by religious belief that can sue and be sued.
...
The American Civil Liberties Union, meanwhile, is concerned about another difference in the wording of the two laws. Indiana’s law includes language that allows people to claim a religious freedom exemption "regardless of whether the state or any other governmental entity is a party to the proceeding."
That language is absent from the Illinois law.
...Now that gay marriage is increasingly popular, this RFRA has become a signals contest in the culture war. Obviously nobody is obligated to engage in any form of discrimination in Indiana, and I would wager that 99.9 percent of Indiana's businesses will not turn away a single person for being gay. But it's all about positioning yourself within this moment we're having. Pence has to pretend the law doesn't protect bigotry against gays because that doesn't poll so well anymore, but can't seem to argue that protecting civil liberties often requires defending bigots or it's not really a civil liberty. The CEO of Apple has to write a big commentary about how discrimination is wrong and bad, and how you should also know that Apple, the company that he works for that sells many, many expensive things to customers, would never do such a thing...
And the IndyStar asks the real questions at issue (and includes a useful overview of the debate so far):
Which really matters most: What the religious freedom law will actually legally enable; what people think it means; or what the intent is behind the law?
... Will the political maneuvering on both sides continue to obscure people's understanding of the practical effects of the law?
Because then it begins to matter less what the law actually does, than what people "think" it allows them to do — whether that is to openly discriminate against gay people or unfairly cast all Christians as intolerant.
For my money, the truth is likely in the middle of the debate: considering only the law as written, it isn't likely to lead to religious abuse (since there's ample precedent from other states' similar laws), though it may incentivize such behavior for those few who see it as allowing discrimination.
Indiana Law Denounced as Invitation to Discriminate Against Gays →
An Indiana law that could make it easier for religious conservatives to refuse service to gay couples touched off storms of protest on Friday from the worlds of arts, business and college athletics and opened an emotional new debate in the emerging campaign for president.
Passage of the Republican-led measure, described by advocates as protecting basic religious freedom, drew fierce denunciations from technology companies, threats of a boycott from actors and expressions of dismay from the N.C.A.A., which is based in Indianapolis and will hold its men’s basketball Final Four games there beginning next weekend.
Why Reconstruction Matters →
THE surrender of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, 150 years ago next month, effectively ended the Civil War. Preoccupied with the challenges of our own time, Americans will probably devote little attention to the sesquicentennial of Reconstruction, the turbulent era that followed the conflict. This is unfortunate, for if any historical period deserves the label “relevant,” it is Reconstruction.
Issues that agitate American politics today — access to citizenship and voting rights, the relative powers of the national and state governments, the relationship between political and economic democracy, the proper response to terrorism — all of these are Reconstruction questions. But that era has long been misunderstood.
Reconstruction refers to the period, generally dated from 1865 to 1877, during which the nation’s laws and Constitution were rewritten to guarantee the basic rights of the former slaves, and biracial governments came to power throughout the defeated Confederacy.
...
Citizenship, rights, democracy — as long as these remain contested, so will the necessity of an accurate understanding of Reconstruction. More than most historical subjects, how we think about this era truly matters, for it forces us to think about what kind of society we wish America to be.