Category: issues

In a letter to Makan Delrahim, the assistant attorney general in charge of antitrust, the senators, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota — both Democrats — called the ticket industry “broken” and complained of “exorbitant fees and inadequate disclosures” in the ticket buying process. – The New York Times

The proposal, which has the support of London mayor Sadiq Khan, comes from the Fabian Society, a socialist organization that dates back to 1884. The Fabians say that a slavery museum would educate the public about the “centuries-old tropes about racial inferiority” that feed racism to this day — and that both London’s financial industry and the UK government “have a moral obligation” to fund the project. – BBC

“The leading city, Washington, D.C., has nearly three times the concentration of the creative class of the most lagging city, Detroit.  In the four leading cities, the creative class makes up between half and 60-plus percent of the workforce; in the bottom five, it makes up less than 30 percent.” CityLab

In the years since the 1989 Velvet Revolution, a rising tide of visitors has flooded in, up from 2.62 million in the year 2000, to just under 8 million last year, drawn by Prague’s reputation as home to stunning baroque and gothic architectural gems – and cheap beer. Numbers this year are forecast to reach just under 9 million. – The Observer (UK)

Gifted programs and screened schools have “become proxies for separating students who can and should have opportunities to learn together,” the panel, made up of several dozen education experts, wrote in the report. – The New York Times

In response to the suspension of a government funding program for film and TV over LGBT+ projects, culture minister Henrique Pires said, “It is very clear that I am out of tune with … the president on freedom of expression. I don’t agree that culture can have filters, so I’m leaving. … We need to pacify Brazil to work, not keep looking through a magnifying glass to see if there is a naked man kissing another man.” – The Art Newspaper

In late June, Gov. Mike Dunleavy exercised a line-item veto over the $3.87 million in funding for the Alaska State Council on the Arts. An attempt to override that veto in July failed and the Council shut down, but subsequent negotiations between lawmakers and the governor restored that item to the state budget. – Alaska Public Media

Experts have speculated last year’s tumultuous stock market, combined with tax code changes that doubled the standard deduction without a need to itemize charitable contributions, has led to less middle-class giving. That may be true for the average gift size for PayPal givers, but the company’s data shows that those in the lowest income brackets still tend to give a higher proportional share of their net income, something that’s fairly common across the giving world. – Fast Company

“One of the true gifts of surfing is the privacy of it. That’s going away, and it’s at a great, great, great hazard to the experience. We’re so infatuated with getting looked at now—look at me, look at me, and look at me!—that we’re losing the magic of surfing being a low-profile activity.” – The New Yorker