Category: issues

It’s been a rough time for many prominent American retail chains—and the sector’s future prospects don’t look rosy. But “apocalypse” might be an overstatement. – CityLab

Harvey Weinstein’s assistant wasn’t even allowed to have a copy of the NDA she signed, or talk about it with anyone at all unless they signed NDAs as well. She broke her silence because she decided it was an immoral agreement. Now, dubbed a #MeToo law, a California bill that goes into effect Jan. 1 “would ban nondisclosure provisions in settlements involving claims of sexual assault, harassment or discrimination based on sex.” – Los Angeles Times

Wow, this isn’t scary at all: Forty-four journalists’ “full names and photographs were published on social media by the For Mother Russia group. … Many of the 44 are Russian citizens working for the BBC World Service.” – BBC

All of the museums, and the National Zoo, will be closed as of January 2 because of the government shutdown. – NPR

Yes, this sounds salacious, but it’s sadly, depressingly real: Smallville actress Allison Mack offered that defense in court. “Mack’s lawyers argued that Mack’s threat to release naked photos and disparaging statements made by cult members against their relatives doesn’t rise to the threat of ‘serious harm’ required to prove someone engaged in forced labor.” – Deadline

Our deepest anxieties about the future of where we live are embodied in other cities — in Portlandification, Brooklynification, Manhattanization. The comparison is seldom a compliment. You don’t want to become Manhattan (too dense), Portland (too twee), Boston (too expensive), Seattle (too tech-y), Houston (too sprawling), Los Angeles (too congested), Las Vegas (too speculative), Chicago (too indebted). – The New York Times

“Scandals rocked some of its biggest institutions; around the fountain there was a twilight-of-the-gods feeling. … And it was not just Lincoln Center’s independent constituent organizations that faced turmoil: Governance woes continued to plague the center itself, which manages the campus.” — The New York Times

The Lord really does move in mysterious ways, it seems. Not only has tourism to the Spanish town of Borja more than quadrupled, but revenues have funded places for the indigent in the local old-age home. — The Guardian

Last year’s tree arrived half-dead, shedding needles and nicknamed Spelacchio (“Mangy”) — yet people grew so fond of it that they attached handwritten notes to it and created a Spelacchio Twitter account. This year’s tree is 65 feet tall, lush, covered with 60,000 lights, and sponsored by Netflix. (The ornaments have red Ns on them.) Journalist Ilaria Maria Sala argues that this is all too fitting. — The New York Times

The vast majority—47 of the World Heritage Sites studied—were found to be potentially threatened by coastal erosion or storm surges by the end of the century. Specifically, 37 of the sites were found to be at risk from a 100-year flood or storm surge, and 42 to be at risk from coastal erosion. Just two of the sites studied, Medina of Tunis and Xanthos-Letoon, were found not to be facing any risk from either of those two hazards by 2100. – Pacific Standard