WIRED Endorses Optimism | WIRED

WIRED has never been neutral. For nearly a quarter of a century, this organization has championed a specific way of thinking about tomorrow. If it’s true, as the writer William Gibson once had it, that the future is already here, just unevenly distributed, then our task has been to locate the places where various futures…

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Justice Department says it will end use of private prisons – The Washington Post

Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates instructed Justice Department officials Thursday to begin the process to end the federal government’s use of private prisons. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) The Justice Department plans to end its use of private prisons after officials concluded the facilities are both less safe and less effective at providing correctional services than those run…

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Louisiana flooding is the country’s ‘worst natural disaster’ since Hurricane Sandy, Red Cross says – The Washington Post

Days of rain swallowed thousands of roads and buildings in water throughout Louisiana. At least 11 people were killed and more than 10,000 displaced as the ‘unprecedented’ floodwaters rose. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) BATON ROUGE — Five days into this disaster, adrenaline is giving way to exhaustion and — for many of those who left their homes…

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Fighting for the ‘Soul of France,’ More Towns Ban a Bathing Suit: The Burkini – The New York Times

Mr. Valls, in an interview published Wednesday in La Provence, the daily newspaper in Marseille, called the burkini part of a “political project” to enslave women. Laurence Rossignol, a feminist and the Socialist minister for families, children and women’s rights, called the burkini “profoundly archaic” and “not just a new kind of bathing attire,” but…

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