The dirty side of retail

+ when SCOTUS moved quickly on presidential case US Edition - Today's top story: Large retailers don't have smokestacks, but they generate a lot of pollution − and states are starting to regulate it [View in browser]( US Edition | 25 April 2024 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( Top headlines - [Banning TikTok won’t solve social media’s problems]( - [US and trade openness: A complicated relationship]( - [Podcast: Why some are questioning Mandela’s legacy]( Lead story When people think of big polluters, they’re likely to picture the industrial owners of billowing smokestacks or pipes discharging gook into rivers. But the retail sector is coming under new attention for its environmental impacts, including both the goods it sells and the operations that move those products around. Environmental historian Johnathan Williams has studied retail chain Target’s growth, its vast network of stores and distribution centers, and the trucks that service it. With a new rule just adopted in California that clamps down on air pollution from long-haul trucks servicing big warehouses – and with similar rumblings in New York state – Williams writes that the environmental impacts of big-box retail [have become too big to ignore](. [ [Miss us on Sundays? Get a selection of our best and most popular stories (or try our other weekly emails).]( ] Jennifer Weeks Senior Environment + Cities Editor One of many trucks that move Target goods nationwide. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images [Large retailers don’t have smokestacks, but they generate a lot of pollution − and states are starting to regulate it]( Johnathan Williams, University of Northern Iowa For decades, big-box retailers have evaded federal regulation of the pollution their operations generate. But a new air emission rule in Southern California could become a model for state controls. Politics + Society - [Arizona’s 1864 abortion law was made in a women’s rights desert – here’s what life was like then]( Calvin Schermerhorn, Arizona State University Abortions happened in Arizona, despite a near-complete abortion ban enacted in 1864. But people also faced penalties for them, including a female doctor who went to prison. - [When the Supreme Court said it’s important to move quickly in key presidential cases like Trump’s immunity claim]( Donald Nieman, Binghamton University, State University of New York In 1974, the Supreme Court accepted, heard and decided a case within two months because the justices understood its importance to the public. Economy + Business - [The US is one of the least trade-oriented countries in the world – despite laying the groundwork for today’s globalized system]( Peter A. Coclanis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Leon Fink, University of Illinois Chicago As of 2022, only Nigeria and Sudan had lower trade-to-GDP ratios. - [Biden administration tells employers to stop shackling workers with ‘noncompete agreements’]( Raymond Hogler, Colorado State University There are better ways to keep employees on board, such as boosting pay and providing better benefits. - [The costs of workplace violence are too high to ignore]( Miranda Kitterlin-Lynch, Florida International University Conservatively speaking, workplace violence costs hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Science + Technology - [The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup]( Chris Impey, University of Arizona It’s not easy to collect rocks on a budget when the rocks are 140 million miles away. - [IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects]( Doug Cowen, Penn State Tau neutrinos are notoriously difficult to spot in detectors like IceCube. But researchers have managed to isolate 7 candidates. - [Banning TikTok won’t solve social media’s foreign influence, teen harm and data privacy problems]( Sarah Florini, Arizona State University TikTok is hardly a model social media platform, but it’s also far from an outlier when it comes to threats to Americans. Education - [Celebrities routinely drop in on this Florida university’s hospitality course]( Michael Cheng, Florida International University A Miami nightclub owner and restaurateur has been adding star power to his class on entrepreneurship and hospitality. Podcast 🎙️ - [Persisting inequality has made many young South Africans question the choices made by Nelson Mandela – podcast]( Gemma Ware, The Conversation; Thabo Leshilo, The Conversation The third and final part of our series What happened to Nelson Mandela’s South Africa on The Conversation Weekly podcast. Featuring interviews with Sithembile Mbete and Richard Calland. Trending on site - [Billions of cicadas are about to emerge from underground in a rare double-brood convergence]( - [When the Supreme Court said it’s important to move quickly in key presidential cases like Trump’s immunity claim]( - [From shrimp Jesus to fake self-portraits, AI-generated images have become the latest form of social media spam]( Today's graphic 📈 [The Prison Policy Initiative's count of prison populations each year, from state and federal data, shows a quick rise in incarceration numbers between the late 1970s and early 2000s.]( From the story, [Rural counties increasingly rely on prisons to provide firefighters and EMTs who work for free, but the inmates have little protection or future job prospects]( - - More of The Conversation Like this newsletter? 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