There's nothing like living something to turn you into an activist determined to fix it. That's an experience that has been shared by a lot of college graduates who find themselves working hourly gigs at Starbucks and Amazon. During the years this has become a more common post-grad experience, "support for labor unions among college graduates has increased from 55 percent in the late 1990s to around 70 percent in the last few years." And this experience has "united many young college-educated workers around two core beliefs: They have a sense that the economic grand bargain available to their parents — go to college, work hard, enjoy a comfortable lifestyle — has broken down. And they see unionizing as a way to resurrect it." NYT (Gift Article): The Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class. It would have been nice if we had listened to the revolt of the working class before it included so many college graduates. They've been getting the shaft for decades and almost every massive American problem can be traced to the now sickeningly wide economic divide.

+ "Crucially, however, the company will no longer pay people based on regional differences. 'Starting in June, we'll have single pay tiers by country for both salary and equity,' Chesky said. 'If your pay was set using a lower location-based pay tier, you'll receive an increase in June.'" Airbnb embraces home working with location-blind equal pay model.

"Abigail, a 16-year-old facing a $200 penalty for truancy, missed school again while she waited hours for a prosecutor to call her name. Sophia, a 14-year-old looking at $175 in fines and fees after school security caught her with a vape pen, sat on her mother's lap.
A boy named Kameron, who had shoved his friend over a Lipton peach iced tea in the school cafeteria, had been cited for violating East Peoria's municipal code forbidding 'assault, battery, and affray.' He didn't know what that phrase meant; he was 12 years old." ProPublica and Chicago Tribune: The Price Kids Pay: Schools and police punish students with costly tickets for minor misbehavior. Illinois law bans schools from fining students. So local police are doing it for them.

"People have preconceived notions about different dog breeds' behavioral quirks. Golden retrievers are seen as playful and affectionate, and pit bulls can be viewed as hostile and aggressive. Chihuahuas are labeled yappy and temperamental, whereas bulldogs are described as easygoing and sociable ... But a new study indicates that a dog's breed is not a good predictor of behavior." (It's probably just a coincidence that my beagles bark and howl all day.)

What to Book: The first book of Don Winslow's latest (and possibly last) trilogy is out, and this one is the most personal crime novel from one of America's great crime writers. City on Fire.

+ What to Memoir: In her memoir of grief and survival, Stepping Back from the Ledge: A Daughter's Search for Truth and Renewal, Laura Trujillo confronts her family's secrets in the aftermath of her mother's suicide, asking a seemingly impossible question: How do you mourn a loved one as you repair the injuries they inflicted?

+ What to Watch: Filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt tracks down his fifth grade class to see what they recall from a bullying incident that occurred 50 years ago. It's short but really interesting. Check out When We Were Bullies on HBO. And don't forget to watch Pachinko on AppleTV Plus. It's a great saga and it just got picked up for a second season.

Toll Crossing: "The pandemic's toll is no longer falling almost exclusively on those who chose not to get shots, with vaccine protection waning over time and the elderly and immunocompromised - who are at greatest risk of succumbing to covid-19, even if vaccinated - having a harder time dodging increasingly contagious strains." This has been a nightmare for everyone. But for the elderly and compromised it has been especially terrible, even if they're doing all the right things.

+ Bird of Prey: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of trying to humiliate the United Nations by raining missiles on Kyiv during a visit to the city by the U.N. chief, a deadly attack that shattered weeks of relative calm in the capital." Ukraine: Attack on Kyiv was Putin's ‘middle finger' to UN. (Someone should stick a middle finger into Putin's windpipe.) Meanwhile, Russia has nearly doubled its revenues from selling fossil fuels to the EU during the two months of its war in Ukraine, benefiting from soaring prices even as volumes have been reduced. And, "gasoline prices at the pump have surged, reaching a US national average of $4.34 on 21 March, and remain more than 70% greater than at this time last year. At the same time, global supplies of oil have actually increased, including from Russia."

+ Leaving Virgin Territory: "Fahie and Oleanvine Maynard had been at the airport to meet Mexican drug traffickers, who in reality were undercover DEA agents, to see a shipment of $700,000 in cash that BVI officials expected to receive for helping smuggle cocaine from Colombia to Miami and New York." British Virgin Islands premier arrested on US drug charges.

+ Leg Elevation "Originally designed to correct mismatched length in legs, limb-lengthening surgery has become increasingly popular for men looking to permanently increase their height." He Was 5'7". After Surgery, He'll Be 5'10".

+ Source Material: You know what they say about small hands... lower draft pick. GQ: Does (Hand) Size Matter? Inside the NFL Draft's Fear of Tiny-Handed QBs.

"By the time she reached school on a recent Monday morning, Norma Mercado had already driven four homeless children to class, one from 30 miles away, having spent the weekend taking a group of homeless students on a college tour and two homeless siblings to buy clothes." NYT (Gift Article): A One-Woman Rescue Squad for Homeless Students.

+ As EU countries scramble to wean themselves off Russian energy, a trickle of member states have signaled that they are finding alternative sources of oil, coal, or gas and won't need to rely on Russia for long.

+ US Army replaces cake it stole from Italian girl in 1945. (It's not the same though since in 1945, carbs and sugar were positives.)

+ 'A legend at Ocean Beach': Bill Hickey, one of the first San Francisco surfers at Kelly's Cove, dies at 85. Yes, it's an obit, but it's also a celebration.

+ "The first thing I did after my run today was take off my leg. Felt so good. Marathon 69 done. 31 marathons to go." Jacky's quest: 1 woman, 1 leg, 102 marathons in 102 days. (I often pat myself on the back for walking the dogs around the block a few times.)

+ Kevin Kelly at 70: 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known.