Big Scan on Campus: “Inflation, Healthcare, Housing, Gun Violence, and Jobs ranked as the top five most important issues – in that order. ‘The only issue time that inflation did not win its individual match-up was when it was paired with women’s reproductive rights. Women’s reproductive rights was considered the more important issue, 57% to 43%.'” Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics recently released its Spring 2024 poll of young voters (taken about a month ago) and there was at least one result that will probably surprise you. Of the 16 issues polled, “Israel/Palestine” ranked as the 15th most important compared to the others – only viewed as more important than student debt.

+ Big Plan on Campus: “Throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, conservative activists led a counterattack against campus antiwar and civil rights demonstrators by demanding action from college presidents and police.” College administrators are falling into a tried and true trap. (I shared several other takes and links in on the campus protests yesterday: College Material.)

+ Skip the Quacks, Take the Vax: “146 million lives saved were among children under 5, including 101 million infants. Because the averted deaths were so concentrated among young people, who on average would go on to live for 66 years, vaccines gave their beneficiaries an astounding 9 billion additional years of life.” The breathtaking lifesaving impact of vaccines.

+ Baba Booey: “President Joe Biden said Friday during a one-on-one interview with radio host Howard Stern that he is willing to debate Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election.” (Don’t be surprised that Howard Stern’s interview of Joe Biden broke news. Stern is the best interviewer around.) Meanwhile, Stern’s advice for Biden in the debate: “Just stand there & say over & over, ‘Can you find me 11,000 votes?’ You don’t get to run if you fixed an election!” (That sounds sane. So I guess in today’s America, Stern is a shock jock again.)

+ Captive Market: “The Appeal’s 9-month investigation uncovered prison commissaries’ exploitative, inconsistent systems with inside prices up to five times higher than in the community and markups as high as 600 percent.” Locked in, Priced Out: How Prison Commissary Price-Gouging Preys on the Incarcerated. (Private equity strikes again.)

+ Auto E-Rot-icism: “NHTSA found that Tesla’s driver-assist features are insufficient at keeping drivers engaged in the task of driving, which can often have fatal results.” Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving linked to hundreds of crashes, dozens of deaths.

+ Volcanic Cash: “Located in Antarctica, Mount Erebus releases tiny pieces of crystallized gold among the gas, steam and rock it spews into the air daily. Some gold specks have been discovered more than 600 miles away from the volcano.” One of Earth’s most active volcanoes spews $6,000 in gold dust every day.