Extra, Extra

The Last Battle? “Encouraged by the fast spread of school cellphone bans, parents, teachers and legislators across the United States have banded together to ensure that technology use in schools is beneficial for learning.” In Backlash Against Tech in Schools, Parents Are Winning Rollbacks. While it may be a laudable goal, this fight reminds me of the life lesson offered by Tony Manero’s paint store boss in Saturday Night Fever: “No, Tony. You can’t f-ck the future. The future f-cks you.”

+ Human Trafficking? “‘They took us, they put us on a plane, and they chained us by our hands and feet,’ said one Colombian man, sitting on a plastic chair in a shabby hotel near Kinshasa’s airport. The deportees didn’t know their final destination until they were on the plane.” NPR: ‘We don’t know what will happen to us’: U.S. deportees in limbo in DRC. “While more deportees from the U.S. are expected to arrive, almost no details concerning the U.S.-Congo migration deal have been made public.”

+ Powell’s Last Stand: NYT (Gift Article): “The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday but the decision was the most highly divisive in decades.” (Everything in 2026 is the most divisive in decades…)

+ Trumped Up Charges: The Trump administration has been targeting some liberal non-profits. Even before the cases get to the courts, some big money players are preventing donations. Fidelity, Vanguard Won’t Allow Donations to Southern Poverty Law Center.

+ The Sun Also Rises: “According to Ember’s Global Electricity Review 2026, recently released in time for Earth Day, renewable sources produced 33.8 percent of the world’s electricity last year, compared to 33 percent for coal. It was the first time those two lines had crossed since 1919, when the global grid was still small enough to run mostly on hydropower.” Renewable energy just broke a 100-year-old streak.