What we’re reading (10/1)
“Inside eBay’s Cockroach Cult: The Ghastly Story Of A Stalking Scandal” (New York Times). “[O]n June 15, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice charged six former eBay employees, all part of the corporate security team, with conspiring to commit cyberstalking and tamper with witnesses. Their alleged targets were almost comically obscure — a mom-and-pop blogging duo from a suburb of Boston and a Twitter gadfly who wrote often in their comments section. According to the government, their methods were juvenile and grotesque, featuring cockroaches, pornography, barely veiled threats of violence and death, physical surveillance and the weaponization of late-night pizza.”
“This Map Shows Where American Taxpayers Are Most Likely To Be Audited—And It’s Certainly Not Washington, D.C.” (MarketWatch). “The graphic first published in the industry journal Tax Notes last year and reported by ProPublica reveals that the five most audited counties in the country are all predominantly Black, rural areas in the Deep South. Audit rates are also very high in the largely Hispanic communities in south Texas, the counties with Native American reservations in South Dakota, as well as the poor, white counties in eastern Kentucky’s Appalachia region. In fact, the audit rates in these areas were more than 40% above the national average. But the states that tend to be home to middle-income, largely white populations, including New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Minnesota, have the lowest audit rates.”
“Techie Software Soldier Spy” (New York Magazine). “Smoking his pipe, just as he had when he testified to Congress 33 years ago about his role in facilitating covert arms sales to Iran, [John] Poindexter told me he had suggested to Karp and Thiel that they partner with one of the companies that worked on Total Information Awareness. But the two men weren’t interested. ‘They were a bunch of young, arrogant guys,” Poindexter said, “and they were convinced they could do it all.’ Seventeen years later, Palantir is seeking to cash in on its ability to ‘do it all.’”
“Cities Experiment With Remedy For Poverty: Cash, No Strings Attached” (Wall Street Journal). “Last year, Stockton, Calif., embarked on a civic experiment. For 18 months the city would send $500 a month to 125 randomly selected households in low-income neighborhoods. Researchers would compare the effect on participants’ health and economic situation to that of residents who didn’t get payments. The $3.8 million experiment is the brainchild of Stockton’s 30-year-old mayor, Michael Tubbs, made possible by the Economic Security Project—a group co-founded by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes that funds guaranteed-income projects—and other donors.”
“Home Prices Rose 4.8% In July, According To Case-Shiller Index” (CNBC). “Strong demand from homebuyers in July, coupled with rock-bottom mortgage interest rates, caused home prices to accelerate in major markets across the nation. Nationally, home values rose 4.8% annually, up from a 4.3% gain in June, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index.”
