“Did We Learn From the Urban Renewal Era?” WNPR
New Haven, Connecticut, is often cited as the best example of the worst of 1960s-70s urban renewal. But my hometown of Tacoma, Washington, could be a close second. In both, neighborhoods in and near downtowns were leveled for developments that tried to mimic suburban malls. Of course, they failed but also did damage to the attributes that are helping downtown revival now. This piece by WNPR’s Tom Condon looks at whether any lessons were learned that could be applied to current urban redevelopment ideas. — Peter Callaghan, state government reporter
“Trump’s Tax Law Threatened TurboTax’s Profits. So the Company Started Charging the Disabled, the Unemployed and Students,” ProPublica
The latest in a series of investigations by ProPublica into TurboTax, the online tax filing giant. After President Trump’s new tax law made many more people eligible for the service’s free product, they began charging low-income people and those with disabilities who had previously qualified for free help. — Walker Orenstein, workforce and environment reporter
“Sikh drivers are transforming U.S. trucking. Take a ride along the Punjabi American highway,” the Los Angeles Times
The average American trucker is growing older, and the new truckers joining the occupation’s ranks are often immigrants. Los Angeles Times reporter Jaweed Kaleem profiles one of the growing ranks of Sikh truckers who crisscross the United States to transport the stuff we all buy. — Greta Kaul, data reporter
“The Universal Page,” 99% Invisible
This episode of the 99% Invisible podcast taught me a lot. First, the U.S. didn’t accept Braille as fast as other countries; inventors of other raised-dot systems competed for popularity among schools for the blind — known as the War of the Dots — in the 19th century, and some blind people read via optophones, which are scanners that translate text into audio sounds that represent the curves of letters. “After a lot of practice, they could hear these sounds and decode the words they represented, reading entire novels using what came to be called ‘musical print.'” — Jessica Lee, local government reporter
