FEMA's director acknowledges that FEMA's maps of flood danger need to be updated to reflect changes due to global heating.

Biden proposes to spend 13 billion dollars to hire 100,000 more cops, supposedly to reduce the danger of violent crime. But it might not achieve anything on that dimension, and it would ramp up repression in the form of arrests for drug possession.

It would be more effective to put that money into social programs and low-rent housing.

The Credible Messenger Mentoring Movement helps teenagers from disprivileged groups avoid the temptation of gangs and drugs by offering them mentors: adults who grew up in the same community and succeeded in meeting that challenge.

The mentors are credible in that they personally experienced the situation that they guide the teenagers in coping with.

Some people are prepared to pay thousands of dollars for "just the right" puppy, without ever actually seeing it. Sometimes they pay the thousands and never even get the puppy — it is a scam.

Nothing can excuse swindling, but the victims would never have fallen prey to this scan if they had not started with a foolish approach. An adult ought to know better than to believe that one specific puppy, that perse has never met, is the one and only right one.

There is a certain tendency for people to believe that spending a lot of money on something unusual and different in your life will make it better. But it doesn't usually have that effect.

Gentrification is driven by powerful business forces, often supported by the state. If you oppose the change, focus on those forces, not on the visible symptoms.