The Week Magazine December 16, 2022

The rail industry is making record profits off the backs of its exhausted workers—with the blessing of our elected government. The labor agreement forced on rail workers last week gives them a decent raise but not one day of the paid sick leave they requested (see Best U.S. Columns, p.12). That means the conductors who drive the trains and the laborers who maintain the tracks will continue to be penalized any time they stay home with a fever or rush a child to the ER. It’s not like the railways can’t afford to offer benefits. The industry made $21.2 billion in profit during the first three quarters of this year—an all-time high. Guaranteeing workers seven paid sick days would only cost it $321 million a year, nibbling away less than…

What happened Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock beat Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a tight run-off election this week, giving Democrats a 51-seat Senate majority and compounding GOP frustration over a midterm performance that fell far short of expectations. With nearly all votes counted, Warnock had 51.3 percent and Walker 48.6 percent, marking the first time since 1934 that the party in power kept every incumbent Senate seat. The run-off, necessitated by the failure of either candidate to win a majority in November’s general election, helped make the Warnock-Walker race one of the most expensive in history, with more than $450 million spent. “After a hard-fought campaign, or should I say campaigns, it is my honor to utter the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy—the people have…

In 2020, researchers came across a 15-ton meteorite in Somalia, which they determined was the ninth largest ever recorded on earth. Although it was new to investigators, the camel herders who live nearby said they’ve known about the rock for five generations and even incorporated it into songs, poems, and dances. A Canadian lab recently ran tests on the stone, called “Nightfall” by locals, and determined it contains at least two minerals—named elaliite and elkinstantonite by researchers—never seen before in a naturally occurring state. Jaclyn Gartner couldn’t find a home for a lovable boxer–pit bull mix at her Connecticut rescue shelter. The pup, named Van Gogh, had only one ear after surviving a dog fight. After seeing videos of dogs painting, Gartner thought she saw an angle: She placed globs…

What happened Donald Trump’s family company was convicted this week of criminal tax fraud and a range of related crimes, including falsifying business records. Two Trump Organization entities, the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corp., were found to have evaded taxes by giving top executives off-the-books perks in place of higher salaries. The benefits ranged from private school tuition for relatives to luxury apartments and leased Mercedes-Benzes. It took a jury in New York’s state supreme court just one day of deliberation to convict on all 17 counts of financial crimes. The organization’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, provided key testimony after previously pleading guilty to tax fraud, grand larceny, and conspiracy. The company’s comptroller, Jeffrey McConney, also received immunity for his testimony. The two described how…

What happened Conservative Supreme Court justices voiced unexpectedly strong skepticism of a GOP-backed legal theory that could radically upend centuries of election law precedent this week. During contentious oral arguments in Moore v. Harper, North Carolina Republican legislators urged the court to restore a heavily gerrymandered election map that the state’s own top court struck down last year. They invoked the Independent State Legislature doctrine, which holds that the Constitution gives state legislatures near-absolute authority to regulate elections. Its endorsement by the court could invalidate hundreds of election laws. Brett Kavanaugh, despite past support for the idea, criticized the legislators for going farther than Chief Justice Rehnquist went in 2000 when he supported checks on the power of state courts in Bush v. Gore. Amy Coney Barrett seemed similarly…

There aren’t many more “delicate political, social, and moral questions” than those posed by the mental-health crisis on America’s streets, said Mike Kelly in the Bergen County, N.J., Record. But New York City Mayor Eric Adams has begun searching for the answers. Adams last week issued a “directive” empowering police and first responders to detain homeless people suffering “severe mental illness” and transport them to hospitals for involuntary evaluation and treatment. This comes weeks after California governor Gavin Newsom signed a statewide law allowing officials to commit mentally ill homeless people for up to two years. Homelessness has plagued the U.S. for a half century, since the shutdown of state mental hospitals where the severely mentally ill were warehoused in horrific conditions. Adams, a centrist Democrat, says society has…