Vox Sentences: Ready for Bernie

1. The socialist with the most-cialist

Bernie announces his campaign. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

• Guess who's running for president? Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the only democratic socialist in the Senate.

  [NYT / Alan Rappeport]

• Bernie's running as a Democrat; he's spent his whole time in the US House and Senate as an independent caucusing with Democrats and previously was part of two small left-wing Vermont parties, the Progressive Party and the Liberty Union Party.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• Here's a primer on Bernie's positions on the issues. Basically, he's a hardcore labor lefty on economics (for single-payer health care, against free trade, etc.) who's skeptical of foreign intervention and a fierce critic of money in politics.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• For my money, Sanders's most interesting idea is his proposal to buy up pharmaceutical patents (allowing generic manufacturers to make drugs more cheaply) and instead incentivize research through government-issued prize money.

  [The Guardian / Dean Baker]

• Sanders's statement announcing the campaign focused in particular on income inequality and Citizens United and called for an infrastructure program creating 13 million jobs, as well as for free tuition at public colleges and universities.

  [Irregular Times]

• The infrastructure idea was articulated in Sanders's bill, the Rebuild America Act, which would spent $1 trillion over five years.

  [Washington Post / Ashley Halsey]

• Vox's Andrew Prokop has the definitive history of Sanders's career, going back to his time as the radical mayor of Burlington who took on its Democratic establishment.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• Nineteen of Sanders's top 20 campaign contributors to date are unions; frontrunner Hillary Clinton, by contrast, counted Citigroup and Goldman Sachs as her top two contributors.

  [Vox / Dylan Matthews]

• Clinton acknowledged Sanders's entry in a tweet: "I agree with Bernie. Focus must be on helping America's middle class. GOP would hold them back. I welcome him to the race."

  [Vox / Jonathan Allen]

2. The phantom report

Baltimore police commissioner Anthony Batts. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

• The Baltimore police has completed its investigation into the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray while in police custody, an event that has sparked protests and some rioting in the city.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• Rather than releasing the results to the public, the police instead handed them over to the State's Attorney's office; it's still unclear what the investigation found.

  [Baltimore Sun / Kalani Gordon]

• The key question is whether the police caused the spinal cord injury that killed Gray by using excessive force to restrain him (as some witnesses have claimed) or by injuring him while being transported in a police van (in which he was not seat-belted).

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• Gray's repeated requests for medical assistance were ignored by the police.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby emphasized that her office is conducting its own investigation, and while the police report will inform its decision, the report won't be determinative.

  [Baltimore Sun / Justin Fenton]

• Half of the more than 200 people arrested amid unrest in the city have been released.

  [Baltimore / Luke Broadwater, Erin Cox, and Jessica Anderson]

3. Mind games

Shutterstock

• A new report from "a group of dissident health professionals and human rights activists" contends that the American Psychological Association secretly collaborated with the Bush administration in developing legal and ethical justifications for its use of torture in the war on terror.

  [NYT / James Risen]

• The specific claim is that the APA created an ethics policy on interrogations in 2005 meant to comply with classified guidance about the CIA torture program, which "enabled the Justice Department to argue in secret opinions that the program was legal and did not constitute torture, since the interrogations were being monitored by health professionals to make sure they were safe."

• That policy was eventually withdrawn in 2013, under heavy outside pressure over its flagrant deviation from accepted norms of medical ethics.

  [Pacific Standard / Francie Diep]

• A spokesman for the group denied the charges, saying there "has never been any coordination between APA and the Bush administration on how APA responded to the controversies about the role of psychologists in the interrogations program."

  [NYT / James Risen]

• That being said, the APA has hired an outside attorney to conduct an independent investigation into the allegations; that review is still ongoing.

  [American Psychological Association]

• The key evidence is a cache of emails showing APA collusion, including one from APA's director of science policy to CIA officials telling them their views were "well represented" in an APA report on the ethics of interrogation.

  [Science / John Bohannon]

• The Senate torture report this past December revealed that two psychologists — Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell — were paid $81.1 million to design torture techniques for the CIA between 2002 and 2009.

  [LA Times / Joseph Tanfani and WJ Hennigan]

• For more on the US torture program, see Andrew Prokop's explainer.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

4. Misc.

• As scheduling at hourly jobs gets more erratic, incomes are becoming a lot more volatile. And there's an app that wants to fix that.

  [NYT / Anand Giridharadas]

• The most in-depth analysis of a photo of Nicki Minaj at a bar mitzvah that you will ever read.

  [Grantland / Rembert Brown]

• Have stuff to send to Goodwill? Uber will pick it up for free on Saturday.

  [Uber]

• Floyd Mayweather Jr. — who faces Manny Pacquiao in the biggest fight in decades this Saturday — is the best boxer of his generation. He also has a long, horrifying track record of violence against women.

  [Grantland / Louisa Thomas]

• Students hate college papers. Professors hate college papers. So why not get rid of them?

  [Slate / Rebecca Schuman]

5. Verbatim

• "I spent several days with Kasich in Ohio in February, and during that time he told me, repeatedly, that he did not read The Atlantic — and his wife didn’t, either. He said that my job, writing about politics and politicians, was 'really a dumb thing to do.'"

  [The Atlantic / Molly Ball]

• "Cher’s Twitter feed is a jewel in the glittering, bizarro crown of the internet. Stream-of-consciousness in the truest sense, reading her daily missives is like getting rosé drunk with your favorite aunt."

  [The Guardian / Monica Heisey]

• "It's generous of the WSJ writers to note, as they do, that 'economic forecasting isn't easy.' They should know, since the Journal has been forecasting a breakout in inflation and a collapse in the dollar at least since 2006."

  [Brookings Institution / Ben Bernanke]

• "This Old Motherfucker Named Carl Punched The Shit Out Of A Bear."

  [Deadspin / Tom Ley]

• "New drug called flakka blamed for increase in naked, paranoid people."

  [AP]

Explanatory journalism is a public good

At Vox, we believe that everyone deserves access to information that helps them understand and shape the world they live in. That's why we keep our work free. Support our mission and help keep Vox free for all by making a financial contribution to Vox today.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$95/year

$120/year

$250/year

$350/year

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $120/year

Yes, I'll give $120/year

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via