| 3-D plastic guns: How the political script has flipped on First Amendment Posted: 01 Aug 2018 02:05 PM PDT ![3-D plastic guns: How the political script has flipped on First Amendment]( "3-D plastic guns: How the political script has flipped on First Amendment") Earlier this summer, when the United States Department of Justice quietly settled a long-standing free-speech lawsuit brought by the Texas coder Cody Wilson, many gun rights groups hailed the decision as the beginning of the end for gun control. In an era of powerful 3D printing, digital technology has made it possible to construct virtually undetectable plastic guns that could be made relatively simply in the privacy of home. The result, say Mr. Wilson and others, could be an unstoppable "disintermediating the State" since such weapons are without manufacturer markings and serial numbers and can remain outside the reach of state bureaucracies and various restrictive gun laws.
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| With eye on midterms, unions push to win back Trump's blue-collar voters Posted: 01 Aug 2018 01:43 PM PDT ![With eye on midterms, unions push to win back Trump's blue-collar voters]( "With eye on midterms, unions push to win back Trump's blue-collar voters") Nancy Stough's vision for a strong American economy harks back to her girlhood. "People would make kettles of soup, that kind of thing, until the strike was over." A working-class prosperity took root here in her hometown of York, Pa. Now Ms. Stough, a retired union member in her own right with a solid pension from Harley-Davidson alongside her Social Security, is active with her machinists' union, promoting the idea of worker empowerment for the next generation of American workers.
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| Facebook enlists users against cyber manipulation Posted: 01 Aug 2018 11:53 AM PDT ![Facebook enlists users against cyber manipulation]( "Facebook enlists users against cyber manipulation") For months, Facebook has admitted that "bad actors" – mainly Russian – have used fake accounts on its platforms to prey on the social and political fault lines in American society toward one simple end: inflame discourse, sow division, and drive people apart. On Tuesday, the social media giant took an extraordinary step to mend those fault lines. It began to notify as many as 290,000 users who had visited a few dozen pages and accounts shut down for "coordinated inauthentic behavior" about the malicious targeting campaign.
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| In China’s Belt and Road initiative, environmentalists see risky business Posted: 01 Aug 2018 07:32 AM PDT ![In China's Belt and Road initiative, environmentalists see risky business]( "In China's Belt and Road initiative, environmentalists see risky business") Homles Hutabara grows solemn as he peers down at a large swath of clear-cut forest, the patch of exposed red-brown earth an ugly gash in the lush green landscape. Gone are the rubber trees and oil palms that Mr. Hutabara's family planted years ago to eke out a living in this remote corner of Indonesia. The sounds serve as a nagging reminder of all that Hutabara and his family have lost. The area has been razed in recent months for the construction of a 510-megawatt hydroelectric dam on the Batang Toru River.
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