Weekly Wrap 1.29.16: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week | Sojourners

Weekly Wrap 1.29.16: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week

1. Michigan Officials Quietly Gave Bottled Water to State Employees Months Before Flint Residents

It keeps getting worse. “The Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget decided to haul water coolers into the Flint state building in January of 2015 out of concern over the city’s water quality, a year before bottled water was being made available to residents.”

2. Becky Hammon Becomes First Female Named to NBA All-Star Coaching Staff

She already made history when she was appointed to the San Antonio Spurs coaching staff — and as the first female coach to lead a summer league to the championship. Now she can add All-Star coaching to her resume.

3. Barbie’s Got a New Body

Curvy. Petite. Diverse. Mattel’s Barbie doll finally got a makeover aimed at making her a more realistic representation of women — and also recovering from plummeting sales of the iconic doll.

4. A Q&A with Wheaton Professor Whose 'Same God' Comments Drew National Attention

“I would work at Wheaton again, I would choose it again even knowing what I know right now. Because what I know is while there have been difficult things, Wheaton has also been God’s grace to me in many ways. … I would wear the hijab again too.”

5. The Space Shuttle’s 30th Anniversary: Commemorating One of the First Televised Traumas

This week marked the 30th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. It’s an occasion that many can point to in a “I remember where I was when …” kind of way. It also signified one our first collective moments of televised tragedy.

6. How Republican-controlled Georgia Became a National Leader in Criminal Justice Reform

“This kind of reform is not a partisan issue,” Governor Deal told [Fusion] in a phone interview. “If you look at it through a partisan lens, you’re not going to get something that works.”

7. Here’s How Hard It Will Be to Unpoison Flint’s Water

A recent estimate released by Gov. Rick Snyder’s office set the cost around $60 million and a timetable of 15 years. Wired investigates what’s behind the estimate.

8. VIDEO: A Rare Look Inside the Old Town of Syria’s Aleppo

For the first time since the start of Syria’s conflict nearly five years ago, government forces have allowed a team of Western journalists to film inside the old town of the northern city of Aleppo, much of which has been reduced to ruins.

9. It Takes a Community to Abolish the ‘Tampon Tax’

In a recent live interview with YouTube star Ingrid Nilsen, President Obama copped to the fact that prior to her question about why 40 states impose sales tax on tampons and sanitary pads, he hadn’t been aware that they do. “I suspect it’s because men were making the laws,” he said.

10. ‘Jim: The James Foley Story’ Review: Simplistic but Powerful Look at Journalistic Bravery

“We’ll be spared the physical horror, but not the emotional horror. And once we’ve spent two hours with the people who knew, loved, suffered with and lived alongside James Foley, we’ll see how bearing witness to the former, but not the latter, is exactly how he’d want it.”

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