"One morning last November, at around 4 in the morning, guards at Dongguan Prison, in southern China, entered the cell where Mark Swidan was sleeping and started shaking him and telling him to get up. He was 49, and he had spent the past 12 years and 14 days behind bars for

Mark Swidan spent more than a decade in a windowless box for a crime he didn’t commit. Now he’s back home in Texas—and living on food stamps.

The 25-year-old CEO of Rainmaker on what cloud seeding is—and why it’s not to blame for the devastating floods in Central Texas.

To work in America, some people steal Social Security numbers. Their victims pay a steep price. ‘It’s my life they’re playing with, and it’s not fair.’

RT @bariweiss: Everyone knows the name Brittney Griner. Why doesn't anyone know Mark Swidan?. Swidan was held for 12 years in a Chinese pri….

Will Elon Musk’s new America Party revolutionize U.S. politics? His prospects, argues @Continetti, are strikingly low. “Musk’s political career resembles nothing so much as a failed rocket launch.”

Public libraries are in decline not because of the internet or because people are reading less, but because they have become de facto homeless shelters, writes Zac Bissonnette.

Can the America Party make Elon Musk the next Ross Perot? “The parallels between Perot and Musk are striking—and instructive,” writes @Continetti. “Both men leveraged extraordinary wealth to influence presidential politics.”

Dick Eastland, 73, died trying to save the girls in his care. “If he wasn’t going to die of natural causes, this was the only other way,” says his grandson. Like Emma Foltz, Julian Ryan, and Scott Ruskan, he met disaster with duty—and chose others over himself.

“As Musk launches his new enterprise, however, he may want to heed the lessons of the past. They aren’t encouraging.” @Continetti on Elon Musk, Ross Perot, and the fate of third-party billionaires.

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“We fetishize authenticity while caring very little about the truth,” writes @KatRosenfield. In a culture that applauds women for revealing their flaws, we forget: Even transparency can be a mask—just one sculpted by a top-tier surgeon.

RT @FrannieBlock: @petersavodnik On what happens when an everyday American — not anyone famous, not anyone whose name you would know — is d….

Eric Adams to Andrew Cuomo: ‘Get Out of the Race’.

“New York City mayor Eric Adams said there is only one thing left for former New York governor Andrew Cuomo to do after losing the Democratic primary for mayor: 'Get out of the race.'. 'That’s the right thing to do for the city of New York,' Adams said in an exclusive interview

Texas Congressman @DanCrenshawTX mourns the 27 children who perished at Camp Mystic. Among them, Brooke and Blair Harber, sisters ages 11 and 13, who were “found with their hands locked together.”

RT @ConvoswColeman: “I was traumatized.”. Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) on being beaten by police officers as a child—and why he eventually chose….

Last weekend, Elon Musk, fed up with two-party politics, bucked the mainstream to form a brand-new political party. But Musk isn’t the first disillusioned billionaire to do so—today in The Free Press, @Continetti reflects on the lessons Musk might learn from Ross Perot.

The Forgotten American: Can There Be Life After 12 Years in a Chinese Prison?.

“@ArthurBrooks explained that there are four earthly desires that lead people astray: power, wealth, pleasure, and honor. None of these things are inherently evil. But if you obsess over any one of them, they will destroy your life. Here’s the catch: Each one of us has a deep