#Sidney's Picks: Deadly Tin in Your Smart Phone | Hillman Foundation

Clear It With Sidney

The best of the week’s news by Lindsay Beyerstein

#Sidney's Picks: Deadly Tin in Your Smart Phone

Welcome to our weekly recap of the best of the week’s news. Submit your story by tweeting @SidneyHillman, #Sidney.

  • Much of the tin solder that binds the components of the world’s tablets and smart phones originates in open pit mines in Indonesia where it is extracted at enormous human cost, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.
  • About a third of women impregnated by their rapists choose to keep their babies and, horrifyingly, some rapists come back to assert their paternal rights. Shauna Prewitt is a lawyer from Chicago who survived rape and her rapist’s attempt to get custody of her daughter, she is campaigning for legal reform to protect women in similar circumstances.
  • Who watches the watchers? Republican-allied groups are training thousands of citizen “poll watchers” to document alleged voting irregularities in November, Brentin Mock reports for Colorlines. Is it civic engagement, or voter suppression?
  • Here’s some good news: 80% of New York voters want the minimum wage raised from $7.25 to $8.50, according to a recent poll by Siena College. That’s an increase of 3 percentage points since June.

[Photo credit: Wander Mule, Creative Commons.]