Post-Punk Legend Leads Fight for Clean Water as Britain’s ‘Sewage Czar’ by Stephen Castle

As part of the Saturday Profile series, The New York Times presents this article about Feargal Sharkey, former frontman of the Undertones and relatively short-term solo artist who’s spent the past few decades working in the business part of the music business. Of late, he’s been lending his notoriety and stage-honed charisma to addressing flagrant abuses of the environment perpetrated by privatized water companies in the U.K. Stephen Castle writes about Sharkey’s activism in a highly entertaining piece that still maintains a proper respect for cause that occupies the time of the onetime pop star.

Who Runs the Best U.S. Schools? It May Be the Defense Department. by Sarah Mervosh

Sarah Mervosh reports on the significant success of the schools operated by the U.S. Department of Defense, providing education to children of service members stationed at bases across the globe. The article posits several reasons these schools exceed their civilian counterparts, but the simplest explanation is surely the most accurate: In a nation where the military is the only part of government funded without question or even any discernible limits, all the resources connected with that military are more likely to flourish. Teachers are paid properly, classrooms are stocked with needed materials, and the students are well provided for in every respect. It is in our capability as a nation to do this everywhere; we simply don’t. This article is published by The New York Times.

A Texas Community Attracts Migrant Home Buyers, and Republican Ire by J. David Goodman

And one more from the old gray lady. Reporting for The New York Times, J. David Goodman reports on a community outside of Houston that has taken advantage of ludicrously lax Texas laws to offer a path to home ownership to those who would otherwise be priced out of the market. Because of bigotry baked into the Lone Star State’s overall culture, residents of Latin American descent are most likely to be prevented from buying houses through other means, and they therefore make up a sizable percentage of the booming community’s population. This, of course, enrages the Republican politicians whose collective belief system has animosity towards brown-skinned people as a central tenet. It feels like a form of comeuppance that this community couldn’t have happened without the GOP’s policies of letting businesses do whatever they fuck they want.