Your reading material from the weekend:
2. Surprise, surprise: Wells Fargo may have targeted working-class blacks for subprime mortgages. “Loan officers, she said, pushed customers who could have qualified for prime loans into subprime mortgages. Another loan officer stated in an affidavit filed last week that employees had referred to blacks as ‘mud people’ and to subprime lending as ‘ghetto loans.'”
3. Newsweek’s cover story explores why taking health advice from Oprah and her gaggle of regular guests, including former Playboy Playmate and actress Jenny McCarthy, might get you sick or hurt or both. Also, Suzanne Somers makes me sad.
4. Dahlia Lithwick makes a strong case for confronting the nation’s real prison problem. And she’s not talking about Guantanamo.
5. Eric at the Edge of the American West gives a brief synopsis of how Puerto Ricans became recognized as American citizens.
6. For those of you who rely on cars to get around, take note that gas prices have risen for 40 consecutive days. In a cruel bit of irony (for a number of reasons), the prices are highest in Michigan.
7. If you’re interested, a number of people who work as abortion providers have come up with a moving online tribute to the late Dr. George Tiller.
8. A rather blistering review of Arianna Huffington and her latest book. The New Republic makes a strong case that she’s, well, an insipid opportunist. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that).
9. Also, The Huffington Post says it didn’t post Max Blumenthal’s widely circulated video of racist and offensive bluster from drunken young American Jews in Israel because they didn’t see “any real news value.” Blumenthal responds to that argument and other criticism of the video in this post.
10. This American Life tackles the economy again with “The Watchmen,” an episode in which Ira and Co. try to find out who was responsible for what, when. They talk (or, try to) with AIG regulators, and attempt to understand why the rating agencies were so very, very wrong. This is another excellent follow-up to one of our favorite TAL episodes: “The Giant Pool of Money.”
12. Speaking of Hov … remember the plan for the Brooklyn Nets? Not so fast. Money quote near the end: “… the Nets, a team that’s lagged in the bottom third of the league in attendance for years and ranks 26th in franchise value, may be trapped a while longer in the no man’s land between Philadelphia and New York.”
13. More about pro hoops: Is the NBA’s age-minimum rule racist? More about it here, too.
14. A final question: did you know this month was the 25th anniversary of the release of Purple Rain? Now you do. Enjoy.
Hopefully, the links post will become a regular Monday feature here at PB. That said, also consider this an open thread where you can drop comments, links to other stories and blogs or ego-boosting praise. We’ll take it all.
Post-script: I must mention that we’re looking hard for a little diversity in our links. While all submissions are appreciated, I’d like to see a little less New York Times and more, say, High Times. Well, not really. But you get my drift.