THE DEATH PENALTY
“Who’s the last person with a top-notch legal team to be executed?” asked MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough in a discussion of David Von Drehle’s June 8 cover story, which called capital punishment a “failed experiment.” In addition to socioeconomic imbalances in sentencing, there’s “the sacredness of human life, and the downward spiral of violence begetting violence,” wrote Jim Hannah of Independence, Mo., one of many readers who favored abolishing the death penalty. But George Mason University professor Ira Schoen disagreed: “To see individuals like Charles Manson continue to be clothed, fed, housed … is a travesty of justice, and an intolerable insult to the families of the real victims.” An alternative came from retired NYPD lieutenant Michael Gorman, who wrote, “It shocks and angers me when I see convicted murderers, some of whom are allowed to plead to lesser crimes, being released after doing only a small fraction of their original sentences. I would feel much better about getting rid of the death penalty if convicted killers would have to serve out their full terms. Public safety should trump second chances for killers.”
CAMPAIGN HIRING
Philip Elliott’s TIME.com story on GOP candidates’ struggles to hire campaign staff drew lively commentary on Twitter. Wall Street Journal reporter Reid Epstein was struck by the salaries (“@Philip_Elliott says top GOP 2016 staffers making up to $35K a month”), while the image of desperate pols tickled Associated Press reporter Adam Beam, who tweeted, “In which Jeb Bush’s campaign drops to one knee and begs @hopewalker to join them.”
HIGH ANXIETY
In “How to Stop Worrying,” an essay for Time.com, Eric Barker explained mindfulness as a way of letting “the thoughts float by and [turning] your attention to the people you love.” The piece drew praise from the American Psychological Association, which linked to and quoted the story, and reader @SeeRadd, who called Barker’s ideas “100% my favorite thing to teach clients. This is my therapy jam.” Reader @JRHalloran, a self-described “pessimist,” tweeted, “Our thoughts are not reality. Interesting.”
LIGHTBOX
Maps in two dimensions are a thing of the past–or so say the engineers behind Vricon, a new 3-D mapping tool, who are processing roughly a third of the globe’s geographical data to create precise, photo-realistic maps. The stunning results, like this visualization of Damascus, could be used in a wide range of areas–from the military to environmental activism. Find out more on lightbox.time.com.
NOW ON TIME.COM
Which foods taste better right now than they will the rest of the year? Here, a preview of the full list available at time.com/inseason:
STRAWBERRIES
They start arriving in May, but June brings a wide range of varieties at their tasty peak
BEETS
A winter staple, beets have a different texture now and an earthier, sweeter taste
ASPARAGUS
Now is the time for thicker spears, which provide more snap and crunch
PEACHES
Grab the stone fruit now for cocktails and salads; peaches can be especially juicy in June
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