What We’re Reading: July 7, 2016

Climate change: the missing issue of the 2016 campaign (Guardian)
by Ed Pilkington and Mona Chalabi
“Many of the respondents vented despair at a political system that in their view allowed a matter of such overwhelming significance to be so overlooked. ‘The fact that no one is really talking about climate change, to me, is indicative of just how lost we are,’ said Linda Hayden, 51, from Oregon. ‘Our house is on fire and we are arguing about who is more angry!'”

The Fines and Fees That Keep Former Prisoners Poor (Atlantic)
by Alana Semuels
“The uptick in LFOs comes as states look for ways to pay for their corrections system while facing other revenue shortfalls. The fees levied on the formerly incarcerated include bench-warrant fees, filing-clerks fees, court-appointed attorney fees, crime-lab analysis fees, DNA-database fees, jury fees, and incarceration costs.”

“The Best Revenge is Your Paper”: Notes on Women’s Work (LA Review of Books)
by Alice Bolin
“If dating and marriage are work for women, in today’s economy they have found many ways to monetize them.”

Adding Classes and Content, Resurgent Libraries Turn a Whisper Into a Roar (New York Times)
by Winnie Hu
“No longer just repositories for books, public libraries have reinvented themselves as one-stop community centers that aim to offer something for everyone. In so doing, they are reaffirming their role as an essential part of civic life in America by making themselves indispensable to new generations of patrons.”