The Daily Valet. - 2/17/22, Thursday

✔️ An Old Fight Returns

February 17, 2022

Thursday, February 17th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

Reading anything good lately?

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s edition is presented by

Today’s Big Story

Book Banning Is Back

The fight over books in schools is part of a much bigger struggle

The onslaught of book banning headlines has been staggering. Several states are banning everything from classics like “The Handmaid’s Tale” to the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel “Maus,” many because they deal with race and LGBTQ issues.

It really is as bad as it sounds, Patty Wong, president of the American Library Association tells USA Today. “The numbers have increased quite a bit.” According to a new report, there were 330 “book challenges” in the fall of 2021, an uptick from the same periods in recent years.

Of course, viewed in a broader national context—there are roughly 99,000 public K-12 schools in the US—these numbers are still far too low to describe as a national crisis. But free speech advocates insist the new campaigns are worth paying attention to ... and maybe worrying about.

According to Vox, this movement is picking up steam. Every single Republican-controlled state where the legislature is currently in session is considering a new “educational gag order” bill. Many even target university education, which traditionally enjoys much wider latitude to discuss politically controversial ideas.

A professor told Slate she believes social media has aggravated the problem—it not only spreads the word of bans (so other school boards/states hop on board) but it’s become a forum for people to call out things they think are “offensive.” She also claims some “are trying to get books like ‘Maus’ banned because they’re afraid that if their children read them, they’ll have different values than the values their parents want them to have.”

The Atlantic makes a chilling point: that preventing children from reading challenging books essentially leaves them ignorant of the world they’re about to inherit. Of course, I would think that banning a book only increases a kid’s interest in reading it.

↦ Meanwhile: On Wednesday, the CEO of Penguin Random House personally donated $500,000 to PEN America to combat the bans nationwide.

Now Russia Is Not Withdrawing?

Tensions spike (again) as West accuses Russia of lying about troop withdrawal

Tensions abruptly ratcheted up on Wednesday as Western officials accused Russia of lying about whether it had really begun pulling back troops from the Ukrainian border.

As Ukrainians waved flags in a show of defiance of a feared Russian invasion, the U.S. reported that Moscow had added as many as 7,000 troops to forces stationed along the tense border—a warning that contradicted Kremlin assurances that troops were being scaled back.

“We should expect more false reports from Russian state media over the coming days,” a senior U.S. official told CNN. “We don't know what form the false pretext will take. But we hope the world is ready…”

According to Axios, social media plays heavily into this. “The world has moved away from a top-down view in which the public learned about major military movements only through big media outlets and governments.” The troop buildup around Ukraine is there for everyone to see thanks to everyday Russian citizens posting on TikTok, Telegram and Twitter.

↦ Dig Deeper: To understand Putin's aim in Ukraine, the New York Times says we should look at this U.S. base in Poland.

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TikTok Takes Over the Olympics

Unofficial broadcaster of the Winter Games

Look, I get it. The Olympics are really, really easy to hate until you start watching athletes from your country do spectacular things. Or even athletes from other countries endure a nasty fall and see their dreams go up in proverbial smoke. It's high stakes and riveting, I'm telling you!

And if you're thinking about catching the last remaining days of the Winter Games, might I direct your attention to TikTok—this is where all the best stuff is getting shared. Official accounts from NBC and the Olympics themselves offer quick highlights, but it's the athletes that are really having fun.

From getting their daily throat swabs, robots disinfecting hallways or facial recognition technology able to identify athletes with their masks on, the app has plenty of weird and wild glimpses into life inside the Olympic bubble.

And people are watching. TikTok saw nearly 2 million installs in the United States from Feb. 4 to 12. At the same time, NBC saw viewership drop for the Opening Ceremonies, compared with previous Games. Maybe it's more fun to hear people's takes on the Games or watch Olympians on their downtime than to watch the events themselves.

↦ @TeamUSA: The official TikTok account for Team USA has medal close-ups, room tours and fit checks.

Used Car Prices Are Rising

What’s old is newly expensive again

The price of used cars is revving up even faster than new cars—according to the recent Department of Labor statistics, pre-owned car prices are up nearly 40% from last year. New cars are also up, but only by 12%.

Which means if you've got an older car, you might want to consider selling. Automotive research site Edmunds provided the Wall Street Journal with a list of the top 10 used cars—all three years old—that saw the biggest percentage increases in average transaction prices in the last year.

According to Inside Hook, the biggest percentage increase is for the Dodge Grand Caravan, a minivan that sold for an average of $15,227 in January 2021 but is now selling for $25,789 a year later — an increase of 69%.

Along with discontinued models like BMW's i3, there are some vehicles on the list that have simply always been in-demand used cars, like the Toyota Prius.

↦ FYI: In 2020, more than 39.3 million used cars were sold in the United States.

In Other News

↦ You Can Now Buy a Ticket for a Virgin Galactic Space Flight—for $450,000

↦ Spotify Is Acquiring Two Major Podcast Tech Platforms

↦ Disney Is Developing Residential Communities, With Local Themes

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Record-breaking sneakers

Mullets

This very good boy

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