Vox Sentences: What’s really happening with the Patriot Act

Someone to watch over me

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) with USA Freedom Act sponsor Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT). (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

• Last night, the Senate allowed three provisions of the Patriot Act to expire.

  [Vox / Timothy B. Lee]

• The three sections in question allow the government to seize business records for use in anti-terrorism investigations, let the government ask FISA courts for warrants to spy on "lone wolf" terrorists with no terrorist group affiliations, and authorize "roving wiretaps" that let the government use the same warrant to tap multiple phone lines owned by the same person.

• The NSA used the business records provision — Section 215 of the Patriot Act — as the legal basis for its mass collection of phone records, but the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the program was illegal even given Section 215.

  [Vox / Timothy B. Lee]

• The expiration was due in part to obstruction by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), including a filibuster, but it was unlikely the sections would be reauthorized in their current form even absent his actions.

  [Vox / Timothy B. Lee]

• An Obama administration official accused Paul of "playing national security Russian roulette" in an interview with the New York Times.

  [NYT / Julie Hirschfeld Davis]

• That's a big exaggeration; the "lone wolf" provision apparently has never even been used, and at most the other sections' expirations just creates a bit more paperwork for the government.

  [Vox / Timothy B. Lee]

• The likely result of this dispute will be the passage of the USA Freedom Act, which would ban mass collection of phone records.

  [Vox / Timothy B. Lee]

• But the bill — which has already passed the House — would also renew the "roving wiretap" and "lone wolf" provisions and doesn't go as far as many civil liberties advocates would like.

  [Politico / Alex Byers]

• Paul opposes the USA Freedom Act for that reason.

  [Washington Post / Katie Zizema]

• Many of Paul's Republican peers in the Senate attacked him for fighting the Patriot Act extension, claiming his opposition was political grandstanding tied to his presidential campaign.

  [CBS News / Jake Miller]

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Meet Caitlyn Jenner

Annie Leibovitz/Vanity Fair

• Caitlyn Jenner — the reality show star and Olympic gold medalist who formerly went by Bruce — announced her new name in conjunction with a Vanity Fair cover story today.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• Jenner also opened a Twitter account under her name, writing, "I'm so happy after such a long struggle to be living my true self. Welcome to the world Caitlyn. Can't wait for you to get to know her/me."

  [Caitlyn Jenner]

• Jenner came out as transgender in a highly anticipated interview with Diane Sawyer on 20/20 on Friday, April 24, making her arguably the most famous trans person in the world.

  [ABC News / Diane Sawyer]

• The full Vanity Fair piece, written by Friday Night Lights author Buzz Bissinger, isn't available online yet, but selected quotes from Jenner are: "If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never ever did anything about it, I would be lying there saying, ‘You just blew your entire life. You never dealt with yourself,’ and I don’t want that to happen."

  [Vanity Fair]

• In announcing her new name, Jenner also asked to be referred to with feminine pronouns. Any media outlets calling her "he" are screwing up. Here's a simple guide:

  [Vox / German Lopez]

(Javier Zarracina/Vox)

• Confused about Jenner's transitioning process? German Lopez has a great explainer on gender identity here.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• Lopez's interviews with 11 trans people about how they knew, how they came out, and more are also really edifying and powerful.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

1,135 murders

Bangladeshi volunteers and rescue workers after the Rana Plaza collapse on April 24, 2013. (Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images)

• Forty-one people have been charged with murder in connection with the collapse of a building containing several clothing factories near Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2013.

  [NYT / Julfikar Ali Manik and Nida Najar]

• The charges estimate that 1,135 were killed; thousands more were injured.

  [The Daily Star]

• If convicted, the defendants could face the death penalty.

  [BBC]

• Why the building's owners and government regulators are being charged: the building's top floors were illegally constructed, heavy electrical generators on the upper floors weighed it down, and inspectors found cracks in the building the day before it collapsed, but factory owners made workers go in anyway.

  [NYT / Vikas Bajaj]

• Progress has been made in ensuring building safety since the collapse, with 2,700 of the 3,500 export factories in the country signing on to one of three big inspection initiatives, but plenty are still dangerous for workers.

  [NPR / Amy Yee]

• Not all of those pacts are created equal, though; one big American initiative that the likes of the Gap and Walmart have joined has next to no legally binding elements, while a rival European-led initiative is legally binding.

  [NYT]

• Some regulations can serve to make business in poor countries like Bangladesh unprofitable, ultimately hurting them, but there are plenty of low-cost safety improvements that could be made without hurting the country's growth.

  [Washington Post / Dylan Matthews]

Misc.

• Maria Bamford, Kumail Nanjiani, and 20 other comics tell their favorite jokes ever.

  [Esquire]

• A year or two into its history, FedEx nearly folded: it had a $24,000 jet fuel bill to pay and only $5,000 in the bank. So founder Fred Smith went to Vegas with the $5,000, won $27,000 on top of it, and paid the bill with that.

  [Now I Know / Dan Lewis]

• A hundred writers pick their favorite literary characters (Madame Bovary appears to be the only one picked twice).

  [The Independent]

• The case for changing your baby's stupid name.

  [Slate / Libby Copeland]

• Manspreading is the worst, but this seems like a textbook case of overcriminalization.

  [The Gothamist / Nathan Tempey]

Verbatim

• "He made me listen to five or six Creed songs, really loudly on these beautiful tube speakers. My ears were bleeding. And it was Creed! He was like, 'This is great music. I want you to hear it.'"

  [Jenny Lewis on Ryan Adams to Rolling Stone / Andrew Leahey]

• "Think about the boy wizard Harry Potter: a war orphan seized from his surviving relatives at age 10, Harry is brought to a secluded academy run by former militants, told he is destined for glory, and taught to fight."

  [Aeon / Malcolm Harris]

• "It’s either the girl or the parents. If I were to bring home my own girl, I’d lose my family."

  [Dharmesh Darji to NYT / Jill Capuzzo]

• "Residents of a small village in Kazakhstan are falling asleep at random, sometimes for days at a time, and no one knows why."

  [Vice / Mark Hay]

• "I’m the most successful person ever to run for the presidency, by far. Nobody’s ever been more successful than me. I’m the most successful person ever to run. Ross Perot isn’t successful like me. Romney — I have a Gucci store that’s worth more than Romney."

  [Donald Trump to Des Moines Register / Josh Hafner]

Song of the Day

• Ryn Weaver, "Pierre"

  [YouTube]