Robert Markowitz – Link(s) of the Day

The Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code

Bill Benter did the impossible: He wrote an algorithm that couldn’t lose at the track. Close to a billion dollars later, he tells his story for the first time.

How the LAPD abortion squad went after women and doctors in pre-Roe L.A.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the LAPD’s abortion squad hunted down women getting the procedure and the people performing them.

Opinion: Can L.A take back its streets so kids can bike safely?

Vehicle sizes have ballooned in recent decades, and now children would be unsafe on bikes. History shows us a better approach.

Hepatitis C is a slow-moving killer that can be stopped. What’s getting in the way?

Hepatitis C can now be cured in most cases with antiviral medication. Yet in the U.S., only a fraction of people who are found to be infected promptly start treatment.

The cat litter box myth is suddenly a culture war flashpoint. Here’s how that happened.

At least 20 Republican politicians have claimed that schools are making accommodations for students who identify as cats. The school districts say these claims are untrue.

CNN Exclusive: California launches investigation following stunning admission by Aetna medical director | CNN

California’s insurance commissioner has launched an investigation into Aetna after learning a former medical director for the insurer admitted under oath he never looked at patients’ records when deciding whether to approve or deny care.

Your Career Is Just One-Eighth of Your Life

Five pieces of career advice, shaped by economics, psychology, and a little bit of existential math

This is how many lives could have been saved with COVID vaccinations in each state

A large share of the nearly 1 million people who died of COVID in the U.S. may have lived if they’d gotten vaccinated. A new analysis shows how many lives could have been saved across the country.

Why One-Way Masking Isn’t a Very Good Public Health Solution

The idea is appealing and at times even pragmatic. But it has some serious flaws.

Retracing the LA riots 30 years later: ‘Wherever there was a big column of smoke, that’s where I needed to go.’

Ted Soqui photographed the LA Riots in 1992. Thirty years later, he returned to those locations using the same kind of camera and 35mm film.