Our picksFacebook scandal takes a dark turn; Austin’s serial bomber; ISIS volunteers in limbo, and more

The Facebook data scandal takes a dark turn (Isobel Thompson, Vanity Fair)
The story keeps getting worse for Mark Zuckerberg.

A “serial bomber” is targeting Austin: what we know (Emily Stewart, Vox)
Four explosions have killed two people and injured multiple others in Austin, Texas. A fifth blast went off overnight.

Election infrastructure ISAC created to share threats specific to voting systems (Zaid Shhorbajee, Cyberscoop)
States and localities are getting a new, Department of Homeland Security-backed center to coordinate and share information on election security.

Facebook just blocked this Cambridge Analytica affiliate. Why does it still have a State Department contract? (Patrick Tucker, Defense One)
Strategic Communications Laboratories worked with Cambridge Analytica, which reportedly used social-media data to target likely Trump voters.

More than 60 deaths in fires, floods exposes weaknesses in California’s emergency planning (Paige St. John and Joseph Serna, Los Angeles Times)
The disasters revealed gaping holes in the state’s county-controlled warning systems.

Data suggests one-third of state IT systems are old and broken (Government Technology)
A new analysis sheds some light on how big the problems are and where they’re the worst.

The Iraq War and the inevitability of ignorance (James Fallows, The Atlantic)
The U.S. is destined to keep overlearning the lessons of the last conflict.

The ISIS volunteer who won’t be coming home (Lindsey Snell, Daily Beast)
The author has followed the story of a young Tunisian ISIS recruit and his family for almost four years. Today he is not in paradise, and not in hell, but somewhere in between.