Our picksParalyzing mystery illness; detecting natural disasters; the Central American caravan, and more

DHS downplays report that data thieves are selling millions of voters’ data (Patrick Tucker, Defense One)
But your personal data from voting rolls is more public than you likely realize.

Fearing wildfires, California utilities cut power to thousands (AP)
Concerned about downed power lines sparking wildfires, two major California utilities for the first time cut power to some customers amid high winds — and another power provider was considering similar action.

CDC confirms surge in cases of polio-like disease mostly affecting children (Jennifer Kang, Slate)
A rare, polio-like disease is emerging in almost half of the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. There have been 62 confirmed cases this year of acute flaccid myelitis or AFM, a serious condition most common in children that affects the nervous system. The CDC has received a total of 127 reports of suspected cases in so far 2018.

What Trump doesn’t understand about the Central American caravan (Priscilla Alvarez, The Atlantic)
Attempts to discourage migrants from journeying to the U.S.-Mexico border often don’t take into account the conditions they’re fleeing

Japanese researchers develop machine-learning technique to detect natural disasters (Siobhan Doyle, E&T)
In light of recent natural disasters, such as those seen in Indonesia last month, researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have applied machine-learning techniques to achieve fast, accurate estimates of local geomagnetic fields using data taken at multiple observation points, potentially allowing detection of changes caused by earthquakes and tsunamis.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning professor and her students challenge U-Md. over news and disinformation (Valerie Strauss, Washington Post)

Dana Priest, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist at the Washington Post, and who is the John S. and James L. Knight chair in public-affairs journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at U-Md., decided to ditch a planned assignment and use real-time events to give her students a chance to investigate the nature of news and disinformation on their campus and to challenge school officials.

European counter-terrorism approaches: A slow and insidious erosion of fundamental rights (Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Just Security)
A recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, titled, “Europe to Terrorists: It’s No More Monsieur Nice Guy,” praised the robustness of the recent European approach to counterterrorism, outlining how tactics that would have been politically inconceivable a few years ago are now being implemented. While European governments deserve credit for taking steps to keep their populations secure, the piece overlooks a crucial and deleterious effect of European regional and national counterterrorism strategies. In their counter-terrorism approaches, European governments are on a fast-track to eroding civil liberties and human rights over the long term.

Paralyzing mystery illness afflicts kids in 22 states (Mike Stobbe, Governing)
U.S. health officials on Tuesday reported a jump in cases of a rare paralyzing illness in children, and said it seems to be following an every-other-year pattern. At least 62 cases have been confirmed in 22 states this year, and at least 65 additional illnesses in those states are being investigated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Similar waves of the same illness occurred in 2014 and 2016.