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Biden highlighted his administration’s work to prevent gun violence in a weekend op-ed that called out Congress to do more on the issue. Plus, they want to invest early in Florida, hoping to prove the state isn’t truly off the map for Democrats. Thinking about it: Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who has been weighing a run for president, told Politico he will decide before late June. Rick Perry didn’t rule out running for president again in an interview with CNN, and wouldn’t endorse Trump. Jim Justice’s office to obtain his official calendar, NBC News first reports.

☆ Analysis: Why Erdogan's fate matters to Biden and the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Erdogan’s fate will have major implications not just for his country’s democracy, which he has worked to weaken, but for US foreign policy too. “Our people should be confident that we will definitely win, and we will bring democracy to this country,” he said. Biden’s entire presidency has unfolded in the shadow of autocrats, assaults on democracy and aspiring strongman leaders – abroad, and most remarkably at home. Biden confronts a threat from democracy at homeBut none of those leaders pose an existential threat to US democracy. Ahead of the election, Kilicdaroglu was talking in very similar terms about the need to preserve democracy as Biden does in the US.

☆ Biden Is Talking to Howard University Students. But Does He Speak to Them?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Zolan Kanno-Youngs | Kyna Uwaeme | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The mother-son split mirrors a broader generational divide among Black voters on President Biden, who needs their support as he runs for re-election. Although Black voters were a key constituency that sent Mr. Biden to the White House in 2020, polls show that Black voters under 30 have far less enthusiasm for Mr. Biden than their elders do. The Democratic National Committee said it has invested in reaching young Black voters through a variety of initiatives, including issuing grants to states to expand voter registration and hiring campus organizers in battleground states. The New York Times spoke to students at Howard, the renowned historically Black university, in the days leading up to Mr. Biden’s commencement address there on Saturday. Most of them said they would still vote for Mr. Biden rather than a Republican.

☆ Don’t Toss These Grad Caps!
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Rachel Simon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ms. Morales said that most of her clients who request custom designs are the children of immigrants or have immigrated to the United States themselves. Many, she added, “owe their journeys to their families, and they want to honor that.”Like Ms. Morales, Emiah Youman began customizing graduation caps when she was in college. Ms. Youman, who started selling them through her business, Custom Couture by Emiah, in 2019, now also offers premade styles (starting at $50), as well as hand-painted designs (starting at $210). Ms. Youman, who lives in Washington, said she has received about 100 orders this year. Her custom designs can take up to three months to complete, in part because she is running her business while attending law school at Howard University.

☆ Fact Check-Video of Kamala Harris rambling her speech at Howard University is digitally created
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A clip with over 1.2 million views on Twitter that seemingly shows U.S. vice president Kamala Harris rambling during a speech by saying “Today is today, and yesterday is today,” was digitally created but has been shared online as if authentic. In the video (here), (tinyurl.com/y3xtjc94), (tinyurl.com/3jaa3h36), Harris appears to say: “Today is today, and yesterday is today yesterday. The footage was taken from an April 25 speech, during an abortion rights rally at Howard University. The vice president’s clothing at the Howard University speech matches the edited video, as do the people standing behind her. Dr. Dominic Lees, associate professor in filmmaking at the University of Reading, said the audio quality shows the video is not authentic.

☆ What Bard said when Google VC asked the A.I. about the value of corporate diversity
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Carolyn Chun | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Stewart asked Bard, Google's first public version of a generative AI chatbot — and a rival to Microsoft -funded OpenAI ChatGPT — about the value of corporate diversity. The AI generated many of the points she makes in pushing the case for greater diversity in the workplace. Gradient is looking for founders that are building this AI "data moat" and "go-to expertise" into their businesses, she said. But she stressed that as AI is adopted, it is important that the development of the tech reflects diversity in development. Thinking about generational diversity may be as important as ethnic, racial and gender diversity as AI goes mainstream, too.

☆ Bidens Reported Earning $580,000 and Paid $170,000 in Taxes in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Michael D. Shear | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The tax returns show that the Bidens donated about $20,000 to charity in 2022, including a $5,000 contribution to the foundation that honors Mr. Biden’s son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015. Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, also released their tax returns, which show that the couple paid about $93,000 in federal income taxes in 2022 on total income of about $456,000. They reported paying $17,612 in California income tax, and Mr. Emhoff, a lawyer, paid $9,697 to the District of Columbia. Ms. Harris and Mr. Emhoff reported donating about $23,000 to charity, including a $5,000 donation to Howard University, where Ms. Harris attended college. The income for Ms. Harris and Mr. Emhoff was significantly less than the previous year, when they reported making more than $1.6 million.

☆ The Fed could easily drive Black unemployment much higher than the overall jobless rate
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

However, the jobless rate isn’t expected to be that low for long. While that’s a small improvement from the central bank’s previous 4.6% jobless rate estimate, economists say it’s possible the unemployment rate could rise above the Fed’s expectations. It can be difficult to slow an unemployment spiralEconomists say it’s hard to guess the trajectory of the unemployment rate this year, noting it could very well exceed the Fed’s estimate. As such, the Fed’s tightening efforts could easily drive the Black unemployment rate much higher than the overall jobless rate, said William Spriggs, an economics professor at Howard University and chief economist to the AFL-CIO. The Black unemployment rate will easily get to 9% in that scenario.”One other likely consequence of growing unemployment is slowing wage growth, Bivens said.

☆ San Francisco officials weigh giving Black residents $1 homes and $97,000 a year of as part of a massive reparations plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Alcynna Lloyd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

San Francisco policymakers are considering reparations for many of its Black residents. Proposals include giving qualifying residents $5 million, $97,000 a year for 250 years, or $1 homes. Supervisors unanimously supported the presentation from the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee, but its proposals remain far from reality. If enacted, though, San Francisco's reparations plan stands to become one of the most substantial packages ever approved in the United States. "This conversation we're having in San Francisco is completely unserious," John Dennis, chair of the San Francisco Republican Party, told the AP.

☆ I do private Botox parties as a fun and lucrative side gig. Here's how I got certified and what they're like.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Natalie Rahhal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Dr. Samantha Ellison worked at Botox parties on her days off as a traveling physician. Ellison says Botox parties can be really fun and lucrative, depending on how you market yourself. Botox parties are really laid-backA lot of these Botox parties occur in the evening, so it's popular to have a sleepover where people come in themed pajamas. Doing Botox parties can be really fun and lucrative, depending on how you market yourself and how good your network is. The biggest challenge of working as both a hospitalist physician and doing Botox parties is the mental switch it requires.

Frederick, the President of Howard University, at a press conference February 29, 2016, in the university's Founder's Library. Frederick is the 17th president of Howard University, one of 107 historically Black colleges and universities in the U.S., serving some 11,000 students across its undergraduate, graduate, and professional student programs. Frederick is the distinguished Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery at the Howard University College of Medicine. He is also a practicing cancer surgeon at Howard University Hospital, where he continues to see patients and perform surgeries. CNBC: The Department of Defense recently announced its selection of Howard University as the 15th university, and first HBCU, to lead a University Affiliated Research Center.

☆ How the Fed can close the racial wealth gap: AFL-CIO's William Spriggs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Macklin Fishman | Lindsey Jacobson | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailHow the Fed can close the racial wealth gap: AFL-CIO's William SpriggsAFL-CIO chief economist and Howard University economics professor William Spriggs says that the impact of discrimination against Black employees is less acute when the labor market operates at full employment. He tells CNBC how the Federal Reserve can close the racial wealth gap and how an economic slowdown might affect Black workers.

☆ Reaching maximum employment will help close the racial wealth gap, says Howard University economics professor William Spriggs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Macklin Fishman | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Reaching maximum employment will help close the racial wealth gap, according to AFL-CIO chief economist and Howard University economics professor William Spriggs. In an interview with CNBC, Spriggs said the impact of discrimination against Black employees is less acute when the labor market operates at full employment. "When we have a really poor labor market, white high school dropouts do better than Black people with associate degrees," Spriggs explained. While Black Americans do withdraw from the labor market when the market collapses, Spriggs said this is not always reflected in the data on Black labor force participation. Implicit bias can also affect economic data and policy by dictating the questions that analysts ask, Spriggs said.

☆ HBCU students diversify alternative investing with the help of Wall Street’s biggest firms
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Frank Holland | In Frank-Holland | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The AltFinance Fellowship is the brainchild of top alternative investment firms Ares Management, Apollo Global Management and Oaktree Capital Management. Selected students will also receive a scholarship of up to $10,000 if they're sophomores, while juniors and seniors can receive up to $15,000. Partnering schools include Clark Atlanta University, Howard University, Morehouse College and Spelman College. The private equity, private credit and commercial real estate industry has about $10 trillion in assets under management, according to data provider Preqin. "This is not a charitable activity," Howard Marks, co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, told CNBC.

The 51-year-old Fulton County district attorney will need that kind of tenacity if she decides to bring criminal charges against Trump, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Willis, a Democrat, has taken an aggressive approach in the Trump investigation, subpoenaing some of his allies including Republican U.S. "It doesn't matter if you're rich, poor, Black, white, Democrat or Republican," Willis, who is Black, told CNN last year. Trump, who in November announced another run for the presidency in 2024, has denied wrongdoing and has called Willis a "Radical Left Prosecutor." To assist with the Trump investigation, Willis retained private Atlanta lawyer John Floyd, who wrote a guide on prosecuting state racketeering charges and worked with Willis on the teacher case.

That would be the kind of tenacity Willis, 51, would need if she decides to bring criminal charges against the Republican former president. Willis, a Democrat, has taken an aggressive approach in the Trump investigation, subpoenaing some of his allies including Republican U.S. To assist with the Trump investigation, Willis retained private Atlanta lawyer John Floyd, who wrote a guide on prosecuting state racketeering charges and worked with Willis on the teacher case. Willis told a judge on Jan. 24 that a decision on whether to bring criminal charges was "imminent" after a special grand jury completed its work. Portions of the grand jury's report are expected to be publicly released on Thursday, though any recommendations on criminal charges will remain sealed for now.

But mainstream economic data doesn't always reflect the struggle, according to William Spriggs, Howard University economics professor and chief economist for the AFL-CIO. Throughout the last year, employers claimed they were struggling to staff properly, citing a lack of workers. But as the workforce picked up, employers weren't actually hiring, Spriggs said. Specifically, he said, they weren't hiring Black workers. Watch the video to learn more about how implicit bias corrupts economic data and therefore our understanding of the current labor landscape.

Historically Black colleges and universities have been embroiled in a student housing crisis for decades. Fisk is believed to be the second U.S. higher education institution to utilize shipping containers for student housing after the College of Idaho implemented dorm-style containers in 2020. “The enrollment is growing so fast, and the shipping containers provide some sustainable flexibility. They all wanted to live in these shipping containers,” Frederiksen said. Meanwhile, other projects like the HBCU Healthy Housing (H3) Initiative from the Virginia-based advocacy group Student Housing of America are partnering with universities to build additional housing.

☆ The Biggest Debates and Opinions in 2022 - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +30 min

Opinion The 22 Debates That Made Us Rage, Roll Our Eyes, and Change Our Minds in 2022Debating is what we do here at Times Opinion. To many, she was an icon: She ruled for 70 years, presided over the transition from empire to commonwealth and served as a living link to the generation that won World War II. (Though Ben Bernanke, a former Fed chairman himself, wrote in The Times that that wasn’t going to happen.) The United States and its European allies poured weapons and aid into Ukraine, but how was this going to end? As 2022 draws to a close, the fighting continues and peace talks look as distant as ever — which probably means that the debates will continue.

☆ I was a medical student and accidentally blew up on Tiktok. Now I have a new side hustle as an influencer.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Rasha Aly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Norman Harris II, 25, a third-year medical student at Temple University in Philadelphia, who works as a student influencer. How many hours to dedicate to being a Tiktok influencer and a medical student is a balancing act. I want to preserve my brand — being a medical student at Philadelphia's Temple University who wants to make a social impact while having a comedic flair. Walking a tightrope between two careersBeing a student influencer and a medical student takes work — determining how many hours to dedicate to each profession is a balancing act. When I became a medical student, the YouTube videos became too long to edit.

☆ Meet a 26-year-old who acquired $1 million in real estate properties starting with an $18,000 loan. He explains his strategy, and why beginners should purchase their first homes through FHA.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Lisa Kailai Han | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

James Walker III has acquired $1 million in real estate properties at 26 years old. Four years ago, he used with an $18,000 loan to buy his first FHA property for $350,000. "So you see that genesis of both real estate and entrepreneurship coming in my formative years through seeing my parents really go big in real estate," he said. With an FHA loan, the property must be the borrower's primary residence for at least a year. You build this up foundationally and you set yourself up for the day where real estate surpasses your primary income."

☆ Roberta Flack has ALS, now ‘impossible to sing,’ rep says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

A representative for Roberta Flack announced Monday that the Grammy-winning musician has ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and can no longer sing. The progressive disease “has made it impossible to sing and not easy to speak,” Flack’s manager Suzanne Koga said in a release. Flack also plans to publish a children’s book co-written with Tonya Bolden, “The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music,” that month. Flack had a stroke in 2016 and spoke to The Associated Press a little over two years later about returning to performing. “I could sing any number of songs that I’ve recorded through the years, easily, I could sing them, but I’m going to pick those songs that move me,” Flack said.

That is why, leaders say, HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions will be even more important to students of color should the Supreme Court end affirmative action in college admissions. Allison ShelleyThe Supreme Court is hearing cases that challenge affirmative action policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. Although HBCUs are predominantly Black institutions, non-Black students made up 24% of HBCU enrollment in 2020, according to the NCES. That diversity is important to consider amid claims that HBCUs make race-conscious admissions unnecessary, said Marie Bigham, the founder and executive director of the race-conscious admissions advocacy group Admissions Community Cultivating Equity & Peace Today. Late last month, the coalition and students from across the country protested outside the Supreme Court as it weighed the cases.

☆ U.S. governors races carry high stakes for abortion, elections
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Daniel Trotta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The high stakes have brought increased money and attention to the state-level races, which typically get overshadowed in midterm elections by the fight for control of Congress. Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp, also looks likely to prevail against Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams in a rematch of their 2018 race. Democrats are expected to flip Republican-held governorships in the states of Maryland and Massachusetts, but they face tough battles in a couple of other Democratic states. ABORTION RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACYAs with congressional races across the country, Democratic candidates for governor have warned of the threats Republicans could pose to abortion rights and elections should they win on Tuesday. Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer has made abortion a focal point of her re-election campaign in Michigan, where voters also will consider a ballot measure that would safeguard abortion rights in the state's constitution.

☆ The unemployment rate for Black men fell in October, but so did labor force participation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Carmen Reinicke | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Joe Raedle | Getty ImagesThe unemployment rate for Black men ticked down in October while it rose for most other groups, but that may be because workers are dropping out of the labor force. For Black men, unemployment fell to 5.3% from 5.8% a month earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis. Though overall there is strength in the labor market, "this is not the tight labor market where people can just walk in and get a job no matter who they are." Overall Black unemployment ticked up led by Black women. In October, the unemployment rate for Black women jumped to 5.8% from 5.4% in September.

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