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☆ Was Jesus a man of color? Why this question matters more than ever
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-31 | by ( John Blake | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +17 min

But the question over the color of Jesus’ skin is a serious one this Easter, for two reasons. But there are some who say Jesus’ color should stay the same, or that it doesn’t matter at all. He concedes that there are barriers to worshipping a White Jesus that he, a White man, may not understand. Jesus didn’t simply care about the poor, he was poor.”Cleveland tells CNN that people who say Jesus’ color wasn’t important ignore history. She says the experience taught her how much White Christian nationalism and the White Jesus have merged.

Persons: CNN — Christena Cleveland, Thomas ”, Jesus, —, Cleveland, Thor, ”, Jesus didn’t, Megyn Kelly, “, Trump, Donald Trump, Al Drago, Gentile, Warner, he’s, Sallman, Edward J, Blum, Jesus Christ, Mario Tama, Christina L, Barr, ” Barr, he’d, coon, ” Antony Pinol, Pinol, God, Jesus doesn’t, ” Pino, Jeff Hutchens, Albert Cleage, George Floyd, Black, Dante Stewart, ” “, ” Stewart, James Cone, Toni Morrison, White, ‘ ’ Blum, MAGA, White MAGA Jesus, Paul Weaver, Drew Angerer, Jesus ’, Frederick Buechner, John Blake Organizations: CNN, Cleveland, TSA, Fox News, Bloomberg, Getty, CARE, New York Times, Christ, America, Communist Party, Warner, Republican Party, Black Tea News, Pennsylvania State Capitol, Christianity Locations: Cleveland, Hollywood, barbershops, Santa Claus, America, White, Avoca , Pennsylvania, Israel, Port, Prince, Haiti, Africa, Dillon , South Carolina, Asia, Southern, Eastern Europe, Rome, Harrisburg , Pennsylvania, Gaza, New York City

☆ A controversial Supreme Court decision could hurt Biden in November
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( John Blake | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

CNN —A Supreme Court decision related to the election could determine the presidential victor this November, but it has nothing to do with former President Donald Trump. The study also said the “narrow” racial-turnout disparity that the high court heavily relied upon in its Shelby decision was based in part on the 2012 presidential election. Yet the study’s conclusion bolsters critics of the Shelby decision. They ignored it although they knew their decision would hurt Black voters, who tend to vote for the Democratic Party, he says. The bloody history behind the Voting Rights ActThe law was passed in 1965 after King led an epic voting rights campaign in Selma, Alabama.

Persons: CNN —, Donald Trump, Brennan, —, Holder, John Roberts, Barack Obama, Shelby, Jim Crow, Alabama —, Lawrence Goldstone, ” Goldstone, Sonia Sotomayor, Joe Biden, Shawn Thew, Biden, Goldstone, Black, George W, Bush, preclearance, “, ”, Elijah Nouvelage, Horace Cooper, Martin Luther King Jr, Cooper, “ That’s, Martin Luther King, that’s, ” Cooper, King, Edmund Pettus, Obama, Lyndon B, Johnson, Jr, Ralph Abernathy, Clarence Mitchell, Corbis, Roberts, Reagan, Brett Kavanaugh, tortuously, it’s, John Blake Organizations: CNN, Brennan Center for Justice, Supreme Court, Southern GOP, GOP, State of, Getty, Black, Democratic Party, George Mason University in, US Justice Department, Edmund, White, Congress, Black voters, North Carolina — Locations: Shelby, Southern, America, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, State, Washington, Alabama’s Shelby County, Atlanta , Georgia, AFP, George Mason University in Virginia, Selma , Alabama, White Alabama, “ Shelby

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Former CNN reporter Don Lemon mixed it up with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in an interview Lemon posted on Musk’s X social network Monday. The interview was supposed to kick off Lemon’s new talk show on X, formerly known as Twitter, at least until Musk canceled the show shortly after the interview was recorded. MUSK USES KETAMINE TO TREAT POSSIBLE SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSIONMusk is “almost always” sober when posting on X late at night, he told Lemon. But in his interview with Lemon he did argue, on shaky evidence, that a surge of undocumented immigrants has skewed U.S. elections in favor of Democrats. Lemon pointed out that undocumented immigrants can't vote and thus can't really favor either political party.

Persons: —, Don Lemon, Elon Musk, Lemon, Musk, ” Musk, ”, you've, “, Donald Trump, “ Let's, Trump, hasn't, Biden, I've Organizations: FRANCISCO, CNN, Tesla, Twitter, TRUMP, “ Locations: Florida, U.S, Washington

☆ TikTok Turns to Creators to Fight Possible Ban
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Sapna Maheshwari | Yiwen Lu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Facing a possible ban in the United States, TikTok has scrambled to deploy perhaps its most powerful weapon: its creators. The hugely popular video service began recruiting dozens of creators at the end of last week, asking them to travel to Washington to fight a bill being debated in Congress. Under the proposal, TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, would need to sell the app or it would be blocked in the United States. Many of the creators have met with lawmakers and posted videos about their opposition to the bill with the hashtag #KeepTikTok, often with the irreverent humor the app is known for. “So old white people boomers we call Congress-people are trying to ban TikTok, and I’m not having it,” Giovanna González, a TikTok creator better known as @TheFirstGenMentor, posted in a video on Tuesday, with the U.S. Capitol visible in the distance behind her.

Persons: TikTok, I’m, ” Giovanna González Organizations: U.S, Capitol Locations: United States, Washington

☆ With Humor, Kobi Libii Gives His Characters a Different Superpower
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Christopher Kuo | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In “The American Society of Magical Negroes,” the writer-director Kobi Libii’s debut feature film opening March 15, a mysterious group of Black people possess superpowers. But unlike Black Panther or Miles Morales’s Spider-Man, this group doesn’t fight criminals or take on villains. Instead, the members of this society wield their powers only for a very specific purpose: soothing the anxieties of white people. This conceit satirizes the cultural trope of the Magical Negro, in which Black characters in a plot exist solely to aid the white protagonists. By incarnating this trope in the form of a secret society set in present-day America, the film critiques the ways in which Black people continue to be forced into deference toward white people.

Persons: Kobi, Miles Morales’s Spider, — Organizations: American Society Locations: America

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge in Texas has ordered a 55-year-old U.S. agency that caters to minority-owned businesses to serve people regardless of race, siding with white business owners who claimed the program discriminated against them. The agency, which helps minority-owned businesses obtain financing and government contracts, now operates in 33 states and Puerto Rico. Justice Department lawyers representing Minority Business Development Agency declined to comment on the ruling, which can be appealed to the conservative-leaning 5th U.S. John F. Robinson, president of the National Minority Business Council, said the ruling is “a blow against minority owned businesses," and does nothing to help majority-owned businesses because they already enjoy access to federal resources through the Small Business Administration. "It has the potential of damaging the whole minority business sector because there will be less service available to minority-owned businesses,” Robinson said.

Persons: Mark T, Pittman, Donald Trump, Nixon, Biden, ” Pittman, Dan Lennington, ” Lennington, John F, Robinson, ” Robinson, Arian Simone, Alphonso David, David, Stanley Goldfarb, ”, “, —, David Glasgow, Graham Lee Brewer, Haleluya Hadero Organizations: —, U.S, Northern, Northern District of, U.S . Commerce Department, Infrastructure Investment, Jobs, Black, Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, Justice Department, Business, Agency, Circuit, National Minority Business Council, Small Business Administration, Economic, Pfizer, The, Appeals, American Alliance for Equal Rights, Meltzer Center for Diversity, New York University’s School of Law, Supreme, AP Locations: Texas, Northern District, Northern District of Texas, Puerto Rico, New Orleans, Tennessee, Atlanta, The New York, Florida, New

☆ Microsoft AI employee warns FTC the company’s Copilot Designer AI tool is prone to creating harmful images
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Shane Jones, a Microsoft principal software engineering lead, claimed that the company’s AI text-to-image generator Copilot Designer has “systemic issues” that cause it to frequently produce potentially offensive or inappropriate images, including sexualized images of women. He said he spent months testing Microsoft’s tool — as well as OpenAI’s DALL-E 3, the technology that Microsoft’s Copilot Designer is built on — and attempted to raise concerns internally before he alerted the FTC. He said he found more than 200 examples of “concerning images” created by Copilot Designer. Jones’ letter comes amid growing concerns that AI image generators — which are increasingly capable of producing convincing, photorealistic images — can cause harm by spreading offensive or misleading images. In his letter to Microsoft’s board of directors, Jones called on the company to take similar action.

Persons: Shane Jones, Jones, ” Jones, Lina Khan, “, OpenAI’s DALL, Microsoft “, OpenAI, Jones ’, Taylor Swift, Gemini, Bob Ferguson Organizations: New, New York CNN, Microsoft, US Federal Trade Commission, FTC, Copilot, Google, Washington, US, Commerce, Science, Transportation Locations: New York, United States, White

☆ Opinion: A Black man’s view on what Biden should do for the White working class
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Opinion Keith Magee | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Could President Biden, who claims to have labor-friendly policies, be the one to turn the tide by appealing to the White working class and giving his party a much-needed electoral boost in the process? After all, issues affecting poor White voters, such as health care, higher education and increased access to childcare have long been traditional Democratic priorities. That gaffe echoed Obama’s off-the-cuff remark in 2008 that “bitter” low-income voters “cling to guns or religion” — comments that didn’t endear him to the White working class, either. Some White voters of modest means perceive Democrats as being determined to secure equality for minority groups at their expense. And working-class White Americans tended for some reason not to perceive Obamacare — the president’s signature social policy achievement — as immediately benefiting them.

Persons: Keith Magee, I’m, Donald Trump, Keith Magee Arron Dunworth, pollsters, Biden, White, ”, Du Bois, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton —, They’ve, —, MAGA, Hillary Clinton’s horrendously, Caroline Graham of, Barack Obama’s, Obama, Obamacare, Trump, –, you’ll, ” —, Martin Luther King, Jr, Will Biden Organizations: University College London Institute for Innovation, Newcastle University, CNN, Republicans, White, Democratic, Trump, Brookings Institution, Infrastructure Investment, Jobs, United Auto Workers, Poor Locations: American, America, Trump, Michigan, Thursday’s

☆ White supremacist fitness clubs are fat-shaming Trump supporters and plotting a race war
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-03 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

White supremacist "active clubs" are spreading across the US. The clubs recruit disaffected white men and promote physical fitness and masculinity. AdvertisementA network of white supremacist fitness clubs is spreading across the US, recruiting men to prepare for what they believe will be a race war. AdvertisementThe investigative news outlet, Bellingcat, has also reported that the white supremacist active club movement had spread to Europe. The movement was inspired by Robert Rundo, who founded the white supremacist MMA club known as the Rise Above Movement.

Persons: Donald Trump, —, Jon Lewis, Lewis, Robert Rundo, Kent Nishimura, Sean Kauffman, Kauffman, they're, Jeff Tischauser, Trump, Tischauser, David Becker, shaming Trump Organizations: Service, Extremism, George Washington University, Counter Extremism, Patriot, Los Angeles Times, Getty, Nazi, Southern Poverty Law Center, Trump, Central CA, Alamo, Lewis Locations: United States, Europe, Tennessee, Nashville

☆ The deep Biblical spirituality of Bob Marley’s music is being overlooked
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-03 | by ( John Blake | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

They hiked, jet-skied and spent much of the time listening to Scott’s favorite musician, reggae superstar Bob Marley. He found refuge, though, in Marley’s music. “But Bob Marley’s music is what got us through. These Marley fans and scholars say it’s time to stop glossing over or editing out Marley’s “subversive spirituality.”“The Bible was as important to Marley’s music as his guitar,” MacNeil says. Actor Kingsley Ben-Adir, who plays Marley in "Bob Marley: One Love," attends the movie's premiere on January 23, 2024, in Kingston, Jamaica.

Persons: CNN — Dean MacNeil couldn’t, “, MacNeil, Scott, Bob Marley, ”, Marley, ” MacNeil, Bob Marley’s, Rita Marley, Kingsley Ben, Adir, Marcus Ingram, Matthew, Jesus, Luke, Vivien Goldman, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, Goldman, King James Bible, Judah, Haile Selassie I, Selassie, “ Jah, it’s, “ He’s, ” Rastafarians, Collin Reid, Adam Hochschild, ” Hochschild, Deepak Sarma, ” Marley, Marcus Garvey, Marley’s, didn’t, White, ” Marley didn’t, Jamaicia, Angela Weiss, Gibson Les Paul, John Lennon, John Blake Organizations: CNN, Time, BBC, Getty, Case Western Reserve University, National, Forbes Locations: Connecticut, Vermont, Jamaica, Kingston , Jamaica, America, Jerusalem, British, Ethiopia, “ Bury, United Kingdom, Jamacia, Ohio, ganja, Jamaican, Africa, Miami, Trench, Hollywood, Kingston

☆ Publishing Pledged to Diversify. Change Has Been Slow.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( Alexandra Alter | Elizabeth A. Harris | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

More than three years after nationwide protests over racial inequality led publishers to promise they would reshape their overwhelmingly white industry, a survey showed they made little progress toward creating a more diverse publishing work force. White workers made up 72.5 percent of the book business in 2023, according to a new report from the publishing house Lee & Low. That marks a slight decrease from 2019, when the survey found that white people accounted for 76 percent of publishing industry employees. These changes are hardly the transformation many hoped for, and are likely to ignite debate about whether publishing companies have faltered in their pledge to prioritize racial diversity. The slow pace of progress reflects what many in the book world say are entrenched structural and cultural problems.

Persons: Lee

☆ For Black workers, progress in the workplace but still a high hill to climb
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-27 | by ( Jeff Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

"We were in a situation where folks accepted that Black unemployment was going to always be high and there was nothing that they could do about it. The Black unemployment rate in January was 5.3%, up a touch from December but still near the all-time low of 4.8% hit in April 2023. For Black workers, weekly before-tax earnings as of the end of 2023 have risen 24.8% since the first quarter of 2020. "High unemployment for Black workers is a solvable problem," Fulton said. Black workers are interested in tech and believe there are opportunities.

Persons: Ali, Jamila Wright, there's, Jessica Fulton, Fulton, Cox, she's, MilSpouse, they've, Sue Harnett, Goldman Sachs, Harnett, I'm, Ali Wright Organizations: Brooklyn Tea, Joint Center, Political, Economic Studies, D.C, U.S . Bureau of Labor Statistics, McKinsey & Company, Companies, Bank of America, Black Colleges, Universities, New, Small Business Administration, Ivy League, Conference Board Locations: America, U.S, Washington, Brooklyn, New York City, Atlanta

☆ Google has another 'woke' AI problem with Gemini — and it's going to be hard to fix
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-26 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewGoogle spent much of last week getting hammered for supposedly creating a "woke" AI chatbot and eventually apologized for "missing the mark." AdvertisementBut it's also going to be a problem for Google because it has already said it is trying to influence the way its AI produces results. And that's going to be red meat for anyone who wants to argue that Google — or any other Big Tech company — is "too woke." Last week, after getting similar criticism about the way Gemini handled race when it came to AI-generated images, Google "paused" Gemini's ability to create images. Pulling Gemini altogether would be a considerable black eye for the company, and one I think it will be incredibly reluctant to do.

Persons: —, Ben Thompson, Gemini, Hitler, Elon Musk's, Thompson, Sundar Pichai, Marc Andreessen, it's, they're, Prabhakar Raghavan, Raghavan, Google's, I'm Organizations: Service, Business, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Big Tech, Gemini

So The New York Times asked more than 5,300 people in the U.S. with this heritage how they describe themselves …No Box to Check: When the Census Doesn’t Reflect YouEgyptian, Iranian, Lebanese, Amazigh, Arab, American. In the 2020 census, “Lebanese” and “Egyptian” were offered as examples for the “white” box on the race question. The other categories were “Black or African American,” “American Indian or Alaska Native,” “Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander” and a variety of Asian ancestries. After all, there’s no agreed-upon set of countries or ethnicities that would fall under a Middle Eastern and North African category. The chart shows these responses after the MENA category was added: 69% chose “MENA,” 15% chose “MENA, White,” 3% chose “Another Race,” 5% chose “White” and 8% chose other combinations.

Persons: Brown, New York Times callout, Biden, ”, —, “, ” Martin Zebari, ” Samera Hadi, ” Imene Said Kouidri, ’ ” Faisal Ali, ” Joseph Hallock, Maya Berry, there’s, Margo J, Anderson, “ You’re, Tiffany Kindratt, ” Khelil, ‘, Dusty Haddad, “ White, Jeffrey S, ” Nadine Naber, Naber, I’m, ” Ceylan Swenson, ” Blake Bachara, ” Amin Younes, We’re, ” Rita Obeid, Barack Obama, It’s, ” Thomas Simsarian Dolan, ” Gabrielle Barbara Guliana, Christina Boufarah, I’ve, ” Michele Magar, ” Soufiane, ” Azita, Moustafa, ” Nawar Organizations: U.S ., New York Times, Arab, Israel, American Community, Management, Federal, Arab American Institute, University of Wisconsin, Census Bureau, Survey, North, Cornell University, Centers for Disease Control, Prevention, University of Texas, The Times, Times, Pew Research, University of Illinois, Bureau, West Virginian Locations: Eastern, Sudanese, Southwest, U.S, East, North Africa, United States, Michigan, Gaza, Europe, Lebanese, Alaska, American, MENA, Milwaukee, —, Arlington, America, White, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, Lebanon, Iran, N.Y.C, Israel, Turkey, Southwest Asia, Afghanistan, Armenia, West, I’m

☆ Wall Street is loving AI while Big Tech is warning employees about how they use it
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In today's big story, we're looking at Wall Street's love affair with Nvidia (and AI) while Big Tech still grapples with how to use the tools . Since Nvidia's GPUs sit at the center of the AI revolution, the company's success suggests the hype around the tech is warranted. One issue is bias showing up in AI tools . AdvertisementInternal documents show that Amazon is warning its employees not to use third-party generative AI tools for work , BI's Ashley Stewart and Eugene Kim report. It's an interesting acknowledgement of the risks involved with using AI tools — especially when Amazon is pitching its own chatbot to customers .

Persons: —, It's, Michael M, Tyler Le, it's, Matthew Fox, Wall, Jensen, Kathleen Brooks, XTB, BI's George Glover, Chelsea Jia Feng, — ChatGPT, Monica Melton, BI's Ashley Stewart, Eugene Kim, Paul Morigi, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, Goldman, Joe Duran, Jensen Huang, Huang, Reddit, Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Gemini, isn't, RJ Scaringe, Rivian, Scaringe, Steve Conine, Niraj Shah, Lucas Jackson, Wayfair, Bruce Dixon, they'd, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, George Glover, Grace Lett Organizations: Service, Nvidia, Big Tech, Getty, Nasdaq, Nikkei, GameStop, SEC, CNBC, EV, Warner Bros Discovery Inc, Hyatt Hotels Locations: Paul, New York, London, Chicago

☆ Google just can't seem to catch a break
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The search giant announced a major upgrade to its AI model Gemini. Google under fireGoogle's big problem came after Gemini users started to report problems this week with its image-generation feature. For Google, the moment is one that casts a shadow over real advances it has made in AI to keep it neck-and-neck with competitors. In part, it's because the Gemini image generation blunder really is as bad as people say. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has previously said he feels "very comfortable" about where the company is with its AI mission.

Persons: —, Gemma, Gemini, Elon, Musk, Nathan Lambert, OpenAI's, haven't, It's, Sundar Pichai Organizations: Service, Microsoft, Business, Google, Gemini, Allen Institute, AI

☆ Google suspends Gemini from making AI images of people after a backlash complaining it was 'woke'
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-22 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Google says it will fix Gemini, its answer to OpenAI's GPT-4, after people complained the multi-modal AI model's image-generating feature was "woke." On Thursday, the company said in a statement sent to Business Insider that it was pausing Gemini from generating AI images of people while it makes the changes. AdvertisementNew game: Try to get Google Gemini to make an image of a Caucasian male. Woke AI Gemini is awkward… it keeps inserting the word “diverse” into its responses even though the prompt isn’t for such content. Google; Business InsiderThe spokesperson added that Google will "re-release an improved version soon."

Persons: —, OpenAI's, Gemini, 1LAzZM2pXF — Frank J, Fleming, @IMAO_, Mike Wacker, Medvin Organizations: Service, Google, Business, BBC News Locations: @m_wacker

☆ Google halts AI tool’s ability to produce images of people after backlash over historically inaccurate depictions of race
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-22 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The embarrassing blunder shows how AI tools still struggle with the concept of race. Google’s attempt to overcome this, however, appears to have backfired and made it difficult for the AI chatbot to generate images of White people. Gemini, like other AI tools such as ChatGPT, is trained on vast troves of online data. Experts have long warned that AI tools therefore have the potential to replicate the racial and gender biases baked into that information. This screen grab shows CNN asking Google Gemini to create an AI-generated image of a "White farmer in the South" and the tool's response.

Persons: OpenAI’s Dall, Gemini, Clare Duffy, ”, “, Jack Krawczyk, Bard, James Webb Organizations: New, New York CNN, Google, CNN, White, Tech, Gemini, James Webb Space Telescope Locations: New York, White, Dublin ”

☆ I grew up in the US, while my wife grew up in the UK. She had a better education and now has a better understanding of the world.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Katy Fleming | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

My wife grew up in the UK and got a better education, becoming a more-rounded adult. I recently married my wife, Kaajal, who was born and raised in London. If my wife and I have children, we'll undoubtedly move to the UK for superior academics to better prepare them for a career. AdvertisementSimilarly to religion, the British school system provides a collective overview of world history and geography starting at a young age. In my personal experience, the UK education system is significantly better than the US education system in preparing students for their careers, instilling well-rounded cultural experiences, and educating on the world map.

Persons: —, Kaajal, fiancée, it's, we'll Organizations: Service, British Locations: London, Pittsburgh, Africa, Mozambique, South Africa, England, , Arkansas, Estonia

☆ The racial wage gap starts as early as 16 for Black workers—and results in ‘a lifetime of consequences,’ says expert
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Gili Malinsky | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The racial wage gap may be shrinking, but it's still got a ways to go. The median weekly earnings for full-time wage and salaried Black or African American 16-to-24-year-olds was $614. Though a smaller gap than the national one, that still works out to be about 82 cents to white workers' dollar. Children born in higher income and higher wealth families will have greater access to opportunities. Andre Perry Senior fellow at BrookingsThe resulting family wealth can hinder access to higher paying jobs as well.

Persons: it's, haven't, Andre Perry, Andre Perry Senior, Perry, Valerie Wilson Organizations: Nationwide, Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Brookings, Pew Research Center, BLS, Economic Policy Institute Locations: Brookings

Scores of people turned out Tuesday to testify well into the night on bills being considered by Nebraska lawmakers that target diversity initiatives and higher education programs, mirroring proposals by Republicans across the country. The bills before the state Legislature’s Education Committee included one that would ban diversity, equity and inclusion — known as DEI — programs and offices at state colleges and universities. Similar bills have been introduced in Republican-led legislatures across the country as the 2024 election year heats up. Already this year, Republican lawmakers have proposed about 50 bills in 20 states that would restrict DEI initiatives or require their public disclosure. Among them were several young people of color who grew up in the state or Nebraska college students who told lawmakers of the discrimination they've faced.

Persons: Sen, Dave Murman, cosigners, ”, ” Jess Lammers, Mia Perales, Ricki Barber, ” Barber, ” Sen, Loren Lippincott, —, ” Lippincott, Chris Kabourek, “, ” It's Organizations: Nebraska, Republican, Education, “, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NAACP, Big Locations: Nebraska, Holdrege, Lincoln, Iowa, Florida, North Dakota, Texas

☆ How millennials could give the suburbs a much-needed makeover
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-11 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The suburbs are home to the vast majority of Americans, including millennials priced out of cities. AdvertisementThese days, the American suburbs are seeing something of a revival after a few decades of the back-to-the-city movement, in which mostly young people flocked to urban centers. The rise of remote work coupled with the soaring costs of urban housing has pulled, or pushed, lots of millennials and others to the suburbs and even far-flung exurbs. Exclusive, isolating, and inconvenient suburbsThe American suburbs have always been flawed in a host of ways. Kotkin says the American suburbs have “won the battle” with cities, reigning as the more economically and demographically dominant place.

Persons: —, ”, Andrew Justus, ” Justus, “ We’ve, Adie Tomer, Tomer, Joe Sohm, Joel Kotkin, Kotkin, “, ” Tomer, Tayana Panova, ” Panova Organizations: Service, Niskanen, Brookings Institution, MIT, Chapman University, National Review, metros Locations: American, it’s, Paoli , Indiana, America’s, Somerville , Massachusetts, Shaker Heights , Ohio, Orange , California, Bronxville, Westchester County, Woodlands, Texas, Houston, ”, walkable, Suburban

☆ Why Taylor Swift Is Being Blamed for Everything - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-10 | by ( Jennifer Weiner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ask the people in your life to name a woman who’s got it good, with wealth and beauty and talent and true love, and I’d bet at least a few of them would name Taylor Swift. Swift, the 34-year-old pop icon, who made history last Sunday as the only musician to win four best-album Grammy Awards, checks many of the important boxes. message boards or watching TikToks, you will notice that factions that do not agree about anything share an absolute certainty that Taylor Swift is trouble. She’s doing too much, except when she’s not doing enough, and she’s always doing it wrong. — the pretty blonde endorses Democrats.

Persons: who’s, Taylor Swift, Swift, She’s, Hashtag, she’s, I’m, Travis Kelce, Bud Light Organizations: Super Locations: Japan

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is setting tougher standards for deadly soot pollution, saying that reducing fine particle matter from tailpipes, smokestacks and other industrial sources could prevent thousands of premature deaths a year. Soot pollution has declined sharply in the past two decades, even as the U.S. gross domestic product has increased by more than 50%, Regan said. Bakersfield tied with Visalia in California's San Joaquin Valley as the most polluted city for year-round particle pollution. Wildfires in the western U.S. were a major contributing factor to increased levels of particle pollution, the report said. Six of the 10 cities with the most soot pollution were in California, and two more were in the West: Medford, Oregon and greater Phoenix.

Persons: —, Biden, Michael Regan, Harris, “, Obama, Joe Biden, Regan, we’ve, Manish Bapna, Ben Jealous, Jeffrey Zients, Barack Obama, Donald Trump Organizations: WASHINGTON, Environmental, Environmental Protection Agency, Industry, Biden, Democratic, Administration, Natural Resources Defense Council, EPA, Sierra Club, Republican, Companies, and Paper Association, National Association of Manufacturers, White House, American Lung Association, Visalia Locations: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Bakersfield , California, Fresno , California, Bakersfield, California's San Joaquin, U.S, California, West, Medford , Oregon, Phoenix

The effect of police violence on Black Americans is tracked in two new studies, with one tying police-involved deaths to sleep disturbances and the other finding a racial gap in injuries involving police use of Tasers. The health effects of police violence on Black people “need to be documented as a critical first step to reduce these harms,” three editors of JAMA Internal Medicine wrote in an editorial published Monday with the studies. For the sleep study, researchers looked at responses from more than 2 million people from 2013 through 2019 in two large government surveys. They focused on people's reports of sleep in the months following police-involved killings of unarmed Black people. ___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group.

Persons: Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, ”, Atheendar, Tasers, “, Kevin Griffith Organizations: Mapping, Justice Department, University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt University, Associated Press Health, Science Department, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science, Educational Media Group, AP Locations: U.S

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