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☆ Proud Boys members fined over $1 million in ‘hateful and overtly racist’ church destruction civil suit
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( Josh Campbell | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Members of the right-wing extremist group, the Proud Boys, have been ordered to pay more than a million dollars as part of a civil suit judgment involving the destruction of property in December 2020 at the predominantly Black campus of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, DC. DC Superior Court Judge Neal E. Kravitz approved Friday’s default judgment against Proud Boys members Joseph R. Biggs, Enrique Tarrio, Jeremy Bertino and John Turano, as well as the group’s limited liability corporation. In a blistering order, Kravitz described the “highly orchestrated” and “hateful and overtly racist conduct” from members of the Proud Boys during the “attack” on the Metropolitan AME church, in which a Black Lives Matter sign owned by the church was allegedly destroyed. A request for comment on the judgment has also been made to the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. According to Kravitz’s order, on December 12, 2020, several people in Proud Boys regalia “leaped over Metropolitan AME’s fence, entered the church’s property, and went directly to the Black Lives Matter sign.

Persons: Neal E, Kravitz, Joseph R, Biggs, Enrique Tarrio, Jeremy Bertino, John Turano, ”, “, Arthur Ago, Tarrio, Donald Trump, Joe Biden Organizations: CNN, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, DC, Proud Boys, Metropolitan AME, Tarrio, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal, “, Boys Locations: Washington , DC, Tarrio, Black, Washington

☆ Man Charged With Manslaughter After Subway Stabbing
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Hurubie Meko | Ana Ley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A Queens man was charged with stabbing and killing a man during a dispute on a New York City subway train on Tuesday night in Brooklyn, the police said. The man, Jordan Williams, 20, stabbed the victim, Devictor Ouedraogo, 36, on a northbound J train, the police said. Mr. Williams was arrested and charged on Wednesday with manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon. A woman who was taken into custody along with Mr. Williams was released. Before the men’s encounter, Mr. Ouedraogo had gotten into a dispute with passengers on the train, including Mr. Williams’s girlfriend, according to law enforcement sources.

Persons: Jordan Williams, Devictor Ouedraogo, Ouedraogo, Williams, Williams’s Organizations: Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital Locations: New York City, Brooklyn, Marcy, Williamsburg

☆ Investors in biggest climate pressure group don't like to pressure
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Tommy Wilkes | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Climate Action 100+ (CA100+), set up in 2017, comprises more than 700 investment firms representing $68 trillion in assets. At stake is whether CA100+ members use all the tools at their disposal to pressure climate laggards. FLAGGING CLIMATE LAGGARDSCA100+ posts on its website upcoming shareholder resolutions and board re-election votes but it doesn't recommend voting against directors at climate laggards. Wespath's sustainability director, Jake Barnett, said that challenging board directors over their climate policies was not being used widely enough "as a method of accountability". In at least one area there is compulsion; CA100+ members not responding to a survey asking for their engagement interests within a year could be delisted.

Persons: laggards, Xander Urbach, CA100, Francois Humbert, bodes, Eli Kasargod, Staub, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, Jake Barnett, MN's Urbach, Shell, Wael Sawan, Vincent Kaufmann, Tommy Reggiori Wilkes, Greg Roumeliotis, Susan Fenton Organizations: Reuters, MN, Generali Investments, Exxon Mobil Corp, Chevron, Valero Energy, Warren, Investments, The United Methodist Church, Shell, Ethos Foundation, Thomson Locations: Paris, Swiss

☆ One of the most dangerous hours in America is now 11 o’clock on Sunday morning
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( John Blake | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +19 min

It would also foreshadow a disturbing trend that has only worsened in subsequent years: 11 o’clock on Sunday morning is now one of the most dangerous hours of the week in America, pastors and church security officials say. Brady Boyd, senior pastor of New Life Church, the same church where Assam confronted a gunman 16 years ago. And in 2018, a gunman killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. But his church security does not have a monopoly on Sunday morning firepower. Consider this sobering Sunday morning scenario:A spiritual seeker visits a church and finds it filled with metal detectors and armed security guards carrying walkie-talkies.

Persons: Jeanne Assam, He’s, Beretta, Jake Stephens, Brian Snyder, ”, Brady Boyd, Boyd, “ That’s, Scott Olson, Rabbi Hillel Norry, Beth David, Norry, “, Kwon, Jeff Swensen, ” Norry, that’s, Shaukat Warraich, Dwayne Harris, Harris, Hope, ” Harris, Darren Hauck, Tim Russell, ‘ I’m, David Swanson, Pastors, Jesus ’, ” Boyd, Jesus, Tommy Mason, Mason, Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Saint Joseph, Beau Biden, Brendan Smialowski, Jerilee Bennett, George W . Bush, “ You’re Organizations: CNN, New, Church, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Reuters Churches, New Life, White, Texas Church of Christ, Baptist, Security, Police, House Church, Geneva Presbyterian, Colorado Springs, Marion County Baptist Association, Service, Brandywine Catholic, “ Police, AP, Minneapolis Police Department Locations: Colorado, Assam, Colorado Springs, America, Charleston , South Carolina, Sutherland Springs , Texas, Texas, Orange County , California, Oak Creek , Wisconsin, Pittsburgh, Georgia, Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania, That’s, New Zealand, Missouri, ”, Geneva, Laguna Woods , California, Marion, Alabama, Saint, Brandywine, Brandywine Catholic Church, Wilmington , Delaware, AFP, AP Assam

The deal to suspend the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling until January 2025 holds non-defense discretionary spending largely flat this year, with a 1% increase in fiscal 2024. SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE OFF LIMITSIn their debt limit negotiations, both President Joe Biden and House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy vowed not to touch the main driver of U.S. debt: rising Social Security pension and Medicare health benefit costs. Debt-ceiling negotiations spared cuts to mandatory spending like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security even though these programs cost more than discretionary spending. CBO projects the government will spend $6 trillion on mandatory spending programs in the 2033 fiscal year, up from $4.1 trillion this year. But the plan failed when then-president Barack Obama declined to endorse it, setting up Congress for the debt ceiling battle of 2011.

Persons: Joe Biden, Kevin McCarthy, Julia Nikhinson, Dennis Ippolito, you've, Nigel Chalk, Biden, Brian Riedl, Linda Bilmes, Bowles, Barack Obama, Bilmes, David Lawder, Andy Sullivan, Heather Timmons, Nick Zieminski Organizations: White, REUTERS, WASHINGTON, Republicans, Defense, Southern Methodist University, Congressional Budget Office, Security, Social Security, CBO, International Monetary Fund, Reuters, Democratic, Western Hemisphere Department, IMF, Manhattan Institute, Harvard Kennedy School, Commerce Department, Simpson, Thomson Locations: United States, Washington , U.S, U.S, Washington

☆ Will a Dollar General Ruin a Rural Crossroads?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Michael Corkery | Andrea Bruce | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Anne Hartley’s brick house in Ebony, Va., overlooks windswept fields, a Methodist church, a general store and the intersection of two country roads, a pastoral setting that evokes an Edward Hopper painting or a faded postcard from the South. Now this scene is being threatened, Ms. Hartley said, by a plan to build what every small American town seems to have: a Dollar General. A descendant of one of Ebony’s founding families, Ms. Hartley says the discount store — which would be built next to her home — will create traffic problems in the area, with people drawn to the brand’s signature yellow sign and its aisles filled with inexpensive food and household staples. Beyond the store itself, Ms. Hartley and many others with ties to Ebony think it will open the door to additional development that will spoil the character of their tiny, rural community of about 230 people. The name of their website and the rallying cry for their campaign against the Dollar General is “Keep Ebony Country.”

Persons: Anne, Edward Hopper, Hartley, Ebony, ” Organizations: Methodist, Dollar Locations: Ebony , Va, windswept

☆ At This Texas Campus Ministry, ‘Inclusive Love’ Is the Mission
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Eli Durst | Jennifer Harlan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Sydney Cox, 21, arrived on the University of Texas’s Austin campus in fall 2021, she was eager to find her people. During the worst of the pandemic, she had spent her freshman year attending classes over Zoom. Then, at the beginning of the second semester, she attended a kickoff event for the Texas Wesley Foundation, a Methodist campus ministry group founded at the school in 1923. Sydney had grown up Methodist and thought she knew what to expect from a Christian student organization. And that was huge to me.”It was the community Sydney had been looking for.

Persons: Sydney Cox, Wesley, “ It’s, ” Organizations: University of Texas’s, Texas Wesley Foundation, Methodist Locations: Sydney

☆ ‘After Sherman’ Review: A Family Reckoning
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Lisa Kennedy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

In the elegiac documentary “After Sherman,” cameras glide along waterways, soar above marshes, contemplate churches and travel down Southern roads lined by trees, the moss hanging like braids. Under the director Jon-Sesrie Goff’s gaze, these places are sacred, even as they remain haunted by a nation’s grievous racial history. “I’m Gullah, born in exile,” says Goff, who is based in New York, describing his place among the Gullah Geechee people of South Carolina. Dr. Norvel Goff Sr., a descendant of formerly enslaved people who purchased land in South Carolina after emancipation. Reverend Goff, who owns property in the Lowcountry, was also the interim pastor at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, after a self-identified white supremacist killed nine Black parishioners gathered for Bible study one evening in June 2015.

Persons: Sherman, Jon, ”, Goff, Norvel Goff, Reverend Goff Organizations: Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church Locations: Southern, New York, South Carolina, Charleston

☆ Ken Paxton's impeachment revealed how divided far-right and moderate Republicans in Texas have become, political scientist says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was impeached from office Saturday. Many of the Texas House members who voted to impeach him were Republicans themselves. Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, a moderate Republican who later helped impeach Paxton, was vocally opposed, calling it an improper use of taxpayer dollars. For Texas House Republicans, it was more about strategy. This GOP-on-GOP conflict in Texas reflects a national struggle between Republicans that rarely, if ever, plays out the way it did in Texas, Jillson said.

Persons: Ken Paxton, —, MAGA, Nate Paul —, Paxton, Paul, Cal Jillson, Jillson, Dade Phelan, Paxton —, Ken Paxton's, you've, Dan Patrick, Donald Trump, Phelan, It's, Kevin McCarthy, McCarthy, emasculating, Joe Biden Organizations: Texas House, GOP, Service, Southern Methodist University, Trump, Republican Party, Texas, Republican, New York Times, Texas House Republicans, Tea Party, The New York Times, Republicans, Caucus, Texas Republicans, Texas Republican Locations: Texas

Sixteen months after his infection, Mr. Muñoz’s lungs have recovered somewhat, but not completely. Tap to enableA 3-D visualization comparing a healthy set of lungs with Ms. Rodríguez’s lungs 14 months after her infection. Tilt your device to rotate lungs Slide to rotate lungs Slide to rotate lungsHealthy lungs are filled with millions of tiny air sacs called alveoli. Lung tissue with chronic damage shows scarred, thickened areas and collapsed sections with reduced airflow. Ms. Rodríguez has come closer to recovering, most likely helped by her youth and previous good health.

Persons: Andy Muñoz, Covid, ”, Howard Huang, It’s, Dr, Huang, Tom Kennedy, Kennedy, “, Marlene Rodríguez, Rodríguez, David Sayah, Sayah, “ She’s, ” Meridith Kohut, “ Covid, Mr, Muñoz, Meridith Kohut, ” Dr, Kennedy’s, Muñoz’s, Rodríguez’s, Melissa Raymundo, Ms, Raymundo, Gayle, Rodríguez didn’t, Vianney, José, it’s, “ We’re Organizations: New York Times, Houston Methodist Hospital, Covid, Medical Center, ”, The New York Times, USA Locations: La Porte , Texas, Houston, Atwater, Calif

☆ The oldest, most complete Hebrew Bible that went missing for 600 years sells for a record $38 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An ancient Hebrew Bible has just sold at Sotheby's auction house in New York for $38 million. The ancient text, written in around 900 AD, is the most complete early copy of the Hebrew Bible. Hence, the auction house says the nearly 800-page Codex Sassoon is "definitively the most significant early biblical manuscript in private hands." It includes 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, divided into the Torah, or "Pentateuch," the Nevi'im, or "prophets," and the Ketuvim, or "writings." The Hebrew Bible is the basis for what Christians call the Old Testament.

☆ A University Fired 2 Employees for Including Their Pronouns in Emails
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Liam Stack | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Raegan Zelaya and Shua Wilmot decided to include their pronouns at the end of their work emails, they thought they were doing a good thing: following what they viewed as an emerging professional standard, and also sending a message of inclusivity at the Christian university where they worked. But their bosses at Houghton University, in upstate New York, saw the matter very differently. When they refused to do so, both employees were fired, just weeks before the end of the semester. Houghton’s firing of the two staff members has dismayed some of its alumni, nearly 600 of whom signed a petition in protest. And it comes as gender and sexuality have become major fault lines in an increasingly divided nation, and after other faith-based organizations, including Yeshiva University in Manhattan, have argued that First Amendment protections of religious freedom allow them to treat gay and transgender people differently than others.

☆ Bosses listen up: Having a side hustle actually makes workers feel more empowered at their day jobs, research finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Side hustles may actually make employees better at their full time jobs, a 2021 study found. "They can have these positive, enriching experiences that carry forward into their full-time work," he said. "They can have these positive, enriching experiences that carry forward into their full-time work," Sessions told podcast producer Charlotte Gartenberg of side hustlers. The perception of side gigs and those who have them has shifted in recent decades, Sessions told As We Work. "So when I say it can help your job, it will help your job to the extent that you can feel empowered by it," Sessions told the Journal.

☆ The Coronation of King Charles: Order of Service
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +46 min

The Archbishop saysI here present unto you King Charles, your undoubted King: Wherefore all you who are come this day to do your homage and service, are you willing to do the same? Christopher Finney GC saysI here present unto you King Charles, your undoubted King: Wherefore all you who are come this day to do your homage and service, are you willing to do the same? We praise thee, we bless thee,we worship thee, we glorify thee,we give thanks to thee for thy great glory,O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty. O clap your hands together, all ye people;O sing unto God with the voice of melody. The King touches the Ring and the Archbishop saysReceive this Ring, symbol of kingly dignity and a sign of the covenant sworn this day, between God and King, King and people.

☆ Citing 'death threats,' Texas judge asked attorneys to keep news of hearing on legality of abortion pill quiet
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The Alliance For Hippocratic Medicine wants Judge Kacsmaryk to nullify the FDA's medical approval of mifepristone, which would effectively ban the abortion pill across the US. But Kacsmaryk asked the attorneys to not to publicize the hearing, citing security concerns. Those present at the Friday conference call included lawyers from the Justice Department, the abortion pill maker Danco Laboratories, and a group that opposes abortion called the Alliance Defending Freedom. A group of physicians who oppose abortion called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine asked Kacsmaryk in November to order the Food and Drug Administration to withdraw its approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. The abortion pill has become the central flashpoint in the legal battle over access to abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade last June.

☆ TikTok's 'lucky girls' say they manifest success by simply believing things always work out for them — because, why not?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The "lucky girl" technique has been criticized as pseudoscience, wishful thinking, and little more than pop psychology. "If you want to be that lucky girl, you've got to step into her and embody her." She sees being a lucky girl as a "way to have control and hope," she said. "When you believe you're lucky, you follow the cues that come to you, and trust that the universe will do its part." Natasha BadgerFor Badger, "lucky-girl syndrome" is akin to a spiritual practice.

☆ Nikki Haley barely mentions her 2 years working for Trump in her 2024 presidential campaign launch video
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Nikki Haley officially announced on Tuesday that she's running for president in 2024. But she makes almost no mention of her tenure as UN ambassador in her campaign launch video. It underscores the difficult path ahead for Haley, who once said she wouldn't challenge Trump in 2024. But her campaign launch video makes almost no references to the nearly two years that she spent working for Trump as US ambassador to the United Nations. Haley is set to formally launch her campaign at an event in South Carolina on Wednesday.

☆ Kansas Plan to Give Former Mission School to the Shawnee Divides Tribes
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Shannon Najmabadi | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Shawnee Indian Mission in Fairway, Kan., where children from up to 23 Native American tribes were sent in the 19th century. FAIRWAY, Kan.—The brick buildings at the heart of this affluent Kansas City suburb were once a Methodist-run boarding school for Native American children. Later, the site was a supply stop along the Oregon Trail, a camp for Union soldiers and the backdrop to Bleeding Kansas, a bloody period of fighting that presaged the Civil War. Now, the Fairway mission is at the center of another conflict: Who should own it?

☆ Patients got used to emailing their doctors with health questions during the pandemic. Now hospitals are charging them.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Aidan Pollard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Hospitals are charging patients for their emails and other correspondence with doctors. Some hospital officials say the strategy increases healthcare access, but advocates worry charges could deter patients who need care. Hospitals nationwide have begun to charge for emails and other correspondence with their doctors, the Associated Press reported. After Covid led patients to avoid crowded hospitals and waiting rooms, and condense what used to be in-person visits to emails and video calls, hospitals say doctors spent more time responding to health question emails and messages, the Associated Press reported. But advocates worry the strategy will lead patients to avoid seeking care when they need it, for fear of being charged.

☆ RowVaughn Wells begs parents not to show kids video of her son Tyre Nichols being beaten by Memphis police
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | Haven Orecchio-Egresitz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Tyre Nichols' mom pleaded with parents not to let kids see body-cam footage of her son's beating. His mom said Friday that she hasn't seen the video but heard it's "very horrific, very horrific." Prosecutors say 29-year-old Nichols, who was Black, was severely beaten by five now-fired Memphis Police Department officers during a traffic stop on January 7. Attorneys for the Nichols family who have seen the body camera video said it shows five Black officers beating Nichols like a "human pinata" for three straight minutes. A portrait of Tyre Nichols is displayed at a memorial service for him on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023 in Memphis, Tenn. Nichols was killed during a traffic stop with Memphis Police on Jan. 7.

☆ How AI is detecting heart attack risk and aiming to outsmart America’s No. 1 killer
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Kerima Greene | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Cleerly founder and CEO James Min, a cardiologist, started the company to find a better way to assess heart health, by applying AI to the problem. Heart disease is the nation's No. CNBC: What are indirect markers of heart disease? Min: Many emergency department visits for heart attacks are preventable if risk factors for heart disease are identified in advance. Using millions of annotated CCTA images, Cleerly algorithms quantify and characterize atherosclerosis and its features.

☆ Missouri's abortion ban declares 'Almighty God is the author of life.' Faith leaders beg to differ in new suit.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Stephanie Russell-Kraft | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Missouri's abortion ban completely outlaws abortion with limited exceptions. The clergy, who come from denominations of Christianity, Unitarian Universalism, and Judaism, said the abortion ban violates their religious freedom and subjects them to "the religious dictates of others." "It came from religious leaders and communities, who have been explaining for decades that they see reproductive freedom as essential to religious freedom." But Missouri lawmakers openly discussed their religious beliefs on abortion while writing the abortion ban in 2019 according to the lawsuit, saying things like "Life begins at conception. There have also been more than a dozen cases challenging abortion restrictions on religious freedom grounds since the Supreme Court's decision, according to Platt.

☆ After Indiana Univ. stabbing, Asian American students say they haven’t received enough support from school
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

Since the incident, a sense of shock has rippled through the school’s Asian community. The students say that conversations around the incident have been active among the Asian Americans on campus. Karen Cheng, a senior at the university and the president of the school’s Asian American Association, noted a similar sense of fear. As an Asian American woman, she said, public safety concerns predate the tragedy. But the community is also flanked by some areas with white supremacist activity, something many Asian American students are aware of, Cheng said.

☆ Yale research: Highly successful people argue differently
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Natasha Piñon | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

One group was instructed to adopt a competitive mentality in order to "win" the argument, while the other group was told to "argue to learn." An "arguing to learn" mentality rests in viewing contentious conversations as collaborative exchanges that can deepen your understanding of a given topic, rather than battles to be won. That mentality can hold the key to success: Research shows open-minded people perceive the world around them differently, leading to an increase in happiness and creativity. One of his key takeaways from the study is that approaching hot-button issues from an "arguing to learn" mentality can help shift your own thinking. You're getting the right answer more often," he explains.

☆ 'Developmentally disabled' woman found three weeks after going missing in New York on subway
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Mirna-Alsharif-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Mirna Alsharif | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

A 47-year-old "developmentally disabled" woman was found on Saturday three weeks after going missing in New York on the subway in lower Manhattan, officials say. She was also taken to the Queens Hospital Center by a team of New York Fire Department medics and "discharged only a few hours later," according to the consulate general. Primus was finally found in Manhattan on Saturday a little over three weeks after going missing, according to police and the consulate general. It's not clear where Primus stayed in the weeks she was missing. Primus' family did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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