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IRS says its agents will no longer make unannounced visits at taxpayers' doors 2023-07-25 - The IRS on Monday said its agents will end most unannounced visits to taxpayers, in what the agency calls a "major policy change" geared toward reducing "public confusion" and improving safety for its employees. The announcement comes after some Republican lawmakers warned last year that new funding for the IRS would result in thousands of new agency employees that would boost the number of audits of middle-class Americans, even though the Biden administration has said audit rates won't change for people making less than $400,000. Some on social media also warned, without evidence, that the IRS planned to arm agents, stoking fear among some taxpayers. The IRS noted that the new policy reverses a decades-long practice of IRS revenue officers — who are unarmed — visiting households and businesses to collect unpaid taxes and unfiled tax returns. But, effective immediately, unannounced visits will instead be replaced with mailed letters to schedule meetings, the agency said. "We are taking a fresh look at how the IRS operates to better serve taxpayers and the nation, and making this change is a common-sense step," IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement. "Changing this long-standing procedure will increase confidence in our tax administration work and improve overall safety for taxpayers and IRS employees." The union representing Treasury workers, the National Treasury Employees Union, said on Monday that recent "false, inflammatory rhetoric about the agency and its workforce" had made their jobs less safe, and added that it supports the new policy. It noted that the union had flagged "dangerous situations" encountered by IRS Field Collection employees to the agency. "As long as elected officials continue to mislead the American people about the legal, legitimate role that IRS employees play in our democracy, NTEU will continue to insist on better security for the employees we represent," NTEU National President Tony Reardon said in a separate statement. He added, "It is outrageous that our nation's civil servants have to live in fear just because they chose a career in public service."
America's gender pay gap has shrunk to an all-time low, data shows 2023-07-25 - Gender pay gap at lowest point ever, but women still make 16% less than men The pay gap between what U.S. women with a full-time job earn compared with their male peers is now the smallest on record, according to the Labor Department. Women now make 84 cents for every $1 men earn for similar work, with a median weekly paycheck of $1,001 for female workers compared to $1,185 for men, federal data shows. Although that suggests women continue to face obstacles in the workplace, the latest figures also point to a measure of progress — a decade ago, on average women nationwide earned 78% of men's earnings. And when the U.S. government first started tracking pay by gender in 1979, the average working woman made 62% of what men in similar jobs earned. Several factors are helping to reduce the gender pay gap, Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, told CBS News. "Women are getting more education and they're having children later, so they're focusing on their careers more," she said. The pandemic has also played a role, boosting demand in some traditionally female-dominated professions while making working women's lives easier in other industries. Nurse practitioners, pharmacists and health services managers — jobs that are mostly done by women — have seen a large boost in pay in recent years, Pollak said. The shift to remote work and increased flexibility in some white-collar jobs has also had an effect, she added, making it easier for women, who still do most of the caretaking, to balance family and career. "Norms are changing, more fathers are participating in child care, and women are increasingly entering male-dominated fields like construction and computer-related fields," Pollak said. Although the gender pay gap persists, Pollak predicted the difference will continue to narrow, noting that the differential in earnings is even smaller for women ages 16 to 24. "The younger generation of women are seeing themselves as career women first, and they are demanding to be treated equally in the workplace," she said. Government policy, such as those mandating increased paid family leave and greater subsidies for child care, can help close the gap even further, Pollak added. For women workers who wonder if they're being underpaid, research is crucial — especially if they're applying for a position that doesn't disclose pay upfront. Especially in male-dominated fields, like technology and law, women are often less informed about the market rate for work and ask for lower salaries than men, Pollak said. "Getting informed first, knowing what the pay is in that role, is crucial so you can negotiate and put your best foot forward," she said.
Ivy colleges favor rich kids for admission, while middle-class students face obstacles, study finds 2023-07-25 - Admission to an Ivy League college or a similarly elite institution like MIT is often seen as a golden ticket offering entry into academic institutions that have collectively produced more than 4 in 10 U.S. presidents and 1 in 8 CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. But that ticket is far more likely to be handed out to students who are already privileged irrespective of their academic credentials— the children of the top 1% of U.S. income earners, a new analysis finds. "Ivy plus" colleges — the eight Ivy League colleges along with MIT, Stanford, Duke and University of Chicago — admit children from families in the top 1% at more than twice the rate of students in any other income group with similar SAT or ACT scores, according to the new analysis from the Opportunity Insights, a group of economists at Harvard University who study inequality. Families in the top 1% of earners typically have annual income of around $611,000, the researchers said. "It's a very broadly held position that your opportunities in life shouldn't depend on the circumstances of your birth, and in some sense that's the core of the American dream," noted John Friedman, an economics professor at Brown University and a co-author of the paper. "When you have these practices in society that serve to add more advantage to those students who already come from advantaged backgrounds, that limits the ability of other students to achieve those successes in life and it limits the American dream." A less economically diverse group of students at Ivy-plus universities also has implications for leadership roles in business, politics and other industries, he noted. "When you have a less diverse group of students, it will be a less diverse group that get this boost toward these leadership positions later in their careers," Friedman added. Stuck in the middle It may come as no surprise that the likes of Harvard, Yale and Princeton favor the children of the ultra-wealthy, but the study also shows that academically high-performing students from middle-income families are among the least likely to gain admission to one these elite colleges. About 40% of students from the richest families who scored at the 99th percentile on the SAT or ACT class attend an Ivy-plus college, compared with 20% of students with the same scores who come from the poorest U.S. families. Among middle-class students who have the same top SAT or ACT scores, only about 10% attend an Ivy-plus college, the analysis found. "If you look at where students have attendance rates that are higher versus lower, comparing students with the same score on academic credentials, it's a little bit of a U — it's lowest for students who are upper middle income, earning maybe $80,000 to $150,000 a year," Friedman said. "Those students have the lowest rates." The study comes as the Supreme Court recently ended affirmative action in college admission decisions, effectively ending the use of race as a basis for consideration in whether to accept an applicant. The end of affirmative action has drawn scrutiny to other forms of preference at top colleges, such as children whose parents are alumni, called "legacy" admissions, or who are wealthy. "Highly selective private colleges serve as gateways to the upper echelons of society in the United States," wrote Friedman and his co-authors Raj Chetty and David Deming of Harvard. "Because these colleges currently admit students from high-income families at substantially higher rates than students from lower-income families with comparable academic credentials, they perpetuate privilege across generations." These colleges could make their student bodies more socioeconomically diverse by changing their admissions policies, the researchers noted. These steps would include ending legacy admissions and evaluating non-academic qualities that account for the impact of privilege. The findings also suggest that middle-income students may be at a disadvantage compared with either their wealthy or low-income peers. In effect, such students neither have enough wealth to give them a foot in the door, nor are they among the demographic groups that colleges have courted in recent decades to foster diversity. Students in the middle of the income distribution are "having kind of the least opportunities to rise to these leadership positions, [when] comparing students with similar academic credentials," he added. Ivy League impact The impact of getting an elite education can be significant in a student's trajectory after college, the researchers noted. The group analyzed applicants who were put on the waitlist at Ivy-plus institutions, and then compared the outcomes of students who were either admitted off the waitlist or were ultimately rejected. "Compared to attending highly selective flagship public colleges, students who attend Ivy-plus colleges are 60% more likely to earn in the top 1%, twice as likely to attend a graduate school ranked in the top 10, and three times more likely to work at prestigious employers in medicine, research, law, finance and other fields," they noted. Of course, plenty of students who attend colleges that aren't among the Ivy-plus achieve success in their careers. And the Ivy-plus colleges enroll less than 1% of college students. Yet because the oversize impact of these schools in creating the next generation of leaders and the rich, they face more scrutiny for their acceptance policies than other universities. "We conclude that even though they educate a small share of students overall and therefore cannot change rates of social mobility by themselves, Ivy-plus colleges could meaningfully diversify the socioeconomic origins of society's leaders by changing their admissions practices," the authors noted.
Trader Joe's cookies recalled because they may contain rocks 2023-07-25 - Trader Joe's recalling cookies that may contain rocks Trader Joe's recalls cookies that may contain rocks Trader Joe's recalls cookies that may contain rocks Trader Joe's is recalling two kinds of almond cookies because they may contain rocks, the popular retail chain announced. Consumers in possession of these cookies are being urged by the supermarket to throw them away or return them to any Trader Joe's store for a refund. "If you purchased or received any donations of Almond Windmill Cookies and/or Dark Chocolate Chunk and Almond Cookies, please do not eat them," the company said. The cookies are no longer on the shelves, the company said, noting: "All potentially affected product has been removed from sale and destroyed." It's not clear how many boxes are affected or how the rocks got into the cookies. The affected products include: Almond Windmill Cookies (SKU #98744) with "sell by" dates of Oct. 19 through Oct. 21, 2023. Dark Chocolate Chunk and Almond Cookies (SKU #82752) with "sell by" dates of Oct. 17 through Oct. 21, 2023. Almond Windmill Cookies and Dark Chocolate Chunk and Almond Cookies product in packaging. Trader Joe's Shoppers can contact Trader Joe's Customer Relations at (626) 599-3817, Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. through 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, or email the company through its contact form, for more information.
"Buy now, pay later" plans can rack up steep interest charges. Here's what shoppers should know. 2023-07-25 - Although U.S. consumers have embraced "buy now, pay later" loans in part because of marketing claims that they offer zero-percent financing, shoppers should be on their guard. Some BNPL products charge exorbitant interest rates, along with heavy fees when you miss a payment, according to Consumer Reports. The loans allow consumers to split payments into smaller installments and spread them out over time, helping them make purchases they might not otherwise be able to afford. But the nonprofit advocacy organization urges consumers to read the fine print, while the group is also calling on federal regulators to adopt stronger policy measures to mitigate consumer risks posed by evolving industry practices. The most common BNPL loans are "pay in four" products, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. These short-term credit plans divide the total amount of a purchase, usually ranging from $50 to $1,000, into four equal payments. Consumers pay the first 25% at the point of sale and the remaining three installments over the next six weeks — with no interest or fees. Apple in March became the latest retailer to hop on the bandwagon by launching Apple Pay Later, a new service in its digital wallet that lets customers break up payments for purchases into four installments over six weeks. Just over half of Americans say they expect to apply for a BNPL loan at least once in the next six months, a recent Lending Tree study found. The industry's meteoric growth also has led to new products by companies like Affirm, Klarna, PayPal and Sezzle. But these larger loans can have longer terms and, unlike "pay-in-four" products, may carry interest rates as high as 36.99%, while shoppers can also find themselves hit with late fees of $30 or more for a single missed payment, according to Consumer Reports. Of consumers who got a BNPL loan in 2021, 11% had one that charged interest, according to a survey from the Financial Health Network. High interest rates make longer-term buy now, pay later plans more expensive than the average credit card. Take a $2,500 loan with a longer-term BNPL and an APR of 36.99%. Paid over 24 months, a borrower would end up paying $1,074 in interest charges, according to Consumer Reports. By comparison, a $2,500 purchase made with a credit card with a 24% APR that is paid after two years would cost $672 in interest. Unlike credit cards, meanwhile, buy now, pay later loans lack basic consumer protections. That's because, despite these products' widespread use, they are largely unregulated. Despite increased scrutiny by the CFPB, which has indicated that regulations are coming for the products, a consumer's only real protection is to be aware of the financial risks. Along with potentially getting hit by stiff interest charges, those include the risk of overspending, incurring heft penalty fees, and challenges making returns or disputing charges. "Buy now, pay later loans fall into a legal gray area that leaves consumers vulnerable to getting tripped up by unfair practices without the protections they get with other forms of credit," Jennifer Chien, senior policy counsel for financial fairness at Consumer Reports, said in a statement. "The CFPB should establish new rules for this largely unregulated market so consumers are treated fairly and aren't surprised by interest charges and other unexpected costs when they take out a buy now, pay later loan." In the meantime, here are seven tips from Consumer Reports on avoiding the potential pitfalls of BNPLs.
Georgia movie industry hit amid ongoing Hollywood strike 2023-07-25 - The ongoing Hollywood strike is impacting businesses that depend on the movie industry for survival, including those far from Los Angeles. For over a week, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — the actors' union known as SAG-AFTRA — has been striking in demand of better pay and protections. The Writers Guild of America has also been striking since May, with the studios on the other side refusing to negotiate. The movement means Billy Biggar's family-owned prop house in Chamblee, Georgia, which is typically bustling with activity, is now eerily quiet. The company usually rents props to 30 productions annually, but currently, no items are being dispatched, and revenue streams have ceased. "It's hard to keep upbeat," Biggar said. "When your clients are shut down, you're shut down."' Biggar's warehouse has seen demand for props plummet due to the strike. "It's gonna get hairy," said Biggar, highlighting the financial difficulties many individuals and businesses could face if the actors' strike persists until December. Georgia is a major hub for movie-making. Four out of Hollywood's six highest domestic-grossing films were shot in the state, including "Black Panther," two "Avengers" movies and "Spiderman: No Way Home." But Georgia isn't alone in feeling the impact. The movie businesses in the South produces at least $3.5 billion in annual wages and more than 46,000 jobs. Entertainment industry workers in North Carolina, Texas and Florida are also affected. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is on the other side of the dispute. The trade association represents companies including Paramount Studios, which has the same parent company as CBS News. It claims to have offered historic pay and residual increases, as well as additional protections. However, striking actors and writers argue that the proposals fail to adequately address their concerns. At Drama Inc, an acting school in Atlanta, working actors are grappling with the challenges the strike presents. "Everybody has a side-hustle gig to hopefully sustain them in between jobs," said Jordan Cox, one of the actors affected. Some CBS News staff are SAG-AFTRA members. But they work under a different contract than the actors and are not affected by the strike.
Tech Firms Once Powered New York’s Economy. Now They’re Scaling Back. 2023-07-25 - New York is doing better than San Francisco — Manhattan has a vacancy rate of 13.5 percent — but it can no longer count on the technology industry for growth. More than one-third of the roughly 22 million square feet of office space available for sublet in Manhattan comes from technology, advertising and media companies, according to Newmark. Consider Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. It is now unloading a big chunk of the more than 2.2 million square feet of office space it gobbled up in Manhattan in recent years after laying off around 1,700 employees this year, or a quarter of its New York State work force. The company has opted not to renew leases covering 250,000 square feet in Hudson Yards and for 200,000 square feet on Park Avenue South. Spotify is trying to sublet five of the 16 floors it leased six years ago in 4 World Trade Center, and Roku is offering a quarter of the 240,000 square feet it had taken in Times Square just last year. Twitter, Microsoft and other technology companies are also trying to sublease unwanted space. “The tech companies were such a big part of the real estate landscape during the last five years,” said Ruth Colp-Haber, the chief executive of Wharton Property Advisors, a real estate brokerage. “And now that they seem to be cutting back, the question is: Who is going to replace them?” Ms. Colp-Haber said it could take months for bigger spaces or entire floors of buildings to be sublet. The large amount of space available for sublet is also driving down the rents that landlords are able to get on new leases.
Could the Next Pandemic Start at the County Fair? 2023-07-25 - It was showtime at the youth swine exhibition, and the pig barn was bustling. The competitors, ages 3 to 21, were practicing their walks for the show ring and brushing pig bristles into place. Parents were braiding children’s hair, adding ribbons and pig-shaped barrettes. Dr. Andrew Bowman, a molecular epidemiologist at Ohio State University, was striding through the barn in waterproof green overalls, searching for swine snot. As he slipped into one pen, a pig tried to nose its way out, then started nibbling his shoelaces. Dr. Bowman prefers not to enter the pens, he said, as he wiped gauze across the animal’s nose. He soon spotted a more appealing subject: a pig sticking its nose out from between the bars of its enclosure. “We have a total bias for snouts out,” he said. Later, back in the lab, Dr. Bowman and his colleagues would discover that several of the snouts snuffling around this busy barn in New Lexington, Ohio, were harboring influenza. The world is emerging from a pandemic that killed at least 6.9 million people. It won’t be the last. Outbreaks of zoonotic diseases, which can spread between animals and humans, have become more frequent in recent decades, and animal pathogens will continue spilling over into human populations in the years ahead. To Americans, spillover might seem like a distant problem, a danger that dwells in places like the live animal market in Wuhan, China, that may have been the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Senate Committee Presses Leon Black on Epstein Tax Advice 2023-07-25 - A Senate committee is investigating whether $158 million that the billionaire investor Leon Black paid the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein for tax and estate planning services should have been classified as a gift, as part of a broader inquiry into tax-avoidance schemes by ultrawealthy individuals, according to a letter reviewed by The New York Times. In addition to the fees that Mr. Black said he had paid Mr. Epstein, the Senate Finance Committee is looking into several trusts that Mr. Black used to save on taxes and advice that Mr. Epstein gave on art purchases, according to the letter, which the committee’s chairman, Senator Ron Wyden, sent to the private equity mogul on Monday. Mr. Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, wrote that the committee was dissatisfied with the information that Mr. Black, a co-founder of Apollo Global Management, had provided it to date and requested his cooperation. “A significant number of open questions remain regarding the tax-avoidance scheme you implemented with Epstein’s assistance, including whether the exorbitant amounts paid to Epstein should have been classified as a gift for federal tax purposes,” the senator wrote. Gifts exceeding an annual threshold in value are subject to federal taxes ranging from 18 to 40 percent.
'Very serious federal felonies': Katyal says Trump faces likely Jan. 6 indictment 2023-07-25 - MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell is joined by former Acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal and former U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy who was the lead investigator for the January 6th Committee to discuss Trump telling his supporter he's going to be indicted again "any day now." July 25, 2023
‘Here’s a cautionary tale’: Joy Reid on her image, voice being used in deep fake scam 2023-07-25 - The boom in AI technology has made it much harder to tell if what we are seeing online is real or fake. Joy Reid shares a cautionary tale in which her image and voice were stolen for use in a deep fake scam. July 25, 2023
‘This is sick stuff’: Julián Castro slams Texas razor wire river barrier targeting migrants 2023-07-25 - The Justice Department is suing Texas and Texas Governor Greg Abbott over a 1,000-foot floating barrier and an additional razor wire barrier that the state deployed across part of the Rio Grande, a river stretching between Texas and Mexico, this month. The DOJ had warned Abbott that his moves violated federal law, raised humanitarian concerns, and presented serious risks to public safety and the environment. Joy Reid and her panel discuss.July 25, 2023
Ken’s “Barbie” character parodies real-world toxic masculinity 2023-07-25 - “Barbie has a great day every day, but Ken only has a great day if Barbie looks at him,” the narrator, voiced by Helen Mirren, says in the beginning of “Barbie.” It is one of the most iconic and searing lines of the film because of the painful truth it contains: Men are raised to understand their own value as being inextricably bound with their sexuality. The uproarious laughter in the movie theater where I watched "Barbie" was a good indicator that the film wrestles with some uncomfortable truths. Much like the rest of the film, which both plays into and subverts gendered stereotypes, the line operates on multiple levels: It places the central male character under the female gaze, inverting the status quo, and it speaks to a larger truth. The uproarious laughter in the movie theater where I watched "Barbie" was a good indicator that the film wrestles with some uncomfortable truths. And this is precisely why it’s provoked the ire of critics on the right, many of whom rabidly object to the film without having seen it. (“Barbie is Nuclear Level Feminist Nonsense That HATES Men & Pushes Gender Ideologies Onto Children,” one YouTuber, who railed against the film he had not seen, named his video review. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, joined a long list of Republicans who’ve tried to make “Barbie” the enemy of the state.) The feminist blockbuster with its record-breaking $155-million opening weekend — a cultural phenomenon even before it had been released, thanks to its near-unhinged levels of marketing — offers us a humorous, and very pink, critique on the patriarchy and the performativity of gender. It adeptly and accessibly explores the crisis that is masculinity. It is not so much that there is a crisis of masculinity as it is that masculinity is itself a crisis. And, much to the shock and delight of my anti-Barbie doll, feminist, queer heart, the film offers many of the same critiques on masculinity that feminist cultural critic bell hooks offered us. In her pioneering book, “The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love,” hooks unpacks a number of ideas we see explored in the film, specifically in Ken’s (played by Ryan Gosling) narrative arc. (Warning: spoilers ahead.) The film begins with Ken pining for Barbie’s attention in Barbie’s matriarchal world, before following Barbie into the real world, where he discovers patriarchy (uh oh). This becomes an outlet for all the pain, anguish, and rage associated with his masculinity, which he quickly exports back into Barbie’s world, transforming it into an absurdist version of the real world, before the Barbies are able to band together to put an end to it. During patriarchy’s dystopian reign in Barbie’s world, the Kens convert all the Barbie dream houses into man caves, replete with saloon-style doors, leather sofas, and flatscreen TVs with horses on them, repudiating all that is aesthetically feminine. As hooks writes in “The Will to Change,” “A man who is unabashedly and unequivocally committed to patriarchal masculinity will both fear and hate all that the culture deems feminine and womanly.” Ken’s vengefulness, which masks his rage, shame, and insecurities, is largely a byproduct of Barbie’s lack of sexual-romantic interest in him. Ken is the prototypical patriarchal man, who is raised to believe his identity and worth are explicitly tied to his sexuality and ability to sexually dominate women. “[T]he underlying message boys receive about sexual acts is that they will be destroyed if they are not in control, exercising power,” hooks reflects. Later in the book, she adds: “To take the inherent positive sexuality of males and turn it into violence is the patriarchal crime that is perpetuated against the male body … Men know what is happening, they have simply been taught not to speak the truth of their bodies, the truth of their sexualities.” What’s more, sex (or, in Ken’s case, simply spending the night with Barbie because neither he nor Barbie has genitals, nor do they fully grasp what sex is) becomes an outlet for all the anxieties associated with his masculinity. “Sex, then, becomes a way of self-solacing,” hooks writes. “It is not about connecting to someone else but rather about releasing their own pain.” hooks describes how this dynamic, whereby sex offers a brief reprieve from the strictures of patriarchal masculinity, often creates an addictive relationship with sex. “The addict is often an individual in acute pain. Patriarchal men have no outlet to express their pain, so they simply release,” she writes. Ken’s vengefulness, which masks his rage, shame, and insecurities, is largely a byproduct of Barbie’s lack of sexual-romantic interest in him. In the final scene of “Barbie” — after the Barbie dolls’ successful uprising — Ken completely unravels, to original Barbie (Margot Robbie), spiraling into an existential crisis when he is denied everything he believes defines him and his manhood. Chiefly, this includes Barbie’s sexual-romantic interest, his ability to dominate others, and his attachment to capitalism (nothing quite says “man” like minifridges and Adidas boxing shoes). In other words, he believes his value is defined by the things he can achieve, rather than who he is. “In an anti-patriarchal culture males do not have to prove their value and worth,” hooks writes “They know from birth that simply being gives them value, the right to be cherished and loved.” It is precisely this antidote to patriarchal masculinity which Barbie offers Ken: She encourages him to explore who he is, what he likes, not what he thinks he should like, not what he thinks others want him to like. She encourages him to recover his sense of self and assures him that that who is is enough. Before Ken’s catharsis, guided solely by Barbie (a woman willing to do his emotional labor), we see him repressing his authenticity into oblivion. First, performing a version of himself that he thinks will win Barbie’s attention and affections. Then, performing a version of himself that he thinks the Kens will respect and will allow him to dominate. He is gripped by self-loathing; in attempting to kill off parts of himself, he loses the ability to love both himself and others. According to hooks, this is a form of cultural abuse patriarchal masculinity enacts on men. At the film’s end, Barbie is confronted with a choice: To remain a doll or become a human. The film’s writers — Greta Gerwig and her husband, Noah Baumbach — enjoy a self-reflexive moment, after two hours of wrestling with some of our most complex and damaging superstructures. “Humans only have one ending,” the ghost of Ruth Handler, Barbie’s inventor, tells Barbie. “Ideas live forever.” The feminist critique woven into the fabric of the film, albeit limiting and superficial at times (it is, afterall, a Barbie film), gives Handler’s words even more meaning. As Ken’s tie-dye hoodie declares at the end (“I am Kenough”), men, in their humanness, are always kenough — an idea which will hopefully prevail and long outlast the works of hooks and Gerwig, for all of our sakes.
Florida and Ron DeSantis education standards resurrect racist myths 2023-07-25 - On Friday afternoon, Vice President Kamala Harris urged a crowd of supporters at Jacksonville, Florida’s Ritz Theatre to guard against politicians who want us to forget this country’s history — especially its darkest moments. “Let us not be seduced into believing that somehow we will be better if we forget,” she said to the packed theater. “We will be better if we remember. We will be stronger if we remember.” Her remarks joined a chorus of criticism in response to the Florida Board of Education’s new standards for teaching Black history in public schools. The 216-page document, approved last Wednesday, details Black history lessons that selectively omit or obscure facts about America’s history of anti-Black violence. The standards, for example, require middle school students to learn “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” Criticizing this latest prong of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ efforts to whitewash black history, Harris said Friday, “They want to replace history with lies.” The NAACP and 10 other organizations have also written a letter to Ben Gibson, a member of the Florida Board of Education, criticizing the new standards for removing or rewriting “the full unvarnished history of this state and country.” Part of that “unvarnished truth” includes the fact that we have been here before. We have stomached the argument that slavery somehow benefited the enslaved before. See, for example, the story of a man named John Brown. Brown was enslaved in the mid-1800s and subjected to excruciating experiments by a Georgia doctor named Thomas Hamilton. Hamilton believed there were physiological differences between Black and white people. And he used Brown’s body to prove it. After he escaped slavery, Brown described what happened to him in an autobiography: “[Dr. Hamilton] set to work to ascertain how deep my black skin went. This he did by applying blisters to my hands, legs and feet, which bear the scars to this day.” That happened because Hamilton, a slave owner, was trying to scientifically bolster the prevailing ideology that Black people were mentally and physically inferior to white people. That happened because Hamilton, a slave owner, was trying to scientifically bolster the prevailing ideology that Black people were mentally and physically inferior to white people and, therefore, benefited from enslavement. That thinking was so pervasive at the time it spawned propaganda like this print from slavery apologists, who pushed a narrative that enslaved Black people in America were better off than white factory workers in Britain. And it provided material for slaveholders like South Carolina Sen. John Calhoun, who in an 1837 speech argued that slavery was a boon to Black people: “Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually,” he said. This kind of thinking gave rise to junk science like “Drapetomania,” which translates to “runaway madness.” It was a clinical term coined during the 1850s and based on the belief that slavery so vastly improved the lives of the enslaved they would have to be mentally ill to run away. The term was not removed from all medical textbooks until after 1914. Human experiments, racist propaganda and fake science were used to push ideology we all know now is false. Black people did not benefit from slavery, obviously. And yet, the old racist tropes from the 1850s — that slavery benefited the enslaved — are now being resurrected in Florida. And middle schoolers in Florida may soon be required to learn about them. In addition, high schoolers in the Florida’s public school system will now be taught that race massacres, like the brutal Ocoee riot of 1920, also included “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.” In reality, a white mob killed dozens of people in Ocoee after a Black man tried to vote and register others to vote. Those guidelines in the Florida Board of Education’s new standards downplay America’s history of anti-Black violence. And, as part of their campaign to Make America Florida, state officials want to export those standards nationally. This is an adapted excerpt from the July 20 episode of “Alex Wagner Tonight.”
Ron DeSantis didn't think through his New College takeover 2023-07-25 - In January, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed six new conservative members to the board of trustees at New College of Florida, including noted anti-critical race theory advocate Christopher Rufo, who’d claimed the public university had been corrupted by “woke nihilism.” The board then ousted the college’s president and made a former Republican Florida House speaker (and DeSantis ally) the interim president. But as The Tampa Bay Times reported on July 18, since those changes at New College, more than a third of the faculty, 36 people total, have departed. Since those changes at New College, more than a third of the faculty, 36 people total, have departed. The story about New College was published a day after The Texas Tribune reported that Kathleen O. McElroy, one of the nation’s preeminent professors of journalism and who is currently at the University of Texas-Austin, decided against joining the faculty at Texas A&M University, her alma mater, even after the school held a public event celebrating her being hired. She said conservative advocates had complained about her past employment with The New York Times and her work to increase diversity in journalism, and she showed The Texas Tribune multiple revisions to her job offer. “This offer letter ... really makes it clear that they don’t want me there,” she said. “But in no shape, form or fashion would I give up a tenured position at UT for a one-year contract that emphasizes that you can be let go at any point.” The fallout from McElroy going public with the way she was disrespected included an announcement from Texas A&M’s interim dean of Arts and Sciences that he’s stepping down from that role at the end of this month and the resignation of M. Katherine Banks, Texas A&M’s president. “The recent challenges regarding Dr. [Kathleen] McElroy have made it clear to me that I must retire immediately,” she wrote in a letter to the system’s chancellor Thursday. “The negative press is a distraction from the wonderful work being done here.” Hart Blanton, who leads the school’s journalism and communications department, said in a statement that contrary to Banks’ denials of interfering with McElroy’s hiring process, she “injected herself into the process atypically and early on.” Blanton also said that his signature was added to revised job offers to McElroy without his consent and that he turned over documents to the university’s legal staff the same day Banks resigned. The exodus of staff at New College of Florida, the refusal of a scholar of McElroy’s stature to come to Texas A&M and the subsequent resignations on that campus are the latest manifestations of the current culture and political clashes over academic freedom and the role of universities in American society. Even in more ordinary times, leaving a university can be a complex decision that comes with a great deal of internal conflicts over an academic’s obligations to family, career, scholarship and students. The current culture wars roiling universities have further complicated that intense process. Biologist Liz Leininger told The Tampa Bay Times that she began looking for a new position when the new members of the New College board of trustees were announced and committed to leave after the president of the university was fired. She said, “I felt a little guilty to be leaving. I want to support New College students, but I told them, ‘I can support you even from afar.’” The harm that comes from attacking academic freedom does not end with the faculty. The harm that comes from attacking academic freedom does not end with the faculty. A college can only function if it has enough instructors who can teach required courses. Without that, the institutions may grind to a halt under increasing class sizes and required courses not being offered. Students can be forced to wait until the courses they need to graduate are offered again or change majors. This is the situation that New College third-year cognitive sciences major Alaska Miller is in, following the resignation of faculty in the neurosciences department that has resulted in no upper-level classes being offered next semester. She told The Tampa Bay Times, “That means either I don’t graduate on time, or I’d have to abandon my major.” This is unfair to the students whose matriculation is being delayed through no fault of their own and may drive down university enrollments, which negatively impacts the economy. In the case of journalism students at Texas A&M, they won’t get to be led by one of the best in the field. To be clear, so-called progressive faculty aren’t the ones who cherish academic freedom. A “conservative” professor can be assumed to have the same concerns about staying at or coming to a university where their research or teaching may run afoul of whatever the ruling party line is. As a curriculum theorist, I recognize that these fights are not new. Nor are they that different than the clashes that we see over how race, gender and sexuality should be taught in K-12 schools and the ongoing diversification of curriculum with knowledge from marginalized communities that began in desegregation. The blowback to the diversification of the curriculum has revealed a cultural and political fissure in American society over what universities should teach. A “conservative” professor can be assumed to have the same concerns about coming to a university where their teaching may run afoul of the party line. Academic freedom, defined by the American Association of University Professors as “the freedom of a teacher or researcher in higher education to investigate and discuss the issues in his or her academic field, and to teach or publish findings without interference from political figures, boards of trustees, donors, or other entities,” is the intellectual cornerstone of American higher education. It is also currently protected by U.S. Supreme Court precedent in Sweezy v. New Hampshire and Keyishian v. Board of Regents. Those opposed to academic freedom think the party in control of a state’s government should control what’s taught to teenagers and adults. It is possible that the New College can replace the third of the faculty that it’s lost, but if it cannot, then that will mean a profound disruption of student learning and knowledge creation. And, to repeat, attracting new faculty will be difficult because most professors, even conservative ones, will avoid institutions they know are restricting academic freedom. They know that in such places, because of whom it might upset, they may not be able to engage in the research they wish to explore and cover topics relevant to their academic discipline. This battle in the culture war is part of a larger fight over what knowledge should be taught. It is an overtly political and cultural question that comes with far-reaching consequences for every individual and community involved directly or indirectly in higher education. Politicians committed to culture wars, such as DeSantis in Florida and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, can have universities that are spaces where students encounter the full range of intellectual diversity protected by academic freedom, or that are sites of dissemination for political party orthodoxy, regardless of the party in power. They cannot have both.
Heat waves hitting U.S. and Europe 'virtually impossible' without climate change, researchers say 2023-07-25 - The heat waves simultaneously broiling the southwest United States and southern Europe would have been “virtually impossible” if not for climate change, according to a group of scientists who study the probability of extreme weather events. A third heat wave, in China, could have been expected about once every 250 years if global warming weren’t a factor. “The role of climate change is absolutely overwhelming” in producing all three extremes, said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London, who contributed to the new research, which was published Tuesday by the World Weather Attribution group. The group is a loose consortium of climate scientists who study extreme weather and publish rapid findings about climate change’s role in major events. Their research methods are published and peer-reviewed, but this specific, rapid analysis has not yet undergone a typical academic review process. Previous analyses by this group have held up to scrutiny after their initial release and were ultimately published in major academic journals. Global warming has increased the likelihood of extreme temperatures so significantly that heat waves as powerful as the ones setting records in places like Phoenix, Catalonia and in China’s Xinjiang region this July could be expected once every 15 years in the U.S., once every 10 in southern Europe and once every five in China, the research found. “This is not a surprise. This is absolutely not a surprise in terms of the temperatures, the weather events that we are seeing,” Otto said at a news conference. “In the past, these events would have been extremely rare.” The analysis provides another example of how shifts in global average temperatures can create conditions for new, harmful extremes. The scientists warned that the extremes observed this year are expected to worsen as humans continue to emit heat-trapping gasses and rely so heavily on fossil fuels. “This is not the new normal, as long as we keep burning fossil fuels. As long as we keep burning fossil fuels, we will see more and more of these extremes,” Otto said. Six climate scientists contributed to the recent study. It evaluated an 18-day stretch of high temperatures across the U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico, a seven-day stretch of high temperatures in Europe and a 14-day stretch of maximum measures in China’s lowland regions. The heat has been blamed for record-breaking power demand in China and outages in the U.S. and Europe, as well as crop losses or cattle deaths in all three regions, the report found. This summer has set records at a staggering pace. The Earth saw its hottest June in modern times and also experienced its unofficial hottest days on record in July. Phoenix on Sunday marked its record 24th consecutive day of temperatures at or above 110 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the National Weather Service. A township in Xinjiang, China, hit 126 F and set a national high temperature record. Heat in Europe has shattered records and caused the closure of major tourist attractions. The heat wave that’s dogged the southern U.S. for much of July will soon expand to cover much of the country, according to the National Weather Service. And it’s not just heat creating hazards across the U.S. The country has experienced a summer of extreme smoke from record-setting Canadian wildfires, extreme precipitation that caused damaging flooding in the Northeast and extreme ocean temperatures along much of its coastline. Governments need to better adapt to protect people from heat, Julie Arrighi, of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, said at the news conference. “They are events that we should be able to manage within our systems,” Arrighi said. “It underscores the need for our systems to adapt much faster, because the risks are rising faster than we are adapting.”
Number of kids who received free summer lunches dropped by nearly 45% in 2022 compared to previous year 2023-07-25 - The number of children who received free summer lunches in 2022 dropped dramatically compared to the year prior, according to a new report from anti-hunger advocacy organization Food Research & Action Center. FRAC’s report found that nearly 3 million children received lunch from federally sponsored summer nutrition programs on an average day in July 2022, a decrease of almost 2.4 million children, or 44.5%, from July 2021. Breakfast participation declined even further, with nearly 2.9 million fewer children receiving free breakfast on an average day in July 2022, a decrease of 61.6%. Participation plunged largely because of a delay in extending child nutrition waivers that had expanded access to summer meals during the pandemic, the report said. The federal waivers had granted flexibility to summer meal program operators, which normally must adhere to strict rules. Instead of being required to serve meals on-site to kids during set hours, the waivers enabled program operators to bundle to-go meals for families. They also permitted summer meal sites to open in any community, not just low-income areas where 50% or more of kids qualify for free and reduced-price school meals. The waivers were set to expire before last summer. Eleventh-hour legislation passed in late June 2022 extended them, but not all summer meal operators could pivot on such short notice away from the pre-pandemic format they had anticipated using. “A lot of states really weren’t able to take advantage of the extension of the pandemic waivers because they came so late,” said Crystal FitzSimons, FRAC’s director of school and out-of-school time programs, adding that summer programs were also struggling with supply chain issues and staffing shortages. Nonetheless, participation in July 2022 was higher than pre-pandemic levels. On an average day, more than 201,000 additional children received summer lunches compared to July 2019, the final summer before the pandemic, FRAC’s report said. Federally funded summer nutrition programs such as the Summer Food Service Program aim to provide free, healthy meals to children when school is out. Meal sites are hosted at schools, camps, parks, community centers and other locations throughout the country. The programs have been lauded for filling the gap for children when they are cut off from free and reduced-price school meals. But they are far from perfect: Before the pandemic, FRAC estimated that only 13.8 children received summer lunch for every 100 low-income children who received a school lunch in the 2018–2019 school year. That changed with the waivers, which allowed families to pick up multiple days’ worth of to-go meals to bring home to their kids. The result: Participation in summer lunch increased by 123% in July 2020 and by 101% in July 2021 compared to July 2019, FRAC said. “These flexibilities for the summer meals program are about as evidence-based policy as you can find.” Lisa Davis, the senior vice president of the No Kid Hungry campaign at Share Our Strength, Lisa Davis, the senior vice president of the No Kid Hungry campaign at Share Our Strength, a nonprofit organization working to end hunger and poverty, called it “infuriating” that Congress let the waivers expire after 2022. “These flexibilities for the summer meals program are about as evidence-based policy as you can find,” she said. “They worked during the pandemic and really helped make sure that kids weren’t going hungry.” Where summer meals fell the most While participation in summer lunches dropped nationally in July 2022 compared to the summer prior, some states saw larger hits than others. Hawaii saw the biggest decrease percentagewise in average daily lunch participation in the Summer Food Service Program, going from 14,170 kids served in July 2021 to 2,094 kids in July 2022, a decrease of 85.2%. Next was Missouri, which went from 130,001 kids served on average in July 2021 to 20,551 in July 2022, a decrease of 84.2%. Third was Louisiana, which went from 90,849 kids served on average in July 2021 to 14,625, a decrease of 83.9%. An exclusive NBC News analysis of all 50 states last August found that Missouri was the only one not to opt-in to grab-and-go meals for a final summer in 2022. While many program operators in other states were unable to distribute grab-and-go meals after the last-minute change in waiver extensions, their states had given them the option to do so; Missouri did not. Community operators across Missouri told NBC News last year that they saw a huge dip in the number of meals they distributed: up to 97% fewer than the preceding summer at some sites. FRAC’s report found that Missouri went from serving more than 2.7 million Summer Food Service Program meals in July 2021 to just over 411,000 in July 2022. In response to the report, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, which administers the Summer Food Service Program, said it is “passionate about the mission of the meal programs.” “We remain committed to ensuring eligible children have access to nutritious meals during the summer months and that we have sponsors operating appropriately, honestly and in a manner that meets our same goal,” a spokesperson said in an email to NBC News. “This is what will allow us to maintain the integrity and success of this longstanding program for Missourians.” ‘We’re still struggling to reach kids’ Summer meal numbers are not yet available for this year. But anti-hunger advocates fear that with the waivers gone, fewer kids will be served. “Before the pandemic, we weren’t serving enough kids with summer meals,” FitzSimons said. “And as we’re coming out of the pandemic, we’re still struggling to reach kids.” There are some improvements. While grab-and-go summer meals are no longer permitted in most of the country, they are now allowed permanently in certain rural communities thanks to a provision included in the omnibus bill. The omnibus bill also established a permanent Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer program, which will provide $40 in supplementary grocery benefits per child for each summer month for families that rely on free or reduced-price school meals. The Summer EBT program will start in 2024. Davis said with rural grab-and-go options in place this summer, efforts to feed kids facing insecurity will be “a mixed bag.” She urged Congress to expand grab-and-go meals to every community. “Talk to the working parents who are tearing up their hair thinking about, like, ‘Oh my God, how do I keep the air conditioning on and make sure my kids can eat?’” she said. “Because that’s unacceptable.”
Authorities search for bear who killed runner near Yellowstone National Park 2023-07-25 - Authorities on Monday were searching for a grizzly bear that killed a woman, an attack that prompted the closure of a popular trail near Yellowstone National Park. The victim's body was found on the Buttermilk Trail, near the Town of West Yellowstone, Montana, about 8 a.m. Saturday, the state's Fish, Wildlife and Parks department said in a statement. The sheriff and coroner of Gallatin County, Dan Springer, said the woman has been identified as Amie Adamson, 48, of Derby, Kansas. She’s might have been running or hiking at the time, he said by email. Adamson wrote a 2020 e-book, "Walking Out: One Teacher's Reflections on Walking Out of the Classroom to Walk America," about leaving her work as a public schools English teacher in 2015 and backpacking from Delaware to Kansas. A summary prepared by Chief Deputy Coroner Beker Cuelho said she died from blood loss as a result of a bear mauling. "The bear attack did not appear to be predatory," it said. The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said in a statement Monday that its wardens and bear specialists determined the woman's injuries were consistent with a bear attack. Tracks from an adult grizzly and at least one cub were found nearby, the department said. "The hiker was believed to be alone during the encounter, and no bear spray or firearms were found at the scene," it said. On Sunday, the National Park Service said the Buttermilk Area, part of the Custer Gallatin National Forest northwest of Yellowstone National Park, will be closed through Aug. 25. The closure was ordered "to protect public health and safety from unsafe conditions resulting from bear activity in the area," according to a notice from Forest Supervisor Mary Erickson. The Fish, Wildlife and Parks said in its statement Monday that the search for the grizzly who attacked was so far unsuccessful. "No bears have been captured to date," it said. "FWP staff also searched the area from an aircraft and did not locate any bears." The attack was under investigation by Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
North Korea fires two missiles after U.S. submarine arrives in South 2023-07-25 - SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast late on Monday, South Korea’s military said, hours after a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine arrived in a naval base in the South. Japan’s defense ministry also reported the launch of what it said were two ballistic missiles by North Korea, both of which fell outside its exclusive economic zone. The launches come amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula as South Korea and the United States take steps to increase their military readiness against North Korea’s weapons program with the deployment of U.S. strategic military assets. North Korea has reacted angrily, saying such a deployment could meet the criteria for its use of nuclear weapons. The United States said it was consulting closely with its allies about the North Korean missile launches, which it described as being destabilizing. In a statement on Monday, the U.S. military added the launches posed no immediate threat to U.S. personnel and territory or to U.S. allies. Earlier on Monday, a nuclear-powered U.S. submarine entered a naval base in South Korea’s southern island of Jeju to load military supplies while on an unspecified operational mission, the South Korean navy said. Over the weekend, the North fired a barrage of cruise missiles into the sea off its west coast. Last week, North Korea conducted ballistic missile tests after a nuclear-armed U.S. submarine arrived at a South Korean port for the first time since the 1980s.
Former Trump DOJ official Richard Donoghue has met with the special counsel's office 2023-07-25 - Former senior Justice Department official Richard Donoghue says he has been interviewed by special counsel Jack Smith’s office, but has not been called to testify before the federal grand jury investigating Jan. 6 and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Donoghue, who confirmed the meeting with Smith's office to NBC News on Monday, served as acting deputy attorney general near the end of the Trump administration. He later testified before the House Jan. 6 committee that investigated the Capitol riot. The special counsel’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night. In his testimony to the House panel last year, Donoghue said that weeks before the attack on the Capitol, Trump had urged Justice Department officials, including then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, to "just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen." Donoghue and Rosen told the Jan. 6 committee that they repeatedly rebuffed Trump's efforts, and that he later threatened to replace Rosen with Jeffrey Clark, an ally who had drafted a letter casting doubt over the 2020 election results and urging states to certify slates of fake electors. Jan. 6 committee's chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., called Trump's efforts, as described by Donoghue at the time, as "a brazen attempt to use the Justice Department to advance the president’s personal political agenda." Donoghue also provided testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, in August 2021, and was asked about a video circulated after the 2020 election by then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that alleged intelligence agencies had used Italian military satellites to change votes in the election. “Some of them were pretty farfetched, as this one was,” Donoghue said, according to a transcript of the interview. “And when I looked at the video, I think it was about a 20-minute YouTube video or something like that, it struck me as being fairly off the wall, in part because it was very conclusory and it did not really offer evidence.” Donoghue, who is now in private practice, called the video “pure insanity” in an email to Rosen. The former president and his allies have repeatedly accused the Biden administration of weaponizing the Justice Department amid Trump's legal woes, which have resulted so far in two indictments: one from a New York City grand jury centering on hush money payments he allegedly made during his 2016 campaign and the other a federal case stemming from his handling of classified documents after he left the White House. Trump said last week that he had received a letter from Smith informing him he is a target of an investigation by a federal grand jury looking into the Jan. 6 riot and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.