Illinois voters challenge Trump, Ebony Alerts in Alabama, Davis must pay, vegan upcharges challenged, and Perry school shooting background
Illinois group is third to challenge Trump candidacy for president: Involving five residents, the suit is the fourth filed nationwide by Other cases filed by Free Speech For People. Its cases have have been rejected in Minnesota and Michigan, and an Oregon challenge is still undecided, reports The Hill. Read more about the case, and others, here.
Alabama joins California in focusing on Ebony Alert for missing Black children: In light of statistics from the Black and Missing Foundation, showing Black people account for 40 percent of missing people despite only accounting for 13 percent of the U.S. population, Alabama is the second state to ponder n Ebony Alert (WSFA). Read about the law here.
Anti-gay former Kentucky clerk must pay $360,000: Kim Davis earned notoriety when she refused marriage licenses to gay couples in Kentucky in 2015, shortly after the historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. A court has now ruled she must pay one couple’s damages nd attorneys’ fees, reports the L.A. Times.
Perry shooter of seven recipient of “bullying for years:” With rumors flying rampant about the 17-year-old who killed a child, injured five adults, and then took their own life Thursday, The Associated Press reports that Dylan Butler, who also took their own life, was “a quiet person who had been bullied for years.” Butler’s social media accounts, which some said indicated a connection with the LGBTQ+ community, have been shut down since yesterday’s early-morning shooting at Perry High School. Follow the AP for the latest reliable information about the Perry school shooting.
New class-action lawsuit contends vegan upcharges are unconstitutional: Should you have to pay an extra dollar or two if you want non-dairy milk? Ten Californians are asking a district court to say “no” to the vegan upcharges, reports VegNews, which says the case could set a “potentially industry-altering legal precedent.”
(photo credit Wikimedia Commons)
Support for Black and Hispanic teen girls, artificial intelligence and climate change, gun views among multicultural, urban teens
AI is helping to tackle climate change: Detecting ocean garbage for removal, deforestation patterns that may be harmful, and icebergs melting the fastest are ways that artificial intelligence is having a positive impact on the world, writes the World Economic Forum. Read about these and five other ways that AI is helping humans be more responsible in their use of the world’s resources.
Waukegan group provides emotional support to Black, Hispanic teen girls: Consider that in Chicago public schools, one third of girls witnessed someone violently assaulted or killed; more than one-third showed signs of PTSD. And half of the girls in a recent survey by the University of Chicago Education Lab said they’d lost someone close to them through violent or sudden death. Some 38 percent of girls in this group showed signs of PTSD. These statistics are why the nonprofit group Working on Womanhood has been running a support group for Black and Hispanic girls in Waukegan, 30 minues north of Chicago, since 2011. Read about the program in The Hechinger Report.
Multicultural, urban teens live in fear of guns, yet desire to have them: A new survey by the nonprofit Project Unloaded says more than four out of five “multicultural urban teens” have completed “little to no research” about gun ownership. Only about 10 percent of those surveyed said they felt safe at a park or at school. And more than half in the survey desire to own a gun in order to feel safer.
Progress on minimum wage, lack of progress on racial and gender leadership in Hollywood, and more
Movement happening on minimum wage: Chicago is now among several cities seeking to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers over the next five years (The Progressive Magazine). Meanwhile, at least 65 counties, cities and states are making changes in their minimum wage laws this year. Read about them, and the new study from the National Employment Law Project, in Mother Jones, which credits the “Fight for $15” movement with much of the new laws.
Are humans evolving too fast to resolve climate change? A new study led by University of Maine evolutionary biologist Tim Waring suggests that humans’ cycle of evolution has been driven for 100,000 years by “a positive feedback process” that rewards finding more resources, consuming them more efficiently, and enabling faster growth. “Central features in human evolution are likely working against our ability to solve them.” (University of Maine)
Women, people of color still under-represented in Hollywood: A new study shows that only 9 percent of top-grossing film directors in 2022 were women, and that only 3.4 percent of top-grossing directors in 2023 were women of color. In addition, less than a quarter of directors in 2023 were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. such as Black, Latino or Asian (L.A. Times). One reason for the inequity, according to the study: lack of financing, leading to lack of portfolio material.
Harvard president’s resignation letter cites “racial animus:” Read in News One about the resignation letter from Harvard’s first Black president, Claudine Gay, who first drew controversy when she hedged during congressional hearings on condemning anti-semitic language on campus and then was also found to have plagiarized significantly in her research work.
(photo credit: Fibonacci Blue through Wikimedia Commons, showing workers in Twin Cities, Minnesota, walking out to press for a $15 minimum wage)
Understanding new blood donation rules, stopping pre-textual stops, dangers of doomsaying, and are Iowa Republicans standing down on LGBTQ+ issues this year?
Will Iowa Republicans stand down this session when it comes to LGBTQ+ issues? The Quad-City Times writes, yes. But is that good news? Caleb McCullough writes that Republicans also plan to focus more strongly on education and “religious freedom.”
A quick reminder of the new guidelines on donating blood, from Southern Illinois Now: “Questionnaires ask all donors about new or multiple sexual partners in the past three months. Those who have had a new sexual partner or multiple partners in the past three months and a history of anal sex during that time period will be deferred. Those taking medications to treat or prevent HIV infection will also be deferred. The new blood donation risk assessment is the same for every donor regardless of how they identify.” Read more here.
California takes a bold step to reduce “pre-textual stops” by police officers: What does this mean? As The Davis Vanguard explains, for one thing, it means a police officer in California can no longer ask a motorist or pedestrian, “Do you know why I pulled you over?” Instead, officers must now state the exact reason why they’re stopping a motorist.
The danger of doomsday talk, according to a leading climate scientist: Read The Guardian‘s Q&A with Hannah Ritchie, the 30-year-old climate scientist who advocates for a two-sided approach to saving the planet: “environmental sustainability” and “caring about people who are alive today.” Ritchie shares in her interview with Killian Fox why she cautions that doomsday predictions are as harmful as denying climate change.
