And another day of ‘trigger laws,’ the student loan crisis, the burden on Black borrowers, a Christian cell phone company’s vision for America, school lunch bills, phasing out gas vehicles, gas stoves, NE school paper, stem cells, and doppelgangers comes to a close:
“The grotesque & predictable irony of boomers who received largely free public education - and whose parents received free college via the GI bill- complaining about the slightest reduction in the insurmountable debt of the millions whom they insisted must go to college to survive.” — Otto Von Biz Markie
“Just wanted to remind everyone that Joel Osteen's $4.4 million PPP loan was forgiven.” — Hold My PomPoms Bitches
Deaths
US: 1,068,111 (+562)
World: 6,482,764 (+2636)
Cases
US: 95,844,677 (+110,593)
World: 604,121,644 (+800,733)
Judge orders unsealing of redacted affidavit in Trump search. The directive from U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart came hours after federal law enforcement officials submitted under seal the portions of the affidavit that they want to keep secret as their investigation moves forward. The judge set a deadline of noon Friday for a redacted, or blacked-out, version of the document.
Three more GOP-led states enact abortion ‘trigger laws’. To date, 13 states have passed so-called trigger laws that were designed to outlaw most abortions if the high court threw out the constitutional right to end a pregnancy. The majority of those states began enforcing their bans soon after the June 24 decision, but Idaho, Tennessee and Texas had to wait 30 days beyond when the justices formally entered the judgment, which happened several weeks after the ruling was announced.
Student loan crisis awaits new generation despite Biden plan. For millions of Americans, President Joe Biden’s student loan cancellation offers a life-changing chance to escape the burden of debt. But for future generations of students, it doesn’t fix the underlying reason for the crisis: the rising cost of college. -- Instead of funding the US war machine with so much money, put some of that toward funding higher education for US students.
Student loan relief highlights burden on Black borrowers. Black borrowers on average carry about $40,000 in federal student loan debt, $10,000 more than white borrowers, according to federal education data. The disparity reflects a racial wealth gap in the U.S. — one that some advocates say the debt relief plan does not do enough to narrow...“When we think about education and higher education, fundamentally, it’s the promise of an equitable future,” Cole said. “We have so many Black graduates who go through the system, graduate and are not able to see that future because they disproportionately risk taking out loans.” -- That’s by design.
How a far-right, Christian cellphone company ‘took over’ four Texas school boards. Patriot Mobile markets itself as “America’s only Christian conservative wireless provider.” Now the Trump-aligned company is on a mission to win control of Texas school boards. Story turned to the camera and said, “We went out and found 11 candidates last cycle and we supported them, and we won every seat. We took over four school boards.” “Eleven seats on school boards, took over four!” Bannon shouted as a crowd of CPAC attendees erupted in applause. It was a moment of celebration for an upstart company whose leaders say they are on a mission from God to restore conservative Christian values at all levels of government — especially in public schools. To carry out that calling, the Grapevine-based company this year created a political action committee, Patriot Mobile Action, and gave it more than $600,000 to spend on nonpartisan school board races in the Fort Worth suburbs…Their candidates won every race, and nearly four months later, those Patriot Mobile-backed school boards have begun to deliver results…In that same interview, Wambsganss made clear that Patriot Mobile views its political activism as a religious calling — and that the group’s electoral success this spring was just the beginning. “We’re not here on this earth to please man — we’re here to please God,” Wambsganss said, adding later in the interview, “Ultimately we want to expand to other counties, other states and be in every state across the nation.”…Patriot Mobile has also aligned itself in recent years with political and religious leaders who promote a once-fringe strand of Christian theology that experts say has grown more popular on the right in recent years. Dominionism, sometimes referred to as the Seven Mountains Mandate, is the belief that Christians are called on to dominate the seven key “mountains” of American life, including business, media, government and education. — These people are dangerous to democracy and must be stopped.
As students go back to school, many face a lunch bill for the first time in 2 years. But Senate Republicans balked at the cost of providing universal free meals for another year, and as part of the final compromise, Democrats agreed to drop it from the package. This means all schools will go back to requiring that families pay the full price for each meal if they do not qualify for free or reduced-price meals. In order to qualify, families must meet income requirements that are the same across the country. For the 2022-2023 school year a family of four must make less than $51,338 to qualify for reduced-price meals and $36,075 to qualify for free meals. But each school district sets its own school meal prices, and those can significantly vary, as can the cost of living — not just within states but from state to state, which the income requirements don't account for. — And so thanks to Trumpers, kids go hungry.
California phasing out gas vehicles in climate change fight. California set itself on a path Thursday to end the era of gas-powered cars, with air regulators adopting the world’s most stringent rules for transitioning to zero-emission vehicles. The move by the California Air Resources Board to have all new cars, pickup trucks and SUVs be electric or hydrogen by 2035 is likely to reshape the U.S. auto market, which gets 10% of its sales from the nation’s most populous state.
Kids told to wear extra layers to cut energy bills. A nursery is telling children and staff they will have to wear more clothes to help cut heating costs as businesses struggle with soaring energy bills. "We can't afford to have the heating on all day because it will ruin us.”
How the Fossil Fuel Industry Convinced Americans to Love Gas Stoves. In the face of mounting health concerns, the industry has taken an approach right out of the tobacco playbook, citing a lack of regulation by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the EPA as evidence of why the public shouldn’t be concerned. But the EPA has never said gas stoves are safe. In 2016, the agency linked short- and long-term nitrogen dioxide exposure to respiratory problems like asthma. The UCLA study found that indoor NO2 emissions from running a stove alone can sometimes cause levels that the EPA would consider unacceptable outdoors, and running an oven at the same time makes things even worse. Indeed, the data shows that California’s buildings emit more nitrogen oxides than power plants, and only slightly less than cars...Consumers are beginning to realize, “I’m burning fossil fuels with an open flame in my house, and it’s contributing to asthma my kid has; it’s harming my mom, my dad, and my grandparents,” says the Sierra Club’s Gillespie. “I think people’s perception of what it means to have a gas stove changes pretty quickly.”
Nebraska school officials close newspaper after LGBTQ issue. Administrators at a Nebraska school shuttered the school’s award-winning student newspaper just days after its last edition that included articles and editorials on LGBTQ issues, leading press freedom advocates to call the move an act of censorship. The staff of Northwest Public Schools’ 54-year-old Saga newspaper was informed on May 19 of the paper’s elimination, the Grand Island Independent reported. Three days earlier, the newspaper had printed its June edition, which included an article titled, “Pride and prejudice: LGBTQIA+” on the origins of Pride Month and the history of homophobia. It also included an editorial opposing a Florida law that bans some lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity and dubbed by critics as “Don’t Say Gay.” Officials overseeing the district, which is based in Grand Island, have not said when or why the decision was made to eliminate the student paper. But an email from a school employee to the Independent cancelling the student paper’s printing services on May 22 said it was “because the school board and superintendent are unhappy with the last issue’s editorial content.” The paper’s demise also came a month after its staff was reprimanded for publishing students’ preferred pronouns and names. District officials told students they could only use names assigned at birth going forward. -- Hatred towards others runs high with those in charge of this school.
Scientists use stem cells to create synthetic mouse embryos. Scientists have created “synthetic” mouse embryos from stem cells without a dad’s sperm or a mom’s egg or womb. The lab-created embryos mirror a natural mouse embryo up to 8 ½ days after fertilization, containing the same structures, including one like a beating heart. In the near term, researchers hope to use these so-called embryoids to better understand early stages of development and study mechanisms behind disease without the need for as many lab animals. The feat could also lay the foundation for creating synthetic human embryos for research in the future.
You have a doppelganger and probably share DNA with them, new study suggests. These are similar codes, he said, but it is just by random chance.
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
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