Mayor Eric Adams announces that during the last fiscal year, his administration, in partnership with other governmental organizations, created 26,682 affordable homes. This figure is a 22 percent increase compared to last year.
The Mayor’s administration, alongside the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), and the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC), contributed to the construction and preservation of thousands of homes in the city.
“In the last fiscal year, we built more new supportive homes and homes for those New Yorkers formerly experiencing homelessness than any year in New York City history, connected more New Yorkers to permanent housing using CityFHEPS vouchers than any year in program history, and created and preserved 45 percent more homes than in the previous year,” said Adams.
The number of newly constructed homes, 12,278, is the second-highest figure of new affordable homes funded in a year since the city began tracking in 1976. HPD also improved its affordable housing production by 45 percent in 2022.
The increase in affordable housing also aided those previously unhoused in historic numbers. HPD reports it financially supported the most supportive homes in the city’s history. The agency also helped house the highest number of previously unhoused residents in a fiscal year since the city began tracking in 2014.
The city also reported Adams’ housing voucher program to the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (CityFHEPS), and the removal of the 90-day length of stay rule also aided efforts in the past year’s record-breaking permanent housing connections for the Department of Social Services (DSS).
Regarding housing preservation, the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program, instituted by NYCHA, is planned to protect 62,000 public homes’ affordability and tenant rights while maintaining subsidization through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“NYCHA’s public housing portfolio is a critical component of New York City’s affordable housing stock, and we remain committed to using every available tool to preserve it for future generations of New Yorkers,” said NYCHA CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt. “The successes of the PACT program are tried and true – enabling us to bring investment into our properties and enhance the conditions of our aging buildings to the direct benefit of the residents who live there.”
The city’s administration is allocating $24 billion for affordable housing with hopes to expand existing plans such as Housing Our Neighbors, Get Stuff Built, and the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative. The Adams administration hopes to construct 500,000 new homes in the next 10 years to address demand.
The influx of over 95,000 asylum seekers in the city also heavily increased the shelter population across the city. According to the Mayor’s office, asylum seekers helped double shelter populations to 107,000 annually.
DSS, HPD, and HDC helped and connected approximately 26,534 asylum-seeking households in shelters or unhoused to find placements into permanent housing or HPD-financed homes. To address rising housing costs, the Adams administration also reported that HPD financed the most homes citywide for those previously unhoused since it began tracking in 2014.
“New York’s future depends, in large part, on New York’s capacity to provide affordable housing for its people. Despite the substantial headwinds challenging New York City, including the impacts of the COVID crisis and over 100,000 migrants seeking its shelter, and the consequent financial staffing constraints, the Interfaith Assembly is pleased to recognize the real progress of the Adams administration and its entire housing team in surpassing its affordable housing target in FY23,” said Marc Greenberg, the executive director of Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing.
It’s been a poorly kept secret that the underlying reason for much of America’s hate seen in recent years revolves around the fear that white people are fast losing their grip on the nation’s majority.
That fear has resonated and is ever-present politically and socially.
The Jan. 6 insurrection, former President Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ assault on Black history, the uptick in hate crimes, including police brutality against African Americans, and the continued wave of “Karens” and “Kens.”
Indeed, white supremacists and white nationalists and the politicians who fuel them see a new majority, people of color, and that has served to spark what’s more and more beginning to look like an all-out civil war – or more pointedly, a race war.
In April 2021, the Census Bureau released the first set of results from the 2020 decennial census, providing a snapshot of the U.S. population for use in congressional reapportionment and redistricting.
But recently, the agency released more detailed census information that shows a fuller picture of the population as it stood during the once-a-decade headcount.
“These new statistics make plain that substantial old-young racial gaps exist in much of the country, and are likely to persist in the near term,” William H. Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote.
“This is reflected in a cultural generation gap that underlies many aspects of the nation’s social fabric and politics, including views about the recent Supreme Court decision on affirmative action and state proposals to limit teaching about race and diversity in public schools,” Frey wrote in new researched released by the Brookings Institution.
The statistics show that the nation continues to age, with the fastest population growth occurring among the older population while the youth population declines.
Brookings’s data shows white Americans contributed substantially to older population gains compared to younger and middle-aged populations, which registered white declines.
Nonwhite residents accounted for all the gains in post-baby-boomer populations. Although all race and ethnic groups are aging to some degree, the median age of white Americans is higher than all others in most geographic areas, researchers wrote.
They said these patterns have led to a “racial generation gap,” in which the younger population—more influenced by immigration in recent decades—is far more diverse than older age groups.
This demographic phenomenon has been shown to underlie many aspects of American social life, including its politics, Frey wrote.
“Generation Z will be the last generation of Americans with a white majority, according to census data,” Daniel De Vise wrote for The Hill. “The nation’s so-called majority minority arrived with Generation Alpha, those born since about 2010.”
De Vise added that, “barely two decades from now, around 2045, non-Hispanic white people will fall below half a share of the overall U.S. population.”
The journalist concluded that “America’s white majority, and its numbered days, is a lightning-rod topic, given the nation’s history of slavery and enduring patterns of discrimination against minorities and immigrants.”
Additionally, “Race is the most complicated variable in the census, and it’s the one that draws people like moths to the flame,” Dowell Myers, a professor of policy, planning and demography at the University of Southern California, told The Hill.
Justin Gest, a professor at George Mason University’s Scholar School of Policy and Government, observed that, “In this environment, nationalism has experienced a rebirth.”
In an op-ed, Gest wrote that in the face of destabilizing demographic change and the uncertainties of globalization, nationalism is a familiar security blanket.
“In democracies particularly, nationalism asserts precisely what demographic change threatens: a specific ethno-religious people’s social dominance and entitlement to the state,” Gest concluded.
Lessie Benningfield Randle, Viola Fletcher, and Hughes Van Ellis, Sr., the last three known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, have continued their pursuit of justice.
They have appealed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, urging a swift reversal of Tulsa County District Judge Caroline Wall’s controversial dismissal of their lawsuit.
At a press conference held at the Oklahoma Supreme Court, the legal team representing the survivor expressed confidence in the likelihood of the Oklahoma Supreme Court overturning Judge Wall’s ruling.
“The facts of this case align with the long-standing property-based limitations of Oklahoma’s public nuisance statute,” said Damario Solomon-Simmons, the lead attorney for the survivors and founder of Justice for Greenwood.
“The District Court’s imposition of a heightened pleading standard on the survivors is unprecedented in Oklahoma’s legal history,” Solomon-Simmons continued. “Our clients have sufficiently pleaded a public nuisance claim, as defined by the Oklahoma Supreme Court in its landmark decision on Johnson & Johnson in November 2021.”
Randle, 107, Fletcher, 108, and Van Ellis, 102, are the remaining survivors of the horrific massacre, which destroyed the thriving Greenwood District in Tulsa and caused the loss of countless lives and property, has long been overlooked, and the survivors have been denied justice.
Their legal team contends that Judge Wall’s ruling imposes an unjust and burdensome requirement on parties alleging public nuisance claims.
The court mandated that the survivors provide a specific abatement remedy to address the issue before any discovery, trial, or liability determination occurs.
The survivor’s co-counsel Randall Adams, a Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP litigation partner, said this unusual pleading standard lacks any foundation in Oklahoma’s notice pleading code or prior case law.
Further, he said the District Court allowed the defendants to violate an agreement made in open court, promising not to file new motions to dismiss the survivors’ unjust enrichment claims.
Despite the agreement, the defendants filed a second motion to dismiss the unjust enrichment claims, and to the dismay of the survivors’ legal team, the District Court granted these baseless motions.
“It is imperative to recognize that allowing Judge Wall’s decision to stand will have severe implications for individuals and businesses across Oklahoma seeking to uphold their legal rights,” Solomon-Simmons emphasized.
He claimed that a favorable decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court would “uphold the values of justice and fairness for all state residents and resolve the complaints of those who had suffered because of the Tulsa Race Massacre.”
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Remember the first rap song you heard? Some of your favorite rappers and DJs certainly do. While hip-hop celebrates 50 years of life, The Associated Press asked some of the genre’s most popular artists to recall their first memory of hearing rap and how the moment resonated with them.
In interviews with more than two dozen hip-hop legends, Queen Latifah Chuck D, Method Man, E-40 and eight others cited The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” as the first rap song they heard. But not all were hooked on the new musical style by that track, and their answers reveal the sense of discovery that marked rap’s early years.
Hip-hops roots are traced to 1973 in the Bronx and it took a few years before rap records emerged — “Rapper’s Delight” was a major catalyst for introducing the rap music to a much broader audience.
Here are the stories of a dozen hip-hop stars who got hooked on the genre around the time “Rapper’s Delight” ruled. In part two, another group of legends and young stars reminisce about connecting with rap by hearing songs by acts like Tupac Shakur, Grandmaster Flash, 2 Live Crew or Run-D.M.C.CHUCK D
As a sophomore at Adelphi University, Chuck D was about to hit the stage to perform over the melody of Chic’s “Good Times” at a party in October 1979.
At least, that’s what he thought.
When he stepped behind the microphone, Chuck D heard a different version of the song. It kept going and going for — 15 minutes straight.
“I get on the mic to rock the house. Then all of a sudden, I hear words behind me as I’m rockin’. I lipsync. The words keep going. (Expletive) are rockin’ for like 20 minutes,” said Chuck D, a member of the rap group Public Enemy who created “ Fight the Power,” one of hip-hop’s most iconic and important anthems.
“After it’s all over, cats are giving me high pounds like ‘You went on and on to the break of dawn dawg,’” he continued. “Back then, it’s about how long you can rap. I went and turned to the DJ and looked at the red label that said ‘Sugarhill Gang ‘Rapper’s Delight.’ I was like ’Oh, they finally did it.’ They were talking all summer long that rap records were going to happen.”
He was stunned: I was, like, ’It’s inconceivable. How could a rap be a record?′ I couldn’t see it. Nobody could see it. And then when it happened, boom.”QUEEN LATIFAH
For Queen Latifah, “Rapper’s Delight” was the first rap song she and a lot of others heard and memorized where she grew up in Newark, New Jersey. But the biggest record in her world as a kid was Afrika Bambaattaa and the Soul Sonic Force’s 1982 song “ Planet Rock. ”
While the Oscar-nominated actor can be seen chasing bad guys on CBS’ “The Equalizer,” many forget her roots as a rapper, with hits like “U.N.I.T.Y. and “Just Another Day.”
“It changed the sound,” she said. “It’s more of a synthesized, 808s, hi-hats. The whole sound of it was different. Some of hip-hop in the original days was live music. It was live bands playing break records. Like ‘Good Times’ was the beat to ‘Rapper’s Delight.’ Some of those records took actual disco records, played the music and rhymed to them.”E-40
While heading to school as a seventh grader in 1979, E-40 heard a new rap tune on a local radio station that normally played R&B and soul music in Northern California.
It was “Rapper’s Delight,” which interpolated Chic’s hit “Good Times.” That’s when he knew hip-hop was going to be a part of his life forever.
“I was like ‘Ohh, this is hard. I’m hooked,’” said E-40, who recalled the moment while driving to Franklin Middle School in Vallejo, California. He and fellow rapper B-Legit used to sport the same kind of fedora hats and big gold rope chains Run-D.M.C. performed in.
“From then on, I loved rap. In 1979, when I first heard The Sugarhill Gang, I wanted to be a rapper. I would play around with it. … We grew up on New York rap. All of us did. We wanted to be hip-hop. We wanted to breakdance. We did it all.
“But that changed everything after we heard Sugarhill Gang. Next thing you know, you’re hearing Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Kurtis Blow and Roxannne, Roxanne.”LIL JON
“Rapper’s Delight” was probably the first hip-hop song Lil Jon heard. But he became a “super fan” of the genre as a middle schooler in Atlanta after seeing rap groups the Fat Boys and Whodini. It was his first time seeing professional rappers onstage.
“I might have been a fan of rap before, but I had never been to a rap concert. I’ve never seen rappers in person,” he said. “Maybe just in the magazines. That turned me into like. … a super fan of hip-hop.”
The first hip-hop record Lil-Jon bought was Run D.M.C.’s “Sucker M.C.’s (Krush-Groove 1).”
“I remembered my homeboy that lived in the neighborhood. I had to go through some woods to his house with the album,” he said. “We put the album on at his house. We were going crazy over listening to lyrics and beats.”ROXANNE SHANTE
Roxanne Shante’s first rap experience didn’t come in song form. She was introduced to hip-hop through the late comedian-poet Nipsey Russell.
“He had the ability to rhyme at any time,” said Shante, a host for SiriusXM’s Rock the Bells Radio. At age 14, she became one of the first female rappers to become popular after her song “Roxanne’s Revenge” and gained more notoriety as a member of the Juice Crew. She also took part in Roxanne Wars, which was a series of hip-hop rivalries in the mid-1980s.
Shante said “Rapper’s Delight” was the record most parents brought into their home as the “party song.” But in her mind, Russell had just as much of an impact.
“That would be my first encounter with loving what would become hip-hop,” she continued. “This way of having a certain cadence, this way of being able to do these certain rhymes was just incredible to me. … He was able to freestyle all day, every day. And that’s who I am. That’s what I still do today.”TOO SHORT
It’s 1979. Too Short was around 13 years old. He normally listened to a variety of funk songs ranging from the Ohio Players’ “Love Rollercoaster” and Funkadelic’s “Knee Deep.” Then one day at his father’s house, he heard “Rapper’s Delight” blaring through a stereo system.
“I was on my funk stuff, then this ‘Rapper’s Delight’ record came out and it was like 15 minutes long,” he recalled. “I’d be at my pop’s house just bumping the loud stereo.”
As “Rapper’s Delight” gained momentum in 1980, Too Short gravitated more toward beatboxing. That led him to hit up the local record store where he would buy the latest hip-hop album then blasted it on his radio for anyone to hear in Oakland.
“I had to get a radio with two speakers. That was mandatory,” he said. “I was the guy with the radio who was hitting play going ‘You ain’t never heard that before.’ … I had the whole room, the whole bus jumping.”DOUG E. FRESH
Hearing “Rapper’s Delight” for the first time changed the trajectory of Doug E. Fresh’s life.
“I remember when my sister came home and told me about a guy named D.J. Hollywood, who we considered the first real M.C.,” he said. “She came home and told me about a rap he had. And the rap went, ‘Ding, ding, ding, ding, dong, dong, dong the dang, the dang, dang, dang, the ding dong dong. To the hip hop. …’”
Fresh then added: “I turned around and said, ‘Teach me that, show me.’ And after that, it’s been me and hip-hop since that point.”DJ KID CAPRI
DJ Kid Capri, arguably one of hip-hop’s most famous DJs in the ’90s, grew up on soul music. His father was a soul singer. His grandfather played the trumpet. And his uncle, Bill Curtis, was the leader of the Fatback Band — which he says made the first hip-hop single “ King Tim III (Personality Jock) ” before “Rapper’s Delight” was released a few months later in 1979.
Capri’s uncle gave him the opportunity to hear a rap song for the first time.
“I was right there,” Capri said about the Fatback Band, a funk and disco ensemble who became known for their R&B hits including “(Do the) Spanish Hustle,” “I Like Girls” and “I Found Lovin’.” But it was “King Tim III” that had a strong influence on him — especially since it came from family.
“The world thinks ‘Rapper’s Delight’ was the first rap record, but it was ‘Personality Jock,’” he said. “My uncle, he’s my family. He’s the one that did it. So, I’ve always been around it. That’s what made me be so infectious in it, because I’ve seen every level to where I’m at right now. I took all those things important to me on stage right now. When you see me on stage, you can see all those things wrapped up in me.”METHOD MAN
Yes, “Rapper’s Delight” was the first-ever rap song Method Man ever heard. But the first hip-hop song that really resonated with him was Run-D.M.C.’s “ Sucker MCs (Krush-Groove 1 ).”
“I had never heard this record and I thought I was up on everything at the time,” Method Man said of the 1983 song, which proceeded Run-D.M.C.’s first single “It’s Like That” from their self-titled album. He said “Sucker MCs” helped pave a way to usher in a new school of hip-hop artists.
“We were on a sixth-grade class trip to Long Island, and everybody was singing it word-for-word,” the “Power Book II: Ghost” actor remembered. “They must have played that record 24 times on our class trip.”BIG DADDY KANE
Around age 12, Big Daddy Kane might not have remembered all of his homework assignments, but he certainly could recite every lyric to the late Jimmy Spicer’s 1980 song “ Adventures of Super Rhymes,” one of hip-hop’s first songs recorded in a studio.
Kane heard “Rapper’s Delight” first, but Spicer’s storytelling on the 15-minute song resonated with him the most.
“When this song came out, just the way Jimmy Spicer was styling on them and telling the story about Dracula and a story about Aladdin, I thought it was real slick,” he said.DJ JAZZY JEFF
DJ Jazzy Jeff always had an affinity for music. But when the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” star heard “Rapper’s Delight” for the first time, he felt like the song spoke to him like no other.
“I think that was the first time I felt like the music was mine,” he said. “Before then, I loved the music, but the music was kind of my older brothers and sisters, and I just liked it because it was theirs. This was the one that somebody made just for me.”JERMAINE DUPRI
Jermaine Dupri couldn’t have envisioned his successful career without listening to “Rapper’s Delight” around the age of 10.
“I remember the lyrics of the song. I remember it like it was yesterday,” said Dupri, a rap mogul who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018. “I just started learning the song. I never knew it was going to take me on this journey.”
NEW YORK (AP) — There’s no shaking it. Your chances of winning the lottery are extremely slim.
After no big winner Friday night, the Mega Millions jackpot climbed to an estimated $1.55 billion. If someone wins it all on Tuesday, when the next Mega Millions drawing takes place, the prize would one of the largest in U.S. lottery history.
But don’t plan on entering a new tax bracket anytime soon. The odds of winning a Mega Millions jackpot — no matter the size — stand at about 1 in 302.6 million.
Because of the almost impossible chance of winning big, experts stress that you shouldn’t spend all your money on lottery tickets. If you choose to play, it’s important to be mindful of what you can afford — and maybe consider other places to put your money, even if it’s just a few dollars at a time.
Lottery tickets are “definitely not good investments,” Matthew Kovach, an assistant professor in Virginia Tech’s economics department told The Associated Press last month. “They’re not even investments … there’s an expectation you will always lose money.”
Here are some things to know about the odds of winning the lottery.
WINNING THE LOTTERY IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE. WHAT’S MORE LIKELY? There’s a long list of rare events that are more likely than winning the Mega Millions or Powerball jackpot.
A common comparison is the odds of getting struck by lightning once in your lifetime, which stand at about one in 15,300. Even if you bought a lottery ticket for every drawing over 80 years — two times a week for Mega Millions and three times a week for Powerball — you would still be far less likely to win than to be struck by lightning one time in your life, Syracuse University mathematics professor Steven Diaz said.
“A slightly darker example,” Kovach added, is comparing the odds of winning the lottery to getting into a fatal car accident on the way to a store. “Imagine you have to drive half a mile to buy your lottery ticket, so you have a 1 mile round-trip. It’s about 4 times as likely that you die in a car accident on the trip to buy your ticket than you are to win,” he said.
Of course, both Mega Millions and Powerball offer a handful of tiers below the top jackpots — with the lowest prizes starting at $2 and $4, respectfully. For both games, the odds of winning any prize stand at about 1 in 24.
HAS WINNING THE LOTTERY BECOME HARDER? Yes. Winning the lottery has become harder in recent years, causing jackpots to grow bigger and bigger — and that’s by design.
Such big jackpots comes down to math and more difficult odds. In 2015, the Powerball lottery lengthened the odds of winning from 1 in 175.2 million to 1 in 292.2 million. Mega Millions followed two years later, lengthening the odds of winning the top prize from 1 in 258.9 million to 1 in 302.6 million. The largest lottery jackpots in the U.S. have come since those changes were made.
HOW MUCH DO JACKPOT WINNERS REALLY TAKE HOME? When someone wins a lottery jackpot in games like Powerball or Mega Millions they have two options: an annuity that is distributed over 29 years or a (significantly smaller) cash payout.
The estimated $1.25 billion jackpot seen for Mega Millions’ Friday drawing, for example, is the annuity option — and the cash value for this prize is nearly half that, standing at $625.3 million. Most jackpot winners opt for the cash.
Federal and state taxes will also lower the money you take home, with deductions depending on where you live.
IS BUYING A LOTTERY TICKET A GOOD INVESTMENT? Because winning is so rare, experts maintain that lottery tickets are horrible investments — but note that every person’s reason for playing the lottery is different.
Some people might buy a $2 lottery ticket as a form of entertainment and find satisfaction in “the excitement of thinking you might win,” Diaz said. Meanwhile, others may enter the lottery out of feelings of desperation or financial struggle — with experts pointing to consequences that have disproportionately impacted low-income communities.
The lottery has historically acted as a regressive tax on the poor, meaning the people that can least afford to lose their money buy the most tickets, Lia Nower, a professor and the director of the Center for Gambling Studies at Rutgers University, previously told The AP.
She said her “concern with lottery is really more people who are buying it every day or two or three times a week” as opposed to those who purchase one ticket as the jackpot nears $1 billion.
A $2 ticket may not seem like much — but it can add up for those who are regularly entering the lottery over time. Alternative spending options could include opening an investment account that allows you to invest in small amounts or buying partial stock, Kovach said.
“In reality, it’s probably best to diversify by something like an index fund — but if you’re just starting out, I would… (suggest putting it) in the stock market or something like that,” he said. “You will actually probably see a return over time.”
(TriceEdneyWire.com) – “Spend your energy figuring out what’s the one thing that you can agree on with a political foe,” Gen. Colin Powell told me years ago. “Figure that out and you can get a lot done.”
We’re seeing that proven across the Midwest from Illinois to North Dakota where unlikely allies with different interests and perspectives are joined in fighting against several multi-state carbon dioxide pipelines proposed by huge agribusiness and fossil fuels companies.
For some, it’s a simple as private companies trying to take private land that belongs to someone else to make private profit for themselves. For others, the pipelines would extend our reliance on dirty fuels and prolong pollution from industrial farming and the ethanol producers it supplies. Together they see the pipelines as unnecessary, destructive to precious land, and potentially dangerous.
“We might not agree on a lot of things, but this is something we will all oppose, these pipelines,” says Kim Juncker, who farms land with her husband in Butler County, Iowa, that could be grabbed for what’s called the Navigator project. “We will lock arms on this one.”
Juncker calls herself a “constitutional conservative” and explains her political leanings and in her view those of many landowners simply: “We like our property rights and we like our freedom.”
Environmental activists have seen that opposing pipelines demands the voice of the people who own land that they don’t want to sell to the developers.
For their part, landowners appreciate that environmental groups bring their organizing experience and their capacity to monitor the smallest details in the fight. One of the biggest challenges is farmers are busy farming and can’t make opposition a full-time job.
Tim Baughman, who owns land with his sister in Crawford County, Iowa, that could be disrupted by the Summit pipeline, attended a safety meeting with the developer last week; the only reason he learned of the session was hearing about from a farmer in another part of the state. In turn, he does his best to keep two other landowners informed. They’re among nine in the county who haven’t signed voluntary easements for the pipeline to cross their land and are less connected to the digital world, he says.
More than 150 landowners now join weekly Zoom calls with environmentalists to share information and strategy. One outcome is that more than 460 landowners have filed to intervene when the Iowa Utilities Board holds its hearing in a few weeks over the Summit pipeline’s request to take land through eminent domain. That’s no small feat as Baughman’s own filing to intervene was 51 pages long.
Our system allows for the power of enough people to thwart the power of money, which the pipeline developers certainly have. That’s how opponents have managed to claim some big wins.
In North Dakota, the public service commission last week denied Summit the permit it needs to move forward, citing issues from impact on cultural sites and wildlife areas to property values; the company can reapply. In Iowa, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would have significantly limited the pipelines’ ability to take land involuntarily with nearly two-thirds of Democrats and 80 percent of Republicans in support (the bill unfortunately was killed in the state Senate).
To really harness that people power, we need to build coalitions that are uncomfortably large. That’s what pipeline opponents have done. People who will question whether carbon is damaging the climate are fighting alongside people who will question the role of biofuels in prolonging our fossil fuel addiction.
In a country that can feel so divided, there’s promise in that beyond the pipeline fight. As General Powell told me, “As you win one victory together, you might just discover along the way that there’s something else you agree on.”
Ben Jealous is executive director of the Sierra Club, the nation’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization. He is a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania and author of “Never Forget Our People Were Always Free,” published in January.
HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. (AP) — Simone Biles spent two years trying to distance herself from those strange days in Tokyo and all the outside noise that came along with it.
She dove into therapy and slowly — very slowly — returned to training even though she wavered on whether she was really up for a third Olympics and all of the pressure and expectations that come with it when you’re considered the greatest of all time.
It wasn’t until mid-spring that she committed to training seriously after talking about it over margaritas with her coaches. It wasn’t until late June that she committed to Saturday night’s U.S. Classic. And it wasn’t until she stepped onto the podium and heard the shrieks of support and the sea of handmade signs that the noise she’d been grappling with for 732 days finally fell silent.
She was back in her safe space. Back in front of a crowd. Back in control. Back to being the Simone Biles — albeit a more mature, married, 26-year-old version — who has spent a decade redefining her sport.
Confidence growing with every rotation, Biles soared to victory in her first meet since the Tokyo Games. Her all-around score of 59.100 was five points better than runner-up Leanne Wong. And made all the more remarkable by the fact she didn’t really pour herself into preparing until after her wedding to Green Bay Packers safety Jonathan Owens in late April.
“I feel really good about where I am right now, mentally and physically,” Biles said. “I still think there are some things to work on in my routines, but for the first meet back, I would say it went pretty well. I’m very shocked. Surprised.”
She posted the best score on three of four events, turning what is typically a tune-up meet for the U.S. Championships into a showcase that she remains — when she’s at or near her best — a singular force in her sport.
The only time she seemed out of place at the NOW Arena was when she was introduced. She scrambled from one side of the floor to the other, unsure of where she was supposed to go.
The moment passed. Minutes later she raised her hands and saluted the judges. Then it was the same as it ever was for the most decorated female gymnast in history.
Rocking a black-and-white bedazzled leotard and a silicone wedding band she bought from Amazon to wear while she competes, Biles electrified a packed house that roared with every spin, every flip, and yes, twist.
While she admitted she is still a little nervous while doing the twisting elements in her routines, she certainly looked comfortable during two hours that offered a taste of what could come in the run-up to Paris next summer.
Wearing No. 231 and sporting — at least before she began competing — a necklace bearing “Owens” in tribute to her husband, she seemed equal parts relaxed and energized.
She began on uneven bars, not far from a sign featuring a goat (a symbol for “Greatest of All Time”) that read “Simone Freaking Biles.” She wasn’t perfect, nearly stalling near the end of her routine. She muscled up and stayed on and when she hit her dismount, she cut her eyes off to the side as if to say “sheesh.”
Her score of 14.000 was the third best of the competition and a signal of things to come. She was as solid and steady as ever on balance beam, where she won a bronze in Tokyo after a week of uncertainty, a medal she’s described as one of the sweetest of her career.
While never officially closing the door on Paris, at one point she was convinced her career was over. She’s spent most of the last 24 months preparing for her wedding and planning the rest of her life.
Still, the lure of the gym tugged at her, though she’s taking a more muted approach to her comeback than in 2018 or in the run-up to Tokyo in 2021.
At the moment, she’s letting her gymnastics do most of the talking. And it spoke loud and clear.
She was dynamic on floor exercise, where her tumbling passes have long been showstoppers. While she and her coaches have tweaked her routines a bit to better take advantage of the sport’s updated Code of Points, she still does some of the most challenging gymnastics in the sport typically with seemingly effortless ease.
Biles kept all three of her tumbling passes on the floor inbounds, something that was a problem at times in 2021. Her score of 14.900 included a start value of 6.8, a massive amount of difficulty. No other athlete, many of whom grew up idolizing her, had a start value higher than 5.9.
She finished with a Yurchenko double-pike vault, a roundoff onto the table followed by two back flips with her hands clasped behind her knees. It’s a vault she toyed with in 2021 hoping to pull off in Tokyo.
It never happened. It still might in Paris. She hopped a little bit after landing as the arena exploded, her 15.400 more than a full point better than any of the other 30-plus athletes managed.
The Classic is considered a warm-up of sorts. The U.S. Championships are later this month, with the world championships coming in October and the Olympics less than a year out.
She’s trying not to get too far ahead. Making it a point to enjoy what she called the “little wins.”
“I knew I could come back and hopefully have a shot,” she said. “It’s just about really taking care of my body right now. So that’s what we’re to. It’s working.”
There is plenty of time to refine things. To expand. To build. Biles’ all-around score Saturday was higher than what she posted at the same meet in 2018. What followed back then was two years of historic dominance.
In a visit to local small businesses in Washington, D.C. on Friday, Aug. 4, Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled plans to provide grants to non-profit and community-based organizations as part of the $125 million Capital Readiness Program (CRP).
The program seeks to bolster historically underserved entrepreneurs’ access to capital, aligning with one of the critical pillars of what the White House has dubbed the Bidenomics economic plan.
The CRP, funded through the American Rescue Plan, represents the largest-ever direct federal investment in small business incubators and accelerators.
Run by the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), the program expanded and was made permanent by the president’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
It counts as the most significant project in the 50-year history of the MBDA. During the announcement at Sycamore & Oak in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Southeast, D.C., Harris revealed 43 organizations selected as winners of the CRP awards.
These organizations, comprising non-profits, community-based entities, private sector firms, and institutions of higher education, will form partnerships to assist underserved entrepreneurs seeking resources, tools, and support to start or expand businesses in high-growth, high-wage industries like healthcare, climate-resilient technology, infrastructure, and more.
According to recent reports, the United States has experienced a record number of new business applications, totaling 12.6 million under the Biden-Harris Administration.
“This surge demonstrates the confidence entrepreneurs have in the efficacy of Bidenomics,” a senior White House official stated on Friday.
The awardees include the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation, which will use the $3 million grant to enhance business accelerator and incubator programs for underserved entrepreneurs in Arizona, Nevada, and California.
Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Bridgeway Capital will receive $2 million to support at least 340 minority-owned and rural entrepreneurs in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, scaling up business education programs for revenue-generating growth opportunities.
The Urban League of Greater Atlanta will utilize $3 million to provide incubator and accelerator services to historically underserved entrepreneurs in high-growth industries.
The Northern Great Lakes Initiative in Michigan will receive $3 million to streamline support for entrepreneurs, focusing on West Michigan, from conceptualizing an idea to business incubation and capital for growth.
The Biden-Harris Administration also announced the first approvals of awards for up to $58 million to 12 states as part of the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) Technical Assistance Grant Program.
The SSBCI TA Grant Program, totaling approximately $200 million, aims to give small businesses access to historic support included in the American Rescue Plan, with an unprecedented nearly $10 billion from the Treasury Department.
“Investing in small businesses is at the core of President Biden and Vice President Harris’s strategy to grow the economy from the bottom up,” a senior White House official said.
The White House noted that recent announcements through the Capital Readiness Program and the SSBCI TA Grant Program demonstrate the administration’s commitment to ensuring all communities benefit from the ongoing small business boom.
These initiatives supplement additional actions taken under Bidenomics, such as delivering historic support to minority-supporting community financial institutions, making programs that boost lending to underserved communities permanent, expanding lending licenses, forming the Interagency Community Investment Committee (ICIC), and streamlining and simplifying small business lending.
Officials said the administration is leveraging federal spending to support small businesses and level the playing field for innovative small businesses.
That includes using federal contracting dollars to support small and disadvantaged businesses, ensuring CHIPS Act funding supports small businesses, creating contracting opportunities in clean energy and energy efficiency, and cutting energy costs for small businesses.
“Through these comprehensive efforts, the Biden-Harris Administration seeks to create a thriving environment for small businesses, support underserved entrepreneurs, and foster economic growth from the ground up,” the White House official stated.
Amidst the rich tapestry of culture, the wisdom and guidance of grandmothers hold a special place from Harlem to Harare. Grandmas possess a unique blend of strength, resilience, and unwavering love, passing down invaluable pieces of advice from one generation to the next. In this article, we delve into nineteen brilliant nuggets of wisdom from…
By Lil Nickelson The Harlem Breakfast Club (“HBC”) is located at 2167 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd between 128th and 129th Streets in the village of Central Harlem. It’s a takeout-only restaurant that serves breakfast all day that has captivated its grab-and-go clients with its cheerful service and its delicious Southern-inspired, yet pork-free food offerings.…
