Monday, April 14

Journalism

Traveling while black: Why some Americans are afraid to explore their own country
No Comments
Journalism, VIDEO REELS

Traveling while black: Why some Americans are afraid to explore their own country

Her mom always smiled - except when the family made its annual summer drive to visit the grandparents in Magnolia, Arkansas. “The smiles were gone while we were traveling,” said Gloria Gardner, 77. It was the 1940s, and traveling to her parents’ home town was not approached lightly after the family moved to Muskegon, Michigan, during the Great Migration. Stopping for food or bathroom breaks was mostly out of the question. For black families, preparing for a road trip required a well-tested battle plan in which nothing could be left to chance. There were meals to cook and pack in ice. Sheets were folded and stacked in the car to use as partitions if they were left with no choice but to take bathroom breaks roadside. And there was another item that Gardner recalls her parents never forgo...
Read More
It’s More Than a Church Parking Lot. It’s a Safe Zone for Homeless Women and Families
No Comments
Journalism

It’s More Than a Church Parking Lot. It’s a Safe Zone for Homeless Women and Families

On April 5, Jen pulled her leaking 1998 station wagon into a church parking lot. Three years earlier, she had lost her human resources job. Unable to land another one, she eventually had been evicted from her apartment. Living out of her car ever since, the 41-year-old can’t remember how she heard about the church, but calls it a blessing that she did. The church she’s referring to is Lake Washington United Methodist Church in Kirkland, Washington. It launched the Safe Parking program in 2011 to give homeless women and families a safe place to park and sleep overnight. It now also provides them with 24-hour parking and access to the church’s bathrooms and kitchen. The church lends out laptops for guests to use its Wi-Fi to apply for jobs or seek additional support services. And when it’s...
Read More
The New Co-op Helping Ex-Inmates Find Work—and Recover
No Comments
Journalism

The New Co-op Helping Ex-Inmates Find Work—and Recover

The United States has the world’s highest incarceration rate, with more than 2.2 million people in prison. And within the United States, the highest incarceration rate belongs to Washington, D.C. There, a new worker-owned business cooperative hopes to reverse those numbers, offering former prisoners opportunities for employment and healing. Though co-ops that employ formerly incarcerated people already exist, Tightshift Laboring Cooperative is the first Washington, D.C., co-op formed and operated by ex-prisoners. The co-op offers an array of manual labor services, including residential and commercial cleaning, hauling and moving, and landscaping. It also uses eco-friendly products to provide customers with affordable, high-quality cleaning services. Unbeknownst to his family, Reid becam...
Read More
Meet the Man Bringing Cheap Renewable Energy to His Hometown
No Comments
Journalism

Meet the Man Bringing Cheap Renewable Energy to His Hometown

When Highland Park, Michigan, a predominately Black city surrounded by Detroit, had its streetlights repossessed in 2011, because of a $4 million unpaid street lighting bill, Ryter Cooperative Industries L3C stepped in to help install solar-powered streetlights in the city’s neighborhoods. Energy cost inequality is a problem in many areas throughout the country. Low-income households spend 10% of their income on electricity—four times higher than the average household, according to a recent report. So while the median electricity bill in the United States in 2013 was around $114 a month, many low-income families paid more than $200 a month. Some renewable energy advocacy organizations have attributed the cost inequality to the lack of community engagement and awareness of renewable en...
Read More
A Populism of Hope Begins When People Feel Their Own Power
No Comments
Journalism

A Populism of Hope Begins When People Feel Their Own Power

The waning years of the 1800s bore an uncanny resemblance to the present. The U.S. economy was transforming and globalizing, leaving behind many hardworking people. Then, as now, a populist uprising was underway in national politics against politics as usual. Then, as now, tough-talking contenders tried to position themselves as spokesmen for the people. That earlier populism shared many of the complaints about widespread economic stagnation and urban elites that animated voters in 2016. But, rather than in the apocalyptic preaching of a reality TV star, the movement’s backbone lay in feats of economic self-help. And this made all the difference. The proposals those populists sought called for fuller democracy, not authoritarian retrenchment. This was a populism of hope, not a populi...
Read More
Make your sweetheart swoon with Oprah’s Favorite Things
No Comments
Journalism

Make your sweetheart swoon with Oprah’s Favorite Things

Oprah’s Favorite Things list for 2017 has 102 wonderful items and many are just right for Valentine’s Day. Our expert gift guru picked out some special items we just love to get you started on the road to making your sweetheart swoon on February 14! For the past 20 years, Oprah has offered up her Favorite Things -- innovative, unique gifts to give on holidays, birthdays and special occasions to the people you care about. Her new list for 2017 has 102 wonderful items in categories like Beauty Crush, Foodie, Techie and more. Many of these gifts are just right for Valentine’s Day and our expert gift guru picked out some special items we just love to get you started on the road to making your sweetheart swoon on February 14! Treats for your Sweetheart Chocolate is a traditional gift on Valen...
Read More
Lawyer: OJ Simpson is golfing a lot, staying in Las Vegas for now
No Comments
Journalism

Lawyer: OJ Simpson is golfing a lot, staying in Las Vegas for now

O.J. Simpson is not planning to move from Nevada to Florida like he told state parole officials before he was released in October from Nevada state prison, his Las Vegas lawyer said Thursday. The 70-year-old former football hero, acquitted murder defendant and armed robbery inmate has not filed paperwork with parole officials to move to a different state, attorney Malcolm LaVergne said. “Mr. Simpson has no immediate plans to return to Florida,” LaVergne told The Associated Press. “He’s very much enjoying his time here in Vegas. It’s January, he gets to play golf every day.” A Nevada state parole and probation officer handling Simpson’s case did not immediately respond to messages, and Florida prisons spokeswoman Ashley Cook said her agency has not received documents from Simpson seeking...
Read More
The Women of Color Out to Reclaim Marijuana Culture
No Comments
Journalism

The Women of Color Out to Reclaim Marijuana Culture

As marijuana gains some measure of mainstream acceptance as a medical and recreational drug, its industry is becoming more commercialized. And many users, especially in communities of color, want to reclaim its counter-culture significance. The group Women.Weed.Wifi. has started a movement to do just that. The women-led Seattle-based art collective celebrates the stories, lives, and creative endeavors of women of color, using cannabis as a mechanism to explore identity, community, and healing. One in eight American adults say they smoke marijuana. One in eight American adults say they smoke marijuana, according to a 2016 Gallup poll, and as one of the fastest growing markets in the country, the industry is projected to be worth over $21 billion by 2021. Washington and Colorado were the...
Read More
Muslim Man Marries Three Women at Once Because He Couldn’t Afford Three Separate Weddings
No Comments
Journalism

Muslim Man Marries Three Women at Once Because He Couldn’t Afford Three Separate Weddings

Mohammed Ssemanda, a 50-year-old Muslim man from Uganda, made news headlines all over Africa last month, when he married three women in a single ceremony, because he couldn’t afford to marry them separately. Ssemanda, a food vendor from the town of Katabi, in Uganda’s Wakiso district, caused quite a shock when he showed up at the local parish with three women, all wearing white wedding gowns. He told reporters on the scene that his wives all know that he isn’t doing very well financially, but they all agreed to marry him out of love. The 50-year-old added that the women aren’t jealous of each other and know that he will work very hard to support them. Photo: Watchdog Uganda “My wives are not jealous against each other. Good enough, each has got a home and I promise to work harder and ...
Read More
What will the #MeToo movement mean for Cosby’s next trial?
No Comments
Journalism

What will the #MeToo movement mean for Cosby’s next trial?

Jurors couldn’t agree the first time around whether to accept a woman’s story that “America’s Dad,” Bill Cosby, sexually assaulted her over a decade ago. Now he faces a retrial in less than 90 days in a vastly different cultural climate, one in which powerful men from Hollywood to the U.S. Senate are being toppled by allegations of sexual misconduct. The jury in Cosby’s case was deadlocked on charges he drugged and molested a woman in 2004, and the judge declared a mistrial in June. But that was before the revelations about movie producer Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo movement burst into the public sphere. The shift is clearly on Cosby’s mind. He quipped to a reporter after shaking her hand Wednesday outside a Philadelphia restaurant: “Please don’t put me on MeToo.” Legal experts say ...
Read More