One of President Donald Trump’s big goals when he was elected was to cut regulations and reduce the size of the federal government. Trump claimed when campaigning that regulations were harmful to American businesses and Wall Street. Read more →

As Labor Day approaches, it’s a time to celebrate American workers and take a look at how they’ve been impacted by the covid-19 pandemic. Although the United States is slowly regaining lost jobs, the national unemployment rate is still higher than normal at 10.2 percent as of July 2020. Read more →

On Aug. 18, 1920, Tennessee legislators voted to ratify the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing the right for women to vote. It was the largest granting of suffrage in the history of the United States. As with the cancelation of everything else, events to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage were canceled. However, on the 100th anniversary of the Tennessee General Assembly’s vote, women in my community gathered at a the state library next to a statue of Mark Twain to celebrate. Mark Twain said women should have the right to vote. It was fun to celebrate such a joyous occasion. Read more →

The world as we know it is changing due to the coronavirus pandemic. But as it exposes inequities in the health and food systems, many people hope that the pandemic offers an opportunity to build a new and more sustainable food system. To understand what it will take to move forward, the Food Tank has compiled its summer reading list to examine the issues that affect the country's food system today. These 20 books provide insight into food access and justice in black communities, food relief and school nutrition programs, the effects of technology on global food supply chains, the relationship between climate change and food production, and more: "Be My Guest: Reflections on Food, Community, and the Meaning of Generosity" by Priya Basil. Forthcoming November 2020 Priya Basil explores the meaning of hospitality within a variety of cultural, linguistic, and sociopolitical contexts. Basil uses her cross-cultural experience to illustrate how food amplifies discourse within families and touches on the hospitality and the lack thereof that migrants and refugees experience. Read more →

Students at colleges and universities are being targeted by a work-at-home employment scam through emails that appear to be sent from a college or university. The scammers obtain personal information from the student while posing as a college or university representative. They convince students to cash counterfeit checks and send them the money. Read more →

It’s so upsetting that coronavirus cases are spiking in about 20 states in the USA. I’ve been staying home since early March, and am prepared to stay home more because I’m in the high-risk group. But many people, including President Trump, aren’t wearing face masks. Trump even organized a huge... Read more →

In Washington state where I live, scammers have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars in employment benefits. The state, in a hurry to get payments to people needing funds during the pandemic, didn't have adequate safeguards in place to stop crooks. Now, the process has been slowed down to do more checking. How are scammers doing this? They're filing claims for unemployment benefits, using the names and personal information of people who haven't filed claims. People learn about the fraud when they get a notice from their state unemployment benefits office or their employer about their supposed application for benefits. If this happens to you, it means someone is misusing your personal information, including your Social Security number and birth date, said Seena Gressin, attorney for the Federal Trade Commission's Division of Consumer and Business Education. Gressin said to act fast using these steps to help protect your finances and credit: Read more →

It’s so upsetting to see millions of people out protesting in the streets of America in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. Should people be protesting the murder of George Floyd by a police officer? Yes, it’s needed. Should they be protesting in the middle of the pandemic? No. In Washington state as of June 12, 2020, the 14-day average of covid-19 deaths was seven. Seven people a day are dying, yet the state is opening up. The public policy is that it’s O.K. for seven people to die a day of covid-19. In the United States on Sunday, 317 people died. Read more →

A Trump administration rule that denies loan relief to many students cheated by their schools is deeply flawed and should be overturned, Public Citizen and the Project on Predatory Student Lending told a court Tuesday. The groups represent student borrowers in a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s new “partial relief” rule. The rule details how the department will decide whether and how much relief to give borrowers who have demonstrated that they were cheated by the schools they attended. Under the rule, most borrowers whose claims are approved receive only partial or no relief on their student-loan debt. The lead plaintiff, Sammia Pratt, attended a Corinthian-owned Everest school in Florida for accounting, based on the false promise that she’d be able to transfer credits to the University of Central Florida. Read more →

We’re living the life of the coronavirus pandemic. We’re staying home and picking up groceries or having them delivered. Then, George Floyd is murdered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when a police officer pressed his knee on his neck for 9 minutes. Despite stay-at-home orders, thousands of people burst out of their homes to protest in cities throughout the nation, some not wearing masks. Then, the riots and looting begin. It’s upsetting in so many ways. Another black person killed by police, needlessly. Local officials slow to take the right action. Black and brown people continuing to face police brutality and lack of job opportunities, housing, health care, and more. Read more →