Medium 0 comments on Claire’s, The Ear Piercing Tween Mall Staple Is Bankrupt, Again

Claire’s, The Ear Piercing Tween Mall Staple Is Bankrupt, Again

Claire’s – the ear-piercing tween mall staple – is once again on the brink of survival, NPR reported.

The chain on Wednesday filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in seven years. It is struggling under the weight of new tariff costs just a year before an unwieldy loan of $500 million is due. The retailer says that its Canadian arm will pursue a similar bankruptcy proceeding but that North American stores will remain open during the process.

Claire’s has blamed its declining sales on inflation and shoppers’ growing reluctance to spend on while like faux-gold bangles, cat-shaped lip gloss, Hello Kitty socks and Barbie purses. Most of the store’s items come from China, whose products face the highest tariffs in President Trump’s renegotiation of world trade that has added new costs for Claire’s as the importer.”

Claire’s has been piercing ears across America since the 1970s, over time gobbling up Japanese, British and American rivals selling jewelry accessories. By the peak of its popularity in the early 2000s, Claire’s had grown into a fixture of malls.

This made the chain attractive to private-equity firm Apollo, which in 2007 staged a leveraged buyout. The deal saw Clare’s take on extensive debt that it planned to pay off as the chain grew rapidly — until it didn’t. As malls began to contend with dropping traffic and mounting online competition, so did Claire’s.

I remember the the first time I got my ears pierced at Claire’s. One of the women working at Claire’s put me in a chair and used a device to pierce my earlobes. It didn’t hurt at all, was quick and easy, and I paid for it with my own money.

When I got home, my parents, who were really mean to me, eventually noticed that I got my ears pierced. Most of my friends had their ears pierced, and I thought it was normal for girls  my age to have piercings. I spent my own money to get my ears pierced, and refused to take out my ear piercings.  

Skipping ahead, I started dating a guy who turned out to be absolutely horrible. At the time, his parents allowed me to live with them. I accepted because desperately wanted to get away from my parents. 

My terrible boyfriend turned out to be a narcissist. He cheated on me several times, couldn’t control is anger, and was mean. At the time, we were walking around in the mall, and – for some reason – ended up at Claire’s. 

This time, I asked to have piercings in the upper lobe of my ears. Again, one of the women working at Claire’s put me in the chair again and pierced the top of my ears. It sort of hurt, but I have a high pain tolerance.

After leaving Claire’s, I started to feel some pain where the piercing went, and I stopped walking through the mall. A responsible boyfriend would have asked me if I was okay, but my narcissist boyfriend didn’t care what I was feeling. 

California 0 comments on Governor Newsom Calls For A Special Election To Allow For A New Congressional Map In California

Governor Newsom Calls For A Special Election To Allow For A New Congressional Map In California

California Gov. Gavin Newsom made a pretty major announcement yesterday, taking his latest stance to fight back against Republican’s mid-decade redistricting plans in Texas and beyond, The Hill reported.

This move comes as Republicans in Texas – with President Donald Trump’s backing  – are pursuing a new congressional map that would give them as many as five more House seats. And Newsom’s response? He’s leaning into some signature California swag: “I know they say ‘Don’t mess with Texas.” Well, don’t mess with the great Golden State.”

He’s calling it the “Election Rigging Response Act,” a proposal that would let California Democrats bypass the state’s independent redistricting commission and redraw maps more favorable to their own party. Newsom says it a direct response to Republican moves.

“I’m grateful to all of the remarkable leaders who have stepped up this unifying effort, and we’ll be asking for the people on the November 4th special election, coinciding with a lot of local municipal elections, to provide a temporary pathway for congressional maps. We will affirm our commitment to the state independent redistricting after the 2030 census, but we’re asking the voters for their consent to do midterm redistricting.”

In an ideal world, Texas would wait until the next census to adopt independent redistricting committees — and California would resist the temptation to “fight fire with fire.” Because in this case, the “fire” is actually a direct hit to one of democracy’s core values: voting equality. And if you burn that down, you’re doing the work of democracy’s enemies for them.

When both political parties started disenfranchising voters to push their policies without actually earning our votes, the only winners are people rich enough to buy politicians’ loyalty.

NBC News reported: Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday called on California lawmakers to approve a November ballot measure that would allow them to redraw the state’s congressional map to fight back against Republican’s mid-decade redistricting plans in Texas and elsewhere.

Newsom’s proposal, called the “Election Rigging Response Act,” would pave the way for California Democrats to circumvent the independent commission that controls the map-drawing process in the state and to pass new congressional lines that would be more favorable to their party.

Republicans in Texas, with President Donald Trump’ backing, are pursuing a new congressional map that would allow them to gain up to five more House seats.

“It’s not complicated. We’re doing this in reaction to a president of the United States that called the sitting governor of the state of Texas and said, “Find me five seats,” Newsom said. “We’re doing it in reaction to that act. Were doing it mindful of our higher angels and better angel. We’re doing it mindful that we want to model better behavior, as we’ve been doing for 15 years in the state of California with our independent redistricting commission. But we cannot unilaterally disarm.”

California Democrats need approval from others to sidestep the state’s independent redistricting commission, and the clock is ticking for lawmakers to approve a ballot initiative for this year’s Nov. 4 election. If the measure passes, it would allow new maps to be enacted in time for the 2026 midterm elections.

Several other Democratic leaders in California appeared alongside Newsom at an event Thursday in Los Angeles, framing their mid-decade redistricting effort as a broader rebuke of Trump and the actions of his administration.

Newsom told reporters after the rally that the California Legislature would formally launch the effort Monday through a series of bills.

“We anticipate the Legislature will move quickly and by the end of the next week, they will complete that work,” he said. 

He added that the proposed new maps would appear of the next few days and that he expected they would “neuter and neutralize” efforts in Texas. Democrats currently represent 43 of California’s 52 House districts.

Medium 0 comments on Corporation For Public Broadcasting Says It Will Shut Down After Congress Cut Money

Corporation For Public Broadcasting Says It Will Shut Down After Congress Cut Money

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced that it will begin shutting down, weeks after Congress canceled previously approved funding for the nation’s steward of public media access, NBC News reported.

The CBP said in a statement that it will begin an “orderly wind-down” of its operations after nearly 60 years with the support of the federal government. 

It said that most staff positions will conclude with the close of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. A small team of employees will remain through January 2026, it added. It did not specify how many people in total were being laid off.

“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the reality of closing our operations,” the corporation’s president and CEO, Patricia Harrison, said in a statement. “CPB remains committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities and supporting our partners through this transition with transparency and care.

The announcement comes less than a month after Congress passed a package of spending cuts requested by President Donald Trump that included stripping $1.1 billion in funding for the CPB.

The administration has repeatedly accused NPR and PBS of liberal bias, which the organizations have repeatedly denied. 

“Public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing educational opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse, and cultural connection to every corner of the country,” Harrison said.

WYFI.org reported: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the conduit for federal funds to NPR and PBS announced that it is beginning to wind down its operations, given President Trump has signed a law clawing back $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting through fiscal year 2027.

The announcement follows a largely party-line vote last mont that approved the cuts to public broadcasting as part of a $9 billion recessions package requested by the White House that also included cuts to foreign aid. While public media officials had held a glimmer of hope that lawmakers would restore some of he money for the following budget year, the Senate Appropriations Committee declined to do that on Thursday.

“Public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing educational opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse, and cultural connection to every corner of the country, Harrison said. 

“The ripple effects of this closure will be felt across every public media organization and, more importantly, in every community across the country that relies on public broadcasting,” NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher said in a statement.

KUAF reported: On July 18, 2025, Congress voted to rescind money already appropriated to fund public media via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Roughly one week later, on July 24, the President singed the bill eliminating federal funding. This change will significantly impact public media stations such as ours that serve millions of listeners every day.

Federal Funding of Public Media is being eliminated — now we’re counting on you

For KUAF Public Radio, this funding amounts to approximately $193,000 annually, or about 17% of our budget. This loss in funding comes at an already financially challenging time for the station. That puts the music, news programming, Ozarks at Large, community events, and local reporting that you love and rely on from KUAF in jeopardy.

We’re moving into an uncharted future, but your commitment to you remains unwavering, and your support has never been more vital. We are committed to continuing to bring you rigorous journalism, courageous storytelling, inspired music discovery, and community connection.

The Daily Beast reported: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which has provided funding for PBS and NPR, will begin winding down its operations after the non-profit had its funding cut.

For nearly 60 years, the corporation has been supporting public broadcasting, but it became a victim of the Trump administration’s effort to slash spending.

“CPB remains committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities and supporting our partners through this transition with transparency and care,” she added.

The corporation had its funding clawed back by Republicans in Congress through the recessions package passed earlier this month.

The CPB was created through Congress in 1967 and is responsible for helping provide non-commercial television and radio content, including support for educational content, emergency communications, and local journalism.

More than 70 percent of its funds were distributed to 1,500 locally owned public radio and television stations. Broadcasters supported by CPB last year alone delivered 11,000 life-saving emergency alerts.

Republicans passed the recessions package earlier this month, which included clawing back more than $ 1 billion for the CPB, which provides some funding to NPR and PBS.

This week, the Senate advanced a 2026 spending bill that provided no money for the CPB, further impacting its ability to keep the lights on.

In my opinion, I think it is absolutely ridiculous to pull funding away from The Corporation For Public Broadcasting. President Trump has initiated funding cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) once during his administration. This action was part of broader rescission packages approved by Congress.

Details of the Clawback

Date of Action: The funding clawback was finalized on July 18, 2025.

Amount Cut: Approximately $1.1 billion in federal funding was rescinded.

Impact: This cut eliminated federal support for NPR, PBS, and over 1,500 local public radio stations.

Context of the Decision

The decision to cut funding was framed as a response to claims of bias in public media.

The CPB has been receiving federal funds since its establishment, but the funding was deemed unnecessary in the current media landscape.

This single action represents a significant shift in federal support for public broadcasting, affecting many local stations, especially in rural areas.

Medium 0 comments on Illinois Legislators Passed A Law To Prevent Police From Ticketing Students

Illinois Legislators Passed A Law To Prevent Police From Ticketing Students

Illinois legislators on Wednesday passed a law to explicitly prevent police from ticketing and fining students for minor misbehavior at school, ending a practice that harmed students across the state. ProPublica reported. 

The new law would apply to all public schools, including charters. It will require school districts, beginning in the 2027-28 school year, to report to the state how often they involve police in student matters each year and to separate the data by race, gender and disability. The state will be required to make the data public.

The legislation comes three years after a ProPublica and Chicago Tribune investigation, “The Price Kids Pay,” revealed that even though Illinois law bans school officials from fining students directly, districts skirted the law by calling on police to issue citations for local ordinances.

“The Price Kids Pay” found that thousands of Illinois students had been ticketed in recent years for adolescent behavior once handled by the principal’s office — things like littering, making loud noises, swearing, fighting or vaping in the bathroom. It also found that Black students were twice as likely to be ticketed at school than their white peers.

From the House floor, Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Democrat from Chicago, thanked the news organizations for exposing the practice and told legislators that the goal of the bill “is to make sure if there is a violation of school code, the school should use their discipline policies” rather than disciplining students through police-issued tickets.

State Sen. Karina Villa, a Democrat from suburban West Chicago and a sponsor of the measure, said in a statement that ticketing students failed to address the reasons for misbehavior. “This bill will once and for all prohibit monetary fines as a form of discipline for Illinois students,” she said.

State Sen. Karina Villa, a Democrat from suburban West Chicago and a sponsor of the measure, said in a statement that ticketing students failed to address the reasons for misbehavior. “This bill will once and for all prohibit monetary fines as a form of discipline for Illinois students,” she said.

The legislation would also prevent police from issuing tickets to students for behavior on school transportation or during school-related events of activities.

The Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police opposed the legislation. The group said in a statement that while school-based officers should not be responsible for disciplining students, they should have the option to issue citations for criminal conduct as one of “a variety of resolutions.” The group said it’s concerned that not having the opting to issue tickets could lead to students facing arrest and criminal charges instead.

The legislation makes clear that police can arrest students for crimes or violence they commit, but that they cannot ticket students for violating local ordinances prohibiting a range of minor infractions.

That distinction was not clear in previous versions of the legislation, which led to concern that schools would not be able to involve police in serious matters —and was a key reason legislation on ticketing foundered in previous legislative sessions. Students also may still be ordered to pay for lost, stolen or damaged property.

“This bill helps create an environment where students can learn from their mistakes without being unneearrily funneled into the justice system,” said Aimee Galvan, government affairs director with Stand for Children, one of the groups that have advocated for banning municipal tickets as school-based discipline.

The news investigation detailed how students were doubly penalized: when they were punished in school, with detention or a suspension, and then when they were ticketed by police for minor misbehavior. The investigation also revealed how, to resolve the tickets, children were thrown into a legal process designed for adults. Illinois law permits fines of up to $750 for municipal ordanice violations; it’s difficult to fight the charges, and students and families can be sent to collection if they don’t pay.

After the investigation was published, some school districts stopped asking police to ticket students. But the practice continued in many other districts.

In my opinion, bringing police officers into schools is a bad idea. Kids deserve better than being scared that the police might ticket them or take them to jail. There is no good reason for police officers to ticket students in schools. Fear doesn’t help anyone – especially kids. Police officers are doing it wrong, and should never be targeting children.

Medium 0 comments on Wikimedia Editors Adopt Speedy Deletion Policy For AI Slop Articles

Wikimedia Editors Adopt Speedy Deletion Policy For AI Slop Articles

Wikipedia editors just adopted a new policy to help them deal with the slew of AI-generated articles flooding the online encyclopedia. The new policy which gives an administrator the authority to quickly delete an AI -generated article that meets a certain criteria, isn’t only important to Wikipedia, but also an important example for how to deal with the growing AI slop problem from a platform that has so far managed to withstand various forms of enshittification that have plagued the rest of the internet, 4O4 Media reported.

Wikipedia is maintained by a global, collaborative community of volunteer contributors and editors, and part of the reason it remains a reliable source of information is that this community takes a lot of time to discuss, deliberate, and argue about everything that happens on the platform, be it changes to individual articles or the policies that govern how those changes are made. 

It is normal for entire Wikipedia articles to be deleted, but the main process for deletion usually requires a week-long discussion phase which Wikipedia’s try to come to a consensus on whether to delete the article.

However, in order to deal with common problems that clearly violate Wikipedia’s policies, Wikipedia also has a “speedy deletion” process, where one person flags an article, an administration checks if it meets certain conditions, and then deletes the article without the discussion period.

At the moment, most articles that Wikipedia editors flag as being AI-generated fall into the latter category because editors can’t be absolutely certain they were AI-generated. IIyas Lebleu, a founding member of WikiProject AI Cleanup and an editor that contributed some critical language in the recently adopted policy on AI generated articles and speedy deletion, said this is why previous proposals on regulating AI generated articles on Wikipedia have struggled.

BBC reported: Wikipedia has lost a legal challenge to the new Online Safety Act rules it says could threaten the human rights and safety of its volunteer editors.

The Wikimedia Foundation – the non-profit which supports the online encyclopedia – wanted a judicial review of the regulations which could mean Wikipedia has to verify the identities of its users.

But it said despite the loss, the judgment “emphasized the responsibility of Ofcom and the UK government to ensure Wikipedia is protected.”

The government told the BBC it welcomed the High Court’s judgement, “which will help us continue to work implementing the Online Safety Act to create a safer online world for everyone.”

Judicial reviews challenge the lawfulness of the way a decision has been made by a public body.

In this case, the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia editor tried to challenge the way in which the government decided to make regulations covering which sites should be classed as “Category 1” under the Online Safety Act – the strictest rules sites must follow.

It argued that the rules were logically flawed and too broad, meaning a policy intended to impost extra rules on large social media companies would instead apply to Wikipedia.

In particular the foundation is concerned the extra duties required – if Wikipedia was classed as Category 1 – it would mean it would have to verify the identity of its contributors, undermining privacy their privacy and safety.

The only way to cut the numbers of people in the UK who could access the online encyclopedia by three-quarters, or disable the key functions on the site.

Politico reported: The U.K. High Court dismissed the Wikimedia Foundation’s challenge to parts of the country’s Online Safety Act on Monday, but suggested the nonprofit could have grounds for legal action in the future.

The Wikimedia Foundations, which operates Wikipedia, sought a judicial review of the Online Safety Act’s Categorization Regulations in May, arguing the rules risked subjecting Wikipedia to the most stringent “Category 1” duties intended for social media platforms. 

The nonprofit was particularly concerned that under the OSA’s “Category 1” duties it would be forced to verify the identity of users — undermining their privacy — or else allow “potentially malicious” users to block unverified users from changing content, leading to vandalism and disinformation going unchecked.

Medium 0 comments on Queer Art Faces Widespread Museum Censorship, Curators Say

Queer Art Faces Widespread Museum Censorship, Curators Say

When artist Amy Sherald canceled her LGBTQ-inclusive Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery show “American Sublime” last month, it was just the latest in a series of censorship episodes involving LGBTQ art at major American museums this year.

In February, Washington, D.C.’s Art Museum of the Americas canceled “Nature’s Wild With Andil Gosine” just weeks before the exhibition’s scheduled opening in March, without saying why. The group show was to have include works inspired by Gosine’s 2021 book “Nature’s Wild: Love, Sex and Law in the Caribbean,” which reflects on art, activism and homosexuality in the region.

The same month, Arizona’s Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art made eleventh-hour edits to a traveling exhibition of women, queer and trans artists, which had been called “transfeminisms,” altering the title of its condensed show to “There are other skies.”

In April, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art postponed a group exhibition of works by LGBTQ African artists titled: “Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art,” which had been scheduled for a late May opening to coincide with WorldPride.

The D.C. museum cited budgetary reasons for postponing the show to 2026, but the timing was hard to miss on the heels of the Trump administration directives to the Smithsonian to remove “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” from its museums — as well as the forced and pre-emptive relocation of other WorldPride cultural events after Trump administration firings at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

“There’s something about the combination of art and sexuality that still remains the third rail in the American museum world,” art historian Jonathan D. Katz told NBC News. Katz was the leader curator for “The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869-1939,” the vast and successful historical survey of LGBTQ art that ran through early July at Chicago’s Wrightwood 659 Gallery.

Katz traces the roots of modern queer art censorship to the controversial Robert Mapplethorp exhibition “The Perfect Moment,” which — with its provocative imagery, much of it homoerotic — became a cultural lightning rod at the height of the Regan/Bush-era culture wars in 1989-90.

“You’d think that decades later, this would no longer be a live wire, but it still seems to be,” Katz said.

Central to the cancellation of Sherald’s show was her painting “Trans Forming Liberty,” which features a Black trans woman posing as the Statue of Liberty. After she learned that the National Portrait Gallery had “internal concerns” about the painting and planned to replace it or supplement it with a video to provide “both sides” of its trans subject matter, Sherald balked and canceled her entire show, which would have been the museum’s first solo exhibition by a Black contemporary artist.

“While no single person is to blame, it’s clear that institution fear shaped by a broader climate of political hostility towards trans lives played a role.” Sherald, who rose to fame when she painted former First Lady Michelle Obama’s official portrait, said in a statement after the cancellation. “At a time when transgender people are being legislated against, silenced, and endangered across our nation, silence is not an option.”

The National Portrait Gallery is one of eight Smithsonian museums targeted as part of the first phase of an expansive review announced by the Trump administration on Tuesday. The review will analyze all aspects of current and future museum exhibitions to ensure alignment with the president’s March executive order calling for “Restoring Truth And Sanity to American History.”

In a statement to NBC News, the Art Institute of Chicago said its “Painting His World” title is more illustrative of what people will see when they come to the exhibition, which “reflects Cailebott’s full lived experience and daily life, including his personal relationships with the men in his life, like his brother, colleagues, and friends.” The institute added that it’s “common practice” for the same exhibition to have differing titles and wall labels when it’s at different museums.”

The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art – which was not included in the Trump administration’s Phase 1 Review — said in a statement on Tuesday that the postponement of its LGBTQ exhibition was due to private funding challenges and that pushing it back to early 2026 “provide the museum additional time to increase fundraising for the exhibit.”

California 0 comments on Newsom Says California To Draw Congressional Maps to “END TRUMP PRESIDENCY”

Newsom Says California To Draw Congressional Maps to “END TRUMP PRESIDENCY”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said California will move forward with drawing new congressional maps that he said “WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY” and allow Democrats to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives, ABC News reported.

“DONALD ‘TACO’ TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM “MISSED” THE DEADLINE!!! CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW, MORE “BEAUTIFUl MAPS,” THEY WILL BE HISTORIC AS THEY END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!) Newsom wrote Tuesday night, in a post written in the style of President Donald Trump’s occasionally all-caps social media post.

The announcement comes amid Texas Republicans’ efforts to redraw congressional maps in their party’s favor. The redistricting showdown in Texas has led blue states to threaten to retaliate — with Newsom proposing to cut five GOP-held seats in California.

The redistricting battle in Texas — and potentially in other states — has national implications. The Texas GOP’s proposed congressional map could net Republicans between three and five seats in next year’s midterm elections — seats that could make a difference as Republicans work to maintain their small majority in the U.S. House.

A spokesperson for California State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas confirmed to ABC News that the state legislature is aiming to release draft maps on Friday.

Newsom’s post did not offer any details on the maps or how he plans to get them approved, although Newsom has said previously he would consider trying to have maps on the ballot in a special election in November.

The California governor said he would be part of a press conference this week with “powerful” Democrats, but didn’t offer details about who would be in attendance.

Newsom sent a letter to Trump on Monday asking the president to tell Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican governors to abandon efforts to draw new congressional maps. Texas Democrats have fled the state in protest of the maps.

The Texas House of Representatives was once again unable to reach a quorum Tuesday. Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows said that the House will convince once again in Friday, adding if there’s no quorum by then, Abbott will adjourn the current session and call a second special session to begin immediately.

The Hill reported: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) trolled President Trump with a social media post Tuesday declaring “SECOND-TO-LAST WARNING” in the ongoing blue state/red state battle over redistricting — ribbing Trump over his polling, squishy deadlines and distinctive communication style.

“DONALD TRUMP, THE LOWEST POLLING PRESIDENT IN RECENT HISTORY, THIS IS YOUR SECOND-TO-LAST WARNING!!! (THE NEXT ONE IS THE LAST ONE!),” Newsom’s press office posted on the social platform X. “STAND DOWN NOW OR CALIFORNIA WILL COUNTER-STRIKE (LEGALLY!) TO DESTROY YOUR ILLEGAL CROOKED MAPS IN RED STATES.”

“PRESS CONFERENCE COMING — HOSTED BY AMERICA’S FAVORITE GOVERNOR, GAVIN NEWSOM.” the post continued. “FINAL WARNING NEXT. YOU WON’T LIKE IT!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.”

Trump frequently uses his Truth Social feed to issue similarly styled missives about policies and to air political grievances. Among the hallmarks of Trump’s posts that Newsom sarcastically copied: thanking followers for their “attention to this matter,” curious users of punctuation, capitalization, and parenthetical aside, and references to himself as the “favorite” president.

Newsom also appeared to mock Trump’s waffling warnings and deadlines that prompted the spread of the “TACO” moniker, short for “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

Newsom, who is seen as a potential contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, sent a letter to Trump on Monday urging the president to end the redistricting tit for tat that has swelled in states amid a battle over Trump’s call for Texas to draw a map more favorable to Republicans.

“This attempt to rig congressional maps to hold power before a single vote is cast in the 2026 election is an affront to American democracy,” the governor wrote.

Newsom also took aim Tuesday at Trump’s recent emergency declaration in the nation’s capital to allow federal intervention in D.C.’s crime-fighting efforts, as well as the president’s threats to expand his efforts to other Democrat-led cities.

“President Trump is peddling the same tired lie he used in Los Angeles — claiming there’s rampant lawlessness in Democratic cities like Washington, D.C.,” Newsom said in a news release, highlighting high crime rates in GOP-led states. “His authoritarian orders aren’t about safety — they’re an attack on the very foundation of our nation and a slap in the face to democracy.”

Time.com reported: “It’s time to stand down,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom warned President Trump. “It’s time to, dare I say, do the right thing.”

Newsom has a history of locking horns with Trump, especially as the former has emerged as a strong contender for the Democratic presidential nomination for 2028 – a race that Trump has repeatedly teased running in despite constitutional term limits and one in which his legacy will be tested nonetheless.

But midterm elections in 2026 are the main point of tension at the moment. As Trump and Republicans have pursued a controversial plan to redraw Texas’ congressional map to boost the party’s chances of retaining its narrow House majority, Democrats have threatened to redistrict in kind.

“It’s time to make another phone call to [Texas Gov.] Greg Abbott — this time instead of calling them and telling them you’re ‘entitled’ to five congressional seats, it’s time to tell him to stand down,” Newsom warned Trump in a video posted Monday on X. “If you don’t, California will neutralize anything you do in the state of Texas.”

“We will fight fire with fire,” Newsom said.

Newsom also sent Trump a letter carrying the same threat. “You are playing with fire, risking the destabilization of our democracy, while knowing that California can neutralize any gains you hope to make,” he wrote. “If you will not stand down, I will be forced to lead an effort to redraw the maps in California to offset the rigging of maps in red states. But if the other states call off their redistricting efforts, we will happily do the same. And American democracy will be better for it.”

How California plans to ‘neutralize’ any Republican gains

State legislatures normally redraw their congressional district maps every 10 years to account for population changes. These maps can be redrawn to the advantage of whoever is the ruling part at the time for political gain.

But in California, where three-quarters of the state legislature is Democratic, an independent commission composed of equal numbers of Democrats, Republicans, and independents is tasked with redistricting — a shift supported overwhelmingly by California voters in 2010.

Newsom, however, said he would, in retaliation to Republican redistricting efforts, seek to toss out the commission’s maps and instead use maps drawn by state Democrats. He would need to act quickly to get state lawmakers to later this month approve a special election in November for Californians to vote on the use of maps for 2026, 2028, and 2030 elections.

Medium 0 comments on AOL Dial-Up Internet Service To End After 34 Years

AOL Dial-Up Internet Service To End After 34 Years

The Yahoo-owned company announced the shutdown on its support website, stating: “AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet.” MacRumors reported.

While dial-up may seem like ancient history, the service retained a surprisingly persistent user base. As noted by The Verge, a 2019 US census estimated that 265,000 Americans were still relying on dial-up connections. Many of those were likely in rural areas where broadband infrastructure remains limited.

AOL’s dial-up service launched in 1991 and became synonymous with internet access throughout the 1990s, complete with the iconic “You’ve got mail!” greeting and that unforgettable sound.

The Verge reported: AOL dial-up is ending on September 30th according to a statement posted on the company’s website. It makes the end of the service posted on the company’s website. It marks the end of the service that was synonymous with the internet for many since its launch in 1991.

“AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet,” reads the statement by the Yahoo-owned company. “This service will no longer be available in AOL plans. As a result, on September 30, 2025, this service and he associated software, the AOL Dialer software and AOL Shield browser, which are optimized for older operating systems and dial-up internet connections, will be discontinued.

You might be surprised that the service was still operating. At last count, a 2019 US census estimated that 265,000 people in the United States were still using dial-up internet.

ABC News reported: It’s the end of an era for AOL. After more than 30 years of connecting people to the internet through dial-up, AOL is hanging up its iconic service.

“AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet,” the company’s website states. “This service will no longer be available on AOL plans.”

The change “will not affect any other benefits in your AOL plan,” the company stated. The service and dialer software will be discontinued as of Sept. 30, 2025.

The distinctive high-pitched dial tone, humming and whirring may sound like a distant memory of early internet days for some, especially with the advent of wireless modem connections that have replaced the conventional phone line technology.

American Online, the internet pioneer of the early 1990s, changed its name to AOL in 2006.

In 2017, it shut down the popular instant messaging service AIM, and the company was sold to Apollo Global Management in 2021, become the new Yahoo! Inc.

I am old enough to remember when AOL was brand new. At the time, I was dating a guy who I was absolutely in love with, until he got mean.

One day, my boyfriend’s father brought home a computer, way back in the day when the internet was shiny and new. It took me a while to understand how to use a computer, but I eventually figured it out.

I will always remember that terrible noise the computer made when it started up. It sounded like computerized scream, as if it desperately wanted to get away from the humans who would make it do things.

Medium 0 comments on George Santos, ex-NY Rep. Who Lied During His Campaign, Reports To Prison

George Santos, ex-NY Rep. Who Lied During His Campaign, Reports To Prison

Former U.S. Rep. George Santos, who admitted to lying during his campaign and stealing from his donors, reported to federal prison Friday, Gothamist reported.

Santos will serve his time at FCI Fairton in southern New Jersey, Emery Nelson, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons, said.

A judge sentenced the ex-New York lawmaker to more than seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft. The judge also ordered him to pay more than $370,000 in restitution.

Santos, who once represented parts of Queens and Long Island, faced multiple investigations into his conduct. He was formerly expelled from Congress in late 2023 after a House ethics committee found “substantive evidence” of misconduct and illegal activity.

Federal prosecutors said Santos filed fraudulent campaign documents, stole the identities and financial information of people who contributed to his campaign, charged credit cards without permission, wrongfully obtained unemployment insurance and lied to the U.S. House of Representatives. They also said he embezzled donations and spent the money on personal expenses, including designer clothing.

“This plea is not just an admission of guilt,” Santos told reporters outside the courthouse after he pled guilty last year. “It’s an acknowledgment that I need to be held accountable like any other American that breaks the law.”

In the days leading up to his prison term, Santos has repeatedly posted on social media, expressing a mix of sadness, remorse, life advice and defiance. On X, he posted a clip of Frank Sinatra singing “My Way,” a video of a bear walking with its cubs in the woods and multiple condemnations of federal prosecutors.

Donald Murphy, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, declined to share which facility Santos will go to after he arrives, citing safety concerns. He said the Bureau of Prisons makes assignments based on various factors, including the level of supervision the person needs and any necessary security measures to ensure the person’s protection.

Earlier this year, Santos told British media personality Piers Morgan that he was in the process of filling out a clemency application to seek a pardon or senate commutation from President Donald Trump.

“I think no one better than President Trump to know what a weaponized Justice Department looks like, and this is exactly it,” he said. “Seven years and three months for a first-time offender over campaign matters just screams over the top.”

The Hill reported: Former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) reported to prison Friday afternoon, officially capping off the New York Republican’s dramatic rise-and-fall in politics that saw him ascend as a GOP trailblazer before plunging to disgrace.

Santos, 37, surrendered to the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Fairton in New Jersey, according to a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). The news marks just the beginning of an 87-month prison sentence – more than seven years – which he received after pleading guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft as a part of a plea deal last summer.

He faced 23 federal counts for a number of criminal schemes, including money laundering, theft of public funds, making materially false statements to the House of Representatives and Federal Election Commission (FEC) and falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC.

The beginning of Santo’s prison sentence marked the end — for now — of a story that captivated Washington for months, which began in 2022 with praise for the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat as a non-incumbent, gained notoriety when news broke that much of his biography was fabricated, grew larger after two criminal indictments and hit an apex when he was expelled from the House, becoming just the sixth lawmaker to ever be ousted from the lower chamber.

Santos recognized his drama-filled tenure in Congress in a social media post published the day before he reported to prison.

“Well, darlings… The curtain falls, the spotlight dims, and the rhinestones are packed. From the halls of Congress to the chaos of cable news what a ride it’s been!” Santos wrote Thursday on the social platform X. “Was it messy? Always. Glamorous? Occasionally. Honest? I tried… most days.”

He added, “To my supporters, You made this wild political cabaret worth it. To my critics: Thanks for the free press. I may be leaving the stage (for now), but trust eye legends never truly exit.”

USA TODAY reported: Former U.S. Rep. George Santos, a Republican from New York, is expected to surrender to federal custody July 25 to begin serving a prison term after a wire fraud and identity theft conviction.

In April, Santos was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison. Santos was also ordered to pay more than $370,000 in restitution and forfeit another $200,000.

“To my supporters: You made this wild political cabaret worth it,” he wrote. “To my critics: Thanks for the free press. I may be leaving the stage (for now), but trust me legends never truly exit.”

Santos came to Washington as a larger than life character who some in the GOP pointed to as the future of the Republican Party. He basked in the new found notoriety even after news reports began unraveling the majority of the life story he used to win votes.

Santos described himself as a successful business owner with experience at prestigious Wall Street firms. In reality, he was struggling financially and never worked for most of the firms he claimed ties to.

He claimed to have been a volleyball star at, and had multiple degrees from, a college he never attended and referred to himself as “a proud American Jew” before insisting that he was “Jew-ish” because his Brazilian mother’s family had a Jewish background. The misinformation led to congressional and criminal investigations into how he had funded his campaign.

Santos pleaded guilty in August 2024 to felony wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges. As part of the plea, he admitted to filing false campaign finance reports, charging donor’s credit cards without authorization and fraudulently receiving unemployment benefits, among other acts that began years before he ran for Congress.

A House ethics investigation found he had “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.”

Santos represented parts of Queens and Long Island for 11 months.

He was expelled from Congress in a bipartisan vote following the release of the House Ethics report.

Biden-Harris 0 comments on Biden signs a bill officially making the bald eagle the national bird of the U.S.

Biden signs a bill officially making the bald eagle the national bird of the U.S.

photo of a bald eagle flying in a clear blue sky by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash

December 24, 2024: NBC News reported: “The bald eagle is officially America’s national bird after Biden’s signature” It was written by Doha Mandani.

The bald eagle has landed in the U.S. code after President Biden signed a bill Tuesday making the predator the official national bird.


Congress passed the measure with unanimous support.

Although the bird of prey is at the center of the Great Seal of the United States, it was never formerly recognized as the country’s official bird. Some of the Founding Fathers — Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson — were tasked with creating a national seal but simply couldn’t come to an agreement.

In 1782, a version of the seal with a bald eagle was submitted by Secretary of the Continental Congress Charles Thomson and approved. Most Americans are familiar with the seal’s eagle carrying a flag-emblazoned shield holding an olive branch in one talon and arrows in the other.

Franklin was historically against the decision, arguing in a letter to his daughter that the bad eagle was “a bird of bad moral character.”

Either way, the U.S. has not had an official bird in the almost 250 years since its founding.

Minnesota resident Preston Cook had long hoped that the eagle would ascend into the U.S. code, even writing a draft a bill and sending it to lawmakers.

Cook described himself as having a lifelong obsession with the bald eagle, and took it upon himself to push for a change when discovering that there was no official U.S. bird. He wrote a simple piece of legislation that would change the code to say that, “The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is the national bird.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., then led a bipartisan group who brought it to the Senate floor in July. It passed unanimously before sailing through the House last week with no opposition.

“The bald eagle is a symbol of our country’s freedom and strength with our legislation now signed into law, the bald eagle is officially our national bird,” Klobuchar said on Thursday.

Cook told NBC News earlier this month that this is one overlooked piece of history he felt compelled to fix.

“No one has to change anything; it’s just a correction. It is only a correction in history to make things right and makes things the way they should be,” Cook said.

December 25, 2024: ABC 13 Eyewitness News reported the bald eagle, a symbol of the power and strength of the United States for more than 240 years, earned an overdue honor on Tuesday: It officially became the country’s national bird.

President Joe Biden signed into law legislation sent to him by Congress that amends the United States Code to correct what had long gone unnoticed and designate the bald eagle — familiar to many because of its white head, yellow beak and brown body — as the national bird.

The bald eagle has appeared on the Great Seal of the United States, which is used in official documents, since 1782, when the design was finalized. The seal is made up of the eagle, an olive branch, arrows, a flag-like shield, the motto “E Pluribus Unum” and a constellation of stars.

Congress that same year designated the bald eagle as the national emblem, and its image appears in a host of places, ranging from documents and the presidential flag to military insignia and U.S. currency, according to USA.gov.

But it had never been officially designated to be what many had just assumed it was — the national bird.

The bald eagle is indigenous to North America.

December 26, 2024: USA TODAY reported: “The bald eagle’s soaring comeback: From near extinction to official US bird.” It was written by Jeanine Santucci.

The bald eagle, with its history as the symbol of the nation going back over 200 years, made a roaring comeback from near extinction to becoming America’s official bird this week.

President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan bill Tuesday that designated the bald eagle as the national bird. Despite appearing on the Great Seal of the U.S. since 1782, the bald eagle has never legally been recognized as the national bird until now.

With its distinctive brown body, white head and yellow beak, the bald eagle grasps an olive branch and arrows in his talons on the seal, which is used on official documents, military uniform buttons and every U.S. passport.

Though it’s the “most pictured bird in all of America,” according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the bald eagle has had to overcome threats to its very existence.

America’s bird: The ball eagle joins the rose, the bison, and the oak tree as an official American symbol.

How did the bald eagle become a national symbol?

The bald eagle first emerged as a national symbol when it appeared on an early Massachusetts copper cent in 1776, the VA said in a publication on the bird.

After the Declaration of Independence was signed that year on July 4, a committee was formed to design a seal of the new nation. It took six years and three committees before the seal that we know today was decided on. Secretary of the Continental Congress Charles Thomson made the design, which was adopted on June 20, 1782.

“The olive branch and the arrows held in the eagle’s talons denote the power of peace and war. The eagle always casts its gaze toward the olive branch signifying that our nation desires to pursue peace but stands ready to defend itself,” the National Museum of American Diplomacy says.

“The fierce beauty and proud independence of this great bird aptly symbolizes the strength and freedom of America,” John F. Kennedy once wrote of the bald eagle.

In the mid-1900s, the bald eagle’s existence was threatened by a combination of habitat destruction, illegal shooting and insecticides contaminating the bird’s food source, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Some bald eagles were shot because they were seen as a risk to chickens and livestock.

It’s believed that there were about 100,000 nesting bald eagles in the U.S. when it was first adopted as the American symbol. The decline started in the 1800s, along with a decline in the populations of other species of birds, the Wildlife Service said.

In 1963, there were only 417 known nesting pairs of bald eagles, putting the species in danger of extinction. After the Endangered Species Act of 1973 was signed, bald eagles in the contiguous 48 states were listed as endangered except in Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, where they were listed a threatened.

Congress moved to protect bald eagles in 1940 with the Bald Eagle Protection Act, which was later amended to include golden eagles. Its later addition to the list of endangered species also led to conservation and recovery efforts, the Wildlife Service said.

By 1998, the bald eagle had recovered enough that its status was changed to threatened. In 2007, officials said there were over 9,000 nesting pairs of bald eagles in the contiguous states — and the birds were removed from the list altogether.

As of estimates in 2018 and 2019, there are now about 316,700 bald eagles, including 71,467 breeding pairs, in the lower 48 states.