Editorial: When is free speech not free on college campuses? – TribLIVE

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Freedom of speech is a frustrating thing to embrace.

I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it, said biographer Evelyn Beatrice Hall of Voltaire, paraphrasing his work.

Voltaire may have been a French philosopher, but that do-or-die attitude toward free speech is one that is frequently ascribed to patriots and Founding Fathers.

Unfortunately, when it comes to real-life free speech, people are much more concerned with their rights and can be dismissive of their neighbors freedoms.

Thats how we get book bans and pushes for eliminating a class or a play in our public schools something that is being seen right now from those on the conservative side.

But it is definitely not an exclusively right-wing behavior. If you want to see it play out on the left, look to universities.

A Change.org petition signed by more than 11,000 people asked the University of Pittsburgh be held accountable in protecting LGBTQ individuals. A university should be responsible for keeping its students, staff, faculty and visitors safe from abuse and unfairness.

At issue, however, was a slate of speakers this spring. The petition called the three events a platform of hate and transphobia. Two appearances by Riley Gaines and Cabot Phillips were sponsored by the Pitt chapter of the conservative student group Turning Point USA. The universitys College Republicans and the International Studies Institute coordinated a debate with Daily Wire host Michael Knowles.

The issue of gender identity and expression is loaded and volatile. The speakers in question were going to provoke opposition. But does that mean they shouldnt speak?

The Knowles event Tuesday prompted what the university described as a public safety emergency. There was an incendiary device. A dummy with Knowles face was burned in the street. This is no way to counter an argument.

College students are often adamant about free thinking and open minds. They need to realize an exchange of ideas has to involve everyone having a chance to speak even if you dont agree.

For one thing, minds are never changed by a refusal to communicate. Second, if you dont want to hear a speaker, thats a reason for you not to attend the speech. It doesnt mean you get to prevent other people from hearing it. Thats always the point made with book bans. Dont like it? Dont read it.

But stopping a message should not degenerate to violence.

Penn State had that happen in October when an event with Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes was canceled at the last minute. Things turned ugly quickly.

Penn State has now canceled two April events by controversial speakers self-titled troll Alex Stein and cultural critic James Lindsay. Both were done very differently this time. They werent disrupted by protesters but by scheduling conflicts over venues and dates. And thats how it should be.

The best way to show that a speaker doesnt represent the students as many protesters have said is for the students to decide for themselves. Thats free speech.

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Editorial: When is free speech not free on college campuses? - TribLIVE

‘Shawshank Redemption’ star Tim Robbins rips ‘lack of freedom of assembly,’ speech that COVID mandates brought – Fox News

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"The Shawshank Redemption" actor Tim Robbins held nothing back in a searing take down of government leaders that promoted COVID-19 lockdown policies in a recent interview.

The movie star claimed those who foisted the mandates upon citizens over the past three and a half years have contributed to a "lack of freedom of movement, lack of freedom of assembly," and a "lack of freedom of speech" in America.

Robbins also lamented that Americans seem to have just forgotten that their freedoms were curtailed, adding that if people dont recall what the politicians did, "were gonna repeat it again. Itll happen again."

ACTOR TIM ROBBINS BACKS WOODY HARRELSON ON ENDING COVID-19 PROTOCOLS: TIME TO END THIS CHARADE

Tim Robbins attends the "Dark Waters" premiere at Walter Reade Theater in New York City on Nov. 12, 2019. (John Lamparski/WireImage)

Robbins made the comments while talking to Hollywood outlet Variety about his new Apple TV+ show, "Silo." The series is about a post-apocalyptic world with people living underground in silos.

According to the outlet, Robbins plays a silo leader who crushes any dissent or protest with swift violence.

The actor told Variety that some of the oppressive subject matter in the show was inspired by real-world events, namely the government crackdown over COVID-19. He began by stating, "Ive always been curious about what goes on in leaders heads when they have to do something that is morally compromising for what they consider the greater good."

Robbins added, "I always look at that as a terrible no-win situation. And I often wonder if those measures that they take, that are immoral, are necessary."

The heavy thoughts prompted the outlet to ask if he was thinking about anything specific. He responded, saying, "Im talking about politicians that compromise themselves and make decisions that they believe are for the good of people, but those decisions involve censorship or lying or deception of some kind that leads to people getting hurt."

As Robbins continued, he became less cryptic: "And I wanted to play that guy, I want to deal with that moral complexity in trying to understand where the human being is. I think weve been through three and a half years of extraordinary and questionable choices made by people that are supposed to be leading their countries."

MEDIA SCOLDED, LAMPOONED FOR DISMISSING NOW-LIKELY COVID LAB LEAK THEORY AS MISINFORMATION

Security enforces a lockdown at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., on Aug. 4, 2022. Police in Minnesota confirm that gunshots were fired at the Mall of America in suburban Minneapolis, but say no victim has been found. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP)

The interviewer then asked if Robbins was referring to pandemic lockdowns. He affirmed so, saying, "Yeah, Im talking about that. Im talking about a whole bunch of stuff, lack of freedom of movement, lack of freedom of assembly, lack of freedom of speech. You want to keep going?"

The actor did keep going, underscoring what he believes to be the significant chilling effect of COVID mandates on American freedom and rebuking people for trying to move on from it like it's not big deal.

Robbins said, "I mean, you know, something just happened, and I think theres a tendency where people just want to move on and think, Well, you know, it happened and lets just move on. I think thats really unwise. We have to deal with what happened in a deep and profound way, its traumatic for many people."

"And just ignoring it, as we know with trauma, does not solve a problem," he cautioned, adding, "In fact, it makes it worse. And so until we have the guts to look at what really happened and we question and maybe even hold people accountable for irresponsible leadership, if we dont do that, were gonna repeat it again. Itll happen again."

Robbins mentioned his own theater in Hollywood and voiced his concerns over losing the right to assemble there. He claimed, "I run a theater in Los Angeles it is something that has always existed. Even in the worst, oppressive societies, theres been assembly allowed. Sometimes those assemblies are monitored and so its not safe."

He added, "But supposedly, in a free society, one should be able to collectively gather with others."

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Robbins then noted the importance of such a right, stating, "The reason why thats important to collectively gather with others is that becomes a forum. You dont know that everyone in the same room as you agrees with you. So, therefore, its an essential part of living with other human beings. You have to work through differences."

"And instead we were separated and became more and more distanced from each other, and more and more angry with each other," he declared.

A man adjusts his American flag face mask on a street in Hollywood, California, on July 19, 2021. (ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

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'Shawshank Redemption' star Tim Robbins rips 'lack of freedom of assembly,' speech that COVID mandates brought - Fox News

Free speech protections are under threat in Texas Legislature – The Dallas Morning News

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The free speech of all Americans is protected by the First Amendment. But anyone who has ever spoken up against the powerful knows that freedom of speech isnt as simple as that.

There is more than one way to silence people, and dragging them into costly lawsuits has long been a tried and true method.

In 2011, Texas passed a robust law known as the Texas Citizens Participation Act that provided protections against what are known as SLAPP suits strategic lawsuits against public participation. Such lawsuits quash speech by making it too risky to speak up for fear of being sued.

The TCPA gives parties in lawsuits the opportunity to get an automatic stay of costly discovery and other legal proceedings while an appellate court reviews the matter.

Unfortunately, the state Senate has embraced an overreaching bill that is supposedly aimed at curing abuses to the TCPA.

While there are genuine concerns that the act has been used to stay proceedings in meritorious suits, it is far from clear that such cases are common enough to warrant a major revision of the act that could gut critical public protections.

The bill in question would diminish the TCPA by removing the automatic stay of proceedings under three conditions: If a motion under the act was denied because it was not filed in a timely way, was frivolous or was denied under existing exemptions to the act.

Those amendments might seem innocuous. But they are open to broad interpretation and could be misinterpreted or misunderstood by a trial court, leading to legal costs that would chill free speech.

State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, will chair a hearing in the state House Wednesday morning on this bill. Leach has offered us assurances that the bill will not pass the House in its current form and that he will not accept a bill that impedes the TCPAs protections.

The bill debate has ignited a good conversation around this important issue and Im hopeful we can reach a workable compromise building on our success in 2019 on the major TCPA amendments, Leach wrote to us.

That was encouraging, but a substitute bill Leach is proposing does not appear to resolve serious concerns. Leachs proposal attempts to strike a middle ground by creating a 45-day stay on legal action once a trial court rules on a TCPA motion. But that will only add pressure on appellate courts that already struggle to rule quickly on these matters.

Leach said the substitute was laid out to set up discussion at Wednesdays hearing and is unlikely to be the version that passes.

Make no mistake: We will aggressively protect the First Amendment protections ensured by our anti-SLAPP laws, he said.

Time will tell. The trouble is that even a well-intended amendment could lead to a huge setback for speech. This law is under persistent pressure from powerful interests that want to see it rolled back. Each legislative cycle seems to bring another threat to the laws core.

If that continues to happen, all Texans will become less free to say what they think.

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Free speech protections are under threat in Texas Legislature - The Dallas Morning News

How do you handle free speech issues in higher education, popular … – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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Lena Shapiro is a clinical assistant professor of law and the inaugural director of the College of Laws First Amendment Clinic, supported by The Stanton Foundation. Shapiro, an expert in free speech issues, spoke with News Bureau business and law editor Phil Ciciora about the current state of the First Amendment in higher education and popular discourse.

Theres an increasing trend on college campuses of students shouting down speakers they disagree with. How would you characterize the current state of the First Amendment in higher education?

Theres an ongoing battle between those who say they want to advance freedom of speech for everyone versus those who want to drown out voices that they dont agree with. The latter group wants to have it both ways: freedom of speech only for their opinions as well as those whose opinions are the same as theirs.

In other words, freedom of speech for me, but not for thee.

What that does is lower the level of discourse that all people have, which is harmful on a college campus because were supposed to be teaching students how to enhance their debate skills and analytic abilities. And when you say, essentially, I dont want this person here because theyre harmful, I find them offensive or They demean the rights of a number of groups of people you can certainly express those views, but that doesnt mean you can take it a step further, as many want to, and remove that speaker from campus. You cant unilaterally deprive others of that speech. Thats the hecklers veto.

If you are diametrically opposed to what this speaker stands for or has to say, you show up and counter protest. You hold another event, or you sit in the room and challenge the speaker with questions real, substantive questions that you want to debate on.

What you dont want are ad hominem attacks or protests that prevent speech from occurring entirely, which is antithetical to the free exchange of ideas.

What is the danger of the hecklers veto?

The danger is you dont actually change anyone elses mind. And having not changed their mind, you dont change their behavior. Youre also not minimizing the injustice that you believe results from that speakers speech and/or actions and the speaker who you think was perpetuating that injustice just goes on about their day.

Many students, like those at Stanford Law School who showed up to protest Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, want to speak out and advocate on behalf of issues that are deeply personal to millions of Americans. But by exercising the hecklers veto, those individuals didnt actually change any opinions on those issues, certainly not Judge Duncans.

Some believe if they yell loud enough, and if they scare off enough speakers, then it will just rid the world of the injustices that go on. But thats just not how the world works, right? If you want to change hearts and minds, you have to convince them.

The First Amendment is unique in that it allows misinformation and outright lies to flourish under the guise of the free exchange of ideas. Should the government continue to protect the speech of liars, even though they can inflict damage on society?

We saw that issue play out in the various defamation lawsuits against Fox News. And Fox News paid a big price for the misinformation they aired regarding Dominion Voting Systems, so the system does have checks in place to protect against misinformation. Generally, the news media is granted a wide berth to report on issues as they see fit.

If you start to set stricter standards and start to go after what you perceive to be a lie or misinformation on, say, a social media site, youre first going to have define what a lie is. But as we can see from todays environment, nobody can agree on anything so being able to properly define what a lie is will be challenging.

This is why we have the First Amendment. When people see things they perceive as lies, they are allowed to respond accordingly. I noticed a difference in news coverage late in the Trump administration when reporters on broadcasts across a number of different news outlets would report something that President Trump said and then explain why it wasnt true. Thats the way to deal with lies, misinformation and half-truths. If you think somebody is perpetuating an untruth, then bring your evidence forward. It makes us a better and a smarter society to do it that way.

So I dont think we can regulate what we deem or what someone else deems a lie, aside from some rare exceptions. Its just not realistic, and, ultimately, it harms the First Amendment protections that we have in the U.S.

I know people get upset and have a visceral reaction about various issues in the news. But I just dont know that such reactions change hearts and minds.

Its probably better to focus more on why a certain issue or story isnt true, as opposed to accusing the other side of stupidity, mendacity or malice. I am an advocate for always having more speech. Its why we have free speech in the first place.

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Florida House approves bill that would change rules around campus … – WUFT

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TALLAHASSEE The Florida House on Wednesday passed a measure that would put new requirements on universities related to debates and other campus forums, with supporters saying it would bolster free speech but critics arguing it could have unintended consequences.

The Republican-controlled House voted 82-34 along near-party lines to approve the bill (HB 931), which still needs to pass the Senate before it could go to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The proposal (HB 931) also would prevent state colleges and universities from requiring students and staff to complete political loyalty tests as a condition of admission or employment.

Under the bill, each university would be required to establish an Office of Public Policy Events, which would be responsible for organizing, publicizing and staging at least four debates or forums per year.

Such debates and group forums must include speakers who represent widely held views on opposing sides of the most widely discussed public policy issues of the day and who hold a wide diversity of perspectives from within and outside of the state university community, the bill says.

But several House Democrats criticized the bill for not defining widely held views. Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, argued that leaving the issue open to interpretation could benefit some groups over others.

I think its hard to dictate what is a widely held view. That often can take the shape of who is in political power at that time, who is the biggest donor to a university, whos the biggest donor to the governor. I just am very concerned that we actually are not creating an environment with freedom of speech, because some speech will be preferred over others, Eskamani said.

Supporters of the bill, however, argued that it would help protect campus free speech. Rep. Doug Bankson, R-Apopka, called higher-education institutions a crucible of free thought.

It is our foundational right to have freedom of speech. This great bill protects those things. It makes sure that all voices can be heard. Because truth has its own legs, it can stand on its own when its given the chance to be heard, Bankson said.

Rep. Rita Harris, D-Orlando, contended that not all arguments deserve equal airtime.

Im sorry but Nazism, there is no pro (side), there is no flip-side to the coin, Harris said.

Bill sponsor Spencer Roach, R-North Fort Myers Republican, pushed back on Harris argument.

I would argue that Nazism is not a widely held idea. But let me ask you this if a speaker came onto campus advocating that we should reinstitute slavery; that we should exterminate the Jewish population, I would say this, So what? And I will quote our 28th president, Woodrow Wilson, when he said, The best way to expose a fool is to allow him to rent out a hall and put forth his ideas to his fellow citizens, Roach said.

The measure also would require that, if a schools Office of Public Policy Events cant readily find an advocate from within the state university community who is well-versed in a perspective, the office would invite a speaker and provide a per-diem and a reimbursement for travel expenses.

Democrats also questioned why the measure did not include a cap on how much money could be provided to invited speakers.

The part of the bill that seeks to prohibit political loyalty tests defines such tests as compelling, requiring, or soliciting a person to identify commitment to or to make a statement of personal belief in support of things such as a specific partisan, political, or ideological set of beliefs.

Such tests also could not require statements of support for any ideology or movement that promotes the differential treatment of a person or a group of persons based on race or ethnicity, including an initiative or a formulation of diversity, equity, and inclusion beyond upholding the Constitution.

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What are True Threats Under the First Amendment? – Podcast … – National Constitution Center

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Last week, the Supreme Court heard a case about a Colorado man, Billy Ray Counterman, who was sentenced to over four years in prison for stalking due to threatening Facebook messages that he sent to a singer named C.W. Counterman argued that the charges violated his speech rights and that his messages were not true threats, which is a kind of speech not protected under the First Amendment. The issue in the case is whether or not his messages actually constituted under true threats (or if conduct like stalking should be distinguished); and if so, how should courts determine what a true threat is? In this episode, we dive into the facts and issues in theCounterman v. Colorado case, the history of true threats doctrine under the First Amendment, and recap the oral arguments, including whether the justices might decide that true threats should be determined by an objective test, such as if a reasonable person would regard the statement as a threat of violence; or whether they might find that it depends on the speakers specific intent.Genevieve Lakierof the University of Chicago andGabe Waltersof FIRE join hostJeffrey Rosento discuss.

Please subscribe toWe the PeopleandLive at the National Constitution CenteronApple Podcasts,Stitcher,or your favorite podcast app.

Todays episode was produced by Lana Ulrich, Bill Pollock, and Sam Desai. It was engineered by Greg Scheckler. Research was provided by Sam Desai.

Participants

Genevieve Lakieris a professor of law and Herbert and Marjorie Fried Teaching Scholar at the University of Chicago Law School, where she teaches and writes about freedom of speech and constitutional law, including the fight over freedom of speech on social media platforms. She coauthored a brief in support of the respondent, the state of Colorado, in theCountermancase.

Gabe Waltersis an attorney at FIREthe Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. He joined FIRE after nine years with the PETA Foundation, where he litigated freedom of speech and freedom of information cases in federal and state courts across the country. He and FIRE filed a brief in support of the petitioner, Bill Ray Counterman, in theCountermancase.

Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.

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Ronald Collins and Ronnie Marmo: Comedy clubs are free speech … – Independent Record

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On Nov. 24, 1964, the Illinois Supreme Court did what no other state high court had ever done it vindicated Lenny Bruces free speech right to perform provocative routines in comedy clubs.

But the freewheeling comedian was not so lucky in New York, where a state court thereafter convicted him of obscenity for his comedic bits. It was just one of such prosecutions, the others being in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The New York conviction stood since Bruce died before he could appeal.

Twenty years ago, however, New York Gov. George Pataki posthumously pardoned the outspoken comedian. Freedom of speech is one of the greatest American liberties, and I hope this pardon serves as a reminder of the precious freedoms we are fighting to preserve.

As First Amendment lawyer Robert Corn-Revere then put it in his petition seeking the New York pardon: Today, comedy clubs are considered free speech zones, and the monologues that prompted New York to prosecute and convict Lenny Bruce would never be considered obscene.

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While that is true insofar as the law of free speech is concerned, today the culture of free speech is increasingly succumbing to censorship. This is why comedy clubs must stand up and boldly reclaim their role as free speech zones and antidotes to cancel culture. Hence, the Bruce story takes on renewed meaning in a nation gone mad with silencing anything that offends anyone in any way.

The comedian was preparing for his performance at The Comedy Zone when a man entered the building shortly after 9pm and brandished a gun. Robinson and those inside the venue were evacuated, after which the suspect discharged his weapon. A spokesperson for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) released a statement confirming that the suspect had been detained and nobody was injured. On Sunday, Robinson thanked staff at the comedy club and CMPD officers for the way they handled the situation.

To draw again from Corn-Revere: Lenny Bruce was in the vanguard of the transformation of the stand-up comic from jokester to social critic, and his routines covered a wide range of topics including racism,organized religion, homosexuality, and social conventions about the use of language. In the early 1960s, that got him arrested for acts he performed in several comedy clubs.

Bruce was the last of comedians to be criminally prosecuted for word crimes in a comedy club. It was as if the specter of his persecution forever changed the course of American law even without a Supreme Court ruling. After he died on the run, his spirit resurrected: Uninhibited comedy flourished with the likes of George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Joan Rivers and Margaret Cho. In time, both the law and culture of free speech coalesced in ways that gave meaningful breathing room to a robust measure of speech freedom.

Today, however, though the law of free speech is vibrant, the culture is increasingly threatened by the chilling effects of censorship on the left and right. For one thing, some of Bruces comedy could not be performed on college campuses because it would be deemed offensive. Then there is the recent fiasco at Stanford Law School in which boisterous hecklers vetoed a talk to be given by a conservative federal judge invited to speak there. Additionally, conservatives in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis state have heartily endorsed censorship of all kinds.

Countless other troubling examples reveal much the same. In the words of the late historian Nat Hentoff, it all comes down to free speech for me, but not for thee.

Toleration is an anathema to those easily offended by anything that runs counter to their categorical beliefs. So too, being open-minded is not an option for those whose absolute truth is espoused by their preferred cable station. In such a world, mouths are silenced, and minds are closed. It all makes for a society rife with hypocrisy a sacred cow Bruce delighted in slaughtering.

After comedian Dave Chappelles show in Minneapolis was canceled for being offensive, Jamie Masada, owner of comedy club chain the Laugh Factory, told Fox News Digital that the comic stage is their sanctuary. We have to protect the First Amendment. We cant dilute it. We have to be able to laugh at ourselves. Not only should that sanctuary be preserved, but it must also be enriched to exemplify the vital values of free speech zones.

Carlin said Bruce prefigured the free-speech movement and helped push the culture forward into the light of open and honest expression.

More than ever, that light needs to shine brightly, first in and then out of Americas comedy clubs those last safe havens of free speech in a democracy. So let the free speech campaign begin in comedy clubs across the land, those free speech zones where censorship is bum-rushed out the door.

Collins is a retired law professor and co-author, with David Skover, of The Trials of Lenny Bruce. Actor and playwright Ronnie Marmo portrays Lenny Bruce in his hit one-man show Im Not a Comedian ... Im Lenny Bruce.

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Troy, Alabama A&M receive poor ‘red’ rating from campus free … – 1819 News

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Nonprofit civil liberties group the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) rated two public four-year schools in Alabama "red" for having some of the most restrictive speech codes in the country.

Of the 13 public four-year schools in the state, 10 were labeled "yellow." Only one received a "green" score.

FIRE, formerly known as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, used to focus exclusively on defending free speech on campus. However, the organization underwent a $75 million expansion to also focus on First Amendment advocacy elsewhere.

Nevertheless, FIRE still maintains a database of free speech complaints from universities and evaluates the institutions' speech codes.

The Alabama Free Speech Act (AFSA) went into effect in 2021. It states that trustees at public Alabama campuses must adopt policies on free expression that allow students, administrators and faculty to take positions on controversial topics and not prohibit the use of outdoor space on campus for free speech purposes, among other requirements.

Even with the AFSA, FIRE pointed out how Alabama schools can still restrict the free speech of their students and faculty.

Troy University and Alabama A&M University received "red" scores from FIRE. According to FIRE, each school has at least one policy that "substantially restricts freedom of speech."

Specific sections of Troy's student handbook received "red" rankings, including its housing and residence policy, policy on harassment and discrimination and technology use policy. FIRE cited problems with how the policies define harassment, sexual harassment and "cruelty, obscenity, crudity and offensiveness."

FIRE included just one case from Troy from 2005 when Troy was one of several universities sued by FIRE around that time. FIRE charged Troy with enacting harsh punishments for what they called "indecent expression" or "any activity that creates a mentally abusive, oppressive, or harmful situation for another." The lawsuit also charged Troy with a breach of contract, unlawful conditions placed on the receipt of state benefits and denial of due process and equal protection of the law.

The case was marked a "FIRE Victory" on FIRE's website.

FIRE did not include a recent incident at Troy covered by 1819 News in which Troy trustees attempted to "vet" research at a free-market think tank associated with the university, citing complaints from Alabama Power and the Business Council of Alabama (BCA) about comments made at an event hosted by the think tank that was critical of economic incentive programs, according to leaked emails.

FIRE gave Alabama A&M a "red" score for its definition of sexual harassment, which includes "sexual overtones that the victim deems offensive" and "unsolicited, deliberate or repeated sexual flirtation, advances or propositions." It also cited Alabama A&M's definition of harassment in its Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy and Responsible Use of University Computing and Electronic Communications Resources policy.

In 2019, FIRE ranked Alabama A&M as one of its "10 Worst Colleges For Free Speech," along with the University of North Alabama (UNA), which has since earned a "yellow" ranking.

The University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB), the University of Alabama (UA), the University of South Alabama (USA), the University of Montevallo, the University of West Alabama (UWA), the University of North Alabama (UNA), the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH), Alabama State University (ASU), Auburn University Montgomery (AUM) and Jacksonville State University (JSU) were all rated "yellow."

Recently, UAH settled a lawsuit with the Alabama Center for Law and Liberty (ACLL) and the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) over a speech policy that limits most student speech to small "speech zones" and requires that students obtain permits to speak on campus three business days in advance. The university agreed to reverse the policy as part of the settlement.

Though not cited by FIRE, a former UA professor claimed he received pushback from the university for raising questions about the efficacy of the university's diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies.

Of all 13 Alabama public universities, Auburn University was the only school to receive a "green" score. Auburn worked with FIRE in 2018 to revisit several speech codes and obtain one of the highest ratings for free speech in the country.

Currently, FIRE ranks Auburn as the 22nd best college for free speech in the country.

To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email will.blakely@1819news.com or find him on Twitter and Facebook.

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Tucker Carlson Should’ve Been Fired Years Ago – New York Magazine

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Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Tucker Carlsons abrupt departure from Fox News has left millions of Americans asking one of the hosts favorite questions: What is going on?

Media reporters are currently chasing down the reasons for Carlsons absence, which was described by the network as a mutual agreement to part ways, even though he was under the impression he was going to host his show on Monday night. But with the landscape of conservative media shaken by the announcement, a look back at Carlsons career reveals a number of comments that would have gotten him fired or at least gotten him axed at a different network that cared about things like not promoting white nationalists. Below are some of the greatest worst hits of the networks most popular ex-host.

Carlson was co-hosting Fox & Friends Weekend in July 2013 when the network was discussing the killing of Trayvon Martin. After Geraldo Rivera called in to say that if you dress like a thug, people are going to treat you like a thug, Carlson declined to comment directly on the shooting of the Black 17-year-old but had something to say about two prominent civil-rights activists pushing for justice. I am positive that people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton do not deserve to be called civil-rights leaders, Carlson said. They are not. They are hustlers and pimps who make a living off inflaming racial tensions. They know nothing about this.

A decade of conversation about race in America didnt appear to have much impact on Carlson. In April, after Tennessee lawmaker Justin Pearson was removed from the state legislature for demonstrating for gun reform, Carlson played two videos of Pearson speaking one from his time at Bowdoin College and another on the statehouse floor. After claiming Pearson only got into Bowdoin because he is Black, Carlson said that Pearson sounded like a crypto white kid in the first video. In the more recent clip of Pearson, he suggested the lawmaker was mimicking civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. because of the cadence of his speech. Carlson failed to note that Pearsons father was a pastor. He then suggested that Pearson sounded like a sharecropper compared to other civil-rights figures like Malcolm X.

Carlson was famous for xenophobia on his show, but one of the foulest comments he made condemning immigration came in December 2018, when he described how he thought migrants crossing the southern border affected the country:

We have a moral obligation to admit the worlds poor, they tell us, even if it makes our own country poorer and dirtier and more divided. Immigration is a form of atonement.

Carlson faced some advertising blowback for the comment, with 11 advertisers including Pacific Life and IHOP pulling their spots from his show. But it wasnt enough to make him reevaluate his opinion. A year later, he did not push back when a guest said that immigrants make New York City dirty.

Remember Bubba the Love Sponge the Florida radio host whose sex tape with Hulk Hogans wife took down Gawker? His conversations put Carlson in hot water, too, when Media Matters for America published clips of Carlson calling into his radio show between 2006 and 2011 saying some pretty horrific things. Iraq was a place filled semi-literate primitive monkeys where they did not know how to use utensils. He said everybody knows that Barack Obama would never have been elected to national office if he were white. He described white women with jungle fever as mudsharks.

On his show, Carlson has suggested that powerful women, like Vice-President Kamala Harris, have dated their way into their positions and claimed that women in the upper ranks of the armed forces have made a mockery of the U.S. military. But these on-air comments pale in comparison to the Bubba the Love Sponge recordings released the same week as the racist jokes above. During the same period between 2006 and 2011, Carlson called women extremely primitive. He called Britney Spears and Paris Hilton the biggest white whores in America. He said he felt sorry for Justice Elena Kagan because he feels sorry in general for unattractive women. He said that rape-shield laws should be banned. He imagined a scenario in which girls at his daughters girls-only boarding school were having sex with each other and said, If it werent my daughter, I would love that scenario.

For the past five years, Carlson has been airing segments on the racist conspiracy known as great-replacement theory the idea that an elite cabal (often Jewish) is pushing to increase immigration from nonwhite countries, which will ultimately result in a civilizational shift in majority-white nations like the United States when white people are no longer the dominant plurality. In one monologue from April 2021, he mentioned the idea by name:

I know that the left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term replacement, if you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate the voters now casting ballots with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World. But they become hysterical because thats what happening, actually. Lets just say it. Thats true.

Carlson, who has called white nationalism a hoax, has repeated the idea hundreds of times, according to one count. And white nationalists have been thrilled that Carlson has been doing their work for them. In 2019, a leaked chat from the supremacist group Identity Evropa had messages saying Tuck was our guy, who has done more for our people than most of us could ever hope to. The same year, Derek Black, a man who renounced his prominent neo-Nazi family, said they used to sit around watching Carlson on replay because they feel that he is making the white nationalist talking points better than they have. Carlsons mention of the theory cooled off for a few months last year after a racist shooter cited it in his manifesto for killing ten people in a Buffalo supermarket. But a few months later, he was back on it, calling the great replacement an election strategy by Democrats, not a conspiracy theory.

As the COVID vaccine rollout gained momentum among the general public in spring 2021, Carlson aired a segment falsely claiming that more than 3,000 people had died after getting the shot. The actual number is almost certainly much higher than that, Carlson said, citing an open-source database compiledby anti-vaxx conspiracists. Perhaps vastly higher.

Carlson was way off: An extremely small number of people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine died from a rare blood-clotting syndrome. Hundreds of millions of Americans have been fully vaccinated.

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Tucker Carlson Should've Been Fired Years Ago - New York Magazine

Soldier with white nationalist ties pleads guilty to gun charges – ArmyTimes.com

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A Fort Bragg soldier who allegedly sought to physically remove as many racial minorities from eastern North Carolina by whatever means need be pleaded guilty Tuesday to illegal possession of an unregistered short barrel rifle, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Noah Edwin Anthony, 23, was apprehended on March 3 after gate security personnel performing random vehicle inspections discovered a loaded 9mm Glock Like ghost gun a weapon with no serial number in the vehicles center console.

Military Police called to the scene when Anthony failed to furnish paperwork for the weapon searched the vehicle and found two extended magazines, ammunition, Nazi type patches and an American flag with a Swastika in place of the blue field and stars, according to the release.

The discovery prompted a subsequent search of Anthonys barracks room, where authorities found a 3D-printed FGC-9 rifle without a serial number, magazines for various firearms, a lower receiver, a trove of white supremacist paraphernalia and electronics that contained evidence of Anthonys self-titled operation to target minorities.

Personnel from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined the unserialized FGC-9 to be in violation of the National Firearms Act, which, beyond serial number legalities, mandates rifle barrels be no shorter than 16 inches.

Anthony, meanwhile, is the second Fort Bragg soldier to be investigated in recent months for ties to white nationalism. In August, Killian Mackeithan Ryan, a fire support specialist, was arrested and booted from the Army for serious misconduct after investigators discovered he was using numerous Instagram accounts associated with racially motivated extremism, according to court records.

In one particular Instagram post, Ryan claimed to have joined the military for combat experience so Im more proficient in killing Black people, investigators said.

Army Times request for comment from Fort Bragg has not been returned as of publication, though in an earlier statement provided to North Carolina news outlet WRAL a spokesperson at the installation said the service does not tolerate extremist ideologies, racism or hate.

We are a values-based organization and put the safety of our Paratroopers first, the spokesperson from the 82nd Airborne Division told WRAL. Any actions that detract from the good order and discipline of our unit are addressed in a swift and prudent manner.

Personnel from the FBI, Army Criminal Investigation Division and ATF are continuing to investigate the case.

Anthony is expected to be sentenced later this year. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

Jon Simkins is a writer and editor for Military Times, and a USMC veteran.

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Soldier with white nationalist ties pleads guilty to gun charges - ArmyTimes.com

Fox News Could Be Just as Racist Without Tucker Carlson – New York Magazine

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Until his abrupt dismissal Monday morning, Tucker Carlson was Americas most racist news host. He was also the most popular anchor on all of cable television. For that reason, among others, Carlsons departure may not mark the end of Fox News foray into unabashed white nationalism.

Virtually all Fox News commentators speak to red Americas amygdala, cultivating fear and resentment of low-income Black communities, non-white immigrants, and rootless, godless liberal elites. But most try to maintain some distance between their demagogy and that found on neo-Nazi message boards, if only to retain the sponsorship of image-conscious advertisers.

Carlson did not. During his six years helming Fox News 8 p.m. hour, the host all but used Stormfront as an assignment editor. While other Fox News hosts demonized non-white criminals, Carlson described tens of millions of U.S. citizens as enemies of the people.

In April 2021, Carlson mocked Joe Biden for calling the January 6 insurrection the worst attack on democracy since the Civil War, countering that the Immigration Act of 1965 was a bigger affront to political liberty in the U.S.: That law completely changed the composition of Americas voter rolls, purely to benefit the Democratic Party. That seems like kind of an assault on democracy, a permanent one. Thus, by Carlsons logic, every American who secured access to this country as a result of Congresss repeal on racial quotas for immigration in 1965 is a de facto foot soldier in the Democratic Partys plot to permanently disenfranchise our nations longtime residents.

Variations on this theme were a staple of Carlsons commentary. In another diatribe against the 1965 immigration law last year, the host endorsed the great replacement conspiracy theory by name. That white-nationalist narrative holds that rootless cosmopolitan elites are deliberately replacing Americas white majority with multiethnic immigrants who will be easier for them to control. You cant just replace the electorate because you didnt like the last election outcomes, Carlson declared. That would be the definition of undermining democracy, changing the voters. But when it happens in this country, there is mandatory media-enforced silence and in fact, if you notice its happening, its your fault. (In reality, the authors of the 1965 Immigration Act did not expect the law to change the demographic composition of the nation nearly as much as it did and, as Ron DeSantiss recent landslide reelection in a state that is only about 50 percent non-Hispanic white showed, non-white immigrants are not actually automata programmed by George Soros.)

Perhaps, the most distinctive feature of Carlsons demagogy was his amplification of marginal stories that had previously captured the attention of virtually no one in the United States beyond white supremacists. South African land reform is not a subject that speaks to the typical Fox News viewer. In 2018, however, American racists eager to see confirmation of their prophecies of impending white genocide took keen interest in reforms enabling the South African government to expropriate landowners property without compensation. Specifically, white nationalists glommed onto a narrative propagated by far-right Afrikaners that Black mobs were murdering white farmers in South Africa in large numbers while their government worked to seize land from their surviving kin.

Its not hard to see the appeal of this story for white nationalists. Unlike in the United States, where fodder for white grievance is so limited that racially inclusive Cheerios commercials qualify as an affront, South Africas white population is a genuinely politically disempowered minority group (even as it continues to wield disproportionate economic power in the country). Place pogroms against white farmers against this backdrop, and you have Richard Spencers nightmares made real.

Or rather, you would have that, if such pogroms had actually existed at any substantial scale. In reality, murders on South African farms had been declining for decades and murder rates in white rural parts of South Africa remained far lower than in predominantly Black townships. Discrete anti-white hate crimes surely occurred. But white farmers remained unusually safe relative to the South African population as a whole. And the governments land reforms would have implicated Black and white South Africans alike.

But this did not stop Tucker Carlson from broadcasting white nationalists preferred version of events. At other points in his tenure, Carlson saw fit to portray gypsy refugees as filthy, unassimilable public defecators, or lambast Macys for selling hijabs.

Carlson might disavow the idea that his program promoted white nationalism. But white nationalists begged to differ.

All this led many Fox News employees to raise internal complaints about Carlsons program, and many big-name advertisers to pull their spots from the channels 8 p.m. hour.

Given the exceptional severity of Carlsons racism and its seemingly adverse implications for Foxs ad business, it is natural to assume that the hosts departure will render Americas most-watched cable news channel slightly less of a cancer on the body politic. We dont yet know why Fox fired Carlson. During last Fridays broadcast, the host appeared to have no inkling that the show would be his last. Its conceivable that his dismissal represents an editorial decision to pivot away from his brand of content. Regardless, it is certainly possible (perhaps, even probable) that Carlsons replacement will traffic in a subtler form of white grievance. But that is far from a certainty.

After all, Carlsons on-air persona was not born of any longtime, deep-seated ideological attachment to white-nationalist ideology. Before Carlson became a right-wing populist critic of cosmopolitan corporations, woke capitalism, and free markets, he was a laissez-faire-loving libertarian. Further, as messages unveiled by the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit make clear, Carlsons televised pronouncements dont necessarily reflect his current beliefs. Even as Carlson comported himself as one of Donald Trumps most fervent cheerleaders, he told others privately that he hated the president passionately.

In truth, Carlsons incendiary content did not reflect his own idiosyncratic beliefs so much as his audiences revealed preferences. As the New York Times reported last year, the driving force behind Carslons far-right turn was minute-by-minutes ratings, data that tracks the size of a shows audience at 60-second intervals. Determined to avoid a reprise of his previous failures to retain a large audience at CNN and MSNBC, Carlson became one of his networks most avid consumers of minute-by-minutes. And when the host carefully studied which subjects actually held his audiences attention, it became clear that stories activating a perception of racialized threat did the trick. As one former Fox employee told the Times in 2022, He is going to double down on the white nationalism because the minute-by-minutes show that the audience eats it up.

To the extent that any personal quality informed the exceptional racism of Carlsons program, it seems to have been nihilistic ruthlessness. No sense of decency prevented Carlson from declaring white supremacy nonexistent days after a white-nationalist terrorist mass-murdered Hispanic Americans in El Paso, nor from stoking fears of a migrant invasion right after similar ideas inspired a neo-Nazi to shoot up a synagogue in Pittsburgh. If amorality enabled Carlson to fish in such waters, though, it was economic rationality that drew him there. When the host used George Floyds killing as an opportunity to assail the Black Lives Matter movement in terms that made Black colleagues uncomfortable, he posted the highest quarterly ratings of any cable-news show in history.

True, Carlsons approach cost him advertisers. But it did not cost his employer advertising revenue. As big brands fled, Fox filled the consequent gaps with spots for other Fox programming (thereby funneling Tuckers massive audience to other shows that such brands would patronize) and charged premium rates to the advertisers that remained. Trading respectability for maximum eyeballs proved lucrative. From 2018 through 2022, Tucker Carlson Tonight brought in more annual ad dollars than any other Fox show.

Further, as the Times reported last year, Carlsons strategy reflected an emerging editorial consensus at Fox News commanding heights. Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch reportedly has even more sympathy for far-right politics than his father, Rupert. Meanwhile, Fox News vice-president Tom Lowell championed a Moneyball approach to programming: allowing the wisdom of the crowds (as discerned through minute-by-minute ratings) to determine editorial decisions. Combine an ideological openness to white revanchism with data demonstrating its efficacy for maximizing engagement, and you get Foxs recent rightward drift, in which its primetime propagandizing has suffused more and more of its ostensibly neutral daytime content.

Of course, just because there are economic incentives to emulate Carlson does not mean his successor will do so. Plenty of Fox News existing hosts have chosen to refrain from directly promulgating white-nationalist conspiracy theories, even as Carlson rode them to ratings supremacy. Nevertheless, the fact that Carlsons editorial line reflected a data-driven assessment of which subjects will keep Americas (disproportionately old and white) news viewers from changing channels should temper optimism for Foxs future. Tucker Carlson has left Americas most-watched news network. But its audiences appetite for White Nationalism Lite remains.

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Fox News Could Be Just as Racist Without Tucker Carlson - New York Magazine

Fox finally boots Tucker Carlson – IrishCentral

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So Tucker Carlson has finally bit the dust after years of spewing pro-fascist sentiments in which he encouraged white nationalism and supported fascist leaders.

His message has suddenly stopped resonating with his embattled employer, Fox News, which terminated his contract on Monday morning, finally signaling that theyve had enough of their home-grown fascist superstar no surprise there as Fox got whacked last week with a bill for $787 million, payable to Dominion Voting Systems, for smearing the company as supposedly complicit in 2020 election fraud.

There is a history of Tucker Carlsons in American media. It should be no surprise that another member of that evil tribe has risen, crashed, and burned in a pretty stunning fashion.

The closest comparison to him is Father Charles Coughlin, who in his heyday in the 1930s had 30 million listeners a week tuning in for his weekly pro-Nazi rant.

Coughlin was enormously powerful, so much so that his own church was terrified of dealing with him as the powers-that-be knew he had millions of followers who had the capacity to seriously damage the stature of the Catholic Church.

Coughlin was a demagogue who explained away the Nazi atrocities of the 1930s, saying, for instance, Kristallnacht happened because the Germans had been attacked. He was a dangerous, evil character who would have prospered enormously if Hitler had won.

But the goodwill of the American people towards Coughlin faded over time. As the Nazi atrocities unfolded, and amidst the revelation that Coughlin was being paid by the German Nazi party to broadcast his hate, his popularity soon plunged.

It is incredible to think now that Coughlin was a guest at the White House where he met with FDR and other leading American political figures who were seeking to blunt his extremism but did not want to face him head-on.

They initially failed in their effort and Coughlin went on to become the face of American Nazism. He even had his own version of the Proud Boys, a group he called the Christian Front whose members regularly attacked Jews and synagogues.

At his height, Coughlin signed a lucrative contract with CBS to expand his radio show which gave a massive boost to his listenership. With the Catholic Church refusing to step in, showing a moral cowardice that was all too evident in their dealings with Coughlin, it was left to FDR to take the vital step.

He announced that Coughlin was being barred from the airwaves and could no longer broadcast his extremist views. Unlike Germany, Coughlin never built a movement capable of sustaining an armed insurrection and he soon faded from history.

But now comes Carlson with his own brand of hatred for everything not white, his continued attacks from the far right on immigrants, and his support for the January 6 insurrectionists.

But now, even Fox News has had enough, and we were treated to the extraordinary spectacle of Carlson being booted out without even knowing his fate on Monday. And not a moment too soon.

Foxs house is far from clean, and there are a few more hosts who need to be shown the door and probably will be Judge Jeanine, anyone?

No doubt Carlson will eventually resurface and double down on his hate, and it will be fascinating to see what becomes of Fox News, purveyors of so much misinformation which theyll be paying more for in the days ahead as other defamation lawsuits work their way to the forefront.

So good riddance to Tucker Carlson. To most Americans, he wont be missed.

*This column first appeared in the April 26 edition of the weekly Irish Voice newspaper, sister publication to IrishCentral.

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Fox finally boots Tucker Carlson - IrishCentral

Severe immigration policies intensify as Title 42 nears its end – Source New Mexico

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Title 42, a measure that prevents migrants from getting asylum in the U.S. due to COVID, is expected to end next month as the country lifts its national public health emergency.

Meanwhile, federal immigration agencies are ramping up severe immigration policies ahead of the policy ending on May 11.

Federal authorities expelled more than 235,000 asylum seekers in the first three months of 2023 under Title 42, according to government data. Since the start of Title 42 in March 2020, the U.S. has removed over 2.8 million asylum seekers.

That includes families, children and people traveling alone.

The premise of Title 42 was to increase COVID precautions. Health officials said that policy actually lacks public health reasoning.

Title 42 is a federal code that allows the federal government to expel migrants who have come from a country with a communicable disease. Ending the policy means the U.S. has to process migrants under typical immigration laws, allowing them again to seek asylum instead of deportation.

Sophia Genovese is an attorney at the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center. She said its likely a rush of asylum seekers will come to the U.S. when the policy lifts.

While its a good thing that Title 42 is ending, she said, there are still overly strict immigration policies in place.

In January, with the end of Title 42 in mind, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a string of new, strict border enforcement measures. One measure proposes rapidly kicking migrants out of the U.S. known as expedited removal who arent eligible for Title 42 under Title 8 instead.

Under Title 8, if asylum officers determine that migrants dont have a credible fear back in their home country or migrants dont ask for asylum, the federal government can remove them from the country. Genovese said this is a big issue.

Were wasting a lot of money on expulsions and deportations, instead of being rational and recognizing that migration is normal, she said.

Genovese said there are expedited removal violations at the Torrance County Detention Center, one of three immigrant detention centers in New Mexico. It has a history of violating federal standards. Migrants have also repeatedly reported inhumane conditions, and one Brazilian asylum seeker being held at Torrance died by suicide last year.

Federal officials hold credible fear interviews to ensure that migrants have a reason to be afraid of returning to their home country. Genovese said some interviews at Torrance have been violating due process rights, with officers asking few questions in interviews, only asking yes-or-no questions when questions are supposed to be open-ended and speeding through interviews.

She said shes working with a migrant from Ecuador who speaks Kichwa and was forced to proceed with an interview in Spanish, despite not even speaking that language.

Genovese said the U.S. deportation exodus only creates a larger mess than what is necessary in the end.

No amount of border policies are going to limit migration, she said. What this causes instead is chaos, and it feels intentional.

Genovese pointed out that providing accessible services to migrants, such as legal help, is less costly than detaining them.

They are invested in the process, and simply need access to information and services to meaningfully participate in that process, she said.

Genovese said the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center wants to see alternatives to detention, like Immigrant Customs and Enforcement check-ins and community-based models of assistance.

People want to comply with court orders. They want to comply with the law, she said. People are here because they generally fear returning to their home countries, and they want whats best for them and their familys safety.

Immigration is ultimately up to the federal government. Genovese said the state government cant interfere with the enforcement of these policies.

However, New Mexico could show solidarity for migrants, she said, and employ strategies like welcoming centers. She brought up Portland, where an immigration welcome center provides access to legal services, food programs and language education.

How powerful would that be, if perhaps the City of Albuquerque did that, or other cities within the state supported by the state government are able to establish these welcoming centers, she said. So that people have the tools that they need to get through their asylum process.

One New Mexico representative is asking for the New Mexico National Guard to be sent to the southern border to help stem the flow of illegal activity.

Rep. Jenifer Jones (R-Deming) sent a letter to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last week referencing a conversation the two had during the Legislature about potential federal funds to send the New Mexico National Guard to the border. Jones said state funds could be used if theres no federal assistance.

Maddie Hayden, spokesperson for the governors office, said via email that the New Mexico National Guard is ready to assist with non-enforcement related work at the southern border, at the request of the federal government.

Congress ultimately bears responsibility for finding a solution on federal immigration policy, she wrote, but until Republicans recognize that border security and humanitarian aid are not mutually exclusive, this fundamentally federal issue will continue to fester without a solution in sight.

Hayden said Lujan Grisham agrees with Jones that public safety is paramount, including at the southern border. She added that the governor is committed to dedicating whatever resources are needed to keep New Mexicans safe.

New Mexico Senate allows immigration detention to continue

In the letter, Jones said the flow of illegal activity will likely increase when Title 42 lifts, worsening a crisis of illegal drugs coming across the southern border and the threat of human trafficking.

Genovese said Democrats cant fall victim to messages like the one from Jones and try to appease white nationalism.

Its fear-mongering by Republicans, predominantly, about the immigrants, the asylum seekers, the migrants, failures to recognize humanity in our neighbors, she said. Its completely racist and xenophobic.

She said Biden also shouldnt try to appease these Republicans. His administration has expelled more people under Title 42 than the Trump administration that enacted it, according to the government statistics. Genovese said too often, Democrats like Biden try to placate Republicans by showing force around the southern border.

Its caused a tremendous amount of chaos and more harm, she said.

Bidens stance on Title 42 has swayed over the years, with the administration often denouncing inhumane immigration policies while still keeping them in effect.

Congressional members pointed out Bidens mixed messages in January. They sent a letter to Biden arguing against the expansion of Title 42. New Mexicos U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Lujn and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernndez signed that letter along with 75 other officials.

The Biden administration as well as immigration advocacy centers have failed to end Title 42 numerous times.

As a result of that and Title 8 being in effect, Genovese said there have been and still are thousands upon thousands of migrants and asylum seekers waiting in Mexico. Many are often in very dangerous situations, she added.

When asylum seekers rush into the U.S. when Title 42 lifts, she said, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol wont have the capacity to hold everyone, meaning some will get through undetected and officials will just have to allow others through.

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Severe immigration policies intensify as Title 42 nears its end - Source New Mexico

President Biden Announces Key Appointments to Boards and … – The White House

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WASHINGTON Today, President Biden announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans:

Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans

The Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans aids in developing, implementing, and coordinating educational programs and initiatives for agencies such as the Department of Education. Specifically, the Commission provides advice to the President through the Secretary of Education on matters pertaining to educational equity and economic opportunity for the Black community. The Commission primarily focuses on: 1) promoting career pathways for Black students through programs such as internships, apprenticeships and work-based learning initiatives, 2) increasing public awareness of the educational disparities Black Americans face and providing solutions to these problems, and 3) establishing local and national relationships with public, private, philanthropic, and nonprofit stakeholders to advance the mission of equity, excellence, and economic opportunity for Black Americans.

Malcolm Kenyatta, Chair

Representative Malcolm Kenyatta is a third-generation North Philadelphia native, thought leader, and legislator, currently serving in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Public Communications with a minor in Political Science from Temple University and his Master of Science in Strategic and Digital Communications from Drexel University. Kenyatta also completed the Harvard Kennedy Schools Executives in State and Local Government Program. Kenyatta was chosen for multiple prestigious fellowships and international delegations, including the Bertelsmann Leadership Fellow in the Digital Economy, the bipartisan Hunt/Kean Leadership Fellow in Education, and the American Jewish Committee Project Interchange.

Kenyatta is a barrier-breaking public figure, becoming the first openly LGBTQ+ Person of Color and one of the youngest members elected to the PA General Assembly in 2018. In 2022, he became the first openly LGBTQ+ Person of Color to run for the U.S. Senate in American history. Kenyatta has been a vocal proponent of protecting workers rights, enacting common-sense gun safety policies, and rooting out government corruption and waste. He has multiple legislative leadership roles, serving as a Member of the State Government Committee with oversight on state agencies and elections, Chair of the Subcommittee on Campaign Finance and Elections, Chair of Automation and Technology in the Committee on Commerce, and Member of the Finance Committee. Since his election, he has served on Governor Tom Wolfs Suicide Prevention Task Force and has been a member of the Philadelphia Delegation leadership team.

Kenyatta lives in North Philadelphia with his husband Dr. Matthew Kenyatta and their dog Cleo.

Lezli Baskerville, Member

Attorney Lezli Baskerville, an Honors graduate of Howard University School of Law and a constitutional justice lawyer, is a Howard University School of Law Lifetime Achiever. She is an Honors graduate of Douglass College at Rutgers University and a Douglass Society inductee, which she received in recognition of her work on improving the quality of life for vulnerable populations. Baskerville is the CEO of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, the membership and advocacy association of richly diverse HBCUs and PBIs. Baskerville, a Harvard University Advanced Leadership Fellow, served in the Education Group/Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law on the NAACP Legislative Counsel, as a National Black Leadership Roundtable Chief, as a DC Administrative Appeals Judge, and as a senior executive staff for members and committees of Congress. Baskerville has directed 34 political campaigns, designed and directed public policy campaigns, and wrote articles in or edited 40 public policy documents credited with shaping public opinion on state, national, and global policy.

Baskerville is a Founding Investor and Member of the Board of ECRID, the first Black-Founded and controlled publicly traded credit bureau and lending corporation that offers a fix to FICO and credit access to a broader and more diverse applicant pool. Baskerville has been by the Higher Education Leadership Foundation as Woman of the Year, by STEMConnector as one of 100 Women Leaders in STEM, by Diverse Issues in Higher as one of 25Women Making a Difference, by AOL Black Voices as one of the Nations Top 10 Black Women in Higher Education, and by Ebony Magazine for six consecutive years as one of Americas Top 100 Most Influential Association Leaders. Baskerville is acknowledged in The History Makers as a distinguished lawmaker.

Marla Blunt-Carter, Member

Marla Blunt-Carter is an Associate Professor of Professional Practice at Rutgers University School of Social Work in New Brunswick, New Jersey. As a recipient of multiple teaching awards, she instructs graduate-level courses on social policy, community organizing, advocacy, and political social work. Blunt-Carter holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Delaware and a Master of Social Work from Rutgers University. Blunt-Carter combines social work practice approaches and her extensive background in political and public policy work to provide a unique perspective to her teaching.

Blunt-Carters professional experience includes serving as Projects Manager and Director of Constituent Services for then-U.S. Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Delaware State Director for the 2008 Obama-Biden Presidential Campaign, and Senior Agency Liaison in the Office of Presidential Correspondence for the Obama-Biden Administration. Blunt-Carter has also held positions as Senior Advisor and Communications Director for Delawares Insurance Commissioner and Director of Community Planning and Policy Development for the Delaware HIV Consortium.

In 2015, Blunt-Carter became the Senior Advisor and Political Strategist for Lisa Blunt Rochester, who became the first woman and Person of Color to represent Delaware in the U.S. House of Representatives. She continues to provide consultation to the Congresswoman and also provides assistance to other local officials in Delaware. Blunt-Carters exceptional ability to merge her experience in political and public policy with social work gives her a distinctive perspective, making her an outstanding educator and mentor to her students.

Stacy Brown-Philpot, Member

Stacy Brown-Philpot is Founder & Managing Partner at Cherryrock Capital, an early-stage venture firm focused on investing in Black and Latinx entrepreneurs. She is the former CEO of TaskRabbit, the leading task management network, which she led from a fast-growing startup into a global business, and eventually to its successful acquisition by the IKEA Group. Prior to that, Brown-Philpot spent over a decade with Google and Google Ventures where she lent strategic expertise, led global operations for key Google flagship products, and served as Head of Online Sales and Operations for Google India. Brown-Philpot also brings a background in finance from her experience at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Goldman Sachs.

Brown-Philpot is a founding member of SoftBanks $100mm Opportunity Fund, established to invest in Black and Latinx entrepreneurs. She is on the Board of Directors for HP Inc., Nordstrom, Noom, StockX, Joy, Black Girls Code, and The Urban Institute. She was named a 2016 Henry Crown Fellow with the Aspen Institute and has been ranked by Business Insider as one of the 46 Most Important Blacks in Technology. Originally from Detroit, where she developed a deep and abiding love for all things Motown, Brown-Philpot now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two daughters. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Business Administration from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

Vilicia Cade, Member

Vilicia Cade, an accomplished educational leader, scholar, author, and social justice advocate, is the first Black female CEO and Superintendent of the Capital School District in Dover, Delaware. Cade is the only Black female Superintendent in the state, and she brings over three decades of improving outcomes for vulnerable children and adults to her current role. Her portfolio of public-private partnerships validates her track record in improving the quality of life and economic opportunities for her students. Cade is known for her inspired and innovative approaches to bolstering community, faith-based, and business partnerships interrupting the school-to-prison pipeline. Notably, she was a key administrator of the Brooklyn High Schools New Visions reform project, Co-Creator of the College Readiness Scholars Institute at the University of Delaware, and is credited for launching numerous parent empowerment programs.

Cade enthusiastically embraces her personal journey as a former ward of the State of New York, described in her debut bestseller If Not For Love. Her story resonates with many Black Americans illuminating the gaps in our child welfare system. Her childhood has established a firm foundation for resilience proving why empowering the disenfranchised is quintessential. Cade has served on boards such as Northeast Ohio Boys & Girls Club and United Way of Delaware. Cade earned her bachelors degree, three masters degrees, and doctorate from New York University. In 2020, she received the prestigious Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. Education Advocate Centennial Dove Award. A radio personality on the Stellar Awarded WNZN in Lorain, Ohio, she uses urban inspiration to connect the significance of service, educational equity, and economic development.

Vincent Dorien Evans, Member

Vincent Evans serves as Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus. He oversees the legislative policy agenda, manages the external and political affairs of the Caucus, and provides strategic leadership for the Caucus 58 Members of Congress. Prior to this role, Evans served as the Deputy Director of the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs for Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House where he was responsible for creating and coordinating direct dialogue between the Biden-Harris administration and the diverse American public. He worked at the local, state, and national levels to ensure community leaders, diverse perspectives, and new voices all had the opportunity to inform the work of the President and Vice President. Evans served as Political Director to then-Senator Kamala Harris on the Biden-Harris Campaign during the general election and the campaigns Southern Political Director during the primary season. Prior to this, he served on the senior staff of U.S. Representative Al Lawson of Florida, with a portfolio that focused on state and local issues.

Before his role in the Congress, Evans worked as the Aide to Tallahassee City Commissioner Curtis Richardson after running Richards successful campaign. His experience includes working at a government relations firm focused on state legislative matters in the Florida Senate Democratic Caucus for Democratic Leader Nan Rich and later at a cabinet-level state agency. He managed or served in leadership roles on the campaigns of the two most recent Florida Democratic gubernatorial nominees and several local, state, and congressional races in Florida. In 2022, Evans was named a Young Black Changemaker by NextGen America, the Nations largest youth voter organization. Born and raised in Florida, Evans attended Florida A&M University.

Michael Anthony Holmes, Member

Michael A. Holmes currently serves as President and CEO of MD and Partners, a consulting firm that focuses on strategic community planning and program development, and Executive Director of the Black Community Provider Network, a collaboration of Community Based Organizations in Illinois. Holmes is the former Executive Director of the Illinois African American Family Commission. He has served as an administrator for more than 20 years in both the City of Chicago and State of Illinois. Holmes has also served as former Vice President of Operations for Westside Holistic Services and Statewide Quality Assurance Administrator for six regions in the State of Illinois. Over the last 15 years, Holmes has been actively involved in working with the State of Illinois General Assembly as Deputy and Associate Director of two State agencies. Holmes worked specifically with the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus to monitor and identify policies and legislation that affect the African American communities in the State of Illinois. As Executive Director of the Illinois African American Family Commission, Holmes developed the role of liaison to the Governors office and the States administration for the purpose of recommending State services and resources to communities.

Holmes is actively engaged in civic and community activities. He is currently a member of the Youth and Child Development Committee for Congressman Danny Davis of the 7th Congressional District, Chairman of the Country Club Hills Police and Fire Commission, former Chairman of the Country Club Hills Umbrella Project, and former Member of the Illinois Department of Human Services Child Care Advisory Council. Holmes has also served as Coach and League Coordinator for CHA Midnight Basketball, Coordinator of Chicago Housing Authority Biddy Basketball, Volunteer for Chicago Inner City Games, former Member of the child watch African American Family Commission, former Member of the Illinois Department of Human Services Statewide Advisory Committee, former Commissioner at the Country Club Hills Park District, Founding Member of the Department of Children and Family Services African American Advisory Council, and Member of the Statewide Foster Parent Recruitment and Retention Steering Committee.

As a Seaman in the United States Navy, Holmes completed his basic training at the Great Lakes Naval Base and completed eighteen months of military service at the Naval War College, an international military leadership training institute. As a result of his service at the College, Holmes became a computer operator, which enabled him to develop war strategy. He received an associates degree from Kennedy King Jr College and bachelors degree and masters degree in Inner City Studies from Northeastern Illinois University. Holmes has been married to his wife for 40 years and they have raised four sons in the Chicago land area.

Fedrick C. Ingram, Member

Fedrick C. Ingram is Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), serving 1.7 million members. Ingram is the immediate former President of the 140,000-member Florida Education Association. He served as Vice President of the AFTs Executive Council from 2014 to 2020 before getting elected as the AFTs Secretary-Treasurer. Ingram grew up in inner-city Miami where he attended public schools. Pursuing his love of music, he attended Bethune-Cookman University on a scholarship and became the first member of his family to earn a postsecondary degree in music education. In 2006, he was named the Francisco R. Walker Miami-Dade County Teacher of the Year. He was also a finalist for the state of Florida Teacher of the Year Award in 2006. In addition to his bachelors degree from Bethune-Cookman, Ingram earned a masters degree in educational leadership from Barry University and holds an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from Florida Memorial University for a lifetime of work in education.

Lonnie L. Johnson, Member

Lonnie L. Johnson retired from Exxon Mobil Corporation in 2019 as Senior Counsel, Downstream Commercial Litigation. Prior to serving in that position, Lonnie served as Senior Director, Federal Relations at Exxon Mobil Corporation in Washington, DC. Lonnie received his J.D, with distinction, from The University of Iowa College of Law, where he served on the Iowa Law Review and was a member of the Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity. Johnson earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Johnson currently serves on the Board of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and on the Tugaloo College Research Board. Johnson also serves on the Board of Silence the Shame, an organization dedicated to removing the stigma associated with mental illness and getting people the help they need. Johnson is a former member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Advisory Board and the Board of the National Democratic Club. He served on the Board of Council for Legal Education Opportunities for more than 10 years. Johnson is married to Eartha Jean Johnson and they have three children, Teiva Johnson Bell (Criminal District Court Judge, Harris County Texas), Tiera Johnson Williams (Prosecutor, Family Violence Cases, Harris County Texas), and Antuan Johnson (Criminal Defense Attorney, Houston Texas).

Chad Dion Lassiter, Member

Chad Dion Lassiter is a national expert in the field of American Race Relations. Lassiter has worked on race, peace, and poverty-related issues in the United States, Africa, Canada, Haiti, Israel, and Norway. Lassiter is the current Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission where he has developed and launched a No Hate in Our State Townhall to address the surge of White Nationalism in Pennsylvania, a Social Justice Lecture Series providing an outlet for communities to discuss imperative issues, and serves as a Racial Reduction Response team for those communities impacted by hatred. Lassiter has also developed programs such as the Global Social Justice Initiative, Black and Jewish Beloved Community Dialogue, and the College Race Dialogue Initiative.

Lassiter received his masters degree from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Social Work, where he was the A. Phillip Randolph Award winner in 2001 and was the recipient of the prestigious Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Involvement Award in 2008.

Lassiter is the Co-Founder and current President of The Black Men at Penn School of Social Work, Inc., an organization within the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, the first Ivy League Black male group of social workers. In 2019, he was inducted into the School of Social Policy and Practice Alumni Hall of Fame. Lassiter was recently chosen as the National Association of Social Workers Pennsylvania Chapters Social Worker of the Year for 2021 and was recognized by the Philadelphia Tribune as The Most Influential African American Leader from 2010-2022.

Adena Williams Loston, Member

Dr. Adena Williams Loston possesses over 40 years of professional leadership experience including spearheading a national agenda for education, engaging communities in addressing economic development issues, providing organizational and institutional leadership towards workforce readiness and academic preparation. She has served as the 14th President of St. Philips College, the Nations Historically Black College and Hispanic Serving Institution, since 2007 with responsibilities for 13,000 students including four early college high schools, programs at three military base sites and dual credit and P-TECH programs. Through her strategic leadership and management oversight in 2018, St. Philips College received the Governors Award for Performance Excellence and the national Malcolm Baldrige Award as one of the Alamo Colleges. She has instituted the Planning Budget and Assessment Cycle, Resource Allocation Process, Presidents Academy, Department Chair Academy, Good to Great Strategic Planning Process, and three Centers of Excellence. Loston also provides oversight for $400 Million in new and renovated facilities construction.

Loston previously served as the Chief Education Office for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Washington DC, President of San Jacinto College South, and held administrative positions at Santa Monica College and the El Paso County Community College District. She has also served as an associate professor at George State University and instructor at Arkansas State University. Loston was a three-term appointee to the HBCU Capital Financing Committee. She graduated Alcorn State University with a bachelors degree in 1973 and received her M.Ed. and Ph.D. degrees from Bowling Green State University in 1974 and 1979.

William Billy Mitchell, Member

Representative William Billy Mitchell, a former public-school teacher, was previously elected to the City Council of the historic Stone Mountain in 1995. His colleagues then unanimously selected him to serve as Vice Mayor. Appointed Chair of the Finance Committee, he led the City to outstanding financial status, as reported by independent auditors. Among the ordinances he was most proud to author, Representative Mitchell granted the City the authority to erect the Freedom Bell in the middle of its downtown, commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s call in his immortal I Have a Dream speech to let freedom ring, from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

A depended upon leader in the Georgia General Assembly, Mitchell has authored legislation signed into law every term he has served. His Caucus in the State Legislature selected him to receive their highest honor, the Legislator of the Year award, after only his second term. Mitchell earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, his Masters of Arts degree from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and his Juris Doctor degree from Atlanta Law School. Mitchell has also been bestowed a Doctorate degree from the Trinity United School of Ambassadors. Elected by his colleagues, he currently serves as Chair of the Georgia House of Representatives Democratic Caucus. He was also elected by his nationwide peers to serve as President of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) and now serves as President of the NBCSL Foundation. NBCSL members represent seventy million Americans, and former members of NBCSL include 40% of the current Congressional Black Caucus and the 44th U.S. President. Mitchell was also elected to serve on the Executive Committee of the National Conference of State Legislators, which is the worlds largest legislative organization serving legislators and legislative staff in all of Americas 50 states and territories.

Clarence A. Nesbitt, Jr., Member

Clarence A. Nesbitt is the Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary of THINK450, the business, innovation, and partnership engine of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA). In this role, Nesbitt serves as the principal legal advisor across THINK450s business units, working to propel the organizations next stage of growth by amplifying the value of the collective players rights, expanding commercial opportunities, and securing innovative deals in the business of basketball among other responsibilities. Prior to this role, Nesbitt has served as the NBPAs General Counsel where he led the legal and government affairs functions of the union, negotiated modifications to the collective bargaining agreement associated with the coronavirus pandemic, and led the successful voluntary recognition campaign to unionize the NBA G League players (the NextGen Basketball Players Association).

Nesbitt attended Florida A&M University, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Masters Degree in Business Administration. Nesbitt went on to Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC for his Juris Doctor degree. Nesbitt currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Central Park Conservancy and the Black Entertainment & Sports Lawyers Association.

Denise L. Pease, Member

Denise L. Pease has committed her dynamic career as a senior government executive to developing impactful and sustainable policies that improve the lives of people, particularly those living in low- and moderate-income communities, by providing greater access and opportunities. Her talent for identifying problems and finding viable solutions has gained her the respect of national and international government, business, and community leaders. Pease served as the Northeast and Caribbean Regional Administrator at the General Services Administration in the Obama-Biden Administration. Through her leadership, the region succeeded in increasing minority business participation, returning the federal government to the World Trade Center site, and reconstructing federal government facilities and services after Hurricane Sandy. She has also served as the New York State Deputy Superintendent of Banks and the New York City Assistant Comptroller for Commercial Banking. In both positions, she created and implemented policy initiatives that increased banking services to the un-banked and under-banked communities.

Denise is a disability advocate, having developed and advocated on behalf of those with epilepsy and as a breast cancer survivor. Denise earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia Universitys School of General Studies. She has furthered her pursuit to develop innovative sustainable solutions to the economic disparity found in many communities through the completion of advanced studies at internationally renowned educational institution including Executive Management training at the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD) Paris Strategic Management of Financial Structures Programme. She has received numerous awards and recognition for her accomplishments including serving as a National Urban Fellow at the Bernard Baruch School of Public Administration and as a Charles H. Revson Fellow on the Future of New York at Columbia University.

Denise devotes her time to working with organizations to ensure that future generations have lives of endless possibilities, including her work with UN Women, the Disability Council of the DNC, the Greater Queens Chapter of the Links, Inc., and serving as a Life Member of NAACP and Heritage Member of the Claude B. Govan Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen, Inc.

Rebecca Becky Pringle, Member

National Education Association (NEA) President Becky Pringle is a fierce social justice warrior, defender of educator rights, unrelenting advocate for all students and communities of color, and valued and respected voice in the education arena.

A middle school science teacher with more than three decades of classroom experience, Pringle is singularly focused on uniting the members of the largest labor union with the Nation, and using that collective power to transform public education into a racially and socially just and equitable system that is designed to prepare every student to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world.

Pringles passion for students and educators, combined with her first-hand classroom experience, equip her to lead the movement to reclaim public education as a common good. Before assuming NEAs top post in 2020, Pringle served as NEA Vice President and before that as NEA Secretary-Treasurer. She directed NEAs work to combat institutional racism and spotlight systemic patterns of racism and educational injustice that impact students. Under Pringles guidance, NEA works to widen access and opportunity by demanding changes to policies, programs, and practices. The Associations goal is to ensure the systemic, fair treatment of people of all races so that equitable opportunities and outcomes are within reach for every student. This is why Pringle is a staunch advocate for students who have disabilities, identify as LGBTQ+, are immigrants, or English Language Learners.

Pringle is a passionate Philadelphia Eagles fan, loves anything purple, and is the Best Nana B ever for two special someones.

Marisa J. Richmond, Member

Marisa J. Richmond teaches history and womens and gender studies at Middle Tennessee State University. She previously taught at Tennessee State University, Vanderbilt University, and Nashville State Community College. She is the current President of the Tennessee Federation of Democratic Women, and a Co-Chair of the Transgender Advisory Committee of the Democratic National Committee. Locally, she is a member of the Metro Historical Commission, having previously served as a member, and Past Chair, of the Metro Human Relations Commission. She also served on the Mayors Council on the Status of Women and the Davidson County General Sessions Court Judicial Equity Collective. Previously, she served many years as the President and Lobbyist for the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition.

Richmond is a prolific author and speaker on transgender rights, and has served on many boards at the local, state, and national levels. She has been recognized for her work with many awards. Richmond has three degrees, all in U.S. History. Her Bachelor of Arts is from Harvard University, her Master of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Ph.D. from George Washington University.

Bernice G. Scott, Member

Bernice G. Scott is a resident of Hopkins, South Carolina. She has 20 years of experience serving as a member of Richland County Council in South Carolina, including a tenure as Chairwoman. She has 15 years of experience working in county and state government, including service in Governor Jim Hodges administration. She is the founder of the nationally recognized grassroots political advocacy group, The Reckoning Crew. Since retiring from county government, she has been volunteering with the Tri-City Visionaries, Inc. to help senior citizens in rural and disadvantaged areas repair and secure their homes. She is the mother of two children, five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Richard Mouse Smith, Member

Richard Mouse Smith is a lifelong Delawarean his family has been in Delaware since the 1860s. Smith is the President of Delawares NAACP Coalition of Branches and he has been in the NAACP since 1959. He was a union president for eight years and worked at the Port of Wilmington for 42 years. Over the years, he has worked with seven Wilmington mayors and six Delaware governors. Smith helped establish the Delaware Rainbow Coalition with Jesse Jackson, which was part of the coalition to desegregate schools. Education has been integral in his life, and it is one of his main priorities for his community.

He has been friends with President Biden for over 50 years. The people and leadership of the City of Wilmington and State of Delaware made him who is today.

Joe Tate, Member

Representative Joe Tate is serving his third term and now represents Michigans 10th State House District, a diverse community that covers Detroits lower east side and the communities of the Village of Grosse Pointe Shores, Grosse Pointe Woods, Grosse Pointe Farms, Grosse Pointe City, and Grosse Pointe Park. Tate is Michigans first Black Speaker of the House, now holding the gavel and setting House priorities in a legislative term in which Democrats have the majority for the first time in over a decade. His policy priorities include uplifting Michigan families, protecting the rights of all people, ensuring workers are valued, and investing in a world-class education system, a strong infrastructure, and a thriving economy.

Tate decided to run for office as a part of his deep and lifelong commitment to public service. The value of service was taught to him by his parentsa teacher in the Detroit public school system and a Detroit firefighter. As a teenager, Tate earned a scholarship to play football at Michigan State University before joining the National Football League (NFL). After the NFL, he went on to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps, deploying twice to Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. After an honorable discharge from the Marine Corps, he earned both an MBA and a masters in environmental policy and planning from the University of Michigan. Before joining the Legislature, Tate helped small businesses grow their capacity as a program manager for the Detroit Economic Growth Corp.

Kenny D. Thompson, Jr., Member

Kenny Thompson, Jr. is the Chief Public Affairs Officer at Vail Resorts (NYSE: MTN) overseeing government relations, community relations, communications, sustainability, and the Companys social responsibility platform, EpicPromise. Vail Resorts is the leading global mountain resort operator with 41 resorts in 15 states and four countriesincluding some of the worlds most iconic destinations as well as travel-centric retail and hospitality businesses.

Prior to joining Vail Resorts, Thompson served as the Vice President of External Affairs, North America at PepsiCo. While at PepsiCo, he developed PepsiCos strategy for targeting, investing, cultivating, and maintaining partnerships with external stakeholders to support PepsiCos broader business goals. Before joining PepsiCo in 2013, Thompson held several positions in the Obama-Biden Administration, including Director of Message Events for then-Vice President Joe Biden, Senior Advisor to United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk, and Special Assistant and Advance Lead for President Barack Obama. In 2020, Thompson was selected to serve on the Biden-Harris Transition as the Private Sector Liaison where he provided strategic and management oversight of the interaction with the private sector while managing relationships with Fortune 500 CEOs, Wall Street firms, venture-backed enterprises, and industry groups.

A native Texan, Thompson completed his bachelors degree at Texas Christian University, where he was a member of the Horned Frog baseball team. He later earned a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University. Currently, Thompson serves on the Board of Trustees at Texas Christian University and the Board of Directors at the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation.

Benaree Bennie Pratt Wiley, Member

Benaree Bennie Pratt Wiley is a Corporate Director and Trustee. For fifteen years, Wiley was the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Partnership, Inc., an organization that strengthened Greater Bostons capacity to attract, retain, and develop talented professionals of color. Wiley is currently a director on boards of the BNY Mellon Mutual Funds and CBIZ (NYSE: CBZ). She has served as the Chair of PepsiCos African American Advisory Board and formerly served on the boards of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and First Albany (NASDAQ: FACT). Her civic activities include serving on the boards of Dress for Success Boston, Spaulding Hospital, and formerly Howard University where she served as Vice Chair. She is a frequent speaker on leadership, diversity, and professional development, and has been the recipient of numerous awards, honors, and four Honorary Doctorates including from Boston College and New England School of Law. Among her many honors are induction into the Academy of Distinguished Bostonians, the Pinnacle Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, and Harvard Business School Distinguished Alumni Award from the African American Student Union. Wiley also had the honor of being featured on the cover of Boston magazine as one of Bostons most powerful women and being the subject of a Harvard Business School case, Bennie Wiley and The Partnership.

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President Biden Announces Key Appointments to Boards and ... - The White House

The World According to Tucker Carlson – The New Yorker

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Tucker Carlsons last hour as a Fox News hostlast as in most recent, and also, we now know, as in finalended with him sitting at a shiny white desk, a green-screened image of the Capitol behind him, eating a soggy, sad-looking slice of sausage-and-pineapple pizza. It is a disgusting order, he admitted. But I have no shame. He wore a Rolex, a repp tie, and a slightly manic grin; his hair, as usual, was jauntily mussed, as if hed just stepped off a catamaran. The segment seemed calculated to promote three things: Carlsons salt-of-the-earth charisma; the heroism of a particular Delaware County, Pennsylvania, pizza-delivery man, a ruggedly handsome white guy who had acted as a vigilante assistant to the local police; and a new special on his streaming show Tucker Carlson Originals,a half-hour documentary called Let Them Eat Bugs. (Could there really be a plan to make us all eat bugs? Carlson asked, in an ominous voice-over, followed by a guest providing a putative answer: Its a global agenda that is pushing all of these things.) In the studio, Carlson put down his slice. What a great way to end the week, he said, with a satisfied chuckle. Well be back on Monday.

In fact, late on Monday morning, Fox News announced, in a terse statement, that Carlson and the network had agreed to part ways. We still dont know why, although its hard to imagine that the timingwith one recently settled defamation lawsuit, another defamation suit in the offing, and one of Carlsons former producers sitting on a few undisclosed recordingsis a coincidence. The imagination runs wild: Was it workplace abuse? A private rant about how Kanye was right about the Jews? Was Carlson plotting a corporate coup, or perhaps an actual one? Well learn the details soon enough. For now, all that seems clear is that, after Carlsons years of impunity, despite various scandals and advertiser boycotts and mask-off moments, there must be something, in the end, that his bosses consider a fireable offense.

For the past six years or so, Carlson was the most influential voice in right-wing media, without a close second. Donald Trump had the raw power, but Carlson set the ideological agenda. And, beneath all the self-abasing, clickbait-ready antics, he did seem to have an ideological agenda. Consider the insects. Let Them Eat Bugs is not just a gross-out tour through the weird world of entomophagy; the documentary also makes an argument, in the mode of reactionary, conspiratorial nationalism. All of a sudden, the people in chargepoliticians, billionaire oligarchs, celebritiesare telling you you have to fight climate change by changing what you eat, Carlson said, in an introduction. You may not want to change what you eatno one ever voted on thatbut democracy doesnt matter when it comes to the food supply. (In Carlsons vocabulary, democracy is a floating signifier that may or may not overlap with the actual mechanisms of governance; the people in charge may refer to Kamala Harris, Nicole Kidman, an underpaid female journalist, or an Oberlin sophomore, but rarely to, say, a sitting Republican member of Congress, several of whom Carlson interviewed each week.) Let Them Eat Bugs is a pungent combination of obvious falsehoods (Davos executives are shoving crickets down your throat!) presented as truths, and obvious truths (climate change is upending the food supply) presented as falsehoods, or as a plot contrived by nefarious globalists, or both. In a sense, Carlson is simply dressing up the oldest, most rudimentary conservative laments in sleek, newfangled graphics. The climate is changing, but he doesnt want it to change; so, instead of finding a suitable target for his outrage (fossil-fuel companies, for example, or the political parties that subsidize them), he invents a more creative, convoluted way to stand athwart history, yelling StopNational Review by way of Infowars. He has both a brother and a son named Buckley. For the first half of his career, Tucker Carlson was a William F. Buckley, Jr.-style Beltway neoconservative, writing for the The Weekly Standard and appearing on C-SPAN and CNN. But the conservative coalition has changed, and Buckley has been dead for years. More recently, Carlson has been genuflecting before the MyPillow guy and texting with Alex Jones.

I have watched many hours of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlsons prime-time TV show, and of his two streaming shows, Tucker Carlson Today and Tucker Carlson Originals. I have been appalled; I have been amazed; I have shouted rejoinders, vainly, at the screen; but I have rarely been bored. A lot of his story lines, including the one about the bugs, seem to have been repurposed from the deepest recesses of the Internet. In the Tuckerite master narrative, the bad guys are usually the rootless cosmopolitan lites, and the heroes are the local traditionalists, Christian nationalists, not-gonna-take-it-anymore vigilantes, or all of the above. (In Let Them Eat Bugs, one of the main protagonists is Eva Vlaardingerbroek, a right-wing Dutch political commentator who refers to climate change as a so-called crisis and has called feminism one of the biggest shams of our time.) Upcoming Tucker Carlson Originals documentaries, assuming that Fox decides to release them as scheduled, will include one called Meet the Preppers, about the vindication of [disaster] prepping, and another about the total collapse of human rights in the nation of Canada. (Teasing the latter on his prime-time show, Carlson displayed a mockup of Justin Trudeaus face blended with Fidel Castrosan allusion, which any non-Internet-poisoned person would and should have overlooked, to an old urban legend that Castro is Trudeaus real father.) And who could forget the Tucker Carlson Originals special The End of Men, which introduced the world to bromeopathy, the patriotic practice of bathing ones testicles in red light? That special also featured hand-wringing about soy boys, paeans to raw-egg slonkers, and homoerotic montages, apparently filmed on Alex Joness bocce court, that looked like Abercrombie & Fitch ads directed by Leni Riefenstahl. Again, its easy to brush all this off as a campy, desperate ploy for attention, which it was. But The End of Men also made an argument: American men are being systematically emasculated by some sort of ill-defined global cabal, for the purpose of slowing down birth rates in the West; only well-ordered, disciplined groups of men, presumably after being armed and restored to testicular health, can restablish order and restore Western civilization. This is the sort of thing that seems funny until it doesnt.

Carlson may have saved some of the spicier visuals for Foxs streaming service, but the same ideological strands ran through his nightly TV show, which was, at various points, the highest-rated show in the history of cable news. During his six-year run, he chose to interview, as far as I can tell, exactly four sitting world leaders, apart from Donald Trump: Viktor Orbn, Jair Bolsonaro, Andrzej Duda, and Nayib Bukele. Among the nations that still bother to hold credible elections, these were, by most measures, some of the most autocratic leaders on Earth. Carlson often talked about democracy, but he did not define the concept the way that most contemporary political theorists do; his version seemed to mean something more like the will of the people, and not necessarily all the people. He is white, and hes a nationalist, but, of course, he has long denied being a white nationalistwhenever he was asked if he was a white supremacist, he would claim that he didnt even know what the term meant. He doesnt oppose immigrants; he simply opposes immigration, which, according to him, makes our country poor and dirtier and more divided. One of the few bromides that most Democrats and Republicans still agree on is that diversity is our strength, but Carlson dared, repeatedly, to just ask the question: What if its not? Once, on the radio, he referred to Iraqis as semiliterate, primitive monkeys. (To my knowledge, he never said the N-word in publicalthough who knows whats on those undisclosed recordings.) No matter how many racist things he said, his bosses and advertisers and fellow-travellers could keep denying that he was a racist, because he said so.

Retrain your mind to acknowledge the things that are right in front of you, that are obvious, Carlson said, in 2019. This was not a voice-over in an attention-grabbing documentary but a keynote speech at a conservative conference; he was, presumably, saying what he really believed. There are many downsides, I will say, to Trump, but one of the upsides is that the Trump election was so shocking, so unlikely... that it did cause some significant percentage of people to say, Wait a secondif that can happen, like, what else is true? One of the things that turned out to be true was that Tucker Carlson, known to a previous micro-generation as the guy in the bow tie who was once humiliated by Jon Stewart, could become, for a pivotal half decade, the most dominant and dangerous right-wing pundit in the country. Carlson, like Trump, was written off for years as a laughingstock, but he turned out to have a daunting set of skills. He was a cosseted lite, a coastal prep-school heir and a consummate creature of the D.C. swamp; but, like Trump, he was rhetorically slippery enough, despite all that, to take his place at the vanguard of an ostensibly populist movement. Unlike Trump, he is silver-tongued, industrious, and (as much as it pains me to admit it) a gifted writergifted enough that he can tell his audience pretty much anything, including the opposite of what he told them the previous night, and make it feel believable. He has lost the most powerful chair in conservative media, but he hasnt lost those skills. I dont think weve heard the last of him.

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The World According to Tucker Carlson - The New Yorker

Government-sponsored review finds religion a force for good in the UK – Church Times

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A CLEARER understanding of faith in society would help the Government to tackle issues such as forced marriage, child safeguarding, radicalisation in prison, and faith-based extremism, an independent review has concluded.

Improved faith literacy in the public sector is key to this, it says.

The 165-page report Does government do God? An independent review into how government engages with faith was published on Wednesday, more than three years after it was commissioned by the Governments Levelling-Up department on the cusp of the pandemic.

It was written by Colin Bloom, a former director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, who was appointed an independent faith engagement adviser by the Government in 2019 to explore the relationship between faith groups and public institutions in the UK. Its remit, Mr Bloom explains in the introduction to his report, does not extend to the ongoing challenges of religiously motivated hatred, including antisemitism or anti-Muslim hatred nor far-right or far-left political extremism.

His research is focused on what he calls true believers people who are true, sincere, and faithful with whom, he says, as with non-believers, the Government should work closely to improve society. This is opposed to the personal greed, ambition, and pride of what he calls make-believers.

More than 21,000 people responded to a public consultation (open for one month from 13 November 2020) for the review, which sets out 22 recommendations for the Government. These include:

The review found that most responders to its call for evidence (84 per cent) saw faith and religion as overall positive things for society. One respondent said: Faith is oxygen to many of us.

Yet 58 per cent of responders also agreed that freedom of religion or belief was under threat in the UK. This view was particularly strong among Christians (68 per cent), who cited high-profile cases of Christians being penalised for being open about their faith in public and at work.

In a press briefing on the report with the Religion Media Centre, Tim Farron MP, a former leader of the Liberal Democrats, said that this statistic was not surprising. To people who are not Christians, Christianity is the establishment; it is privileged. Christians, who, he argued, were a smaller group than the establishment portrayed, needed to understand how they were perceived, and faith literacy was part of that.

The Government will be really bad at diversity if it doesnt understand faith in a non-patronising way, he said. In turn, Christians and people of other faiths needed to understand better the cultural literacy of the world around them.

The report says that the Government should embrace the work that faith groups do within the community, while understanding, as one respondent put it, that this is merely an overflow from the core of their identity, not their actual identity. Greater engagement is needed from the Government to foster positive understanding while not shying away from tackling harmful practices.

A whole chapter in the report is dedicated to forms of faith extremism most extensively 11 pages on Sikh extremism, compared with between one page or a few paragraphs on Hindu nationalism, Islamist extremism, Neo-Nazi occultist groups, white supremacy, and other forms of extremist views.

Commenting on the disparity, Mr Bloom told the Religion Media Centre briefing that the Sikh community were outstanding contributors to UK society, but said that work had not been done before on extremism within this group to the same extent as others. One of his 22 recommendations is that the Government should take steps to develop a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of subversive and sectarian Sikh extremist activity.

Another chapter focuses on faith and education, including a recommendation to ensure that out-of-school faith settings such as Jewish yeshivas and Muslim madrassas are registered and inspected. They should also ensure appropriate resources are allocated to meet childrens welfare and safeguarding requirements, the report says. It goes on to say that RE has become a Cinderella subject and that teaching of the subject should be improved.

While Mr Bloom accepted that there had been many previous reports on this topic with similar recommendations; but he argued that these had not been followed through. I just wish that either this Government, or whatever comes next, will be the Prince Charming that will take this Cinderella to the ball.

His report recommends the introduction of minimum standards regarding timetabling and resourcing to bring RE alongside other humanities subjects which would then be centrally inspected by Ofsted. It also recommends that religious studies is introduced into the GCSE English Baccalaureate, as well as outreach programmes to graduates of theology and RS to improve the quality of teaching.

The final chapter focuses on forced and coercive marriage, cases of which Mr Bloom considers to be underreported, with unacceptably low criminal conviction rates. The Forced Marriage Unit reports an average of just 1359 cases a year, he writes, and only six convictions were made in 2019-20 and 235 protection orders were issued by family courts in 2020.

Mr Bloom told the briefing that the Government had for too long ducked the issue. I know its sensitive, but nobody should be forced to be married against their will. And Im very angry that this Government has not done more despite its fine words . . . Theyve got to stop ducking it and address it.

His report recommends a redoubling of efforts by accepting the wider term forced and coercive marriage to cover the pressure imposed by some faith leaders on individuals to accept religious-only (non-legally binding) and arranged marriages.

Training should be provided to faith leaders to understand how to spot signs of coercive behaviour or control to facilitate a law-change, making it a criminal offence for faith leaders to conduct religious and civil weddings without ensuring both participants have willingly entered into the marriage. He does not say how this would be monitored or enforced.

The Forced Marriage Unit should be led by a Secretary of State and adequately resourced with both a operation and policy team, he adds. The Government should also record more data on forced and coercive marriage, including working more closely with social services and local councils as part of separate review.

Forced marriage is also the focus of reports conclusion. Mr Bloom writes: Some of the recommendations perhaps could have been bolder or more ambitious, but politics is the art of the possible. Every recommendation is within reach of this Government, and any future Government, if it wishes to grasp them.

Tackling faith literacy, UK Armed Forces recruitment, and prison chaplaincy are all important issues, but there is one burning injustice that this Government should not shrink from, which is the issue of forced and coercive marriages. . . If only one thing is achieved from this report, confronting the pernicious and unlawful practice of forced and coercive marriage once and for all should be the goal.

He adds: That said, without faith, places of worship and people of faith, this country would be poorer, blander, and less dynamic. Faith is a force for good, and the Government should do more to both understand and release the potential of this fantastic resource.

Responding to the review, the Church of Englands Director of Faith and Public Life, the Revd Dr Malcolm Brown, said: We welcome the recognition in the report of the need for religious literacy and a greater public understanding of the major world faiths. It is a fact that the majority of people in England Wales identify with a religion, so faith is not a minority pursuit.

Everyone has a belief-system which guides their lives so it is important to enhance understanding of religions without treating religious people as other. There is, of course, a huge diversity of faith in this country and faiths are not all the same.

We look forward to hearing how any training and education in the field of religious literacy can be done in partnership with religious communities and from a perspective that sees faiths in the round.

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Government-sponsored review finds religion a force for good in the UK - Church Times

Tree of Life trial starts as Pittsburgh synagogue congregations find … – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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On Oct. 27, 2018, New Light was about one week shy of its one-year anniversary in the building. That morning, New Light was just beginning its service in the basement, Tree of Life was in its second-floor sanctuary and Dor Hadash was meeting in a smaller room nearby.

When the gunman burst in, he shot and killed members of all three congregations Jerry Rabinowitz from Dor Hadash; Richard Gottfried, Melvin Wax and Dan Stein from New Light and Joyce Fienberg, Rose Mallinger, David and Cecil Rosenthal, Bernice and Sylvan Simon and Irving Younger from Tree of Life.

Tree of Life victims, from top, left to right: Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal. Middle row: David Rosenthal, Joyce Fienberg, Daniel Stein. Bottom row: Melvin Wax, Irving Younger, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon.

The week after the shooting, all three congregations held a shabbat service together at Beth Shalom synagogue, Mr. Hausman said. From there, theyve taken separate paths. And from the same tragedy, theyve chosen different approaches to memorialization.

The Tree of Life congregation has temporarily moved into Rodef Shalom in Shadyside while members await the demolition and reconstruction of the Tree of Life building. We made a decision right away that we were going to return, said Mr. Hausman. If not, this bad guy wins, and that certainly is not going to happen.

But the building they return to will be far different in design, function and scope than the one they left.

What we are building will be a wholly new American Jewish institution, said Carole Zawatsky, chief executive officer of the new Tree of Life nonprofit.

Tree of Life has enlisted world-famous architect Daniel Libeskind, who has designed Jewish museums and Holocaust memorials all over the world, as well as the master plan for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center.

Not only will the building host Tree of Lifes religious services, it also will house the worlds only museum dedicated to antisemitism. Also in the plans are a memorial to those killed in the shooting, classrooms, offices, a social hall and a film screening room. The building also will serve as a space to host students and partner with universities, as well as become the new home for the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh.

The planning process was slow-going at first, as the congregation grappled with what seemed like an enormous task. The Tree of Life building, now beginning the demolition phase, is tentatively scheduled to re-open in early 2024.

Early on, we made the decision we were going to use this as a teaching moment we didnt really know how right away, said Mr. Hausman. Nothing like this fortunately had ever happened in the United States and there were no books, no guidelines. Im sure we made a ton of mistakes in the early going, but sometimes thats the best learning experience.

Ms. Zawatsky was in Washington, D.C., the day of the shooting, working as CEO of the Edlavitch Jewish Community Center. Even hundreds of miles away from Pittsburgh, her immediate response was concern for the safety of the congregations in D.C., feeling that all of Judaism was under attack. On the Monday morning following the shootings, she went to work with yahrzeit candles in her bag, lighting them with her staff to honor those killed in Pittsburgh.

As I sit here in this role, its so abundantly obvious that this is what had to happen, she said of the scope of the new Tree of Life building. That we are obligated to use this terrible moment as a beacon for the entire nation and world. Were not defined by our killers, but by what we create out of adversity and tragedy it couldnt have been anything else.

As for New Light, they also initially believed their new location would be temporary, a space in Congregation Beth Shalom in Squirrel Hill.

Even a year after the shooting, Mr. Cohen was confident they would return to the Tree of Life building. But as time passed, they not only became comfortable in their new space in the Helfant Chapel at Beth Shalom, but heard from members of their congregation who still cant drive by the building, much less see themselves inside it.

Initially, we thought we had an obligation to go back because it was such a horrible thing, we needed to make a statement by going back, said Mr. Cohen, sitting in their sanctuary at Beth Shalom. But too many people said I cant. How could they go to a place thats bullet-holed? And it doesnt matter that the bullet holes arent there anymore. And it doesnt matter that theres marble and glass and its beautiful and world famous.

The bullet holes are still there. Theyll always be there. And for some of our members who were most directly involved, thats the message that we as a congregation took. And thats why were here.

After they made the decision in 2020 to stay at Beth Shalom, they didnt want to wait any longer to create a space to mourn those who died, said Mr. Cohen.

Barbara Caplan looks at a list of the shooting victims on the wall of New Light Memorial Chapel in Shaler. (Lucy Schaly/Post-Gazette)

They worked closely with the families of the deceased to turn an open-air, dirt-floor garage on their cemetery property into a chapel, memorial and mini-museum. On a sunny day, colorful light streams through stained glass doors that depicts themes from Genesis 21:1-22:24, the Torah portion intended to be read the morning of Oct. 27, 2018.

Stored in a glass case are the shofar that Gottfried would blow at services, the small travel prayer book that Wax used throughout his life and a section from the Torah that the meticulously-organized Stein would read every year, the date that he did so handwritten on the side from February 1985 to February 2018.

At their hillside cemetery above the chapel, headstones are spaced close together, following the old Romanian custom not to leave space for the devil to get in between the graves, said co-president Barbara Caplan. New Light member Sophie Masloff is buried there, as are Wax and Gottfried their headstones overflowing with stones placed on top, as is Jewish custom.

Along the edge of a bluff in the cemetery, a large stone memorial shaped like a Torah honors Wax, Gottfriend and Stein as holy martyrs, with a Callery pear tree planted next to it that grew from the only tree to survive at the site of 9/11.

All of these things have really been designed to give comfort by something physical that people can relate to, said Mr. Cohen. Weve just felt that, the only way forward as an organization is we have to do something to remember and memorialize.

As for Dor Hadash, the congregation moved into Rodef Shalom after the shooting, and plans to stay there.

Our community has always looked at the community as having value, rather than the physical building, said Dana Kellerman, communications chair for Dor Hadash. Rodef Shalom has been a wonderful, welcoming congregation and while we have never regarded the physical building as an essential component of our congregation, the physical space works very well for us.

At the one-year anniversary of the synagogue shootings, a crowd stands for a moment of silence during an event called ''In Memoriam: Remember the Victims, Demand Stronger Gun Laws'' in 2019 at the North Shore Riverfront Park. (Post-Gazette)

While plans for a physical memorial are still being discussed, the congregation has thrown itself into a different sort of legacy advocacy for gun control and other issues they believe fulfill the Jewish principle of tikkun olam, or repairing the world.

Democracy and social justice are really foundational values for our congregation, said Dr. Kellerman. We have been doing our best, I think, since our founding, but certainly even more emphatically since the shooting.

Following the attack, members of the Dor Hadash Social Action Committee founded a nonprofit, Squirrel Hill Stands Against Gun Violence. The group lobbies legislators, endorses political candidates, raises money and marches at rallies. Following the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, they partnered with student group March for Our Lives Pittsburgh to hold a large rally in Schenley Park, including a speech by Miri Rabinowitz, whose husband, Jerry, died in the synagogue shooting.

The congregation also has continued its advocacy in support of refugees, including its longstanding work with Jewish refugee resettlement agency HIAS a group that was a repeated target of anti-Semitic online rants by Robert Bowers, the accused synagogue shooter. Dor Hadash, which has seen growth in membership since the shooting, also has a fresh focus on combating antisemitism.

We dont join with the advocacy organizations on either side. ... The purpose of our congregation is to praise God.

Stephen Cohen, co-president, New Light

We do recognize that we are going to be more visible because of the upcoming trial and we would like to use that visibility to also talk a little bit about anti-semitism and its tie-in to white nationalism and white supremacy, said Dr. Kellerman, sitting in the library at Rodef Shalom. We would really look to amplify our voice in a way that calls people to work for a world that is more inclusive, that is democratic, that pushes those anti-democratic, white supremacist, violent insurrectionist forces back under a rock where they belong.

The congregation also has taken a stand against the death penalty for the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter, writing a letter in June 2021 to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland asking that the government abandon its request for the death penalty, as well as a similar letter to then-Attorney General Bill Barr in 2019.

Both Tree of Life and New Light have chosen to remain staunchly apolitical. Its not our job as a congregation to develop a stand, said Mr. Hausman of Tree of Life.

For New Light, that decision came even before the shooting, when the congregation debated whether to take a position on gun control. There were vehement opinions on both sides, said Mr. Cohen, leading the congregation to decide to remain neutral. And its a viewpoint that has stuck.

We dont invite politicians to come talk to us, we dont sign petitions, we dont join with the advocacy organizations on either side. We just, we dont have an opinion. Our members represent a large spectrum of the American population and thats not the purpose of our congregation the purpose of our congregation is to praise God.

Individual members of each congregation of course are free to express their own views. Relatives of nine of the 10 people killed from the Tree of Life and New Light congregations expressed their wishes for the government to proceed with its death penalty case in a July 2021 letter to Mr. Garland.

As the trial nears, once again intertwining the three congregations, there will be more to navigate, any number of fresh decisions they wish they didnt have to confront.

Its something thats never been done before, said Mr. Hausman, so how do you do it?

Anya Sostek: asostek@post-gazette.com.

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Tree of Life trial starts as Pittsburgh synagogue congregations find ... - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

AI-generated spam may soon be flooding your inbox — and it will be personalized to be especially persuasive – The Conversation

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Each day, messages from Nigerian princes, peddlers of wonder drugs and promoters of cant-miss investments choke email inboxes. Improvements to spam filters only seem to inspire new techniques to break through the protections.

Now, the arms race between spam blockers and spam senders is about to escalate with the emergence of a new weapon: generative artificial intelligence. With recent advances in AI made famous by ChatGPT, spammers could have new tools to evade filters, grab peoples attention and convince them to click, buy or give up personal information.

As director of the Advancing Human and Machine Reasoning lab at the University of South Florida, I research the intersection of artificial intelligence, natural language processing and human reasoning. I have studied how AI can learn the individual preferences, beliefs and personality quirks of people.

This can be used to better understand how to interact with people, help them learn or provide them with helpful suggestions. But this also means you should brace for smarter spam that knows your weak spots and can use them against you.

So, what is spam?

Spam is defined as unsolicited commercial emails sent by an unknown entity. The term is sometimes extended to text messages, direct messages on social media and fake reviews on products. Spammers want to nudge you toward action: buying something, clicking on phishing links, installing malware or changing views.

Spam is profitable. One email blast can make US$1,000 in only a few hours, costing spammers only a few dollars excluding initial setup. An online pharmaceutical spam campaign might generate around $7,000 per day.

Legitimate advertisers also want to nudge you to action buying their products, taking their surveys, signing up for newsletters but whereas a marketer email may link to an established company website and contain an unsubscribe option in accordance with federal regulations, a spam email may not.

Spammers also lack access to mailing lists that users signed up for. Instead, spammers utilize counter-intuitive strategies such as the Nigerian prince scam, in which a Nigerian prince claims to need your help to unlock an absurd amount of money, promising to reward you nicely. Savvy digital natives immediately dismiss such pleas, but the absurdity of the request may actually select for navet or advanced age, filtering for those most likely to fall for the scams.

Advances in AI, however, mean spammers might not have to rely on such hit-or-miss approaches. AI could allow them to target individuals and make their messages more persuasive based on easily accessible information, such as social media posts.

Chances are youve heard about the advances in generative large language models like ChatGPT. The task these generative LLMs perform is deceptively simple: given a text sequence, predict which token think of this as a part of a word comes next. Then, predict which token comes after that. And so on, over and over.

Somehow, training on that task alone, when done with enough text on a large enough LLM, seems to be enough to imbue these models with the ability to perform surprisingly well on a lot of other tasks.

Multiple ways to use the technology have already emerged, showcasing the technologys ability to quickly adapt to, and learn about, individuals. For example, LLMs can write full emails in your writing style, given only a few examples of how you write. And theres the classic example now over a decade old of Target figuring out a customer was pregnant before she did.

Spammers and marketers alike would benefit from being able to predict more about individuals with less data. Given your LinkedIn page, a few posts and a profile image or two, LLM-armed spammers might make reasonably accurate guesses about your political leanings, marital status or life priorities.

Our research showed that LLMs could be used to predict which word an individual will say next with a degree of accuracy far surpassing other AI approaches, in a word-generation task called the semantic fluency task. We also showed that LLMs can take certain types of questions from tests of reasoning abilities and predict how people will respond to that question. This suggests that LLMs already have some knowledge of what typical human reasoning ability looks like.

If spammers make it past initial filters and get you to read an email, click a link or even engage in conversation, their ability to apply customized persuasion increases dramatically. Here again, LLMs can change the game. Early results suggest that LLMs can be used to argue persuasively on topics ranging from politics to public health policy.

AI, however, doesnt favor one side or the other. Spam filters also should benefit from advances in AI, allowing them to erect new barriers to unwanted emails.

Spammers often try to trick filters with special characters, misspelled words or hidden text, relying on the human propensity to forgive small text anomalies for example, c1ck h.ere n0w. But as AI gets better at understanding spam messages, filters could get better at identifying and blocking unwanted spam and maybe even letting through wanted spam, such as marketing email youve explicitly signed up for. Imagine a filter that predicts whether youd want to read an email before you even read it.

Despite growing concerns about AI as evidenced by Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter CEO Elon Musk, Apple founder Steve Wozniak and other tech leaders calling for a pause in AI development a lot of good could come from advances in the technology. AI can help us understand how weaknesses in human reasoning might be exploited by bad actors and come up with ways to counter malevolent activities.

All new technologies can result in both wonder and danger. The difference lies in who creates and controls the tools, and how they are used.

If so, youll be interested in our free daily newsletter. Its filled with the insights of academic experts, written so that everyone can understand whats going on in the world. With the latest scientific discoveries, thoughtful analysis on political issues and research-based life tips, each email is filled with articles that will inform you and often intrigue you.

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AI-generated spam may soon be flooding your inbox -- and it will be personalized to be especially persuasive - The Conversation

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Dating an AI? Artificial Intelligence dating app founder predicts the future of AI relationships – Fox News

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Replika CEO Eugenia Kuyda, the creator of an AI dating app with millions of users around the world, spoke to Fox News Digital about AI companion bots and the future of human and AI relationships.

It is an industry that she said will truly change peoples lives.

"I think it's the next big platform. I think it is going to be bigger than any other platform before that. I think it's going to be basically whatever the iPhone is for you right now."

Kuyda said that the technology still needs time to improve, but she predicted that people around the world will have access to chatbots that accompany them on trips and are intimately aware of their lives within 5 to 10 years.

40-YEAR-OLD MAN FALLS IN LOVE WITH AI, REPORTEDLY TELLS PHAEDRA ABOUT PLANS TO CREMATE MOTHER AND SISTER

Replika CEO Eugenia Kuyda, the creator of an AI companion app with millions of users around the world, spoke to Fox News Digital about AI companion bots and the future of human and AI relationships.

"[When] we started Replicant," Kuyda said, her vision was building a world "where I can walk to a coffee shop and Replika can walk next to me and I can look at her through my glasses or device. That's the point. Ubiquitous," Kuyda said.

Its a "dream product," Kuyda said, that most people, including herself, would benefit from.

AI companion bots will fill in the space where people "watch TV, play video games, lay on a couch, work out" and complain about life, she explained.

SNAPCHAT AI CHATBOT ALLEGEDLY GAVE ADVICE TO 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL ON RELATIONSHIP WITH 31-YEAR-OLD MAN, HAVING SEX

While people have different reasons for using Replika and creating an AI companion, Kuyda explained, they all have one thing in common: a desire for companionship. (Luka, Inc./Handout via REUTERS/File Photo)

Kuyda said that the idea for her company, which allows users to create, name and even personalize their own AI chatbots with different hairstyles and outfits, came after the death of her friend. As she went back through her text messages, the app developer used her skills to build a chatbot that would allow her to connect with her old friend.

In the process, she realized that she had discovered something significant: a potential for connection. The app has become a hit around the world, gaining over 10 million users, according to Replika's website.

"What we saw there, maybe for the first time," Kuyda said, was that "people were really resonated with the app."

"They were sharing their stories. They were being really vulnerable. They were open about their feelings," she continued.

But while people have different reasons for using Replika and creating an AI companion, Kuyda explained, they all have one thing in common: a desire for companionship. Thats exactly what Replika is designed for, Kuyda said.

"Replika helped them with certain aspects of their lives, whether it's going through a period of grief or understanding themselves better, or something as trivial as just improving their self-esteem, or maybe going through some hard times of dealing with their PTSD."

But the most significant possibility of AI companionship will encompass all aspects of life, Kuyda predicted. (Kurt Knutsson)

Kuyda argued that Replika was providing an important service for people who struggle, especially with loneliness.

"I mean, of course it would be wonderful if everyone had perfect lives and amazing relationships and never needed any support in a form of a therapist or an AI chatbot or anyone else. That would be the ideal situation for us, for people," Kuyda said.

"But unfortunately, we're not in this place. I think the situation is that there's a lot of loneliness in the world and it seems to kind of get worse over time. And so there needs to be solutions to that," she said.

AI AND LOVE: MAN DETAILS HIS HUMAN-LIKE RELATIONSHIP WITH A BOT

But Kuyda emphasized that the social media model of high engagement and constant advertising is not what she intends for Replika. One way of avoiding that model is by "nudging" users on Replika and preventing them from forming unhealthy attachments to chatbots.

That's because after roughly 50 messages, Kuyda explained, the Replika chat partner becomes "tired" and hints to the user that they should take a break from their conversation.

ITALY BANS POPULAR AI APP FROM COLLECTING USERS' DATA

Kuyda concluded with a hopeful message for the future of AI companion bots.

"I think there's a lot of fear because people are scared of the future and you know what the tech brings," she said.

But Kuyda pointed to happy and fulfilled stories from users as proof that there is hope for a future in AI can help people feel loved.

"People were bonding, people were creating connections, people were falling in love. People were feeling loved and worthy of love. I think overall that it says something really good about the potential of the technology, but also something really good about people."

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"To give someone a product that tells them that they can love someone and they are worthy of love I think this is just tapping into a gigantic void, into a space that's just asking to be filled. For so many people, it's just such a basic need, it's such a good thing that this technology can bring," Kuyda said.

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Dating an AI? Artificial Intelligence dating app founder predicts the future of AI relationships - Fox News

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Snapchat expands chatbot powered by ChatGPT to all users, creates AI-generated images – Fox Business

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Jessica Melugin of the Competitive Enterprise Institute breaks down Elon Musk's comments on bias in artificial intelligence, how the expanding industry could impact the economy and FTC's Lina Khan's upcoming Capitol Hill testimony.

Instant messaging app Snapchat made a series of announcements regarding the introduction of new artificial intelligence features to all users at its annual SnapPartner Summit.

On Wednesday, the social media app announced its artificial intelligence chatbot will now be able to respond to users' messages with fully AI-generated images.

"With more people using AR every day, our team has been pushing the boundaries of how AR experiences are created," Snap Inc. said in a press release. "Through advancements in machine learning, AR can be created incredibly fast, look more realistic than ever before, and unleash exciting creative possibilities for our community."

GOOGLE CEO TOUTS AI AS MORE PROFOUND THAN ELECTRICITY, BUT WARNS IT COMES WITH SERIOUS JOB IMPLICATIONS

In this photo illustration, a womans silhouette holds a smartphone with the Snapchat logo displayed on the screen and in the background. (Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Now free to all users, Snap's chatbot, called My AI was first only available for Snapchat+ users, a subscription service which costs users $3.99/month.

My AI was built using startup OpenAI's ChatGPT technology.

Evan Spiegel, founder and CEO of Snapchat, speaks at the 2023 Snap Partner Summit at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, on April 19, 2023 where the focus was on immersive augmented reality experiences and tech for people attending music c (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

My AI can now be added to group chats by mentioning it with an @ symbol, and Snap will let people change the look and name of their bot with a custom avatar.

ELON MUSK JUMPS INTO TRANSGENDER DEBATE, SAYS PRISON FOR PARENT, DOCTOR WHO STERILIZES A CHILD

In addition, My AI can now recommend filters to use in Snapchats camera or places to visit from the apps map location service.

The social media app shared that the new photo features will make Snapchat "feel like the most personal camera in the world."

The Snapchat messaging application is seen on a phone screen August 3, 2017. (REUTERS/Thomas White/File Photo / Reuters)

Generative AI has captured the tech industry's focus in recent months and can generate original text or photos in response to prompts.

As AI chatbots have grown, so have concerns about whether AI could plagiarize published works, provide inaccurate information or return harmful responses to queries.

Snapchat Inc. assured consumers that they have added safely guidelines within the app, including temporarily restricting a user's access to the chatbot if they repeatedly ask it inappropriate or harmful questions.

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Snap analyzes conversations with My AI and has found that 99.5% of the chatbot's responses adhere to Snapchat's community guidelines, according to the press release.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Snapchat expands chatbot powered by ChatGPT to all users, creates AI-generated images - Fox Business

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