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close Video Minneapolis City Council approves $6.4 million to expand police department Jay Ettinger, Minneapolis resident and business owner, reacts to the decision on ‘Fox & Friends.’ Minneapolis City Council said Monday it’s no longer continuing with plans to contract social media influencers to spread city-approved messages during the murder trial against Derek Chauvin, an ex-cop charged in George Floyd ’s death, after activists accused the city of buying the narrative about the case. During a virtual briefing discussing public safety and security preparations for the upcoming trial, David Rubedor, Minneapolis director of Neighborhood and Community Relations (NCR), apologized after receiving negative feedback from community members over plans to pay six influencers $2,000 each to spread messaging targeting Black, Native American, Somali, Hmong and Latinx communities. GEORGE FLOYD: MINNEAPOLIS TO PAY SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS TO … [Read more...] about George Floyd case: Minneapolis won’t pay social media influencers during Derek Chauvin trial after backlash

From the COVID-19 pandemic and a deeply struggling economy to the critical need for racial justice and immediate action on climate change, President Biden Joe Biden Biden offers support to union organizing efforts Senate Democrats nix 'Plan B' on minimum wage hike Kavanaugh dismays conservatives by dodging pro-Trump election lawsuits MORE now confronts one of the most daunting inheritances of any U.S. president in at least a century. His administration also faces a looming strategic challenge: whether the United States and its allies and partners will be able to find common cause in accelerating the development of next-generation technologies. If the United States and its democratic partners develop and deploy next wave technologies first, they will generate significant strategic advantages and strengthen their position in rule-setting forums. In turn, this will enable them to help craft norms and regulations for emerging technologies that are reflective of … [Read more...] about To outpace China on technology, the US needs a ‘full-stack’ strategy

The World Holocaust Remembrance Center — Yad Vashem — in Israel is schooling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on the truth about the Nazi concentration camps where millions of people were incarcerated and murdered during World War II. The intervention follows the freshman Congresswoman’s social media campaign accusing President Donald Trump of running similar facilities for migrants at the U.S. border with Mexico. “That is exactly what they are. They are concentration camps,” Ocasio-Cortez said during a Q&A live-streamed on Instagram on Monday. “The fact that concentrations camps are now an institutionalized practice in the Home of the Free is extraordinarily disturbing and we need to do something about it.” The US ran concentration camps before, when we rounded up Japanese people during WWII. It is such a shameful history that we largely ignore it. These camps occur throughout history. Many refuse to learn from that shame, but here we are today. We have an … [Read more...] about Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel Schools AOC on Concentration Camp Facts

Kent Sepkowitz is a CNN medical analyst and a physician and infection control expert at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN. (CNN) The United States Covid-19 vaccination program is gaining steam. As of Tuesday, more than 40 million people have received the first dose, representing about 13% of the country. At the same time, national rates of new infection have decreased , presenting a real opportunity to control the pandemic. Dr. Kent Sepkowitz With this progress, though, has come no small amount of consternation. A new set of daunting questions has arisen, the product of an increasing number of vaccines and vaccinees. Reasonably enough, people now want to know the specific dos and don'ts of daily living for the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. The nub is this: are we re-approaching the glory days of before this pandemic began or is the lockdown … [Read more...] about I got vaccinated. What now?

As the Biden administration considers options to respond to the growing threat of violent domestic extremism demonstrated during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, several key issues are emerging. Recent proposals have focused on how best to label groups like those that participated in the attack. But this does not address the underlying causes of the extremism that drove the violence. Congress has understandably been hesitant to enact a statutory framework to allow for the designation of domestic terrorist organizations or for the prosecution of domestic terrorism due to a variety of constitutional and law enforcement concerns. Although the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) continue to build and prosecute cases against individuals responsible for the attack on the Capitol , comprehensive solutions that could prevent further incidents have not been well developed. Unaddressed political, economic and social grievances could leave open the possibility of similar attacks. Some … [Read more...] about Why labeling domestic extremists ‘terrorists’ could backfire