Around 192,000 Kids Play Kitchen Toys Recalled, One Death Reported
Designed for pretend play, the model number 53411 product is aimed at children aged 3 years or younger and sold online at KidKraft, Walmart, and Amazon from 2018 to July 2025. Prices ranged from $120 to $270.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Texas Tech System Chancellor blames social media for wrong perceptions of society
The Chancellor of the Texas Tech University System said Friday the world is a better place than ever before, but 'we seem to be insistent upon screaming at each other, yelling at each other, fighting each other and thinking the world we're living in is going straight to hell in a handbasket. What is going on?' Dr. Tedd L. Mitchell spoke during a program sponsored by the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce. He told more than 400 people that global access to food, electricity, water and sanitation has skyrocketed in recent years. 'The amount of money spent on food, shelter, and clothes took 80% of every nickel earned in 1900. Today less than half of our money goes to food, shelter, and clothing,' he said, giving people more discretionary spending than ever before. He said the average hours of work in developed nations was 42 hours a week in about 1950 and is now under 35 hours a week. He said houses today are bigger than they were several decades ago, but the number of people living in them has decreased. 'The world as we know it by any measure is dramatically better than it was 200 years ago. But still, when you ask people, are we on the right track, the answer, when you poll people about this is, no,' he said. 'So why doesn't it feel like things are going in the right direction?' Mitchell said surveys show the fastest growing political affiliation is 'unaffiliated' and the number of Americans reporting having no close friends has tripled since 1985. 'There's something going on that's problematic in the overlay of our society,' he said. He placed the blame squarely on social media. 'For the first time in human history, a young boy or a young girl can instantly gauge their popularity. All they have to do is post something. They wait for the comments during the most vulnerable times of their lives,' he said. He said one study showed mental health issues among young people were determined by time spent on the internet. He said it has reached the point that the U.S. surgeon general has suggested a warning label be put on social media. 'We've seen this coming for a long time, like a slow-moving train wreck,' Mitchell said. 'Can you make sure that your children and your friends' children have something to do other than spend time on social media? Yes, you can.' He said those in the room who will feel fulfilled over their lifetimes 'will have found some way to help other people, whether it's in your house, whether it's in the neighborhood, or whether it's at work.' He also described how generations have changed in what they want and expect from their lives since the 'Greatest Generation' of World War II. He said subsequent generations have become quick to move on if their employers don't meet their needs. 'The days of working for 30 years to get the gold watch at the end of it were pretty much gone when it came to Gen X," he said. Mitchell, who has led the university system that includes MSU since 2018, has announced he will retire when a successor is named. He was one of several motivational speakers at the university's D.L. Ligon Coliseum. More: Sikes Senter sale, firefighters benefits on City Council agenda More: Grad student embraces her learning stage at MSU Texas This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Texas Tech system Chancellor blames social media for wrong perceptions of society Solve the daily Crossword
Chicago Tribune
5 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Fest at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Aurora offers taste of Africa
Kathleen Dewig of Batavia elected to be a little more adventurous with her lunch this past weekend and elected to try some authentic Nigerian food. 'I've never had this type of cuisine before,' Dewig sat as she sat in an open room with tables Sunday afternoon inside St. Joseph Catholic Church in Aurora. 'It's very spicy, and I like the spicy chicken and the rice.' A trip through Nigerian and other African cuisines, as well as food from other areas of the world, was offered Sunday at St. Joseph Catholic Church as the non-profit Sycamore-based ImaBridge Africa International group offered a two-hour International Taste Festival beginning at 12:30 p.m. Following a Mass at 11 a.m., the church featured cultural performances, an African cooking contest, kids' games and a plethora of food as the non-profit group hoped to raise money through food tickets and donations for the underprivileged in Nigeria. This year's effort focused on helping a hospital in Nigeria, organizers said. Ndifrekeabasi Ecim of Nigeria was on hand Sunday and said she was the administrator for the ImaBridge Africa-owned hospital back home. 'This is going to go a long way to help the vulnerable people – the women who cannot have their children elsewhere – this will help them procure all the help they need for the babies and themselves,' Ecim said of Sunday's fundraiser. The Rev. Godwin Asuquo, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church of Aurora and also founder of ImaBridge Africa, said the event used to be held in McHenry and was moved here to Aurora last year, following his being assigned to the Aurora church, adding that he was 'wanting to create more awareness.' 'People in McHenry are familiar with this and we wanted to spread the word to another area,' Asuquo said a few days before the event. 'This is the ninth year we have held the fundraiser and the second time we have had it in Aurora. I was transferred from McHenry to Aurora so some of this was for convenience but also to expand awareness. People from McHenry still come here and we are bringing more people.' Cecelia Adams, director of public relations for ImaBridge Africa, said the goal of this year's event was to make it even more multicultural. 'We have foods from different places in Africa but also tamales and other groups. We moved to Aurora to expand ourselves both in ethnicity and also to get the word out for others to help those in need across the globe,' she said. The event focuses on authentic cuisine, Asuquo said. 'We have people of Nigerian or African descent that have flown in and are here with us already – close to 10 people that have arrived from Nigeria who are cooking the food from scratch,' he said before the event. 'We also have people from different ethnicities and we want to make this more of an international festival where we get to learn about different peoples' cultures.' Officials said the event would raise as much as $30,000 when it was held in McHenry and that ImaBridge Africa is also seeking grants. 'Our goal is to raise $30,000 this year. We didn't make that much last year but we think it was because we switched (locations),' Adams said. 'I've personally been to Nigeria about 12 times and it's the culture and the food that keeps me coming back.' Gail Wright of Aurora came with her husband Tom and grandson Gabe and said she used to teach in the area. 'We wanted to support ImaBridge Africa and also see Father Godwin who we know,' she said. 'I know there is African food and we're absolutely excited about that and trying it. I only know what Father Godwin told us about the food but we missed it last year.'
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Opinion: How Well Do Middle Schools Prepare Students for HS? Here's a New Way to Find Out
Education savings accounts in Texas. Open enrollment in Missouri. Each week seems to bring a new story and more education options for American students. But to make the most of these new opportunities, families need the full picture. So, what information do they have currently? And what additional data would it make sense for them to have? Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter When it comes to public schools, whether neighborhood schools, magnets, or charters, the most common data points are academic achievement and year-to-year growth in math and reading, as measured on standardized tests. Although this information is crucial — something is very wrong if the kids can't pass the tests — critics from both sides of the aisle rightly note that it doesn't capture everything that families should want to know about a school's academics. For example, what about subjects like history and science, which are tested less frequently than reading and math? What about foreign languages, the arts and other subjects that aren't tested at all? And what about all the stuff that good schools impart that tests don't capture, like critical thinking, teamwork, self-discipline and respect for others? Related For years, education reformers who believe that data are critical to improving America's schools but recognize the limitations of standardized tests have struggled to answer these questions. That's why a recent analysis that explores a new and potentially powerful measure of school quality called high school readiness is so exciting. As the name suggests, the basic idea is to capture how well a middle school prepares its students for the next stage of their education by quantifying its effects on high school grades—or to be more precise, ninth-grade grade-point averages. The report finds that middle schools have a significant impact on students' future grades. For example, in North Carolina and Maryland, attending a middle school with a strong high school readiness score boosted a student's ninth-grade GPA by approximately one-tenth of a grade point. Effect of Attending a Middle School with a Higher High School Readiness Score on Ninth-Grade GPA One-tenth of a grade point may not sound like much, but it's enough to keep a marginal student out of the University of California or Texas A&M. And that increase is fairly impressive when you consider the number of factors that can affect GPA, from the quality of a student's elementary school to his or her socioeconomic circumstances and home life. Related Importantly, schools' influences on GPAs aren't necessarily the same as their effects on test scores. In fact, the two are only weakly correlated. Middle Schools That Boost Students' Test Scores Don't Necessarily Boost Their High School GPAs In other words, analyzing middle schools' effects on grades reveals something new and different about how schools serve students — which the many families who don't care exclusively about test scores might want to consider when choosing a school. While it may seem strange to suggest evaluating middle schools based on their students' high school readiness, many states already do something similar at the high school level, where indicators of college and career readiness have long been an accepted part of school report cards. And while there are technical challenges associated with isolating middle schools' effects on high school grades, most states already provide publicly available school report cards, and most already collect data on students' high school GPAs. So, with a bit of number-crunching and some clear messaging, a new high school readiness indicator could give families the information they're looking for — and begin to move America's education system away from its obsession with standardized tests and toward a broader concept of student success. As educational options expand, so should the information available to families. Test scores alone will never paint a complete picture of school quality or student success. But in the age of big data, there is no shortage of paint. Solve the daily Crossword
