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Black America Web
6 days ago
- Business
- Black America Web
Communities Nationwide Reeling After Trump Administration Abruptly Closes Job Corps
Source: Albany Times Union/Hearst Newspapers / Getty Another day, another needlessly cruel move by the Trump administration. The targets this time are low-income, at-risk youth after the administration announced the sudden closure of the Job Corps program. The administration released a statement on May 29 announcing that all Job Corps centers will pause operations by June 30. Job Corps was a federally funded program that provided education, career-oriented skills training, and housing support for low-income, at-risk youth. The program has faced financial woes in recent years and is currently operating at a $140 million deficit (which probably could've been addressed from a tax plan that wasn't explicitly designed to punish the poor, but I guess that wouldn't be on brand). 'Job Corps was created to help young adults build a pathway to a better life through education, training, and community,' Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in the statement announcing the closure. 'However, a startling number of serious incident reports and our in-depth fiscal analysis reveal the program is no longer achieving the intended outcomes that students deserve. We remain committed to ensuring all participants are supported through this transition and connected with the resources they need to succeed as we evaluate the program's possibilities.' Unsurprisingly, it appears that commitment to connect participants with 'the resources they need' was all talk, no action, as several communities have been left high and dry after the announcement. While the statement said the operations freeze would begin on June 30, hundreds of teens at the Detroit Job Corps were told they had to gather their belongings and leave on May 27. Given that only select low-income teens were eligible for the Job Corps, many of these kids had no place to go and weren't given enough time to find shelter. Pastor Mo, a community activist in Detroit, told CBS News about a young man whose homeless mother enrolled him in Job Corps to get him off the street. 'Put her son in Job Corps to get him out of her car, but when it shut down, it put the son back in the car, and his roommate, that didn't have anybody, she's taking him in, and we're trying to find her housing right now,' Mo told CBS. Source: JUSTIN FORD / Getty It's a similar story in Oklahoma, where three Job Corps centers are closing down. 'We have students here that don't have families,' Adam Martin, a community liaison for the Tulsa Job Corps center, told NPR. 'The reality is a lot of them came here to better their future, to better their chances at a life that they never had.' There were 153 students set to graduate from the Tulsa Job Corps center this summer, whose futures are now unclear. The Job Corps closure is a prime example of the laziness endemic in the Trump administration. There were real, identified problems within the organization, but instead of designing a plan to address those issues while maintaining the opportunities it provides for at-risk youth, they shut it down completely because that was far less work. The idea behind Job Corps was a net good: provide an education alternative for at-risk youth to gain essential skills that can help them find and maintain gainful employment. When working with at-risk youth, there's going to be an innate failure rate. I come from a family that specializes in juvenile/family law, with my first grown-up jobs being in family law firms. One of the sad truths I learned from that experience is that you can't save every kid. That doesn't mean you can't save some of them. Ask any community worker, family lawyer, or educator, and they'll tell you that the kids you actually make an impact on, who internalize the lessons they tried to pass on and make active choices to improve their lives, are the ones that make the heartache and strife worth it. This move by the Trump administration is telling our at-risk youth, the kids who need our help the most, that they're not worth it. How does that make America great? SEE ALSO: Redistricting: Majority Black Voting Maps Rejected In Louisiana Corporate Sponsors Have Us Asking: Where's The Pride? SEE ALSO Communities Nationwide Reeling After Trump Administration Abruptly Closes Job Corps was originally published on Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
Black America Web
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Black America Web
Hypocrisy Hero Trump Claims Comey '8647' Post A Threat, X Users Disagree
Source: Albany Times Union/Hearst Newspapers / Getty A post by former FBI director James Comey is being spun as a threat against President Donald Trump, with social media disagreeing. On Thursday (May 15), former FBI director James Comey posed a photo to his Instagram account. It showed shells on the beach arranged into a formation of numbers – '86 47'. The cryptic image was accompanied by the caption, 'Cool shell formation on my beach walk.' In restaurant culture, to '86' something means to get rid of something or someone. In pairing it with '47', it drew immediate assumptions that the photo was a call to violence from President Donald Trump and his staff. Comey would delete the post shortly afterward, writing that he 'didn't realize some folks associate those numbers with violence.' In a follow-up post, he continued: 'It never occurred to me but l oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.' Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that the administration is now investigating Comey, stating that 'D.H.S. and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately.' Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's director of national intelligence, called Comey out on Fox News' Jesse Waters Primetime saying that Comey should be 'held accountable' and 'put behind bars' for allegedly 'issuing a call to assassinate [Trump]'. Comey was fired by Trump during his first term. Trump also attacked Comey in another interview on Fox News. 'He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant,' Trump said, adding: 'If you're the FBI director and you don't know what that meant? That meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear. Now, he wasn't very competent, but he was competent enough to know what that meant.' But social media users called Trump and his supporters out for ramping things up too far, and recalled his own rhetoric against former President Joe Biden. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, user Drew Savicki wrote: 'Nobody actually believes James Comey was threatening Trump. It's all performative outrage.' In a segment with CNN's Kaitlan Collins, legal analyst Elie Honig dismissed Gabbard's claims. 'This is not criminal,' he said. 'This is not a criminally chargeable threat against the president. It's political speech. It's way too broad. It's stupid, it's reckless. It's not criminal. That's just hyperbole that you're hearing from the Cabinet members there.' Hypocrisy Hero Trump Claims Comey '8647' Post A Threat, X Users Disagree was originally published on Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
Forbes
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
The Battle Over The Constitution Pipeline
Anne-Marie Garti joins others to denounce the Federal Energy Regulatory CommissionâÄôs (FERC) ... More premature approval of mass tree cutting along the 25 mile Pennsylvanian route of the proposed Constitution Pipeline during a press conference at the Legislative Office Building on Thursday Feb. 18, 2016 in Albany, N.Y. New York. (Photo by Michael P. Farrell/Albany Times Union via Getty Images) In 2020, following a bitter eight-year fight, Williams Corporation canceled its plans to build the Constitution Pipeline. The pipeline would have carried natural gas from the gas fields of Northeastern Pennsylvania approximately 124 miles northeast into the Southern Tier of New York State where it would have connected with integrated pipelines at that location that already feed New York and New England. (Source). The pipeline was originally scheduled to open in 2015, but it never did. Fought tooth and nail by the administration of then New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) refused to issue the pipeline a Water Quality Certificate (WQC) under Section 401 of the Federal Clean Water Act, even though the existing pipeline infrastructure could have easily accommodated and allowed a new gas source with little extra fanfare. The Cuomo administration essentially claimed that, by depriving the project of the ability to move gas through New York to New England, where it was (and still is) most needed, this would somehow encourage and accelerate New York State's conversion to so-called 'green' or renewable energy as a whole. In effect, New York claimed the right to dictate energy policy for all of New England, whether the citizens who actually reside in that region accepted and agreed with New York's energy policies, or not. (Source). In the years since, New York State's dreams of large-scale renewable energy have fizzled. (Source). Now, New York's energy prices are among the highest in the nation (Source) and as prices remain high, support for more green energy projects has stalled, unless electricity users can be assured that their prices won't continue to go up. (Source). Enter the Trump Administration. On Friday, March 14, President Trump met with current New York Governor Kathy Hochul to try to get the pipeline project back on track. (Source). During the first week of his second term, Trump declared a national energy emergency so he could direct the Army Corps of Engineers to fast track the pipeline's approval where needed around the nation. (Source). This was an attempt to bypass Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. Environmentalists howled. They have no doubt learned that the public's tolerance for forced policies and aspirational, but not necessarily workable, concepts like the Green New Deal has diminished considerably since 2015. According to The Federalist, New Yorkers could save $1B in energy costs if the Constitution Pipeline were now to be built, let alone increasing energy availability and further driving down costs in places like New England that are left with little other choice at present. (Source). Aside from the above, this has national security implications as well. Incredibly, despite being only hours away from some of the most prolific natural gas wells in the world in Northeastern Pennsylvania, neither New York City nor New England has a reliable, and 'safe' way to transport that gas from Pennsylvania. These areas still rely heavily on natural gas imported from faraway places like Trinidad instead of nearby Pennsylvania. (Source). As President Trump pushes for a resurrection of the Constitution Pipeline, northeast governors like Maura Healy of Massachusetts and Ned Lamont of Connecticut face enormous pressure over high energy costs. If the Constitution Pipeline ever gets built, it will be another signal of a massive shift in United States policy toward economic and environmental realism and away from "Green New Deal" idealism.
Forbes
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
What's In A Name? When It Comes To The New York Strip Steak The Political Connotations Matter
A 16 oz. New York Strip steak at Duke's Chophouse in Rivers Casino. (Photo by John Carl ... More D'Annibale/Albany Times Union via Getty Images) It would seem to be one of the more mundane facts of history, but food names have long carried political implications. Italians insist they created the first breaded meat cutlet under the name costoletta alla milanese, but the Austrians say their cooks created it under the name Wiener Schnitzel. Baked Alaska is called Omelette norvégienne in France; during World War I, out of anti-German sentiment, American cooks changed sauerkraut to 'liberty cabbage'; in World War II, the soup vichyssoise (created at New York's Ritz-Carlton) was re-named 'crème Gauloise' as a rebuke to the Nazi-allied Vichy government in France. And in 2003 the U.S. House of Representatives changed the named 'French fries' to 'freedom fries' in its cafeteria because France opposed the Iraq war. Wiener Schnitzel (Viennese Schnitzel) and Wine served in a tradtional open air restaurant in ... More Unterloiben in the Wachau. (Photo by: Martin Zwick/REDA/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Then last month Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick proposed on X that the 'New York strip' steak be re-named 'Texas strip,' because 'Liberal New York shouldn't get the credit for our hard-working ranchers.' Noting that New York has more dairy cows and Texas more beef steers, 'Just because a New York restaurant named Texas beef a New York Strip in the 19th century doesn't mean we need to keep doing that,' and said the Texas Senate 'will file a concurrent resolution to officially change the name of the New York Strip to the 'Texas Strip' in the Lone Star State,' asking restaurants and grocery stores to do the same. Full of Texas gumption, Patrick went on to say that 'We want this to catch on across the country and around the globe. In a world filled with serious issues that we address every day at the Texas Capitol, this simple resolution will help better market Texas beef.' As of now, the bill, Resolution 26, has been referred to Water, Agriculture & Rural Affairs, which seems unlikely to fast-track it. This is from the state that passed a law that requires all vehicles have working windshield wipers but does not require that vehicles have windshields. HOUSTON, TEXAS - FEBRUARY 5: Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (Staff Photographer/Houston Chronicle ... More via Getty Images) The beef cut in question has long been called simply a 'strip steak,' which is a boneless, marbled, tender cut from the short loin. The USDA has a long list under its Standards of Identity of beef cuts, ranging from primal brisket to prime loin to primal shank to primal sirloin. Primal short loin is cut from the hindquarter between the pinbone of the primal sirloin and the small end of the rib. A porterhouse includes the top loin, the tenderloin and the tail and retaining the 'T-bone'; the tenderloin is also called 'filet mignon,' 'tournedos' and 'chateaubriand,' while the 'club steak' has no tenderloin or flank attached and is often called the 'Delmonico steak.' (More below.) The 'strip steak' or 'strip roast' contains the top loin muscle and bones, called in some parts of the country 'New York strip,' in others 'Kansas City strip,' and 'shell' in others. Got all that? QUEMADO, TEXAS - JUNE 13: Farmer Jose Esquivel surveys his field of cattle on June 13, 2023 in ... More Quemado, Texas. Ranchers and farmers have begun culling their cattle herds due to drought and high costs in the region, threatening a potentially steep climb in prices for the country's supply of beef. (Photo by) None of which Patrick seems to have taken into account. His claim that Texas raises a lot of beef cattle––4 million cows and heifers––ignores that they account for only 14.6% of all beef cows in the U.S. Even so, most of those cows are slaughtered outside of Texas: Nebraska slaughters more than 20% , along with South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado. A 'cut' refers to the part of the slaughtered cow and has nothing to do with where it was raised. Delmonico's, opened in 1831, is the oldest restaurant in the U.S. and still thriving in downtown New ... More York. The Delmonico steak has a distinct history, dating back to Delmonico's restaurant in downtown New York in 1831, where it still stands. 'Del's' was a Gilded Age influencer whose multi-page menus were copied by competitors, which included the Delmonico steak, Delmonico's potatoes gratin, lobster Newberg, Manhattan clam chowder and Baked Alaska. In those heady days of Diamond Jim Brady and Jay Gould, Delmonico's would roast a 150-pound baron of beef for huge parties, and they still have roast prime rib on the menu with Yorkshire pudding. For its steaks they use only USDA Prime beef fattened on grains like corn to give them more marbling and richer flavor. Since the kitchen gets its beef from various sources, there's no rationale for changing its eponymous name. According to the current head captain, Branko Vinski, 'A Delmonico steak is cut from the short loin, between the sirloin and the ribs, which is the most tender and flavorful cut.' According to the restaurant's history, Dining at Delmonico's contains the recipe for making its famous signature steak. 'We use a boneless 20 ounce prime ribeye steak that has been aged for at least six weeks. It is finished with what we call 'meat butter,' a herbaceous compound butter.' A 'Kansas City Steak' usually refers to a short loin with the bone. The current fad in steakhouses is the ostentatious 'Tomahawk,' which is a ribeye with a six- to eight-inch long bone handle, for which you pay in weight, despite all its meat being trimmed from it. It would seem that Lt.-Gov. Patrick has his work cut out for him, not least at a time when there would seem to be more important legislation to consider in the state. 'In a world filled with serious issues that we address every day at the Texas Capitol,' he wrote on X, 'this simple resolution will help better market Texas beef. That's good for the Texas cattle industry. The Cattle Associations sure liked the idea.' Of course, no one else anywhere––not least the other beef producing states––could care less about this kind of silliness. Perhaps Patrick would have more luck changing the name 'London broil' to 'Texas broil,' even though the name has as much to do with London as Canadian bacon does with Canada.
Buzz Feed
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Millennials Are Revealing The Cringe "Stereotypical Millennial Things" They Unironically Love, And, You Know What, Hell Yeah
We asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us the "stereotypical millennial things" they unironically still love, and I'm kind of obsessed with their answers, TBH. Here are 16 of the ~cringe~ things they shared that they're proud to still I'm curious if you agree: 1. "Side parts. I will never go down the middle again." 2. "Avocado toast 😌." Wiphop Sathawirawong / Getty Images — QueenNarwhal "So good, I don't get the hate at all. It's even relatively healthy." — annikakremer Hot Topic Think you're the biggest Harry Potter fan? Let's put it to the test. See our Harry Potter Discussions 3. "Using emojis 🤷🏼♀️." — Deepfriedpia 4. "Skinny jeans. Nothing can take them away from me, lol." Francesco Carta Fotografo / Getty Images — fluffyghoul1435 "They are so simple and can be styled so many ways, plus they can be dressed up or down depending on shoes, tops, and accessories." — sidneyalenec "I HATE boot cuts or anything bigger. Wind up my legs? Pants touching and dragging the ground? Fabric flipping to and fro as I walk? Not in my skinnies!" — heroicsealion305 "You can have my skinny jeans when I'm dead. And I don't plan on dying." — toothlessfeline 5. " Harry Potter. Even though J.K. Rowling keeps trying to ruin it with her B.S., it just brings me too much joy." Lisa Maree Williams / Getty Images — jenileeh "I don't care what Gen Z says. I'm a Slytherin until the day I die, hahaha. Muggles DNI!!" — iplaypubgin2027 "Definitely taking all the Harry Potter house quizzes. I don't know if that's just me, but I feel like so many people just go online and take like 30 only to get a different one each time." — Orchid Brown 6. "Sending GIFs. At least, that's what the younger generations have said we do often. But I love it!" — marianmooret 7. "Ankle socks and headbands. They work for me and I don't care if people think they're cringe." Iuliia Alekseeva / Getty Images/iStockphoto — monikap6 "Low-cut socks. My ankles need to breathe!" — Luxacious 8. "Classic UGG boots. Miss me with the clogs and booties." Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images — TheRealMelco 9. "You can pry 'lol' out of my cold dead hands!" — BananaChip25 10. "Pumpkin spice everything." Albany Times Union/Hearst Newspa / Albany Times Union via Getty Ima — laurenm63637282 "Let's be real: you don't have to be a basic white girl to recognize that cinnamon and baking spices are delicious. It's a cinnamon bun in a cup." — angelicchef397 11. "Rose gold, millennial pink, and gray as a color scheme. Those were my fav decorating colors long before they became popular amongst the millennials." MillefloreImages / Getty Images/iStockphoto — Heatherandthepets 12. "Watching reels on Instagram a month after they've gone viral on TikTok." — helenc8 13. "I love the chevron pattern." Lester Cohen / WireImage — angrypotato88 14. "The music. All of it! From Backstreet Boys to Akon to Pitbull. Our generation had hit after hit." Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic — bobby120111 15. "Millennial gray. It makes other colors pop more in home decor." — sidneyalenec "Within reason, gray is a nice, relaxing, neutral color. It's when everything in the room is gray that it's overkill. My furniture is gray, and I love it. I add color with my decorative items." — A_Panda 16. And finally, "BuzzFeed 🙃🙃" — Kenz Are you a millennial? Are there any ~stereotypical millennial things~ you still unabashedly love that we missed here? If so, tell us in the comments below! Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
