Latest news with #DeniseSmith
Sunday World
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Sunday World
Dear Denise: I am furious at my boyfriend for using ChatGPT to send me hot texts
Sort your love life with honest and practical tips from Denise Smith 'He said he's really be into roleplay.' Dear Denise: I've always been pretty direct, so when I recently told my boyfriend he was lagging in the romance stakes, I also let him know that things were getting a little dull in the bedroom and asked if he could up his game. It was said with love and slight frustration, and I was happy to say he rose to the occasion in more ways than one. He splashed out on flowers and my favourite chocolates to let me know that he was thinking of me, and then even started sending me the filthiest messages while I was at work, which made me want to rip his clothes off as soon as I clocked off and got through the door. It's funny because he's never been brilliant at dirty talk. Kind of robotic, if I'm honest. Which is ironic — because last week, I found out he's been using ChatGPT to generate sexts for me. I only found out because he accidentally left the tab open on his laptop. Here's the kicker: the AI was so good it had me blushing in public. I can't believe I've been sexting a robot! Answer: Ah 2025 — the year even foreplay is outsourced to the cloud. I think you have every right to be annoyed. You thought you were connecting with your partner on a really intimate level and he was letting AI do the heavy lifting. I mean, yes, we all have our strengths and weaknesses so you can't knock his ingenuity for calling in a little help, even if it was a robot ghostwriter, but it just screams laziness to me. Dirty talk isn't supposed to be Pulitzer-worthy; it's meant to be personal, messy, and honestly, a bit cringe. You're not dating a chatbot. You want your partner to be just and hot and bothered as you so you can both build up the sexual tension. Tell him you want to be in the moment with him and while you are sure his intentions were good, he doesn't need to outsource the hot, messy sext sessions in future. 'He said he's really be into roleplay.' Hubby's gone full drama with his role play Dear Denise: I was out for dinner with my husband recently for our anniversary and after a couple of drinks I asked him if there is anything he'd like to try in the bedroom that we haven't done before. He said he's really be into roleplay and that he'd love to handcuff and arrest me. I was open to it for a bit of fun and was happy to indulge some light interrogation. I could throw on a trench coat, suspenders, and we could have some sexy noir vibes. But Jesus Christ, this man would be booted off Fair City for his poor acting. After reading me my rights and nearly putting me to sleep, he even narrated our foreplay like it was a podcast. I'm ready to turn myself in because I can't cope with much more of this. Answer: Yikes, this sounds like a crime against foreplay. Let's start with the positives here though. It's wonderful that you are being so open and honest with your sexual desires and needs. Allowing your husband the space to explore his sexual fantasies is wonderful. But did you offer up more of what you would like in the bedroom? It's clear that this roleplay is being hijacked by your husband's method acting, so gently pull him up outside of the bedroom and tell him you'd like to bring a little fun back into things. Maybe less talking and more action. And perhaps you should direct the next fantasy? Query: This probably sounds ridiculous but I want to buy a sex toy but I am going for a mortgage so don't want it to show up on my bank account. Help. Answer: Most sites bill under a generic name so don't expect 'SEX TOY' to pop up on your bank statement. They also ship in plain packaging because they are big on discretion. If you're worried, email them directly. Question: Can lube expire? Answer: Absolutely yes — most lubes have a shelf life of 1 to 2 years. Check the label, a sniff test is not recommended. Bin it if you're not sure. Nobody wants to deal with that kind of rash. Email your problems to: Denise Smith
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Vermont rural council welcomes climate innovators
MONTPELIER, Vt. (ABC22/FOX44) – Where some see despair, ten Vermonters see hope and opportunity. The Vermont Council for Rural Development (VCRD) welcomed its sixth group of 'Climate Catalysts', people including architects, farmers, and forestry managers who aim to use renewable energy and other carbon-neutral strategies to contribute to local economies. USDA invests 1.3 million in Vermont; Welch says this is crucial to spur job growth Some of the group's past funded projects include turning a vacant lot in Brattleboro into a 'mini food forest', enrolling Northeast Kingdom residents in a training on installing solar panels, and constructing a small tool lending library in Brandon. The newest cohort to work with the program will tackle problems such as food insecurity, flooding awareness, and animal habitat loss. In its motivation for the program, VCRD cited 'the premise that confronting climate change through innovative economic development can be a competitive strategy.' How to protect nesting loons and their chicks Denise Smith, executive director of VCRD, said to the new cohort, 'As we respond to and recover from recent floods, the global pandemic, and shrinking resources… VCRD is committed to supporting leaders who want to be part of the solution.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
17-05-2025
- Health
Mother-daughter duo team up as fitness icons
Fitness and health expert Denise Smith and her daughter Katie Austin join ABC News Live to spread a message about staying fit no matter your age.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Black colleges ponder their future as Trump makes cuts to education dollars
Students at Tennessee State University, a public HBCU, greet Oprah Winfrey at a 2023 commencement ceremony. In recent months, university officials have warned that they could run out of cash by May. () The nation's historically Black colleges and universities, known as HBCUs, are wondering how to survive in an uncertain and contentious educational climate as the Trump administration downsizes the scope and purpose of the U.S. Department of Education — while cutting away at federal funding for higher education. In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order pausing federal grants and loans, alarming HBCUs, where most students rely on Pell Grants or federal aid. The order was later rescinded, but ongoing cuts leave key support systems in political limbo, said Denise Smith, deputy director of higher education policy and a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank. Leaders worry about Trump's rollback of the Justice40 Initiative, a climate change program that relied on HBCUs to tackle environmental justice issues, she said. And there's uncertainty around programs such as federal work-study and TRIO, which provides college access services to disadvantaged students. 'People are being mum because we're starting to see a chilling effect,' Smith said. 'There's real fear that resources could be lost at any moment — even the ones schools already know they need to survive.' Most students at HBCUs rely on Pell Grants or other federal aid, and a fifth of Black college graduates matriculate from HBCUs. Other minority-serving institutions, known as MSIs, that focus on Hispanic and American Indian populations also heavily depend on federal aid. 'It's still unclear what these cuts will mean for HBCUs and MSIs, even though they're supposedly protected,' Smith said. States may be unlikely to make up any potential federal funding cuts to their public HBCUs. And the schools already have been underfunded by states compared with predominantly white schools. There's real fear that resources could be lost at any moment — even the ones schools already know they need to survive. – Denise Smith, deputy director of higher education policy and a senior fellow at The Century Foundation Congress created public, land-grant universities under the Morrill Act of 1862 to serve the country's agricultural and industrial industries, providing 10 million acres taken from tribes and offering it for public universities such as Auburn and the University of Georgia. But Black students were excluded. The 1890 Morrill Act required states to either integrate or establish separate land-grant institutions for Black students — leading to the creation of many HBCUs. These schools have since faced chronic underfunding compared with their majority-white counterparts. In 2020, the average endowment of white land-grant universities was $1.9 billion, compared with just $34 million for HBCUs, according to Forbes. There are other HBCUs that don't stem from the 1890 law, including well-known private schools such as Fisk University, Howard University, Morehouse College and Spelman College. But more than three-fourths of HBCU students attend public universities, meaning state lawmakers play a significant role in their funding and oversight. Marybeth Gasman, an endowed chair in education and a distinguished professor at Rutgers University, isn't impressed by what states have done for HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions so far. She said she isn't sure there is a state model that can bridge the massive funding inequities for these institutions, even in states better known for their support. 'I don't think North Carolina or Maryland have done a particularly good job at the state level. Nor have any of the other states. Students at HBCUs are funded at roughly 50-60% of what students at [predominately white institutions] are funded. That's not right,' said Gasman. 'Most of the bipartisan support has come from the U.S. Congress and is the result of important work by HBCUs and affiliated organizations. I don't know of a state model that works well, as none of them are equitable.' Tribes, Native students sue feds over education cuts Under federal law, states that accept federal land-grant funding are required to match every dollar with state funds. But in 2023, the Biden administration sent letters to 16 governors warning them that their public Black land-grant institutions had been underfunded by more than $12 billion over three decades. Tennessee State University alone had a $2.1 billion gap with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. At a February meeting hosted by the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators, Tennessee State interim President Dwayne Tucker said the school is focused on asking lawmakers this year for money to keep the school running. Otherwise, Tucker said at the time, the institution could run out of cash around April or May. 'That's real money. That's the money we should work on,' Tucker said, according to a video of the forum. In some states, lawsuits to recoup long-standing underfunding have been one course of action. In Maryland, a landmark $577 million legal settlement was reached in 2021 to address decades of underfunding at four public HBCUs. In Georgia, three HBCU students sued the state in 2023 for underfunding of three HBCUs. In Tennessee, a recent state report found Tennessee State University has been shortchanged roughly $150 million to $544 million over the past 100 years. But Tucker said he thinks filing a lawsuit doesn't make much sense for Tennessee State. 'There's no account payable set up with the state of Tennessee to pay us $2.1 billion,' Tucker said at the February forum. 'And if we want to make a conclusion about whether [that money] is real or not … you're going to have to sue the state of Tennessee, and I don't think that makes a whole lot of sense.' There are 102 HBCUs across 19 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands, though a large number of HBCUs are concentrated in the South. Alabama has the most, with 14, and Pennsylvania has the farthest north HBCU. Why Alabama can't control college tuition costs Beyond education, HBCUs contribute roughly $15 billion annually to their local economies, generate more than 134,000 jobs and create $46.8 billion in career earnings, proving themselves to be economic anchors in under-resourced regions. Homecoming events at HBCUs significantly bolster local economies, local studies show. North Carolina Central University's homecoming contributes approximately $2.5 million to Durham's economy annually. Similarly, Hampton University's 2024 homecoming was projected to inject around $3 million into the City of Hampton and the coastal Virginia region, spurred by increased visitor spending and retail sales. In Tallahassee, Florida A&M University's 2024 homecoming week in October generated about $5.1 million from Sunday to Thursday. Their significance is especially pronounced in Southern states — such as North Carolina, where HBCUs account for just 16% of four-year schools but serve 45% of the state's Black undergraduate population. Smith has been encouraged by what she's seen in states such as Maryland, North Carolina and Tennessee, which have a combined 20 HBCUs among them. Lawmakers have taken piecemeal steps to expand support for HBCUs through policy and funding, she noted. Tennessee became the first state in 2018 to appoint a full-time statewide higher education official dedicated to HBCU success for institutions such as Fisk and Tennessee State. Meanwhile, North Carolina launched a bipartisan, bicameral HBCU Caucus in 2023 to advocate for its 10 HBCUs, known as the NC10, and spotlight their $1.7 billion annual economic impact. 'We created a bipartisan HBCU caucus because we needed people in both parties to understand these institutions' importance. If you represent a district with an HBCU, you should be connected to it,' said North Carolina Democratic Sen. Gladys Robinson, an alum of private HBCU Bennett College and state HBCU North Carolina A&T State University. 'It took constant education — getting folks to come and see, talk about what was going on,' she recalled. 'It's like beating the drum constantly until you finally hear the beat.' US Education Department threatens yanking funds for schools that use race in decisions For Robinson, advocacy for HBCUs can be a tough task, especially when fellow lawmakers aren't aware of the stories of these institutions. North Carolina A&T was among the 1890 land-grant universities historically undermatched in federal agricultural and extension funding. The NC Promise Tuition Plan, launched in 2018, reduced in-state tuition to $500 per semester and out-of-state tuition to $2,500 per semester at a handful of schools that now include HBCUs Elizabeth City State University and Fayetteville State University; Western Carolina University, a Hispanic-serving institution; and UNC at Pembroke, founded in 1887 to serve American Indians. Through conversations on the floor of the General Assembly, and with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, Robinson advocated to ensure Elizabeth City State — a struggling HBCU — was included, which helped revive enrollment and public investment. 'I'm hopeful because we've been here before,' Robinson said in an interview. 'These institutions were built out of churches and land by people who had nothing, just so we could be educated,' Robinson said. 'We have people in powerful positions across the country. We have to use our strength and our voices. Alumni must step up. 'It's tough, but not undoable.' Meanwhile, other states are working to recognize certain colleges that offer significant support to Black college students. California last year passed a law creating a Black-serving Institution designation, the first such title in the country. Schools must have programs focused on Black achievement, retention and graduation rates, along with a five-year plan to improve them. Sacramento State is among the first receiving the designation. And this session, California state Assemblymember Mike Gipson, a Democrat, introduced legislation that proposes a $75 million grant program to support Black and underserved students over five years through the Designation of California Black-Serving Institutions Grant Program. The bill was most recently referred to the Assembly's appropriations committee. Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at rsequeira@ SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal jobs were seen as a gateway to the middle class for Black America, then came DOGE
Denise Smith began working for the federal government a half century ago, during President Richard Nixon's administration. She was still in high school when she accepted a post as a Navy intern in Annapolis, Maryland. Over the following three and a half decades, she held various human resources leadership roles in the Navy before joining the Energy Department. Smith also helped dozens of aspiring Black professionals find government jobs, including her husband, Jesse, an Army veteran. Over a 26-year-career in the Navy, he rose from a meat cutter in the commissary to an ammunition assistant and he eventually retired as a machinist. "We were able to buy a house, raise five kids, send three of them to college and live a very comfortable life,' said Denise Smith, 73, and now retired, noting that she worked under seven different presidential administrations. "The federal civil service gave us opportunities to live out our American Dream." Government jobs have long been viewed as an entry point for Black Americans into the middle class and job security when opportunities were scarce elsewhere. As the nation's largest single employer, with about 3 million workers at the end of 2024, the federal government has a history of being more welcoming to Black workers than the private sector has, civil rights leaders say. So President Donald Trump's massive layoffs across the U.S. government have hit Black Americans particularly hard. "I absolutely think that the attacks on federal workers will have an acute and disproportionate impact on Black federal workers and that's because the federal government is highly diverse," said Jennifer Holmes, deputy director of litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Trump and Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency, say the government is bloated and wasteful, and must be purged of tens of thousands of workers. Black Americans, who account for about 12% of the population, make up about 13% of workers in the nongovernment workforce, but they make up roughly 19% of the federal government employees, labor statistics show. The rise of the Black federal workforce helped build a Black middle class in America after generations of segregation, prejudice and worse, said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, told USA TODAY. "It began with the Postal Service and the military, and their roles have expanded," Morial said. "In the last 40 to 50 years, we have made great progress and advanced through the ranks of these civil service positions with pride and distinction, and the nation has benefitted from it." As a result, sturdy middle-class Black communities sprouted up in major metropolises, Morial said, including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington with its surrounding suburbs in neighboring Maryland and Virginia. Because of the federal workforce, Washington is consistently among the highest median incomes for Black households for any city nationally, Morial added. A study by the University of California at Berkeley's Labor Center, for instance, found Black workers in the public sector earned roughly 25% more than their private sector counterparts. Do the math: Education Dept. layoffs by the numbers: Which staff were ousted, where cuts hit hardest Janice Lee, 65, who recently retired from the U.S. Department of Transportation after 18 years, said she gained a more stable foothold through her public service, which included a stint working on Capitol Hill and in the Education Department. 'My father gained his federal employment beginning as a busboy,' she said. 'Now I see our country crumbling.' Lee said that although the president's supporters want to believe federal workers are lazy, federal workers provide critical and professional functions for the country. "What (Trump) needs to know is most Black people were promoted on merit,' she said. 'So the way I see it, this is a way to defund Black people as a whole because I will tell you upward middle-class living was provided through the opportunities that we received through promotions in the federal government." Historically, the federal government had more progressive hiring and retention practices than private enterprises even amid the rising tide of racial segregation in the late 19th Century, as a massive influx of Black workers flocked into Washington, D.C., after emancipation. But historians note much of that began to change after the 1912 presidential election, when Woodrow Wilson imposed strict segregation rules in federal workplaces that relegated Black workers to more menial jobs. Civil rights activists say they cannot overlook today's parallels given several of Trump's actions since returning to power, such as ending diversity and equity programs and rescinding a landmark 1965 executive order prohibiting discriminatory employment practices for government contractors. The president recently signed an executive order dismantling several federal agencies focused on libraries, museums and ending homelessness. Tucked away in the list of government entities the decree deemed "unnecessary" was the Minority Business Development Agency, which promoted growth of minority-owned businesses. Holmes, the NAACP legal defense fund attorney, said that as civil rights groups consider various legal challenges against Trump's mass layoffs, there are other troubling areas, such as possibly privatizing the U.S. Postal Service, which could have a disproportionate impact on Black federal workers. 'Black people helped build this country into a great powerhouse through their civil service, through their military service and their hard work, talent and expertise across all agencies," she said. "So to push them and others out of government will be just a devastating loss." 'Will I have a job?': Federal workers full of uncertainty, fear over Trump plans No clear data is available on how Trump's cuts have impacted Black workers specifically as of yet, but during an online meeting with NAACP Legal Defense Fund members and others earlier this year, the group said many of the departments targeted by the administration have the highest percentage of Black employees. As of January 2023, the civil rights organization said in a presentation provided to USA TODAY, about 36% of the Housing and Urban Development and Education departments, 33% of the Small Business Administration, and 29% of the Social Security Administration and Treasury Department were Black. USA TODAY reached out to a dozen Black federal employees, but nearly all declined to talk on the record, fearing for their jobs. Quay Crowner no longer has one to lose. After more than 30 years, last week was her last as a federal employee, after mass layoffs swept through the Education Department. Crowner, the eldest daughter of Denise and Jesse Smith, spent almost 11 years in supervisory positions within the department: human resources director, chief administration officer, and most recently, outreach and engagement director in the Federal Student Aid office, which handles student loans and financial aid disbursement. Crowner said her mission throughout has been to help students and their parents find money to attend college or trade school. She said her division provides an estimated $120 billion in federal grants, loans, and work-study funding to more than 15 million students from all backgrounds, whether they live in Philadelphia or Paducah, Kentucky. She's taken to social media to tell them the dream of attending college is possible and why filling out a FAFSA form is so important. "Contrary to popular belief, we operate more like a financial organization than an educational one,' said Crowner, 55, a married mother with a daughter in college. "No student should be denied the opportunity to get an education. It's our job to make sure they do." However, Crowner's professional life has been tumultuous these past two months. With threats of the Trump administration dismantling her department, Crowner was put on administrative leave. 'I'm not choosing to leave or retire. My departure has been chosen for me,' she said. Crowner said the family lineage of federal government workers will likely stop with her. Her own daughter plans to attend law school. 'She has a different vision of public service.' Still, Crowner said, she's not done helping her country or her community. 'I'm far from finished; I have more work to do,' she said. 'And it will include public service, somewhere.' This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Defund Black people': Civil rights leaders warn of bias in DOGE cuts
