Latest news with #Huerta
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Pentagon Will Celebrate Pride Month by Renaming Ship Honoring Gay Rights Icon
President Donald Trump's assault on the LGBTQ+ community will continue through Pride month. According to a Tuesday report from the U.S. Navy is preparing to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, a Navy support ship christened in honor of the assassinated gay rights icon. The report was confirmed by CBS News and ABC News. The order reportedly came directly from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Other vessels named after prominent civil rights and labor leaders are on a list for recommended renaming. According to a list obtained by CBS News, these include the USNS Thurgood Marshall, named after the first Black Supreme Court justice; the USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, named after the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court; the USNS Harriet Tubman, named after the famed abolitionist and former slave; the USNS Dolores Huerta, named after the Chicana labor activist; the USNS Lucy Stone, named after the suffragist and abolitionist; the USNS Cesar Chavez, named after the labor activist who worked alongside Huerta; and the USNS Medgar Evers, named after the civil rights leader and anti-segregationist who was assassinated by a white supremacist in 1963. It's no coincidence that such prominent historic leaders in minority movements are being targeted by an administration that is hell-bent on erasing the history of American equality movements from the public consciousness. The Defense Department source who spoke with said the decision to rename the ship during Pride month was an intentional choice. In January, Hegseth issued a directive titled, 'Identity Months Dead at DoD,' in which he declared that members of the department were barred from using Pentagon resources to promote or celebrate 'cultural awareness months,' including 'National African American/Black History Month, Women's History Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Pride Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and National American Indian Heritage Month.' According to a memo obtained by CBS News, the decision to rename the ship was part of an effort to reestablish 'the warrior culture' within the military — a particular fixation of Hegseth. But the names on the list are, in many ways, the embodiment of American 'warrior culture.' Tubman braved the risk of capture and death to liberate dozens of slaves from the South, and Huerta and Chavez defied federal law to lead one of the most consequential labor strikes in American history. Evers led protests against segregation in the most racist corners of Mississippi. Milk was not only one of the most prominent figures in the gay rights movement in the '70s and '80s, he was also a Korean War veteran. Milk was ousted from the Navy in 1955 after being accused of engaging in then-banned homosexual activities. He was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977 — the first gay man elected to the position — after years working as an activist and leader of the Castro neighborhood's growing gay and lesbian community. As city supervisor, Milk worked closely with former Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, then also a city supervisor. Milk was assassinated along with former San Francisco Mayor George Moscone in 1978 by disgruntled former supervisor Dan White. In 2019, when the Navy announced it would be naming a vessel after Milk, it seemed like a step towards restitution by the organization that had forced out Milk on the mere suspicion that he was gay, and had done the same to an estimated thousands of other service members under 'don't ask, don't tell.' 'When Harvey Milk served in the military, he couldn't tell anyone who he truly was,' California state Sen. Scott Wiener wrote in 2016. 'Now our country is telling the men and women who serve, and the entire world, that we honor and support people for who they are. Harvey Milk's strength continues to reverberate throughout our city, our country, and the world.' Now, only a few years later, Republicans are using their revulsion of DEI as a cover to reinstitute discriminatory policies, and erase the work of countless Americans who have battled — and as in the case of Milk and others, lost their lives — in the ongoing work to build a better America for all. Under Trump, the military has banned the enlistment of transgender individuals, and the Pentagon recently caught flack for erasing scores of photos and web pages honoring women and minorities in the military — including in one instance flagging photos of the 'Enola Gay' airplane which dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, for deletion. Now, civil rights heroes will have their names scrubbed from Navy vessels, lest any seaman learn too much about the men and women who fought for the rights they may now enjoy. More from Rolling Stone 'Transphobia Is Not Victimless': Online Queer Communities Remember Charlotte Fosgate Transgender Troops Deserve the Right to Serve 'SNL' Cold Open: 'AA Team' Jeanine Pirro, Pete Hegseth Have One Big, Boozy Reunion Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Legendary Rock Band Re-Releasing Its Biggest Hit With Grammy-Winning Vocalist Likened to Kelly Clarkson
A legendary '70s and '80s rock band is re-releasing their biggest hit in an exciting new recording with a Grammy-winning star. announced Monday, May 12 that their iconic 1984 hit "I Want to Know What Love Is" is getting a Spanish-language release featuring Grammy-winning vocalist Joy Huerta, a singer with a sound The Los Angeles Times called a "dulcet-but-earthy voice" and compared her to "Norah Jones, Alanis Morissette and, almost inevitably, Kelly Clarkson." The single, "Quiero Saber Si Es Amor," will be released in two versions — one in Spanish and one as a Spanish-English hybrid edition. Fans can pre-save the release here; it drops on May 15. "This iconic duet features Luis Maldonado, Foreigner's own guitarist and vocalist, alongside acclaimed Mexican singer-songwriter Joy Huerta of the Grammy Award-winning duo Jesse & Joy," reads the press release. 'We have been embraced by our Latino fans for decades,' said Maldonado in a statement. 'Recording these songs in Spanish is our way of thanking them and sharing the music in a more intimate and personal way." Huerta adds that there was a moment in the studio with Foreigner founding member Mick Jones where asked Jones "What is love?", to which he replied, "Love is a sentiment – and so much more.' 'That moment speaks deeply to Latinos, and for me – having grown up with this song – recording it now with Foreigner in my own language is truly incredible," added Huerta. In addition to her Grammy Awards, in 2025, Huerta became the first Mexican woman to be nominated for a Tony Award for Best Original Score for her work on Real Women Have Curves: The Musical, which is currently playing on Broadway. "I Want to Know What Love Is" is a No. 1 hit worldwide and a member of Spotify's "Billions Club" because it has been streamed over a billion times. This announcement comes on the heels of Foreigner re-releasing a Spanish-language version of their 1981 hit "Urgent" as well, and that they are debuting a stage musical based on 14 of their iconic hits called Feels Like the First Time — The Foreigner Musical, which will see them reunite with original lead singer, Lou Gramm.
The Herald Scotland
04-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Texas signs school choice law. Will it expand educational vouchers?
Students who apply for and receive a scholarship will get about $10,500 to pay for tuition at an alternative school and students with disabilities will receive up to $30,000. Texas's universal school choice program comes months after President Donald Trump directed multiple federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Education to prioritize school choice programs. The passage of universal school choice in Texas marks the end of a three-decade-long saga in which state Republicans have repeatedly rejected the idea of using public funds to pay for alternative schools, said Luis Huerta, a professor of education and public policy at Teachers College, Columbia University. From a national lens, Huerta, who researches school choice across the U.S., doesn't consider the change of heart in Texas to be a "watershed moment" for popularity in the school choice movement because voters in three states rejected school choice measures in the Nov. 2024 election before Trump re-entered federal office. But Texas's switch up on school choice could mean the Trump administration's growing pressure on states to implement the idea gains some momentum, Huerta said. Trump congratulated one of the authors of the bill, Lieutenant Gov. Don Patrick, for what he called "the biggest launch of a school choice program in American History." "What is important nationally is the direct lobbying that came from the federal government and directly from the Trump admin in threatening many Republicans who were reluctant to vote for this," Huerta said. Huerta referred to news reports of Trump and Elon Musk pressuring the Texas House to pass the program. Longtime school voucher program opponents argue that universal school choice programs benefit wealthy families who are already enrolled in private or other alternative schools, and who already can afford them. Kids whose families receive state funding for school through choice programs are given additional resources, which, they say, can widen the achievement gap with low-income communities or students with disabilities. Others argue that school choice programs strip crucial state funding from public schools that need it. Advocates for public schools in Texas's rural areas have argued that state funding should stay with public schools. They say school choice programs don't benefit families who live in rural areas like they do families who live in urban areas. They say other school options are often inaccessible. Homeschooling group often reject the idea of state-funded subsidies because they fear it invites government regulation on homeschooling. Nevertheless, supporters are calling the Texas law a major win for the school choice movement. What it means for students and schools: School choice remains popular following COVID closures School choice in Texas and beyond Texas is part of a growing number of Republican-led states that have passed school choice programs since the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, some parents withdrew their kids from their neighborhood schools and put them in private schools, charter schools homeschooling and other alternatives when their campuses closed and pivoted to remote learning. Many families kept their kids enrolled in alternative schooling options after neighborhoods public schools reopened and returned to in-person learning. Why parents who moved kids To alternative schools amid pandemic are keeping them there Supporters of the national school choice movement are now touting Texas as another win. At least 35 states and Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico have some school choice program, according to a national school choice dashboard from the group EdChoice. These programs include education savings accounts, charter schools and vouchers specifically for private schools. School choice existed in Texas before the passage of this latest bill through charter schools and district-to-district transfer options. The expansion of school choice in Texas is reminiscent of school choice wins in GOP-led states like Tennessee and Wyoming, said Shelby Doyle, a vice president of public awareness for the pro-school choice organization National School Choice Awareness Foundation. Both states passed universal school choice laws this year, allowing families who live there to use public funds for nonpublic schools. School choice expansion in the Lone State will give current and future generations of students more options on where they go to school, she said. "When I think about this new private school choice program, it's really the end of the debate on whether school choice is going to be the new normal," Doyle said. It's still unclear whether there will be enough spots in private schools or other schooling options for kids who aren't already enrolled, said Huerta from Teacher's College, Columbia University. There's often a problem with supply and demand on the logistics end of universal school choice programs, he said. "The fear then is that when a voucher comes along, all of a sudden this becomes an attractive option for families," Huerta said. "There's a flood of people who want to leave public schools and go to private, but there's not enough capacity." 'Texas has long been one of the largest holdouts' in school choice movement School choice proponents argue that Texas's pivot to universal school choice is a win for the movement. They predict the state's program will be especially influential on the nation because of the number of families it will be able to reach given the large pot of money the state has allocated to help kids move from neighborhood public schools. Texas House gives initial OK To $1B school voucher proposal, rejects call for referendum Robert Enlow, president and CEO of EdChoice, called Gov. Abbott's signature of the bill making the universal school choice program official "a monumental step forward for parental empowerment and student opportunity--not just for Texas, but for the nation." "Texas has long been one of the largest holdouts on educational freedom, offering no school choice programs--until now," Enlow said. Contact Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@ Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez.
USA Today
03-05-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Texas Gov. Abbott signs school vouchers into law. What we know about the school choice bill
Texas Gov. Abbott signs school vouchers into law. What we know about the school choice bill Show Caption Hide Caption Trump signs order on school choice and funding President Donald Trump has signed two executive orders on school funding that fulfill promises he made on the campaign trail. Fox - 32 Chicago Families in Texas are now among a growing number of states who can use public funds to pay for a nonpublic education, including private schools and homeschooling. Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on May 3 signed a school choice bill into law, allocating $1 billion for about 100,000 students to use for alternative schooling tuition or other educational purposes. The money can be used to pay for textbooks, academic tests, transportation to school, computers and meals during the school day. Students who apply for and receive a scholarship will get about $10,500 to pay for tuition at an alternative school and students with disabilities will receive up to $30,000. Texas's universal school choice program comes months after President Donald Trump directed multiple federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Education to prioritize school choice programs. The passage of universal school choice in Texas marks the end of a three-decade-long saga in which state Republicans have repeatedly rejected the idea of using public funds to pay for alternative schools, said Luis Huerta, a professor of education and public policy at Teachers College, Columbia University. From a national lens, Huerta, who researches school choice across the U.S., doesn't consider the change of heart in Texas to be a "watershed moment" for popularity in the school choice movement because voters in three states rejected school choice measures in the Nov. 2024 election before Trump re-entered federal office. But Texas's switch up on school choice could mean the Trump administration's growing pressure on states to implement the idea gains some momentum, Huerta said. Trump congratulated one of the authors of the bill, Lieutenant Gov. Don Patrick, for what he called "the biggest launch of a school choice program in American History." "What is important nationally is the direct lobbying that came from the federal government and directly from the Trump admin in threatening many Republicans who were reluctant to vote for this," Huerta said. Huerta referred to news reports of Trump and Elon Musk pressuring the Texas House to pass the program. Longtime school voucher program opponents argue that universal school choice programs benefit wealthy families who are already enrolled in private or other alternative schools, and who already can afford them. Kids whose families receive state funding for school through choice programs are given additional resources, which, they say, can widen the achievement gap with low-income communities or students with disabilities. Others argue that school choice programs strip crucial state funding from public schools that need it. Advocates for public schools in Texas's rural areas have argued that state funding should stay with public schools. They say school choice programs don't benefit families who live in rural areas like they do families who live in urban areas. They say other school options are often inaccessible. Homeschooling group often reject the idea of state-funded subsidies because they fear it invites government regulation on homeschooling. Nevertheless, supporters are calling the Texas law a major win for the school choice movement. What it means for students and schools: School choice remains popular following COVID closures School choice in Texas and beyond Texas is part of a growing number of Republican-led states that have passed school choice programs since the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, some parents withdrew their kids from their neighborhood schools and put them in private schools, charter schools homeschooling and other alternatives when their campuses closed and pivoted to remote learning. Many families kept their kids enrolled in alternative schooling options after neighborhoods public schools reopened and returned to in-person learning. Why parents who moved kids To alternative schools amid pandemic are keeping them there Supporters of the national school choice movement are now touting Texas as another win. At least 35 states and Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico have some school choice program, according to a national school choice dashboard from the group EdChoice. These programs include education savings accounts, charter schools and vouchers specifically for private schools. School choice existed in Texas before the passage of this latest bill through charter schools and district-to-district transfer options. The expansion of school choice in Texas is reminiscent of school choice wins in GOP-led states like Tennessee and Wyoming, said Shelby Doyle, a vice president of public awareness for the pro-school choice organization National School Choice Awareness Foundation. Both states passed universal school choice laws this year, allowing families who live there to use public funds for nonpublic schools. School choice expansion in the Lone State will give current and future generations of students more options on where they go to school, she said. "When I think about this new private school choice program, it's really the end of the debate on whether school choice is going to be the new normal," Doyle said. It's still unclear whether there will be enough spots in private schools or other schooling options for kids who aren't already enrolled, said Huerta from Teacher's College, Columbia University. There's often a problem with supply and demand on the logistics end of universal school choice programs, he said. "The fear then is that when a voucher comes along, all of a sudden this becomes an attractive option for families," Huerta said. "There's a flood of people who want to leave public schools and go to private, but there's not enough capacity." 'Texas has long been one of the largest holdouts' in school choice movement School choice proponents argue that Texas's pivot to universal school choice is a win for the movement. They predict the state's program will be especially influential on the nation because of the number of families it will be able to reach given the large pot of money the state has allocated to help kids move from neighborhood public schools. Texas House gives initial OK To $1B school voucher proposal, rejects call for referendum Robert Enlow, president and CEO of EdChoice, called Gov. Abbott's signature of the bill making the universal school choice program official "a monumental step forward for parental empowerment and student opportunity—not just for Texas, but for the nation." 'Texas has long been one of the largest holdouts on educational freedom, offering no school choice programs—until now,' Enlow said. Contact Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@ Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Airlines Need Board Members That Know and Care About Safety
By Karlene Petitt PhD. MBA. MHS Author of Be The Change Passenger Safety Needs The airline industry is facing turbulence in 2025, with flights feeling more unsafe and customer satisfaction declining. It's time to take a closer look at the individuals in the boardroom who are tasked with providing oversight to the management teams of America's biggest airlines. The major US airlines, including Delta Airlines, American Airlines and United Airlines, all have board committees that oversee safety, but the members of these committees generally lack actual experience overseeing airline safety. This begs the question – how can these committees properly oversee safety with no direct experience? For example, 75% of the members of American Airlines' Safety Committee have backgrounds primarily in the retail and investment sectors, with only 25% of the members having a transportation background. United Airlines puts safety under their Public Responsibility Committee, and 29% of the committee members have airline pilot and transportation experience. The remainder of the committee have backgrounds in retail/consumer and finance/investment sectors. Delta's Safety and Security Committee has 29% of committee members with an aviation background, but this still is not enough when safety should be paramount for these major U.S. carriers. The lack of focus on safety is tangible. Alaska Airlines, for example, not only maintains safety as a component of their executive annual pay program, but maintains a standalone Safety Committee by the Board. By no coincidence, Alaska Airlines continues to rank above Delta, United and American for their safety record. In fact, Delta's Board of Directors does not have sufficient expertise in key areas, such as airline and transportation experience and cyber and risk backgrounds, which has contributed to infrastructure and safety failures. Delta's Safety & Security Committee met fewer times than any other committee, with only six meetings, compared to the Personnel & Compensation Committee's nine meetings in 2023. The elevated importance of compensation over safety matters directly contradicts the 'Delta Difference,' whereby the company states its 'commitment to industry-leading customer service, safety and innovation.' Delta's Board fails to account for mission-critical skills. For example, in the seven directors that have been added since 2022, only one new director has experience in cyber/ technology oversight, despite this being cited as a top priority for Boards in 2024. Moreover, Delta's Board has only one independent director with airline/ transportation experience, according to the Skills and Experiences of Independent Director Nominees in the 2024 Delta Airlines Proxy Statement. Michael Huerta, a former Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Mr. Huerta's term with the FAA ended in January 2018 and he was named to the Delta Board only four months later, in April 2018. Although Mr. Huerta is credited as the airline/ transportation expert on Delta's board, his track record is certainly not faultless when it comes to safety. Because of faults during his tenure at the FAA, Mr. Huerta rightly oversaw the issuing of the Final Rule mandating the implementation of Safety Management System (SMS) for all certificate holders under Part 121 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), which generally included U.S. domestic passenger airlines and cargo operations. The SMS was designed to manage safety risk and assure the effectiveness of safety risk controls. Mr. Huerta's addition to the Delta board, a mere four months after his departure from the FAA, should raise questions about what Delta was hoping to gain from these connections. Why is a former FAA administrator allowed to step onto Delta's board, receiving associated compensation, when federal law prohibits the FAA from any compensation from airlines? Is delayed payment not still compensation? Additionally, Mr. Huerta was the FAA administrator during the production of the MAX and stepped onto Delta's board three months prior to the first MAX crash. Why did Delta stop all Boeing orders after Mr. Huerta's appointment but BEFORE any 737 MAX faults were known to the public? Why did Delta remove Ed Bastian as the 'accountable executive' of the Federal Regulation Safety Management System (SMS), which Huerta enacted in 2018 and designated the CEO to be the responsible executive to SMS? These questions should be raised for greater accountability from our top airline executives. The safety issues plaguing the industry today are not Delta's alone, but it is clear that their Board, in particular, lacks the requisite skills to properly put safety at the core of their business. Karlene Petitt is a distinguished figure in the aviation industry, celebrated for her extensive career as an international airline pilot, her pivotal role in advocating for aviation safety, and her success as an author and speaker. Karlene holds the following Type-Rating: A350, A330, B777, B747-400, B747-200, B767, B757, B737 and B727. Contact: John Jannarone Editor-in-Chief The post Airlines Need Board Members That Know and Care About Safety appeared first on CorpGov.
