Latest news with #UnitedStatesCensus
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Potential for Clay County stadium gets boost from Missouri House bill
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe's proposal to help fund a new Kansas City Royals stadium was shelved by lawmakers, Clay County finds itself on an even playing field with Jackson County in pursuit of a future professional sports stadium. Clay County now has the right to create its own sports authority, where a county sales tax could fund a new stadium, which is similar to what Jackson County already has, according to language passed by the Missouri House on Thursday. However, the county would still likely need state funding to build an all-new stadium. 'We're going to need some help from the state, and, to be honest, if the state doesn't pony up some funds, I don't think they will stay in the State of Missouri,' said Clay County Commissioner Jason Withington. 'Safe Place Showdown': I-70 Series gives QuikTrip a chance to give back Records state that 'any county with more than two hundred thirty thousand but fewer than two hundred sixty thousand inhabitants' is now authorized to create a county sports complex authority. The most recent United States Census in 2020 shows that Clay County has a population of 253,335. While the Census website shows that in 2024, the county had an estimated 263,370 residents, the next official Census isn't until 2030. Back in April, FOX4 spoke with Missouri Senator Maggie Nurrenbern, who said North Kansas City is a prime location for a potential Kansas City Royals stadium. 'I have not had direct conversations with the Royals on this very issue,' she said, following a poll where Clay County residents were asked how they felt about a 40-year, half-cent sales tax for a ballpark. 'But I do have an understanding that they're very serious about this spot. I think it's really come down to if we're going to do a stadium in Missouri. This is, I think, the top spot right now.' Grand jury indicts 19-year-old accused in Kansas City Tesla arson case That language passed by the Missouri House on Thursday reads: 'The general assembly may annually appropriate up to three million dollars from the state general revenue fund to the convention and sports complex fund created pursuant to this subsection, provided that the county or authority has entered into a contract or lease with a professional sports team affiliated with or franchised by the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the 80 National Hockey League, or the American League or the National League of Major League Baseball on or after January 1, 2026.' House Bill 189 goes on to say: 'No appropriation of state moneys shall be made pursuant to this subsection until the county which has created a convention and sports complex fund has commenced paying into the convention and sports complex fund amounts at a rate sufficient for the county to contribute the sum of three million dollars per calendar year. Appropriations made pursuant to this subsection to any convention and sports complex fund shall not exceed the amounts contributed by the county to the fund. The county's proportional amount specified in this subdivision may come from any source.' Abortion rights, paid sick leave, minimum wage all back on the line in Missouri Clay County would likely ask voters for a sales tax for the funding, similar to that which was rejected by Jackson County voters in 2024. While this doesn't necessarily give Clay County a leg up in the ongoing battle for new sports complexes in Missouri and Kansas, it does even the playing field in terms of Clay and Jackson Counties. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Every Kid Counts: Why the Fight for a Fair 2030 Census Matters More Than Ever
Getty Images The first United States Census was taken at the dawn of the nation in 1790, under George Washington's presidency and then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson (Census). The Census is the oldest continuous data collection effort run by the federal government, and is collected every 10 years, shaping the country's data infrastructure for over two centuries. At its core, it is meant to be an official, complete count of the United States' population. It may record details about people such as age, gender and living arrangements. But more than that, the census is critical to the well-being of children and the entire U.S. Why? Here are a few things the census can do for all of us: Representation: The census determines how many seats each state gets in the House of Representatives and is used to draw Congressional and state legislative districts. Funding: It plays a pivotal role in determining how we fund federal programs like Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), highway planning and the Pell Grant program. Research: Governments and nonprofits utilize the census data to make decisions, such as planning community services, infrastructure and housing developments, and determining where hospitals get built. Equity: If done correctly, the census can shed light on disparities within states and communities, helping to fight for racial, economic and geographic equity. The census isn't perfect, though. Unfortunately, children — especially young children, Black and Brown children, children experiencing homelessness, and children in low-income households — are most often routinely undercounted. This creates serious consequences for education, health care and other pivotal support programs. And recently, there have been emerging efforts to erode trust in the census through misinformation, loss of advisory committees and attacks on census participation. In March, following executive orders to terminate 'unnecessary' advisory committees, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick disbanded three critical groups: the Census Scientific Advisory Committee, the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations, and the 2030 Census Advisory Committee. These groups offered scientific and technical guidance, including cybersecurity, survey methodology and strategies for reaching diverse populations. They have historically been bipartisan, improving census quality and community trust. Their loss will make it harder to design effective outreach and ensure vulnerable populations are fully counted. Undermining the census in these ways weakens the foundation of the Kids Count data we use at the Michigan League for Public Policy — and important data used by organizations across the nation who serve kids and families. Kids Count relies heavily on accurate resident population and demographic estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. When census data is incomplete or unreliable — due to disbanded advisory committees, underfunded surveys, or the strategic addition of sensitive questions to suppress participation — it directly compromises our ability to measure and track child well-being at national, state and local levels. According to Count All Kids, the count of young children was even worse in 2020 than in 2010. Researchers and advocates can't make the case for necessary policy solutions if we are undercounting vulnerable children. When kids are counted, it gives their communities more power to secure funding for programs that matter. Trust is crucial to ensuring full census participation. Title 13 of the United States Code guarantees the confidentiality of census responses, making it illegal for the Census Bureau to publish or share identifiable information. It is important that people know their information is protected under federal law — this helps maintain public trust and participation, even amid political concerns. Building trust through community-based outreach, using locally trusted messengers, remains key. We must also demand policies that restore advisory committees and protect childrens' data. Investing in census education and community engagement hubs, and ensuring strong data privacy protections, will be critical for the 2030 Census. The census is not simply a count — it's the cornerstone of fair resource distribution and democratic representation. Preparing and advocating for the 2030 Census shouldn't begin in 2029. It begins today. Protecting our data is protecting our democracy, and we must act to ensure that every person is seen, valued and counted. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Daily Mail
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Maine county wants to secede over Dem-controlled state house
A massive county in Maine is planning to secede from the state because locals are fed up with how Democrats are controlling the state house. Unhappy residents in Aroostook - a county bigger than Rhode Island and Connecticut combined - have had enough of the state's liberal ways and have decided to branch off and create their own faction called 'North Maine.' The group, called State of North Maine-Official Movement, launched a Facebook page in early April with a declaration to form the 'Free and Sovereign State of North Maine.' The page has amassed 3,2000 followers and promises residents that there will be no income or property tax, and that the state will be locally controlled. The group, which currently has a 'constitution in progress,' said they have chosen to break free from the liberal state because it has 'failed to adequately represent the interests of the people of this country' through 'excessive taxation and bureaucratic interference.' Mainers currently face a 10.6 percent 'total tax burden,' including income, sales and property tax, according to Visual Capitalist. Despite that, last year's election revealed that while Democrats led in suburban areas of the state, Republicans dominated in Aroostook, Bangor Daily News reported. Some people don't believe the county could break away from the state while others are quite sure how it would happen. 'Do I think it's feasible? I have no idea,' Roxanne Bruce, a Maine Department of Education's regional local food coordinator for Aroostook, told the outlet. 'Government is so complicated. I can't even begin to imagine what would have to happen.' It is unclear who exactly started this initiative, but they made it clear that the mission 'is not a political stunt.' 'This is not a political stunt. It's a grassroots response to decades of cultural, economic, and political disconnect between our region and Augusta,' the group insisted. Many locals have taken to the comments to show their support and even share new ideas for the hypothetical new state. 'I have been a proponent of this for about 20 years,' one user said, adding a comment about the state's current Governor Janet Mills. 'I personally don't appreciate having a governor that would dance in costume at a drag show. 90% of the people I know don't like the example it is setting.' Another user said: 'Please add franklin county as well.' 'Please expand this area down to just north of Augusta. We're fed up here in central Maine as well,' someone else commented. While many appeared to be all for the proposed idea, others were left questioning how exactly it would all work. 'Good luck funding your schools and other government required programs and agencies with no property tax or income tax,' someone noted. 'And this would l I believe start civil war,' said another user. 'This is sooo disgusting. You think these people want to separate for peace lol,' wrote another. Aroostook has a population of 67,351, as of 2023, according to the United States Census Bureau. Maine became an independent state in 1820, and was one of three that declared its separation nationwide that year, according to The Maine Wire. This is also not the first time the proposal has floated around the state as late state Rep. Henry Jones tried to divide Maine in 1997, 2005 and 2010, but did not succeed. In 2011 the legislature rejected Peaks Island from leaving Portland because locals didn't follow the process stated in the law, per the outlet.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Eugenics ideas and a Natal Conference don't belong at the University of Texas
Years ago, I took a class at the University of Texas called anthropological genetics. Deborah Bolnick, an anthropologist and geneticist, taught us how humans have constructed and deconstructed our various groups. We learned that the racial categories of the United States Census have shifted several times. We learned that humans have more genetic diversity within a defined racial group than between them. And very critically, we learned about eugenics, the notion that certain 'kinds' of people are better suited to reproduce. We learned how this was a guiding doctrine of Nazi science and the Jim Crow South, and was intertwined with similar dictums such as pronatalism — the idea that the 'right kind' of people should reproduce as much as possible. (You know which kind.) The class gathered three times a week in a sunny room in Painter Hall, a 15-minute walk from the AT&T Hotel & Conference Center — another university-owned venue where later this week a conference on natalism and eugenics will be held. But bafflingly, this week's Natal Conference seeks not to decry eugenics, but to celebrate it. At first glance this may not seem so bad. Survival of the fittest, after all? But the key question to ask here is this: Who gets to decide who the fittest are? And on which criteria? Are people of a certain race inherently better? Which combinations of nucleotides mark the best people? Consider the speaking lineup for this conference. Instead of demographers — scientists who study populations and how they change — the lineup features far-right gadflies and prominent proponents of eugenicist ideas and practices, all with a stated aim to 'improve' future generations, not by investing in communities and the health and well-being of populations, but by developing policies of genetic selection that elevate and encourage the reproduction of white, abled people only. But gadflies, by definition, exist to annoy. Arguing with them yields limited returns. And much to my dismay, UT has welcomed this event to our campus. While I urge university leadership in the strongest possible terms to disavow this embarrassing spectacle and protect our community from people who tweet cheerfully about the "butt rape" of Indigenous Americans, I doubt they will respond. What we can do is this: Learn how horrific this movement is. Read about the nonconsensual sterilization of prisoners in California, which wasn't stopped until 2013. Read about the history of 'Mississippi Appendectomies,' the nonconsensual hysterectomies performed on Black women in teaching hospitals across the South. Learn about Carrie Buck, the young woman who became pregnant by rape and was sterilized by a pro-eugenics physician who treated his patients as if they were cats who needed spaying. Discuss these examples and their lessons with your friends and family. Do what you can with the emotional energy you have to counter this very ugly movement. Horrible things take root in ignorance. While eugenics has never gone away, those who support it are more comfortable and publicly accepted than they have been in decades. It is especially concerning that they find comfort on the campus of our state's most celebrated public university, which has said it cannot discriminate against the viewpoints of anyone wishing to use the AT&T Conference Center. The tacit approval of a race science conference at UT-Austin, alongside the large-scale defunding and muzzling of American science by a far-right regime, marks a very dark chapter of our history. It should worry all of us, not just academics, how quickly we've moved away from science, progress and the embrace of diversity. We won't win every battle in this war. But no one can force us to forget our richly and beautifully diverse backgrounds as Americans, and our values as human beings. Consider this quote from the late Stephen Jay Gould, a paleontologist and one of the most celebrated and widely-read scholars in modern history: 'I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.' Claire Zagorski is a graduate research assistant and PhD student in translational science at the University of Texas. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Natal Conference and eugenics don't belong at UT Austin | Opinion
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Are more elderly South Dakotans working?
This story is reported by , a non-profit news organization. Find more in-depth reporting at . A growing number of South Dakotans continue to work past retirement age. In 2018, a quarter of South Dakotans 65 and older were in the labor force. Five years later, that number climbed to 29%, above the national rate of 19%. Bill to end child marriage in SD clears first hurdle As of July 2024, 18% of South Dakotans were 65 and older. That's up from 14% in 2010. From 2000-2020 the nationwide share of workers 60 and older doubled, due in part to the aging population and falling birth rates. Other contributing factors include employers shifting away from pension type retirement plans, which encourage workers to retire at a specific age, and the Social Security system raising the age for when workers can receive full benefits from 65 to 67. This fact brief responds to conversations such as this one. South Dakota Department of Labor, 2018 Workforce Report South Dakota Department of Labor, 2023 Workforce Report United States Census, Population 65 and Older 2024 United States Census, Population 65 and Older 2010 National Academies, Understanding the Aging Workforce Pew Research Center, The growth of the older workforce South Dakota News Watch partners with Gigafact, a nonprofit network of nonpartisan newsrooms, to verify trending claims through fact briefs. Read previous fact briefs and our verification standards and other best practices policies. Have a question we can answer? Submit it at the South Dakota News Watch Tipline. Send questions or feedback to factbrief@ Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
