cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24261280

Summary

Several states, including Alabama, Maryland, and New Hampshire, are introducing legislation to ban or restrict cellphones in schools.

The measures claim to reduce distractions and address concerns over teen mental health linked to heavy social media use.

Proponents argue such bans help students focus, but opponents, including parents, warn of safety and communication issues.

“If something were to happen in the school, my child should be able to have their cellphone to be able to call for help, to be able to call me,” said parent Jeara Underwood.

Experts emphasize teaching responsible tech use rather than imposing broad bans.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24262115

Summary

Childhood vaccination rates in Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia, traditionally high, are declining due to rising vaccine skepticism.

CDC data shows the percentage of kindergartners with vaccine exemptions reached a record 3.3% nationwide in 2023-24.

Experts link this trend to anti-vaccine movements and "health freedom" advocacy.

This trend could lead to a resurgence of preventable diseases like measles and whooping cough, as seen in states with low vaccine uptake like Florida and Georgia.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24262644

Summary

Spain plans to introduce a tax of up to 100% on properties purchased by non-EU residents, aiming to address a housing crisis.

The measure would limit property purchases for investment purposes by foreigners, prioritizing homes for residents.

The proposal, inspired by similar policies in Canada and Denmark, is part of broader efforts to improve housing affordability.

Other measures include tax exemptions for affordable housing landlords, tighter tourist rental regulations, and transferring thousands of homes to public housing programs.

Details and a parliamentary timeline are pending.

Opposing War. What should be done? A discussion meeting on how we can develop a practical internationalist postion in the face of war escalation. Wednesday, January 15 · 7 – 8:30pm At the moment, revolutionaries upholding internationalist positions are in a minority. Many have embraced support for one side in the conflicts created by capitalism, either supporting Russia or the Ukraine, or siding with Hamas in the mayhem unleashed in the Gaza strip, Lebanon and the wider Middle East.Some questions need answering. How do we increase the audience for an internationalist position that opposes imperialist war? How do we give practical solidarity to those directly effected by war, to the war resisters, conscientious objectors, draft dodgers and deserters who have risked much, whether in Russia, Ukraine or Israel? How do we sabotage the war efforts? This and other questions raised by the drive to war will be addressed at an online meeting with a speaker from the Anarchist Communist Group as well as a range of guest speakers There will be plenty of time for discussion.As well as a speaker from the ACG, there will be speakers from Old Moles Collective- Old.moles.collective @gmail.com ,Alex Alder, author of https://libcom.org/%E2%80%A6/british-anarchism-succumbs-war-feverand Jan, an antimilitarist activist

The Border Patrol conducted unannounced raids throughout Bakersfield on Tuesday, descending on businesses where day laborers and field workers gather. Agents in unmarked SUVs rounded up people in vans outside a Home Depot and gas station that serves a breakfast popular with field workers.“It was profiling, it was purely field workers,” said Sara Fuentes, store manager of the local gas station. Fuentes said that at 9 a.m., when the store typically gets a rush of workers on their way to pick oranges, two men in civilian clothes and unmarked Suburbans started detaining people outside the store. “They didn’t stop people with FedEx uniforms, they were stopping people who looked like they worked in the fields.” Fuentes says one customer pulled in just to pump gas and agents approached him and detained him.Fuentes has lived in Bakersfield all her life and says she’s never seen anything like it. In one instance, she said a man and woman drove up to the store together, and the man went inside. Border Patrol detained the man as he walked out, Fuentes said, and then demanded the woman get out of the vehicle. When she refused, another agency parked his vehicle behind the woman, blocking her car. Fuentes said it wasn’t until the local Univision station showed up that Border Patrol agents backed up their car and allowed the woman to leave.Fuentes says none of the regular farm workers showed up to buy breakfast on Wednesday morning. “No field workers at all,” she said.“They were stopping cars at random, asking people for papers. They were going to gas stations and Home Depot where day laborers gather,” said Antonio De Loera-Brust. “It’s provoking intense anxiety and a lot of fear in the community.”The Fresno Bee reported that, “Immigration advocates [stated that] they’re hearing from families that their loved ones are located at the Golden State Annex Detention Center in Kern County as well as a detention in Imperial County near the U.S.-Mexico border.” The Golden State Annex has been the site of ongoing hunger and work strikes by detainees, in protest of unpaid labor and horrific conditions.Large protests have quickly spread in response to the raids last week. In Bakersfield, “[s]everal hundred Kern County residents gathered at the corner of Ming Ave. and Wible Road to protest Border Patrol’s three-day operation.” The Rapid Response Network, a coalition of groups in the Bakersfield area, state that they will also continue to hold Know Your Rights trainings. One protester stated, “We’ve always been here, and we’re going to stand up for our students, our families, our workers. We stand by them and we’re not afraid. We’re not scared.”The protests then spread to Fresno, one of the state’s largest cities, with hundreds rallying against the raids. One protester was quoted as stating, “We are not going to sit back anymore. All the youth, all these people that are here today and all these people across the country are going to fight back against deportation, against family separations, because enough has been enough.”In 2006, massive student walkouts and wildcat strikes by immigrant workers beat back draconian anti-immigrant legislation. With the threat of mass deportations under Trump, the possibility of a new strike wave and growing protests is escalating.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/31043595

The Office of Independent Investigations is a state cabinet-level office tasked with reviewing law enforcement’s use of deadly force. The agency was activated on Dec. 1 and was notified by the Vancouver Police Department about Gunderson’s killing at 11:31 p.m. on Dec. 4. The first OII investigators arrived at the scene shortly after midnight, with 15 ultimately joining the initial response.

But OII isn’t yet responding to police killings in most of the state. Instead, the agency that’s been four years in the making is rolling out in phases.

Having broken up Washington into six regions, OII will, for now, solely respond to killings in Region 1, stretching from the state’s southwestern border with Oregon to the northernmost tip of the Olympic Peninsula. The split is based on the historical frequency of police killings. Region 2 covers Pierce County and Region 3 covers King County.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/31043062

On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to decide whether to block lawsuits that Honolulu filed to seek billions in damages from oil and gas companies over allegedly deceptive marketing campaigns that hid the effects of climate change.

Now those lawsuits can proceed, surely frustrating the fossil fuel industry, which felt that SCOTUS should have weighed in on this key "recurring question of extraordinary importance to the energy industry" raised in lawsuits seeking similarly high damages in several states, CBS News reported.

As the cases move forward, Honolulu maintains that it will not seek damages for interstate pollution or try to regulate emissions. It is instead challenging the fossil fuel industry practice of promoting its products "without warning" of climate change effects, which was allegedly "abetted by a sophisticated disinformation campaign" that Honolulu argued was "deliberately concealing and misrepresenting the climate-change impacts of their fossil-fuel products."

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/27061208

This is not your grandparent’s gentrification, but rather a hyper-gentrification fueled by concentrated wealth driving up land and housing costs, expanding short-term rentals, and treating housing like a commodity to speculate on or a place to park wealth. The billionaires are displacing the millionaires, and the millionaires are disrupting the housing market for everyone else.

Our report found that billionaire-backed private equity firms have wormed their way into different segments of the housing market to extract ever-increasing rents and value from multi-family rental, single-family homes, and mobile home park communities. For instance, Blackstone has become the largest corporate landlord in the world, with a vast and diversified real estate portfolio. It owns more than 300,000 residential units across the U.S., has $1 trillion in global assets, and nearly doubled its profits in 2021.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24246359

Summary

Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta would move trust and safety teams to Texas to address concerns of "liberal bias," but ex-employees say such teams have been operating in Texas for over a decade.

Critics claim this move is largely symbolic, tied to Zuckerberg's recent alignment with Donald Trump, including ending Meta's fact-checking program.

Former staff allege Meta has cut corners on content moderation by outsourcing to contractors in Texas, a cost-saving trend since company layoffs in 2022.

Meta has not clarified the scope of the changes or employee impact.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24245615

Summary

President Biden announced student loan forgiveness for 150,000 additional borrowers, raising the total to over 5 million under his administration.

The latest beneficiaries include borrowers defrauded by schools, individuals with disabilities, and public service workers.

Biden emphasized his focus on expanding pre-existing forgiveness programs after his broad plan was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2023.

Conservatives and Trump argue the efforts overstep executive authority and unfairly shift costs.

Biden called the initiative a fulfillment of his promise to reduce financial barriers to education.