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Are you on social media a lot? When is the last time you checked Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram? Last night? Before breakfast? Five minutes ago?
If so, you are not alone — which is the point, of course. Humans are highly social creatures. Our brains have become wired to process social information, and we usually feel better when we are connected. Social media taps into this tendency.
“Human brains have essentially evolved because of sociality more than any other thing,” says Sinan Aral, an MIT professor and expert in information technology and marketing. “When you develop a population-scale technology that delivers social signals to the tune of trillions per day in real-time, the rise of social media isn’t unexpected. It’s like tossing a lit match into a pool of gasoline.”
The numbers make this clear. In 2005, about 7 percent of American adults used social media. But by 2017, 80 percent of American adults used Facebook alone. About 3.5 billion people on the planet, out of 7.7 billion, are active social media participants. Globally, during a typical day, people post 500 million tweets, share over 10 billion pieces of Facebook content, and watch over a billion hours of YouTube video.
As social media platforms have grown, though, the once-prevalent, gauzy utopian vision of online community has disappeared. Along with the benefits of easy connectivity and increased information, social media has also become a vehicle for disinformation and political attacks from beyond sovereign borders.
“Social media disrupts our elections, our economy, and our health,” says Aral, who is the David Austin Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Now Aral has written a book about it. In “The Hype Machine,” published this month by Currency, a Random House imprint, Aral details why social media platforms have become so successful yet so problematic, and suggests ways to improve them.
The book covers some of the same territory as “The Social Dilemma,” a popular documentary on Netflix. But Aral’s book, as he puts it, "starts where ‘The Social Dilemma’ leaves off and goes one step further to ask: What can we do to achieve the promise of social media and avoid its peril?”
“This machine exists in every facet of our lives,” Aral says. “And the question in the book is, what do we do? How do we achieve the promise of this machine and avoid the peril? We’re at a crossroads. What we do next is essential, so I want to equip people, policymakers, and platforms to help us achieve the good outcomes and avoid the bad outcomes.”
When “engagement” equals anger
“The Hype Machine” draws on Aral’s own research about social networks, as well as other findings, from the cognitive sciences, computer science, business, politics, and more. Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles, for instance, have found that people obtain bigger hits of dopamine — the chemical in our brains highly bound up with motivation and reward — when their social media posts receive more likes.
At the same time, consider a 2018 MIT study by Soroush Vosoughi, an MIT PhD student and now an assistant professor of computer science at Dartmouth College; Deb Roy, MIT professor of media arts and sciences and executive director of the MIT Media Lab; and Aral, who has been studying social networking for 20 years. The three researchers found that on Twitter, from 2006 to 2017, false news stories were 70 percent more likely to be retweeted than true ones. Why? Most likely because false news has greater novelty value compared to the truth, and provokes stronger reactions — especially disgust and surprise.
In this light, the essential tension surrounding social media companies is that their platforms gain audiences and revenue when posts provoke strong emotional responses, often based on dubious content.
“This is a well-designed, well-thought-out machine that has objectives it maximizes,” Aral says. “The business models that run the social-media industrial complex have a lot to do with the outcomes we’re seeing — it’s an attention economy, and businesses want you engaged. How do they get engagement? Well, they give you little dopamine hits, and … get you riled up. That’s why I call it the hype machine. We know strong emotions get us engaged, so [that favors] anger and salacious content.”
From Russia to marketing
“The Hype Machine” explores both the political implications and business dimensions of social media in depth. Certainly social media is fertile terrain for misinformation campaigns. During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Russia spread false information to at least 126 million people on Facebook and another 20 million people on Instagram (which Facebook owns), and was responsible for 10 million tweets. About 44 percent of adult Americans visited a false news source in the final weeks of the campaign.
“I think we need to be a lot more vigilant than we are,” says Aral.
We do not know if Russia’s efforts altered the outcome of the 2016 election, Aral says, though they may have been fairly effective. Curiously, it is not clear if the same is true of most U.S. corporate engagement efforts.
As Aral examines, digital advertising on most big U.S. online platforms is often wildly ineffective, with academic studies showing that the “lift” generated by ad campaigns — the extent to which they affect consumer action — has been overstated by a factor of hundreds, in some cases. Simply counting clicks on ads is not enough. Instead, online engagement tends to be more effective among new consumers, and when it is targeted well; in that sense, there is a parallel between good marketing and guerilla social media campaigns.
“The two questions I get asked the most these days,” Aral says, “are, one, did Russia succeed in intervening in our democracy? And two, how do I measure the ROI [return on investment] from marketing investments? As I was writing this book, I realized the answer to those two questions is the same.”
Ideas for improvement
“The Hype Machine” has received praise from many commentators. Foster Provost, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, says it is a “masterful integration of science, business, law, and policy.” Duncan Watts, a university professor at the University of Pennsylvania, says the book is “essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how we got here and how we can get somewhere better.”
In that vein, “The Hype Machine” has several detailed suggestions for improving social media. Aral favors automated and user-generated labeling of false news, and limiting revenue-collection that is based on false content. He also calls for firms to help scholars better research the issue of election interference.
Aral believes federal privacy measures could be useful, if we learn from the benefits and missteps of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and a new California law that lets consumers stop some data-sharing and allows people to find out what information companies have stored about them. He does not endorse breaking up Facebook, and suggests instead that the social media economy needs structural reform. He calls for data portability and interoperability, so “consumers would own their identities and could freely switch from one network to another.” Aral believes that without such fundamental changes, new platforms will simply replace the old ones, propelled by the network effects that drive the social-media economy.
“I do not advocate any one silver bullet,” says Aral, who emphasizes that changes in four areas together — money, code, norms, and laws — can alter the trajectory of the social media industry.
But if things continue without change, Aral adds, Facebook and the other social media giants risk substantial civic backlash and user burnout.
“If you get me angry and riled up, I might click more in the short term, but I might also grow really tired and annoyed by how this is making my life miserable, and I might turn you off entirely,” Aral observes. “I mean, that’s why we have a Delete Facebook movement, that’s why we have a Stop Hate for Profit movement. People are pushing back against the short-term vision, and I think we need to embrace this longer-term vision of a healthier communications ecosystem.”
Changing the social media giants can seem like a tall order. Still, Aral says, these firms are not necessarily destined for domination.
“I don’t think this technology or any other technology has some deterministic endpoint,” Aral says. “I want to bring us back to a more practical reality, which is that technology is what we make it, and we are abdicating our responsibility to steer technology toward good and away from bad. That is the path I try to illuminate in this book.”
KD was out of the league with an injury this year but understands why some players were tempted to break bubble protocol
,” Durant said, “It was like the maids were all men… everybody… it was nothing but men around.”
House departed the bubble as the Houston Rockets continued in the second round of the NBA playoffs against Los Angeles. The Lakers eventually won the best-of-seven series.
“After a couple months, you down 3-1?” Durant expressed. “Nah. He said ‘I don’t give a f— no more man.'”
According to USA Today Sports, Durant’s timeline was slightly off. The Rockets were down 3-1 to the Los Angeles Lakers at the time of the NBA’s discipline, but the second-round series was tied 1-1, when the incident took place.
Budden, the rapper turned podcast host who brought up the topic, told Durant he feels the current restrictions in the NBA might be a little harder for guys who have been in the league for a while.
“You know how I view the league now that you said that,” Budden said “Some of the grown players that’s been around for a lil’ bit… I see them focused on maybe getting some ass… when times get hard.”
Budden when on to say “The younger generation, I just see them locking in on the Fortnite.”
Durant agreed with Budden about the popularity of the video game among younger players but disagreed that it was an adequate substitute for sex.
“Nah bro… they still men at the end of the day… they want some action too,” Durant said. “But they are into Fornite as well.”
House, a Texas native, is reportedly married to Whitney Grant, a former Texas State University volleyball player. The couple has three children together. Their youngest, Brady is named after NFL quarterback Tom Brady.
Grant made her Instagram page private. Her bio now reads: “Never substitute pleasures for principles.”
House has limited comments on his page since his return from Orlando but posted a smiling pic earlier this week.
Read More: Chargers team doctor punctured QB Tyrod Taylor’s lung during injection
He and his wife appear to be college sweethearts. House attended both the University of Houston and Texas A&M University.
An account that follows Grant on IG posted, via Twitter, a screenshot they say she posted after the ordeal saying “Reap what you sow.”
The 27-year-old, 6-foot-6 forward is under contract with Houston for two more seasons.
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Earlier this month he expressed gratitude on social media for all the love and support from fans.
Dallas rapper and producer FXXXXY (born Maudell Watkins) died last week from complications following a routine medical procedure.
The 25-year-old artist was signed to Future’s FreeBandz label. He engineered the song “Solitaires” from the rapper’s recent High Off Life album.
Details about what caused Watkins’ death have not been revealed, Billboard reports.
“We are all deeply saddened by the sudden and unexpected passing of FXXXXY and offer our sincerest condolences to his family, his team, friends and thousands of fans,” said IGA executive vice president Joie Manda in a statement. “Everyone who came into FXXXXY’s orbit was moved by his positive energy and spirit. His talent was undeniable. He was an important member of our IGA family and it’s heartbreaking that he was taken from all of us too soon.”
Read More: Rapper Silento arrested after walking into stranger’s home with hatchet
Watkins’ family said in a statement that they are “totally shocked and devastated at his unexpected and unforeseen passing. We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to his many friends and acquaintances who’ve reached out to us in this extremely difficult time. He lived music with every breath he took and his focus and drive were unmatched. May his contributions to the music industry live forever. CC 4 Life!”
The rapper/producer’s rise to fame began after working with Future on his 2019 EP Save Me. He also collaborated with Gunna (“Need U”) and Lil Durk (“Follow Me”) on singles. In 2016, FXXXXY released the album Cartel Shawty and the following year he dropped Flawed Up Shawty. His most recent release is the single “Paranoia/ #1 Stunna.”
“Flawed Up Shawty is me trying to stay sane and avoid the darkness that this type of recognition swallows people in,” Watkins explained to Complex in 2017. “It’s me trying to cope with losing a relationship with somebody that held me down for so long and shooting shots at everybody who’s been sneak dissing as if we don’t see them. It’s a lot more aggressive and less caring—letting the listener hear my flaws and things that’s not attractive. ‘Flawed up’ is slang for having this strong confidence even though you’re not beautiful to the world or maybe looked at as not valuable.”
Baby Shad, who helped manage Watkins, reacted to his death on Twitter, writing “Rest In Peace,” and “Long Live Fxxxxy.”
Anthony Saleh of Watkins’ management team at Emagen Entertainment Group said, “The FBG team and I are extremely crushed by unexpected news about our brother, FXXXXY. He not only was one of us but, he was the most uplifting and positive whenever he was around. And when he wasn’t around, he made sure to share his light with you from afar. We will never be able to make sense of this no matter how hard we try but will do our best to honor his memory. Rip FBG FOX.”
Read More: Rapper Common launches wellness YouTube channel
Future noted on his Instagram Stories that his last conversation with Watkins was “Jus yesterday” and that he’s “GONE WAY TOO SOON,” he wrote.
Fans and fellow artists have been expressing condolences online amid news of his death.
Earlier this month, Watkins expressed gratitude on social media for all the love and support from fans.
“Thank u to every single message,” he shared on Instagram. “Every single person that comment CC. Every single person that play my s–t wit they friends. Every single person who get defensive when my name come up. I can’t wait to prove u right n show u that luv back.”
Funeral services are reportedly being planned in Watkins’ hometown of Dallas.
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An Atlanta cop revealed his law enforcement career abruptly ended after he quit the force in protest of gentrification arrests
After he learned the Atlanta Police Department was working with local building developers to arrest and evict Black residents to aid in gentrification, a white police officer resigned.
Read More: Protesters accuse Louisville mayor of gentrification during housing project ribbon-cutting ceremony
Published by Mother Jones, in its editorial project created to share the stories of people who “quit,” the three-year police officer told his story. Identified as 49-year-old Tom Gissler, the former officer detailed how he was instructed to heavily police an apartment complex in the city’s Old Fourth Ward section where most residents are Black.
“On my beat, they started telling me, ‘We really want you to start policing this section of Boulevard and Ponce de Leon Avenue — basically the Bedford Pines Apartments,’” Gissler, who started in April 2017 and left the force in July of this year, wrote in the essay. He continued sharing how his superiors informed him to tow cars, run background checks, and take people into custody.
“We think there are dope boys in there. We think there’s a lot of illegal activity happening and we want to really focus there. So we’re gonna put up signs that say you can’t park on the street. I want you to go and write tickets on every single car that’s on the street and I want you to get those cars out of there; if they don’t move, tow ’em. I want you to start running checks on everybody standing on the street; if they have got warrants, I want you to lock ’em up,” Gissler said he was told.
Gissler spoke to residents after receiving the explicit directive. As a resident of the area himself, he hoped to gain insight into community issues. Homeowners informed the former officer that the owners of the complex allegedly wanted to tear down the residence in alignment with gentrification trends in the city. The complex owners were unable to price out residents by raising rents so getting their tenants arrested was plan B.
“A homeowner in the area was very frank with me. He said the guys who own Bedford Pines got their tax bill last year, and their taxes were assessed based on all the gentrification that’s happening in the area. And so they wanted to move everybody out of these apartments and knock ’em down and rebuild these nice expensive apartments and the government said no. And so then they said, ‘Well, that’s ok, we’ll just increase the rent.’ They tried to increase the rent and the Section 8 guys came back out and said, ‘No, you can’t do that either,’” he wrote in the Mother Jones essay.
Gissler says he was told the only way to evict a person is if they were convicted of a felony, so the building’s owners allegedly enlisted the police for support in their displacement efforts. Gissler claimed upon learning this information, he went to his higher-ups who confirmed the plot.
“I go to my supervisors: Is this what the case is? And they looked at me like, what are you, stupid? Of course, why else would we be doing this?” he remembered.
Gissler, who had already made clear he would not “lock people up for minor drug stuff,” said the experience opened his eyes to realizing law enforcement as a ” shitty Mafia system.”
“I’m not even a political activist. But something about that smacks of institutional racism, right? I mean, there wasn’t a white person in this whole complex. Most of the renters were single Black girls who are just trying to, you know, make their way in the world” he wrote. “There was something about that that made me think now, when I clock into work, I’m not doing any good. I’m actually doing harm.”
According to the Mother Jones report, he relocated shortly after quitting after he alleged retaliation followed his leave departure from the APD. Claims of child abuse and animal abuse were made against him, in what Gissler said was an attempt to get him to stay.
In a statement provided to theGrio, the Atlanta Police Department said the area near Bedford Pine apartments was targeted strictly for its escalating crime.
“The 600 block of Parkway (near the apartment complex) has been an area well known for the sale of narcotics and other crime to include several shootings over the past year. Officers have been able to identify a lot of the vehicles parked in the roadway in front of the complex as a base of operation for the drug sales and other incidents. To combat this, APD in conjunction with the City of Atlanta designated the area a no parking zone. Multiple “No Parking” signs were put into place well in advance of any enforcement, with the date and time the new rules went into effect on each sign.”
Read More: Lawyers allege Breonna Taylor’s house was targeted because of gentrification plan
The statement continued “Only after this, were any parking tickets issued or any vehicles impounded. Additionally, we did partner with private security at the location to issue criminal trespass orders to non-residents that were suspected to be involved in the aforementioned crime. No orders to stop citizens and perform background checks for anyone standing on the sidewalks were given.”
According to Curbed Atlanta, in 2017, the first phase of an affordable 80-unit senior housing development, City Lights, was built down the street from the Bedford Pine apartments which are still advertising on Apartmentfinder.com. Apartments listed as nearby start at $1,000 and up. A second development next to City Lights, Station 464, a 96-unit affordable income building for families, is under construction.
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Police Sgt. Lamont Washington said in a news release Wednesday night that there would be an update when possible
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Police in Louisville, Kentucky, say an officer has been shot. It’s not clear if the officer was shot during the protests over a grand jury’s decision to bring no charges against police for the killing of Breonna Taylor during a drug raid gone wrong.
Police Sgt. Lamont Washington said in a news release Wednesday night that there would be an update when possible.
Protesters have been marching through the streets, scuffles have broken out between police and protesters, and some demonstrators were arrested.
Read More: Breonna Taylor grand jury indicts former officer Brett Hankison – but not directly for her death
Officers in riot gear fired flash bangs and a few small fires burned in a square that’s been at the center of protests, but it had largely cleared out ahead of a nighttime curfew and demonstrators marched through other parts of downtown Louisville.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky grand jury brought no charges against Louisville police for the killing of Breonna Taylor during a drug raid gone wrong, with prosecutors saying Wednesday that two officers who fired their weapons at the Black woman were justified in using force to protect themselves after they faced gunfire.
The only charges were three counts of wanton endangerment against fired Officer Brett Hankison for shooting into a home next to Taylor’s that had people in it. The FBI is still investigating potential violations of federal law in connection with the raid at Taylor’s home on the night of March 13.
Ben Crump, a lawyer for Taylor’s family, denounced the decision as “outrageous and offensive,” and protesters shouting, “No justice, no peace!” marched through the streets. Some sat quietly and wept.
Later, scuffles broke out between police and protesters, and some were arrested. Officers in riot gear fired flash bangs and a few small fires burned in a square that’s been at the center of protests, but it had largely cleared out ahead of a nighttime curfew and demonstrators marched through other parts of downtown Louisville.
“I just want to show my support — justice didn’t get done. So what else can we do?” said Leslie Tillis, 75, who cheered on protesters.
Demonstrators also marched in cities like New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Philadelphia.
Taylor, an emergency medical worker, was shot multiple times by white officers who entered her home on a no-knock warrant during a narcotics investigation. State Attorney General Daniel Cameron, however, said the investigation showed the officers announced themselves before entering. The warrant used to search her home was connected to a suspect who did not live there, and no drugs were found inside.
Along with the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, Taylor’s case became a major touchstone for nationwide protests that have drawn attention to entrenched racism and demanded police reform. Taylor’s image has been painted on streets, emblazoned on protest signs and silk-screened on T-shirts worn by celebrities. Several prominent African American celebrities joined those urging that the officers be charged.
The announcement drew sadness, frustration and anger that the grand jury did not go further. The wanton endangerment charges each carry a sentence of up to five years.
“To not indict the officers for murder is to claim #BreonnaTaylor killed herself. Racist America constantly kills Black people and then tells Black people we killed ourselves,” tweeted Ibram X. Kendi, director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University and the author of “How to Be an Antiracist.”
Morgan Julianna Lee, a high school student in Charlotte, North Carolina, watched the announcement at home.
“It’s almost like a slap in the face,” the 15-year-old said by phone. “If I, as a Black woman, ever need justice, I will never get it.”
Right after the decision, protesters began gathering in Louisville, with some preparing food and others bringing cases of water to “Injustice Square,” the park where people have demanded justice for Taylor.
While the rallies were largely peaceful, police in protective gear carrying batons mobilized in downtown, and some scuffles broke out. Officers could be seen handcuffing some people. Police also ordered a group that broke off from the protests to disperse, warning that chemical agents might be used if they didn’t.
Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, said he authorized a limited deployment of the National Guard. Guard members and armored military vehicles were in downtown Louisville, and streets were blocked off with barricades, fences and large trucks.
Beshear also urged Cameron, the state attorney general, to post online all the evidence that could be released without affecting the charges filed.
“Those that are currently feeling frustration, feeling hurt, they deserve to know more,” he said.
The case exposed the wide gulf between public opinion on justice for those who kill Black Americans and the laws under which those officers are charged, which regularly favor police and do not often result in steep criminal accusations.
At a news conference, Cameron spoke to that disconnect: “Criminal law is not meant to respond to every sorrow and grief.”
“But my heart breaks for the loss of Miss Taylor. … My mother, if something was to happen to me, would find it very hard,” he added, choking up.
But Cameron, who is the state’s first Black attorney general, said the officers acted in self-defense after Taylor’s boyfriend fired at them. He added that Hankison and the two other officers who entered Taylor’s apartment announced themselves before entering — and so did not execute the warrant as “no knock,” according to the investigation. The use of no-knock warrants has since been banned.
“According to Kentucky law, the use of force by (Officers Jonathan) Mattingly and (Myles) Cosgrove was justified to protect themselves,” he said. “This justification bars us from pursuing criminal charges in Miss Breonna Taylor’s death.”
Cameron said an FBI crime lab determined that Cosgrove fired the bullet that killed Taylor.
Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, opened fire when police burst in, hitting Mattingly. Walker was charged with attempted murder of a police officer, but prosecutors later dropped the charge.
Walker told police he heard knocking but didn’t know who was coming into the home and fired in self-defense.
Cameron, who is a Republican, is a protégé of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who has been tagged by some as his heir apparent. His was also one of 20 names on President Donald Trump’s list to fill a future Supreme Court vacancy.
At a news conference, Trump read a statement from Cameron saying “justice is not often easy.” He praised both Cameron’s handling of the case and the governor’s calling up of the National Guard.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden told reporters that he didn’t have enough information on the decision to comment fully but warned protesters to keep demonstrations peaceful.
“Do not sully her memory or her mother’s by engaging in any violence,” he said.
Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate and a former prosecutor, also told reporters she hadn’t fully read the decision.
Read More: Activists, politicians, celebs react to minimal charges in Breonna Taylor case
“But there’s no question that Breonna Taylor and her family deserved justice yesterday, today and tomorrow, so I’ll review it,” she said.
Hankison was fired on June 23. A termination letter sent to him by interim Louisville Police Chief Robert Schroeder said the white officer had violated procedures by showing “extreme indifference to the value of human life” when he “wantonly and blindly” fired his weapon.
Mattingly, Cosgrove and the detective who sought the warrant, Joshua Jaynes, were placed administrative reassignment.
Last week, the city settled a lawsuit against the three officers brought by Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, agreeing to pay her $12 million and enact police reforms.
___
Lovan reported from Frankfort, Kentucky. Associated Press writers Bruce Schreiner and Rebecca Reynolds Yonker in Louisville, Kentucky, Kevin Freking in Washington, Aaron Morrison in New York and Haleluya Hadero in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, contributed.
___
Hudsbeth Blackburn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
___
This story has been updated to clarify that, according to the investigation, officers did not execute the warrant as a no-knock warrant, not that they didn’t use a no-knock warrant.
___
This story has been edited to clarify that the shots fired by Hankison entered another home with people inside, not several homes.
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The city of Baltimore is ordered to pay a woman over $30K after they illegally took half of her police settlement, a federal judge ruled.
A federal judge has ruled the city of Baltimore must issue over $30K back to a woman after keeping half of a settlement she was awarded after an incident involving police officers.
Read More: Baltimore postal facility sat on 68,000 pieces of election mail for 5 days before primary
The Baltimore Sun reports that the city committed an “illegal act” when it took $31,500 from Ashley Overbey Underwood after she settled a lawsuit and then spoke out publicly about allegations that police beat her. The judge ruled she must be refunded the full amount plus 6% annual interest.
“The seeming inference is that their illegal act should not be undone simply because no one thought, or even suspected, it was illegal at the time,” wrote U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow. “Just as ‘strong public interests’ render the clause unenforceable, those interests counsel against allowing the City to keep the fruits of such improper enforcement.”
In 2012, Underwood accused three police officers of beating, tasing, and verbally abusing her, resulting in her arrest, after she called 911 to report a burglary, according to the Sun. The case was settled in 2014 for the full amount of $63K. After the original settlement, the woman responded to accusations that she initiated the arrest in order to get money and shared her story on the internet. The city then held half of her settlement, claiming she violated a “non-disparagement clause” in a gag order.
In 2019, the Baltimore City Council unanimously passed a bill that banned gag orders in cases involving city settlements for police brutality and discrimination cases. Following that decision, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the city’s use of them was unconstitutional.
After the judge ruled in favor of Overbey Underwood to be repaid, The American Civil Liberties Union and the Baltimore Brew, who both joined the lawsuit, called the order a step forward for free speech, especially for Black people as police violence and anti-racism continues to dominate national conversations.
“It’s been hurtful to see and hear so many horrible things that happened,” Overbey Underwood said in a statement released by the ACLU of Maryland according to the Baltimore Sun. She continues, “But at the end of the day, it’s been amazing that we as a people stood together and was able to stand up to the bullies. If you have anything unjustly done to you, don’t give up, no matter how big that bully is.”
Baltimore City Solicitor Dana Moore said the city will not appeal the decision.
Read More: Independent autopsy finds Dijon Kizzee shot 15 times by LA deputies
“This order finally brings about well-deserved resolution for Ms. Underwood, who, throughout this long ordeal, never wavered in her commitment to fundamental free speech rights, notwithstanding the City’s bullying and thievery,” said Deborah Jeon, Legal Director for the ACLU of Maryland to the Baltimore Sun.
The post Baltimore illegally took partial police settlement from woman, judge says appeared first on TheGrio.
Trump told reporters today that he predicts the election will have to be decided in the Supreme Court
It doesn’t appear that President Donald Trump is going to let a potential Joe Biden victory keep him from remaining in the White House for four more years. The Atlantic reported on Wednesday in a preview of its November issue, that the nation’s sitting president could be looking for a way to bypass any Biden victory, which he seemingly confirmed during a press conference shortly thereafter.
Read More: Breonna Taylor grand jury indicts former officer Brett Hankison – but not directly for her death
The Atlantic’s Barton Gellman says that political and legal experts see a chaotic election despite the official results because of the extraordinary things that have taken place already this year, including a pandemic and Trump appointee Louis DeJoy’s attempted dismantling of the Postal Service in order, many believe, to prevent mail-in voting. During the year’s primaries, troubling reports of voter suppression emerged, with long lines in several states, most notably in the Georgia Democratic presidential primary in June.
“We could well see a protracted postelection struggle in the courts and the streets if the results are close,” Richard L. Hasen, a professor at the UC Irvine School of Law and author of the book called “Election Meltdown” told The Atlantic. “The kind of election meltdown we could see would be much worse than 2000’s Bush v. Gore case.”
In a press conference Wednesday, Trump seemed to confirm that he wouldn’t take an election loss at face value. When directly asked by a reporter at the White House presser if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power, he was vague.
“We’ll have to see what happens,” Trump said. “I’ve been complaining about the ballots. The ballots are a disaster. Get rid of the ballots and there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation. The ballots are out of control and you know who knows it better than anyone else, the Democrats.”
As reported by The Associated Press, when asked about appointing a Supreme Court justice to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who succumbed to cancer last week at 87, Trump said he thinks the election “will end up in the Supreme Court,” adding, “I think it’s important we have nine justices.”
He continued, “I think it’s better if you go before the election.”
In 2016, Republicans objected to Obama appointing the next Supreme Court justice when Antonin Scalia died 237 days before the 2016 presidential election. Obama ultimately did not appoint a new justice and the Senate refused to advance the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland, the candidate he chose. Ginsberg died 46 days before the 2020 election and she has been quoted as saying she didn’t want to be replaced until the next president took office.
Unless Biden has an overwhelming victory over Trump and even then, Trump and his allies could find ways to delay the election based on the ambiguities in multiple areas of the election process and the Electoral College Act, which at its most basic, mandates that whoever is in front by Dec. 14 in an election year wins the election, Gellman writes. This is separate from the Electoral College, which determines elections based on electoral votes in each state.
As most of us know by now, it takes 270 electoral votes to win the election regardless of the popular vote. In multiple states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida, where Biden and Trump could be close, there may be pressure applied on electors to give those votes to Trump. Mail-in and provisional ballots would still need to be counted and could delay Biden’s ability to take office as the president-elect by Jan. 20 of 2021, which is when the constitution mandates a new president must take office.
However, citing previous presidential election precedent, it would be unlikely that the Electoral College Act plays a role in the next election unless the race is close.
Read More: Judge orders Eric Trump to testify before Election Day
“So much will have had to go wrong at so many other stages of the process to get to a point where everything is coming down to conflicting interpreting of the Electoral Count Act,” Michael Morley, a professor at Florida State University College of Law, told The Atlantic. “You would have to have a lot of political actors playing constitutional hardball in circumstances where they had serious claims to back them up.”
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The Minnesota representative and member of ‘The Squad’ has been an American citizen for 20 years.
At a campaign rally in Pennsylvania Tuesday, President Donald Trump attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar, asking rhetorically of her, “How is your country doing?”
The congresswoman responded later the same day on Twitter, saying, “Firstly, this is my country & I am a member of the House that impeached you.”
“Secondly, I fled civil war when I was 8,” she continued. “An 8-year-old doesn’t run a country even though you run our country like one.”
The Minnesota representative has been an American citizen for 20 years.
The comments were the latest attack on Omar and other members of “The Squad,” which includes Omar and her congressional colleagues, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.)
Read More: Trump mocks Rep. Ilhan Omar in speech before Jewish Republican Group
“We’re going win the state of Minnesota because of her, they say,” Trump said of Omar. “She’s telling us how to run our country. How did you do where you came from?”
The inflammatory remarks were well-received by Trump’s crowd of faithful supporters, who cheered.
In a second tweet, Omar said, “These cult-like rallies have me wondering one thing:” and added a GIF from the movie Mean Girls, which read, “Why are you so obsessed with me?”
Read More: Crowd chants ‘fill that seat’ at Ohio rally as Trump reaffirms court plans
While Trump vowed that he would win Minnesota, recent polls show otherwise. Democratic nominee Joe Biden is leading in the state by 10 percentage points.
The president also attacked Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, implying that she isn’t intelligent. He said that she wasn’t a “good student” and that she isn’t a “good anything, but she’s got a good line of crap.”
“We don’t need socialists,” he said, “and we don’t need communists telling us how to run our country.”
Read More: Rep. Ilhan Omar defeats Democratic primary challenger
In 2019, the president tweeted that the four progressive representatives should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” All four women are U.S. citizens, and only Omar was born outside of the United States.
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In this quick article, you will learn how to solve the “ERROR 1130 (HY000): Host x.x.x.x is not allowed to connect to this MySQL server” error in MySQL/MariaDB database deployment on a Linux system.
The post How to Fix ERROR 1130 (HY000): Host is not allowed to connect to this MySQL server first appeared on Tecmint: Linux Howtos, Tutorials & Guides.
‘There is no one out there who knows my brother’s story like I do.’
A miniseries is in the works about late R&B music icon Rick James and his brother LeRoi Johnson, titled My Brother’s Keeper.
Johnson is collaborating on the project with filmmaker Addison Henderson, Shadow and Act reports. The film will chronicle the brothers’ early days in the projects of Buffalo, New York to their personal triumphs and success.
Henderson announced My Brother’s Keeper at a press conference on Sept 18, ahead of a screening of his new feature film, G.O.D. (Givers of Death), which won the Best Screenplay award at this year’s American Black Film Festival.
Read More: Rick James’ daughter throws massive party in suburban Atlanta and neighbors are pissed
“It’s about their lives and how tragedy and triumph set them apart. It’s also about how tragedy brought them together and made them more than they could ever be alone,” Henderson said of My Brother’s Keeper.
The official description:
Growing up, the brothers could not have taken more different paths. Rick became a celebrated singer-songwriter, musician, and producer best known for hit songs Super Freak and Mary Jane. And LeRoi, a Georgetown Law graduate, pursued a legal career and worked his way up the political ladder in Washington, DC. No stranger to controversy and always ready to challenge the establishment, Rick rose to musical fame by doing things his own way. Behind the scenes, LeRoi was right there using his business and legal skills to support Rick and guide his career over the decades.
The project is especially significant for Henderson and Johnson because their families have known each since the 1940s.
“There is a strong connection between myself and Addison that goes back to his father and my grandfather which makes this right,” Johnson said. “I’ve been feeding him history on what went on with myself and my brother and he would come back after he wrote something and we would work it. The main thing is that everything has to be real and true to life.”
Read More: Lifetime set to begin production on Wendy Williams biopic
Johnson chose Henderson to helm the miniseries because “he has the skills and qualities of the producer and director that are needed for this project. He has the talent, drive and ability to do a series of this importance.”
“There is no one out there, period, who knows my brother’s story like I do. People know pieces, but no one knows the full story,” he added.
Henderson said he spent “many hours over the past year and a half with LeRoi soaking up the stories and turning them into a storyline for a film.”
Adding, “But there ended up being so much to tell, so many dynamic moments in these brothers’ lives, the script evolved into a seven-episode mini-series. I feel like this partnership with LeRoi was destined to happen. Our family history and the years I have invested in perfecting my craft has led me to this moment.”
Production on My Brother’s Keeper is slated to start in 2021 in Buffalo, New York.
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