A Gallup survey released this year found that 71% of Americans oppose building artificial intelligence data centers in their own communities, including nearly half who strongly oppose them. Those surveyed most often pointed to concerns about electricity demand, water consumption, environmental impacts, and higher utility bills. Supporters cited economic growth, tax revenue, and employment opportunities.

Once, not so long ago, the United States promised to place Harriet Tubman’s face on the $20 bill. It was more than a design change; it was to be an act of national recognition, an admission that greatness in America has never belonged solely to those who wrote its laws or commanded its armies, but to those who broke its chains.

In filings announced by the Stand With Karmelo Coalition, Anthony’s appellate attorneys submitted a verified motion seeking to recuse Judge John Roach from all remaining post-trial matters. They also filed a motion for a new trial that raises constitutional and legal questions they contend should be considered by a different judge.

Nationally, the Urban Institute projects that the legislation will reduce federal SNAP spending by $186 billion over the next decade and affect all 22.3 million families receiving SNAP benefits. Of those, 5.3 million families are expected to lose at least $25 a month, with an average monthly reduction of $146.

While Americans broadly view the anniversary as a time for unity, Black respondents were significantly more likely to say the country has yet to fulfill its promise of equality and justice.

AI is not neutral. It is shaped by the priorities, blind spots, and cultural defaults of its creators. ChatGPT recommended the death penalty more often when defendants sounded Black.

Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence’s assertion that “all men are created equal” while enslaving hundreds of people at Monticello. The Constitution established democratic principles while permitting slavery. After the Civil War, formerly enslaved Americans were promised 40 acres and a mule as part of an effort to build economic independence, only to see those commitments abandoned.

I thought about that recently while listening to speeches celebrating the nation's 250th anniversary, watching politicians wrap themselves in flags and founders, and hearing Michelle Obama stand before thousands at the opening of the Obama Presidential Center and describe it as "a living testament to the power of choice" and "an urgent call to go out there and do it again."

The losses have alarmed anti-hunger advocates because SNAP is often the doorway to other nutrition programs. When children lose food assistance, many families face additional obstacles obtaining free school meals, WIC benefits, and other support designed to keep hunger from disrupting a child’s health and education.

But for many Black Americans, the anniversary has become something else entirely. Rather than celebrating 250 years of freedom, they are asking whether the nation has fully delivered on promises made in 1776 while millions of Africans remained enslaved and generations of their descendants continued to fight for rights guaranteed to others.

A viral toy marketed as a stress-relief doll has drawn condemnation from Black advocates, mental health professionals, and historians after videos circulating on Chinese social media showed users stomping, stretching, slapping, and even boiling a Black baby doll for entertainment.

A coalition of Democratic senators are asking a federal appeals court to overturn a decision they say threatens the foundation of the modern federal workforce, warning that millions of government employees could lose long-standing protections against politically motivated firings.

That is one of the clearest harms of cash bail. A person can be presumed innocent and still have their life disrupted immediately. A bond amount can decide whether someone waits for court at home or in a jail cell. That decision can affect employment, parenting, family stability, and the ability to participate in one’s own defense.

The Labor Department reported that the Consumer Price Index rose 0.6% in April and 3.8% over the previous 12 months, marking one of the strongest inflation readings in more than a year.

Donald Trump’s second presidency is littered with the firing of Black leaders, the dismantling of civil rights protections, the gutting of federal jobs that helped build the Black middle class, attacks on Black history and diversity programs, and even the public circulation of racist imagery depicting America’s first Black president and first lady as apes.

A country that once made it illegal to teach enslaved Black people to read is now arguing over whether Black history itself belongs in classrooms.

When it comes to Michael Jackson, America has buried him, resurrected him, accused him, acquitted him, mocked him, studied him, danced to him, stolen from him, and now once again made him the center of popular culture.

Sounding the alarm in 1998, Camille Cosby warned that the Voting Rights Act, which President Lyndon B. Johnson signed in 1965, was set to expire in 2007. Now, the high court has completed gutted the law.

A Gallup survey conducted April 1–15 found that 31% of Americans identify the high cost of living and inflation as the most important financial problem facing their families, making it the most frequently cited concern by a wide margin.