Gabe's Musings

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Democrat Julián Castro drops out of 2020 presidential race

PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Former Obama housing secretary Julián Castro on Thursday ended his run for president that pushed the 2020 field on immigration and swung hard at rivals on the debate stage but never found a foothold to climb from the back of the pack.

“I’m so proud of the campaign we’ve run together. We’ve shaped the conversation on so many important issues in this race, stood up for the most vulnerable people, and given a voice to those who are often forgotten,” Castro said in an online video. “But with only a month until the Iowa caucuses, and given the circumstances of this campaign season, I have determined that it simply isn’t our time.”

The video continues, “So today it’s with a heavy heart and with profound gratitude, that I will suspend my campaign for president. To all who have been inspired by our campaign, especially our young people, keep reaching for your dreams — and keep fighting for what you believe in.” It concludes, “¡Ganaremos un día!” — which translates to “We will win one day!”
Castro, who launched his campaign in January, dropped out after failing to garner enough support in the polls or donations to make recent Democratic debates. A former San Antonio mayor who was the only Latino in the race, Castro had stalled for most of his campaign around 1% in polls and entered October low on money.

Castro, 45, was among the youngest in the running at a moment when the party’s ascendant left wing is demanding generational change. And as the grandson of a Mexican immigrant, Castro said he recognized the meaning of his candidacy in the face of President Donald Trump’s inflammatory anti-immigrant rhetoric and hardline policies on the U.S.-Mexico border.

But he labored not to be pigeonholed as a single-issue candidate. Castro made the attention-getting choice of Puerto Rico as his first campaign stop, recited the names of black victims killed in high-profile police shootings and was the first in the field to call for Trump’s impeachment.

But his sagging poll numbers never budged. He was often eclipsed by another Texan in the race who dropped out this fall, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, and another young former mayor, Pete Buttigieg of South Bend. His campaign and supporters, meanwhile, grumbled that Castro didn’t get due credit for taking out-front positions.

Trying to show he could go to-to-toe with Trump, Castro swung for big moments on debate stages, and flirted with a much-needed breakout in June after confronting O’Rourke over not supporting decriminalization of illegal border crossings.

But turning his sights on Biden on a later stage brought swift backlash. During the September debate in Houston, Castro appeared to touch on concerns about the age of the then-76-year-old former vice president and added a parting shot at him.

“I’m fulfilling the legacy of Barack Obama, and you’re not,” Castro said.

Castro — who was Obama’s housing secretary in his second term — denied taking a personal dig at Biden as others in the field condemned the exchange. Three days later, Castro lost one of his three backers in Congress, Rep. Vicente González of Texas, who switched his endorsement to Biden.

Castro had warned supporters in a fundraising appeal that failing to make the November debate stage would spell the end of his campaign. He needed to hit at least 3 percent polling in four early state or national polls but didn’t get even one.

What is next for Castro is unclear. Back home in Texas, Democrats had long viewed Castro as their biggest star in waiting and some have urged him to run for governor as the state trends more diverse and liberal.

Castro was pegged as a rising Democratic star after being elected as mayor of the nation’s seventh-largest city at age 34, and he was on the short list for Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016. But he swa
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Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/pauljweber

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Somalia attack: Demonstrations held in Mogadishu

Mogadishu resident took part in a government-led protest against militant group al-Shabab.

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Annual Kwanzaa Crawl Brings $250,000 to Black Businesses in New York City

Let’s support black businesses through libations! According to The Root, the annual Kwanzaa Crawl helps generate $250,000 for black businesses in Brooklyn and Harlem in New York City.

Kwanzaa, the week-long holiday celebrating black culture, heritage, and family, is the theme for the yearly bar crawl that takes place in New York City in the neighborhood of Harlem and the borough of Brooklyn. New York’s fourth annual Kwanzaa Crawl kicked off with a ceremony recognizing the holiday’s seven core principals of African heritage that include unity, self-determination, and purpose.

As listed on the Kwanzaa Crawl website, The crawl is “a one-day event that brings people of the African diaspora together to support Black-owned businesses in their communities. Heading into our 4th annual year, we have hosted over 8,000 crawlers. We’ve expanded from 17 Black-owned businesses in Brooklyn in our inaugural year to over 30 businesses in Brooklyn and Harlem, last year, cumulatively raising over $250,000 for these businesses.”

The Kwanzaa Crawl was conceived by sisters Kerry Coddett and Krystal Stark who aim to demonstrate the black buying power while operating under the seven principles of Kwanzaa. It also brings awareness to black-owned businesses while supporting the local black economy in the process.

The Kwanzaa Crawl takes place on the first day of the holiday based on the principle of Umoja: Unity: To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race. This year’s theme was “Black to the Future.”

“Half of the business we collaborate with are women-led. Last year, we had over 4,100 Crawlers generate over $250,000 in one day for participating businesses. This year we expect about 5,000 participants to take the streets to build community and economic empowerment in real time.”

Picture this: crawlers are divided into 65 teams each led by a “turnt” tour guide with a music-playing bullhorn, 5,000 people round-robin from bar to bar, in two different boroughs, at the same exact time. Teams split up, criss-cross, and join up to make bigger ones in an 8-hour day full of fun.” Coddett and Stark told The Root.

“We think it’s important to keep the ‘Kwanzaa’ in the Kwanzaa Crawl, because it’s not just a bar crawl, it’s not JUST about partying,” says Krystal. “So we start with setting intentions, letting [the crawlers] know about Kwanzaa, letting them know how this crawl relates to Kwanzaa, and how they can carry out the principles throughout the rest of the year and not just a one-day event,” adds Stark.

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Wedding proposal at KFC ends in dream South African wedding for deserving couple

A wedding proposal at a Kentucky Fried Chicken captured in a viral video landed a South African couple their dream wedding.

Hector Mkansi, 37, and Nonhlanhla Soldaat, 28, were nearly done eating at a KFC in South Africa when Mkansi got down on one knee in November and popped the question, according to the Twitter page for KFC South Africa. KFC is one of Soldaat’s favorite places to dine so Mkansi said the decision to propose there felt natural, added CNN.

That moment was captured by someone at KFC who posted the video online under the hashtag #KFCProposal. Since then, vendors lined up to ensure the couple received their fairytale wedding, and it appears they did, according to KFC South Africa.

Mzansi please help us find this beautiful couple, re batla ho ba blesser 😊 DM us any leads, there might be a Finger Lickin’ Good surprise in it for you too. Batho ba Vaal re thuseng! We love love 😍❤️ #KFCProposal pic.twitter.com/6bj89dtj4j

— KFC South Africa (@KFCSA) November 7, 2019

“We are still in disbelief, both of us have to ask each other if this is really happening from time to time. We couldn’t be more grateful to God and every single person that has shared in our little love story,” Mkansi, who works as a pastor, told CNN.

The couple met in 2010 at a funeral but almost instantly fell in love. They actually got married in a small ceremony in 2012, but Mkansi wanted a grander affair for his bride.

“In 2011 our families began lobola negotiations (dowry) and in 2012 we got married in a small traditional ceremony as that was all we could afford at the time… We had the ceremony but I knew this wasn’t what my wife and I wanted,” Mkansi said, according to CNN.

Mkansi said he wasn’t pleased with the rings he and his wife had, so he decided to spring for an upgrade and propose to her at her favorite dining spot, KFC.

“The team at the restaurant was surprised at the request but they were helpful in creating the big moment. We received our meals and when she looked inside, she found the rings and that’s when I went down on my knee,” he told CNN in the interview.

KFC, Uber, Audi were just some of the vendors who chipped in to help the couple realize their loveliest dream wedding – but the list was massive, from jewelry and spa vendors to free honeymoon flights.

“Our dream has come true, we never in a million years thought something like this would happen to us,” Mkansi said of it all.

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Marijuana in now legal in Illinois for recreational purposes for adults

Illinois became the 11th state to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes for adults on New Year’s Day.

Dispensaries started selling weed at 6 a.m., and hundreds of people lined up before sunrise at the chance to purchase it, including Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, according to CNN.

Stratton went to Sunnyside Dispensary and purchased a 100-milligram container of Mindy’s Edibles Glazed Clementine Orange Gummies, according to a statement released by Joe Caltabiano, the co-founder, and president of Cresco Labs reported CNN. In the statement, Caltabiano added that each gummy is 5 milligrams, a “very popular microdose for beginning edible consumers.”

After her purchase, Stratton took to Twitter to thank Gov. J. B. Pritzker for granting more than 11,000 pardons for low-level marijuana offenses before the law went into effect.

“For too long, IL residents, particularly those that are black & brown, have been targeted and criminalized for #cannabis possession,” Stratton tweeted. She said Jan. 1 marked “a new day” and she thanked Pritzker for “ending prohibition and building a more equitable Illinois.”

I’m grateful for the leadership of @SenatorSteans, @RepKellyCassidy, @ToiHutchinson, @RepJGB and members of the General Assembly who worked tirelessly to make this day possible. Thank you!

This is just the beginning, but we are headed in the right direction. #testorativejustice

— Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton (@LtGovStratton) January 1, 2020

In pardoning inmates with the marijuana offenses, Pritzker said the war on marijuana had unfairly resulted in a disproportionate number of Black and Latino incarcerations.

“The war on cannabis has destroyed families. It has filled jails and prisons with nonviolent offenders. It has disproportionately affected black and brown communities,” Pritzker said at a press conference Tuesday, according to CNN.

As a result of Illinois’ new law, residents who are 21 and older can possess up to 30 grams of marijuana, five grams of cannabis concentrate and up to 500 milligrams of edible THC, reported The Hill. Visitors to the state can possess half these amounts.

One city is taking that notion of restorative justice a step further. In Evanston, Il., Alderman Robin Rue Simmons has worked to pass a resolution to create a reparations fund for Black residents off of the revenue generated from the sale of cannabis in the suburb.

The Chicago Tribune reported that the reparations fund is the first of its kind in the country, and with recreational adult use of marijuana becoming legal in Illinois on Jan. 1, Evanston is expecting to put away 100 percent of the tax revenue from marijuana sales into the fund. The city hoped to cap the account at $10 million to help Black residents stay in the city, provide job training among other benefits.

So far, 43 marijuana dispensaries have received the go-ahead from the state to sell the cannabis products.

In addition to Illinois, recreational adult use of marijuana is legal in Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Vermont. More than 30 states allow marijuana to be sold for medical purposes.

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Whales Help Explain the Evolutionary Mystery of Menopause

Like humans, female killer whales stop reproducing decades before the end of their lifespan. Grandmothers might show why.

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Rutgers women’s basketball coach sends condolences to Don Imus’ family

Vivian Stringer, Rutgers women’s Hall of Fame basketball coach, is letting bygones be bygones by offering up prayers to the family of radio shock jock, Don Imus.

“The Rutgers family has found peace through the years, and we are proud of our response to the hateful words that he had years ago,” Stringer told the media Tuesday following Rutgers’ loss to Indiana, reading from prepared remarks. “As African-American women, we don’t feel that we should be treated ― or anyone else should be treated ― like that.”

Imus, who died from lung cancer last week, created a firestorm in 2007 when he called the Black players on the Scarlet Knights team “nappy-headed hos.” The comment was made after Rutgers was defeated by Tennessee in that year’s NCAA championship game. As a result of his comment, Imus was fired from his radio show and MSNBC.

Stringer said she hasn’t thought about the remarks in recent years, but that she feels Imus, 79, was remorseful. Imus requested a meeting with Stringer and the team to apologize for the things that he said on his show about them. It was then that he admitted that his words were “completely inappropriate,” “thoughtless and stupid,” according to media outlets.

Stringer said she also recalls Imus telling a reporter at that meeting that he “didn’t come to save my job, I came to save my soul.”

“He genuinely felt, I think, remorse for the words he said,” Stringer said, according to The New York Daily News. “Everybody makes mistakes and says things that they shouldn’t say. I think that our players learned a lot from that, and I’m proud of them and our basketball team.”

Stringer pointed out that this doesn’t mean that Imus’ words didn’t cut deep. “To say that it didn’t hurt is not true,” she said. However, she said her team chose to forgive Imus and that they send their condolences to his family.

“We accept it,” Stringer said. “And we move forward.”

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Cities Struggle to Boost Ridership With ‘Uber for Transit’ Schemes

Helsinki, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Singapore, and other metros have been experimenting with on-demand buses—and not seeing a lot of success.

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Kenya bus attack: Three killed in Lamu county

The gunmen who targeted the bus, travelling close to the Somali border, have not been identified.

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This Woman is a C-suite Exec of the First Equity and Debt Crowdfunding Platform in Illinois

When Florence Hardy started helping business owners obtain licenses as a business consultant for the City of Chicago, she noticed that many were struggling in two main areas: legal and fundraising.

This inspired Hardy to enroll in law school so she would be able to answer her clients’ most pressing legal questions. After navigating the legal environment, Hardy’s next step was finding a solution to the funding dilemma that left people who were seeking $10K–$100K in capital stranded on the sidelines.

Well, the timing was perfect. President Obama had just signed the JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act into law in 2012. This expanded funding opportunities for small businesses by allowing more individuals to invest in private companies. Previously, these rights were restricted to accredited investors— individuals who have at least $1 million net worth (excluding the value of the personal residence) or individuals who have over $200K net income or couples with over $300K net income for the last two years.

As Hardy increased her knowledge of funding opportunities for small business owners, The CROWDFUND ACT or Title II of the JOBS ACT, went into effect into 2013 allowing crowdfunding platforms to serve as a resource for startups and small businesses who were seeking non-traditional funding. Capital could now be obtained from non-accredited investors via debt or equity stakes in their businesses.

This new law provided Hardy with the perfect opportunity to cater to a market of business owners who were overlooked by venture capitalists and become the chief equity officer at truCrowd Illinois. Black Enterprise sat down with Hardy to discuss her rise and how crowdfunding works.

How did you become the chief equity officer of the first crowdfunding platform in Illinois?

When the JOBS Act passed in 2012, it opened doors for more people to invest and get funding. I started doing more research to start my own platform when I came across truCrowd. I researched the founder and after meeting with him, we thought it would be great if I joined the team. For the first two years, I volunteered with the company and did all the speaking engagements and pitch competitions. In 2017, he said ‘You’re doing great work. Why don’t you take over Illinois and see what you can do with it?’ That’s how I got into this.

How does your crowdfunding platform work?

The platform facilitates transactions but I always tell my business owners ‘we don’t find you funding but we provide a mechanism by which if you have a good idea and are looking for funding, you can find potential investors and facilitate the transactions so you can actually get the money from them.’ It can be an expensive endeavor to transfer the funds from one person to a business so we make that process easier.

When someone comes on our platform, they need to decide if they are going to be an investor or business owner or launch a campaign. There are some limitations to what a campaign can raise although those limitations are high in Illinois. For example, a campaign can raise up to $4 million in a 12-month period. On average, we’re seeing that $250,000 is the maximum amount raised so far but that’s only because it’s a new concept. People don’t know it exists and we are trying to build trust in the process.

On the other side, investors do have limitations on how much they can invest. In Illinois, that limitation is $5,000 per company. Crowdfunding platforms really provide an opportunity for individuals who have money available for investing to hold a substantial stake in a startup.

How do you help individuals get comfortable with the risk associated with investing in start-ups?

We try to disclose all the possible risks so that people who are investing have a complete story about what might happen with these funds once the business gets started. This is a risky process as is all investing so we highlight what those risks may be.

We also make sure business owners who are raising money are transparent about their processes. We try to put processes in place where business owners are very communicative about what’s happening with the company. We are not in a position to mandate but we do suggest that business owners who are raising funds contact investors at least once a month with good or bad news because they have a fiduciary duty to those investors. We encourage regular engagement to counteract these risks that are inherently a part of investing in a startup.

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Mind Control for the Masses—No Implant Needed

A wave of startups wants to make brain-computer interfaces accessible without needing surgery. Just strap on the device and think.

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Arsenal 2-0 Man Utd: Gunners secure first win under Mikel Arteta

Mikel Arteta earns his first win as Arsenal boss as the Gunners produce a powerful first-half performance to beat a lacklustre Manchester United.

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Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Vanity Fair writer mocks 7-year-old Blue Ivy Carter for looking like her father Jay-Z

While most of us started the new year resolving to do better, one journalist committed himself to just doing it all wrong.

In a since-deleted tweet, Vanity Fair film critic, K. Austin Collins, attacked 7-year-old Blue Ivy Carter, daughter of Beyonce and Jay-Z, for having the audacity to look like her rapper father.

“I have a feeling the jay z face genes are about to really hit Blue Ivy and I feel so sorry for her,” Collins tweeted.

The tweet comes after Beyonce posted a photo and video of Blue Ivy as part of her end of year recap.

View this post on Instagram

Happy 2020 🤘🏽 @beyonce

A post shared by Hot Girl Meg (@theestallion) on Jan 1, 2020 at 9:59am PST

WATCH: Jay-Z reveals ‘the most beautiful thing’ Blue Ivy ever said to him

Collins’ cruel joke was co-signed by journalist, Violet Lucca, who works at Harper’s Magazine.

“Or she’ll just get plastic surgery at 16 a la Kylie Jenner and we’ll all have to pretend that she always looked that way. I can’t allow myself to feel too sorry for the incredibly rich!” Lucca replied.

Collins is Black and Lucca is white.

The internet was quick to clap back at Collins and call him out for the offensive tweet, while also highlighting the inherent anti-Black implications of his message.

“These are not children being rude. @melvillmatic & @unbuttonmyeyes are two full grown adults in positions of cultural influence who decided that they wanted to start the year by attacking a child. Later, when the mealy mouthed apologies come, I want you to think about this choice,” tweeted author Mikki Kendall.

Attacks on celebrity children are nothing new, but Blue Ivy Carter has routinely been attacked for everything from her natural hair to her facial features.

Bobbi Kristina Brown’s former boyfriend, Nick Gordon dead at 30

Nick Gordon has died of an apparent drug overdose.

The 30-year-old best known for his relationship with the late Bobbi Kristina Brown reportedly died in Florida on New Year’s Day.

Gordon’s brother, Jack Walker, Jr. confirmed the news on Wednesday.

“We are devastated by the loss of my beautiful brother,” Walker Jr. told PEOPLE in a statement. “He leaves a void in the hearts of my family and his friends. Nick’s battle in life was not an easy one. I will be forever grateful that my God afforded a small moment at the very end of Nick’s life, and I was able to hold his hand as he journeyed on.”

Nick Gordon opens up about Bobbi Kristina’s death

Sources told The Daily Mail he suffered several heart attacks before being rushed to Altamonte Springs Hospital where he was treated in the ICU before he died.

The news comes three years after Gordon was found liable for Brown’s untimely death in a wrongful death suit and ordered to pay her estate $36 million. The daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown was found unresponsive and inconscious in a bathtub at the townhouse she shared with Gordon.

His brother shared his sorrow in a series of social media posts.

“GOD WHY I DID I HAVE TO LOSE MY BROTHER ON NEW YEARS,” he wrote. “All I can do is cry.”

Nick Gordon arrested for domestic battery against girlfriend

“I love you so much big brother I hope you heard me talking to you at your bedside you are with me and I can feel it I love you I love you I love you watch over me and your nieces,” he continued.

“S— wasn’t suppose to go like this … you were [my] best friend and I never in a million years thought I’d be writing this for my ACE I was there through every step we all love you no matter what and we’ll all stay strong for you , New Years didn’t have to start like this and you just told me you HAD to see me for New Years but I’m blessed I got to talk to you last night you will forever be my best friend nobody will ever take your place.”

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Letter from Africa: Gambia's code of the road

Find out how to survive if you go behind in the wheel in a country where driving can be chaotic.

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#BlackExcellence: Eddie Murphy to receive Lifetime Achievement Award

If you thought Eddie Murphy‘s epic comeback was over, think again!

On Monday, the Critics Choice Association announced that Murphy would be receiving their coveted Lifetime Achievement Award during the 25th Annual Critics’ Choice Awards. This award is just the icing on the cake of a critically acclaimed comeback for the legendary comedian and actor.

Murphy, who got his big break on Saturday Night Live in the 80s, took full advantage of 2019. In addition to beginning filming on the highly anticipated sequel to the classic Coming to America, Murphy also transformed into comedic legend Rudy Ray Moore in the hit Netflix film Dolemite Is My Name. According to Entertainment Tonight, he has already scored Best Actor nominations at both the Critics Choice Awards and the upcoming Golden Globes.

This is not Murphy’s first time finding success during the awards season. In 2007, he was nominated for an Oscar for his acclaimed performance in Dreamgirls. That year, he scored a Golden Globe.

The actor made huge waves in December when he made his return to SNL for the first time in 35 years. During the episode, fans had the opportunity to see Murphy bring back some of his most memorable characters from his initial run on the show. Murphy’s performance during SNL‘s final episode of the year gave the show its highest ratings in years.

During his comeback, Murphy has also found himself confronting controversies from his past, including homophobic jokes he told during some of his stand-ups. In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Murphy expressed remorse for the jokes.

“Some of it. Some of it, I cringe when I watch,” he said. “I’m like, oh my God, I can’t believe I said that!”

The comedian went on to say that they were a product of the time and that he was “just a kid,” saying those things.

The 25th Annual Critics’ Choice Awards is set to air on Sunday, Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. on the CW network.

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New law could protect social media users’ data around the country

At the stroke of midnight on Jan. 1, a new law went into effect that is aimed at protecting consumer information from big companies; with more and more social media users concerned about how their data is being used, this California-based law could be a model that leads to more widespread change across the country.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is now live and its purpose is to hold more companies accountable for how they use consumer data. One of the most notable companies to have problems in this area is Facebook.

Early in December, over 267 million Facebook users’ information was exposed in yet another data breach. According to CBS New York, on Dec. 14, it was found that the names, phone numbers, and Facebook user IDs had been compromised. This was not the first time. In March, CBS reported that the social media giant also confessed that for years, many of their employees could read user passwords in plain text.

According to CNET, when it comes to social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others, the CCPA would limit the amount of data they can collect and may provide incentive for them to be more clear on how they use this information.

According to Yahoo, the bill also creates a host of new legal obligations for companies that share, collect and sell the data of more than 50,000 people and generated revenue of more than $25 million in the preceding year. This factor means that the law goes beyond big tech companies like Facebook and would also apply to companies like Home Depot and Walmart that use loyalty cards.

“The CCPA always started as a, basically, a private [Freedom of Information Act] request, so that you could go to a business and actually find out, not in legalese, but in plain English, what they are collecting about you,” Mary Stone Ross, a cybersecurity expert that helped CCPA, said.

Consumers will have the ability to opt-out of having their data shared and they will have access to information on how these companies use their data.

The main stipulation is that all the companies and consumers have to be based in California. But according to Yahoo, several companies have come forward and vowed to expand these California-specific protections to customers across the country.

“In order to provide a consistent experience to all of our customers, we plan to provide to all of our U.S. customers the data access and data deletion request processes that we provide to California customers under CCPA,” an Amazon spokesperson told Yahoo.

Microsoft, Apple, and Google have also expressed interest in giving these protections to consumers across the U.S.

Some companies fear the new law would be confusing to consumers and cause an unnecessary burden to many businesses. Some believe the CCPA does not do enough to protect consumers. Yahoo reported that individual customers would not be able to go toe-to-toe with companies they feel violated the law; the California Attorney General Xavier Becerra would have to determine whether or not to take action, for which Becerra would then pursue.

Becerra has said that he would only be able to handle three CCPA cases a year, but consumers do have the right to sue companies on an individual basis.

It is unclear if other states will follow suit, but what is apparent is that with many concerns about consumer privacy and data usage growing, the CCPA is a major milestone that may lay the groundwork for major change.

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Why New Year’s Day was no holiday for Black people during slavery

With the countless amounts of motivational 2020 memes, statuses and tweets, it is hard to remember that during this time of year less than 200 years ago, enslaved people were filled with dread.

According to TIME, New Year’s Day or Jan. 1 was often referred to as “Hiring Day” or “Heartbreak Day.” What does that mean? On that day, many enslaved Black people anxiously waited to see if they would be rented out to another family or household. This would, in turn, separate them from their families. This, as an alternative to selling a slave, was practice all too familiar during the time of chattel slavery. These transactions took place in town squares, on courthouse steps and on the side of country roads.

The enslaved would enter contracts for various amounts of time throughout the year, but there were many that began on New Years Day and lasted for up to a year. TIME reported that those who resisted would have faced whippings and/or jail time.

“‘Hiring Day’ was part of the larger economic cycle in which most debts were collected and settled on New Year’s Day,” Historian Alexis McCrossen said.

Many enslaved people documented the fear surrounding Jan. 1.

“On New Year’s Day, we went to the auctioneer’s block, to be hired to the highest bidder for one year,” Israel Campbell wrote in an 1861 memoir.

An enslaved man named Lewis Clarke said, “Of all days in the year, the slaves dread New Year’s Day the worst of any.”

While some were rented, many were still sold.

Harriet Jacobs, the first Black woman to write a “slave narrative,” wrote in her autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, of a woman who went to the auction block with all seven of her children.

“A mother leads seven children to the auction block. She knew that some of them would be taken from her; but they took all,” Jacobs wrote.

Jacobs went on to explain that one by one, all of the woman’s children had been auctioned off, which caused her to yell in pain, “gone! All gone! Why don’t God kill me?”

A lot of the time, parents could not know where their children were being taken, which caused further pain.

Though the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade on Jan. 1, 1808 gave some enslaved people hope, there was so much longer to go to see any real change.

“Different slave-trade abolition commemorations took place between 1808 and 1831, but they died out because the domestic slave trade was so vigorous,” McCrossen said.

In spite of its dark history, New Year’s Day would eventually be associated with something that was a lot more promising: Freedom.

On Jan.1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Hours prior to the announcement, enslaved people had been attending a prayer services at Black churches across the country when they received the news. This monumental event led to the tradition of New Years Eve prayer services, which continue to this day.

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Michael Bloomberg double downs on claims he did not know his campaign was using prison labor to make calls to voters

Former New York Mayor, multi-billionaire, and 2020 presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg has landed himself in hot water over allegations that his campaign utilized prison labor; now he is denying any knowledge of the exploitation.

As reported by theGrio.com, on Christmas Eve news broke that Bloomberg, who recently put his hat in the already crowded 2020 Democratic race, exploited prison labor. The Intercept reported that his campaign inadvertently used this labor to make calls on behalf of his campaign. The campaign hired a third-party vendor to operate its call centers. Two of the call centers used by the New Jersey-based company, ProCom, were operated out of state prisons in Oklahoma. According to The Intercept, at least one of the call centers, incarcerated people were contracted to make the calls.

Though ProCom’s founder, John Scallan, said he pays inmates the Oklahoma minimum wage of $7.25/hr, the Department of Corrections website stated that inmates can only make a maximum of $20 a month.

Bloomberg went to Twitter for damage control, claiming he had no idea that ProCom utilized prison labor.

“Earlier today, a news outlet accurately reported that a subcontractor for one of our vendors was using prison workers to make phone calls on behalf of my campaign. After learning this, we immediately ended our relationship with that company.”

Earlier today, a news outlet accurately reported that a subcontractor for one of our vendors was using prison workers to make phone calls on behalf of my campaign. After learning this, we immediately ended our relationship with that company.

Full statement below: pic.twitter.com/0KJ8y8Iqxj

— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) December 24, 2019

“We only learned about this when the reporter called us, but as soon as we discovered which vendor’s subcontractor had done this, we immediately ended our relationship with the company and the people who hired them.” Bloomberg submitted via a prepared statement. “We do not support this practice and we are making sure our vendors more properly vet their subcontractors going forward.”

“We didn’t know about this and we never would have allowed it if we had,” said Bloomberg spokesperson Julie Wood. “We don’t believe in this practice and we’ve now ended our relationship with the subcontractor in question.”

According to The Intercept, Bloomberg was not the first politician to use prison labor for their campaigns. In 1994, the late Washington State Republican Congressman Jack Metcalf to make campaign calls. Metcalf was re-elected for three terms.

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How long will a volcanic island live?

When a hot plume of rock rises through the Earth’s mantle to puncture the overlying crust, it can create not only a volcanic ocean island, but also a swell in the ocean floor hundreds to thousands of kilometers long. Over time the island is carried away by the underlying tectonic plate, and the plume pops out another island in its place. Over millions of years, this geological hotspot can produce a chain of trailing islands, on which life may flourish temporarily before the islands sink, one by one, back into the sea.

The Earth is pocked with dozens of hotspots, including those that produced the island chains of Hawaii and the Galapagos. While the process by which volcanic islands form is similar from chain to chain, the time that any island spends above sea level can vary widely, from a few million years in the case of the Galapagos to over 20 million for the Canary Islands. An island’s age can determine the life and landscapes that evolve there. And yet the mechanisms that set an island’s lifespan are largely unknown.

Now scientists at MIT have an idea about the processes that determine a volcanic island’s age. In a paper published today in Science Advances, they report an analysis of 14 major volcanic island chains around the world. They found that an island’s age is related to two main geological factors: the speed of the underlying plate and the size of the swell generated by the hotspot plume.

For instance, if an island lies on a fast-moving plate, it is likely to have a short lifespan, unless, as is the case with Hawaii, it was also created by a very large plume. The plume that gave rise to the Hawaiian islands is among the largest on Earth, and while the Pacific plate on which Hawaii sits is relatively speedy compared with other oceanic plates, it takes considerable time for the plate to slide over the plume’s expansive swell.

The researchers found that this interplay between tectonic speed and plume size explains why the Hawaiian islands persist above sea level for million years longer than the oldest Galapagos Islands, which also sit on plates that travel at a similar speed but over a much smaller plume. By comparison, the Canary Islands, among the oldest island chains in the world, sit on the slow-moving Atlantic plate and over a relatively large plume.

“These island chains are dynamic, insular laboratories that biologists have long focused on,” says former MIT graduate student Kimberly Huppert, the study’s lead author. “But besides studies on individual chains, there’s not a lot of work that related them to processes of the solid Earth, kilometers below the surface.”

“You can imagine all these organisms living on a sort of treadmill made of islands, like stepping stones, and they’re evolving, diverging, migrating to new islands, and the old islands are drowning,” adds Taylor Perron, associate head of MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. “What Kim has shown is, there’s a geophysical mechanism that controls how fast this treadmill is moving and how long the island chains go before they drop off the end.”

Huppert and Perron co-authored the study with Leigh Royden, professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences at MIT.

Sinking a blowtorch

The new study is a part of Huppert’s MIT thesis work, in which she looked mainly at the evolution of landscapes on volcanic island chains, the Hawaiian islands in particular. In studying the processes that contribute to island erosion, she dug up a controversy in the literature regarding the processes that cause the seafloor to swell around hotspot islands.

“The idea was, if you heat some of the bottom of the plate, you can make it go up really fast by just thermal uplift, basically like a blowtorch under the plate,” Royden says.

If this idea is correct, then by the same token, cooling of the heated plate should cause the seafloor to subside and islands to eventually sink back into the ocean. But in studying the ages of drowned islands in hotspot chains around the world, Huppert found that islands drown at a faster rate than any natural cooling mechanism could explain.

“So most of this uplift and sinking couldn’t have been from heating and cooling,” Royden says. “It had to be something else.”

Huppert’s observation inspired the group to compare major volcanic island chains in hopes of identifying the mechanisms of island uplift and sinking — which are likely the same processes that set an island’s lifespan, or time above sea level.

Evolution, on a treadmill

In their analysis, the researchers looked at 14 volcanic island chains around the world, including the Hawaiian, Galapagos, and Canary islands. For each island chain, they noted the direction in which the underlying tectonic plate was moving and measured the plate’s average speed relative to the hotspot. They then measured, in the direction of each island chain, the distance between the beginning and the end of the swell, or uplift in the crust, created by the underlying plume. For every island chain, they divided the swell distance by plate velocity to arrive at a number representing the average time a volcanic island should spend atop the plume’s swell — which should determine how long an island remains above sea level before sinking into the ocean.

When the researchers compared their calculations with the actual ages of each island in each of the 14 chains, including islands that had long since sunk below sea level, they found a strong correlation between the time spent atop the swell and the typical amount of time that islands remain above sea level. A volcanic island’s lifespan, they concluded, depends on a combination of the underlying plate’s speed and the size of the plume, or swell that it creates.

Huppert says that the processes that set an island’s age can help scientists better understand biodiversity and how life looks different from one island chain to another.

“If an island spends a long time above sea level, that provides a long time for speciation to play out,” Huppert says. “But if you have an island chain where you have islands that drown at a faster rate, then it will affect the ability of fauna to radiate to neighboring islands, and how these islands are populated.”

The researchers posit that, in some sense, we have the interplay of tectonic speed and plume size to thank for our modern understanding of evolution.

“You’re looking at a process in the solid Earth which is contributing to the fact that the Galapagos is a very fast moving treadmill, with islands moving off very quickly, with not a long time to erode, and this was the system that led to people discovering evolution,” Royden notes. “So in a sense this process really set the stage for humans to figure out what evolution was about, by doing it in this microcosm. If there hadn’t been this process, and the Galapagos hadn’t been on that short residence time, who knows how long it would have taken for people to figure it out.”

This research was supported, in part, by NASA.

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Scientists pin down timing of lunar dynamo’s demise

A conventional compass would be of little use on the moon, which today lacks a global magnetic field.

But the moon did produce a magnetic field billions of years ago, and it was likely even stronger than the Earth’s field today. Scientists believe that this lunar field, like Earth’s, was generated by a powerful dynamo — the churning of the moon’s core. At some point, this dynamo, and the magnetic field it generated, petered out.

Now scientists from MIT and elsewhere have pinned down the timing of the lunar dynamo’s end, to around 1 billion years ago. The findings appear today in the journal Science Advances.

The new timing rules out some theories for what drove the lunar dynamo in its later stages and favors one particular mechanism: core crystallization. As the moon’s inner iron core crystallized, the liquid core’s electrically charged fluid was buoyantly stirred, producing the dynamo.

“The magnetic field is this nebulous thing that pervades space, like an invisible force field,” says Benjamin Weiss, professor of earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences at MIT. “We’ve shown that the dynamo that produced the moon’s magnetic field died somewhere between 1.5 and 1 billion years ago, and seems to have been powered in an Earth-like way.”

Weiss’ co-authors on the paper are co-lead authors Saied Mighani and Huapei Wang, as well as Caue Borlina and Claire Nichols of MIT, along with David Shuster of the University of California at Berkeley.

Dueling dynamo theories

Over the past few years, Weiss’ group and others have discovered signs of a strong magnetic field, of around 100 microteslas, in lunar rocks as old as 4 billion years. For comparison, Earth’s magnetic field today is around 50 microteslas.

In 2017, Weiss’s group studied a sample collected from NASA’s Apollo project, and found traces of a much weaker magnetic field, below 10 microteslas, in a moon rock they determined to be about 2.5 billion years old. Their thinking at the time was that perhaps two mechanisms for the lunar dynamo were at play: The first could have generated a much stronger, earlier magnetic field around 4 billion years ago, before being replaced by a second, more long-lived mechanism that sustained a much weaker field, through to at least 2.5 billion years ago.

“There are several ideas for what mechanisms powered the lunar dynamo, and the question is, how do you figure out which one did it?” Weiss says. “It turns out all these power sources have different lifetimes. So if you could figure out when the dynamo turned off, then you could distinguish between the mechanisms that have been proposed for the lunar dynamo. That was the purpose of this new paper.”

Most of the magnetic studies lunar samples from the Apollo missions have been from ancient rocks, dating to about 3 billion to 4 billion years old. These are rocks that originally spewed out as lava onto a very young lunar surface, and as they cooled, their microscopic grains aligned in the direction of the moon’s magnetic field. Much of the moon’s surface is covered in such rocks, which have remained unchanged since, preserving a record of the ancient magnetic field.

However, lunar rocks whose magnetic histories began less than 3 billion years ago have been much harder to find because most lunar volcanism had ceased by this time.

“The past 3 billion years of lunar history has been a mystery because there’s almost no rock record of it,” Weiss says.

“Little compasses”

Nevertheless, he and his colleagues identified two samples of lunar rock, collected by astronauts during the Apollo missions, that appear to have suffered a massive impact about 1 billion years ago and as a result were melted and welded back together in such a way that their ancient magnetic record was all but erased.

The team took the samples back to the lab and first analyzed the orientation of each rock’s electrons, which Weiss describes as “little compasses” that either align in the direction of an existing magnetic field or appear in random orientations in the absence of one. For both samples, the team observed the latter: random configurations of electrons, suggesting that the rocks formed in an extremely weak to essentially zero magnetic field, of no more than 0.1 microteslas.

The team then determined the age of both samples using a radiometric dating technique that Weiss and Shuster were able to adapt for this study.

The team put the samples through a battery of tests to see whether they were indeed good magnetic recorders. In other words, once they were reheated by some massive impact, could they have still been sensitive enough to record even a weak magnetic field on the moon, if it existed?

To answer this, the researchers placed both samples in an oven and blasted them with high temperatures to effectively erase their magnetic record, then exposed the rocks to an artificially generated magnetic field in the laboratory as they cooled.

The results confirmed that the two samples were indeed reliable magnetic recorders and that the field strength they initially measured, of 0.1 microteslas, accurately represented the maximum possible value of the moon’s extremely weak magnetic field 1 billion years ago. Weiss says a field of 0.1 microteslas is so low that it’s likely the lunar dynamo ended by this time.

The new findings line up with the predicted lifetime of core crystallization, a proposed mechanism for the lunar dynamo that could have generated a weak and long-lived magnetic field in the later part of the moon’s history. Weiss says that prior to core crystallization, a mechanism known as precession may have powered a much stronger though shorter-lived dynamo. Precession is a phenomenon by which the solid outer shell of a body such as the moon, in close proximity to a much larger body such as the Earth, wobbles in response to the Earth’s gravity. This wobbling stirs up the fluid in the core, the way swishing a cup of coffee stirs up the liquid inside.

Around 4 billion years ago, the infant moon was likely much closer to the Earth than it is today, and much more susceptible to the planet’s gravitational effects. As the moon moved slowly away from the Earth, the effect of precession decreased, weakening the dynamo and the magnetic field in turn. Weiss says it’s likely that around 2.5 billion years ago, core crystallization became the dominant mechanism by which the lunar dynamo continued, producing a weaker magnetic field that continued to dissipate as the moon’s core eventually fully crystallized.

The group is looking next to measure the direction of the moon’s ancient magnetic field in hopes of gleaning more information about the moon’s evolution.

This research was supported, in part, by NASA.

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Bryce Gowdy’s mother was concerned with his behavior prior to his suicide

A Florida high school football player’s bright shining star has unfortunately dimmed.

After becoming a much sought after recruit, the young man’s bright future would never come to pass following his untimely death and now investigators have ruled his death a suicide.

Bryce Gowdy, 17, died on Monday in his hometown of Deerfield, Fla., after being hit by a freight train. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, authorities arrived on the scene shortly after 4 a.m. and transported the teen to the hospital where he later died.

Gowdy had been a standout on the Deerfield Beach High School football team. As a star player, he helped lead his school in 30 wins over the last three seasons. AJC reported that he had received over 30 scholarship offers, including from Penn State, Syracuse, and Oregon, but in July, he chose to commit to Georgia Tech becoming one of the college’s top recruits.

Gowdy’s death came just one week before he was to officially join the team as he had finished high school one semester early, according to CNN.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that the night before Gowdy’s death, he had asked his mother, Shibbon Winelle, probing questions about life and whether his family would be OK in his absence.

“He kept talking about the signs and the symbols that he was seeing all over the place,” Winelle said in a Facebook video. “About how he could see the world for what it really was. He kept saying that he could see people for what they really are.”

Though Winelle was concerned about her son’s behavior, she said he had also been talking about positive things.

Georgia Tech’s football coach Geoff Collins released a statement expressing his condolences to Gowdy’s family and friends.

“Our entire Georgia Tech football family is devastated by the news of Bryce’s passing,” Collins said in the statement. “Bryce was an outstanding young man with a bright future. He was a great friend to many, including many of our current and incoming team members. On behalf of our coaches, players, staff, and families, we offer our deepest condolences to Bryce’s mother, Shibbon, and his brothers, Brisai and Brayden, as well as the rest of his family members, his teammates and coaches at Deerfield Beach High School, and his many friends. Bryce and his family will always be a part of the Georgia Tech football family.”

A study released in October by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Black teens have increasingly been attempting suicide. Between the years 1991-2017, the study concluded that the suicide rate for black youths grew even as the rate of suicide attempts by teens in other racial and ethnic groups fell.

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Tuskegee Airman promoted to Brigadier General just after 100th birthday

A member of the famed Tuskegee Airman received a much-deserved promotion following 30 years of military service.

Charles McGee, a resident of Bethesda, Md., was just promoted to Brigadier General after Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020 into law on Dec. 20.

“It’s wonderful to be recognized for service and what it means to serve,” McGee said. “Certainly to receive that honorary rank is very meaningful.”

WUSA9 reported that McGee, who was a member of the famous Red Tails Squadron, flew 136 missions over Nazi Europe while white pilots were sent home after 50 missions. Following his service during WWII, McGee went on to serve during the Korean and Vietnam wars before his retirement as a colonel.

“Col. Charles McGee’s service to our country is remarkable and fully merits this distinguished honor,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said. “I was proud to fight for the inclusion of this promotion to commemorate his work and his sacrifice. This progress comes just days after Col. McGee’s 100th birthday, and I could not think of a more fitting recognition from a truly grateful nation.”

Prior to the honorary promotion, McGee had just celebrated his 100th birthday for which he piloted a Cirrus Vision Jet, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Last year, for McGee’s 99th birthday, he co-piloted a blue-and-white HondaJet over the Virginia countryside.

“He had a high school counselor who said he’d make a good truck driver,” McGee’s son Ronald, who followed in his father’s footsteps to become an aviator, told the Washington Post at the time. “So he went to college and got an aerospace engineering degree.”

A book about McGee’s life, Tuskegee Airman: The Biography of Charles E. McGee, Air Force Fighter Combat Record Holder is available for those interested in learning more about the famed pilot. The book was written by McGee’s eldest daughter, Charlene McGee-Smith, Ph.D.

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Ex-PM wins Guinea-Bissau presidential election

Umaro Cissoko Embalo has pledged to resolve political tensions in the coup-prone West African country.

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Here's What the World Will Look Like in 2030 ... Right?

These six visions from humans today span space colonies, a genetic panopticon, and straight-up apocalypse.

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Marshawn Lynch’s Return to NFL Has His Beast Mode Apparel Sales Spike

Returning back to the spotlight causes great things for business! According to ESPN, the return of Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch has sparked a sales spike for his Beast Mode Apparel.

Lynch, who recently came out of retirement for a second time, signed to the team he won a Super Bowl with, the Seattle Seahawks last week. Since the announcement of his signing, sales of his Beast Mode Apparel have drastically increased. According to Mitch Grossbach, the head of operations and finance for Lynch’s Beast Mode business, Beastmodeonline.com had generated close to $150,000 in sales from when Lynch’s return became official. The clothing line also includes new gear commemorating his Seahawks comeback.

“Obviously, we knew a little ahead of time that there might be this possibility of Marshawn returning, so we have a team that began thinking about what can we put on sale, assuming he gets confirmed to play,” Grossbach told ESPN.com. “And we designed a couple of styles.”

Grossbach estimated that sales projection for December will end up five to seven times greater than what the website averaged in the months leading up to the running back’s return.

“My phone started to blow up and I stepped out to check it,” Grossbach said. “I saw that we had, within the first half an hour, we had thousands of sessions and we were selling at a rate of a couple thousand dollars in sales every few minutes. So the site had just gone crazy and spiked. I can see it exactly. This was on Dec. 23 at around 9 p.m. We had hit around $20,000 in sales within the first hour of it being announced.”

Due to the anticipation of Lynch returning to his old team, it was decided to add new gear to the collection. The new gear includes hooded sweatshirts, T-shirts, and long-sleeve T’s that read either “Back in Action,” which have since sold out or “Unfinished Business.” As soon as the deal was signed and formalized, Lynch’s agent, Doug Hendrickson, texted Grossbach to inform him and then Grossbach texted his team to push the new gear live.

Marshawn Lynch played for the Buffalo Bills, Oakland Raiders, and Seattle Seahawks where he made four Pro Bowls and helped win Super Bowl XLVIII. Lynch earned the nickname “Beast Mode” for his powerful running style and consistent ability to run over defenders and break tackles.

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This Black-Owned Cafe is Redefining the Culture for People in Richmond, Virginia

A little black girl walks into a coffee shop and stops when she sees a black woman by the counter. With excitement and curiosity in her eyes, the little girl asks, “Do you own this?” Kelli Lemon, the owner of the Urban Hang Suite RVA social cafe, bends down as she looks at the little girl in her eyes and says, “Yes, what do you want to own?”

A powerful voice in the Richmond community. Lemon is exuding black excellence through her work and is bringing others on the journey with her. She’s a highly-respected community leader, radio personality, and host of the Podcast ‘Coffee with Strangers.’ Recently, she added another title to her name: business owner.

Lemon is one of the entrepreneurs that BLK RVA, a campaign started to promote patronage of black businesses in Richmond, highlights to celebrate black culture and change the narrative of what it means to be black in this city that was once the former capital of the Confederacy.

Hundreds of years after slavery, there was still a racial and class divide in Richmond that shattered the image of the city. It was time to create an opportunity for black enterprise and create a new story for Richmond. After saving money for an entire year, obtaining investors, and signing a contract to obtain six-months rent-free for her business space, Lemon was ready to bring her vision to life—an idea that could change the landscape for creatives and business owners in Richmond.

Opened in 2018, Urban Hang Suite has become a space for connections, coffee, and culture. “This space was created for conversations that would lead to creating a new culture. From a cup of coffee to an ear hustle to a general “how is your day going?” this space is creating a place for people to exhale,” says Lemon. “That’s what my motto was for the Urban Hang Suite. I wanted to allow us to engage and let our ideas shine and see ourselves in this space.”

Photo Credit: Richmond Retail Merchants Association

Lemon adds, “We are organically owning things that we have always had our hands in but were afraid to step out of our comfort zones and be amongst RVA in Richmond. So many industries—film, art, food, craft beer, wine—are starting to feel our presence.”

“Black RVA provides the safety net to take that first step,” says Lemon as she discussed her first year in business at the Urban Hang Suite. She strongly believes that individuals seeking to start a business in the hospitality industry need to have a network of support to overcome the hurdles associated with sustaining a business. “If I didn’t have the support system I have right now, I wouldn’t be able to do it. We can’t just call granddaddy and say can we get a half-million dollars to make sure that our business can operate for the next three years. I am consistently on a daily grind.”

Any successful business owner knows that you need numbers that are supported by powerful data to attract individuals who believe in your vision. You also need to consider multiple streams of revenue to get you started and keep you going. “I had a full business plan that I wrote and then solicited for investors. Then I used a crowdfunding source to get me open and where I need to be.

Lemon shares the importance of having a team of smart individuals by your side such as an accountant, lawyer, and general manager who is knowledgeable in your area. “It’s also very important to have a mentor in the business—someone who is already doing what you want to do,” says Lemon as she gives credit to her mentors AJ Brewer and Kendra Feather for helping her to navigate the hospitality scene in Richmond. “AJ Brewer has the only other black-owned coffee shop in Richmond and Kendra Feather owns six of Richmond’s best-known restaurants.”

Owning a cafe isn’t easy but Lemon believes the conversations are integral to our progress. After surviving her first year in business, she’s ready to open the doors for more conversations in the future. For anyone wondering if they should take the next step in their entrepreneurial endeavors, Lemon offers these words of wisdom, “Your gut will tell you what moves to make. Trust yourself then seek advice from professionals. Find a mentor who can tell you the bad because it will ease the blow.”

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Tuesday, December 31, 2019

What does it mean to be a black traveller?

Four millennials on being the first black person some people meet, and other issues for black tourists.

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