Need to keep the kids busy while you work at home? Here are some ideas that won't leave your house looking like it's been glitter bombed.
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Saturday, April 4, 2020
13 Creative Ways to Keep Students Engaged as Schools Remain Closed During the COVID-19 Crisis
It’s likely that millions of students won’t be returning to school this year due to the COVID-19 crisis. As a result, many parents, guardians, and educators are concerned that some students will regress as a result of no longer being in the traditional classroom setting. And children have concerns of their own. But there are creative ways to keep students engaged.
While parents and educators alike adapt to this new normal, they are also working around the clock in the house and from their home offices to make sure that young people have the support they need.
With more time on our hands than usual, here are some activities that parents and guardians can keep young people engaged and on track as schools remain closed during the COVID-19 crisis.
13 Creative Ways to Keep Students Engaged
- Have family reading time.
- Create a schedule for your student’s day and stick to that routine to create a sense of normalcy while in the house.
- Create traceable worksheets to keep students learning new words and letters.
- Make up and remix songs by their favorite artists to help them memorize important facts and lessons.
- Google fun homemade science projects that are kitchen and carpet friendly!
- Watch five minutes of the news with your child and recap the current events.
- Share a family and or cultural history lesson or create a family tree.
- Research or create financial literacy exercises as an alternative to regular math lessons.
- Stay active in the house using fitness mobile apps.
- Meditate with your child.
- Prepare meals together for fun, to bond, and implement science lessons.
- Create educational and fun social media content.
- Work on a business plan that the family can collaborate on (even if you don’t plan on launching it). They just might find entrepreneurship exciting!
Making the most out of this time with young people can teach them a number of lessons about ingenuity, perseverance, social and emotional learning, and the importance of working together.
As the nation adapts to the new normal, be sure to stay in the loop on how COVID-19 is impacting the black community. Click here for all the coronavirus news you need.
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Friday, April 3, 2020
Netflix shows ‘Nailed It’ and ‘#blackAF’ worth binging in April
Netflix has been a saving grace in more ways than once ever since the coronavirus pandemic brought Hollywood (and the world) to an abrupt stop. We can’t wait to help pass the time with some of the new content coming to the streamer in April.
Aside from new projects, Netflix will also be bringing a few classics into the mix this month. Let yourself laugh at Player’s Club, revisit Beyoncé playing Etta James in Cadillac Records, relive your college days with School Daze, and see how Snoop Dogg has changed since Soul Plane.
READ MORE: Ava DuVernay and Netflix win dismissal of ‘When They See Us’ defamation lawsuit
Nailed It! (Season 4)
Premiere Date: April 1
Description: The hosts you love, the hot messes you crave. Welcome back to the Nailed It! kitchens, where anyone — like, literally, anyone — can win. This series is especially entertaining while we have all the time in the world to try out our own skills in the kitchen.
Coffee & Kareem
Premiere Date: April 3
Description: While police officer James Coffee (Ed Helms) enjoys his new relationship with Vanessa Manning (Taraji P. Henson), her beloved 12-year-old son Kareem (Terrence Little Gardenhigh) plots their break-up. Attempting to scare away his mom’s boyfriend for good, Kareem tries to hire criminal fugitives to take him out but accidentally exposes a secret network of criminal activity, making his family its latest target. To protect Vanessa, Kareem teams up with Coffee — the partner he never wanted — for a dangerous chase across Detroit. From director Michael Dowse, this film is an action-comedy about forging unexpected bonds, one four-letter insult at a time.
LA Originals
Premiere Date: April 10
Description: An exploration of the culture and landmarks of the Chicano and street art movement that cemented Mister Cartoon and Estevan Oriol’s status as behind-the-scenes hip hop legends.
Sprinter
Premiere date: April 15
Description: Another can’t miss flick is 2018 ABFF favorite, Sprinter. Produced by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment, it’s an inspiring story set in Jamaica that’s about an athlete with tons of heart. The all-star cast includes Lorraine Toussaint and David Alan Grier and directed by Storm Saulter.
READ MORE: Kelis announces new cannabis cooking show on Netflix
#blackAF
Premiere date: April 17
Description: From Kenya Barris, the Emmy nominated creator of black-ish, comes #blackAF. Loosely inspired by Barris’ irreverent, highly flawed, unbelievably honest approach to parenting, relationships, race, and culture, #blackAF flips the script on what we’ve come to expect a family comedy series to be.
Pulling back the curtain, #blackAF uncovers the messy, unfiltered and often hilarious world of what it means to be a “new money” black family trying to get it right in a modern world where “right” is no longer a fixed concept.
The Netflix original series stars Barris as a fictionalized version of himself and Rashida Jones (Angie Tribeca) as his wife Joya. Kenya and Joya’s children are played by Genneya Walton (Xtant), Iman Benson (Suits), Scarlet Spencer (Bright), Justin Claiborne (Reverie), Ravi Cabot-Conyers (The Resident) and Richard Gardenhire Jr. #blackAF is executive produced by Barris, Jones, and Hale Rothstein.
The Innocence Files
Premiere date: April 15
Description: The Innocence Files shines a light on the untold personal stories behind eight cases of wrongful conviction that the nonprofit organization the Innocence Project and organizations within the Innocence Network have uncovered and worked tirelessly to overturn.
The nine-episode series is composed of three compelling parts – The Evidence, The Witness and The Prosecution. These stories expose difficult truths about the state of America’s deeply flawed criminal justice system while showing when the innocent are convicted, it is not just one life that is irreparably damaged forever: families, victims of crime and trust in the system are also broken in the process.
The post Netflix shows ‘Nailed It’ and ‘#blackAF’ worth binging in April appeared first on TheGrio.
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‘Gossip Girl’ reboot casts newcomer Savannah Smith in HBO Max series
When HBO Max announced it was working on a reboot of Gossip Girl, we didn’t have high hopes for diversity considering the original was seriously lacking in that department. It turns out, the lead in the reboot will be played by a lovely new actress named Savannah Smith.
The brown-skinned beauty is currently a student at NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts and the reboot will be her big break into Hollywood. She has been excitedly been posting about her new gig on Instagram.
According to Shadow and Act, Smith will play a lead role as part of the school’s in-crowd. She’s not the only Black face we’ll see when the series hits HBO Max because Whitney Peak has nabbed a role as well.
READ MORE: HBO sets release date for fourth season of ‘Insecure’ and drops trailer
Other confirmed cast members include Emily Alyn Lind, Tavi Gevinson, Eli Brown, Johnathan Fernandez, Jason Gotay. Thomas Doherty, Adam Chanler-Berat and Zion Moreno.
“This time around the leads are nonwhite,” the show’s executive producer, Joshua Safran said in a statement.
“There will also be a lot of queer content on this show. It is very much dealing with the way the world looks now, where wealth and privilege come from, and how you handle that.”
The original Gossip Girl was a huge hit for the CW from 2007-2012 and followed the lives of super spoiled teenagers wreaking havoc on the Upper East Side of NYC. The new iteration will pick up focus on this new diverse generation and how technology has changed how they interact and of course, gossip according to the teaser:
Eight years after the original website went dark, a new generation of New York private school teens are introduced to the social surveillance of Gossip Girl. The prestige series will address just how much social media — and the landscape of New York itself — has changed in the intervening years.
The debut is set for May with Kristen Bell reprising her role as the narrator of the series.
The post ‘Gossip Girl’ reboot casts newcomer Savannah Smith in HBO Max series appeared first on TheGrio.
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Amazon To Deploy Face Masks, Temperature Checks By Next Week
The retail giant Amazon has announced that it will roll out temperature checks and face masks for staff at all its U.S. and European warehouses plus Whole Foods stores by early next week.
According to Reuters, Amazon said it would start testing hundreds of thousands of employees a day for fevers using forehead thermometers. Anyone registering more than 100.4 Fahrenheit will be sent home. Additionally, all locations will have surgical masks available by early next week.
Amazon said the mask rollout and temperature scans have begun at facilities near its Seattle headquarters and in New York. Workers from at least 19 warehouses have tested positive for the novel coronavirus since the outbreak began. Employees also held walkouts in New York and near Detroit this week.
The company will also use machine-learning software to monitor building cameras and determine whether employees are staying at safe distances during their shifts.
Workers who record a high temperature will be forced to stay home for three days without a fever before they can return. Unions and elected officials have criticized Amazon’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, with some even saying the retail company should close.
Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, said the company has changed more than 150 processes to promote social distancing. Clark added Amazon has begun to stagger warehouse work start times and ended stand-up meetings during shifts.
“Nothing is more important to us than making sure that we protect the health of our teams,” Clark said.
Walmart also announced it would begin taking temperature checks and providing masks to its employees. Both companies have increased their hiring process during the coronavirus outbreak as online orders have skyrocketed due to quarantine orders across the country. Amazon has announced that it has hired 80,000 workers across the country and reported a full and part-time workforce of 798,000 as of Dec. 31.
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NYC landlord cancels April rent on 80 apartments due to coronavirus
One landlord in New York – which has widely been called the epicenter of the coronavirus in this country – has decided to forego the rent of the 80 apartments he owns for the month of April.
According to a local NBC affiliate, on March 30, Mario Salerno made the announcement to his Brooklyn tenants by posting a notice on the front doors of all his buildings.
READ MORE: Oprah donates a hefty $10 mil to coronavirus relief
“Due to the recent pandemic of Coronavirus COVID-19 affecting all of us, please note I am waiving rent for the month for April,” the message read. “STAY SAFE, HELP YOUR NEIGHBORS & WASH YOUR HANDS!!!”
The 59-year-old whose approximately 80 apartments house between 200 to 300 tenants in total in the Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods said he came to the decision after a number of tenants reported they were having a hard time making ends meet during the pandemic.
“I want everybody to be healthy,” he told NBC New York. “That’s the whole thing.”
READ MORE: Steph and Ayesha Curry help to donate 1M meals to students
READ MORE: Lizzo thanks ER staff nationwide with lunch for hard work amid coronavirus
“For me, it was more important for people’s health and worrying about who could put food on whose table,” continued Salerno, who was born in Williamsburg. “ I say don’t worry about paying me, worry about your neighbor and worry about your family.”
Kaitlyn Guteski is a tenant and owns a hair salon that was shut down due to the national health crisis. She has been out of work ever since and admitted that this was an unexpected kind gesture.
Guteski had no idea how she would make rent and is floored by her landlord’s generosity.
“He’s Superman,” she said. “He’s a wonderful man.”
The post NYC landlord cancels April rent on 80 apartments due to coronavirus appeared first on TheGrio.
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Chris Cuomo draws almost 3 million viewers battling COVID-19 on air
Chris Cuomo shocked fans when he announced testing positive for COVID-19 and millions of viewers proceeded to tune in and watch him broadcast from his basement.
During Wednesday evening’s installment of Cuomo Prime Time, the anchor emotionally described his battle with the virus that has effectively brought the U.S. economy to a standstill. According to Mediaite, almost 3 million viewers tuned into CNN to hear his firsthand account about the scariest moments of his health scare.
READ MORE: CNN’s Chris Cuomo diagnosed with coronavirus, will broadcast from home
During the candid segment, he described bouts of hallucinations where he had conversations with his late father, the immense pain that he likened to feeling like he was being beaten in the chest “like a piñata.” He also shivered so violently he actually chipped a tooth.
That episode of his show which airs on CNN at 9 p.m., drew an astounding 938,000 in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demo, and in total drew in 2.89 million viewers. That’s almost triple what the top-rated CNN show was drawing on average in the last few months
READ MORE: Chris Cuomo hosts first show while quarantined in his basement
Chris Cuomo’s Covid-19 experience sounds brutal pic.twitter.com/l31SPqX97q
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 2, 2020
“I want you to be thinking about everybody who’s not as lucky as I am. Who are dealing with the same that I am in 10 times worse,” he explained to his audience.
“Especially after what I learned last night. This virus came at me, I’ve never seen anything like it. Okay? So yeah I’ve had a fever, you’ve had a fever, but 102, 103, 103 plus, that wouldn’t quit, and it was like somebody was beating me like a piñata, and I was shivering so much that, Sanjay’s right, I chipped my tooth. These are not cheap.”
.@ChrisCuomo shares the details of his symptoms and some good news as he fights coronavirus from his basement. pic.twitter.com/wF6zlN9Yay
— Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) April 2, 2020
READ MORE: Don Lemon cries while discussing Chris Cuomo’s COVID-19 diagnosis
“And they call them the rigors, so the sun comes up, I’m awake, I was up all night, I’m telling you I was hallucinating, my dad was talking to me, I was seeing people from college, people I haven’t seen forever, it was freaky what I lived through last night. And it may happen again tonight. Doctor says it may happen like 5, 8 times,” continued the 49-year-old.
Cuomo shared that his symptoms allowed him to fully understand how others were feeling in this moment of crisis.
“You know, I get it now, and if you match that with chest constriction of people can’t breathe, I totally get why we’re losing so many people and why are hospitals are so crowded,” he said.
“So here’s the message: don’t be me, but more importantly be better than we’re being right now. Care enough not just to stay home but to stay on our leaders, to make sure that they’re doing everything they can to limit this. I’m telling you this is the part of our lives we will live through and remember the most. How do you want to be remembered during this time?”
The post Chris Cuomo draws almost 3 million viewers battling COVID-19 on air appeared first on TheGrio.
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Susan Rice Defends Yamiche Alcindor Against Trump on Twitter
Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice is the latest to go at President Trump. The president was recently criticized for how he attacked and berated PBS correspondent Yamiche Alcindor in a White House coronavirus media briefing. President Trump told Alcindor at the meeting to “be nice” and to not be “threatening” in response to a question about Trump’s claim that state governors were requesting supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic that they didn’t actually need. In a firestorm of tweets, Rice condemned Trump over his inappropriate behavior and defended Alcindor.
“President Trump today at the White House said to me: ‘Be nice. Don’t be threatening.’ I’m not the first human being, woman, black person or journalist to be told that while doing a job,” Alcindor wrote on Twitter and later retweeted by Rice. “My take: Be steady. Stay focused. Remember your purpose. And, always press forward.” Rice accused Trump of feeling insecure in the face of an intelligent black woman as this comes in a repeated pattern of the president attacking black female journalists.
“He has a particular problem, it seems, with black women, but as was pointed out in your earlier segment, it’s a problem that applies to women with strong personalities and a willingness to stand up for themselves and their beliefs across the board, said Rice to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell.
The White House has not responded to a request for comment.
“It’s a sad thing. It’s a reflection of one’s own insecurity. It’s not a reflection of the talent or the capacities of the women we’re talking about,” she continued. “And I hope very much that we can move beyond that. It’s so unbecoming in the context of a national crisis for the president to lash out at individuals, whether the governor of Michigan or the speaker of the House or a reporter who asked a very fair, tough question.”
You go, girl. Pathetic when insecure men can’t stomach strong black women. https://t.co/ExjC9z5p1J
— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) March 30, 2020
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T.C. Carson Explains the Reason for Being Fired From ‘Living Single’
Having an issue with Friends may end up with you Living Single. Actor T.C. Carson, who you may know as Kyle Barker from the Living Single series, says he was fired from the TV show after accusing Warner Bros. of neglecting the show in favor of Friends, according to Essence.
In a recent interview with Comedy Hype, Carson shared that he was fired from the show because he vocalized that Warner Bros started to neglect Living Single for another Warner Bros series, Friends. His firing came because he constantly spoke up about their show not getting the attention that was being given to Friends. “I got fired,” he said.
“We would come to them as a cast but I would be the spokesperson for it,” he continued. “So, that last season before I left, they called me in and they basically said, ‘Well, all these problems we’ve been having, they listen to you. You’re the person they listen to. So if you said something else, then they would do that.’ I looked at them and said, ‘Well, first of all, we’re dealing with five grown people, and they have their own mindset and own ideas about what we’re doing. Everything we come to you with is a group decision, not my decision. But if you think I have that much power, then I need to have a different job.’ I don’t think they liked that.”
There have been recent discussions about the television series Friends being a ripoff of Living Single due to Friends co-star David Schwimmer saying he’d like to see a reboot of Friends but with an all-black cast. Fellow Living Single co-star Erika Alexander had to remind him—and the world—that Friends was actually a ripoff of Living Single.
Carson also reiterated the expectation that blacks should be happy that they have a job and to stay in their place when dealing with being employed with a white company.
“Part of it is, even now, if you’re African American, you shut your mouth and do your job,” he added. “Don’t ask questions. Be happy that you have a job.”
“My whole time on Living Single, I was happy I had a job, but I understood the importance of the job I had. I understood the importance of what these characters meant to my community. And so when I come to you with a problem, it’s because of that, not because of ego. They looked at it as ego.”
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Rev. Jesse Jackson Organizes Diverse Ministers To Ensure Fair Distribution of Stimulus Funds
As the process begins on April 3 to access forgivable loans from the $2 trillion stimulus package, Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, one of the nation’s leading civil rights organizations, has organized a group of ministers nationwide to ensure communities of color gain their fair share.
In a press call on Thursday, Jackson announced that scores of clergy leaders of all denominations have held a series of conference calls to voice grave concerns about the federal oversight of deployment of relief funds tied to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The stimulus doesn’t address the most vulnerable. Historically, recovery programs tend to miss us,” asserts Jackson, who cited the alarming rate of black business failures and the massive decimation of black wealth during the Great Recession roughly a decade ago. This time around, he maintains, the devastation is expected to be worse as recent news reports revealed that a staggering 10 million workers have filed for unemployment benefits in the past two weeks.
“The CARES [Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security] Act has been signed by the President but not implemented,” Rainbow PUSH Senior Vice President Rev. S. Todd Yeary said on the call, maintaining that a range of execution issues had yet to be resolved by the Trump administration—especially given its inconsistent management of the publichealth crisis over the past month. He says they include:
— The approval and distribution process of the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program in which institutional lenders will make available $350 billion in guaranteed-government loans to cover payroll and other expenses. They will also focus on the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program. Yeary said coalition members have raised concerns about black entrepreneurs as well as church-based organizations, which serve as “anchors of our communities,” will gain speedy access to funds or any financial assistance at all.
— The U.S. Treasury Department’s engagement in the regulation of mortgage forbearance during the crisis instead of leaving it up to the discretion of individual financial institutions. “We are facing another mortgage crisis,” Yeary says, making reference to the 2008 meltdown of the housing market.
Beyond financial concerns, Rainbow PUSH officials believe with governors taking jurisdictional control of measures to address the crisis that “a states rights agenda” will emerge with the potential for more pernicious forms of voter suppression during the 2020 presidential election as well as greater racial disparities in healthcare and education. In fact, Yeary believes “with the shutting down of society and the school system” driving online education large numbers of students in urban communities will be placed at a disadvantage due to lack of access to computers and broadband. He asserts: “The result will be further widening of the achievement gap.”
Participants on the call also cited the need to address the containment of the coronavirus among the prison population, impact on the crisis on the 2020 census count and rise of anti-Asian sentiment due to harmful, xenophobic rhetoric like President Trump characterizing the COVID-19 pandemic as the “Chinese virus.”
Jackson, who has talked with President Trump about crisis relief over the past week, has stressed next steps include outreach to legislators, including the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about independent oversight of relief efforts. Moreover, he is calling on SBA officials to join coalition conference calls to spell out program details and provide much-needed education to members of their congregations.
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Employers Could Drop 401(k) Matches As Companies Look To Save Money
As the coronavirus outbreak wreaks havoc on financial markets across the world, employers are searching for ways to cut expenses and one target is 401(k) obligations.
Almost 95% of employers offer either a company match or another type of contribution. The average amount employers kick in is 4.3% of a participant’s salary.
According to CNBC, employers are searching for ways to legally trim their 401(k) obligations. Sponsors “have been calling regarding how they might legally reduce their contributions to plans to preserve their cash positions,” said Marcia Wagner, founder of The Wagner Law Group
Wagner added that since the outbreak started she has heard from both privately held and publicly traded companies. La-Z-Boy, Amtrak, and Marriott International have already begun scaling back 401(k) contributions, though they won’t go into effect until later this year.
During the 2008 housing crisis, nearly 20% of companies that offered a match pulled back, either through suspending or reducing the amount, according to a report from the Plan Sponsor Council of America. Some companies that offered non-matching 401(k) contributions suspended or lowered those amounts.
However, 4.5% of companies actually increased the amount they contributed. Experts are now concerned this economic situation could lead to more companies cutting their contributions.
“The crisis we have now is different … there’s been a rapid pace of layoffs and furloughs, and companies have had to suddenly shut down,” Will Hansen, executive director of the PSCA told CNBC.
Hansen added that in places such as Seattle and New York where the outbreak has been a presence for more than a month, companies have already sought to cut contributions. The good news is the plans seeking relief are safe harbor plans, in which an employer agrees to certain contribution requirements in order to escape others.
Financial advisers are recommending employees who can afford to continue to make contributions do so even if the company stops making contributions.
“In times like these … it’s okay to temporarily suspend your 401(k) contributions if you’re feeling really insecure about the amount of cash you have available,” said Doug Boneparth, president of Bone Fide Wealth in New York. “During bad times, cash is lifeblood. It puts food on the table. If the worst doesn’t happen and you don’t lose your job, you could make up contributions later in the year.”
According to the Federal Reserve, 47 million people are expected to lose their job.
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