Black Party Supply Business to Gift Families with Decorations to Celebrate Birthday’s During COVID-19

COVID-19 has changed life as many people know it. Nevertheless, life goes on. While large social gatherings have been prohibited across the nation, people are finding unique ways to celebrate special moments like anniversary’s, tying the knot, baby showers, and birthdays. Yet for some, funding celebratory moments can be a challenge due to the impact of COVID-19 on the economy. In response, Tabitha Salomon, founder and CEO of Party Dash, created the “Spread Joy” relief program to allow parents to donate party supplies to families in need.

According to Slackline, the events and party supplies industry is down 55% and is in the top 15 fastest-declining categories due to the pandemic.

Salomon launched Party Dash at the beginning of 2020—and she is already giving back so that parents can host fun virtual or household parties and bring their children joy. One hundred percent of profits from the program will go to the COVID-19 relief effort.

We spoke with Salomon about her journey into entrepreneurship and her mission to spread joy during these uncertain times.

Meet Tabitha Salomon

What led you to create Party Dash?

I’m that friend who constantly brings communities of people together. I believe that events and parties are a pathway to connection. About two years ago, I was working at Google and I thought perhaps there’s a fun opportunity to add value in the space by doing something novel or to do something that perhaps hadn’t been done well before. I started to talk to other people like myself who love to get people together for milestone events like your kids’ birthday parties, your friend’s baby shower, etc. I kept hearing over and over again that busy parents would find it frustrating because they’re visiting three to five stores on average to piecemeal party supplies together when they walk to a store or a party store, it was usually chaotic and overwhelming.

In one of those conversations, I had a mom say to me, ‘I feel like someone’s thrown up on me when I walk into a party store. I will never forget that. That is such a visual description of how bad the experience is. Oftentimes, products are outdated and poor quality. So, when I was thinking about how we’re going to bring ‘party back to life’, our vision was to essentially make curated boxes that are conveniently shipped to that busy parent’s door. And we took it a step further by saying let’s also think about being a conscious brand. Today, our products are sustainably sourced. Over 80% of the products on our platform are biodegradable. And, we’re always looking for a mission to give back to our community.

Spreading Joy During Uncertain Times

Party Dash’s space party decorations (Image: Courtesy of Party Dash)

People are hosting virtual parties on Zoom and social media platforms like Instagram Live. Even though we’re living in this moment of uncertainty, tell us more about your decision to help families get in the spirit of celebrating during these times.

Most party suppliers are essentially like, ‘Hey, we’re just gonna like not sell for the next couple of months because people aren’t having parties.’ And we thought, No! If anything, it’s when people are living with fear, anxiety, and doubt is when we should be the light.  We should give people a reason to get together and celebrate. And we should be the conduits of those celebrations. So, it’s not that people stop celebrating, it’s how they celebrate that looks different.

To your point, we’re seeing a huge spike in virtual parties that are being done. I was on a call yesterday with a group of five moms who had just finished planning or about to start planning kids’ birthday parties. And they were telling me that they love the fact that they can still make it feel festive.

Knowing that we’re a part of that makes me and my team feel really good about what we’re doing. Essentially, we’re just trying to spread joy and a time that’s full of anxiety and fear.

Spread the Good News

Party Dash’s unicorn decoration set (Image: Courtesy: Party Dash)

How can families apply to be selected as beneficiaries of the Spread Joy campaign?

For the next two months, applications will be open. We’re seeing a lot of nonprofits, like the Boys and Girls who are a partner of ours, are getting involved. Essentially what they’re doing is they’re emailing everyone in their communities because they know those parents are usually a bit more low-income. And when income is cut in their household even more—things like this [parties] are the first things to go.

if you have to choose between celebrating and putting a smile on your kid’s face for that one special day or putting food on the table, that’s a really terrible decision and options to choose from as a parent. So, we’re saying to that particular parent, ‘You don’t have to choose anymore, we got your back. We’re going to support you and help you to turn this into a festive and memorable experience for your kid’s birthday.’

We’re also thinking a lot about the folks that are on the front lines. The nurses and the health techs who are working around the clock fighting COVID-19. When people get home, the last thing they want to do is go online and shop or go on Pinterest and put the boards together. Or, go on Amazon and piecemeal their event together.

Now, all they have to do is spend two minutes applying for this. And then we’ll ship out the box that fits that particular theme or occasion that their kid loves. We’re really thinking about these two communities and others who’ve been negatively affected. And again, with this mission of helping to spread joy.

Apply

If you’d like to donate to the cause and spread joy or benefit from the program, click here to get involved and or apply.

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Bank of America and Uber Are Giving Back To Communities Impacted By COVID-19

In response to COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, many private companies and financial institutions are doing what they can to provide relief for those impacted by the viral outbreak. The global pandemic has caused massive economic fallout and political tensions amid the race for more effective treatments, and ultimately a vaccine.

The virus has triggered state governments in the U.S. to issue mandatory stay-at-home orders, closing all non-essential businesses until the disease can be contained. Over 700,000 jobs have been lost since the pandemic started with another 3 million filing for unemployment in the first weeks, the largest number claims ever recorded in a single week.

Bank of America is one of the major companies looking to help individuals impacted by COVID-19 by committing $100 million to support local communities in need. The funds will be used to help improve medical response capacity, food insecurity, increase access to remote learning amid school closures, and provide financial support to the country’s most vulnerable populations. In addition to the pledge, the banking institution will also be offering deferrals on credit cards along with home and auto loans to current customers.

“Bank of America is deferring mortgage payments for up to 90 days or until the crisis is over,” Bank of America representative Bill Halden told Business Insider. The company will also increase funding to several national and global organizations that are on the front lines, tackling the most pressing issues in local communities.

Uber is also stepping up, providing support by teaming up with healthcare union 1199SEIU, which represents over 450,000 first responders in the country, to deliver free meals and discounted rides to healthcare professionals.

“Each and every day 1199SEIU members put aside their own fears and go to work on the front lines, helping to save lives in the face of a global pandemic,” says George Gresham, president of 1199SEIU to USA Today. The $2 million partnership will serve healthcare workers in New York, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Maryland.

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Satellite Data Reveals the Pandemic's Effects From Above

Images taken from space are providing details to governments and relief efforts about how humanity is handling the Covid-19 crisis.

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Best Streaming Content for Kids: Animal Cams, Story Hours, and More

What? You don’t want to watch the whole 'Saw' franchise with your 8-year-old? Weird. Try a live otter cam instead.

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Dr. Joynicole Martinez Debunks Dangerous Myths, Shares Uncommon Insights on COVID-19

Dr. Joynicole Martinez is an internationally esteemed epidemiologist and the founder and CEO of the Alchemist Agency. Through her work, she studies chronic and infectious diseases to understand how they spread and how to control them. “I also work to identify societal characteristics that affect the pattern of disease and health distribution,” she told Black Enterprise.

In addition, as a community advancement and population health expert, she has developed initiatives that reach across disciplines to strengthen health and wellness, including the development of mixed-income, mixed-finance housing communities.

Black Enterprise sat down with Dr. Martinez to discuss her work as an epidemiologist, COVID-19, and infectious disease intervention in communities of color.

Black Enterprise: Let’s discuss the current pandemic, COVID-19. What is it and how is it spread?

Dr. Martinez: Coronaviruses are common circulating viruses that usually cause upper respiratory symptoms such as cough or runny nose. COVID-19 illness is caused by a novel coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 and is the seventh coronavirus identified that infects humans.

The progression of SARS-CoV-2 infection symptoms is broad. It ranges from asymptomatic infection, mild upper respiratory tract illness, and severe viral pneumonia with respiratory failure to death. Although not highlighted in the initial reports, smell and taste disorders have also been reported as symptoms in patients.

Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is thought to occur mainly through respiratory droplets. Respiratory droplets can be generated by sneezing (40,000 droplets), coughing (3,000 droplets), or talking (about 600 droplets per minute). It can be transmitted through fomites, or objects that can carry the virus on their surface. Finally, viral shedding is possible via asymptomatic people.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus appears to mutate more slowly than the seasonal flu, which should allow an opportunity to develop a vaccine before the next seasonal cycle. Influenza mutates constantly. That’s why it’s necessary to vaccinate against different strains of the flu each year. The virus causing COVID-19 is mutating at a rate that could allow a single vaccine rather than one that needs to be updated each year.

The rapid spread and large number of people in a community who have recovered will offer a level of natural immunity through antibodies combined with the introduction of a vaccine, that develops community or ‘herd immunity.’ In most cases, 80% to 95% of the population must be immune to the disease to stop its spread. The sooner we vaccinate the less likely we are to have another cycle.

Can you distinguish research models from tracking data?

Tracking is used to identify exposures and isolate individuals who are infected or exposed in an effort to “flatten the curve.” Governments across the world are relying on research models (i.e., mathematical projections) to help guide decisions in this pandemic. These models are not meant to serve as a crystal ball. They always describe a range of possibilities—and those possibilities are highly sensitive to our actions. Because models forecast based on these varying populations and sets of conditions, there is a natural level of uncertainty.

In the early phases of the viral spread, no COVID-19 tests were performed in the USA. As testing began to occur, limited data began to arrive. The data from testing and tracking is changing rapidly, so the forecasts and models change daily. The more data we get, the better our forecasts and the faster we recover as a population.

(Dr. Martinez speaking before an international audience of experts on her research at the P50 Summer Peace Summit in Brussels, Belgium)

Are there certain systemic problems associated with the spread of COVID-19?

Unfortunately, we have as much erroneous and misleading information circulating as that which is factual and helpful. A few weeks ago, we heard rumors of blacks being immune to the virus, that ingesting strange and very dangerous treatments (such as drinking bleach) could prevent infection, and that donning the N95, procedure masks, and gloves could prevent you from becoming sick.

Wearing a face mask is not a guarantee that you won’t get sick – viruses can penetrate the highest-rated masks. However, masks are effective at capturing droplets you expel from your mouth. So, the new recommendation is based on some protection being used so you don’t put others at risk. It also suggests that wearing a face mask may provide some protection against the respiratory droplets transmitted by others.

Tight-fitting N95 respirators filter out at least 95% of particles. By comparison, a typical surgical or procedure mask has a range of 60 to 80%. This N95 rating is only achieved when fitted and worn correctly—which is not easy to do. N95 masks are difficult to put on for people who aren’t trained medical professionals. If you’ve put the mask on right, it is hot and stuffy, so a lot of people take it off before it can be effective.

The masks, gowns, gloves, hoods, and other PPE are also expensive. So, when people seek out testing and they aren’t critically symptomatic, they further strain our already taxed medical infrastructure. The test is not treatment, and there is no magic cure.

Have communities of color been desperately impacted by this situation?

The research shows that individuals with comorbidities are more likely to be hospitalized. Comorbidities or pre-existing conditions that seem to make COVID-19 illness more dangerous and more likely to require hospitalization include hypertension (most common), followed by diabetes and coronary artery disease, COPD, chronic liver disease, asthma, and obesity. People who have immune systems that are compromised have a reduced ability to fight infections and other diseases. This may be caused by certain diseases or conditions, such as AIDS, cancer, diabetes, malnutrition, and certain genetic disorders.

According to the most recent data available from Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, when compared with non-Hispanic white citizens in the U.S., blacks are 60% more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes, 20% more likely to die from heart disease, have the highest rate of any racial and ethnic group for all cancers combined and for most major cancers, and represent 44% of the HIV positive population.

In the US, blacks and minority groups dealing with systemic obstacles to food, housing, employment, healthcare, and education will more frequently suffer preexisting conditions and become more ill if infected.

The rate of infection is not biological. The virus can’t see your race and it will infect you without regard to your skin color.

Don’t buy into the hype, understand the underlying issues. Racism, segregation, and inequality contribute to health outcomes and drive health disparities across the life course and this pandemic just highlights what we already knew.

What is your best advice, framed as a holistic approach, in addressing the outbreak going forward?

People are our best offense and defense. Individuals must altruistically follow social distancing regulations—that’s their front line. Next is to carefully share information from qualified sources. Finally, adhering to the thresholds for testing, which ensure that professionals treat the most ill and staying safe by sheltering-in-place and practicing strict hygiene protocol are smart things we can all do.

If you’re a middle-aged, reasonably healthy person and you develop mild, flu-like symptoms and think you may be infected, the new guidance is to call your doctor. Your doctor will likely tell you to assume you’re infected and self-quarantine until you’ve been fever-free for three days (unless your condition worsens, in which case call your doctor again).

Social distancing is our only real, scalable strategy at this point. It’s the only lever big enough that, if we pull it really hard, will actually flatten the curve and keep our hospitals from being overwhelmed, as we see in New York City. Plan A was to stop it from escalating. We’re on to Plan B, and there is no Plan C. So, we have to make this work, period.

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Baby Phat Partners With Footlocker to Release The Courtside Capsule

Don’t call it a comeback! Kimora Lee Simmons recently relaunched the iconic Baby Phat clothing line and has struck a partnership with Foot Locker, according to Essence.

In addition to the working relationship with Foot Locker, the former supermodel and Baby Phat founder and her daughters, Ming Lee and Aoki Lee, officially launched a new line named “The Courtside Capsule.”

The prices for The Courtside Capsule are listed between $53 and $114 and features a red, black, and white color scheme. Pieces range from a Full Zip Jogger and Hoodie to a form-fitting dress like the Lace Tank.

The family has also struck an alliance with the Freedom Shield Foundation. Last week, the iconic fashion brand announced a food distribution initiative that will ensure thousands of meals for families affected by the recent coronavirus pandemic. Baby Phat founder Simmons and her daughters, Ming Lee and Aoki Lee have donated approximately 150,000 meals through the Freedom Shield Foundation and have plans to deliver an additional 160,000 meals scheduled for this week. 

Baby Phat has teamed up with the foundation in anticipation of helping support other nonprofits in carrying out food distribution within their communities. The initiative is taking place because people have lost work due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Schools have been closed and many children in poorer neighborhoods relied on the meals they received in school and no longer have access to them. The initiative will also benefit families that are struggling to feed their kids due to COVID-19-related layoffs and furloughs from jobs.

“This is a real girl power story,” Kimora said in a press release. “Ming Lee and Aoki Lee inspire me constantly, because they’re so connected to the way girls and women are dressing today; and cute dresses with cool kicks reign supreme. Baby Phat has always been designed by and for women, and we’ve always bridged ‘feminine’ and ‘sporty.’ That’s what makes Foot Locker such a perfect partner, they have their finger on the pulse of how women dress today because they’ve always cared about women! They understand that this is about lifestyle.”

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When School Is Online, the Digital Divide Grows Greater

Most US schools are closed, with instruction shifting to the internet. That's a problem for millions of people without reliable broadband, including 20 percent of rural students.

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Death Cuts the Degree of Separation Between You and Covid-19

If knowing someone who has died would make the pandemic concrete for someone in the US—real and actionable—how many have to die? Here's the grim math.

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I Am Not At All Relaxed by 'Animal Crossing: New Horizons'

Millions of people have found comfort in the Switch smash hit. I, however, have found myself trapped in a endless cycle of kawaii capitalism.

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Social Media Spurred This Black Millennial Scientist to Start Making Hand Sanitizer

When scientist Chinonye Akunne, who’s also the co-founder of a vegan and organic beauty company based in Detroit, first noticed how serious the spread of coronavirus was becoming, she got the idea to add a hand sanitizer to the company’s lineup of products.

But before she acted on it, she took the idea to the people who mattered—her customers—gauging their interest via social media.

The result: an affordable purifying hand spray that’s been flying off the virtual shelves. It contains 70% alcohol and is made with ingredients such as eucalyptus (an anti-bacterial that cleanses, purifies, and boosts immunity), rose water (a moisturizing agent to replenish skin cells), lavender, witch hazel, and vegetable glycerin.

Black Enterprise spoke with Akunne about how the product came to be:

How did you start your company?

I started ILERA Apothecary in 2015 out of the need of my youngest brother transitioning to a vegan lifestyle and needing a natural deodorant. My background is in chemistry; I have my Master’s in public health. So I was able to use a lot of my education knowledge as well as my past experience in making different skincare items. And I was able to help him with his natural deodorant.

I gave samples away to friends and family, and people started requesting it. So I decided to grow the business by offering other skincare items such as our body washes, our body butters, our mouthwash, and pretty much the grooming essentials that people use to get ready each day.

ILERA Apothecary Purifying Hand Spray

Why did you decide to add hand sanitizer to your offerings? 

We were slated to go to SXSW in March, and I was seeing that companies like Facebook and Twitter were pulling out because of the scare of COVID-19. So I asked my customers on social media if I made a hand sanitizer, would people buy it? And everybody but one person said, yes, they would buy it. Those were 95 people who said yes, so I started making it.

I decided to release those hand sanitizers a week later, and I did pre-orders for them, and we sold out within the first weekend. Now we have been selling hand sanitizers like crazy, which is nice because we took a major hit by not being able to go to SXSW. So it’s nice that the community is rallying behind our brand during these really tough times.

How were you able to start producing it so quickly? 

This is not something that was slated, that we would be developing this year. This is something that came right out of need.

Luckily, we already use a lot of the ingredients that come with the hand sanitizer. The rosewater that I use in it, we already make that in-house for our rose toner, as well as the witch hazel. Then the hydrogen peroxide, we use that in our mouthwash. So I had the ingredients and I did a test batch. I tested it on a petri dish to make sure that no microbes or bacteria were growing. After that cleared, that’s when I went ahead with the pre-orders.

You’re also donating hand sanitizer to those in need.

We have partnered with another company called the York Project. For a few years now, the York Project has been giving sanitary items such as toilet paper, socks, sometimes hats and gloves to the homeless. I saw that they were making masks. And I contacted the owner, who’s also a friend of mine. They’ll be making 250 masks so we’ll be also matching them with 250 hand sanitizers.

This is not the end of time. This is the time to really stay balanced, be present, and be more community-oriented. During this time, we have been able to increase our giving effort. So I will say that this period of slowness has helped us to be a better business overall.

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Coronavirus: World Bank predicts sub-Saharan Africa recession

The region's economy will shrink for the first time in 25 years because of the coronavirus, the bank predicts.

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Bluetooth signals from your smartphone could automate Covid-19 contact tracing while preserving privacy

Imagine you’ve been diagnosed as Covid-19 positive. Health officials begin contact tracing to contain infections, asking you to identify people with whom you’ve been in close contact. The obvious people come to mind — your family, your coworkers. But what about the woman ahead of you in line last week at the pharmacy, or the man bagging your groceries? Or any of the other strangers you may have come close to in the past 14 days?

A team led by MIT researchers and including experts from many institutions is developing a system that augments “manual” contact tracing by public health officials, while preserving the privacy of all individuals. The system relies on short-range Bluetooth signals emitted from people’s smartphones. These signals represent random strings of numbers, likened to “chirps” that other nearby smartphones can remember hearing.

If a person tests positive, they can upload the list of chirps their phone has put out in the past 14 days to a database. Other people can then scan the database to see if any of those chirps match the ones picked up by their phones. If there’s a match, a notification will inform that person that they may have been exposed to the virus, and will include information from public health authorities on next steps to take. Vitally, this entire process is done while maintaining the privacy of those who are Covid-19 positive and those wishing to check if they have been in contact with an infected person.

“I keep track of what I’ve broadcasted, and you keep track of what you’ve heard, and this will allow us to tell if someone was in close proximity to an infected person,” says Ron Rivest, MIT Institute Professor and principal investigator of the project. “But for these broadcasts, we’re using cryptographic techniques to generate random, rotating numbers that are not just anonymous, but pseudonymous, constantly changing their ‘ID,’ and that can’t be traced back to an individual.”

This approach to private, automated contact tracing will be available in a number of ways, including through the privacy-first effort launched at MIT in response to Covid-19 called SafePaths. This broad set of mobile apps is under development by a team led by Ramesh Raskar of the MIT Media Lab. The design of the new Bluetooth-based system has benefited from SafePaths’ early work in this area.

Bluetooth exchanges

Smartphones already have the ability to advertise their presence to other devices via Bluetooth. Apple’s “Find My” feature, for example, uses chirps from a lost iPhone or MacBook to catch the attention of other Apple devices, helping the owner of the lost device to eventually find it. 

“Find My inspired this system. If my phone is lost, it can start broadcasting a Bluetooth signal that’s just a random number; it’s like being in the middle of the ocean and waving a light. If someone walks by with Bluetooth enabled, their phone doesn’t know anything about me; it will just tell Apple, ‘Hey, I saw this light,’” says Marc Zissman, the associate head of MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s Cyber Security and Information Science Division and co-principal investigator of the project.

With their system, the team is essentially asking a phone to send out this kind of random signal all the time and to keep a log of these signals. At the same time, the phone detects chirps it has picked up from other phones, and only logs chirps that would be medically significant for contact tracing — those emitted from within an approximate 6-foot radius and picked up for a certain duration of time, say 10 minutes.

Phone owners would get involved by downloading an app that enables this system. After a positive diagnosis, a person would receive a QR code from a health official. By scanning the code through that app, that person can upload their log to the cloud. Anyone with the app could then initiate their phones to scan these logs. A notification, if there’s a match, could tell a user how long they were near an infected person and the approximate distance.  

Privacy-preserving technology

Some countries most successful at containing the spread of Covid-19 have been using smartphone-based approaches to conduct contact tracing, yet the researchers note these approaches have not always protected individual’s privacy. South Korea, for example, has implemented apps that notify officials if a diagnosed person has left their home, and can tap into people’s GPS data to pinpoint exactly where they’ve been.

“We’re not tracking location, not using GPS, not attaching your personal ID or phone number to any of these random numbers your phone is emitting,” says Daniel Weitzner, a principal research scientist in the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and co-principal investigator of this effort. “What we want is to enable everyone to participate in a shared process of seeing if you might have been in contact, without revealing, or forcing anyone to reveal, anything.”

Choice is key. Weitzner sees the system as a virtual knock on the door that preserves people’s right to not answer it. The hope, though, is that everyone who can opt in would do so to help contain the spread of Covid-19. “We need a large percentage of the population to opt in for this system to really work. We care about every single Bluetooth device out there; it’s really critical to make this a whole ecosystem,” he says.

Public health impact

Throughout the development process, the researchers have worked closely with a medical advisory team to ensure that this system would contribute effectively to contact tracing efforts. This team is led by Louise Ivers, who is an infectious disease expert, associate professor at Harvard Medical School, and executive director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health.

“In order for the U.S. to really contain this epidemic, we need to have a much more proactive approach that allows us to trace more widely contacts for confirmed cases. This automated and privacy-protecting approach could really transform our ability to get the epidemic under control here and could be adapted to have use in other global settings,” Ivers says. “What’s also great is that the technology can be flexible to how public health officials want to manage contacts with exposed cases in their specific region, which may change over time.”

For example, the system could notify someone that they should self-isolate, or it could request that they check in through the app to connect with specialists regarding daily symptoms and well-being. In other circumstances, public health officials could request that this person get tested if they were noticing a cluster of cases.

The ability to conduct contact tracing quickly and at a large scale can be effective not only in flattening the curve of the outbreak, but also for enabling people to safely enter public life once a community is on the downward side of the curve. “We want to be able to let people carefully get back to normal life while also having this ability to carefully quarantine and identify certain vectors of an outbreak,” Rivest says.

Toward implementation

Lincoln Laboratory engineers have led the prototyping of the system. One of the hardest technical challenges has been achieving interoperability, that is, making it possible for a chirp from an iPhone to be picked up by an Android device and vice versa. A test at the laboratory late last week proved that they achieved this capability, and that chirps could be picked up by other phones of various makes and models.

A vital next step toward implementation is engaging with the smartphone manufacturers and software developers — Apple, Google, and Microsoft. “They have a critical role here. The aim of the prototype is to prove to these developers that this is feasible for them to implement,” Rivest says. As those collaborations are forming, the team is also demonstrating its prototype system to state and federal government agencies.

Rivest emphasizes that collaboration has made this project possible. These collaborators include the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health, CSAIL, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Boston University, Brown University, MIT Media Lab, The Weizmann Institute of Science, and SRI International.

The team also aims to play a central, coordinating role with other efforts around the country and in Europe to develop similar, privacy-preserving contact-tracing systems.

“This project is being done in true academic style. It’s not a contest; it’s a collective effort on the part of many, many people to get a system working,” Rivest says.  

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We Need a Covid-19 Vaccine—Let’s Get It Right the First Time

The flu shot campaigns of 1976 and 2009 offer key lessons for how (and how not) to distribute, monitor and communicate about vaccines. But will anyone listen?

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A Meme Account About a Mall Is Now a Lifeline

The parody Twitter account devoted to The Americana at Brand is absurd. But now that LA residents are stuck at home, it's a strange source of comfort.

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A Cheap 3D Printer Can Trick Smartphone Fingerprint Locks

With a budget of just $2,000, researchers could fool biometric scanners 80 percent of the time.

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Newark Mayor Ras Baraka To Test Out Universal Basic Income Program

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has created a wave of devastation across the U.S. and around the world. The number of cases continues to rise at alarming rates with many governors issuing mandatory stay-at-home orders and closing down all non-essential businesses to stop the rapid spread of the virus.

The fallout has caused seismic changes to our economy, leaving millions to file for unemployment. This has led many political leaders and commentators to suggest that universal basic income could help get the country through this difficult time. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka announced his decision last week to create a task force and pilot program to study whether the program is possible.

Baraka plans to use Newark to test a new program to see if a universal basic income is feasible as a way to help residents stay afloat while in quarantine.

“We believe in Universal Basic Income, especially in a time where studies have shown that families that have a crisis of just $400 a month may experience a setback that may be difficult, even impossible to recover from,” Baraka reportedly said, according to Fox 5 New York, adding that one-third of the city still lives in poverty. He did not release any further details of the plan, like how it would be funded or when a final decision is expected.

Last month, Stockton, California, became the first city in the nation to actually press ahead with its program, offering $500 prepaid debit cards to a group of 130 adults who live in the city’s lower-income neighborhoods.

The concept isn’t completely new, as other countries have issued universal incomes for their citizens. In 2017, Finland tested the program, giving 560 Euros ($584) to 2,000 unemployed Finnish citizens per month, however, they scrapped the program entirely in 2019. Last summer, Ontario, Canada, also announced it would end a similar program after the government found it was “not sustainable” and “expensive.”

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Baltimore cop appears to purposely cough at Black residents in video

A Baltimore police sergeant is captured on video intentionally coughing in the direction of a woman as he walks past her outside of a southeast public housing complex.

READ MORE: Baltimore State’s attorney to drop charges for certain crimes due to coronavirus

The Instagram video taken outside of a Perkins Homes housing complex shows a woman calls out to the policeman by saying “Hey Officer Friendly with the cherry cheeks,” but as the sergeant walks near her and others on the sidewalk, he jokingly starts coughing in their direction. The woman curses at him, initially saying she’s not worried because Black people “don’t get that sh*t” talking about the novel coronavirus. The woman can later be heard on the video saying she ought to call the CDC.

 

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Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison was not amused. In a statement Tuesday, Harrison called the video “incomprehensible” and “alarming.”

“After watching the full video, in its entirety, it is not only disturbing, but incomprehensible, especially considering the high-level of strong and clear guidance that we have provided from the beginning, regarding COVID-19,” Harrison wrote in the statement, according to The Baltimore Sun.

Police Commissioner Michael Harrison was sworn in as the Baltimore Police Department’s 41st Commissioner on March 12, 2019. (Courtesy of the Baltimore POlice website)

“Members are always expected to be sensitive and professional to the community, but what we saw in the video is alarming because this pandemic is affecting lives not only nationally, worldwide, but right here in our own police department,” Harrison added.

The Baltimore Police Department also released a statement and announced its Public Integrity Bureau would be investigating the incident.

“The Baltimore Police Department became aware of a video posted online this morning which depicted a Baltimore Police sergeant repeatedly coughing near citizens in Southeast Baltimore. The Department takes COVID-19 very seriously and we do not condone any action by our members which may be perceived as making light of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the statement reads.

“The Department’s Public Integrity Bureau immediately opened up an internal investigation and reviewed the online video, as well as the sergeant’s body-worn camera footage,” It continues. “A complete investigation will be conducted and the Department hopes that all of its members and the public will continue to work together with respect as we maneuver forward during this challenging time.”

Police declined to name the police sergeant.

READ MORE: Texas police searching for woman ‘willfully spreading’ COVID-19

Also commenting on the Tuesday incident was Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott who called the officer’s actions “beyond unacceptable.”

“COVID-19 is not a joke and this behavior is beyond unacceptable. When you are in public service, it is your duty to treat everyone with respect, especially when we are dealing with both a public health pandemic and a gun violence epidemic. This is not behavior that we want our police officers or any of our public servants to model to our residents,” Scott assured the public.

“Everyone can contract COVID-19 and all of Baltimore has to take this seriously and treat each other with respect,” He continued in a statement released to The Baltimore Sun. “For public servants, this means carrying out duties with safety and compassion at the forefront of all actions. For citizens, this means adhering to the advice of public health professionals while following government guidelines issued to save lives. I will be following up with the Commissioner regarding this disturbing incident.”

The post Baltimore cop appears to purposely cough at Black residents in video appeared first on TheGrio.

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‘The Memo’ is Minda Harts’ Love Letter to Black Women in the Workplace

Minda Harts, founder and CEO of The Memo, is regarded as one of the top voices when it comes to advocating for black women in the workplace. Her company, The Memo L.L.C., is a career development company providing tools, access, and a robust community for women of color and for the companies where they work. She also leads the Women of Color Equity Initiative, which focuses on increasing the number of women of color in management and C-suite roles in corporate and not-for-profit organizations through the Women of Color Equity Initiative.

Harts is on a mission to equip women with the tools they need to build their own seats to bring to the table. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Memo, and she says that it is a love letter to black women in the workplace.

Related: Black Women in the Workplace Are Still Finding Their Footing on the Corporate Ladder

As black women find their footing on the corporate ladder, Harts works around the clock with leaders facilitating tough conversations about equity and inclusion. To date, Harts has lead conversations and hosted workshops at Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Intel, SXSW, TIME INC, Campaign For Black Male Achievement, General Assembly, Ellevate Network, We Work, THE WING, and more.

In March, Harts joined BLACK ENTERPRISE at the 15th Annual Women of Power Summit to lend her expertise on the “Working While Black” and “Winning against Microaggression on the Job” session.

During the Summit, we sat down with Harts to recap her experience at the Summit as a speaker after once being an attendee, her agency for advocating for others, and actionable steps women can take in the workplace to stand in their greatness.

Minda Harts on Shaking the Table

Tune in as Harts shares her experience and the importance of black women being heard and seen in the workplace.

 

To learn more about the work that Harts is doing, click here.

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Steam Remote Play Together: Setup Guide and Best Games to Try

Steam lets you run local multiplayer videogames over the internet, allowing you to play with friends even when they’re not next to you.

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T-Mobile and Sprint Merger FAQ: What You Need to Know (2020)

If you’re a subscriber, you may have a lot of questions now that the two wireless carriers have merged. And what's happening with Dish and Boost? We have answers.

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