The battle against “ethnic cleansing” is intensifying on the sidewalks of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. For several months community members have organized and protested in front of 410 Nostrand Ave., a newly constructed building slated for high-end condominiums in the middle of a predominantly Black working-class neighborhood. Under the banner of “We Ain’t Going Nowhere!” neighborhood residents are demanding affordable housing. The ethnic cleansing and increasing rents have been pushing out people who have lived in the area for years, but the resistance is escalating every day.

Leaders from the loose coalition issued a statement affirming their commitment to the Paris Agreement at the conclusion of a week-long meeting in London. With more than half of members coming from small islands and the world’s poorest countries, the summit highlighted their vulnerability to climate-driven disasters and cemented ties with developed countries UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Researchers found that the number of smokers who searched online for information on quitting tobacco more than doubled over the past 12 years, from 16.5 percent in 2005 to 35.9 percent in 2017. In 2017, an estimated 12,434,691 U.S. smokers searched online for information. The findings underscore the role of internet resources in tobacco control efforts and how they can impact public health.

According to a statement provided by the Skid Row Housing Trust, the new space will serve an additional 1,200 patients within the first year and is projected to serve up to 7,000 annually. The clinic will include 18 medical exam rooms, six consultation rooms, eight dental chairs, nine mental health rooms, and 13 social work and care coordination offices. There will also be a large multi-purpose room for fitness classes and health education as well as a meditation room and a chaplain’s office.

This diverse crowd was gathered for the first International Wisconsin Ginseng Festival. While many may be surprised that such an event would be held in the middle of Wisconsin’s rolling hills and scenic lakes, it is locally a $50 million industry with a long history. In the mid-1970s Hmong immigrants, primarily from Vietnam, brought their entrepreneurial skills and revitalized the local ginseng industry. Welcomed by a friendly community that continues to foster an entrepreneurial spirit, Hsu’s Ginseng, now under the leadership of the original founder's son Will Hsu, has grown to be the largest integrated ginseng growing and retailing operation in the U.S. 

In 2017, the Black unemployment rate was 7.5 percent, up from 6.7 percent in 1968, and still roughly twice the white unemployment rate. In 2015, the Black homeownership rate was just over 40 percent, virtually unchanged since 1968 and trailing a full 30 points behind the white homeownership rate, which saw modest gains over the same period. President Trump has bragged about the Black unemployment rate has reached record lows and homeownership has reached record highs under his presidency. What Trump leaves out is the overall statistical data over many years.

Although the federal government is the supreme authority on broad matters like immigration, in some cases, states have sovereignty over more precise issues like health and public safety. That’s what Becerra asserted at a press conference on Tuesday where he expressed that, through the Tenth Amendment, California has the right to handle public safety in the ways it sees fit. Calmly poised, Becerra assured Californians that the claims made in the lawsuit demonstrated “there’s nothing really new there that we weren’t already familiar with.”

The new release comes just ahead of International Women’s Day. Mattel, the maker of Barbie, conducted a survey of some 8,000 moms worldwide, only to discover that 86 percent were worried about the role models their daughters were exposed to. The Inspiring Women dolls apparently come with educational information about the contributions these powerful, fearless women made to society. Alongside Johnson, there will be a doll fashioned after Amelia Earhart, the first female aviator to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, and Frida Kahlo, the famed Mexican artist and activist.

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who ran for both the presidency and the Senate, raked in the highest donation, receiving $9,900. Since the Parkland shooting, Rubio has doubled down on a claim that gun control would not have stopped the rampage. An October New York Times report helped shed some light on which elected officials receive big money from the NRA and, perhaps, is reticent to upset the group by introducing and passing stricter gun laws.

What draws people to Donald Trump is the same thing that turns so many others away--he wants exactly what you want, if you happen to want something that helps him. He does not believe in gun control. He does not believe in gun rights. He is incapable of choosing a side, so he lets the side choose him. And once it does, it seems very hard for him to refuse.