Things that's got us like "Yeah...nah" this week: There's still no movement on the debt ceiling, Black doctors make up a fraction of all docs in the country, a couple states want to relax child labor laws, and lastly, we're not missing another carnival (the FOMO was too real watching all the revelers in Trinidad).
What the Health
The latest COVID numbers: 103M total cases & 1M total deaths (+238K & +2K from last week) in the US.
The headlines:
The US Department of Energy is now the 2nd US government agency to suspect COVID came from a leak that occurred in a Chinese lab.
Less than 6% of all US doctors are Black. Experts say this is a public health issue.
Yale medical experts say it’s finally time to move from race-based to race-conscious medical practices. No shit.
Keeping Up with Biden & Harris
With hearings on the case starting tomorrow, the POTUS is trying to find a way to save student debt forgiveness from a near-certain death in the SCOTUS.
Shit continues to get deeper with the war in Ukraine. Biden has vowed to respond if China sends weapons to help Russia. The fact that citizens in this country are facing endless problems and all this money is going towards a proxy war is so…American.
Ignoring complaints from Republicans about him not visiting the site of the East Palestine, OH train wreck, Joe doubles down on the fact that he won’t be going down there any time soon.
Congress, What’s Good?
Congress is back from their lil breaky break and the number 1 thing to take care of in their own backyard is still the debt ceiling. Word on the Hill is that some Republicans may actually vote for an increase to keep things moving along. Wouldn’t it be nice if the folks on Capitol Hill figured this out before this fiasco starts to hit our pockets (like everything else is at the moment)?
Topics in this week’s committee meetings:
The US & China’s fight for global dominance
Taking action on the fentanyl
Climate change’s economic threat to coastal communities
Social Justice Round Up
SNAP recipients across 32 states will see their benefit amounts decrease by $95-$250 in March.
Some states want to relax child labor laws to help with worker shortages. (Anybody else think they wouldn't be struggling to find workers like this if they paid competitive wages and offered healthy working environments?)
LA’s Mayor Karen Bass, wants a smarter–not smaller–police force. Even still, she stands the chance of rubbing LAPD the wrong way.
Minnesota is restoring voting rights to felons.
Around the Diaspora
Watching Trinidad Carnival go down from our phone screens had us in our feelings this year. If that was you too, here’s a list of carnivals to help kickstart your planning.
Guyana and India are strengthening their partnerships across agriculture and other industrial sectors.
Globally, a woman dies in childbirth every two minutes. 70% of those women are in sub-Saharan Africa.
Getting to the Money
Check out these creative AF job openings if pushing P (which stands for paper in this case) in a typical 9-5 isn’t your thing.
Need a reminder that it’s only over when you say it’s over? Check out how some workers who’ve left tech have spun their transition into lucrative and passionate work.
Buying Black
We all know what it looks like to see someone patting their braids endlessly because their head is itching like crazy. Did you know that’s because most braiding hair is synthetic and the toxins are irritating our scalps? Rebundle, has taken banana fibers and come up with an alternative that’s itch-free (and also better for the planet). If Beyonce can’t tell you to pat your weave anymore than you already have, see what Rebundle can do for you.
Culture that Pops
Speaking of that shortage of Black doctors, California’s only HBCU, the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, is making moves to help more Black folks enter the profession.
Meet the twin sisters named valedictorian and salutatorian of their high school. They’ll graduate with 105.3 and 104.9 GPAs respectively.
Donald Glover is working on Swarm, a horror series inspired by the Beyhive. If it’s anything like Atlanta…LOL.