TV News LIES

When Nannie Helen Burroughs established the National Association of Wage Earners in the early 20th century, Black women and girls were facing unchecked racism and sexism in the workplace.

They were often relegated to low-paying jobs like sharecropping or domestic service, two occupations in which women suffered harassment, violence and even jail time for the smallest infractions, according to Danielle Phillips-Cunningham, author of "Nannie Helen Burroughs: A Tower of Strength in the Labor World." Burroughs tried to register her organization as an official union under the American Federation of Labor, now known as the AFL-CIO, but its leaders turned her down.

So Burroughs led her own employment agency in Washington, D.C., where she made uniforms for domestic workers and held lectures on women’s rights and issues affecting Black workers across the nation. She had established her own school to educate female students in fields they were barred from, like stenography, and provide them credentials Burroughs hoped would make employers take them more seriously.

Month...

Rescue teams in Alaska were desperately searching over land and ocean Friday after a small passenger plane with 10 people on board went missing as it traveled along the state's western coast, authorities said.

The turboprop Cessna Caravan operated by Bering Air was reported missing Thursday around 4 p.m. local time, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety. Carrying nine passengers and a pilot, the plane was flying from Unalakleet, Alaska, to Nome when its position was lost 12 miles offshore, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Before the plane was reported missing, the Nome Volunteer Fire Department said the pilot had told Anchorage Air Traffic Control that "he intended to enter a holding pattern while waiting for the runway to be cleared."

More...

The Supreme Court declined Monday to decide whether a permanent voting ban on people convicted of felonies in Mississippi is cruel and unusual punishment.

The court, in 2023, had also rejected a different challenge to the state’s voting restriction that was based on the fact it was drafted in 1890 as part of a racist effort to disenfranchise Black voters.

Mississippi is one of eleven states that doesn't automatically restore voting rights after convicted felons finish their sentences.

Voting rights experts say Mississippi’s restrictions are among the harshest because the state bans voting by first-time offenders who commit non-violent felonies. And the process for restoring the right is onerous.

More...

Authorities in Monterey County, California lifted all evacuations Friday night, one day after a fire broke out at one of the world's largest lithium battery storage facilities.

The Monterey County Sheriff's Office made the announcement shortly after 6 p.m. local time. Health officials still advised residents near the Moss Landing Vistra Power Plant, located about 90 miles south of San Francisco, to limit outdoor exposure and to keep doors and windows closed until further notice.

Friday evening's announcement comes hours after the fire, which began early Thursday evening, flared up again. The fire closed a portion of coastal Highway 1 that remains shut down to traffic as the fire continues to burn.

More...

 

Gregory Rodriguez, a former California women’s prison correctional officer, who was at the center of one of the state’s largest prison abuse scandals, was convicted of 64 sexual abuse charges on Tuesday.

The jury’s guilty verdict includes convictions for rape and sexual battery on behalf of 13 incarcerated women.

Rodriguez, 56, was facing 97 counts and was found not guilty on some while the jury was hung on others, the Fresno Bee reported. His convictions include 57 felonies and seven misdemeanors, prosecutors said.

Rodriguez is one of the few California prison guards to face criminal charges for on-duty sexual misconduct, which data suggests is rampant in the state’s women’s prisons and across the US, but infrequently punished.

More...

Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.

Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He had been well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI’s strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.

Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on 26 November in what police said “appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation.” The city’s chief medical examiner’s office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.

More...