Go Fani!! #FaniWillis Lock him up!

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Big ups to the Brotha .. the accolades are well deserved.

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Lyft and Uber say they will leave Minneapolis after city council forces them to pay drivers more​

Associated Press
Thu, March 14, 2024 at 6:33 PM





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Ride Hailing Drivers Minneapolis​

Ride-hailing drivers celebrate in Minneapolis, Thursday, March 7, 2024, immediately after Minneapolis City Council members voted to pass a measure that would increase wages to drivers of ride-hailing companies, including Uber and Lyft, to an equivalent of more than $15 an hour.

Opponents say this may increase costs to customers and increase fears that Uber and Lyft will follow through on their threats to leave the area altogether. (AP Photo/Trisha Ahmed) ASSOCIATED PRESS MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Lyft and Uber said they will cease operations in Minneapolis after the city's council voted Thursday to override a mayoral veto and require that ride-hailing services increase driver wages to the equivalent of the local minimum wage of $15.57 an hour.

Lyft called the ordinance “deeply flawed,” saying in a statement that it supports a minimum earning standard for drivers but not the one passed by the council.
“It should be done in an honest way that keeps the service affordable for riders,” Lyft said.
“This ordinance makes our operations unsustainable, and as a result, we are shutting down operations in Minneapolis when the law takes effect on May 1.”


Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but news outlets reported that it issued a similar statement saying it would also stop service that day. Both companies promised to push for statewide legislation that would counter the Minneapolis ordinance, and state House Republicans proposed a bill Thursday that would preempt local regulations of ride-hailing services.

The City Council first passed the measure last week in a 9-4 vote despite Mayor Jacob Frey’s promise to veto it. The measure requires ride-hailing companies to pay drivers at least $1.40 per mile and $0.51 per minute for the time spent transporting a rider — or $5 per ride, whichever is greater — excluding tips. In the event of a multi-city trip, that only applies to the portion that takes place within Minneapolis. Critics of the bill say costs will likely spike for everyone, including people with low incomes and people with disabilities who rely on ride-hailing services. Supporters say the services have relied on drivers who are often people of color and immigrants for cheap labor. “Drivers are human beings with families, and they deserve dignified minimum wages like all other workers,” Jamal Osman, a council member who co-authored the policy, said in a statement. “Today’s vote showed Uber, Lyft, and the Mayor that the Minneapolis City Council will not allow the East African community, or any community, to be exploited for cheap labor,” Osman added. “The Council chooses workers over corporate greed.” Democratic Gov Tim Walz, who vetoed a bill last year that would have boosted pay for Uber and Lyft drivers, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he was concerned because so many depend on those services, including disabled people. He said he believed the companies would pull the plug, “and there’s nothing to fill that gap.” Walz added that he hopes the Legislature will seek a compromise that both includes fair pay for drivers and dissuades the companies from leaving. Seattle and New York City have passed similar policies in recent years that increase wages for ride-hailing drivers, and Uber and Lyft still operate in those cities.

From the article:
"If you want to use the self-checkout lane at some Walmart stores, you might need to fork out $12.95 per month, or $98 per year, for a Walmart+ subscription. That’s because some Walmart stores are limiting some self-checkout lanes to Walmart+ subscribers and drivers of its Sparks delivery service."

Elon cancelled Don Lemon’s deal!
After Don Interviewed him. He’s sooooo racist.

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At the same time, the Governor of Louisiana is ramping up penalties for unlawful firearm possession and lowering the legal age for minors to be charged as adults.
Can you guess which ethnic group will be most negatively affected by these new laws?

A New York commission that will recommend whether to give reparations for slavery and discrimination to black residents hasn’t even met yet — but it’s already sparked a rift among black New Yorkers over who should be eligible for payouts.​

A similar panel in California said monetary reparations should be limited only to descendants of chattel enslaved persons to the US — $360,000 per eligible person — but not for other black Americans who may have suffered from discrimination.

Even with that restriction, the pricetag for the proposal has been estimated at an eyewatering $800 billion.

A New York commission is now examining whether the descendants of slaves are entitled to reparations. Getty Images
However, a huge segment of New York’s black residents are not descendants of US slavery. In New York City alone, well over 500,000 people are Afro-Caribbean or African immigrants — more than 25% of the black population, census figures show.

But some New York black activists said California’s reparations package was too restrictive.

Bertha Lewis, head of the Brooklyn-based Black Institute, told The Post that reparations must be considered for all black residents, because they have suffered from decades of systemic racism resulting from slavery — even if they are not direct descendants of slaves.

“That’s a false narrative,” Lewis said. “I don’t give a f**k what California did.”

“You can’t just say, `only descendants of slaves from the South.’ Black people faced the effects of slavery — discrimination — simply because they’re black.”

She said in many cases it will be extremely hard to document proof of ties to slavery given the scant records at the time.

A rift has grown over whether all black New Yorkers should receive a check.

“If you’re going to talk about reparations, you have to talk about discrimination that has gone on a long time against black people in the white American system,” Lewis said.

But others disagreed, saying any black people who moved to the US for better opportunities have no right to reparations for slavery in this country.

“It was our choice to come here,” said Mona Davids, a black South African who moved to New York as a child.

“The only beneficiaries of reparations should be descendants of chattel slavery — not African immigrants or Afro-Caribbean descendants.”

She added: “Descendants of slaves didn’t have a choice. White people benefited from slavery.”

Davids, who publishes “LittleAfrica News”, which serves that African community in the US, said reparations advocates should also go after the African countries, where rulers rounded and sold people to slave traders.

“In many cases it was black Africans who sold slaves. Ghana is rich. Nigeria is rich,” she said.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders recently appointed nine members to the Community Commission on Reparations Remedies. Hochul won a close election for governor in 2022, thanks to overwhelming support from black voters.

The commission, formed through a law approved in December 2023, is tasked with examining the horrific legacy of slavery, subsequent discrimination against black people and the impact it has to this day.

Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, a sponsor of the law to study reparations, said public hearings will be held across the state to get input from New Yorkers as well as experts on the issue.

Solages said it’s up to the commission to recommend who should be eligible for reparations, but she believes the California model is not one New York should emulate.

“We have a different history than California. We’re looking at harm-based reparations. New York is not just looking at slavery but the vestiges of slavery,” she said.

New York state records counted 21,193 enslaved people in the 1790 population. Slavery wasn’t outlawed in New York until 1817 — and some 4,600 enslaved people were freed when the law took full effect 10 years later, according to the New York Historical Society.

The full article:

Ridiculous!

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Auntie Lisa Cabrera

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We must learn how to dismantle it. Any ideas?

This is so classless, disrespectful, and out of pocket.
Login to view embedded media They really think the worst of Black people.

Remember, these racists are ELECTED. Just complaining on the internet won't keep them out of office!

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Federal judge orders minority-business agency opened to all races
The ruling sides with White plaintiffs in finding the Minority Business Development Agency’s presumption of disadvantage is unconstitutional

March 6, 2024

mbda_318px.jpg
A federal judge in Texas has ordered a 55-year-old federal agency created to help minority-owned businesses to open its doors to all races, a ruling that potentially imperils dozens of government programs that also presume racial minorities are inherently disadvantaged.

In a 93-page opinion rendered Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Mark T. Pittman ruled that the Minority Business Development Agency’s presumption that businesses owned by Blacks, Latinos and other minorities are disadvantaged violated the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection. He permanently enjoined the agency’s business centers, which have assisted minority-owned businesses in accessing capital and government contracts, from extending services based on an applicant’s race.

“If courts mean what they say when they ascribe supreme importance to constitutional rights, the federal government may not flagrantly violate such rights with impunity. The MBDA has done so for years. Time’s up,” wrote Pittman, who was appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump in 2019.


The decision marks the latest blow to government affirmative action programs in the wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark rulings against Harvard and the University of North Carolina last June. The high court’s finding upended race-conscious college admissions and sparked a broad legal offensive against affirmative action and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the private and public sectors. Within weeks, a federal judge in Tennessee struck down a provision of the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development program that equated race with social disadvantage as unconstitutional, forcing the agency to overhaul it


Legal experts said Tuesday’s ruling could have even more profound implications for how the government provides aid to historically disadvantaged groups

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The struggle for age appropriate relationships .. her oldest son is off to college right now.

Halito Sixers,

It's been a minute since I have been on here but I truly missed you all. Just wanted to check to see if there is a one foot off-grid community? I am doing the minimum to maintain a presence in both worlds as I transition to off-grid living in the suburbs. I know it sound off, but I think I can mix solar and other alternative energy with less natural gas and other dependency based lifestyle choices. I was looking for more companies that are building an off-grid presence and not just selling products from overseas or non-indigenous companies. After all we(Negro) are the indigenous people of America.

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Optimistically futuristic,

Tia