History curriculum, books were written by and for white people. What about kids of color?
Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY
Sun, September 12, 2021

When LaGarrett King was growing up in Louisiana, his textbooks and teachers taught him about Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King Jr. But he often found himself wondering: Where are the other Black faces and voices and stories?

Why weren't his teachers and books explaining the complexities of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision? The failure of Reconstruction after the Civil War? The lingering effects of enslaving humans, which were obvious all around him?

At home, his African American family often discussed those topics and more, but in his public school, staffed almost entirely by white people, they just didn't come up. No one was talking about the institutional racism, mortgage redlining or civil rights violations that made it harder for Black citizens to vote and reshape society around them.

"Black people have always favored education, but what education they actually get, that's a different story," says King.

Thirty years later, King, who founded and directs the Carter Center for K-12 Black History Education at the University of Missouri, says most of the history majors he's teaching still lack a baseline knowledge of the events and people that shaped Black history in the United States.

Quiz: Test your knowledge of U.S. history

Runaway-slave games, sanitized textbooks: Schools do a terrible job teaching about slavery

"They're really hurt that this history wasn't taught to them in school," King says. "If future citizens are only learning about half of the population, well, that's how we end up in the place we are in. If they knew this history, hopefully they would improve our society because we don't want to repeat it."

King is part of a new generation of Black educators who are demanding more from public school across the country, schools that have for generations largely reflected the priorities of white-dominated boards of education and state legislatures, implemented through curricula and textbooks they controlled.

Now, a shift is underway as more Black and Latino parents push for inclusive and diverse educational materials. An accompanying backlash by conservatives decries the concept of critical race theory, which examines the United States through the lens of people who continue to face systemic racism.

A rally against critical race theory in Leesburg, Va., on June 12, 2021.

Critical race theory, DEI and more: What those terms really mean

Across the country, school boards, statewide boards of education and legislators are more closely examining their textbooks and curricula, traditionally developed by and for white people. Nationally, white kids now make up about 47% of public school students. Hispanic kids make up 27% and Black kids make up 15%.
Textbooks don't just come from Texas anymore

For decades, Texas' statewide standards and millions of public school students meant textbook publishers catered specifically to the Lone Star State's conservative-dominated curriculum-setting process, then sold those same books to districts in smaller states that lacked the purchasing power to demand their own custom modifications.

About a decade ago, the Common Core curriculum standards began bringing new consistency to what kids were learning, although not every state adopted them (and many states later dropped them, at least officially).

And while Common Core focuses only on language and math and lacks any focus on history, the de facto national standards played a key role in loosening the grip Texas once had in determining what kids across the country learned.

Today, on-demand printing and the development of statewide curriculums in states such as Florida and California have freed other states to influence their own textbook purchases. Still, what kids learn remains largely tied to the past.

"There is a sort of circularity to the argument: 'History is written by the winners and people should know history, so they should learn about the winners,'" said David Griffith of the Fordham Institute, a conservative-leaning education think tank. "A certain amount of debate and negotiation is inevitable. It is simply a fact that our history is not as diverse as our current reality, and reasonable people are going to disagree about who should or should not be in."

U.S. history is complex: Scholars say this is the right way to teach about slavery, racism.

In Texas, Board of Education Chairman Keven Ellis said he and his colleagues are proud that students are now offered electives in both Mexican American history and African American history. Ellis said educational leaders need to strike a careful balance between teaching kids a historically accurate accounting of the past while leaving space for their own critical thinking.

Texas offers a statewide curriculum that districts can adopt, although they can make their own if it meets certain standards. The process begins with educators and other experts who recommend certain areas of study, and then gets refined via public input.

Politicians have the final say. Gov. Greg Abbot this spring called a special legislative session to discuss, among other topics, a ban on teaching aspects of critical race theory in Texas' public schools. That ban took effect Sept. 1.

The Texas State Capitol is seen on the first day of the 87th Legislature's special session. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott called the Legislature into a special session, asking lawmakers to prioritize his agenda items, including banning critical race theory in schools.

"We don't want to create a mindset for our students, where they have a certain agenda that's given to them. We want to make sure they're given facts to evaluate," Ellis said. Still, he said, U.S. history has caused "scars and open wounds," along with so much good.

"We should educate our children about our history of these scars, and in some cases the open wounds that remain," he said.

Confederate Reckoning: The long shadow of racism in the American South
Do kids see themselves in their classes?

For Silvia Nogueron-Liu, the debate over critical race theory is eerily reminiscent of the battles in Arizona during the late 2000s over Tucson's Mexican American studies program. A Republican-dominated legislature outlawed the program on the grounds that it was teaching "racial resentment," prompting administrators to collect textbooks lawmakers considered inappropriate for kids.

The Tucson program had been teaching students in the primarily poor Latino district using texts and historical figures that reflected what they saw in the mirror, said Nogueron-Liu, who was born in Mexico and earned her doctorate in curriculum and instruction at Arizona State University amid the Tucson curriculum debate.

Every child, Nogueron-Liu said, comes to school with an understanding of their own culture – just like King, the professor, did 30 years ago. It's important for them to be able to anchor new information into the context of their personal history.

Seeing themselves in textbooks is the best way to start that process, she said. The tension comes when governments decide what narrative kids should learn, then reinforce those narratives via textbooks and curriculum.

"When we're learning about history in kindergarten and in first grade and we don't see ourselves reflected in what we are learning, how are we making those connections?" said Nogueron-Liu, now a professor of literacy studies at the University of Colorado. "Children can understand injustice. They can understand inequality."
What teachers actually teach

Today, most states have statewide history standards that guide what children learn and teachers teach. Those standards are typically set by state boards of education and then flow down to the school district, school and then classroom level.

"Textbooks certainly play a role in what teachers teach and students learn," said Morgan Scott Polikoff, an education professor at the University of Southern California. "The way the system is supposed to work, the standards are supposed to be the determinant of what's taught."

The reality, however, is teachers play a significant role in deciding what to emphasize or gloss over, Polikoff said. Some conservative states have started banning the teaching of specific words and phrases, and Polikoff said most teachers were already teaching a "whitewashed" version of U.S. history. 

Most states have statewide history standards, but teachers often make their own decisions about what kids learn.

Still, he said, "I strongly suspect that regardless of the materials, on average, teachers tend to teach toward the middle. There are going to be some iconoclast conservative teachers and some outspoken liberal teachers, but teachers in general tend to teach toward the middle."

Surveys of thousands of teachers by the RAND Corp. support that conclusion, said Darleen Opfer, who runs the think tank's education and labor division. About 30% of teachers nationally are using the Engage New York standards developed by the state's education department.

But drill down, Opfer said, and you'll find that half the country's educators also are using the Teachers Pay Teachers website. There, teachers can upload lesson plans they've developed themselves and buy lessons to use in their classrooms.

"Even if you had a textbook written for Texas that was adopted all over the country, teachers weren't using it consistently," Opfer said. "When we ask teachers why they deviated from a textbook or a curriculum, they give lots of reasons for why, and they're essentially trying to differentiate their instruction or they're trying to make it more culturally appropriate.

"Right now, because of the climate, we're seeing teachers err on the side of not covering things that might be controversial."

King, the history professor, says the choices of textbooks and curriculum are inherently political. "Education has always been political," he said. He welcomes the conversation about exactly what gets included in textbooks – and what gets left out.

"We use history to tell our students who we are as a people. We need to reexamine questions like: 'What is the purpose of history?' Is it nostalgia?" he said.

"It's not about patriotism or loving America or hating America. History is simply helping understand humanity."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: History curriculum, critical race theory: Why POC aren't in textbooks

HOUSING FOR ALL! PROPERTY IS THEFT!
Some landlords looking to evict tenants, back rent paid or not


Bob Beckstead, Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.
Sun, September 12, 2021, 

Sep. 12—CANTON — A member of the St. Lawrence County Fair Housing Task Force says some landlords aren't concerned about back rent owed by tenants during the eviction moratorium. They just want them out of their building.

"They just want the tenants out of their apartments, their single family homes; they just want them out," Gouverneur Code Enforcement Officer Mike McQuade told task force members Thursday. "That's the unfortunate part. They're willing to take that $9,000, $10,000, $12,000 loss just to get these people out of the apartments."

He said he has heard the same sentiment from several landlords.


"They just want these people out of their homes," he said.

John Tenbusch, a planner with the St. Lawrence County Planning Department, wondered if relations between landlords and tenants had always been "toxic."

"Absolutely," Mr. McQuade said.

He said the tenants often "know the system."

"When you can tell these tenants that they don't have to pay, they are going to stop," he said. "Hypothetically, I have a landlord that's owed $18,000 in back rent for over a year-and-a-half. How are that landlord and tenant going to agree? That landlord just wants that individual out of the house, take the loss and leave. That's the difficulty with this moratorium."

At the same time, Mr. McQuade said, "some of these tenants, when you tell them you don't have to pay, you see deliveries. I had one the other day. They set up a pool. They haven't paid rent in six months. That's where I have the difficulty with this agreement thing between the tenants and landlord. They're not going to come together. If this started three months ago, you'd have a good chance. You're talking over a year-and-a-half. That's a tough sell."

Courtnie Toms, deputy director of Massena's Maximizing Independent Living Choices, said in a written report to the task force that one of the problems they face is a refusal by tenants to apply for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program.

"Something we did not expect was the refusal by tenants to apply," she wrote. "We have had many landlords reach out to us to file an application, but their tenants have refused. They have told us they don't want their landlord to be paid due to interpersonal conflict that happened after the tenant stopped paying rent. We have had a couple landlords refuse to apply because they are trying to evict for nuisance reasons. But, that has been rare. We have had many landlords report that they are unable to contact their tenants about the program."

During Thursday's meeting, P.J. Herne, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York, provided task force members with an update on the status of evictions in St. Lawrence County. New York's temporary ban on evictions and foreclosures has been extended until the beginning of next year.

The state's eviction moratorium bars eviction of residential and commercial tenants who could not pay rent due to financial hardships caused by the pandemic, through Jan. 15, 2022.

However, a measure approved by state lawmakers amended the Emergency Rental Assistance Program's evictions protections to provide landlords with a path to start eviction proceedings against a tenant who is a nuisance or has inflicted substantial damage to a property, and created a due process mechanism for landlords to challenge a tenant's declaration of financial hardships.

"The old New York eviction moratorium was going to expire around Aug. 31," Mr. Herne said. "We saw an uptick in filings (for the ERAP)."

He said they advise clients to make full use of the ERAP. Maximizing Independent Living Choices and the St. Lawrence County Department of Social Services can assist with preparing applications because of new filing requirements to stamp and upload them.

"For our client base, a lot of our clients do not have the technical capabilities to do that," Mr. Herne said. "They don't have a computer. They don't have a scanner. They can't do those types of things, so we've been trying to make full use of both DSS and MILC and assist clients in doing that."

 

Prehistoric Native American artifacts from 6,000 BC 

were found in a Mississippi alligator's stomach

Morgan Keith

Sat, September 11, 2021,

An alligator is seen on the eighth hole during the second round of the Sanderson Farms Championship at the Country Club of Jackson on October 27, 2017 in Jackson, Mississippi. Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

• The alligator was harvested from Eagle Lake in Mississippi and weighed 750 pounds.

• Geologist James Starnes identified one of the objects found in the stomach as a type of early weapon from approximately 5,000-6,000 BC.

• Scientists believe that there are several reasons alligators eat stones, including as an aid to their digestion.

• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

On September 2, Red Antler Processing owner Shane Smith was examining the stomach contents of a 750-pound Mississippi alligator that had been brought to his wild game processing and hunting store when he came across two prehistoric artifacts, the Clarion Ledger reported.

When Smith began processing the 13-foot, 5-inch alligator from Eagle Lake, he found an arrowhead-like object and a tear-shaped object, which he shared photos of on Facebook.

Post by Red Antler Processing.

James Starnes, director of surface geology and surface mapping for the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, examined a photograph of the arrowhead-like object and determined it was an atlatl dart point, a type of early weapon from approximately 5,000-6,000 BC, the Clarion Ledger reported.

Starnes also identified the second object as a plummet, a heavy stone made of hematite, from about 1,700 BC, although archaeologists do not know what their use was for, according to the Clarion Ledger.

"Scientists have long thought that, like birds, gators swallow stones to help them digest their tough-to-process meals, or accidentally ingest them in the chaos of consuming a live, thrashing dinner," Science Magazine reported, adding that the strategy may also help the creatures maximize their time underwater.

Critics Remind Dan Crenshaw That Mandatory Vaccines Have Existed In U.S. For Decades

Mary Papenfuss
Fri, September 10, 2021

(Photo: Tom Williams via Getty Images)

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) ominously warned of a “revolt” after President Joe Biden unveiled new COVID-19 vaccination requirements — and critics on Twitter piled on to remind the lawmaker that mandatory vaccinations have existed in the U.S. for decades.

He also called vaccine requirements “cheap governance” and ordered the Democrats to “leave people the hell alone” in a tweet on Thursday.

The military has long required a number of vaccinations for service members, which Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL, should know, many pointed out, and accused Crenshaw of playing dumb to appeal to anti-vaccination extremists.


Gen. George Washington ordered his troops to be inoculated against smallpox way back in 1777 via a precursor to vaccination called variolation.

American children begin getting vaccinations when just weeks old and must be vaccinated against a number of infectious diseases before they’re allowed to attend public schools — even in Texas. Healthline reported last month that school vaccine mandates have existed in the United States since the 1850s.

“Are you going to start a revolt over these, too?” scoffed one Crenshaw critic.

Crenshaw’s only response to his vaccine double standard: “Wow this one really triggered left wing authoritarians on twitter.”

Biden announced Thursday that all federal workers and contractors will need to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in the coming weeks, along with health care workers at providers that receive federal funding through Medicaid and Medicare.

The administration will also require all businesses with 100 or more employees to require testing at least once a week for unvaccinated workers.

Also on HuffPost

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

USSA
Texas Teachers Asked to Snitch on Colleagues Promoting ‘Radical Politics and Weird Theories’

OF COURSE WEIRD THEORIES DO NOT INCLUDE TRUMP IS REAL POTUS

Steven Monacelli
Fri, September 10, 2021,

John Moore/Getty

DALLAS—Some teachers at the Dallas Independent School District woke up to an email this week asking them to rat out any fellow employees for supposedly promoting so-called “critical race theory” and “predatory gender fluidity.” And they’re not happy about it.

Two teachers who received the email on Wednesday shared their reactions with The Daily Beast. Both teachers requested to remain anonymous for fear of being reported on amid an increasingly tense environment for teachers.

“I was incredulous that someone would take the time to write and disperse it,” one middle school teacher told The Daily Beast. “I clicked on the unsubscribe button and input that my reason for unsubscribing was that ‘this is racist, homophobic trash.’”


“When I saw the email I thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’” said one elementary school teacher. “I knew this was a view held by a lot of conservatives, that there is some plot by public schools to make white kids feel guilty for history’s atrocities or to make kids ‘scared of being straight,’ but this just comes from sensationalist information. Even the most radical of teachers are not making kids feel responsible for things their ancestors have done.”

The email, which fear-mongered about “radical politics and weird theories,” painted an apocalyptic picture of current classrooms and invited recipients to be heroes in that distorted reality: “The game is rigged against kids, parents and teachers who want to do the right thing. But with your help it doesn’t have to be.”

This effort to turn teachers into informants in a delusional crusade against the teaching of so-called “critical race theory” comes after the Texas legislature passed the new HB3979 law banning the tenets of CRT in schools. Although conservatives have fueled panic over the topic, it is not taught in elementary or middle schools, and many public schools have already been forced to put out statements clarifying that “critical race theory” is a subject taught at the college level.

Nonetheless, the furor over the issue on the right has continued, coming on the heels of and in many ways mirroring controversial efforts by Texas conservatives to collect tips on anyone seeking or providing abortion services.

“It feels like it’s coming from a conservative echo chamber that is not familiar with how public schools operate,” said the middle school teacher. “Our curriculum is packed with literacy, mathematics and test prep. We don’t have time to teach law school level theoretical concepts.”

CRT is an academic movement of civil-rights scholars and activists who seek to critically examine the intersection of race and U.S. law and to challenge mainstream American liberal approaches to racial justice. But in 2020, conservative activists like Christopher Rufo began using the term “critical race theory” publicly to denounce all sorts of anti-racist education efforts. Since then, CRT has become a watchword for fears that children are being “brainwashed” into thinking that all white people are fundamentally racist.

The email circulated this week, leaked to The Daily Beast by a DISD teacher, was sent by Natalie Cato, the president of Save Texas Kids. Save Texas Kids is an advocacy organization founded by “mothers and fathers on (sic) Texas children who refuse to allow the curriculum to bend to the demands of ‘woke’ ‘progressive’ leadership,” according to its website.

“The idea that race theory, or anything about racism needs to be brow-beaten into the vulnerable minds of children is exactly why Save Texas Kids was created,” the website reads.

Far-Right Snitch Network Targets Schools That Talk Race

In the email, Cato said she wanted “kids to learn about the horrors of slavery and the evils of the ‘Jim Crow’ system” but also that “we have made great progress overcoming those injustices through the heroism of the Civil Rights leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, and that 40 years later we elected our nation’s first black President which Dr. King said would be the ultimate evidence that America was NOT a racist nation.”

Notably, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. never made such a statement. In fact, King spoke passionately about the polite racism of white liberals. “I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress,” King wrote in the Letter from Birmingham Jail.

Cato also wrote that she opposes school boards and school administrators she alleges are “pushing the idea that there is no such thing as biological sex.” Her examples included “boys being told they can shower? with girls if they self identify as a girl” and “girls being told they must compete with boys in sports simply because a boy claims to be a girl.”

These statements echo claims made by conservative lawmakers about transgender student athletes that have made for splashy headlines. But few proponents have been able to cite specific examples.

Cato, who does not reside within the school district, did not respond to requests for comment prior to publication of this article.

In 2017, the district passed a resolution saying Dallas schools would create welcoming and protective spaces, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. This includes modest accommodations, like addressing a student by their preferred pronoun.

Save Texas Kids is one of over 160 groups across the country that have recently emerged to disrupt lessons on race and gender, according to an NBC News analysis of media reports and organizations’ promotional materials. In the Dallas area, several have popped up to stoke outrage and engage in school board elections.

In April, controversial fliers were circulated in the wealthy Park Cities enclave of Dallas by two nonprofit groups seeking to stoke the flames of an already heated school board race.

One of the groups, Park Cities Parents Unite, emerged amid fights over COVID-19 protocols, and the group hasalso taken up the fight against CRT and transgender students. Their flier vilified students engaging in civil rights protests. It is unclear who operates and funds the 501c4 group.

On Aug. 25, Park Cities Parents United shared a “School Board Watchlist” on their Facebook page, an initiative that “finds and exposes school board leadership that supports anti-American, radical, hateful, immoral, and racist teachings in their districts, such as Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project, sexual/gender ideology, and more.”

The other group, Metroplex Citizens for a Better Tomorrow, sent out a flier earlier this year lambasting one of the candidates in the school board race as a “New Jersey Liberal” who “Had a BLM Sign in His Yard” and worked as a “Diversity Officer.”

The treasurer of Metroplex Citizens for a Better Tomorrow, hotelier Monty Bennett, issued a statement to the Dallas Morning News at the time: “Everyone knows that the left-wing media’s bully culture is to twist whatever anyone says into making a conservative look bad and a lefty look good,” he wrote. “There’s no point in countering the misrepresentations and distortions you will no doubt write in this article.”

Such efforts have caused school board members to resign in frustration across the country, creating a political power vacuum for the most rabid activists to fill. Now with the rise of state-sanctioned anti-abortion bounty-hunting and snitch-sites in Texas, it isn’t just school board officials that are becoming political targets.

In a statement to Spectrum News, Save Texas Kids said they hope to identify individual teachers so they can confront school and district officials.

Racially profiled while apple picking? Farm calls police on Massachusetts family



Mike Stunson
Fri, September 10, 2021, 2:47 PM·3 min read

A Massachusetts family of four was enjoying a Labor Day trip to a local apple farm, but an alleged racial profiling incident to end their day became a “traumatic experience.”

Six extra apples that fell into a stroller pushed by Rev. Manikka Bowman and Jeff Myers led to police being called at Connors Farm and racial comments directed to the Black family.

A search for more ‘concealed’ fruit

Bowman and Myers brought their two children Monday to Connors Farm in Danvers, where they spent more than $100 for a day of apple picking, they wrote in a news release. The family picked up a few more apples than would fit in their designated bag, leading to an issue as they went to purchase apple cider donuts.

Bowman said a security officer stopped them for having too many apples — six too many. Some of the fruit had fallen to the bottom of the stroller for the couple’s 18-month-old child, but they had intentions of paying for it at the final checkout.

The situation intensified when they were ushered in to a farm store building by security officers and a manager, who searched “for more ‘concealed’ fruit.”

“Of course, there wasn’t any!” the family said. “I asked the person why were we being treated this way? And did they treat other guests this way?”

Police were eventually called when the couple asked to speak with the farm’s owner. The responding officer, according to Bowman and Myers, accused the couple of “playing the race card.”

“Why was this happening? We looked at each other, wondering. What made them suspect us of stealing?” the parents said. “Had our skin color influenced their thinking? Were we presumed guilty because we are an African American family? Why hadn’t they taken a much simpler, customer-friendly route and presumed our innocence with a simple reminder on what to do with any fruit that did not fit in the bag?”

When the manager said the family was trying to steal the fruit, the couple’s 7-year-old daughter burst into tears. Farm workers harassed the couple and created a scene due to the extra apples, which would have cost about $4, the family said.

Bowman, the vice-chair of the Cambridge School Committee, and Myers, a commercial real estate director, were forced to pay for an extra bag, despite the six apples not reaching its capacity.

The aftermath

Connors Farm wrote Thursday in a Facebook post that was later deleted that it has the right “to inspect all backpacks, bags and strollers that exit our orchard,” the Boston Herald reported.

A second post on Thursday remained on the farm’s page Friday, flooded with thousands of comments. Connors Farm said in the post it regrets the incident and has apologized to the family.

“We do our best to train our employees to handle all customer issues with courtesy and respect at all times,” the farm wrote. “We are taking further steps to ensure that staff will undergo diversity, equity and inclusion training. Please know that everybody is welcome on our farm.”

Town officials in Danvers also extended apologies to the family and said “discriminatory behavior has no place” in its community.

Leaders in the town, which has a population of about 27,000, have reached out to the family as well as the business, to which it “expressed its disappointment.” They also said the police officer who questioned the family made a “racially insensitive comment” to the couple.

In a second statement Friday, Bowman and Myers said the farm has apologized to them and have agreed to undergo racial equity workshops.

“We also acknowledge that the Connors Farm statement came after it made social media posts that were not sensitive to the seriousness of the moment,” the family said. “Clearly, Connors Farm has work to do to live into their words, and we hope that the owner’s stated intentions will be a meaningful step forward.”

Evangelical Lutheran Church of America installs first openly transgender bishop



Kierra Frazier

AXIOS
Sat, September 11, 2021, 3:09 PM·1 min read

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America installed its first openly transgender bishop on Saturday.

Driver the news: Rev. Megan Rohrer was installed as bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America after being elected in May to serve a six-year term.

Rohrer became one of seven LGBTQ pastors accepted by the progressive Evangelical Lutheran church in 2010 after it allowed ordination of pastors in same-sex relationships.

What they're saying: “I step into this role because a diverse community of Lutherans in Northern California and Nevada prayerfully and thoughtfully voted to do a historic thing,” Rohrer said, per AP.

“My installation will celebrate all that is possible when we trust God to shepherd us forward,”Rohrer said.

US restaurant workers are getting stiffed. It’s time for employers to pay up



Gene Marks
Sun, September 12, 2021, 5:00 AM·4 min read

This may come as a shock to some but there’s a different minimum wage for restaurant employees than for workers in most other industries. In Pennsylvania, for example, that minimum wage is just $2.83 an hour.

Every statein the US has these “tipped wages”. According to minimumwage.org, the tipped wage is as little as $2.13 an hour in 19 states and as high as $10 in New York.

Here’s how it works in Pennsylvania: restaurant owners here have to pay their workers just $2.83 an hour (the federal minimum) as long as those employees receive enough tips so that their total hourly wage exceeds the state (and national) minimum of $7.25.

There is a logic to this. State-based tipped wage rules are designed to allow restaurant owners to lower their payroll costs and let customers make up the difference.

To me, it’s all still woefully too little, but most restaurants take advantage of these tipped wage rules. And who can blame them? It’s legal and common and a significant help towards keeping overhead (and prices) under control. You would think that having to pay an employee a mere $2.83 an hour is enough of a saving. Unfortunately for some restaurants owners it’s not. So they steal.

For example, there’s the Bottle Bar East restaurant in Philadelphia, which last week was found in violation of these wage (and other) rules and ordered by a federal judge to pay $246,457.99 in back wages, as well as an equal amount of liquidated damages and civil money penalties to 73 bartenders, servers, cooks and dishwashers. Some employees were owed as much as $42,000. I live in Philly. I won’t be eating there.

I love Italian food, but I won’t be eating at Maggiano’s near the convention center in Philadelphia either. Why? Because, back in April, the geniuses running that location were ordered to pay $116,308 in back wages for wage theft that affected 82 workers. The restaurant chain grossed more than $400m in sales in 2019.

Business owners are being accused of stealing from their employees wherever you look.

A class-action lawsuit filed in New York against a popular steakhouse alleges “wage theft and other illegal practices that shortchanged staffers’ pay”, which affected about 50 current and former employees. A San Francisco restaurant agreed to pay 22 workers roughly $73,000 each for wage violations in a settlement to avoid a costly lawsuit. Two well-known eateries in Nashville agreed earlier this year to pay a combined $1.03m to settle separate lawsuits alleging tip and wage theft. A casino in Pennsylvania agreed to pay $6m to settle a class action lawsuit alleging a failure to pay its tipped employees the proper amount under federal and state law.

There are explanations for these shenanigans, and none of them good. Maybe the pandemic put so much pressure on some restaurants that the managers thought that shortchanging employees could help them survive financially. Perhaps their point-of-sale systems were inadequately set up to track tipped wages. Or maybe these same managers were simply taking advantage of their employees’ trust and thought they could get away with it.

One thing’s for sure: those employers are stupid.

Haven’t you seen the news? Good employees are in short supply and that situation isn’t going to significantly change any time in the near future. Not only that but thanks to the pro-labor Biden administration, you can count on an uptick in the enforcement of wage and other employment rules during the coming years. If you own a restaurant or a business that employs tipped workers, you better make sure you’re educating each and every one of them as to how their pay rate is calculated. You better make sure your systems are in order. You better pay special attention to “pooled tips” and overtime pay. Oh, and one other thing: you better make sure not to steal from your workers.

It’s a very bad idea to play games with your employees’ wages. Getting caught will result in significant penalties and a lot of bad press. But even more importantly it’s almost guaranteed to ensure that the best workers will avoid working for you. And customers will avoid you too.

AS SEEN ON TV
Does the supplement Prevagen improve memory? A court case is asking that question.



Martha M. Hamilton
Sat, September 11, 2021

The front of the box of the dietary supplement Prevagen says it improves memory and supports healthy brain function, sharper mind and clearer thinking.

The side of the box says: "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease."

The disclaimer, required by FDA rules, offers a reminder of how the federal government does - and doesn't - regulate dietary supplements. And Prevagen provides an interesting test of the relationship between manufacturers and government.

Supplements are regarded by the FDA as a food, not a drug. That means they are not tested by the agency before they are put on the market, although the FDA is responsible for removing any that are found to be unsafe once they are for sale.

Many medical experts say research has not found solid evidence that any supplements are effective at preventing neurological diseases that cause dementia. And they say that better treatments for the normal memory gaps often experienced with aging include exercise and a healthy diet.

Scott Gottlieb, FDA commissioner from 2017 to 2019, conceded that the growth of the supplements industry, which includes vitamins, minerals, herbs and other ingredients marketed for a wide range of uses, had outpaced the agency's ability to monitor it.

"What was once a $4 billion industry comprised of about 4,000 unique products, is now an industry worth more than $40 billion, with more than 50,000 - and possibly as many as 80,000 or even more - different products available to consumers," he said in 2019.

That growth has been propelled by heavy advertising in print, radio and television and on the Internet. Prevagen's commercials, for example, feature relatable older adults full of robust enthusiasm for its benefits - who are labeled as "paid testimonialists" or "Prevagen content contributors."

"In the kind of work that I do, you are surrounded by people who are all younger than you," one says, looking over the shoulder of a younger person at a computer screen. "I had to get help to stay competitive."

A 68-year-old describes himself as a motivational speaker and substitute teacher. "I honestly feel that's my calling - to give back to younger people."

And they're active. Walking, fly-fishing, shooting hoops and singing the supplement's praises.

"After about 30 days of taking it, we noticed a clarity that we didn't notice before."

"After a period of time, my memory improved. It was a game changer."

"People say to me, 'Man, you've got a memory like an elephant!' "

Four years ago, the Federal Trade Commission and the New York attorney general sued the makers of Prevagen over what they asserted were false claims that it improves memory and brain functioning. After a long delay, the suit, which includes a request for consumer refunds, is moving forward again.

Neurologists and other medical experts say some supplements stray into what they call pseudomedicine. "Pseudomedicine refers to supplements and medical interventions that exist within the law and are often promoted as scientifically supported treatments, but lack credible efficacy data," three University of California neurologists wrote in a 2019 article in JAMA. "With neurodegenerative disease, the most common example of pseudomedicine is the promotion of dietary supplements to improve cognition and brain health."

Joanna Hellmuth, the lead author, said the article was prompted by a discussion among the faculty at the Memory and Aging Center in the Department of Neurology at the University of California at San Francisco. They talked about how heartbreaking it was seeing vulnerable dementia patients and their families being swept up in the marketing of brain health supplements, considering the likely false promise of hope and the financial drain.

Discussing supplements also takes away time from discussing healthy steps patients can take that are supported by the data, including exercise and social engagement, she said.

The initial Prevagen case was dismissed by a lower court judge, but a federal appeals court in New York reversed that ruling and sent the case back to the lower court. The parties have been engaged in discovery and are expected to complete the last phase on Oct. 22. A mid-November status conference could determine the next steps in this long-running litigation against Quincy Bioscience Holding Co., Quincy Bioscience, Quincy Bioscience Manufacturing and Prevagen Inc., a complex of companies owned principally by co-founders, Mark Underwood and Michael Beaman.

At the time the lawsuit was filed, the company "vehemently" denied the allegations and called the lawsuit "another example of government overreach and regulators extinguishing innovation by imposing arbitrary new rules on small businesses like ours."

"Prevagen is safe," the news release went on to say. "Neither the FTC nor the New York Attorney General has alleged that Prevagen can cause or has caused harm to anyone. And hundreds of thousands people tell us it works and improves their lives."

It added that "Quincy has amassed a large body of evidence that Prevagen improves memory and supports healthy brain function. This evidence includes preclinical rat studies, canine studies, human clinical studies, and, most importantly, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled human clinical testing. This type of testing has long been acknowledged by both the FTC and the FDA to be the 'gold standard' for scientific evidence.

"The sole dispute rests on the interpretation and analysis of the data, with the regulators attempting to hold the company to a standard that is unreasonable, scientifically debatable, and legally invalid," according to the news release. "Their experts simply disagree with ours over how to interpret the study results."

Prevagen representatives did not respond to emails or phone calls requesting an interview.

Class-action suits also have been filed against the makers of Prevagen, claiming that its advertising was deceptive. In one, settled in 2020, Quincy Bioscience denied wrongdoing but agreed to provide refunds to eligible class members for 30 percent of their purchases with payments capped at $70 with proof of purchase or $12 without proof of purchase. Another case ended in a mistrial after jurors deadlocked.

The producers of Neuriva, another supplement marketed as a brain booster, recently settled a class action and agreed to change all references from "clinically proven" and "science proved" on labeling and marketing to "clinically tested" and "science tested" or other similar language.

The problem, Hellmuth said, is that most consumers won't see a distinction between "clinically tested" and "clinically proven" and that "the companies are casting this aura of science" when it isn't backed up.

The Alzheimer's Association warns in its discussion of alternative medicine that a "growing number of herbal remedies, dietary supplements and 'medical foods' are promoted as memory enhancers or treatments to delay or prevent Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Claims about the safety and effectiveness of these products, however, are based largely on testimonials, tradition and a rather small body of scientific research."

Privately-held Prevagen's sales were said to have totaled $165 million between 2007 and 2015, according to the FTC's and the New York attorney general's 2017 lawsuit, but are likely much larger now because of rapid growth in the market.

The dispute over Prevagen's effectiveness centers on two things. One is a synthetic ingredient called apoaequorin designed to replicate a protein found in jellyfish. Critics, including the two entities suing it and the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, point to evidence that it probably is digested in the stomach, leaving nothing to get past the blood-brain barrier that acts as the brain's concierge.

While the FTC case rests on marketing, the FDA raised questions in a 2012 "warning letter" about whether Prevagen should be classified as a drug rather than a supplement. It also stated that Prevagen's marketing cited studies and included statements by Prevagen users suggesting it was a treatment for Alzheimer's and other diseases and alleged that it had failed to report adverse events, including strokes and seizures that had been reported to the company, to the FDA.

An FDA spokesperson said the action "was closed out in 2018. Quincy Bioscience has satisfactorily addressed FDA concerns."

The other criticism raised by the FTC and New York attorney general lawsuit is that the company-funded test of the supplement doesn't pass muster. Quincy Bioscience describes the study as a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial.

But, according to the FTC and the New York attorney general, the trial involved 218 subjects taking either 10 milligrams of Prevagen or a placebo and "failed to show a statistically significant improvement in the treatment group over the placebo group on any of the nine computerized cognitive tasks."

The complaint alleges that after the Madison Memory Study failed to "find a treatment effect for the sample as a whole," Quincy's researchers broke down the data in more than 30 different ways.

"Given the sheer number of comparisons run and the fact that they were post hoc, the few positive findings on isolated tasks for small subgroups of the study population do not provide reliable evidence of a treatment effect," the lawsuit said. Post hoc studies are not uncommon but are generally not regarded as proof until confirmed, scientific experts say.

According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which filed an amicus brief in support of the agencies' charges, the subsequent analyses produced "three results that were statistically significant (and more than 27 results that weren't)."

Hellmuth hopes Congress will pass legislation beefing up FDA oversight of supplements, but says she doubts it is a fight "anyone wants to take on."

Claims for these products, she says, should be verified so that patients and consumers can believe in them.

COLD WAR 2.0 BUST MADE BIG NEWS

Federal judge acquits Tennessee professor with ties to China


TRAVIS LOLLER
Fri, September 10, 2021

A federal judge on Thursday threw out all charges against a University of Tennessee professor accused of hiding his relationship with a Chinese university while receiving research grants from NASA.

Anming Hu was arrested in February 2020 and charged with three counts of wire fraud and three counts of making false statements. The arrest was part of a broader Justice Department crackdown under then-President Donald Trump's administration against university researchers who conceal their ties to Chinese institutions.

A jury in June deadlocked after three days of deliberation and U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan declared a mistrial. Last month, prosecutors filed a notice that they intended to retry the case. Varlan ruled to acquit on all charges on Thursday, responding to a motion Hu's attorney made at trial that Varlan had declined to immediately rule on.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Rachelle Barnes, said on Friday the office had no comment on the case. Defense attorney Philip Lomonaco said prosecutors cannot appeal an acquittal, so the judgment marks the end of the case.

“It was the right decision,” Lomonaco said. “He was innocent.”

Hu began working for UT Knoxville in 2013 and later was invited by another professor to help apply for a research grant from NASA. That grant application was not successful, but two later applications were. A 2012 law forbids NASA from collaborating with China or Chinese companies. The government has interpreted that prohibition to include Chinese universities, and Hu was a faculty member at the Beijing University of Technology in addition to his position at UT.

Prosecutors tried to show that Hu deliberately hid his position at the Chinese university when applying for the NASA-funded research grants. Lomonaco argued at trial that Hu didn’t think he needed to list his part-time summer job on a disclosure form and said no one at UT ever told him otherwise.

On Thursday, Varlan ruled that, even assuming Hu intended to deceive about his affiliation with that second university, there is no evidence that Hu intended to harm NASA.

“Without intent to harm, there is no ‘scheme to defraud’,” Varlan wrote, quoting a necessary element of the wire fraud charges. Varlan added that NASA got the research from Hu that it paid for, and there was no evidence that Hu took any money from China or had anyone in China work on the projects.

Varlan also cited evidence that NASA's funding restrictions were unclear. For instance, the University of Tennessee's “China Assurance letter” sent in conjunction with the grant applications stated that the funding restriction did not apply to UTK faculty like Hu, Varlan wrote.

Lomonaco argued at trial that the Department of Justice had ignored the law and destroyed the career of a professor with three Ph.D.s in nanotechnology because the agency “wanted a feather in its cap with an economic espionage case.”