Podcasts about census bureau

It's a worst-case scenario for homeowners in a suburb of Scottsdale, Arizona. Due to drought conditions in the Southwest, the water supply for Rio Verde Foothills has been shut off. Residents have been left scrambling for water. They have filed a lawsuit, but the bigger question is whether the building boom can continue in Arizona. Land has been inexpensive in Arizona but without enough water, is land really that cheap?   Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review.   Scottsdale supplied Rio Verde Foothills with water for decades, since it sprouted into existence in the 1970's. It's an unincorporated part of Maricopa county with about 600 homes and about 1,000 residents. The water was trucked in, but with a decades-long drought and a shrinking supply of water from the Colorado River, Scottsdale says it needs to conserve water for its own residents and can no longer deliver water to Rio Verde.    It's not just a wake-up call for the residents of Rio Verde, but for residents across Arizona and the western part of the U.S. where drought conditions are ongoing. In a Time article on the water crisis, the author poses the question: “In an era where climate change is shrinking the water supply, should the desert state (of Arizona) keep building homes that depend on water from elsewhere?”   It's a question with significant repercussions at a time when the state is enthusiastically welcoming new residents and encouraging growth. Arizona's population has skyrocketed over the last 50 years and is currently at about 7.35 million residents. Census Bureau data shows that Arizona's population surged 1.3% from July 2021 to July of last year. That represents more than 94,000 people coming into the state and puts Arizona in fifth place for U.S. population growth. The only states with more growth were Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and Texas. (2)   Census Data also shows that Maricopa county, where Phoenix, Scottsdale and Rio Verde are all located, is the eighth fastest growing county in the country. Time also reports that it isn't just more and more people but water thirsty companies, like data centers, which are expanding into the area and impacting the precious water supply.    Some say that the water supply can no longer support the growth boom, and that's a concept that developers and builders are wrestling with. Arizona's governor, Katie Hobbs released a report that shows a huge water deficit in an area west of Phoenix in the White Tank Mountains where developers want to build. According to Time, these are homes that would house about 800,000 people. But Arizona is now reporting to the local media that developers will have to find their own water supplies or some other solution, before they can build.   Since the state's supply of water from the Colorado River is already spoken for, they won't be getting it from there. If they can't get enough from the ground, they may have to truck it in, which didn't work very well for the residents in Rio Verde. Other ideas have included a pipeline from some distant water saturated area, or from a desalination plant that's yet to be built in Mexico's Sea of Cortez.   With drought and climate change issues intensifying, these kinds of ideas are coming to the forefront. Developers see the water pipeline idea as a way to create a stable source of water that will sustain growth for years to come. And maybe that's what the Southwest real estate industry needs. But Time reports there's also the unmentionable idea that growth cannot continue as it has been, and the pipeline/desalinization idea is  the only inevitable solution. It comes with several drawbacks however.   First, the process involves wastewater that would probably be dumped back into the Sea of Cortez and potentially harm sea life. The pipeline would also cut through Organ Pipe National Monument in Arizona, and across land in Mexican territory, which might not sit well with various groups of people. Desalination is also very energy intensive and could generate a lot of greenhouse gas emissions.   Cary Meiser of the Yuma Audubon Society says: “We as Arizonans can't just keep taking water from somewhere else without considering how it impacts the people and places we're taking it from.”   On top of those drawbacks, the desalination isn't cheap and is sure to increase the cost of water for customers. Time reports that cities and states typically pay about $50 to $150 for one acre-foot of water, which is about what a family of three in Phoenix would use in a year. The cost of desalination would add about two- to three-thousand dollars onto that price for the same quantity of water.   If water gets that expensive, it's sure to impact Arizona's real estate industry. Properties with a secure source of water will suddenly be more valuable, while others lose value. Banks may also be more willing to make loans to properties with stable, less expensive water.    Currently, the Colorado River supplies water to about 40 million people in seven states and Mexico including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming. The wet winter has raised some amount of hope for a snow melt in the Rockies that will replenish the Colorado River, but as NPR reports, the winter is far from over, and conditions could change. (3)   For people in Rio Verde, there are back-up sources that are being used to truck in some amount of water. But transporting the water involves longer distances, and therefore more expense. The New York Times says that water bills have jumped from around $220 a month to $660 a month and it's unclear how long this back-up arrangement may last. (4)   Some people have resorted to hauling their own water. They put the water into large containers in the back of their pick-up trucks. It consumes an additional 10 hours a week just to get water. The Times reports that experts don't think Arizona will suffer big water cuts in the near future, but Governor Hobbs is promising to upgrade current groundwater rules. The update would reportedly address a long-standing rule that allows developers to build five or fewer homes without proof of a 100-year water supply. The Rio Verde developers apparently skirted the rule by dividing the project into groups of five homes or less.   Many people are drawn to Arizona because of inexpensive land prices and the beauty of the desert, but University of Arizona professor of human and environmental geography, Margaret Wilder, hopes the people of Arizona will realize the risks of unregulated expansion. She told Time: “I'm not an advocate of pulling up the bridge behind us, but we need to slow this train down.”   As for the Rio Verde lawsuit against the City of Scottsdale, an Arizona superior court judge denied a temporary stay. The court commented that “the court cannot and should not make water police decisions in lieu of the appropriate authorities.” The lawsuit will continue from there with additional arguments. (5)   If you'd like to learn more about the process of buying real estate in markets that make sense, with a good water supply, check out the Learning Center at our RealWealth website. You can join for free at newsforinvestors.com. And please remember to subscribe to our podcast, and follow me on instagram @kathyfettke for real estate market updates and commentary.   Thanks for listening!   Links:   1 - https://time.com/6248517/arizona-growing-population-drought-housing/   2 - https://www.abc15.com/news/business/census-finds-arizona-to-be-a-top-5-state-for-in-migration   3 - https://www.npr.org/2023/01/22/1150197343/why-heavy-winter-rain-and-snow-wont-be-enough-to-pull-the-west-out-of-a-megadrou   4 - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/16/us/arizona-water-rio-verde-scottsdale.html 5 - https://www.azfamily.com/2023/01/23/judge-sides-with-city-scottsdale-lawsuit-rio-verde-foothills-water-loss/

CLUB PORTAL CONTENT - Martin Luther King Jr. – A Wrongfully Religious Saint For The Right & The Left 0:10-2:31 That was our backstage show featuring Chad Jackson of Uncle Tom 2 And This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily Newsbrief for Thursday, January 19th, 2023. Ladies and gentleman, now is the time to sign up for a club membership at fightlaughfeast.com! This year, CrossPolitic will be dropping EXCLUSIVE content into our club portal, that you won’t be able to find ANYWHERE else. Some of this content will include a Bible study series with Pastor Toby, a special with New Saint Andrew’s President, Ben Merkle, our backstage content, and probably stuff that Gabe hasn’t told myself Toby or Knox about! So again, head on over to fightlaughfeast.com to get signed up today! That’s fightlaughfeast.com. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/18/holiday-2022-sales-fall-short-of-expectations.html Holiday sales fall short of expectations, set stage for tougher 2023 for retailers Holiday sales came in below industry expectations, as shoppers felt pinched by inflation and rising interest rates, according to data from the National Retail Federation. Sales during November and December grew 5.3% year over year to $936.3 billion, below the major trade group’s prediction for growth of between 6% and 8% over the year prior. In early November, NRF had projected spending of between $942.6 billion and $960.4 billion. The retail sales number excludes spending at automobile dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants, and is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau. It covers the period from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31. The holiday sales gains include the impact of inflation, which drives up total sales. The consumer price index, which measures the cost of a broad mix of goods and services, was up 6.5% in December compared with a year ago, according to the Labor Department. For retailers, the shopping season’s results reflect the challenges ahead. As Americans continue to pay higher prices for groceries, housing and more month after month, they are racking up credit card balances, spending down savings and having fewer dollars for discretionary spending. Plus, retailers are following years of extraordinary spending. During the Covid pandemic, Americans fought boredom and used stimulus checks by buying loungewear, throw pillows, kitchen supplies, home theater systems and more. That translated to sharp year-over-year jumps in retail sales in the past two holiday seasons — a 14.1% gain in 2021 and 8.3% gain in 2020. On average, holidays sales have grown by 4.9% annually over the past decade, according to NRF. NRF Chief Executive Matt Shay said those upward leaps were unsustainable, especially as people return to commuting, going out to dinner and booking vacations again. Plus, he said, Americans are paying higher prices across the board, from pricier rents to more expensive groceries. Sales rose in most major retail categories during the holiday season. Online and nonstore sales saw the biggest year-over-year gains, jumping 9.5% during the holiday season. Sales at grocery and beverage stores, which have had significant price increases, rose 7.8% versus the year-ago period. Demand in some categories noticeably weakened. Sales at furniture and home furnishings stores declined 1.1% and sales at electronics and appliances stores dropped 5.7% year over year. https://www.dailyfetched.com/climate-group-turns-on-world-economic-forum-after-hundreds-of-private-jets-fly-into-davos/ Climate Group Turns on World Economic Forum after Hundreds of Private Jets Fly into Davos Greenpeace torched the World Economic Forum attendees for traveling to Davos, Switzerland, in a scathing rebuke of the Klaus Schwab run event. According to a newly released analysis commissioned by Greenpeace found, approximately 1,040 private jets flew in and out of airports servicing Davos during last year’s World Economic Forum conference. Of those jets, most were embarking on short-haul flights of less than 500 miles that “could have easily been train or car trips.” One plane carried its passengers a mere 13 miles to attend the event. The analysis, conducted by Dutch environmental consulting firm CE Delft, also revealed that the number of arrivals and departures out of Davos airports included neighboring countries such as Germany, France, and Italy. The research concluded that private jet travel in the WEF “Great Reset’ event in 2021 produced carbon emissions equivalent to those caused in one week by 350,000 cars. Private jet emissions linked to Davos quadrupled during the week of the event compared to weeks before and after the meeting. The WEF’s theme for 2023 is “Cooperation in a Fragmented World,” which involves “how we can tackle the numerous and interlinked challenges the world is facing and find solutions through public-private cooperation,” the organization’s press release said. Klaus Schwab said in his opening remarks that “investing into a greener and therefore more sustainable economy” is one of the main objectives of the conference attendees. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also confirmed during her remarks that policymakers would endeavor to “reach net zero” carbon emissions. Member states of the European Union which rely on fossil fuel production to combat climate change, were forced to scramble for new power supplies after the Nord Stream pipeline attack and Russia’s severing reserves. https://townhall.com/tipsheet/juliorosas/2023/01/17/wef-danger-of-disinformation-panel-hate-speech-laws-on-the-way-to-the-us-n2618383 Speaking of the World Economic Forum WEF 'Danger of Disinformation' Panel: Hate Speech Laws Coming to the US One participant in the World Economic Forum's panel on "The Clear and Present Danger of Disinformation" at their annual meeting in Davos on Tuesday had a chilling prediction for hate speech laws in the United States. The panel, hosted by former CNN host Brian Stelter, also featured Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Arthur Gregg Sulzberger, the chairman of The New York Times Company. European Commission Vice President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová, who is from the Czech Republic, said there are reasons why many parts in Europe have strong speech code laws and the United States could soon have them too. "Illegal hate speech, which you will have soon also in the U.S., I think that we have a strong reason why we have this in the criminal law," Jourová said. "We need to the platforms to simply work with the language and to identify such cases." Sulzberger said overall disinformation is "the most existential" challenge and whatever problems with reporting stories inaccurately, the New York Times has made corrections. https://twitter.com/i/status/1615371127106441219 - Play Video Now this… https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2023/01/17/taliban-reportedly-buying-blue-checks-on-twitter-n524292 Taliban reportedly buying blue checks on Twitter If you thought things on Twitter were getting a bit weird since Elon Musk took over, buckle up. The strangeness continues this week. There has been quite a debate taking place over Musk’s decision to revamp the “verification” system and sell checkmarks of various colors to anyone who requests one and is willing to fork over a small monthly payment. Plenty of people have been taking advantage of that offer, gaining some amplification of their tweets and other user options not available to the hoi polloi. So perhaps we shouldn’t have been all that surprised to learn that high-ranking officials from the Taliban have gotten in on the action, but it still certainly sounds disturbing at first glance. (BBC) The Taliban have started using Twitter’s paid-for verification feature, meaning some now have blue ticks on their accounts. Previously, the blue tick indicated “active, notable, and authentic accounts of public interest” verified by Twitter, and could not be purchased. But now, users can buy them through the new Twitter Blue service. At least two Taliban officials and four prominent supporters in Afghanistan are currently using the checkmarks. One of the terrorist officials who now has a blue check is Hedayatullah Hedayat, the head of the Taliban’s department for “access to information.” He is definitely on Twitter with more than 180,000 followers and he tweets regularly. But I don’t see a checkmark of any color by his name. Gravity Jack Conference: It’s Less than two weeks to go for the Christians In Web3 Summit 2023! This is definitely going to be a historic gathering with KGEB TV, Patmos, Kingdom Warriors, Public SQ, Christian Vision, Heaven's Entrepreneurs, and 30+ more organizations represented at the event. CrossPolitic is one of them by the way… The event is hosted by Forum12 in partnership with Oral Roberts University, and they’re bringing together top leaders in Web3, AR/VR, Metaverses, Ministry, Tech, and Business space to further the Kingdom and unite as many Christians together to build solutions and not live in fear with that's happening in the world! With experiences like, networking, musical performances, roundtable discussions, panels, pitch night, and workshops, you won't want to miss this opportunity to connect with other Christians in Web3 and learn about the latest technologies being used to share the Gospel and empower believers. The event will take place both in-person at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, OK and online through Gather.Town & streaming experiences.Visit forum12.com/web3-summit/ for more information! That’s forum12.com/web3-summit Over to China… https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/chinas-first-population-drop-in-six-decades-sounds-alarm-on-demographic-crisis China’s population fell last year for the first time in six decades, a historic turn that is expected to mark the start of a long period of decline in its citizen numbers with profound implications for its economy and the world. The country’s National Bureau of Statistics reported a drop of roughly 850,000 people for a population of 1.41175 billion in 2022, marking the first decline since 1961, the last year of China’s Great Famine. That possibly makes India the world’s most populous nation. U.N. experts predicted last year India would have a population of 1.412 billion in 2022 though they did not expect the South Asian nation to overtake China until this year. India, however, only collects population figures every 10 years and its latest census, originally scheduled for 2021, has been delayed due to the pandemic. Long-term, U.N. experts see China’s population shrinking by 109 million by 2050, more than triple the decline of their previous forecast in 2019. That’s caused domestic demographers to lament that China will get old before it gets rich, slowing the economy as revenues drop and government debt increases due to soaring health and welfare costs. the country’s shrinking labor force and downturn in manufacturing heft would further exacerbate high prices and high inflation in the United States and Europe. China’s birth rate last year was just 6.77 births per 1,000 people, down from a rate of 7.52 births in 2021 and marking the lowest birth rate on record. The number of Chinese women of childbearing age, which the government defines as aged 25 to 35, fell by about 4 million, Kang said. The death rate, the highest since 1974 during the Cultural Revolution, was 7.37 deaths per 1,000 people, which compares with a rate of 7.18 deaths in 2021. Much of the demographic downturn is the result of China’s one-child policy imposed between 1980 and 2015 as well as sky-high education costs that have put many Chinese off having more than one child or even having any at all. The one-child policy and a traditional preference for boys have also created a deep gender imbalance. The latest data shows China with around 722 million males compared to 690 million females. The imbalance, which is more pronounced in rural areas, has led to fewer families being formed in recent years.

CLUB PORTAL CONTENT - Martin Luther King Jr. – A Wrongfully Religious Saint For The Right & The Left 0:10-2:31 That was our backstage show featuring Chad Jackson of Uncle Tom 2 And This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily Newsbrief for Thursday, January 19th, 2023. Ladies and gentleman, now is the time to sign up for a club membership at fightlaughfeast.com! This year, CrossPolitic will be dropping EXCLUSIVE content into our club portal, that you won’t be able to find ANYWHERE else. Some of this content will include a Bible study series with Pastor Toby, a special with New Saint Andrew’s President, Ben Merkle, our backstage content, and probably stuff that Gabe hasn’t told myself Toby or Knox about! So again, head on over to fightlaughfeast.com to get signed up today! That’s fightlaughfeast.com. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/18/holiday-2022-sales-fall-short-of-expectations.html Holiday sales fall short of expectations, set stage for tougher 2023 for retailers Holiday sales came in below industry expectations, as shoppers felt pinched by inflation and rising interest rates, according to data from the National Retail Federation. Sales during November and December grew 5.3% year over year to $936.3 billion, below the major trade group’s prediction for growth of between 6% and 8% over the year prior. In early November, NRF had projected spending of between $942.6 billion and $960.4 billion. The retail sales number excludes spending at automobile dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants, and is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau. It covers the period from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31. The holiday sales gains include the impact of inflation, which drives up total sales. The consumer price index, which measures the cost of a broad mix of goods and services, was up 6.5% in December compared with a year ago, according to the Labor Department. For retailers, the shopping season’s results reflect the challenges ahead. As Americans continue to pay higher prices for groceries, housing and more month after month, they are racking up credit card balances, spending down savings and having fewer dollars for discretionary spending. Plus, retailers are following years of extraordinary spending. During the Covid pandemic, Americans fought boredom and used stimulus checks by buying loungewear, throw pillows, kitchen supplies, home theater systems and more. That translated to sharp year-over-year jumps in retail sales in the past two holiday seasons — a 14.1% gain in 2021 and 8.3% gain in 2020. On average, holidays sales have grown by 4.9% annually over the past decade, according to NRF. NRF Chief Executive Matt Shay said those upward leaps were unsustainable, especially as people return to commuting, going out to dinner and booking vacations again. Plus, he said, Americans are paying higher prices across the board, from pricier rents to more expensive groceries. Sales rose in most major retail categories during the holiday season. Online and nonstore sales saw the biggest year-over-year gains, jumping 9.5% during the holiday season. Sales at grocery and beverage stores, which have had significant price increases, rose 7.8% versus the year-ago period. Demand in some categories noticeably weakened. Sales at furniture and home furnishings stores declined 1.1% and sales at electronics and appliances stores dropped 5.7% year over year. https://www.dailyfetched.com/climate-group-turns-on-world-economic-forum-after-hundreds-of-private-jets-fly-into-davos/ Climate Group Turns on World Economic Forum after Hundreds of Private Jets Fly into Davos Greenpeace torched the World Economic Forum attendees for traveling to Davos, Switzerland, in a scathing rebuke of the Klaus Schwab run event. According to a newly released analysis commissioned by Greenpeace found, approximately 1,040 private jets flew in and out of airports servicing Davos during last year’s World Economic Forum conference. Of those jets, most were embarking on short-haul flights of less than 500 miles that “could have easily been train or car trips.” One plane carried its passengers a mere 13 miles to attend the event. The analysis, conducted by Dutch environmental consulting firm CE Delft, also revealed that the number of arrivals and departures out of Davos airports included neighboring countries such as Germany, France, and Italy. The research concluded that private jet travel in the WEF “Great Reset’ event in 2021 produced carbon emissions equivalent to those caused in one week by 350,000 cars. Private jet emissions linked to Davos quadrupled during the week of the event compared to weeks before and after the meeting. The WEF’s theme for 2023 is “Cooperation in a Fragmented World,” which involves “how we can tackle the numerous and interlinked challenges the world is facing and find solutions through public-private cooperation,” the organization’s press release said. Klaus Schwab said in his opening remarks that “investing into a greener and therefore more sustainable economy” is one of the main objectives of the conference attendees. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also confirmed during her remarks that policymakers would endeavor to “reach net zero” carbon emissions. Member states of the European Union which rely on fossil fuel production to combat climate change, were forced to scramble for new power supplies after the Nord Stream pipeline attack and Russia’s severing reserves. https://townhall.com/tipsheet/juliorosas/2023/01/17/wef-danger-of-disinformation-panel-hate-speech-laws-on-the-way-to-the-us-n2618383 Speaking of the World Economic Forum WEF 'Danger of Disinformation' Panel: Hate Speech Laws Coming to the US One participant in the World Economic Forum's panel on "The Clear and Present Danger of Disinformation" at their annual meeting in Davos on Tuesday had a chilling prediction for hate speech laws in the United States. The panel, hosted by former CNN host Brian Stelter, also featured Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Arthur Gregg Sulzberger, the chairman of The New York Times Company. European Commission Vice President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová, who is from the Czech Republic, said there are reasons why many parts in Europe have strong speech code laws and the United States could soon have them too. "Illegal hate speech, which you will have soon also in the U.S., I think that we have a strong reason why we have this in the criminal law," Jourová said. "We need to the platforms to simply work with the language and to identify such cases." Sulzberger said overall disinformation is "the most existential" challenge and whatever problems with reporting stories inaccurately, the New York Times has made corrections. https://twitter.com/i/status/1615371127106441219 - Play Video Now this… https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2023/01/17/taliban-reportedly-buying-blue-checks-on-twitter-n524292 Taliban reportedly buying blue checks on Twitter If you thought things on Twitter were getting a bit weird since Elon Musk took over, buckle up. The strangeness continues this week. There has been quite a debate taking place over Musk’s decision to revamp the “verification” system and sell checkmarks of various colors to anyone who requests one and is willing to fork over a small monthly payment. Plenty of people have been taking advantage of that offer, gaining some amplification of their tweets and other user options not available to the hoi polloi. So perhaps we shouldn’t have been all that surprised to learn that high-ranking officials from the Taliban have gotten in on the action, but it still certainly sounds disturbing at first glance. (BBC) The Taliban have started using Twitter’s paid-for verification feature, meaning some now have blue ticks on their accounts. Previously, the blue tick indicated “active, notable, and authentic accounts of public interest” verified by Twitter, and could not be purchased. But now, users can buy them through the new Twitter Blue service. At least two Taliban officials and four prominent supporters in Afghanistan are currently using the checkmarks. One of the terrorist officials who now has a blue check is Hedayatullah Hedayat, the head of the Taliban’s department for “access to information.” He is definitely on Twitter with more than 180,000 followers and he tweets regularly. But I don’t see a checkmark of any color by his name. Gravity Jack Conference: It’s Less than two weeks to go for the Christians In Web3 Summit 2023! This is definitely going to be a historic gathering with KGEB TV, Patmos, Kingdom Warriors, Public SQ, Christian Vision, Heaven's Entrepreneurs, and 30+ more organizations represented at the event. CrossPolitic is one of them by the way… The event is hosted by Forum12 in partnership with Oral Roberts University, and they’re bringing together top leaders in Web3, AR/VR, Metaverses, Ministry, Tech, and Business space to further the Kingdom and unite as many Christians together to build solutions and not live in fear with that's happening in the world! With experiences like, networking, musical performances, roundtable discussions, panels, pitch night, and workshops, you won't want to miss this opportunity to connect with other Christians in Web3 and learn about the latest technologies being used to share the Gospel and empower believers. The event will take place both in-person at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, OK and online through Gather.Town & streaming experiences.Visit forum12.com/web3-summit/ for more information! That’s forum12.com/web3-summit Over to China… https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/chinas-first-population-drop-in-six-decades-sounds-alarm-on-demographic-crisis China’s population fell last year for the first time in six decades, a historic turn that is expected to mark the start of a long period of decline in its citizen numbers with profound implications for its economy and the world. The country’s National Bureau of Statistics reported a drop of roughly 850,000 people for a population of 1.41175 billion in 2022, marking the first decline since 1961, the last year of China’s Great Famine. That possibly makes India the world’s most populous nation. U.N. experts predicted last year India would have a population of 1.412 billion in 2022 though they did not expect the South Asian nation to overtake China until this year. India, however, only collects population figures every 10 years and its latest census, originally scheduled for 2021, has been delayed due to the pandemic. Long-term, U.N. experts see China’s population shrinking by 109 million by 2050, more than triple the decline of their previous forecast in 2019. That’s caused domestic demographers to lament that China will get old before it gets rich, slowing the economy as revenues drop and government debt increases due to soaring health and welfare costs. the country’s shrinking labor force and downturn in manufacturing heft would further exacerbate high prices and high inflation in the United States and Europe. China’s birth rate last year was just 6.77 births per 1,000 people, down from a rate of 7.52 births in 2021 and marking the lowest birth rate on record. The number of Chinese women of childbearing age, which the government defines as aged 25 to 35, fell by about 4 million, Kang said. The death rate, the highest since 1974 during the Cultural Revolution, was 7.37 deaths per 1,000 people, which compares with a rate of 7.18 deaths in 2021. Much of the demographic downturn is the result of China’s one-child policy imposed between 1980 and 2015 as well as sky-high education costs that have put many Chinese off having more than one child or even having any at all. The one-child policy and a traditional preference for boys have also created a deep gender imbalance. The latest data shows China with around 722 million males compared to 690 million females. The imbalance, which is more pronounced in rural areas, has led to fewer families being formed in recent years.

CLUB PORTAL CONTENT - Martin Luther King Jr. – A Wrongfully Religious Saint For The Right & The Left 0:10-2:31 That was our backstage show featuring Chad Jackson of Uncle Tom 2 And This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily Newsbrief for Thursday, January 19th, 2023. Ladies and gentleman, now is the time to sign up for a club membership at fightlaughfeast.com! This year, CrossPolitic will be dropping EXCLUSIVE content into our club portal, that you won’t be able to find ANYWHERE else. Some of this content will include a Bible study series with Pastor Toby, a special with New Saint Andrew’s President, Ben Merkle, our backstage content, and probably stuff that Gabe hasn’t told myself Toby or Knox about! So again, head on over to fightlaughfeast.com to get signed up today! That’s fightlaughfeast.com. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/18/holiday-2022-sales-fall-short-of-expectations.html Holiday sales fall short of expectations, set stage for tougher 2023 for retailers Holiday sales came in below industry expectations, as shoppers felt pinched by inflation and rising interest rates, according to data from the National Retail Federation. Sales during November and December grew 5.3% year over year to $936.3 billion, below the major trade group’s prediction for growth of between 6% and 8% over the year prior. In early November, NRF had projected spending of between $942.6 billion and $960.4 billion. The retail sales number excludes spending at automobile dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants, and is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau. It covers the period from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31. The holiday sales gains include the impact of inflation, which drives up total sales. The consumer price index, which measures the cost of a broad mix of goods and services, was up 6.5% in December compared with a year ago, according to the Labor Department. For retailers, the shopping season’s results reflect the challenges ahead. As Americans continue to pay higher prices for groceries, housing and more month after month, they are racking up credit card balances, spending down savings and having fewer dollars for discretionary spending. Plus, retailers are following years of extraordinary spending. During the Covid pandemic, Americans fought boredom and used stimulus checks by buying loungewear, throw pillows, kitchen supplies, home theater systems and more. That translated to sharp year-over-year jumps in retail sales in the past two holiday seasons — a 14.1% gain in 2021 and 8.3% gain in 2020. On average, holidays sales have grown by 4.9% annually over the past decade, according to NRF. NRF Chief Executive Matt Shay said those upward leaps were unsustainable, especially as people return to commuting, going out to dinner and booking vacations again. Plus, he said, Americans are paying higher prices across the board, from pricier rents to more expensive groceries. Sales rose in most major retail categories during the holiday season. Online and nonstore sales saw the biggest year-over-year gains, jumping 9.5% during the holiday season. Sales at grocery and beverage stores, which have had significant price increases, rose 7.8% versus the year-ago period. Demand in some categories noticeably weakened. Sales at furniture and home furnishings stores declined 1.1% and sales at electronics and appliances stores dropped 5.7% year over year. https://www.dailyfetched.com/climate-group-turns-on-world-economic-forum-after-hundreds-of-private-jets-fly-into-davos/ Climate Group Turns on World Economic Forum after Hundreds of Private Jets Fly into Davos Greenpeace torched the World Economic Forum attendees for traveling to Davos, Switzerland, in a scathing rebuke of the Klaus Schwab run event. According to a newly released analysis commissioned by Greenpeace found, approximately 1,040 private jets flew in and out of airports servicing Davos during last year’s World Economic Forum conference. Of those jets, most were embarking on short-haul flights of less than 500 miles that “could have easily been train or car trips.” One plane carried its passengers a mere 13 miles to attend the event. The analysis, conducted by Dutch environmental consulting firm CE Delft, also revealed that the number of arrivals and departures out of Davos airports included neighboring countries such as Germany, France, and Italy. The research concluded that private jet travel in the WEF “Great Reset’ event in 2021 produced carbon emissions equivalent to those caused in one week by 350,000 cars. Private jet emissions linked to Davos quadrupled during the week of the event compared to weeks before and after the meeting. The WEF’s theme for 2023 is “Cooperation in a Fragmented World,” which involves “how we can tackle the numerous and interlinked challenges the world is facing and find solutions through public-private cooperation,” the organization’s press release said. Klaus Schwab said in his opening remarks that “investing into a greener and therefore more sustainable economy” is one of the main objectives of the conference attendees. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also confirmed during her remarks that policymakers would endeavor to “reach net zero” carbon emissions. Member states of the European Union which rely on fossil fuel production to combat climate change, were forced to scramble for new power supplies after the Nord Stream pipeline attack and Russia’s severing reserves. https://townhall.com/tipsheet/juliorosas/2023/01/17/wef-danger-of-disinformation-panel-hate-speech-laws-on-the-way-to-the-us-n2618383 Speaking of the World Economic Forum WEF 'Danger of Disinformation' Panel: Hate Speech Laws Coming to the US One participant in the World Economic Forum's panel on "The Clear and Present Danger of Disinformation" at their annual meeting in Davos on Tuesday had a chilling prediction for hate speech laws in the United States. The panel, hosted by former CNN host Brian Stelter, also featured Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Arthur Gregg Sulzberger, the chairman of The New York Times Company. European Commission Vice President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová, who is from the Czech Republic, said there are reasons why many parts in Europe have strong speech code laws and the United States could soon have them too. "Illegal hate speech, which you will have soon also in the U.S., I think that we have a strong reason why we have this in the criminal law," Jourová said. "We need to the platforms to simply work with the language and to identify such cases." Sulzberger said overall disinformation is "the most existential" challenge and whatever problems with reporting stories inaccurately, the New York Times has made corrections. https://twitter.com/i/status/1615371127106441219 - Play Video Now this… https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2023/01/17/taliban-reportedly-buying-blue-checks-on-twitter-n524292 Taliban reportedly buying blue checks on Twitter If you thought things on Twitter were getting a bit weird since Elon Musk took over, buckle up. The strangeness continues this week. There has been quite a debate taking place over Musk’s decision to revamp the “verification” system and sell checkmarks of various colors to anyone who requests one and is willing to fork over a small monthly payment. Plenty of people have been taking advantage of that offer, gaining some amplification of their tweets and other user options not available to the hoi polloi. So perhaps we shouldn’t have been all that surprised to learn that high-ranking officials from the Taliban have gotten in on the action, but it still certainly sounds disturbing at first glance. (BBC) The Taliban have started using Twitter’s paid-for verification feature, meaning some now have blue ticks on their accounts. Previously, the blue tick indicated “active, notable, and authentic accounts of public interest” verified by Twitter, and could not be purchased. But now, users can buy them through the new Twitter Blue service. At least two Taliban officials and four prominent supporters in Afghanistan are currently using the checkmarks. One of the terrorist officials who now has a blue check is Hedayatullah Hedayat, the head of the Taliban’s department for “access to information.” He is definitely on Twitter with more than 180,000 followers and he tweets regularly. But I don’t see a checkmark of any color by his name. Gravity Jack Conference: It’s Less than two weeks to go for the Christians In Web3 Summit 2023! This is definitely going to be a historic gathering with KGEB TV, Patmos, Kingdom Warriors, Public SQ, Christian Vision, Heaven's Entrepreneurs, and 30+ more organizations represented at the event. CrossPolitic is one of them by the way… The event is hosted by Forum12 in partnership with Oral Roberts University, and they’re bringing together top leaders in Web3, AR/VR, Metaverses, Ministry, Tech, and Business space to further the Kingdom and unite as many Christians together to build solutions and not live in fear with that's happening in the world! With experiences like, networking, musical performances, roundtable discussions, panels, pitch night, and workshops, you won't want to miss this opportunity to connect with other Christians in Web3 and learn about the latest technologies being used to share the Gospel and empower believers. The event will take place both in-person at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, OK and online through Gather.Town & streaming experiences.Visit forum12.com/web3-summit/ for more information! That’s forum12.com/web3-summit Over to China… https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/chinas-first-population-drop-in-six-decades-sounds-alarm-on-demographic-crisis China’s population fell last year for the first time in six decades, a historic turn that is expected to mark the start of a long period of decline in its citizen numbers with profound implications for its economy and the world. The country’s National Bureau of Statistics reported a drop of roughly 850,000 people for a population of 1.41175 billion in 2022, marking the first decline since 1961, the last year of China’s Great Famine. That possibly makes India the world’s most populous nation. U.N. experts predicted last year India would have a population of 1.412 billion in 2022 though they did not expect the South Asian nation to overtake China until this year. India, however, only collects population figures every 10 years and its latest census, originally scheduled for 2021, has been delayed due to the pandemic. Long-term, U.N. experts see China’s population shrinking by 109 million by 2050, more than triple the decline of their previous forecast in 2019. That’s caused domestic demographers to lament that China will get old before it gets rich, slowing the economy as revenues drop and government debt increases due to soaring health and welfare costs. the country’s shrinking labor force and downturn in manufacturing heft would further exacerbate high prices and high inflation in the United States and Europe. China’s birth rate last year was just 6.77 births per 1,000 people, down from a rate of 7.52 births in 2021 and marking the lowest birth rate on record. The number of Chinese women of childbearing age, which the government defines as aged 25 to 35, fell by about 4 million, Kang said. The death rate, the highest since 1974 during the Cultural Revolution, was 7.37 deaths per 1,000 people, which compares with a rate of 7.18 deaths in 2021. Much of the demographic downturn is the result of China’s one-child policy imposed between 1980 and 2015 as well as sky-high education costs that have put many Chinese off having more than one child or even having any at all. The one-child policy and a traditional preference for boys have also created a deep gender imbalance. The latest data shows China with around 722 million males compared to 690 million females. The imbalance, which is more pronounced in rural areas, has led to fewer families being formed in recent years.

In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending January 14th, 2023… the good news about inflation, a few new potentially hot real estate markets, and the recent surge in U.S. population growth.   Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review.   Economic News   We begin with economic news from this past week, and good news about inflation. For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, consumer prices were down. The Labor Department reports that the Consumer Price Index fell .1% in December. The decline brings the annual rate of inflation down from 7.1% to 6.5%. It was up as high as 9.1% last summer. The core rate of inflation is considered a more accurate gauge of inflation because it eliminates food and gas prices which can be volatile. That rate was down .3% to a core rate of 5.7%. (1)   The December reading is proof that inflation is subsiding, and is giving economists hope that the Federal Reserve will back off on the rate hike gas pedal. Senior economist Dean Baker at the Center for Economic and Policy Research says: “It's time for the Fed to declare victory and stop the rate hikes!”   But in general, economists don't think that will happen. Instead, they are predicting the Fed will go easy on the rate hikes with a quarter point hike at their meeting on February 1st, and possibly another quarter point hike in March. That would bring the Federal Funds rate to a range of 4.75% to 5%. What happens next might be too far off to predict, but economists at the CME Group are forecasting a pause followed by a half point rate cut later this year. (2)   The job market continues to show strength. New claims for unemployment benefits were down last week to 205,000. That's a 1,000 claim drop from the week before. Wall Street economists had expected a 10,000 claim increase. There were also 63,000 fewer continuing claims for a total of 1.63 million people collecting unemployment benefits. (3)   Consumers are feeling much more confident about the economy. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index jumped from 59.7 to 64.6 in December. That's still far from a peak of 88.3 in April of 2021, but it's a big improvement over recent levels. (4)   Mortgage Rates   Mortgage rates swung lower last week. Freddie Mac says the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage was down 15 basis points to 6.33%. The 15-year was down 21 points to 5.52%. (5) And they could be heading lower. Economist Nadia Evangelou of the National Association of Realtors believes the 30-year will dip below 6% in the near future, and will likely stabilize in the 5% range for the rest of the year. (6)   In other news making headlines…   Rent Growth Is Slowing Down   Renters are expected to gain some bargaining power in 2023 as rent growth slows, and the vacancy rate rises. According to ApartmentList, the national median rent growth was 3.8% last year, and it's  expected to slow further this year. The report shows that 90 of the nation's 100 largest cities saw an end-of-the-year decline for apartment rents with a vacancy rate of 5.9%. (7)   But not all markets are created equal. The Sun Belt markets have experienced phenomenal growth over the past few years. According to some analysts, they may have hit a growth peak, with cities like Tampa and Tucson gaining almost 40% in rent growth. Although demand is still driving those markets, Apartment List expects more affordable cities in the Midwest to attract attention this year. It says that during the last six months, the top three cities for growth were the Midwestern cities of Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Oklahoma City.   North Texas Popularity   Universal Studios is also recognizing North Texas as a strong growth market, with the announcement of a new theme park. It plans on building a 97-acre theme park in Frisco, Texas, where the population has almost doubled from 117,000 in 2010 to more than 200,000 in 2020. Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney said in a statement: “Frisco is one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. and has been recognized as a great place to plant professional roots and raise a family.” (8)   Frisco is part of an area north of Dallas that is attracting technology companies, including several large chip-making facilities. That's creating tens of thousands of jobs, and a strong demand for housing. This is why we started our Texas Single Family Rental Fund – to help investors capitalize on the growth in this area. If you want to find out more about that, go to GrowDevelopments.com.   Post-Pandemic Baby Boom   U.S. population growth rebounded during the last two years. According to Census Bureau data, it hit an historically low birth rate of .16% between 2020 and 2021. And then it went into overdrive, and jumped to .38% from 2021 to 2022. That growth spurt added about 1.25 million people to the population roster for a total of 333 million.    Florida was the fastest growing state with a growth rate of 1.91%. It also had the second largest numerical increase of 416,000. Texas was first on that list with about 470,000 more people. Both Texas and California have the largest populations in the nation with more than 30 million people each.   That's it for today. Check the show notes for links. And please remember to hit the subscribe button, and leave a review!   You can also join RealWealth for free at newsforinvestors.com to learn more about how you can build generational wealth with real estate.   Thanks for listening. I'm Kathy Fettke.     Links:   1 - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/inflation-softens-at-the-end-of-2022-and-clears-path-for-slower-fed-rate-hikes-11673530439?mod=economic-report   2 - https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/12/time-for-the-fed-to-declare-victory-on-inflation-not-yet.html   3 - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/jobless-claims-show-no-spike-in-layoffs-11673531088?mod=economic-report   4 - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/u-s-consumer-sentiment-jumps-to-nine-month-high-as-high-inflation-ebbs-11673622868?mod=economy-politics   5 - https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms   6 - https://www.nar.realtor/magazine/real-estate-news/economist-mortgage-rates-will-dip-below-6-soon   7 - https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/multifamily/rental-rates-cooling-in-2023-the-midwest-surprises-117053   8 - https://www.bisnow.com/dallas-ft-worth/news/commercial-real-estate/a-universal-studios-theme-park-is-headed-for-north-texas-117148   9 - https://eyeonhousing.org/2023/01/u-s-population-growth-rate-rebounds-in-2022/

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 80-to-90% of American businesses are family owned. One of them is Leonard's Express. On this episode of Leading the Way at Leonard's, owners Ken and Kyle Johnson talk about the dynamics of leading a family business, including the secret to forming a cohesive unit, inside and outside of work. Leonard's Express Financial Analyst Max Herbst (also a family member) joins Ken, Kyle and host Dwayne Knepper for this candid conversation.

History to ExploreMore and more families across the United States want more educational options for their children. The 2020 Census Bureau data reported that the number of African American homeschool households homeschooling increased by five times — larger than any other racial group. The popularity of self-directed parent-led education is at an all-time high.Word of the EpisodeE yi so means see you soon in Fon and is from the country of Benin Republic.Let's Connect!Want to be a guest on an upcoming show? Just fill out this form, and we will send you an interview link when your request is approved.We're bringing back Cleverly Cultured Kids! We want to feature your kids on Cleverly Cultured Kids, so please complete this Interview form for kids, and we will send you an interview link once your request is approved.You can call us directly now. Please leave us a voicemail and let us know how you enjoy the show or share your questions.Order a Clever Homeschool Kit: Don't forget to order one of our exclusive Clever Homeschool Kits. The kits cost $59.99 USD and include t-shirts, stickers, a homeschool planner, books, and more.Order your Clever Homeschool Kit here.Grown Folks Talking About Homeschool PreparationsThe three best ways to make homeschool preparations are: Review your state laws Assess your child's academic needs Create a plan and gather your materials Where can you go to learn what your state's homeschool requirements are?One organization that has laid out the requirements completely by the state is the homeschool legal defense association. Visit their website at hslda.org/legal and click on your state on the digital map. When I homeschooled, I met with my state homeschool review board twice a year, once in the fall and again in the spring. Then I shared my daughters' homeschool portfolio, showing each child receiving regular and thorough education.Assess your child's academic needs Evaluate how your child/children learn best. Consider using a learning styles assessment to identify their primary learning style.Remember, people don't have just one learning style. They have several, so try to present a way to learn different materials using all three methods, which are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic or tactile learning. During the early years of homeschooling, I often daughter new information by singing (playing educational music CDs), creating models, projects, or doing experiments. I also encouraged my children to learn by playing games like a bean bag toss to practice spelling new words.Create a plan and gather the materialsMy advice is simple before you buy a complete curriculum, try it out first.Try different curriculums to see what your child likes and dislikes. Of course, you want to give your child only work that he or she likes, but you should consider how they work best so that you can avoid meltdowns. Review what children in your state should be learning based on their ages or grades. Next, write out or type up your weekly objectives. This will give you a frame,e work to stay focused and make sure your child is thriving. Read reviews, and talk to others who may have used the curriculum. Connect with Elle Website: CleverlyChanging.com Instagram: @CleverlyChanging Facebook: CleverlyChanging Youtube: CleverlyChanging Twitter: CleverlyChangin Tweetable quote: "Remember, just because you start with a curriculum doesn't mean you have to stick with it, if it's not a good fit." - Elle ColePlease share this episode ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Too often inventors and entrepreneurs fall in love with their idea. Just because it can be built, does not mean it should be.  Before you launch your business, you need to answer a really important questions.  Does anyone really want your product? That's where research comes in helping you determine how many individuals or businesses have a need for your product or service and, more important, how many are likely to buy? History is full of well-designed, extremely innovative products that were commercially unsuccessful because customers did not believe they needed them. You can research to determine market size, competitive products, preliminary level of interest in your product and customers' willingness to change. A good starting point for your research is data from the U.S. Census Bureau, your local chamber of commerce, library and online data bases. These broad studies can give you a feel for the overall size of a community. Surveys, focus groups, and informal conversations with potential customers, will help you evaluate the market acceptance of your product.  Remember, just because they “should” like it, doesn't mean they will.  

As Vermont's Legislature opened its 2023 session and Republican Gov. Phil Scott was inaugurated to his fourth term, one theme got an early spotlight in the Statehouse: Vermont's urban-rural divide.Much of Vermont's state population is concentrated in Chittenden County, clustered around the metropolitan center of Burlington, which is Vermont's largest city with a population of nearly 45,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And while smaller cities offer smaller pockets of density — such as Montpelier, Middlebury, Rutland or Brattleboro — much of Vermont's population is spread thin across the rural state.Scott focused on this dynamic in his Jan. 5 inaugural address and how Vermont communities' needs differ whether they're smaller or larger.Specifically, Scott floated an idea to the Legislature: Let's take a page from the playbook of retired U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, who, as the powerful chair of the Senate's Appropriations Committee, instituted a rule called the small state minimum. The small state minimum guarantees small states like Vermont receive a minimum amount of funding with every major federal government allocation to states. The rule is designed so states with small populations would not be dwarfed by high population states when the feds dole out money.By taking a page from Leahy, Scott proposed, the Legislature could prioritize Vermont's smallest communities to receive funding from the state to tackle expensive local projects they could otherwise never cover themselves with their small tax bases.“​​Now, it's not about turning Canaan into Burlington,” Scott said in his address. “And no offense to Burlington, but I'm not sure anyone in Canaan wants that.”Some lawmakers viewed Scott's rhetoric as unnecessarily divisive. But others, especially lawmakers from rural regions, expressed gratitude that small towns, and the challenges they face, were getting some extra attention. In this episode, various legislators — Rep. Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, P/D-Burlington; Rep. Taylor Small, P/D-Winooski; Rep. Lisa Hango, R-Berkshire; Sen. Russ Ingalls, R-Essex; Rep. Katherine Sims, D-Craftsbury; Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover — respond to the governor's proposal and weigh in on Vermont's infrastructure needs. 

According to U.S. Census Bureau surveys, Americans have been spending less time with friends and more time alone since before the pandemic, which has only intensified the sense of social isolation. Laurie Santos, a cognitive scientist and psychology professor at Yale University, joins John Yang to discuss the health effects of loneliness and what can be done about it. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

According to U.S. Census Bureau surveys, Americans have been spending less time with friends and more time alone since before the pandemic, which has only intensified the sense of social isolation. Laurie Santos, a cognitive scientist and psychology professor at Yale University, joins John Yang to discuss the health effects of loneliness and what can be done about it. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

A full workweek. Hobbies. Working out. Family obligations. A potential partner. Does anyone have time for friends anymore?According to the Census Bureau's American Time Use Survey, Americans are spending less than half as much time with friends than they did a decade ago.In this week's Enlighten Me, Delaware Public Media's Kyle McKinnon chats with Marisa Franco – a psychologist, friendship expert, and author of “Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make and Keep Friends” – about why Americans are spending less time with friends and more time alone.

In the fall of 2015, the Studer Community Institute with the help of the University of West Florida built a map using U.S. Census Bureau data that showed Escambia County's pockets of poverty. Shannon Nickinson discusses the project.

No one could have imagined how the COVID-19 pandemic would shape the future of work. The number of people working from home tripled between 2019 and 2021, from 5.7% to nearly 18%, according to 2022 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Many employees would rather quit than return to an office full-time, valuing flexibility and autonomy over higher paychecks. While several employers have adopted a hybrid model to accommodate employees' preferences, some interactions simply aren't the same over Zoom.  As a software engineer in 2017, Renji Bijoy noticed that collaborating virtually was difficult in hybrid settings. This inspired Renji to become the CEO/CTO and Founder of Immersed, a Techstars startup, to enhance remote working environments with virtual reality. It wasn't until remote work became the norm in 2020 that his company gained traction with Meta and Microsoft to build virtual reality offices. Now, Immersed has raised $12M to date and it doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Renji chats with Tommy about the importance of flexibility in a startup environment, the key to selecting a high-performing team, and the role virtual offices will play in the next generation of the workforce. Key Takeaways [02:08] - Renji's entrepreneurial journey. [07:35] - The DARPA Grand Challenge. [10:20] - The idea that Renji initially brought to TechStars. [12:40] - How Renji pivoted to solve a new problem. [14:34] - How Renji secured a partnership with Meta. [15:29] - The financial hardship Renji faced in 2019. [17:23] - Renji's unconventional approach to hiring. [20:38] - Renji's secret to building a top-performing team.  [23:13] - How crowdfunding works. [25:57] - How Immerse became a fundraising success. [28:45] - The virtual reality experience. [31:37] - The future of virtual reality. [36:50] -The next step for telepresence. [39:00] - Renji's favorite business contractor. [43:54] - The best way to reach out to Renji. Quotes [35:35] - “Immersed is not something that we're building because we love remote work, it's something that we're building because we actually hate remote work. We are trying to unite our world in such a way that actually allows people to get to the same space, regardless of where you're at.” ~ Renji Bijoy [43:06] - “Zoom is not the solution for hybrid remote teams now that companies want people in the office and only half of them want to come back.” ~ Renji Bijoy [45:04] - “You start creating a global workforce as if you had everyone on-site. This is going to be the next generation of the workforce.” ~ Renji Bijoy Links  Renji Bijoy on LinkedIn Renji Bijoy in Forbes 30 Under 30 Immersed on LinkedIn The Grand Challenge Sebastian Thrun on LinkedIn Ryan Yep on LinkedIn Techstars Wefunder U.S. Census Bureau - Working From Home Connect with our hosts Mammoth Tommy on LinkedIn Subscribe and stay in touch Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Learn more about Mammoth Scientific's Health & Tech Fund 1 When you move beyond the point of making sure your retirement goals are on track, your investment opportunities are wider than just publicly traded funds. Step into the world of investing in venture capital by learning more about Mammoth Scientific's Health & Tech Fund 1. Curated by some of the leading medical and fintech experts, Mammoth's Fund 1 is paving the way for health science and tech innovation. If you're interested in helping patient care, provider insight, and instrumentation go beyond possibility and into reality, check it out today at Mammoth.vc. Visit Mammoth.vc today!

Is Money Walking?   In this episode of the Ninja Selling podcast, Matt and Garrett begin by discussing the magic of the holiday season and how children's excitement about the holidays can make it even more special. They also talk about how the holiday season is a time when people are often a little bit nicer to each other, with more people stopping to chat and wish each other happy holidays. From there they review the importance of taking breaks and how, as children get older, they may be more interested in the break from school than the lights and other holiday traditions.  Matt and Garrett go on to discuss the "how money walks" concept, or the movement of people and money between states in the United States. Our hosts reference a website that tracks this movement and note that some states are currently experiencing an influx of people and money, while others are seeing just the opposite. They also explore data from the Census Bureau which suggests that the pandemic has not significantly impacted the overall trend of declining rates of people moving between states. The implications of this trend for calculating the opportunity within someone's database and the potential impact on the housing market is also examined. Our Ninja duo round out this episode by highlighting the importance of building a long-term business strategy and maintaining a strong work ethic, regardless of market conditions. If you haven't already done so this holiday season, give yourself the gift of joining the community of almost 10,000 Ninjas who collaborate, ask and answer questions, network, and more in the Ninja Selling Podcast group on Facebook at Ninja Selling Podcast Facebook. Leave a voicemail at 208-MY-NINJA if you'd like to offer more direct feedback. Be sure to check out Ninja Selling Events for upcoming installations and other events, and if you'd like personalized help in achieving your goals, visit Ninja Coaching to connect with one of our fantastic coaches.     Episode Highlights: The sense of community that often arises during the holiday season and the importance of taking breaks The holiday season The Census Bureau's survey  The National Association of Realtors' prediction for 2023 Working with clients and their friends and family The role of appreciation in the housing market Building a long-term business strategy and maintaining a strong work ethic    Quotes:   "It's really an incredible time of the year.” “This time of the year, the holidays, and everything becomes so much fun to watch children's faces." "They don't care about the lights. We just need the break. Give us the break." "The holidays are a time for reflection, but they're also a time for setting goals for the year ahead." "The amount of opportunity you have to work with them, to work with their friends and family is incredible, regardless of what the overall national data is." "Agents are making more money per transaction than they ever have." "The lifetime moves that people make is still very similar, right? I mean, the average lifetime moves being over eleven moves in a lifetime." "If you look at the opportunity, the lifetime opportunity that you have in your database, if everybody there has an average of eleven or more transactions over their lifetime, not only is that for them, that's also for the people they know." "People will exit, people will come into this industry." "As an individual agent, you can do a lot of business off of 4.5 million transactions."     Links: www.TheNinjaSellingPodcast.com Email us at TSW@TheNinjaSellingPodcast.com Leave a voicemail at (208) MY-NINJA   Ninja Selling www.NinjaSelling.com @ninjasellingofficial   Ninja Coaching: www.NinjaCoaching.com @ninja.coaching   Ninja Events www.NinjaSelling.com/Events   Garrett garrett@ninjacoaching.com @ninjaredding   Matt matt@ninjacoaching.com @matthewjbonelli   The Ninja Selling Podcast Facebook Group Ninja Coaching Book Study  

People who live in northwest Gwinnett County will have a chance to get a year's worth of free pizza next week. A new Pizza Hut location, which is run by Flynn Restaurant Group, opened at 1550 Buford Highway in Buford on Dec. 23, but it's what the new store has planned for its grand opening festivities next week that will have tongues salivating. The first 25 customers who are in line at the store on Jan. 6 will get free pizza for a year. There are some limits on what pizzas qualify for the free pizza for a year, and what locations the pizzas can be picked up at. The deal is only valid at locations owned by Flynn Restaurant Group — which happens to be Pizza Hut's largest franchisee and which owns 10 other Pizza locations in Gwinnett County. In addition to the Buford location, Flynn Restaurant Group also owns locations in Sugar Hill, Suwanee, Auburn, Dacula, Duluth, Lawrenceville, Lilburn, Loganville, Norcross and Snellville. It also owns 15 other locations in metro Atlanta, including stores nearby cities such as Cumming, Flowery Branch, Hoschton and Alpharetta. Other limitations on the free pizza for a year offer customers only being able to use it to get two complimentary specialty pizzas or up to three topping large pizzas per month for a year, a limit of one pizza per party, it only being valid on carryout orders, and it only being valid on Thin N' Crispy, original pan and hand tossed crusts. The new store is expected to add 15 new jobs to the Buford and Sugar Hill area. Now in its seventh decade of delivering compelling performances all over the world, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre — recognized by Congress as a vital American “Cultural Ambassador to the World” — will make its return to Atlanta's Fabulous Fox Theatre for a series of shows in mid-February. Led by artistic director Robert Battle, the Ailey troupe will showcase premiers, new productions and repertory favorites for five performances February 16-19 as part of a 22-city North American tour. While each performance will feature different choreographed works — including pieces by Kyle Abraham, Jamar Roberts and Twyla Tharp — each presentation will conclude with the stirring Ailey-choregraphed “Revelations,” which made its debut in 1960 and has been seen by more people than any other modern dance work. Ailey's Fox Theatre residency begins at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 16 with Tharp's 1997 piece “Roy's Joys,” a new production of the 1986 production of “Survivors,” Ailey's tribute to Nelson and Winnie Mandela, and “Revelations.  Tickets, starting at $29, are available at the Fox Theatre box office at 660 Peachtree St., or by calling 855-285-8499 or visiting www.alvinailey.org or www.foxatltix.com. The arts in Gwinnett made great strides in 2022 to return to the pre-COVID world, where more than one nonprofit was overjoyed to find their doors still open. As a result, the vitality and pure joy of being back on stage or opening gallery doors was evident in the work art lovers could again absorb. Below are just a few of the highlights that made this writer smile in 2022. There were so many great performances, great exhibitions, great moments that it is hard to choose. Spring was an exciting time for Gwinnett performing arts groups and audiences. ♦ Live Arts Theatre has been nurturing and growing talent for many years. In March, their efforts were enhanced when LAT Actor Rodney Johnson won Best Performer for his work in the play “Sea Wall” at both the Southeastern Theatre Conference and the Georgia Theatre Conference. ♦ The Aurora Theatre was the venue April 2-3 when Atlanta's amazing “Dance Canvas” highlighted the work of seven emerging choreographers. Dance Canvas' Founder and Director, Angela Harris, has a special relationship with the Aurora, having danced in a number of their productions over the years. ♦ Spring was also celebrated by the joining of two of the Southeast's premiere Barber Shop Choruses. Gwinnett's lauded Stone Mountain Chorus and Atlanta Harmony Celebration joined their voices together in a concert at Mountain Park's United Methodist Church on May 21. ♦ Also in May, Duluth photographer Mary Buck traveled to Spain and returned with another treasure trove of images. Buck is known for her extraordinary photos of birds, whether taken in her own backyard or on the other side of the world. Art Beat columns of summer and early fall seemed to be full of young, talented Gwinnett dancers finding success. ♦ Rachael Graham was once a featured performer at Gwinnett Ballet Theatre. Since this summer, she has sported a number of tiaras, dancing and singing as Disney Princesses on their Cruise Line in the Caribbean. ♦ Dreams came true for another ex-Gwinnett Ballet dancer. Runako Campbell is living the dream in New York City where she has performed in a variety of shows, commercials, and with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. ♦ The Hudgens Center is one of Gwinnett's treasured arts entities, and The Hudgens Prize is a great example of how philanthropy can lift emerging artists into the spotlight. This year's winner is sculptor Olu Amoda who received the Prize with its $50,000 cash gift in October. ♦ “The Lion in Winter” was presented in early December by Lionheart Theatre, directed by Brandi Kilgore. Taking on such a renowned and powerful work is a true artistic test and certainly a highlight of Lionheart's season. As 2022 comes to a close, one more young artist is spreading wings and flying into her future. ♦ By the new year, 10-year-old Lillian Sears, who has trained at Duluth's Atlanta Professional Dance Academy, will begin studying at the Paris Opera Ballet. She is the first North American to be accepted into the POB's six-month audition program. Dreams do come true. Here's to 2023! Grayson's girls basketball team defeated Archbishop Chapelle (La.) 58-22 Thursday in the championship game of the St. Pius Christmas Classic. The Rams went 3-0 in the tournament, improving to 10-4 on the season. Tatum Brown was named tournament MVP, and Samara Saunders earned a spot on the all-tournament team. The Rams are back at home Friday where they'll open the New Year with a game against Brookwood. Georgia saw its population increase by 1.7% between 2020 and 2022, new numbers from the Census Bureau show. As of July 1, Georgia's population stood at more than 10.9 million, up from about 10.7 million at the same time in 2020. The Peach State's neighbor to the south, Florida, saw its population increase at a higher rate of 3% during the same timeframe, Census numbers show. South Carolina (2.9%), North Carolina (2.4%) and Tennessee (1.8%) also grew more than the Peach State, though Georgia has a higher population than the three states. However, Georgia's growth outpaced that of Alabama, which saw its population increase by 0.9%. For more information, visit www.lanierislands.com For advertising inquiries, please email j.southerland@bgadgroup.com For more information be sure to visit www.bgpodcastnetwork.com   https://www.lawrencevillega.org/  https://www.foxtheatre.org/  https://guideinc.org/  https://www.psponline.com/  https://www.kiamallofga.com/  https://www.milb.com/gwinnett  https://www.fernbankmuseum.org/                     See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

*) Brazil football legend Pele dies at age 82 Brazilian football icon Pele, widely regarded as the greatest player of all time, has died at the age of 82. Pele's daughter, Kely Nascimento, announced the football star's passing in an Instagram post. It triggered a wave of tributes from the sports world and beyond. He had received regular medical treatment since a tumour was removed from his colon in September last year. According to doctors, Pele's cancer advanced in recent weeks and he required care related to renal and cardiac dysfunction. *) Netanyahu returns as prime minister of hard-line Israeli government Benjamin Netanyahu has been sworn in as Israel's prime minister. He returns to his old position under the most right-wing and religiously conservative government in the country's history. Netanyahu took the oath of office moments after parliament passed a vote of confidence in his new government. This marks his sixth term in office, continuing his more than decade-long dominance over Israeli politics. *) Kosovo reopens major border crossing with Serbia as standoff eases Kosovo has reopened its biggest border crossing with Serbia hours after Serb protesters in the north promised to remove roadblocks. Barricades were dismantled on the Serbian side of the Merdare border point and Kosovo announced the opening of the crossing. This comes a day after the European Union and the US urged both parties to ease a simmering crisis. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic previously announced the removal of the barricades during his meeting with Kosovo Serb representatives near the border. *) Death toll climbs as blizzard-battered US areas dig out The death toll from a fierce winter storm that gripped much of the United States over Christmas has risen to at least 61, officials said. Erie County officials said two more deaths had been reported in the western New York region that bore the brunt of the historic storm, bringing the total to 39. Erie County includes the snow-battered city of Buffalo, where most of the deaths occurred. And finally… *) US agency projects global population at 7.9 billion on New Year's Day The world population is projected to be 7.9 billion people on New Year's Day 2023, the US Census Bureau has said. With 73.7 million people added since New Year's Day 2022, the new count marks a 0.9 percent increase in the world population over the past year. During January 2023, 4.3 births and two deaths are expected worldwide every second, the Census Bureau said.

Chris Merrill, in for Mike Broomhead, explains why the U.S. Census Bureau is redefining the meaning of urban America. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

#2-013 Debating what a strong woman really is and maybe what it SHOULD be...The Ruins on Stone Hill (Heroes of Ravenford Book 1) by F P Spirithttps://www.amazon.com/Ruins-Stone-Hill-Heroes-Ravenford-ebook/dp/B00L5JN5SEWomen initiate divorce 69% of the time. This figure shoots up to 90% for college-educated women. (Murphy, 2019)Female couples made up 72% of same-sex divorces in 2019. (Marr, 2020)https://financesonline.com/divorce-statistics/#:~:text=Divorce%20Rate%20by%20Gender%201%20Women%20initiate%20divorce,and%206.8%20years%20for%20women.%20...%20More%20itemsCouples who have been living together prior to marriage face a 40% increase in the likelihood of divorce. (GillespieShields, 2020)The lack of commitment is the leading cause of divorces, with 75% of couples citing it as the reason for their separation. (Shaw, 2019)Father absence stats:https://www.fatherhood.org/father-absence-statisticIn 2011, 44% of children in homes headed by a single mother were living in poverty. Just 12% of children in married-couple families were living in poverty. (U.S. Census Bureau)75% of rapists are motivated by displaced anger that is associated with feelings of abandonment that involves their father. (U.S. Department of Justice)The median income for a household with a single mother is $35,400. The median income for a home with a married couple raising their children is $85,300 in the United States. For single dads, 39% of households had a family income which was $50,000 or more. 44% of single dads were divorced, while only 33% had never married. (U.S. Census Bureau) Around 50% of single mothers have never married. 29% are divorced. Only 1 in 5 are either separated or widowed.Even in homes with fathers, the modern dad spends only 8 hours per week on child care, which is 6 hours less than the modern mom. On the other hand, 43% of the modern dad's time is spent with paid work, compared to 25% of the time for the modern mom. Dads are spending 3 times more time with their kids than dads did in 1965. (Pew Research)"A gracious woman retains honour: and strong men retain riches." Proverbs 11:16* * *☕️ Connecting Prairie living with Pioneer skills and mindset from the past to help you become more prepared and live more sustainably, weathering the Dust Storms of life with God's Divine help.

Former President Donald Trump is no longer under pressure to testify to Congress on events related to Jan. 6. The committee investigating the events on that day dropped the subpoena, citing the end of their investigation. Leading House Speaker candidate Kevin McCarthy says he will reopen the Capitol on Jan. 3. It's been closed for nearly three years. Tamra Farah of Freedom Works joins us to discuss the push for gender identity education in schools. How are parents and schools responding? Tax credits for electric vehicles are set to start in the new year. But new guidance includes a loophole for auto companies. Countries are imposing travel restrictions on travelers from China, as fears rise over new variants and the real scale of the outbreak in China remains unclear. What does an urban area actually mean? The U.S. Census Bureau is redefining it. The status of almost 1,000 towns has now changed. ⭕️ Watch in-depth videos based on Truth & Tradition at Epoch TV

It's Wednesday, December 28th, A.D. 2022. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldView.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Jonathan Clark Iranian police have killed 500 protesters; 26 slated for execution Anti-government protests in Iran entered their one hundredth day this week. It's the longest demonstration in the country since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Over 500 protesters have been killed, including two who were executed by authorities. Twenty-six more demonstrators face execution. Iran's security officials have warned Assyrian and Chaldean Christians in the country against joining the popular protests or posting about them online.  International Christian Concern noted, “These groups have been pressured for many years not to go against the regime for fear of being arrested or facing worse persecution.” Israeli Christian population grew by 2% A new report from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics found the Christian population in the country grew 2% in 2021. Christians now comprise 1.9% of the population in Israel, numbering over 180,000. Seventy-five percent of them are Arab Christians, making up nearly 7% of the Arab population in Israel. Romans 11:25-27 says, “A partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way, all Israel will be saved, as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will banish ungodliness from Jacob, and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.'” Texas officials believe Christian foster agencies have right not to place with “gay” couples Texas filed a lawsuit earlier this month, challenging a 2016 federal rule that discriminates against Christian foster care agencies.  Texas is fighting to work with faith-based agencies as they face surges in children needing out-of-home placements in recent years. The 2016 Department of Health and Human Services rule cuts funding to states that partner with agencies that refuse to place children with people living sexually perverted lifestyles. However, Texas argues another HHS rule protects religious organizations from such funding discrimination. 18 Republicans support $1.7 trillion bill with abortion & sexual perversion funding Last Friday, Congress passed a $1.7 trillion government funding bill. President Joe Biden said he will sign it. Eighteen Republicans in the Senate and nine in the House joined Democrats to pass the omnibus spending package. Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the bill met the party's top priorities.  MCCONNELL: “Providing assistance for Ukrainians to defeat the Russians. That's the number one priority for the United States right now, according to most Republicans. That's sort of how we see the challenges confronting the country at the moment.” However, the spending deal continues to fund abortion with $286 million for the Title X family planning program. Other earmarks in the bill include $477,000 for "anti-racist" training from the Equity Institute, $3 million for the homosexual/bisexual/transgender museum in New York City, and $575 million for so-called “family planning” in areas where population growth “threatens biodiversity.” Exodus 23:2 says, “You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice.” A third of Americans fallen away from church attendance A new Gallup poll found over a third of U.S. adults have fallen away from attending religious services. Sixty-seven percent of Americans said they attended services regularly while growing up, but only 31% said they still do.  The amount of people who seldom or never attend services has doubled now compared to when respondents were growing up. The study noted that children who grew up in church were more likely to still attend services than those who did not grow up in church.  Florida abortions dropped by 11,000 this year How about some good news? Florida's health department reports abortions in the state are down. Indeed, 11,000 fewer babies were killed by abortion this year compared to last year. Over 79,000 unborn babies were killed in abortion in 2021. That number decreased to just over 68,000 this year. The decrease comes after the state passed a 15-week abortion ban this summer. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, out-of-state abortions increased in Florida. Despite that, abortions overall are down in the state. Florida is fastest growing state And finally, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that Florida is the country's fastest growing state. The Sunshine State's population grew by 1.9% between 2021 and 2022. Florida's population now stands at 22.2 million, nine times what it was in 1946. In the post-World War II era, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, North Dakota, and Alaska have also been among the fastest-growing states. Close And that's The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Wednesday, December 28th in the year of our Lord 2022. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

Expulsions at the U.S.-Mexico border under Title 42 will continue, as the Supreme Court agrees to hear a related case in February. Does this delay give Joe Biden a chance to put in place a plan for stopping illegal immigrants? Plus, the Census Bureau releases data showing that blue states like California are losing population, while red states like Florida are growing, and it isn't merely because of the weather. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

PSU sees ripple effects of enrollment declines at Portland Community College. Tips for staying safe and warm during the winter storm. Closures and adjusted hours on Monday, Dec. 26. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rent growth has been slowing down in step with the economy, but it's still running hotter than it was before the pandemic. And that's expected to encourage more jurisdictions to consider and or pass rent control legislation. Even Florida is turning towards rent control as an answer for high rents.   Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review.   As Bisnow reports, rents remain “painfully high” for many Americans, despite slower rent growth for both single-family and multi-family rentals. (1) Year-over-year single-family rent growth hit a high of 13.9% in April of last year, but has been slowing down for the last five months. It's still in the double digits, but is now 10.2%. Florida metros have seen the highest SFR rent growth with Miami and Orlando at the top of that list. (2)   It's a similar situation for apartments but rent growth has come down further. Annual rent growth hit a record high of 17.6% in 2021. It's now down to 4.6% year-over-year, although that's still a healthy gain for landlords. (3)   Rent Growth vs. Wage Growth   Because rent growth has outpaced income, many households are finding it more difficult to pay their rent. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 19 million renter households paid more than 30% of their income on housing from 2017 to 2021. That's defined as “cost-burdened” by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.    Housing costs vary from market to market, but the National Multifamily Housing Council, which advocates “against” rent control, has identified a number of markets that could become rent control battlegrounds in the coming year. These markets are identified in the NMHC's 2023 Rent Control Outlook report. (4)   Four Rent Control Risk Levels   The report separates the potential for rent control activity into four categories. Tier one includes states where “active state or local legislation action is expected.” Those states include: Colorado, Illinois, Florida (which has been notoriously opposed to rent control), Maryland Massachusetts, Nevada, and Washington State.   Tier two includes states where the potential for state or local legislative activity is “elevated.” Those states include Connecticut, Hawaii, Michigan, New Mexico, and Rhode Island. Tier three includes states where rent control activity is expected, but will probably not get approved. Those states include Arizona, Kentucky, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. The last category is where rent control expansion is an ongoing threat. California and New York are among those states, of course, along with Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Oregon.   Rent Control Minefield for Investors   Rent control can be a minefield for investors, especially if they purchased a property under one set of rules, and then the rules change. It costs money to run a rental business, and when rents are controlled, rent revenues suffer. Investors may be less likely to put money into rentals, which could impact repairs on existing rentals and/or reduce the overall supply and make it harder for renters to find housing.   A cap on rents could also reduce the value of the property. Bisnow cites a study published in October by Duke Financial Economics Center. It found that property values declined 6% in St. Paul, Minnesota during the first three months after rent control was implemented last year. That's for all rental and non-rental properties. For rental properties alone, values were down an additional 6% to a total of 12% due to lower future rents. The report says that lost property value essentially transferred that value from the owners to the renters.   White House Silent on Presidential Executive Order   While the NMHC anticipates activity at the local and state levels, some rent control advocates are floating the idea of an executive order by President Joe Biden that would impose some sort of rent control. So far, the White House has been silent on that matter. It did enact a housing plan in May that would “ease the burden of housing costs” but that plan did not include rent control. It just offered general policy proposals that include zoning reforms, new kinds of financing, and federal dollars for affordable housing.   As what might be seen as a follow-up to this, a coalition of more than 2,500 nonprofits and public agencies wrote a letter to Congress asking for affordable housing legislation. The letter is addressed as a “Call to Invest in Our Neighborhoods” or ACTION. Specific requests in the letter call for a 50% expansion of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit  and a lower Private Activity Bond financing threshold of 25%. It is currently at 50%.   According to a Realtor.com survey, 70% of landlords said in October that they plan to raise their rents over the next year. That is down from about 72% last spring.   You'll find links to the reports I mentioned in the show notes at newsforinvestors.com. You can also join RealWealth for free while you are there for access to all our real estate news, educational material, and data on individual markets. Please remember to subscribe to our podcast and leave a review!   Thanks for listening!   LInks:   1 - https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/multifamily/as-rents-spiked-this-year-so-did-the-push-for-rent-control-116806   2 - https://www.corelogic.com/intelligence/corelogicannual-single-family-rent-growth-decelerates-for-fifth-consecutive-month-and-seasonal-patterns-return/   3 - https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/national-rent-data   4 - https://www.nmhc.org/news/nmhc-news/2022/2023-rent-control-outlook/

Fred Royal of the Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP says the alleged undercount is depriving Milwaukee of millions of dollars in federal aid.

Americans are spending more time alone and less time with friends, according to a Census Bureau survey. We hear what's behind the drop in time spent with friends, and why it's important to reverse the trend.

On this episode of MWMH, Payton and Garrett discuss the disappearance and mysterious discovery of Nicholas Barclay. Links: https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband Case Sources: “The Imposter,” documentary, directed by Bart Layton, released 2012 Ksat.com, “Case of missing San Antonio boy from 1994 remains a mystery,” by Erica Hernandez, May 2, 2019 History101.com, “The incredible, disturbing true story of Nicholas Barclay and his masterful imposter,” copyright 2022 Wise Elements Inc. Allthatsinteresting.com, “The Mystery of Nicholas Barclay and His Impostor, Frederic Bourdin,” by Katie Serena, March 6, 2018, updated October 18, 2018 Websleuths.com, TX – Nicholas Barclay, 13, San Antonio, 13 June 1994, Noirdame79, October 27, 2021 Brenmar71.medium.com, photo of Nicholas Barclay Historybyday.com, “The True Story of a Missing Boy and His Imposter.” Livingmgz.com, Living Magazine, “Social Media Photo Brings a Breakthrough in Missing Persons Case,” by Hadar Gerlitz, no date provided Mysanantonio.com, “These San Antonio residents vanished and have never been found,” by Mark Dunphy, November 13, 2020, updated September 22, 2021 Newyorker.com, The New Yorker, “The Chameleon; The many lives of Frederic Bourdin,” by David Grann, August 4, 2008 Charleyproject.org, The Charley Project, “Nicholas Patrick Barclay,” last updated July 16, 2022 U.S. Census Bureau, San Antonio population (1994) Assisted research and writing by Diane Birnholz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The importance of proper nutrition for older adults cannot be understated. However, for some older adults, it can be hard to get motivated to cook nutritious meals, especially for those who live alone. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 28 percent (13.8 million) of community-dwelling older adults live alone, which could put them at risk for poor nutrition. Malnutrition can affect the mind, body, immune system and energy levels in ways older adults and family caregivers may not be aware of. Older adults who eat meals with others take in more nutrients and reap additional benefits like decreased loneliness. Listen to this podcast to learn how companionship is often the missing ingredient in a healthy diet for an older adult. 

The share of Montana households financially burdened by rent fell slightly over the last five years. That's according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau released last week.

Mike Hoa Nguyen, assistant professor of education, faculty affiliate at the Institute for Human Development and Social Change, and faculty affiliate at the Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools at New York University, leads the conversation on affirmative action. FASKIANOS: Thank you. Welcome to CFR's Higher Education Webinar. I'm Irina Faskianos, Vice President of the National Program and Outreach at CFR. Today's discussion is on the record, and the video and transcript will be available on our website, CFR.org/academic. As always, CFR takes no institutional positions on matters of policy. We are delighted to have Mike Hoa Nguyen with us to discuss affirmative action. Dr. Nguyen is assistant professor of education at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. He's also a faculty affiliate at NYU's Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools and a faculty affiliate at NYU's Institute for Human Development and Social Change. Additionally, Dr. Nguyen is a principal investigator of the Minority Serving Institutions Data Project. And prior to coming to NYU he was at the University of Denver. He has extensive professional experience in the federal government and has managed multiple complex, long-term intergovernmental projects and initiatives, focusing on postsecondary education and the judiciary and has published his work widely, including in Educational Researcher, The Journal of Higher Education, and The Review of Higher Education. So Mike, thanks very much for being with us today to talk about affirmative action. Could you give us an overview of where we are, the history of affirmative action, where we are now, and examples of criteria that are used by different institutions? NGUYEN: Well, hello. And thank you so much, Irina. And also thank you to the Council on Foreign Relations for having me here today. It's a real honor. And thank you to many of you who are joining us today out of your busy schedules. I'm sure that many of you have been following the news for Harvard and UNC. And, of course, those cases were just heard at the Supreme Court about a month ago, on Halloween. And so today thank you for those questions. I'd love to be able to spend a little bit of time talking about the history of sort of what led us to this point. I also recognize that many joining us are also experts on this topic. So I really look forward to the conversation after my initial remarks. And so affirmative action, I think, as Philip Rubio has written, comes from centuries-old English legal concept of equity, right, or the administration of justice according to what is fair in a particular situation, as opposed to rigidly following a set of rules. It's defined by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission in 1977 as a term that is a broad—a term, in a broad sense, that encompasses any measure beyond a simple termination of discriminatory practice adopted to correct for past or present discrimination or to prevent discrimination from recurring in the future. Academics have defined affirmative action simply as something more than passive nondiscrimination, right. It means various organizations must act positively, affirmatively, and aggressively to remove all barriers, however informal or subtle, that prevent access by minorities and women to their rightful places in the employment and educational institutions of the United States. And certainly one of the earliest appearances of this term, affirmative action, in government documents came when President Kennedy, in his 1961 executive order, where he wrote that the mandate stated that government contractors, specifically those that were receiving federal dollars to, quote, take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and employees are treated during employment without regard of their race, creed, color, or national origin. Certainly President Kennedy created a committee on equal employment opportunity to make recommendations for this. And then later on President Johnson later expressed—I'm sorry—expanded on President Kennedy's approach to take a sort of more active antiracist posture, which he signaled in a commencement speech at Howard University. In the decades following, of course, political-legal attacks have rolled back on how affirmative action can be implemented and for what purposes. So in admissions practices at U.S. colleges and universities today, really they can only consider race as one of many factors through a holistic process or holistic practices if so-called race-neutral approaches to admissions policies have fallen short in allowing for a campus to enroll a racially diverse class in order to achieve or reap the benefits of diversity, the educational benefits of diversity. Federal case law established by the courts have affirmed and reaffirmed that colleges may only consider race as one of many factors for the purposes of obtaining the educational benefits in diversity. So starting with the Bakke decision in the late 1970s, the Court limited the consideration of race in admissions and replaced the rationale for the use of race, specifically the rationale which was addressing historic and ongoing racism or systemic and racial oppression, instead in favor of the diversity rationale. So, in other words, if a college or university wishes to use race in their admissions, they can only do so with the intention of enhancing the educational benefits of all students. It may not legally use race as a part of their admissions process for the purpose of acknowledging historical or contemporary racism as barriers to equity in college access. If we fast-forward to something more recent, the two cases out of Michigan, the Grutter and Gratz case, what we saw there were really—significant part of the discussions of these two cases were really informed and conversations really about the educational benefits of diversity. That was really a key aspect of those cases. Lawsuits challenging the use of race in college admissions after those two cases now can sort of be traced to Edward Blum, a conservative activist, and his organization, Students for Fair Admission, or SFFA. So Blum has really dedicated his life to establishing what he calls a colorblind American society by filing lawsuits with the goal of dismantling laws and policies seeking to advance racial justice. This includes redistricting, voting rights, and, of course, affirmative action. So in 2000—in the 2000s, he recruited Abigail Fisher to challenge the University of Texas in their admissions program. The Court, the Supreme Court, ultimately ruled in favor of Texas in the second Fisher case—Fisher II, as we call it. And so that's actually where we saw Ed Blum alter his tactics. In this case he established SFFA, where he then purposefully recruited Asian Americans as plaintiffs in order to sue Harvard and UNC. So the cases now at Harvard—are now certainly at the Supreme Court. But one sort of less-known case that hasn't got a whole lot of attention, actually, was—that was sort of on the parallel track, actually originated from the U.S. Department of Justice more recently, during the Trump administration, which launched an investigation into Yale's admissions practices, which also focus on Asian Americans. And this was around 2018, so not too long ago. And certainly Asian Americans have been engaged in affirmative action debate since the 1970s. But these lawsuits have really placed them front and center in sort of our national debate. And so I think it's really important to also note that while empirical research demonstrates and shows that the majority of Asian Americans are actually in support of affirmative action, a very vocal minority of Asian Americans are certainly opposed to race-conscious admissions and are part of these lawsuit efforts. But interestingly enough, they've received a large and disproportionate share of media attention and sort of—I stress this only because I think popular press and media have done a not-so-great job at reporting on this. And their framing, I think, sometimes relies on old stereotypes, harmful stereotypes, about Asian Americans, and written in a way that starts with an assumption that all Asian Americans are opposed to affirmative action when, again, empirical research and national polls show that that's certainly not the case, right, and much more complex than that. But anyway, so back to what I was saying earlier, in sort of the waning months of the Trump administration the Department of Justice used those investigations into Yale to file a lawsuit charging that Yale in its admissions practices discriminates against Asian Americans. This lawsuit, the DOJ lawsuit, was dropped in February of 2021 when President Biden took office. So in response to that, SFFA submitted its own lawsuit to Yale based upon similar lines of reasoning. So I think what's—why bring this up? One, because it doesn't get a lot of attention. But two, I think it's a really interesting and curious example. So in the Yale case, as well as in the previous DOJ complaint, Ed Blum notes specifically that they exclude Cambodian Americans, Hmong Americans, Laotian Americans, and Vietnamese Americans from the lawsuit, and thus from his definition of what and who counts as Asian American. I think this intentional exclusion of specific Southeast Asian American groups in Yale, but including them in Harvard, is a really interesting and curious note. I've written in the past that, sort of at the practical level, it's a bit—it's not a bit—it's a lot misleading. It's manipulative and advances a bit of a false narrative about Asian Americans. And I think it engages in what we call sort of a racial project to overtly reclassify the Asian American racial category, relying again on old stereotypes about Asian American academic achievement. But it also sort of counters state-based racial and ethnic classifications used by the Census Bureau, used by the Department of Education, used by OMB, right. It does not consider how Southeast Asian Americans have been and are racialized, as well as how they've built pan-ethnic Asian American coalitions along within and with other Asian American subgroups. So the implications of this sort of intentional racialized action, I think, are threefold. First, this process, sort of trying to redefine who is Asian American and who isn't, demonstrates that SFFA cannot effectively argue that race-conscious admissions harms Asian Americans. They wouldn't be excluded if that was the case. Second, it illustrates that Ed Blum and his crusade for sort of race—not using race in college admissions is actually really not focused on advancing justice for Asian Americans, as he claims. And then finally, I think that this maneuver, if realized, will really disenfranchise educational access and opportunity for many Asian Americans, including Southeast Asian Americans and other communities of color. Of course, this case hasn't received a lot of attention, given that we just heard from Harvard and UNC at the Supreme Court about a month ago. But I think it provides some really important considerations regarding the upcoming Supreme Court decision. Nonetheless the decision for Harvard and UNC, we're all sort of on pins and needles until we hear about it in spring and summer. And I was there in Washington for it, and so what I'd actually like to do is actually share some interesting notes and items that sort of struck out to me during the oral arguments. So I think in both cases we heard the justices ask many questions regarding the twenty-five-year sunset of using race in college admissions, right, something that Justice O'Connor wrote in the Michigan case. I think the solicitor general, Solicitor General Prelogar's response at the conclusion of the case was really insightful. She said—and I'm sort of paraphrasing here about why we—in addressing some of the questions about that twenty-five-year sunset, she basically said that society hasn't made enough progress yet. The arc of progress is slower than what the Grutter court had imagined. And so we just suddenly don't hit 2028—that's twenty-five years from the decision—and then, snap, race is not used in college admissions anymore. There was also a lot of discussion regarding proxy approaches to so-called race-neutral admissions, right, yet still being able to maintain some or similar levels of racial diversity. I think what we know from a lot of empirical research out there is that there's really no good proxy variables for race. Certainly Texas has its 10 percent plan, which really only works to a certain extent and does not actually work well for, say, private schools that draw students from across all fifty states and the territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific. And again, as the solicitor general stated, it doesn't work well for the service academies either, for really similar reasons. I do think the line of questioning from the chief justice again related to what sounded like a carveout exemption for our U.S. military schools, our service academies. What's really interesting, and might be of actually specific interest for the CFR community, of course, our service academies practice affirmative action and are in support of it. And this was also argued in an amicus brief written by retired generals and admirals. And they argued that race-conscious admissions is necessary to build a diverse officer corps at both the service academies as well as ROTC programs at various universities across the country, which, in their words, they say builds a more cohesive, collaborative, and effective fighting unit, especially, quote, given recent international conflicts and humanitarian crises which require our military to perform civil functions and call for heightened cultural awareness and sensitivity in religious issues. And so, to a certain extent, I think that same line of logic can also be extended to, for example, our diplomatic corps, and certainly many corporations. We also saw briefs from the field of medicine, from science and research, have all written in support of race-conscious admissions, along the same sort of pipeline issues as their companies and organizations. And they argue that their work benefits from a highly educated, diverse workforce. But what was interesting, was that there wasn't much discussion about Asian Americans. It was only brought up sort of a handful of times, despite the fact that certainly that's sort of the origin story of the sets of lawsuits. And perhaps—to me perhaps this is simply an indication that the case was really never about Asian Americans from the beginning. And certainly the finding from the district court shows that Asian Americans are not discriminated in this process at Harvard. And so we will all sort of see how the Court rules next year, if they uphold precedent or not, and if they do not, how narrow or how broad they will go. Justice Barrett did have an interesting question in the UNC part of the case about affinity groups and affinity housing on campus. So, for example, my undergraduate alma mater, UC Berkeley, has this for several groups. They have affinity housing for Asian Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, women in STEM, the LGBTQ+ community, Latinx students, among many, many others, actually. So I think a possible area of concern is if they go broad, will we see a ban on these types of race-based practices on campus? Would that impact sort of thinking about recruitment efforts? So these so-called race-neutral approaches, sort of recruitment and outreach services for particular communities. Or would that impact something like HBCUs and tribal colleges, HSIs and AANAPISIs, or other MSIs? How does that all fit in, right? I think that line of questioning sort of sparked a bit of concern from folks and my colleagues. But I think, though, in conversation, we don't think the Court has really any appetite to go that far. And I'm certainly inclined to agree. But end of the day, that line of questioning was rather curious. And so, with that, I thank you for letting me share some of my thinking and about what's going on. And I would really love to be able to engage in conversation with all of you. FASKIANOS: Wonderful. Thank you so much. And we'd love to hear now from you all questions and comments, and if you could share how things are happening on your campuses. Please raise—click on the raised-hand icon on your screen to ask a question. If you're on an iPad or tablet, you can click the More button to access the raised-hand feature. I'll call on you, and then accept the unmute prompt, state your name and affiliation, followed by your question. You can also submit a written question in the Q&A box or vote for questions that have been written there. And if you do write your question, it would be great if you could write who you are. I'm going to go first to a raised hand, Morton Holbrook. And there you go. Q: I'm there, yeah. Morton Holbrook from Kentucky Wesleyan College in Kentucky. Thanks, Professor Nguyen. Sort of a two-part question here. One is, how do you reconcile apparent public support for affirmative action with the number of states, I think ten or twelve states, that have banned affirmative action? Are their legislators just out of touch with their people, or what? And the second part is, a recent article in the Washington Post about UC Berkeley's experience, where the number of African American students simply plummeted down to about 3 percent, and at the same time that campus is still very diverse in other respects. Have you made a study of all the states that have banned affirmative action? Have they all had that same result with regard to African Americans? Or where does that stand? Thank you. NGUYEN: Thank you. Thank you for the really excellent question. I think it's about—I think you're right—around nine, ten or so states that have banned affirmative action. You know, I'll be completely honest with you. I'm really just familiar with the bans that were instituted both in California and in Michigan, and those were through state referendums, right, and not necessarily legislature. So in this case, this is the people voting for it. And so I think that's a really tough nut to crack about how do you reconcile these bans at the state level versus sort of what we see at the national level. And so I think this is sort of the big challenge that advocates for racial equity are facing in places like California. They actually tried to repeal this in California recently, in the last decade. And again, that failed. And so I think part of the issue here is there's a whole lot of misinformation out there. I think that's one key issue. I sort of said in my opening remarks there that, at least in some of the popular media pieces today about these cases, the way Asian Americans are sort of understood and written about is really not aligned with a lot of the rich empirical research out there that shows quite the contrary, as well as sort of historical research that shows quite the contrary. And so I think there's a lot of public opinion being formulated as well as, again, just sort of misinformation about the topic that might be leading folks to think one way or another. To your second question about UC Berkeley, my alma mater, you're right. After that Prop 209 ban, you saw a huge decline in undergraduate enrollment, specifically of African American students. And so Berkeley has been trying every which way to figure out a race—a so-called race-neutral approach in order to increase those numbers. And I think they are trying to—they are really trying to figure it out. And I think that's why UC Berkeley, UCLA, other institutions submitted amicus briefs in support of Harvard, in support of UNC, because they know that there are not a lot—when you can't use race, that's a result that you end up with. And that's because there are just not good proxy variables for race. SES or economic status is often talked about a lot. That again isn't a good variable. Geography can—to a certain extent can be used. All these can sort of certainly be used in some combination. But again, they do not serve well as proxy variables. And I think that's why we see those numbers at Berkeley. And I think that's why Berkeley was so invested in this case and why all those campus leaders submitted amicus briefs in support of Harvard and UNC. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next written question or first written question from Darko Spasevski, who's at the University of Skopje, North Macedonia: Do you think that in order to have successful affirmative actions in the higher education this process should be followed by affirmative actions in the workplace? Are the benefits—if the affirmative actions are only promoted at the level of higher education but are not at the same time continuing at the workplace? I guess it would be the opposite. Is it—you know, basically, should affirmative action be promoted in the workplace as well— NGUYEN: Yeah, I think— FASKIANOS: —once you get past the higher education? NGUYEN: Got it. Yeah, I think I understand that question. Actually, this was something that came up during this recent Supreme Court case. Again, the solicitor general was talking about specifically the briefs from the retired generals and admirals, as well as from various executives and corporations, talking about how affirmative action is so important at the university level because then it helps build a pipeline to recruit folks to work at those organizations or serve in the military, as well as that it trains all students, right, and lets them access and achieve the benefits of diversity and use that in their future employment, which research from areas of management show that that increases work productivity. It increases their bottom line, et cetera, et cetera. And so actually, in that argument, the—I think it was Justice Alito that asked, are you now arguing for this in the private sector, in corporations? And the solicitor general quickly said no, no. The context of this lawsuit is specifically or the position of the United States is specifically just focused here on higher education. And I think that certainly is relevant for this conversation today, as well as sort of my own area of expertise. But I think my colleagues in the areas of management and a lot of that work shows, I think, similar types of results that, when you have diverse workforces, when you have folks who can reap the benefits of diversity interactions, interracial interactions, then there are certainly a lot of benefits that come from that, in addition to creativity, work efficiency, so many things. And so, again, I'm not here to sort of put a position down regarding affirmative action in professional settings, only because that's not my area of expertise. But certainly other areas of research have pointed in similar directions as what's sort of shown in the higher-education literature. FASKIANOS: (Off mic) Renteln? And let's see if you can unmute yourself. If you click on the unmute prompt, you should be able to ask your question. Not working? Maybe not. OK, so I will read it. So— Q: Is it working now? FASKIANOS: It is, Alison. Go ahead. Q: Thank you. I'm sorry. It's just usually it shows me when I'm teaching. Thank you for a really interesting, incisive analysis; really enjoyed it. I wanted to ask about whether it's realistic to be able to implement policies that are, quote, race-neutral, unquote, given that people's surnames convey sometimes identities, ethnic and religious identities, and also activities that people participated in in professional associations. And when people have references or letters of recommendation, information about background comes out. So I'm wondering if you think that this debate really reflects a kind of polarization, a kind of symbolitics, and whether, while some worry about the consequences of the Supreme Court's decisions, this is really something that's more symbolic than something that could actually be implemented if the universities continue to be committed to affirmative action. NGUYEN: Really great question. Thank you so much for asking it. This was actually a big chunk of the conversation during oral arguments for both at UNC and both at Harvard, right. The justices were asking, so how do you—if you don't—and this was sort of the whole part about when they were talking about checking the box, checking sort of your racial category during the application process. And so they asked, if you get rid of that, what happens when students write about their experiences in their personal statements or, as you said, recommenders in their letters in about that? And so this was where it got really, really—I think the lawyers had a really hard time disentangling it, because for people of color, certainly a lot of their experiences, their racialized experiences, are inextricably linked to their race and their identity. And so removing that is, at an operationalized level, pretty hard to do and pretty impossible, right. So they actually had some interesting examples, like one—and so they're asking hypotheticals. Both lawyers—both the justices on all the various spectrum of the Court were asking sort of pointed questions. Where I think one justice asked, so can you talk about—can you talk about your family's experiences, particularly if your ancestors were slaves in the United States? And so the lawyers—this is the lawyer for SFFA saying that would not—we cannot use that. They cannot be used in admissions, because that is linked to their race. But can you—so another justice asked, can you talk about if, you know, your family immigrated to the United States? Can you—how do you talk about that? Can you talk about that? And the lawyers said, well, that would be permissible then, because that doesn't necessarily have to be tied to a racial group or a racial category. So again, it's very—I think what they were trying to tease out was how do you—what do you actually—what would actually be the way to restrict that, right? And so I guess, depending on how the justices decide this case, my assumption is or my hope is, depending on whatever way they go, they're going to—they will, one way or another, define or sort of place limits if they do end up removing the use of race. But I completely agree with you. Operationally, that's not an easy thing to do, right? And when do you decide what fits and what doesn't fit? And that will be the—that will be a big, big struggle I think universities will face if the courts ban the use of race in college admissions. FASKIANOS: Let me just add that Alison Dundes Renteln is a professor of political science at the University of Southern California. So I'm going to go to the next written question, from Clemente Abrokwaa at Penn State University: Do you think affirmative action should be redefined to reflect current social-demographic groups and needs? NGUYEN: Oh, that's such a fun question, and particularly for someone who studies race and racial formation in the United States. And so I—you know, this is—this is an interesting one. I think—I think sort of the way we think about—at least folks in my profession think about race versus sort of the way—the way it's currently accounted for in—by state-based classifications/definitions, those tend to be a little bit behind, right? That's normal and natural. But I think what we've seen in the United States over time is race has—or, racial classifications and categories have changed over time and continue to evolve, right? The Census—the Census Bureau has an advisory group to help them think through this when they collect this data. And so—and so I'll be honest with you, I don't have a good answer for you, actually. But I think—I think that certainly, given the fact that racial categories do shift and change over time and the meaning ascribed to them, we certainly need to take a—if we continue using approaches for—race- or ethnic-based approaches in college admissions, that's something that absolutely needs to be considered, right? But at the same time, it also means, as we think about sort of the future and what does that look like—and maybe, for example, here we're talking about folks who are—who identify as mixed race. But at the same time, we need to look historically, too, right? So we don't want to—the historical definitions and the way people would self-identify historically. And so I think—I think, certainly, the answer, then, would be—would be both, right? But what a fun question. Thanks for that question. FASKIANOS: I'm going to take the moderator prerogative here and ask you about: How does affirmative action in higher education in the United States relate to, you know, relations abroad? NGUYEN: Yeah. Well— FASKIANOS: Have you looked at that connection? NGUYEN: Sure. I think—I think that—I think that's really, really interesting. So something that we wrote in our amicus brief particularly regarding—it was sort of in response to SFFA's brief and their claim, which was about sort of why Asian Americans here were so exceptional in their—in their academic achievements. I think that's a—tends to be a big stereotype, model minority stereotype. That is how Asian Americans are racialized. So one thing that we sort of wrote in our brief was this actually is really connected to a certain extent, right—for some Asian American groups in the United States, that's linked to U.S. foreign policy and U.S. immigration policy about who from Asia is allowed to immigrate to the United States, what their sort of educational background and requirements are. And so I think when we think about the arguments being made in this lawsuit and the way Asian Americans are discussed, certainly one key aspect there is certainly connected to historic U.S. foreign policy, particularly around—as well as immigration policy, particularly around the 1965 Immigration Act. So certainly they are connected and they're linked. And something that we—that I wish more people could—more people would read our brief, I guess, and get a good understanding of, sort of to add to the complexity of this lawsuit. FASKIANOS: Great. I'm going to go back to Morton Holbrook. Q: Yes. Still here at Kentucky Wesleyan College. Speaking of amicus briefs, what do you think of the Catholic college brief from Georgetown University? Here we have a Court that's been very partial towards religious beliefs, and they're arguing that their religious beliefs requires them to seek diversity in college admissions. How do you think they'll fare in that argument? NGUYEN: Yeah. This was also brought up in—during oral arguments. I can't remember if it was during the UNC part or the Harvard part. And I'll be completely honest with you, I haven't read that brief yet. There's just so many and I wasn't able to read them all. But this was a really interesting—really interesting point that was sort of raised in the courts. And I don't—I don't—I don't have a good answer for you, to be completely honest. I'm not sure how they're going to, particularly given that these—that this Court seems to be very much in favor of religious liberty, right, how they would account for that amicus brief from the Catholic institutions. And so that will be an interesting one to watch and to see—to see how it's framed, and certainly it would be interesting if they played an outsized role in the justices' decision-making here. But great question. Great point to raise and something I'll add to my reading list for this weekend. FASKIANOS: So Alison Renteln came back with a question following on mine: Why are numerical quotas acceptable in other countries like India but not in the United States? NGUYEN: Yeah. Great, great question there. You know, also in other places like in Brazil. And so we, in fact, used to use numerical quotas before the Bakke decision. It was the Bakke decision, University of California v. Bakke, that eliminated the use of racial quotas, also eliminated the use of what I said earlier about sort of the rationales for why we can practice race-conscious admissions, which was it cannot be used to address historic racism or ongoing racism. In fact, the only rationale for why we can use affirmative action today as a—as a factor of many factors, is in order to—for universities to build campus environments—diverse campus environments of which there are benefits to diversity, the educational benefits of diversity that flows for all students. And so, yeah, it was the—it was the Supreme Court in the late 1970s that restricted the use of quotas among many other—many other rationales for the practice of race-conscious admissions. Thank you for that question. FASKIANOS: Great. And I'm going to go to next to raised hand from Emily Drew. Q: Great. Thank you. I'm listening in from Oregon, where I'm a sociologist. Thank you for all of these smart comments. My question is a little bit thinking out loud. What do you think about—it feels like there are some perils and dangers, but I'm hoping you'll reframe that for me, of some racialized groups like indigenous people saying, well, we're not a race anyway—we're tribes, we're nations—so that they're not subject to the ban on race-conscious practices, which, it's true, they're a tribe. They're also a racialized group. And so I'm struggling with groups kind of finding a political way around the ban or the potential ban that's coming, but then where does that leave us in terms of, you know, each group, like, take care of your own kind of thing? Can you just react a little bit to that? NGUYEN: Yeah. Thanks for that really wonderful question. Fascinating point about, yeah, the way to say: We're not a racial group. We're sovereign nations or sovereign tribes. I think what we're going to see, depending on how the courts go, are folks trying—schools potentially trying a whole host of different approaches to increase diversity on their campuses if they're not allowed to use some of these racial categories like they've been doing already, in a holistic approach. And so, yeah, that might be a fascinating way for indigenous communities to advance forward. I will say, though, there was one point, again, in the—during oral arguments where they started talking about sort of generational connections to racial categories. And so they're saying if it's my grandparents' grandparents' grandparents, right, so sort of talking almost about, like—at least the way I interpreted it, as sort of thinking about connecting one to a race via blood quantum. And so when does that—when does that expire, right? And so is it—is it—if you're one-sixteenth Native American, is that—does that count? So there was a short line of questioning about that, and I think the—I think the lawyer tried to draw a line in the sand about, like, at what point do you not go—what point does it count and when does it not count. And I think that's actually a bit of a misstep, primarily because that should be determined by the sovereign nation, by the tribe, about who gets to identify as that—as a member of that nation or that tribe and how they—I think—you know, I think, talking to indigenous scholars, they would say it's about how you engage in and how you live in it, rather than—rather than if it's just a percentage. So, again, those will be the tensions, I think, that will—that already exist, I should say, regardless of the Court decision. But a fascinating point about states sort of exercising indigenous law there to see if that would be a way to counter that. Certainly, I should—I should have said at the top of this I'm not trained as a lawyer. And so I have no idea how that would be sort of litigated out, but certainly I imagine all different entities will find ways to move through this without—in various legal fashions. And I was talking to a colleague earlier today about this and he said something about at the end of the day this might be something that, if Congress decided to take up, they may—this would be an opportunity for Congress to take up, to maybe develop a narrow path for institutions. But certainly it's—the courts seem to be the favored way for us to talk about affirmative action. FASKIANOS: There's a written question from John Francis, who is a research professor of political science at the University of Utah: If the Court were to strike down affirmative action, would state universities give much more attention to geographic recruitment within their respective states and encourage private foundations to raise scholarship funds to support students of color who live in those areas? NGUYEN: Great, great question there. And I think that would be one of many things that universities are doing. We're seeing schools where the states have banned affirmative action do things like this, in Michigan and certainly in California. But to a certain extent, it actually doesn't work—I guess in California's context—that well. I think, if I'm not mistaken, the head of admissions for UC Berkeley said in one of many panels—he's wonderful, by the way—on one of many panels, like, that doesn't work very well in the California context because only so many schools have sort of that large concentration of African American students and for them to sort of go there and recruit out of that. So it's not a—the sort of geographic distribution is not so easy and clean cut as—I think as one would normally perceive. And so it actually develops a big, big challenge for state institutions, particularly state flagship institutions, in particular geographic contexts. Now, I don't know if that's the case, say, in other parts of the country. But certainly within the UC system, that seems to be a prevailing argument. And I think more than ever now, everyone has been looking to the UC system for insight on what they—on how to approach this if the courts decide next year to ban the use of race. I should also admit that—or, not admit, but proudly declare that I'm a product of the UC system. All of my postsecondary education is from those schools. And so I know that this has been a constant and ongoing conversation within the UC system, and I imagine that will be the case for schools both public and private across the country. But I think part of that calculation then requires institutions to think about not just from private donors, but really from state legislatures as well as the institutions themselves have to really think about how they want to dedicate resources to achieving diversity if they don't—if they're unable to use race. I think a tremendous amount of resources. So, to a certain extent, it's going to make institutions put their money where their mouth is. And so we'll see if that—this will all be interesting areas to investigate, depending on how the courts decide come next year. FASKIANOS: There's a raised hand or there was a raised hand from Jeff Goldsmith. I don't know if you still have a question. Q: Yeah. So I've been trying to figure out exactly how I might want to pose this question, but I was struck by—sorry, this is Jeff Goldsmith from Columbia University. I was struck by the line of questioning that you mentioned from Justice Barrett about affinity housing and your thoughts about how narrow or far-reaching a decision striking down affirmative action might be. And I guess it seems like there is the potential for at least some gray area. And you know, we run things like summer research programs that are intended to bolster diversity. There are in some cases—you just sort of mentioned the scholarship opportunities focused on increasing the number of students from underrepresented backgrounds. And I guess I'm just sort of curious if you have any speculation about how narrow or far-reaching a decision might be. NGUYEN: Thanks for that question. Yeah. So I think this was—we—prior to the—to oral arguments, people had sort of talked about this a little bit. Would this be consequential? And I—in fact, the day before—the day before oral arguments, I was on a different panel and I sort of brought this up. And actually, a federal judge in the audience came up to me afterwards and said, you know, I don't think the Court's got a lot of appetite for that. And I said, hey, I completely agree with you, but certainly, you know, we've—in recent times we've seen the Court do more interesting things, I guess, if you'll—if I can use a euphemism. And so—and so, it almost feels like everything's on the table, right? But I think, generally speaking, I'm inclined to agree that if the courts strike down race-conscious admissions, they will do it in a very narrow and highly-tailored way. That was my feeling going in. That was my feeling on October 30, right? Then, on Halloween—October 31—while listening to the—to the oral arguments, you had that very short exchange between Justice Barrett, specifically during the UNC case, ask about affinity groups and affinity housing, and it felt like it sort of came out of left field. And not—and so I think that raised some curiosity for all of us about what—about why that was a line of questioning. But nonetheless, I think at least my—I've never been a gambling person, but if I were I would say that if they do strike it down that I think the justices wholesale don't—I don't think they would have a large appetite to do something so broad and sweeping like that. At least that's my hope, if that's the direction we're moving in. But I guess that's why I said earlier that we're sort of all on pins and needles about that. And if that is struck down, then I think that's got a lot of consequences for scholarships, recruitment programs, summer bridge programs, potentially minority-serving institutions, and all of the above. So, yeah, I—again, it seems like that's a big reshaping of postsecondary education, not just in admissions but sort of the way they operate overall. And I don't know if that would happen so quickly overnight like that. But that, at least, is my hope. FASKIANOS: (Off mic.) There you go. Q: (Laughs.) Thank you so much for your talk. Clemente Abrokwaa from Penn State University. And my question is, right now there is a push for diversity, equity, and inclusion in many areas. How is that different from affirmative action? NGUYEN: Well, great question. And actually, that's a really difficult one for me to answer only because I think if we were to go and ask ten people on the street what did we mean by diversity, equity, and inclusion, everyone would give you sort of a very different and potentially narrow or a very broad definition of what it means, right? But I think with respect to affirmative action, particularly in a higher-education context, it is specifically about college admissions, specifically about admissions and how do you review college admissions. And in this case here, there is a very narrow way in which it can—it can be used for race—in this case for race, that it's got to be narrowly tailored, that it can only be a factor among a factor in a broad holistic approach, that you can't use quotas, that it can't be based on rectifying previous or historical racism, and that the only utility for it is that it is used to create learning environments where there are educational benefits that flow from diversity and the interactions of diversity. Versus, I think, broader conversations about DEI, while of course centered on admissions, right, which is sort of one of many dimensions in which you achieve DEI, right? We like to think that—and I'm going to be sort of citing a scholar, Sylvia Hurtado, out of UCLA, who argues that, admissions help contribute to one dimension, which is the composition of a university, the sort of just overall demographics and numbers of that university. But there are many other dimensions that are important in order to create learning environments in which we can achieve DEI-related issues. That means that we have to look at the institution and the way it's acted historically and contemporarily. We have to look at behavioral interactions between people on a university. There are psychological dimensions, among many others. And so that's how I think about it. I think that's how at least my area of scholarship and in our academic discipline we think about it and for folks who study education think about it. And so hopefully that answers your question. And, yeah, hopefully that answers your question. FASKIANOS: I'm going to take the next question from Alison Renteln: What policies appear to be the best practices to increase diversity at universities, including disability? And what are the best practices from other countries? NGUYEN: Oh, wow, that's a really good question. So we—you know, I think—I think a lot of other countries use quotas. Brazil might be sort of the example that most folks think about when they think about the way affirmative action's practiced abroad. And certainly that's not something that we can do here in the United States. So that's—that—really, really important consideration. Sort of other practices that I think that are—that are not sort of the ones that are narrowly tailored by the courts are what I said earlier about sort of what the UC system has to really do and has to really grapple with, right, are using every sort of—everything that they can think of under the sun to go out and try to do outreach and recruit and build those pipelines throughout the entire education system. There's been some work by some wonderful folks in our field—Dominique Baker, Mike Bastedo—who looked at even sort of just a random sampling, if you were able to do a lottery system, and that has actually found that that doesn't actually increase diversity either, and so—racial diversity either. And so I think that's—so, again, this all points to how crucial affirmative action is in being able to use race in order to achieve compositional diversity on a college campus, and that other proxy variables just don't even come close to being able to help estimate that. And so, yeah, that's—I should also note that really, we're only talking about a dozen or so schools. Oh, I'm sorry, more than a dozen, but a handful of schools that this is really a big issue for. Most schools in the United States don't necessarily—are not at this level of selectivity where it becomes a big issue of concern for the national public. Nearly half of all of our college-going students are at community college, which tend to be open-access institutions. And so something also to keep in mind when we talk about affirmative action. FASKIANOS: Thanks. We only have a few minutes left. Can you talk a little bit more about the work of NYU's Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools? NGUYEN: Yeah. So I'm a faculty affiliate there, and maybe I'll preface by saying I'm new to NYU. I just came here from the University of Denver, and so I'm still learning about every wonderful thing that Metro Center is doing. It's led by a wonderful faculty member here named Fabienne Doucet and really focused on sort of a handful of pillars—certainly research on education, but also a real big tie for communities. So real direct engagement with schools, school systems in order to advance justice in those schools. And so they have a lot of contracts with school districts and public entities, as well as nonprofit groups that come in and work as an incubator there on a host of issues. And so I think the work there is really exciting and really interesting. It tends to be—and I should say also very expansive. So the whole sort of K-12 system, as well as postsecondary. And I think that's the role that I'm looking to play there, is to help contribute to and expand their work in the postsecondary education space. FASKIANOS: Great. And maybe a few words about your other—you have many, many hats. NGUYEN: Oh. (Laughs.) FASKIANOS: NYU's Institute for Human Development and Social Change. NGUYEN: Yeah. They do some really wonderful, interesting work. And it's really, actually, a center and a space for faculty to come in and run a lot of their research projects, including my own, which is the MSI Data Project, where we are looking at all the various different types of minority-serving institutions in the United States, how they change over time, and how the federal government thinks about them and accounts for them, as well as how do the schools themselves think about them, all with the goal here in order to work with students of colors and give them access and opportunity. I should say, depending on how you count them, MSIs enroll a huge and significant proportion of all students of color, almost half, in the country, despite making up such a small percentage, about 20 percent, of all college and universities. And so this is—certainly when we talk about affirmative action, we—I think a lot of folks center it around racial justice or social justice. I think sort of the other side of the same coin here are schools like minority-serving institutions which enroll and provide access to and graduate a really significant proportion and number of students of color and certainly an area that we need to bring a lot more attention to when we talk about issues of race and education. FASKIANOS: OK, I'm going to take one—try to sneak in one last question from John Francis, who's raised his hand. You get the last one, John. Q: OK, can you hear me? FASKIANOS: We can. Q: Oh, that's great. So my question is—has a certain irony to it, but there's been a great deal of discussion of late that men are not succeeding in college, but that women are, and that certainly should be encouraged, but also there should be ways to find perhaps even changing when people start out in elementary school how that may be shifted to help men later on. And in this discussion, when we're looking at that issue and it's gaining some latitude, some strength, should we think about that as a possible consideration that universities should have greater latitude in making decisions to reflect the current set of demographic issues, be it race or gender or others? Has this argument come to play any kind of role? NGUYEN: Great question and a good last one, and if I can be completely honest, not an area that I'm—gender-based issues are not an area that I've done a whole lot of work in, if really any work, but I will attempt to answer your question as best as I can here, which is, I think—and sort of connected to sort of the larger conversation and question that we had that someone posed earlier about sort of the complexity and changing nature of racial and ethnic categories and what does that mean, and how do universities address that? And I think this is again where it requires universities to have some flexibility and nimbleness and autonomy to be able to address a lot of these issues, including what you're talking about, John, depending on the context and the times in which we are in. You know, certainly one big area also connected to—for men in postsecondary education is sort of the huge gap we see for men of color from particular groups, and really we see foundations, we see the Obama administration really play—invest in this work. So, John, from what it sounds like, it sounds like I agree with you here about—that universities need flexibility and autonomy to be able to address these issues. Now, that may—at the same time, we don't want to dismiss the fact that the experiences of women in postsecondary education—while certainly we see numbers increasing in enrollment in a lot of aspects, in certain disciplines we see a sharp decline; we see—in STEM and engineering fields, in the way those disciplines may be organized to sort of push out women. And so I think, again, this is why it requires some nimbleness and some autonomy from the universities to be able to design approaches to support students of different types of diversity on their campuses, in particular areas, disciplines, and majors. And so I think that's the—I think that's the challenge, is that we need to be a lot more intentional and think more precisely and run our analyses in ways that make sense for particular intersectional groups on campus and in the areas of which they're studying. So yeah, I think that's the—one of the big challenges that universities are facing today and certainly depending on how the courts rule, we'll see if that ends up restricting autonomy and removing tools or allowing those tools to remain for various types of targeted interventions for various minoritized groups. FASKIANOS: Wonderful. Well, Mike Nguyen, thank you very much for this terrific hour and to all of you for your questions and comments. This is really insightful and we appreciate it. Welcome to New York, Mike, your first New York—holidays in New York. So we will be resuming the series in January and we will be sending out also the lineup for our winter/spring semester of the Academic Webinar series, which is really designed for students, later this month. We do wish you all luck with administering finals this week and grading them and all those papers; I don't envy you all. We have different deadlines under—at the Council that we're working on right now, so it will be a busy month, but we hope that everybody enjoys the holidays. We will resume in January, in the new year, and I encourage you all to follow us at @CFR_Academic on Twitter. Visit CFR.org, ForeignAffairs.com, and ThinkGlobalHealth.org for research and analysis on global issues. Again, thanks, Mike, for this, and to all of you. NGUYEN: Thank you so much for having me. Really an honor. FASKIANOS: Wonderful. Take care, everybody. (END)