Walmart has launched a drone delivery service for customers in Florida, Texas and Arizona as the grocery chain expands its delivery operations.
Customers in the Dallas, Phoenix, Tampa and Orlando areas are able to have same-day delivery via drone, Walmart announced earlier this month.
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Facebook parent Meta signed on to a $725 million settlement to potentially close out a class-action lawsuit over the sharing of user data with third parties, such as the Trump-aligned campaign consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, according to a Thursday court filing.
The case centers around allegations that the company shared users’ data with third parties without their consent, something the plaintiffs’ lawyers say has been significantly cut back since litigation began, according to the filing. The scandal first broke in 2018, after it was revealed that Facebook had shared roughly 87 million users’ data with Cambridge Analytica via a personality quiz, according to The Verge.
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Just over 47% of Americans earning more than $100,000 were living paycheck to paycheck as of November, spiking 4% from October, according to a survey by financial services firm LendingClub.
Overall, nearly 63% of Americans lived paycheck to paycheck in November, jumping from just over 60% in October, approaching the yearly high of nearly 64.5% set in March, according to LendingClub. Nearly 66% of those who earned between $50,000 and $100,000 were living paycheck-to-paycheck last month, compared to 76% of those who earned less than $50,000.
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An internal investigation from TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has confirmed that its employees used the social media app to track the physical locations of several journalists.
The investigation revealed that several employees had worked to uncover the source of internal leaks and in so doing had used the app to obtain the IP addresses and user data of journalists to determine their physical proximity to any ByteDance employees, according to Forbes.
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Elon Musk recently asked the internet what they thought of the culture war. One shrewd person suggested that the right needs to focus on funding artists, rather than just politicians.
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Twitter altered the COVID conversation by censoring information that was true but not in line with U.S. government policy, discrediting public health experts who disagreed and suppressing contrarian users, the latest installment of the “Twitter Files” showed Monday.
“[B]oth the Trump and Biden administrations directly pressed Twitter executives to moderate the platform’s pandemic content according to their wishes,” reporter David Zweig said in the 10th Twitter Files release.
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The latest installment of the “Twitter Files” revealed that the FBI acted “as a doorman” for the social media giant to other government agencies, including the CIA, the State Department and the Pentagon.
“Twitter had so much contact with so many agencies that executives lost track,” journalist Matt Taibbi wrote as he released the ninth batch of internal Twitter files on Saturday evening. “Is today the DOD, and tomorrow the FBI? Is it the weekly call, or the monthly meeting? It was dizzying.”
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A memo shared by the free speech watchdog, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), reveals that employees of King County, Washington, are advised not to include “religious symbols” in their workspaces.
“Before adding any decorations to your workspace (including your virtual workspace), consider the likely effect of such decorations on all of the employees in and outside of your workgroup,” writes Workforce Equity Manager Gloria Ngezaho in the “Guidelines for Holiday Decorations for King County Employees.”
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Netflix is reportedly poised to cancel the widespread user practice of “password sharing,” limiting accounts to one single household in a move to shore up its struggling bottom line.
The streaming company several years ago “identified password sharing as a major problem eating into subscriptions,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, but did not move to address it until this year due to significant gains in subscribers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Rosa Parks was one of America’s indispensable civil rights icons, Rita Hayworth one of its great actresses, Ronald Reagan one of its most consequential presidents, and Norman Rockwell one of its most beloved artists. They all had something else in common, along with 700,000 Americans who die with Alzheimer’s disease every year. All four of them suffered memory losses so thorough and tragic that they eventually had no knowledge of who they were, how important they had been, and why their lives had mattered to millions.
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The Republican National Committee on Wednesday announced plans to hold its 2024 convention from July 15-18, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the GOP will select its 2024 presidential nominee.
“We look forward to our continued work with the beautiful city of Milwaukee to make this convention week a success. Republicans will stand united in Milwaukee in 2024 to share our message of freedom and opportunity with the world,” RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said.
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The Oregon Department of Education is administering a 2022 student health survey that asks 11-year-olds if they are transgender, according to the Oregon government website.
Oregon’s Student Health Survey is a state-wide test administered on a school-to-school basis to students in classrooms or online to “improve the health and well-being of students,” according to the Oregon government website. The 2022 survey asks sixth grade students if they are transgender and provides seven different gender identity options.
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At Intellectual Takeout, we strive to offer not only commentary on current events but also tangible advice for engaging with our increasingly chaotic world. That’s why we’re proud to present this new, biweekly series of literature recommendations.
These works have helped us and many others deepen their understanding of both the state of the world today and how it got there. We hope they prove engaging and informative for you as well.
This week’s recommendations cover current and recent world events.
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The Washington state Department of Health’s climate curriculum instructs teachers to focus on “emotions” over “rational thinking,” according to curriculum lesson plans.
The Washington state Department of Health released a five part curriculum to help students learn the “intersections of biological, societal, and environmental issues.” The second phase of the curriculum, “Climate Change & Pregnancy,” tells educators and students to “pay attention” to their emotions as “for too long” science has caused “rational thinking” to be prioritized.
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An elite private school in New Hampshire is offering a math class that teaches students how to uncover factors that lead to “systematic oppression.”
Phillips Exeter Academy provides “Mathematics of Social Justice” which focuses on how public policy can lead to “discrimination, systematic bias and inequity,” according to the school website. Students in the math class will study “inequity in the justice system, healthcare inequity and wealth disparity” using concepts such as mathematical modeling and statistical inference.
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In the year 2022, the population of the United States of America was artificially boosted by the surge of mass migration across the southern border, with over 1 million people being added to the overall population total.
According to the Associated Press, the American population increased by 1.2 million due to the flood of illegal aliens, with the U.S. Census Bureau declaring on Thursday that the total population had increased to about 333.2 million people.
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Sen. Rand Paul on Friday released his annual federal spending audit in which the Kentucky Republican found what he considers about $500 billion in wasted taxpayer resources – from billions on COVID-19 relief funds to ineligible recipients to a $118,000 study on the Marvel movie villain Thanos.
Paul’s 2022 Festivus Report – inspired by the send-up Festivus holiday on the “Seinfeld” sitcom – finds “a whopping $482,276,543,907” worth of federal waste, according to Fox News.
Paul takes particular aim at the $3.5 trillion Inflation Reduction Act that the Democrat-controlled Congress recently passed.
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The University of Utah School of Medicine reportedly trained its faculty to acknowledge their own biases through diversity, equity and inclusion training modules, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the medical watchdog group Do No Harm.
Do No Harm obtained three training presentations which were used between 2021-2022 to train faculty members about how to incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. The trainings instructed faculty to understand their own biases and lectured the school on using affirmative action practices to increase minority hires.
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A hospital in Yuma, Arizona, is owed $20 million for medical services provided to illegal immigrants.
“We’ve calculated that over a six-month period, from December 2021 to May 2022, we had $20 million in charges that we’re unable to bill anyone for, for services we provided to migrants alone,” Dr. Robert Trenschel, president and CEO of Yuma Regional Medical Center, told The Daily Signal during a phone interview Wednesday.
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Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake had her election challenge completely dismissed by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson Saturday. Following the ruling, Lake tweeted that an appeal would be coming.
“My Election Case provided the world with evidence that proves our elections are run outside of the law. This Judge did not rule in our favor. However, for the sake of restoring faith and honesty in our elections, I will appeal his ruling,” tweeted Lake.
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The head of the Medical Association of Georgia wants state lawmakers to properly fund the Georgia Composite Medical Board, saying the underfunding of the agency isn’t benefiting anyone in the state.
“Having an underfunded, understaffed agency benefits no one,” Jeremy Bonfini, the executive director and CEO of the Medical Association of Georgia, told The Center Square. “It’s our position that the GCMB should be funded sufficiently.
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Why, every Christmas, do so many people endure the mess of dried pine needles, the risk of a fire hazard and impossibly tangled strings of lights?
Strapping a fir tree to the hood of my car and worrying about the strength of the twine, I sometimes wonder if I should just buy an artificial tree and do away with all the hassle. Then my inner historian scolds me – I have to remind myself that I’m taking part in one of the world’s oldest religious traditions. To give up the tree would be to give up a ritual that predates Christmas itself.
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War had already been waging in Europe for months when Pope Benedict issued a plea from Rome on Dec. 7, 1914 to leaders of Europe: declare a Christmas truce.
Benedict saw how badly peace was needed, even if it was only for a day. The First Battle of Ypres alone, fought from October 19 to November 22, had resulted in some 200,000 casualties (mostly German and French soldiers, but also thousands of English and Belgians). The First Battle of the Marne was even worse.
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Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt helped fund the salaries of more than two dozen Biden administration officials through Federation of American Scientists (FAS) fellowships, Politico reported.
Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic organization headed by Schmidt, helped fund a FAS program titled “Day One Project” which placed fellows in science and technology positions in the White House following the 2020 elections, according to Politico. The fellows have served in departments such as the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Department of Energy.
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In 1906, a new carol appeared in “The English Hymnal,” an influential collection of British church music. With words by British poet Christina Rossetti, set to a tune by composer Gustav Holst, it became one of Britain’s most beloved Christmas songs. Now known as “In the Bleak Midwinter,” it was voted the “greatest carol of all time” in a 2008 BBC survey of choral experts.
“In the Bleak Midwinter” began life as a poem, which Rossetti simply titled “A Christmas Carol.” When the hymnal paired her words with music, the poem took on a new identity in song – a phenomenon documented by literature researcher Emily McConkey. But it also became embedded into popular culture in nonmusical forms. “A Christmas Carol,” or parts of it, has appeared on Christmas cards, ornaments, tea towels, mugs and other household items. It has inspired mystery novels and, more recently, became a recurring motif in the British television series “Peaky Blinders.”
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A University of North Carolina (UNC) nutrition fellowship program scrubbed criteria that made the fellowship exclusive to black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) students after a civil rights complaint was filed alleging the program violated federal anti-discrimination laws, the program’s website reveals.
UNC’s Fellowship for Exploring Research in Nutrition originally claimed students must be a “Racial/ethnic background of [BIPOC] that is historically marginalized in academia and the field of nutrition in the United States” to be considered, according to a Dec. 19 snapshot of the website. However, the current website appears to have removed the criteria from the list.
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The University of Iowa Office of the Provost trained its Faculty Search Committees to interview candidates through diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) lenses, documents obtained by Do No Harm through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation revealed.
A training given to the Department of Pediatrics at UI’s medical school broke down different types of implicit biases and provided a list of practices committee members could follow to limit bias in hiring decisions, which included having a diverse committee that is trained and use “accountability strategies,” spending 15-20 minutes on each candidate and evaluating through standard criteria, the documents show. Committee members were also taught to “grade” prospective candidates after an interview rather than use a ranking system and to evaluate whether they made biased decisions if “women and people of color” were not advancing.
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For many Christians around the world, celebrating the Nativity, or the birth of Jesus Christ, is the most important part of the Christmas season.
Among the most common Christmas traditions are small sets of figures depicting Joseph, Mary and Jesus that are displayed in individual homes, and live reenactments of the manger scene in communities and churches. While Nativity sets focus on the holy family, they can also include an angel, the three wise men bringing gifts, shepherds or some barnyard animals.
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Democratic Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson held a press conference Monday to announce three new measures for the upcoming 2023 legislative session that aims to curb gun violence in the state.
The measures would ban assault style weapons, hold manufacturers and retailers accountable for gun sales and implement a permit-to-purchase requirement for all gun buyers, according to a press conference. Inslee cited an increase in gun violence as the reason for the new legislation, and believes the laws, along with mental health assistance, will curb gun violence in Washington.
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The Maricopa County Superior Court reaffirmed Democrat Gov.-Elect Katie Hobbs’s gubernatorial election win in a Saturday ruling in Republican Kari Lake’s election lawsuit.
The ruling said that “the court DOES NOT find clear and convincing evidence” that “misconduct” altered the election results.
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A new country music label is recruiting and promoting anti-woke artists, launched by the young founder of The Post-Millennial. Matthew Azrieli, who is also a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, started Baste Records to promote talented country singers who are struggling to survive in the mainstream music business due to their right-leaning political and cultural views. He’s brought on talent like Chris Wallin, also a singer and songwriter who has written music for some of the biggest country stars, including Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney, Garth Brooks, and Trace Adkins.
Azrieli told The Arizona Sun Times that he started Baste Records because music is a passion. He wanted to “provide a healthy outlet for conservatives, instead of just complaining.” Baste Records intends to appeal to a certain niche, the center right, instead of attempting to have a broad appeal that risks alienating factions. He pointed out Netflix is an example of an entertainment company that is engaging in the latter, angering both conservatives and the transgender community, causing it to lose market share. He said, “Cultural and political identities are driving entertainment media.”
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A record number of illegal foreign nationals were apprehended or recorded evading capture by Border Patrol agents in fiscal year 2022, surpassing 3 million, according to data obtained by The Center Square.
In October, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 2.7 million encounters and apprehensions of foreign nationals illegally entering the U.S., which included data from Border Patrol and Office of Field Operations and excluded known and reported gotaways.
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President Joe Biden signed Congress’ annual defense bill for 2023 into law Friday, giving his approval to a bill that overturns his own administration’s mandate that servicemembers must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2023 authorizes $858 billion in spending on energy programs, the military and procurement, $45 billion more than the Biden administration’s initial request. Biden expressed concerns over several provisions of the act in a statement Friday but made no mention of a GOP-sponsored item overturning the Department of Defense’s service-wide vaccine mandate, despite the administration’s robust opposition to the provision.
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Newly released federal inflation data shows that inflation rose slightly in November.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis released its Personal Consumption Expenditure Index Friday, a key inflation marker, which showed a 0.1% increase in November, contributing to a 5.5% increase from the same time last year.
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Outspoken former papal ambassador to the United States Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò condemned the Holy See’s decision to laicize pro-life priest Father Frank Pavone, calling the action “unjust and illegitimate punishment,” and observed hypocrisy in the move while “the Roman Curia is infested with unpresentable characters who are notoriously corrupt and heretical sodomites and fornicators.”
“[A] person’s actions are consistent with who that person is, ”Viganò wrote at LifeSiteNews Thursday, and asserted that principle has been confirmed “in the canonical sanctions recently imposed by the Holy See on Father Frank A. Pavone, a well-known and appreciated pro-life priest, who for decades has been committed to the battle against the horrible crime of abortion.”
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Georgia education officials say they plan to address lost learning opportunities stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
But a leading Georgia nonprofit says state lawmakers should pass legislation to give parents more educational choices, saying the pandemic proved the “one-size-fits-all” model no longer works.
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The GOP’s omnibus betrayal is complete.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and 17 other Republicans joined Democrats as the Senate passed a $1.85 trillion monstrosity of a spending bill Thursday that does a whole lot more than just waste money. The vote was 68-29.
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There’s been a flurry of commentary in Catholic circles since Pope Francis decided to defrock pro-life advocate and priest Frank Pavone. One suggestion I’ve seen from many Catholic writers is that Francis is punishing Pavone because he believes clergymen should not be involved in politics. It’s a laughable argument. Francis is very frequently involved in politics and regularly encourages (leftist) priests in their activism.
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Fox News’ Bret Baier, who, like Bill O’Reilly before him, has used his perch as a television personality to become a writer of history books (and, like O’Reilly, co-writes these history books with a “collaborator,” formerly known as a ghostwriter), writes on the Fox News website about the “parallels” between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the late U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Baier notes the parallels — both addressed a joint session of Congress during Christmastime even as their nation’s capitals were being bombed; both showed courage in leading their people against an aggressor nation; both were named Time’s Man of the Year; and both took defiant stands against more powerful enemies that were besieging their countries. But these parallels are all superficial. The stakes are far different. Churchill saved Western civilization. Zelenskyy is attempting to save Ukraine’s independence.
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On Thursday, Joe Biden’s Christmas address to the nation did not once mention Jesus Christ, the namesake of the holiday and the main reason a majority of Americans celebrate the Christmas season.
Breitbart reports that, while Biden made half-hearted references to the Birth of Jesus, he did not mention Jesus by name, and also described it as “the birth of a child, a child that Christians believe to be the Son of God.”
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White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha acknowledged last week what many doctors and scientists have been saying since the start of the COVID pandemic: that “no study … shows that masks work that well” to stop the spread of virus infection.
Jha appeared last week, along with Philadelphia Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole on “The Future of COVID and Public Health,” sponsored by the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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Authorities have arrested a pro-life woman for silently praying outside an abortion clinic in the United Kingdom.
News of Isabel Vaughan Spruce’s arrest comes amid anxieties over the Justice Department’s crackdown on pro-life activists in the United States, such as Mark Houck, a pro-life father arrested for allegedly pushing an abortion clinic volunteer who was reportedly bothering his son as they prayed outside an abortion clinic.
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The Senate on Thursday passed a massive $1.7 billion omnibus spending bill, sending the bill to the House for a hasty vote before midnight Friday to avert a partial government shutdown.
The bill includes at least $44 billion in additional money to help Ukraine thwart Russia’s invasion and was thrown into peril overnight by a GOP effort to force a vote on an amendment to the measure to extend a Trump-era effort to limit illegal immigration amid the pandemic by using a decades-old legal authority known as Title 42.
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The number of illegal immigrant crossings is surging at the southern border as the fate of a major Trump-era immigration order known as Title 42 remains uncertain.
A federal judge recently ruled that the Biden administration must end the policy, which former President Donald Trump invoked in 2020 to expel certain illegal immigrants to prevent the spread of COVID-19, on Dec. 21 before Republican states asked the Supreme Court to intervene, which resulted with a temporary pause on the order. Areas like El Paso, Texas and Yuma, Arizona, have seen surges that have overwhelmed local resources surrounding the previous Dec. 21 deadline even as some illegal immigrants continue to face expulsion.
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The state of Georgia has signed on to a $3.1 billion national agreement with Walmart amid allegations that the retailer didn’t properly monitor opioids dispensing at its pharmacies; Georgia is expected to get $28 million in the deal, according to an announcement from Attorney General Chris Carr.
“The opioid epidemic has destroyed lives, families, and communities all across our state and nation,” Carr said in the release.
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The court battle challenging the validity of the certified outcome of Arizona’s 2022 gubernatorial election entered its second day Thursday under Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson, with attorneys for Republican Kari Lake, Democrat Katie Hobbs, and Maricopa County presenting their final arguments in the trial. Lake seeks to…
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In a famous exchange in the The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway wrote: “How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually, then suddenly.”
“Gradually” and “suddenly” applies to higher education’s implosion.
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The celebration of Christmas has become a mess.
For decades, the Grinches among us have launched their attacks on religious holidays. In our schools, for instance, Christmas pageants, singing carols, and any reference to “Christmas break” have long become verboten—we are told, to keep state and religion separate.
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Americans may want to light the fireplace more often this winter and cut back on the holiday festivities, according to new data from the Energy Information Administration and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Energy costs have remained consistently high for over a year, having risen over 13% since November 2021. So, American families can expect to pay significantly more for their heating oil as the colder months approach. As of the week of Dec. 12, the average cost for residential heating oil hit $4.56 per gallon, which is about 95% higher than it was the week of Dec. 14, 2020, shortly before President Joe Biden took office.
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Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday announced that he had negotiated a coalition framework with supportive parties to allow him to return to power.
Israel’s longest serving prime minister will soon lead a coalition of six parties on a right-wing platform, the New York Times reported. Many establishment media outlets, including the Times, have bemoaned his return to power and warned that his victory could signal a drift away from democracy for the Jewish nation.
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