At Black Men's Legacy Summit
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON
Author
Dr. Michael Eric Dyson is the keynote speaker for the upcoming Build Wealth MN and 9000 Equities Fourth Annual Black Men’s Legacy Summit on Saturday, October 25, from 10 AM–3 PM at 1256 Penn Ave (5th Floor).
Dr. Dyson’s rise from humble roots in Detroit to his present perch as a world class intellectual, noted author of 21 books, prominent leader and national media fixture testify to his extraordinary talent. Dyson has also taught at other elite universities like Georgetown University as a sociology professor, Brown University, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Columbia University and The University of Pennsylvania.
Dyson has won many prestigious honors, including an American Book Award and two NAACP Image Awards. Ebony magazine cited him as one of the 100 most influential African Americans, and as one of the 150 most powerful Blacks in the nation.
This year’s theme, Ensuring the Legacy for Your Family, will be explored through his presentation and through additional expert panels and inspiring speakers. Topics include: What it means to have a legacy Black men’s role in creating legacies for family and community Homeownership as a foundation for legacy Protecting and insuring your legacy Planning for the future
The Summit offers not only education and reflection, but also action—each participant will leave with a completed preliminary will, taking a tangible step toward securing their family’s legacy.
Dr. Dyson is the Centennial Chair at Vanderbilt University and serves as University Distinguished Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies in the College of Arts
and Science and University
Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Society in the Divinity School.
He is also a New York Times contributing opinion writer, and a contributing editor of The New Republic, and of ESPN's The Undefeated website.
Dyson's influence has spread far beyond the academy in his roles of renowned orator, highly sought-after lecturer, and ordained Baptist minister. For the last quarter of a century, Dyson has also enlivened public debate across the media landscape on every major television and radio show in the country, from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to Real Time with Bill Maher, from Good Morning America to The Today Show, from NPR's All Things Considered to its Talk of the Nation, from the Tavis Smiley Show to Def Poetry Jam, from This Week with George Stephanopoulos to Meet the Press, and Face the Nation --
and several programs on ESPN. Dyson’s pioneering scholarship has had a profound effect on American ideas. His 1994 book Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X, was named one of the most important African American books of the 20th century and was also named a "Notable Book of the year" by the New York Times. According to book industry bible Publisher’s Weekly, Dyson’s 2001 book, Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur, helped to make books on hip hop commercially viable. Dyson’s recent book, Entertaining Race: Performing Blackness in America, is a testament to Dyson’s consistent celebration of the outsized impact of African American culture and politics on this country. His other book, JAY-Z: Made in America, was named one of Washington Post’s 50 notable works of nonfiction in 2019.
Dyson shares the impact Jay-Z has on America with his rap-
ping and how he used his poetic talent to weave politics in his music, making important statements on race and social injustice. Dyson's eloquent writing has inspired Vanity Fair magazine to describe him as "one of the most graceful and lucid intellectuals writing on race and politics today."
Dyson’s 2005 New York Times bestseller Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind? helped to jump start a national conversation on the Black poor. Dyson’s book, the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America, has been described by The New York Times as "an interpretive miracle." It was a finalist for the prestigious 2016 Kirkus Prize. Dyson's book, the widely praised New York Times bestseller Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America, has been described by the New York Times as "One
of the most frank and searing discussions on race ... a deeply serious, urgent book, which should take its place in the tradition of Baldwin's The Fire Next Time and King's Why We Can't Wait.
Dyson’s other book, What Truth Sounds Like: RFK, James Baldwin and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America, has been called by Kirkus “an incisive look at the roles of politicians, artists, intellectuals, and activists in confronting racial injustice and effecting change,” and an “eloquent response to an urgent –and still-unresolved – dilemma.”
Dyson's legendary ascent – from welfare father to Princeton Ph.D., from church pastor to college professor, from a factory worker who didn’t start college until he was 21 -- may help explain why writer Naomi Wolf terms him “the ideal public intellectual of our time."
Ward 5 candidates debate safety, housing, and leadership ahead of November vote
Minneapolis’s Ward 5 race is shaping up to be one of the most consequential contests in the city’s 2025 municipal elections. With longtime City Council Member Jeremiah Ellison not seeking re-election, six new candidates: Ethrophic Burnett, Pearll Warren, Maurice L. Ward, Miles Wilson, Anndrea Young, and Jovan Northington, have stepped into the spotlight, each offering distinct visions for safety, housing, and leadership in one of the city’s most underserved, yet resilient, communities.
At a recent public forum hosted at Lorraine B. Small Park by the League of Women Voters Minneapolis, voters heard firsthand from the candidates in a forum moderated by Vicky Olesen. With topics ranging from crime prevention and housing to mental health and city leadership, the tone was both urgent and introspective. The event opened with a moment of silence for lives lost to gun violence, setting a solemn tone and underlining the gravity
of the issues at stake. While each candidate acknowledged the weight of the ward’s challenges, particularly around gun violence, housing instability, and economic disinvestment and their strategies and lived experiences offered diverging paths forward. Leadership & Accountability at the Forefront: Pearll Warren, a longtime housing advocate and businesswoman, emphasized the need for consistent, visible leadership. “We can’t keep being reactive,” she said. “Our ward deserves someone who is visible, who answers the phone, and who doesn’t vanish when the headlines fade.” Warren, who has earned endorsements from the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters and Minneapolis Firefighters Local 82, has anchored her platform around wraparound services, arguing that “putting someone in a unit isn’t enough; you have to address the trauma, addiction, and unemployment that come with chronic housing
instability.”
Ethrophic Burnett, drawing on her experience in the City Auditor’s office and community violence prevention, agreed, arguing that constituent services should not be an afterthought. “The community needs someone who is there, day in and day out. That’s half the job, and it’s been neglected.”
Maurice L. Ward, an education advocate and policy organizer, centered his platform on participatory governance.
“You cannot lead people you don’t know or respect,” he said. “We need an office that meets people where they are, listens before legislating, and builds policy with, not for, our community.” Ward pledged to hold regular town halls and increase accessibility to council proceedings.
Public Safety: Diverging Visions for a Shared Crisis: On the question of safety, candidates agreed on the urgency but split on the solutions.
Miles Wilson, a policy advisor with a background in public safety reform, proposed a “safe surrender” initiative to create legal alternatives for individuals caught in cycles of crime and incarceration. He called for greater accountability across the firearms supply chain, noting that many weapons enter communities through legal loopholes and ghost gun channels. “We need to stop being afraid to confront the full picture,” he said.
Anndrea Young, a nonprofit executive and longtime community organizer, took a healing-centered approach, linking public safety to systemic investment. “Safety isn’t just about what happens after the sirens,” Young said. “It’s about jobs. It’s about youth programs. It’s about whether people feel seen and invested in.”
Jovan Northington, a youth advocate with a focus on restorative justice, emphasized
CANDIDATES 6
Walz’s urgency to act on gun violence runs into political reality in divided Legislature
By Matthew Blake MinnPost
If anyone wants Gov. Tim Walz to call a special legislative session to take on gun violence, you’d think it would be Ron Latz.
The St. Louis Park DFLer chairs the Minnesota Senate’s Judiciary and Public Safety Committee and has written perhaps the state’s most ambitious gun control legislation ever, a 2023 law that lets courts take away guns from people judged to be a threat to themselves or others.
Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn/AP
sentences for gun recidivists and “for straw purchasers who enable a violent crime,” but not restrictions on who can legally buy a gun, or what gun they can purchase.
The game: what Black city gets the national guard
By April Ryan Black Press
“I refuse to pretend that any of this is normal,” said Governor JB Pritzker (D-II) over the weekend, referring to President Trump’s threat to send National Guard Troops to Chicago under what Pritzker called the “fake guise of fighting crime.”
Large-scale protests with scores of demonstrators took to the streets in cities like Washington, D.C., and Chicago over the weekend in efforts to push back on Trump’s plans for National Guard troops in those cities. President Trump is playing in an almost game-
House DFLers pick Rep. Zack Stephenson as next caucus leader
House DFLers last week chose Rep. Zack Stephenson (DFLCoon Rapids) to serve as leader of their caucus. He takes the leadership position that opened when Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) and her husband Mark were assassinated June 14. In his fourth term, Stephenson currently co-chairs the House Ways and Means Committee and serves on the commerce and taxes committees.
House Speaker Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring) released the following statement: "Leader Stephenson has a difficult job ahead, stepping into the shoes of Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman. I hope that we can build a strong working relationship based on respect and our shared priority of making life better for Minnesotans.
I look forward to continuing our important bipartisan work as 'Team House', begun by Melissa and I last session."
Republicans current-
ly hold a 67-66 advantage in the House; however, a special election for Hortman's seat is scheduled Sept. 16.
“Welcome to DFL House Leader Zack Stephenson," Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy (DFL-St. Paul) said in a statement. "I look forward to working with Leader Stephenson to build the next chapter of progress in Minnesota. My friend Melissa Hortman taught me a lot about how to lead a caucus. As she once said to me: ‘You’re not new. Sit down and let’s get to work.'"
But while Walz is preaching urgency, Latz is practicing patience. In the wake of the fatal shooting at Annunciation Catholic school and church last week and the assassination of Melissa Hortman in June, Latz wants to form a “working group” on gun violence prevention efforts. “I want to make a serious effort here to reduce violence,” Latz said. “In order to do that, we need to take a little bit of time to talk to people.”
Obviously, Latz and most (but not all) DFL lawmakers would speed back to the Capitol if they had the votes to ban assault rifles or other gun control measures on their wish list.
But they don’t have the votes. For now, Republicans hold a majority in the House. On Thursday, House Republicans released a “school safety agenda” that called for mandatory minimum prison
Related: To combat gun violence, Minnesota law enforcement turns to ‘red flag’ law This puts DFLers in a spot. Either quietly walk back the special session idea and hope no one speaks of it again, or hold a special session in which none of their legislative priorities is passed. “I’m not sure if the governor will or should call a special session,” said Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, and sponsor of a raft of gun control proposals. Marty, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said simply holding hearings on gun control bills, and not taking
By Lisa Kaczke
More than three-quarters of respondents to the 2025 House of Representatives’ State Fair Poll support banning guns in the State Capitol.
Security at the State Capitol is under review after Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) and her husband, Mark, were killed in their home and Sen. John Hoffman (DFL-Champlin) and his wife, Yvette, were shot in their home June 14.
People with a permit can now carry a gun inside the building, but 78.9% of polltakers support banning guns in the
Capitol while 17.2% oppose it and 4% are undecided. MN House of Representatives' 2025 State Fair opinion poll results The annual poll was conducted by the nonpartisan House Public Information Services Office and is an informal, unscientific survey of issues discussed in prior legislative sessions and that may again be topics of discussion in 2026. The 12-question poll was taken by 9,945 fairgoers this year, an increase from 2024 when 7,965 people took part. The poll found 66.1%
Candidates running to represent Minneapolis Ward 5 in the 2025 municipal elections.
Top row (left to right): Tinitha “Pearll” Warren, focusing on housing and visible leadership; Miles Wilson, advocating for public safety reform; Maurice L. Ward, focusing on community empowerment. Bottom row (left to right): Ethrophic Burnett, centering accessible leadership and rooted community engagement; Jovan Northington, prioritizing education, equity, and investment in local youth; Anndrea Young, promoting healing, opportunity, and economic dignity.
Credit: Black Press USA Man, dressed in USA army uniform, posing in front of an American flag
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks outside the Annunciation Catholic School following a shooting Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Minneapolis.
Credit: House Photography file photo Rep. Zack Stephenson (DFLCoon Rapids) speaks on the House Floor in 2024.
Commentary
When war becomes a meme: the normalization of authoritarian rhetoric
Columnist
By Haley Taylor Schlitz, Esq.
There was a time when the threat of a president declaring war on an American city would have been unthinkable. Today, it arrives as a meme. Over the weekend, President Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself in military uniform, helicopters circling a burning Chicago skyline, stamped with the phrase “Chipocalypse Now.” Beneath it, he borrowed from the movie Apocalypse Now to write, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning… Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”
Most of my generation had to search online to even understand the reference.
Apocalypse Now was released in 1979, two decades before most of us were born. For us, the phrase “Chipocalypse Now” doesn’t carry the echoes of Vietnam, Hollywood, or the Cold War. What we see is an image of Chicago in flames, another city under threat, another community being mocked with the promise of state violence. We inherit the violence of the metaphor without the context of the history. And that is precisely the danger. When authoritarian rhetoric is dressed up in pop culture and meme formats, it becomes easier to dismiss. It looks like entertainment, not escalation. It numbs us to the reality of what is being said: the President of the United States is threatening to unleash war on an American city. What once would have been unthinkable is now background noise, content to scroll past between posts about sports highlights and family photos. But communities like
mine don’t have the luxury of dismissing it. For Black Americans, threats of militarization are not abstractions. We have lived the reality of police in armored vehicles on our streets, of surveillance in our neighborhoods, of policies that treat our communities as battlegrounds instead of homes. For immigrant families, the phrase “I love the smell of deportations in the morning” is not satire. It is a reminder of the fear that a knock on the door might tear a family apart.
This moment also reveals the hypocrisy of how Trump wages his cultural battles. He has declared a generational war on TikTok, claiming it is dangerous for young people and for America itself. Yet he freely embraces social media when it suits his agenda, weaponizing platforms to manipulate, spread fear, and stoke division. He rails against the influence of digital spaces while using those same spaces to cir-
culate AI-generated propaganda of himself dressed as a general, turning civic threats into shareable content. He knows the reach and power of these platforms, and he exploits them while pretending to protect us from them.
That hypocrisy is not accidental. It is part of a larger cultural war being waged on diversity, on inclusion, and on truth itself. Social media is not just a space where Trump spreads his threats, it is where he rewrites the rules of what is acceptable. He knows that when he mocks Chicago, he is mocking a city that represents resilience, diversity, and community. He knows that by dressing his threats in irony and movie references, he can hide cruelty behind humor. And he knows that when platforms amplify these messages, they create a digital echo chamber that hardens divisions and fuels a war against communities already
fighting for recognition and dignity.
This is how democracy is worn down, not in sudden collapse, but in the slow normalization of the unacceptable. Each time we laugh, scroll, or shrug, the ground shifts beneath us. The president’s words become more extreme, the imagery more violent, and the line between civic life and military threat grows thinner. Renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War may seem like semantics, but it signals a dangerous rewriting of the covenant between government and people. A democracy cannot survive when its leader openly toys with turning the machinery of war inward. For my generation, this moment carries a heavy lesson. We may not know the films our leaders reference, but we know the costs of the realities they are willing to unleash. We know school lockdown drills.
We know neighbors living in fear of deportation. We know the trauma of systemic violence that has been passed down through families who never found justice. And we know that if we allow this kind of rhetoric to become “normal,” we are surrendering our future.
Governor J.B. Pritzker was right to say, “This is not a joke. This is not normal.” But saying it is not enough. Normal is defined by what we tolerate, and each generation has the responsibility to decide how far we are willing to let that definition stretch. For Black America, for immigrant America, for Gen Z and those coming after us, the question is not whether this rhetoric shocks us. The question is whether we will allow ourselves to become too numb to care.
Because democracy only survives if we refuse to look away.
‘We are not losers yet’; Cosby talks prison life, NBC, and media erasure
By Stacy M. Brown
Bill Cosby said his widely criticized admonition that young Black men should “pull their pants up” was less about fashion and more about a system that profits from negative images of African Americans.
“But what was it they used to say? They not only did that, but what got a lot of attention was the shoes, the untied laces, and then the pants down around the crack. And if this is the attention, then it’s something put towards you like they would put drugs into the neighborhood. They would lace the marijuana. They are putting us under siege,” Cosby said during a candid interview on Black Press USA’s “Let It Be Known.”
He tied those images directly to incarceration. “No prisoners had or were allowed to have their pants around the crack. No prisoners were allowed at Phoenix to go around with untied shoelaces,” he said. “So, I just felt this was a move by people
who didn’t want to be tied up to have a picture. They would rather have a picture of a youth doing nothing, not studying, and having his pants lowered.”
The remarks came in Cosby’s first wide-ranging interview about his prison experience, the long-standing NBC rumor, the media’s portrayal of his life, and the erasure of Black history.
Refusing to Sign Away Innocence
Cosby, famously known as “America’s Dad,” served nearly three years at Pennsylvania’s SCI Phoenix following a 2018 conviction on an aggravated indecent assault charge. In June 2021, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that his trial and conviction were illegal, ordered his release, and barred any retrial. He said prosecutors offered him a way out — if he admitted guilt. “My lawyer came to me and said, the district attorney is offering you to sign a paper saying you did it, and that you would be, you wouldn’t have to do prison time,” Cosby stated. “And I told my lawyer to continue with the trial, don’t stop the trial. I wasn’t signing any papers
or anything.” Even in prison, Cosby said, the same deal was dangled before him. “Sign the paper and go to these classes, and then we will let you go,” he said. “Well, my signature would be in a sealed envelope, and nobody could open it. So anyway, it was all set up from way in the beginning.”
Life at Phoenix
Cosby recalled his first hours inside. “When I entered Phoenix for the first time, I could not see,” he said. “And there were regulations such as taking off your clothes and switching to other things, and then the search for some things that you might have.” He said he was kept alone at first. “I was
by myself except for a guard or two around the area,” he said. Later, he was moved onto a unit with “convicts who really and truly had done some things like murder, rape, and et cetera, et cetera.” He described the food as barely edible. “It was just that the food was so salty, and it was just that the food appeared from, if you fixed it or it could be written how it’s fixed, it wouldn’t be healthy for human consumption,” he said. Inside, Cosby also became a speaker at peer programs like “Mann Up” and “Men of Valor.” Because the men talked so much about their faith and reverence of Jesus Christ, Cosby said, “As you leave this prison, whatever you
go out and become… make Jesus smile.”
The Release Cosby described being asleep in his cell when word came. “A resident… said, Mr. Cosby, Mr. Cosby, you have to wake up. You can go home. You can go home,” he said. A white female officer with the rank of major came to push his wheelchair out. “I said, This is not like driving Miss Daisy. And she said, Who’s Miss Daisy?” CosbyQ recalled. He said as he was wheeled down the corridor, he heard applause from two levels of cells. “It was enough to have all of these fellows clapping,” he said.
The NBC Rumor Cosby addressed the decades-old claim that his downfall stemmed from an attempt to buy NBC. “I have no evidence to that effect, and nothing comes up to it,” he said. He recounted a Wall Street meeting with financiers that ended in rejection. “The reason for rejecting us for the loan was that they, the people loaning the money, didn’t know anything about television,” he said. Still, he said, the rumor consumed media attention. “Media was the most egregious because I have never been hassled so much in are you going to buy NBC?” Cosby said. He pointed to an article suggesting he would “hire his friends” if successful.
“That gave me an idea of how these people were protecting things from, and I think it was a wink that this fellow was writing about… well, he’s going to bring all his Black friends,” he said.
Wealth, Family, and Health
Cosby recalled a conversation with his daughter Erin when she was nine. “She said, Dad, are we wealthy? I said, no, we are rich, but we’re not wealthy,” he said. “Wealthy people can afford maintenance. Rich people can afford to buy things, but there’s still a bill, and when can you pay if you’re rich?”
He credited his wife, Camille, for preserving his life and health. “She has continuously said it’s what you put in your mouth, and if you eat clean, then your brain will be clean, and your body, and your blood,” Cosby stated. “She makes sure that we eat like that, and that’s why, at age 88, I’m cancer-free, and I don’t have any ailments of forgetting things.” When Cosby would call his wife from prison, she remained very protective of her husband of more than 60 years. Camille Cosby understood that every phone call at SCI-Phoenix was recorded, and she refused to allow officials to see any vulnerability.
“Whenever I called her, I just badly wanted to tell her how I felt,” Cosby recounted. “And, she would say, ‘just be quiet.’ She didn’t want me to say anything.” The Fight Over Black History Cosby warned against efforts to remove Black history from classrooms and museums.
“If you remove those things, you remove the spirit of our achievements,” Cosby said.
Media Erasure and “The Cosby Show” Cosby said there was a deliberate effort to erase his achievements. “I heard from a source that a person went on TV and said, let nothing good be said about Bill Cosby,” he said. “From that point on, every source that I know of in the media only printed negative things.” He defended the cultural impact of “The Cosby Show.” “Media didn’t like the fact that the Huxtables were that,” he said. “They said they were rich, which they’re not. That’s middle income. He’s a doctor, she’s a lawyer. And they don’t have a maid or a butler or anything like that.” He recalled a moment when executives considered removing a small set detail. “It just said, abolish Apartheid,” he said of the sign on Theo’s door. “And somebody said to me, well, they want to take that sign down. I said, if you do, you can take the show with it.”
“It’s not going to be Wilma Rudolph winning any races there, but Wilma Rudolph, who was born obviously, it was polio that attacked her, and she still was an Olympic champion.” He continued, “The spirit of success and the continuation of being told that you are dumb, to be told that you cannot compete on any level with people, with white people. What story are they going to tell? I think they never wanted to pay the slaves, and they never forgave us for that.” He also cited Ralph Bunche and the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. among stories that cannot be erased.
A Message to the Black Community Cosby closed the interview with a
Wikimedia Commons / Photo by The World Affairs Council of Philadelphia Bill Cosby at the
The violence Trump claims to fear occurs mostly in red states
By Stacy M. Brown Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
Donald Trump continues to attack cities and jurisdictions heavily populated by minorities, often painting them as crime-ridden and unsafe despite evidence showing overall declines in many categories of crime. Nowhere is this tension clearer than in Washington, D.C., where residents face relentless scrutiny from Trump while Red States — many with far less diversity — quietly struggle with some of the highest murder rates in the nation.
The District of Columbia recorded the nation’s highest murder rate in 2023 at 39 per 100,000 residents, with 265 murders. Despite local efforts to address violence, Trump
routinely depicts the city as unlivable. To many residents, the greater tragedy is not just the crime itself but the reality that the capital of the United States now looks like an occupied third-world country, with Na-
tional Guard and federal troops visibly stationed throughout the city. Washingtonians, who have already been denied full congressional representation, have become political pawns in Trump’s rhetoric. What Trump avoids mentioning is that sev-
eral Republican-led states top the list of the deadliest places. Louisiana had a murder rate of 14.5 per 100,000, recording 663 killings in 2023. New Mexico, Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas — all governed by Republicans in recent years — also
posted murder rates higher than 9 per 100,000 residents. In Missouri, another GOP stronghold, the murder rate stood at 9.1 per 100,000 with 564 murders, disproportionately concentrated in cities like St. Louis and Kansas City. South Carolina, Alaska, and Georgia each ranked high, while Mississippi, often touted by conservatives as a bastion of “traditional values,” has at times led the nation in murder rates. Meanwhile, states with larger minority populations that Trump targets — including Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Maryland — often have lower murder rates than many of these Red States. Illinois, home to Chicago, recorded a rate of 6.56 per 100,000, below Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas. Critics argue this is
no accident. Trump’s fixation on minority-heavy jurisdictions is part of a long-standing strategy of scapegoating urban areas with large Black and Latino populations, while sidestepping the systemic problems facing states where his support is strongest. “Murders were far more common in [Mississippi] than they were nationwide,” the World Population Review reported, with Louisiana, Alabama, Missouri, and Arkansas following close behind. The report’s numbers show that while Trump fixates on minority-heavy cities, the deadliest conditions are playing out in Red States that rarely draw his attention. “Murders are disproportionately concentrated in urban areas, especially in New Orleans and Baton Rouge,” the researchers concluded.
MAGA billboard in Montgomery sparks outrage with racist imagery
A billboard in Montgomery, Alabama, has ignited a storm of backlash after displaying the words “It’s Time to Get the Clowns Out!” alongside images of people in racist blackface, all framed in the branding of Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
The display, funded through the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts and created by the artist-led group For Freedoms, was intended to spark dialogue ahead of an exhibit marking the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. Instead, it set off anger and pain in a city where civil rights history is not a distant memory but a lived experience. Critics say the pairing of MAGA messaging with
blackface is more than provocative — it is racist and dangerous. “Timing and context mean everything,” wrote one Montgomery resident in response. Others argued that no amount of artistic intent could justify
splashing racist caricatures on a public billboard in a majority-Black city.
Montgomery Mayor
Steven L. Reed ordered the billboard removed almost immediately after it went up, calling
it a politicized distortion of a sacred history. “We must be extremely mindful of how we use such images of our shared history, especially when they risk being perceived as politically charged,” Reed stated. “Our his-
tory deserves to be treated with the utmost respect and care, ensuring it unifies rather than divides us as a community.” The decision to take down the billboard exposed a deeper conflict between the city and the museum’s leadership. According to members of the museum’s board, the billboard had been erected without their approval, adding to what they describe as a two-year struggle with City Hall over control of the museum’s operations.
The controversy has drawn sharp responses from civil rights and arts advocates. The Southern Poverty Law Center praised the mayor’s decision, saying, “We can never afford to empower or embolden bad actors to cause harm and trample the rights and freedoms of marginalized groups.” But the National Coalition Against Censorship condemned the move as government overreach, writing
in a letter to Reed, “Though you may not agree with the politics or the vision of the artists behind the billboard, your position…does not give you the right to enforce your personal political perspective on the museum’s programming.” For many in Montgomery, the billboard has reopened wounds tied to the ongoing use of MAGA rhetoric. The slogan, tied to Donald Trump’s presidency, has long raised questions: Which America is being called “great,” and when exactly was it great?
“This is a country built on slavery, and the legacy of slavery,” one resident stated. “What has been great are the people who fought for freedom. That is what makes America great.” The billboard may be gone, but the questions it raised — about race, history, and who gets to decide how America’s past is remembered — remain on full display.
How Trump’s dismissal of a Fed governor could redefine presidential power – if courts agree that he alone can interpret vague laws
By Claire B. Wofford Associate Professor of Political Science, College of Charleston
President Donald Trump’s penchant to act first, ask later was on full display recently when he became the first president in American history to fire a member of the Federal Reserve Board.
Trump’s axing of federal employees is nothing new – thousands have been terminated, including the heads of agencies that, like the Federal Reserve, are designed to be insulated from presidential control.
But in removing Lisa Cook, Trump has entered into a morass of legal questions and challenged long-standing beliefs about the power of the president to control the U.S. economy.
Trump’s action, if upheld by courts, would upend the Fed’s century-long practice of formulating the nation’s monetary policy free from political pressure. It also could affect the budget of every American household, with the cost of goods and services influenced by political ideology more than financial expertise.
As a scholar of the American courts, I believe that, depending upon how courts resolve the case, it could also mark a significant shift in the ability of the judicial branch to check executive power.
This agency is different
The dispute with Cook reached the public on Aug. 20, 2025, when Trump-appointed director of the Federal Finance Housing Agency Bill Pulte announced on social media that he had made a criminal referral to the Department of Justice about potential mortgage fraud by Cook. The DOJ subsequently opened an official
investigation.
After Pulte’s announcement, Trump posted, “Cook must resign, now!!!” She refused and was officially fired by Trump five days later.
Cook then filed suit in federal court on Aug. 28, asking U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb to issue an emergency order blocking her removal. Cobb did just that on Sept. 9, 2025.
Cobb’s order, however, will likely be appealed by Trump. In the meantime, Cook will stay on the job and participate in decisions made by the Fed, which is set to meet again on Sept. 16.
Among the multitude of cases about Trump’s ability to fire employees of federal agencies, this one is different –because the agency is different.
Created by Congress in 1913 after a series of banking panics, the Federal Reserve is charged with managing the nation’s economy. It acts as the national bank, monitors the health of other financial institutions, and, most critically, develops monetary policy, which includes setting interest rates, the primary tool with which it manages inflation and ensures long-term economic growth and stability.
Precisely because of the Fed’s power, presidents have often tried to influence it. Sharp criticism of its members is nothing new. Trump has an ongoing and very public fight with the chair of the Fed board, Jerome Powell, about interest rates.
But a president actually firing a board member is something else entirely.
Supreme Court warning
The Fed is just one of dozens of what are termed “independent agencies.” These are part of the executive branch but designed by Congress to operate insulated from the president’s preferences and pressure. Over time, precisely because it is so
powerful, the Fed’s ability to act free from the president has become particularly sacrosanct.
The primary mechanisms through which Congress ensures agency independence are “removal provisions,” statutory directives that define when and why the president can fire agency leadership. The Federal Reserve Act, the law that creates the Fed and sets out its structure and mission, provides that members of the board, called “Governors,” serve 14-year terms, “unless sooner removed for cause by the President.”
“For cause” may sound familiar because its appearance in a different law also recently triggered litigation. That happened when Trump removed the heads of two other independent agencies, Gwynne Wilcox of the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris of the Merit Systems Protection Board. The Supreme Court decided in April that the restriction on the president’s ability to fire those two independent agency heads violated Article 2 of the Constitution.
In that same opinion, however, the court took pains to specify that its ruling did
not apply to the Federal Reserve Board. Calling the Fed a “uniquely structured, quasi-private agency” with a “distinct historical tradition,” the majority signaled to Trump that booting members off the Federal Reserve Board was a no-go. When he fired Cook, Trump flouted this directive. A legal battle was inevitable. What’s behind the case
The case is complex and involves questions about whether Cook’s termination violates a congressional statute and the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution. Notably, the parties are not arguing about the constitutionality of the removal provision itself, as they were in the Wilcox case. Instead, the dispute centers primarily around the meaning of “for cause” –that is, what reasons can legally justify firing a board governor. Unlike other statutes, which use additional terms such as “inefficiency, neglect or malfeasance of duty while in office,” the Federal Reserve Act provides no further guidance.
Trump argues that the – alleged – mortgage fraud
is sufficient “cause” to remove Cook, particularly from an agency charged with managing the nation’s finances. Cook claims that mere allegations about private conduct before she was appointed to the board cannot justify her termination, particularly when those allegations appear to be a pretext for a political disagreement.
But lurking in the background of this seemingly picayune fight over a single word in a 111-year-old statute are fundamental questions about separation of powers, checks and balances, and which branch of government determines the law.
‘Say what the law is’
Trump’s fuller argument is actually quite bold.
As he is doing in other lawsuits, the president is asserting that he – and he alone – gets to determine the meaning of “cause.” The term, his lawyers write, is “capacious” and its meaning is entirely vested by Congress in the president. No court can second-guess his judgment.
The claim is striking and seems to fly in the face of the country’s system of checks and balances. In addition, if the branch of government charged with carrying out the law – the executive branch – also gets to define it, separation of powers also appears to be left by the wayside.
Cook counters that judicial review of termination decisions is critical.
If courts abandon their responsibility here, she argues, they will obliterate the independence of the Federal Reserve and subject the national economy to the short-term whims of a president rather than the long-term vision of economic experts.
In her order blocking Trump’s removal of Cook, Judge Cobb declared that the court has a “responsibility to review” the president’s firing of
Cook, rejecting Trump’s claim that the decision was immune from judicial oversight. And given the clear and continued acquiescence of Congress to this president’s broad assertions of power, they would also remove what, at least until the next presidential election, may be the last remaining check on executive power. The case will likely reach the Supreme Court this fall, and the outcome is hard to predict. Trump has benefited from a string of victories there issued by a conservative majority that believes strongly in executive power and judicial deference to the president. At the same time, it will be difficult to ignore the sentiments about the independence of the Fed that those same conservative justices expressed in the Wilcox case and the potential economic consequences a ruling for Trump might generate.
The court’s ultimate decision may actually depend upon what role it wants to play in the country’s fraying democratic system. The legendary Chief Justice John Marshall famously wrote in 1803 that it is “emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary department to say what the law is,” a sentiment inscribed on the marble wall of the Supreme Court building in D.C. This case provides the opportunity to see whether the maxim still holds true. This story has been updated to reflect U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb’s Sept. 9, 2025, decision blocking President Trump from removing Cook from the Federal Reserve Board.
Disclosure statement
Claire B. Wofford does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Credit: Black Press USA
Crime scene barricade covering.
Screenshot from WKRG TV broadcast
Credit: Wikipedia
Governor Lisa D. Cook Lisa D. Cook
By Stacy M. Brown Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
Candidates
From 3 community-based mentorship and reinvestment in culturally specific education. “Young people need role models they can touch,” he said. “We need to stop outsourcing their futures.”
Housing, Homelessness, and Economic Development: On housing and homelessness, candidates acknowledged the incomplete rollout of housing-first models and the city’s deep structural gaps. Warren highlighted the need to combine housing with trauma-informed care, while
Young spoke of a person-centered outreach strategy. Wilson emphasized developer accountability and stronger community-developer agreements, and Ward called for a trust-based, street-level presence to restore dignity in how the city engages with unhoused residents.
When asked about economic development and environmental justice, the candidates aligned around the need to revitalize Ward 5’s corridors, attract green investment, and center local ownership in economic decision-making.
DFL Vacuum and Grassroots Energy: Notably, no candidate received the DFL endorsement at this year’s Ward 5 conven-
votes, would be a first step. A week after the Minneapolis school shooting that left two people dead and 21 injured, here is what we know
From 3
ceive a convergence of National Guard troops when the presi-
of polltakers believe undocumented immigrants should have access to state programs, with 27.3% supporting prohibition, and 6.5% undecided. Ending access to MinnesotaCare, the state’s low-income health insurance program, for adult undocumented immigrants was one of the most politically charged bills during in 2025 session.
Polltakers remain divided on allowing school districts to begin classes before Labor Day. This year, 39.9% of respondents support permanently allowing classes to begin before the unofficial end of summer, 36.4% are opposed and 23.7% are undecided.
The numbers continue to show decreased support for the pre-Labor Day start.
In 2012, 56.4% of poll respondents supported allowing school districts to start classes before Labor Day. Polltakers in 2019 were evenly split
dent declared an immigration crisis. A Federal judge ruled that the administration’s actions were illegal. Needless to say, Los Angeles is a diverse city with a Black mayor in a blue state. That same judge ruled that the Trump administration vio-
on repealing Minnesota’s ban on starting school before Labor Day, with 41% supporting and 42.4% opposing its repeal.
Lawmakers heard several requests for stadium or arena funding in 2025. A majority of polltakers (69.1%) oppose using state funds to renovate or build professional sports stadiums or arenas, while 19.2% support the idea and 11.8% are undecided.
Also receiving strong support from polltakers is a free fishing license for Minnesotans age 65 or older, keeping a candidate’s party designation on the ballot, a ban on legislators acting or registering as lobbyists for two years after leaving office, and establishing a higher income tax rate for the wealthiest Minnesotans.
Here are the poll results, including hand-counted ballots. (Totals are for those who actually voted on the question.)
1. Should school districts be permanently allowed to start classes before Labor Day? Yes — 39.9% (3,905) No — 36.4% (3,568)
tion, a result of split delegate support and broader tensions within the local party. Both Warren and Burnett emerged as frontrunners during convention balloting, but neither secured the required 60% threshold. The absence of an official endorsement has turned the race into a true grassroots test of who can mobilize the community most effectively. The city’s rankedchoice voting system further complicates the race. Voters can rank up to three candidates; if no candidate earns a majority, the system redistributes votes based on preferences until one emerges with over 50%. This structure rewards coalition-building and forces candidates to appeal be-
about the state government’s response. On gun violence, what does Walz want?
The governor wants
lated the Posse Comitatus Act by using military personnel for domestic law enforcement functions, such as security patrols and crowd control.
Since the demobilization of most National Guard troops in L.A., a small contin-
yond their base. Ward 5’s Crossroads Moment: Spanning neighborhoods from Jordan and Hawthorne to the North Loop arts district, Ward 5 is geographically and socially diverse, with deep cultural roots and a long memory of political disinvestment. With 15 parks, dozens of schools, and some of the highest rates of gun violence and housing insecurity in the city, the stakes in this race are high. The delayed release of the Ward 5 forum video on the League of Women Voters website, though forums for other wards are already live, has frustrated residents eager to make informed choices. For
to use his sole authority to call a special legislative session, at which lawmakers would debate and pass public safety bills. If no special session is called, the
gent has remained deployed, and California’s governor continues to protest. Currently, Washington, DC, has troops, and more states are sending reinforcements as the city cooperates with federal efforts. Just thirty miles north, in a city Pres-
now, the candidates continue their outreach in churches, block meetings, and neighborhood events. Each candidate, in their own way, made clear that Ward 5 is not a blank slate. It is a ward with a long memory, deep wounds, and extraordinary potential. As Election Day approaches, residents are being urged to dig into the candidates' platforms, engage with local forums, and recognize the power of their vote in shaping the future of North Minneapolis. To watch the full candidate forum and hear directly from all six candidates, including their opening statements and responses to pressing commu-
Legislature cannot introduce and vote on bills until February. On Tuesday, Walz told reporters he will put out a “very comprehensive” package
ident Trump calls a “Hellhole,” Baltimore’s former mayor Kurt L. Schmoke told this reporter, “There is not a crime emergency in Baltimore.” Schmoke, the President of the University of Baltimore, situated in the heart of Baltimore City, says
nity issues visit: https://youtu. be/4XkWlX_0m30?t=484 As November 4 draws near, residents are being urged to engage deeply, read candidate platforms, and understand the weight of their vote, not just for this election, but for the future of North Minneapolis. As of publication, no new updates have been issued by the candidates since the forum. For more information on the updates or candidates: Forum updates and recording: https://lwvmpls.org/ event/ward-5-candidate-forum Candidate campaign sites: https://www.warrenforward5.com/news
“in the next day or so” to better protect students.
Undecided/No Opinion — 11.8% (1,149)
3. Should undocumented immigrants be prohibited from accessing state programs? Yes — 27.3% (2,669) No — 66.1% (6,460)
Undecided/No Opinion — 6.5% (637)
Should hourly school workers be eligible to receive unemployment during the summer?
— 61.2% (5,950) No — 29% (2,822) Undecided/No Opinion — 9.8% (955) 5. State law currently allows people with a permit to carry to bring a gun inside the State Capitol. Should guns be banned in the building?
Yes — 78.9% (7,689) No — 17.2% (1,674)
Undecided/No Opinion — 4% (387) 6. The state is projected to face a nearly $6 billion deficit in the 2028-29 biennium. In general, what is your preferred way to balance the state budget in a time of shortfall?
Estate planning seen as survival for Black families
By Stacy M. Brown
Senior National Correspondent
Constance Carter, the founder of California’s largest independent Black-owned real estate firm and bestselling author, put the spotlight on the basics that protect Black wealth: life insurance, wills, and living trusts. “Estate planning isn’t just paperwork. It’s survival. It’s power. And it’s how we make sure that our children inherit more than just debt,” Carter said during an appearance on Black Press USA’s Let It Be Known. She spoke about how Black families continue to build assets, yet often leave those assets exposed because planning is delayed or skipped. “We are already behind the eight ball when it comes to building wealth,” Carter said. “Historically, we were shut out of opportunities through redlining, predatory lending, and systemic barriers. Ninety percent of wealth in this country is passed intergenerationally, and 80 percent of that is through real estate. Yet while we are trying to get our piece of the pie,
we are not planning to pass it on like other communities.”
Carter explained the difference between a will and a living trust, describing a will as instructions that can be contested in probate court. In contrast, a trust provides binding directives that transfer property clearly and efficiently. “A will is just instructions,” she said. “There’s a saying that a will, will be contested. With a trust, these are the directives. This is your legally binding instrument to pass property generationally.” She called on families at every income level to act. Trusts can cost between $1,500 and $3,000, but the protection, she said, is worth it even if there is only one property. To make planning more accessible, she created a $25 eBook that walks through drafting a living trust, notarization, and state-by-state recording requirements. “I try to make it as simple as possible,” Carter said. “I see problems that Black people face, and I try to find solutions.”
For new families, Carter listed life insurance as the first step. “It is a sin before God for you to be having chicken dinners and GoFundMe ac-
counts to bury your loved ones,” she said. “A good man leaves an inheritance for his children and his children’s children.” She added that avoiding conversations about death often leaves families divided. “Two things make people act funny: death and money,” Carter said. Without beneficiaries and directives, loved ones are left scrambling for account access and arguing over wishes that were never written down. Carter also described her work with the Net 7 Collective, a nationwide and international community of Black women building seven-figure net worths. “When you teach a man, you teach an individual. This is no diss to men, but when you teach a woman, you teach a nation,” she said. “Black women, you give us something, we are going to multiply it.” She dismissed predictions that Black household wealth could hit zero by 2053 if nothing changes. “They did F around and they gave us the internet. They gave us the internet, AI, and we have each other,” Carter said. “Nobody is coming to save us; we have got to be the ones. And the only way we can do it is together.”
Increase revenue — 43.5% (4,160)
Decrease spending — 41.1% (3,925) Undecided/No Opinion — 15.4% (1,473)
7. Should candidates for the Legislature appear on the ballot without their political party designation? Yes — 19.7% (1,909) No — 70.1% (6,801) Undecided/No
(997) 8. Minnesota provides free breakfast and lunch for all students. Should access to free meals be limited to families earning $150,000 or less a year?
Family saving money to piggy bank
that in the 1980s, when crime was worse, he had considered calling in the National Guard. However, the city’s 47th mayor decided against it, considering Baltimore would always carry that negative stigma if he did.
Black Press USA
Community
Liberación Film Festival elevates Afrolatine narratives
The Afrolatino Festival NYC and Afrolatin@ Project have announced the return of the Liberación Film Festival October 7-11, celebrating narratives and experiences of Afrolatine's from the U.S, Latin America and the Caribbean. The Festival is presented in partnership with and hosted by the Center for Brooklyn History at Brooklyn Public Library. It features more than 20 films presented virtually and in-person, from over nine countries including world premieres, two U.S premieres and a retrospective series. The festival includes director Q&A's, AfrolatinTalks, industry panels, and musical performances.
With a focus on Panamá, the 2025 Festival, is a collaboration with the Day of Independence Committee of Panamanians in New York, Inc. (DICPNY), producers of the 30th anniversary celebration of the annual Panamanian Pa-
rade on Franklin Ave, Brooklyn October 11. It is the largest parade of Panamanians outside of the Republic of Panama and the Festival will be part of the scheduled pre-Parade activities.
On the first day of Liberación, Tuesday October 7, features saxophonist Lenny Daniels Jr., trained by the late Carlos Garnett. Tuesday programming includes the New
York premiere of "Cirilo: A Legacy Untold" about Cirilo McSween a civil rights warrior who made important contributions to the Panama Canal Treaty negotiations, followed by "Rubén Blades is Not My Name" on legendary Panamanian salsero Rubén Blades.
On October 8, the Festival features singer-songwriter Mai-Elka Prado, fol-
lowed by the World Premiere of "Crossing the Darién", a documentary short on the migratory crisis at the Darién Gap from the perspective of a group of Afrodescendant human rights observers. The day concludes with “Black Rio! Black Power!”, which examines the Black Arts Movement of 1960's-80's Latin America, specifically in Brazil, drawing upon important parallels to Panamá’s era of ‘combos nacionales’.
Films will be available for virtual viewing on demand. These include “Los Hijos de la Costa” (Mexico), “Lulami Niwan” (Honduras), “Soul Matters” (Colombia) “Oríkì Oshun” (Puerto Rico) and retrospectives celebrating the 32nd anniversary of the Brooklyn premiere of “Tambo Jazz” by Panamanian director Gerardo Maloney. ”
“The Center for Brooklyn History is dedicated to telling stories of the people of
this Borough. We’re thrilled to bring all together for these powerful films about Panamanian community building, resistance, and culture,” said Marcia Ely, Director of Public Programs at
the Center for Brooklyn History at Brooklyn Public Library. Says Maria Willis, President of DICPNY, "The Day of Independence Committee of Panamanians in New York, Inc. is proud to collaborate with the 2025 Liberación Film Festival as we celebrate the richness of Panamanian culture during our parade festivities. This partnership honors our shared commitment to storytelling, heritage, and the vibrant voices of our community.”
The 2025 Liberación Film Festival is made possible with the support of the community, the filmmakers who entrust us, the Center for Brooklyn History at Brooklyn Public Library, DICPNY and community partners. The Afrolatin@ Project is a digital and archival platform, sharing research, oral histories and lived experiences of Afrolatine communities throughout the Americas.
Lower average science score for eighth-graders in 2024 than in 2019
"The 2024 Nation’s Report Card makes clear that U.S. students have not yet recovered from the pandemic’s impact. Five years later, scores remain below pre-pandemic levels across every grade and subject tested,” says Shelby Doyle, senior vice president of policy and national partnerships at the National School Choice Awareness Foundation (NSCAF).
For Minnesota, these results raise urgent questions: Are local schools closing the gap for students who fell behind during the pandemic, or are achievement gaps widening here as well?
“What’s especially concerning is that reading scores are down in both 4th and 8th grades, with one-third of 8th graders not even reading at a basic level. In math, 4th-grade scores showed modest progress, but only for middle- and higher-performing students. Meanwhile, 8th-grade math scores remain flat, leaving in place the historic 8-point drop we saw in 2022.
These results highlight two troubling patterns: lower-performing students continue to fall behind, and achievement gaps are growing wider,” Doyle says.
In 2024, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) administered the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) science
assessment to a nationally representative sample of eighthgrade students. The assessment measured students’ science knowledge as well as their ability to engage in scientific inquiry and to conduct scientific investigations in real-world contexts. Students also answered survey questions about their opportunities to learn about and engage in science inside and outside of school.
NAEP is a continuing and nationally representative measure of trends in academic achievement of U.S. elementary and secondary students in various subjects. It was first administered in 1969 to measure student achievement nationally. Teachers, principals, parents, policymakers, and researchers all use NAEP results to assess progress and develop ways to improve education in the United States.
In 2024, the average science score at eighth grade was 4 points lower compared to 2019 and not significantly different than in 2009, the start of a new trendline marking the first administration of the assessment based on a new science framework. NAEP scores are also reported at five selected percentiles to show score trends for lower- (10th and 25th percentiles), middle- (50th percentile), and higher- (75th and 90th percentiles) performing students. Scores in 2024 decreased
at all five selected percentiles compared to 2019.
NAEP achievement levels at grade 8 are performance standards that represent what students should know and be able to do. Results are reported as percentages of students performing at or above three achievement levels (NAEP Basic, NAEP Proficient, and NAEP Advanced).
In 2018, the National Assessment Governing Board issued a revised policy statement clarifying that the NAEP Proficient level is not intended to reflect grade-level performance expectations but is specific to performance on NAEP assessments.
Examples of science knowledge and skills eighthgrade students are likely able to demonstrate in Life Science:
At the NAEP Basic level, students likely can demonstrate that reproduction is an essential part of population survival.
At the NAEP Proficient level, students likely can describe the function of body systems (circulatory, respiratory, digestive).
At the NAEP Advanced level, students likely can use the structures of organisms to identify specific adaptations of organisms and infer how these adaptations help organisms to survive.
Most student groups
with average science score declines had declines at the 25th percentile; some groups also scored lower at the 75th percentile compared to 2019
Example group: highest level of parental education, 2024 score compared to 2019
gage in scientific inquiry in real-world contexts.
The NAEP science assessment framework specifies the science content assessed at grade 8. The 2024 NAEP science assessment used the same
Student group 25th percentile Average score 75th percentile
Students whose parents did not finish high school 7pts 5pts 4pts
Students whose parents graduated from high school 6pts 5pts
Students whose parents had some education after high school 8pts 6pts 3pts
Students whose parents graduated from college 5pts 4pts
Decrease in the percentage of eighth-grade students with high levels of confidence in science compared to 2019
Students with a high level of confidence in their science knowledge and skills reported they probably or definitely can do various science-related activities such as designing an experiment to show how sunlight affects plant growth or identifying a tool used to measure wind speed.
The NAEP science assessment measures students’ knowledge of the natural world, their understanding of concepts, principles, laws, and theories of science and their ability to en-
framework as the one used for the 2019, 2015, 2011, and 2009 assessments. The assessment measures three content areas— Physical Science, Life Science, and Earth and Space Sciences. In addition to an overall average scale score, results are also reported as average scale scores for each content area. Because the content area scale scores are developed independently, content area scores cannot be compared to one another or to the overall score.
The assessment also measures four science practices—Identifying Science Principles, Using Science Principles, Using Scientific Inquiry, and
Using Technological Design— that assess students’ ability to demonstrate their scientific knowledge and skills in each of the three content areas.
The assessment included selected-response and constructed-response questions. Selected-response question formats include single- and multiple-selection multiple choice, inline choice, zone, matching, and interactive questions. Short constructed-response questions require students to write a brief response that, for example, explains the solution to a problem. Extended constructed-response questions have more parts for students to answer, requiring students to provide more than a single response or short verbal communication.
Assessment period
January to March 2024
Number of students assessed 23,000
Number of schools assessed 600 Cognitive testing time 60 minutes
Reported results
Based on student performance on either Microsoft Surface Pro tablets or Chromebooks Survey questionnaires Administered to students, teachers, and school administrators
A first connection can make a big difference when it comes to sticking with a career
By Soon Hyeok Choi Assistant Professor of Real Estate Finance, Rochester Institute of Technology
People often say that a single spark can light a fire.
In careers, that spark is often a person. It might be someone early in life who cracks open a door, offers encouragement, or quietly shows what success can look like.
What’s less obvious is how profoundly that very first connection can shape everything that comes afterward.
Consider 23-time Grand Slam tennis champion Serena Williams. Williams has often spoken about the crucial role played by her first coach –and father – Richard Williams. His belief in her abilities and his willingness to expose her to competitive tennis from an early age ensured she gained experience long before most of her peers. In this, she’s not alone – in sports, a first coach can recognize potential before anyone else does.
Or consider Misty Copeland, the first Black female principal dancer at American
Ballet Theatre. At 13, a Boys & Girls Club teacher, Cynthia Bradley, recognized her potential and brought her into formal ballet training; within four years Copeland earned a spot in ABT’s Studio Company. In 2015, she became ABT’s first Black female principal, a milestone built on that early mentorship. Those first advocates opened doors to elite training, scholarships and professional networks that sustained a long, barrier-breaking career.
Anecdotes like these are powerful, but they also raise questions. Do early connections cause long-term success, or do they simply come more
easily to people already positioned to succeed? After all, a young athlete with supportive and affluent parents might have access to better training and competition regardless of who their first coach is. This chicken-and-egg problem is hard to untangle – unless you look at a setting where chance plays a role. That’s where my research comes in. Real estate as a natural laboratory
I’m a professor of real estate finance, and I noticed that the residential real estate brokerage industry can mimic a random experimental setting. Since only a small number
of people are active in housing markets at any given time, agents can’t choose exactly who they work with. That means a new agent’s first counterparty broker – that is, the agent on the other side of the deal – depends on who happens to be representing clients at the same time and place. In many cases, that first connection is essentially a matter of luck.
So my colleagues and I analyzed more than 20 years of home sales data from Charlotte, North Carolina, covering more than 40,000 unique real estate agents and 417,000 home sales between 2001 and 2023. We found that new agents who land
their first deal with a well-connected power broker are about 25% more likely to still be in the business a year later. Since many agents struggle to close a second deal within a year of their first, this significantly boosts their chances of building a lasting career. The first handshake and lasting spark
What makes these first encounters so powerful is not only the transfer of skills but also the shaping of confidence and identity. A young musician invited to join an orchestra by a respected conductor begins to see himself as part of that world.
A student encouraged by a scientist to enter a national competition begins to imagine a place for herself in research. An athlete who trains with an Olympic medalist begins to visualize competing at the highest levels.
In each case, the first connection changes the sense of what is possible.
Our study also found that new agents at the greatest risk of leaving the field – those with fewer early sales – benefit the most from starting out with a well-connected partner.
The same dynamic appears in sports, where struggling ath-
letes often flourish under coaches with deep relationships and credibility, and in education, where students on the verge of disengaging can be reenergized by respected teachers who open doors to programs, competitions and networks. These mentors do more than teach. They change trajectories.
The lesson for those just beginning their careers: Seek out people who are respected and generous with their experience. Observing how they work, think and solve problems can shape your own professional identity.
For those who are more established, the takeaway is equally important: Offering a hand to someone new, making an introduction or simply offering encouragement can set in motion a sequence of events that shape a life.
Disclosure statement
Soon Hyeok Choi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
By Jeremy J. Michalek Professor of Engineering & Public Policy, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University
When Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, it was the largest climate bill in U.S. history, with major incentives for electric vehicle production and adoption. In its wake, investment in the U.S. electric vehicle industry accelerated. But in 2025, President Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act eliminated most of the incentives, and U.S. investment collapsed.
Hitting the brakes on electric vehicles will clearly mean less progress in reducing transportation emissions and less strategic U.S. leadership in a key technology of the future. But in a new study, my colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University and I find that fewer electric vehicles will also mean less investment to clean up the electricity sector.
How we got here
U.S. electric vehicle adoption lags behind the rest of the world – especially China,
which has invested heavily and strategically to dominate electric vehicle markets and supply chains and to leapfrog the historical dominance of American, European and Japanese manufacturers of vehicles powered by internal combustion engines.
Electric vehicles are much simpler to engineer, and this opened a window for China to bet big on EVs with investment, incentives and experimentation. As battery prices dropped dramatically, electric cars became real competition for gasoline cars – especially for the massive Chinese market, where buyers don’t have strong prior preferences for gasoline. China now dominates the supply chain for battery materials, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese, as well as the rare earth minerals used in electric motors.
In 2022, the U.S. took action to change this trend when Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act. The law encouraged EV adoption by lowering costs to manufacturers and consumers. But it also encouraged automakers to find ways to build EVs without Chinese materials by making the largest incentives conditional on avoiding China entirely.
After the law passed,
investment soared across hundreds of new battery manufacturing and material processing facilities in the U.S. But in 2025, Congress passed and Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which eliminated most of the incentives. U.S. investment in EV-related production has collapsed.
Electric vehicles are cleaner As a scholar of electric vehicle technology, economics, environment and policy, I have conducted numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies characterizing benefits and costs of electric vehicles over their life cycle, from production through use and end of life. When charged with clean electricity, electric vehicles are one of the few technologies in existence that can provide transportation with near-zero emissions. With today’s electricity grid, EV emissions can vary, depending on the mix of electricity generators used in the region where they are charged, driving conditions such as weather or traffic, the specific vehicles being compared, and even the timing of charging. But EVs are generally better for the climate over their life cycle today than most gasoline vehi-
cles, even if the most efficient gas-electric hybrids are still cleaner in some locations. EVs become cleaner as the electricity grid becomes cleaner, and, importantly, it turns out that EVs can even help make the electricity grid cleaner. This matters because transportation and electricity together make up the majority of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and the passenger cars and light trucks that we all drive produce the majority of our transportation emissions.
In its efforts to prevent the government from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, the Trump administration is now claiming that emissions from cars and trucks are “not meaningful” contributors to climate change. But in reality, a technology that cleans up both transportation and electricity at the same time is a big deal. An opportunity for cleaner electricity
Our research has found that turning away from electric vehicles does more than miss a chance to curb transportation emissions – it also misses an opportunity to make the nation’s electricity supply cleaner.
In our paper, my co-authors Lily Hanig, Corey Harper and Destenie Nock and I looked at potential scenarios for electric vehicle adoption across the U.S. from now until 2050. We considered situations ranging from cases with no government policies supporting electric vehicles to cases with enough electric vehicle adoption to be on track with road maps targeting overall net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
In each of these scenarios, we calculated how the nation’s power grid and electric-
ity generators would respond to electric vehicle charging load.
We found that when there are more electric vehicles charging, more power plants would need to be built – and because of cost competitiveness, most of those new power plants would be solar, wind, battery storage and natural gas plants, depending on the region.
Once wind and solar plants are built, they are cheaper to operate than fossil fuel plants, because utilities don’t need to buy more fuel to burn to make more electricity. That cost advantage means wind and solar energy gets used first, so it can displace fossil-fuel generation even when EVs aren’t charging.
A virtuous – or vicious – cycle
Our analysis reveals that what’s good for climate in the transportation sector –eliminating emissions from vehicle tailpipes – is also good for climate in the power sector, supporting more investment in clean power and displacing more fossil fuel-powered generation.
As a result, encouraging electric vehicle adoption is even better for the climate than many people expected because EV charging can actually cause lower-emitting power plants to be built.
Gasoline vehicles can’t last forever. The cheap oil will eventually run out. And EV batteries have gotten so cheap, with ranges now comparable to gas cars, that the global transition is already well underway. Even in the U.S., consumers are adopting more EVs as the technology improves and offers consumers more for less. The U.S. government can’t single-hand-
edly stop this transition – it can only decide how much to lead, lag or resist. Rolling back electric vehicle incentives now means higher emissions, less clean energy investment and weaker U.S. competitiveness in a crucial industry of the future. Our findings show that slowing electric vehicle adoption doesn’t just affect emissions from transportation. It also misses opportunities to help build a cleaner power sector, potentially locking the U.S. into higher emissions from its top two highest-emitting sectors – power generation and transportation – while the window to avoid the worst effects of climate change is closing.
Disclosure statement Jeremy J. Michalek currently receives funding from Toyota Research Institute and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to study electric vehicle
Insight 2 Health
Kennedy hearing deepens crisis over dismantling of CDC leadership - health scholar explains why the agency’s ability to protect public health is compromised
By Jordan Miller Teaching Professor of Public Health, Arizona State University
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, long considered the nation’s – if not the world’s – premier public health organization, is mired in a crisis that not only threatens Americans’ health but also its very survival as a leading public health institution.
The degree of this crisis was on full display during Health and Human Services
Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Sept. 4, 2025, testimony before the U.S. Senate.
In the hearing, Kennedy openly criticized CDC professionals’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying “the people at CDC who oversaw that process, who put masks on our children, who closed our schools, are the people who will be leaving.”
Kennedy’s hearing came on the heels of a contentious week in which Kennedy fired the CDC’s director, Susan Monarez, spurring 12 members of the Senate Finance Committee – including 11 Democrats and independent Bernie Sanders – to call on Kennedy to resign from his position.
At least four top CDC leaders resigned following Monarez’s ouster, citing pressure from Kennedy to depart from recommendations based on sound scientific evidence.
I am a teaching professor and public health professional. Like many of my colleagues, the disruption happening at the CDC in recent months has left me scrambling to find alternate credible sources of health information and feeling deeply concerned for the future of public health.
The CDC’s unraveling
These leadership shakeups come on the heels of months of targeted actions aimed at unraveling the CDC’s structure, function and leadership as it has existed for decades.
The turmoil began almost as soon as President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, when his administration enacted sweeping cuts to the CDC’s workforce that health
experts broadly agree jeopardized its ability to respond to emerging health threats.
Trump used executive orders to limit CDC employees’ communication with the public and other external agencies, like the World Health Organization.
Within weeks, he ordered as much as 10% of the overall workforce to be cut.
Soon after, Kennedy – who was newly appointed by Trump – began undoing long-standing CDC institutions, like the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, replacing all 17 of its members in a move that was widely denounced by health experts.
Critics pointed to a lack of qualifications for the new committee members, with more than half never having published research on vaccinations and many having predetermined hostility toward vaccines.
In June, more than 20 authoritative organizations, including the National Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics, expressed serious concerns for the health impacts of overhauling the advisory committee.
How Monarez’s removal spurred the crisis Public health leaders had cheered the July confirmation of Monarez as the CDC’s new director, seeing her nomination as a welcome relief to those who value evidence-based practice in public health. Monarez is an accomplished scientist and career public servant.
Many viewed her as a potential voice of scientific wisdom amid untrained officials appointed by Trump, who has a track record of policies that undermine public health and science.
In her role as acting director, to which she was appointed in January, Monarez had quietly presided over the wave of cuts to the CDC workforce and other moves that drastically reshaped the agency and weakened the country’s capacity to steward the nation’s health.
Yet Monarez had “red lines” that she would not cross: She would not fire CDC leadership, and she would not endorse vaccine policies that ran contrary to scientifically supported recommendations.
According to
Monarez, Kennedy asked her to do both in an Aug. 27 meeting. When she refused, he asked her to resign.
Her lawyers pushed back, arguing that only the president had the authority to remove her, stating: “When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted.”
Ultimately, the White House made her dismissal official later that evening.
An agency in turmoil
Further exemplifying and deepening the crisis at the agency, on Aug. 8, a gunman who had expressed anger over COVID-19 vaccinations opened fire on CDC headquarters, killing a police officer.
Many health workers attributed this directly to misinformation spread by Kennedy. The shooting amplified tensions and made tangible the sense of threat under which the CDC has been operating over the tumultuous months since Trump’s second term began. One employee stated that “the CDC is crumbling.”
Public health experts, including former CDC directors, are sounding the alarm, speaking out about the precariousness of the agency’s position. Some are questioning whether the CDC can even survive.
A crisis of trust
Even before the most recent shock waves, Americans said they were losing trust and confidence in CDC guidance: In April, 44% of U.S. adults polled said that they will place less
trust in CDC recommendations under the new leadership. This would undoubtedly undermine the U.S. response if the country faces another public health challenge requiring a rapid, coordinated response, like COVID-19.
In addition to installing new members on the vaccine advisory committee, Kennedy abruptly changed the recommendations for flu and COVID-19 vaccines without input from the CDC or the vaccine advisory committee, and contrary to data presented by CDC scientists.
Public health professionals and advocates are now warning the public that vaccine recommendations coming from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices may not be trustworthy. They point to the lack of credibility in the review process for the new committee, the fact that members have made statements contrary to scientific evidence in the past, and failure to apply an evidence-to-recommendations framework as compromising factors. Critics of the committee even describe a lack of basic understanding of the science behind vaccines.
Health impacts are being felt in real time, with health care providers reporting confusion among parents as a result of the conflicting vaccine recommendations. Now, those who want to be vaccinated are facing barriers to access, with major retailers placing new limits on vaccine access in the face of federal pressure. This as vaccination rates were already declining, largely due to misinformation.
The end result is an environment in which the cred-
ibility of the CDC is in question because people are unsure whether recommendations made in the CDC’s name are coming from the science and scientists or from the politicians who are in charge.
Filling the gaps
Reputable organizations are working to fill the void created by the CDC’s precariousness and the fact that recommendations are now being made based on political will, rather than scientific evidence.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Gynecology have both released recommended vaccination schedules that, for the first time, diverge from CDC recommendations.
And medical organizations are discussing strategies that include giving more weight to their recommendations than the CDC’s and creating pathways for clinicians to obtain vaccines directly from manufacturers. These measures would create workarounds to compensate for CDC leadership voids.
Some states, including California, Oregon, Washington and New Mexico, are establishing their own guidance regarding vaccinations. Public health scientists and physicians are attempting to preserve data and surveillance systems that the Trump administration has been removing. But independent organizations may not be able to sustain this work without federal funding.
What’s at stake
As part of its crucial work in every facet of public health, the CDC oversees larger-scale operations, both nationally and globally, that cannot
The lasting impact of bedtime stories
By Niyoka McCoy Black Press USA
One of the joys of parenthood is the peaceful, soothing experience of reading a bedtime story to your child. Your comforting voice can help lull them into a sleepy state as you read aloud melodic nursery rhymes and other enchanting stories. To this day, I can remember some of these moments as my mom read my favorite stories aloud at bedtime. For babies, simply hearing words and language as you read to them is beneficial. And as children grow older, relatable themes and meaningful content in the books you read together lead to those deep, “what’s the meaning of life?” type of questions kids tend to ask as they draw close to slumber. So, as you pick books at the local library or from your home collection to read together, know that these are some of the wonderful benefits your child is experiencing each time you read to them: Exposure to Words and Language
Did you know simply hearing words is crucial to your child’s language development?
Research shows that it is the most important component in developing language pathways in a child’s brain, as it boosts
their language and cognitive capacity, expanding their ability to make sense of and use words. In fact, a study from Ohio State University found that young children whose parents read to them at least one book a day will hear around 290,000 more words by age 5 than children who are not read to regularly. And children whose parents read five books each day will hear about 1.4 million more words than children who are never read to.
Boost in Cognitive Development
Reading helps prepare children for school by building a strong foundation of knowledge and a deeper understanding of the world around them. This foundation gives children important context for complex subjects, making it easier for them to grasp new concepts and make sense of their experiences as they grow.
Deepening of Relationships and Bonding Attachment
Simply reading together can help children build secure attachment, an important bond that plays a crucial role in brain development. Research shows that safe and secure communication, like reading together, helps create a foundation on which children will form relationships throughout their lives.
It also helps build confidence and resiliency to stress, as well as the ability to manage emotions and maintain meaningful relationships. Plus, they will experience a wide range of positive feelings in the moment, like comfort, safety, attention, and love. Development of Social-Emotional Skills Studies show that there is a correlation between reading at a young age and the development of interpersonal and social-emotional skills, particularly empathy. And this
is due to the feelings, experiences, and oftentimes, the heroic, kind, or bold actions of characters they read about in books. Think about “I Am Enough” by Grace Byers, which reminds children to be there for others in kindness and love. As Byers says, “To help each other when it’s tough, to say together: I am enough.” Then there’s “Thank You, Omu,” by Oge Mora, that tells a heartwarming story about sharing and generosity, inspired by the author’s childhood role models. Reading stories about relatable characters can also
simply be handed off to states or individual organizations. Some public health responses – such as to infectious diseases and foodborne illnesses – must be coordinated at the national level in order to be effective, since health risks are shared across state borders.
In a health information space that is awash with misinformation, having accurate, reliable health statistics and evidence-based guidelines is essential for public health educators like me to know what information to share and how to design effective health programs. Doctors and other clinicians rely on disease tracking to know how best to approach treating patients presenting with infections. The COVID-19 pandemic made clear the importance of laboratory science, a unified emergency response and rapid distribution of effective vaccines to the public.
One of the strengths of the American system of governance is its ability to approach challenges – including public health – in a coordinated way, having a federal level of cooperation that unifies state-level efforts.
The CDC has been the nation’s preeminent public health institution for more than eight decades as a result of its vast reach and unparalleled expertise. Right now, it’s all sitting at a precarious edge.
Disclosure statement
Jordan Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Partnership Coordinator
help children understand and manage their emotions. By seeing how characters cope with similar feelings, children can learn that it’s okay to feel sad, angry, or frustrated at times. They can also learn positive ways to deal with these emotions.
It’s good for us, too
Let’s face it—reading to our kids can be therapeutic for us as parents, too. One day, we’ll miss how excited they were to choose their bedtime story and insist we show them every picture. These small, meaningful moments do more than build language and literacy skills; they deepen your bond and offer your child a sense of comfort and connection. And just like I remember my mom’s voice reading to me, your child may one day remember yours. Reading together is a powerful way to nurture their development, spark a love for reading, and enjoy the time you spend together.
Niyoka McCoy is the Chief Learning Officer at K12. She leads the development and implementation of the company’s learning strategy, curriculum, and instruction, with an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and over 16 years of experience in the education sector.
We are seeking to hire a partnership coordinator who will provide project management and administrativ e support to advance varied workstreams in a teambased environment. This position will manage implementati on for Clean Air Minnesota and related projects, such as Project Clean Air Repair (Project CAR), Project Stove Swap, and the Clean Air Assistance Project
This is a fulltime position (40 hours/week) anticipated to start in October 2025.
Scan the QR code below for additional information and to apply
Credit: Megan Varner/Reuters
Visible bullet holes in the CDC’s venerable building speak volumes of the unfolding crisis
Indiana Fever 83 (24029), Minnesota Lynx 72 (33-10)
Minnesota Lynx’s bench Tuesday night accounted for 29 of the team’s 72 points, marking the 25th game this season with 15+ points from the bench. The effort was led by Kliundikova (12), with Anastasiia Olairi Kosu and Hiedeman contributing six points each, all combining for 24 points.
• Minnesota served six rejections, led by Smith (2) and Kosu (2), along with Carleton and Kliundikova contributing a block apiece. The Lynx remain tied for second in the league in blocks per game (4.8).
Minnesota outscored the Fever in assists (21-19),
led by efforts from Williams (5), Smith (4), and Hiedeman (4). The Lynx surpassed 1,000 total assists on the season tonight, leading the league in total assists (1,005) and assists per game (23.4). In her 12th start of the season, Jessica Shepard notched 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting (80.0%) from the field, including seven rebounds (two offensive), two assists and two steals. Shepard surpassed 300 points and 100 assists on the season, marking her sixth game this season with 15+ points and five+ rebounds.
Alanna Smith regis-
tered 11 points, including one from deep and a perfect 4-for-4 from the line. Smith added four assists, three rebounds and two blocks in tonight's matchup, marking her 27th game of the season recording two+ blocks. Smith currently ranks third in the WNBA in total blocks (79) and blocks per game (1.9). In 16:08 minutes off the bench, Maria Kliundikova totaled 12 points on 6-of11 shooting (54.5%) from the floor, while also adding seven rebounds (two offensive) and a block. The game marked Kliundikova’s fifth game of the season with 10+ points and three+
rebounds off the bench. Coutney Williams chipped in eight points, five rebounds, and five assists tonight, recording at least five assists in three of her last four games. Williams ranks second in the WNBA in total assists (267) and assists per game (6.2). In 25:01 minutes off the bench, Natisha Hiedeman tallied six points, four assists, two rebounds (one offensive), and two steals. Hiedeman has now registered four+ assists in three of her last four games, and two+ steals in her last three games.
What causes muscle cramps during exercise?
Athletes and coaches
By Michael Hales Associate Professor of Health Promotion and Physical Education, Kennesaw State University
For athletes across all sports, few experiences are as agonizing as being forced to leave competition with a sudden muscle cramp. These painful, uncontrolled spasms – formally known as exercise-associated muscle cramps – have frustrated athletes, coaches and researchers for decades.
Scientists have traditionally attributed exercise-induced cramps to dehydration or electrolyte imbalances. However, this theory left unanswered questions. For example, many well-hydrated athletes experience cramps, while others competing in hot, humid conditions remain unaffected.
A growing body of research is challenging this explanation, pointing instead to
may want to look at the playing surface
the playing surface as a critical factor.
In my work as a sports scientist, I study how different variables affect athletic performance. Work from my team has found that specific qualities of playing surfaces can lead to early neuromuscular fatigue and unexpected muscle cramps.
Muscle cramps and playing surfaces As muscles fatigue, the normal balance between signals in the nervous system that direct muscles to contract and relax become disrupted. Muscle spindles, which sense stretch, increase their firing rate. Meanwhile, inhibitory feedback from Golgi tendon organs – a part of the nervous system at the intersection of muscle fibers and tendons – declines.
In other words, muscles are getting mixed signals about whether to contract or relax. The result is excessive activation of motor neurons that stimulate muscle fibers into a sustained, involuntary contraction – a cramp.
Recent studies suggest that competing on surfaces with unfamiliar mechanical properties – such as stiffness and elasticity – can accelerate neuromuscular fatigue. Surfaces alter the mechanics of your muscles and joints. If your neuromuscular system is not accustomed to these demands, fatigue can prematurely set in and create the conditions for cramping.
In one study, my team and I found a 13% difference in muscle activity among runners performing on fields of varying stiffness and elasticity. Another study from my team found a 50% difference in hamstring activity among athletes performing identical drills on different types of turf.
Beyond sports-specific performance metrics, biomechanics research has long shown that altering the properties of playing surfaces changes muscle stiffness, joint loading and range of motion. These variables directly affect fatigue. Muscles crossing multiple joints such as the hamstrings
appear especially vulnerable to variations in playing surfaces, given their central role in sprinting and cutting.
Preventing cramps during exercise
If playing surfaces influence fatigue, then managing how they interact with players could help prevent cramps.
Researchers have proposed developing regional databases cataloging the mechanical characteristics of competition surfaces for sports such as tennis. With this data, coaches and sports organizations could tailor training environments to mimic competitive conditions, reducing the shock of unfamiliar surfaces. It’s not necessarily the inherent properties of the surface that causes cramping, but rather how similar or different they are from what an athlete is used to.
Consider a soccer team that practices on a soft surface but competes on a more stiff surface. Without preparation, the shift in how their muscles will be used may lead to premature fatigue and cramps
during competition. By incorporating drills that replicate how athletes’ muscles will be activated on competition turf could help the team better prepare for game conditions.
Similarly, a basketball team accustomed to new hardwood may benefit from training sessions on worn or cushioned courts that simulate upcoming away venues.
The key is systematic exposure. Conditioning on surfaces that replicate competitive demands acclimatizes the neuromuscular system, lowering fatigue risk and potentially reducing the risk of cramps.
Toward a holistic approach to cramps
Hydration and nutrition remain essential for performance. But accounting for conditioning, footwear traction and adaptation to different playing surfaces could help sports medicine move toward a more complete solution to exercise-associated muscle cramps.
With continued research and technology development, cramps may no longer need to be a frustrating inev-
itability. Instead, athletes and coaches could anticipate them, adjust training to match surface demands, and take steps to prevent them before they derail performance.
The future of cramp prevention may lie in real-time monitoring. Advances in a combination of wearable biosensors to detect neuromuscular fatigue, surface testing equipment and machine learning could help predict individualized cramp risk. Coaches might then adjust practice plans, make in-game substitutions or even adapt surface conditions when possible. By better preparing athletes for the mechanical demands of competition surfaces, teams may protect their athletes’ health and ensure top performers are available when the game is on the line.
Disclosure statement Michael Hales does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
AP Photo/Darron Cummings
Minnesota Lynx’s Natisha Hiedeman (2) goes to the basket against Indiana Fever’s Lexie Hull during the first half of a WNBA basketball game, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, in Indianapolis.
Books, Art & Culture
Kofi goes to the bank
By W.D. Foster-Graham Book Review Editor
With the start of a new school year, I am inspired to share the valuable resources that children’s books by Black authors provide. It is never too early to instill positive lessons and values, the kind that will carry and sustain our children into adulthood. One of those lessons is the value of a dollar
and managing your money, as illustrated in Dr. Artika Tyner’s book Kofi Goes to the Bank. Our story begins with Kofi and Grandpa spending time together. Normally they listen to music, read, and play checkers and chess. On this day, however, Grandpa has an appointment at the bank. Kofi wants to go with Grandpa, and he has been learning how to save money. After counting out his money, Grandpa helps him with the deposit slip, after which they go to see Mr. Kwame at the bank. While Kofi is saving up to get his own djembe drum, Grandpa is saving money to open a music school in the community. As he gets closer to his goal, Kofi
dreams of having his drum set and sharing the good news with his friends. Tyner, through the characters of Grandpa and Mr. Kwame, encourage Kofi by their example of the importance of financial literacy and community engagement. In this world of technology and instant gratification, it is refreshing to see the value of patience being taught to Kofi, as well as his desire to be part of his Grandpa’s future music school. And Mr. Kwame’s positive reinforcement of Kofi’s efforts and patience makes a huge difference. At the end of the story, Tyner provides the reader with ways to further financial literacy and good spending and saving hab-
its with children. I appreciate Dr. Tyner’s teachable moments in this story, the importance of setting goals and a plan to achieve those goals. Teaching financial literacy at an early age is an essential tool for establishing generational wealth in later years, supporting not only ourselves, but also our community.
Hat tip to Bilal Karaca for the engaging illustrations. Kofi Goes to the Bank is available through Amazon and the Planting People Growing Justice Press website, www. ppgjli.org.
Thank you, Artika, for your continued support and advocacy for our children and our community!
‘Seen & Heard’ traces the struggles of Black television
By Stacy M. Brown
Issa Rae is once again betting on Black, this time by turning the lens on the complicated history of African American representation on television. Her new twopart HBO documentary, “Seen and Heard: The History of Black Television,” debuts September 9 on HBO and HBO Max, and it doesn’t shy away from exposing both the breakthroughs and the betrayals that have defined Black TV. The project, which began development in 2019, features powerhouse voices in-
cluding Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Tracee Ellis Ross, Shonda Rhimes, Ava DuVernay, and Norman Lear. Together, they recount the triumphs of Black storytelling and the persistent roadblocks that have too often stripped creators of the rewards their work built.
“We wanted to make a comprehensive history and showcase, with evidence, that this is how they built the success of their networks on our backs, and we almost don’t have anything to show for it as a result.
It’s tragic, and history repeats itself,” Rae said during a keynote conversation at South by Southwest. She explained that she was inspired early by sitcoms like
Moesha, Girlfriends, and Martin, but grew disillusioned in the 2000s when those shows vanished and reality television, often humiliating and exploitative in its portrayal of Black women, dominated screens. Rae recalled an infamous moment on Flavor of Love where a contestant was denied a restroom break and degraded on camera. “This is humiliating, and this is all Black women have on television right now,” she said, adding that the disappearance of scripted Black shows pushed her to start creating her own work.
“It makes such a difference when you’re thinking about something as small as set design,” Rae told CBS Morn-
ings, stressing how details like a Black character’s bedroom or hairstyle can determine whether a story feels authentic. “Watching it myself and hearing some of these stories for the first time inspires me. The end of that documentary inspires me to do more and get my shit together,” she said. “Seen and Heard” is hailed as both a celebration of resilience and a reckoning with exploitation, reminding audiences that visibility is not enough if ownership and respect remain out of reach. “It makes such a difference when Black creators control their own stories,” Rae stated.
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
Seen and Heard: The History of Black Television
Kofi Goes to the Bank Book Cover Photo
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