Source: Independent, Isabel Keane
Photo: CLEAR announced its pilot program for biometric ‘eGates’ at three major US airports ahead of a nationwide rollout. (Getty Images)

CLEAR is partnering with TSA to launch the pilot program at three US airports this month.

Security screening company CLEAR announced it is piloting biometric “eGates” is coming to three major American airports in partnership with the Transportation Security Administration ahead of a nationwide rollout.

CLEAR and TSA’s pilot program kicked off Tuesday at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, next week at Reagan National and the week of August 31 at Seattle-Tacoma, Axios reported.

The eGates are being trialed ahead of what is expected to be a massive year for travel in the U.S., as airports anticipate millions of international travelers for big events such as the 2026 World Cup, expected to draw in 20 million visitors, and America’s 250th birthday.

“This is frictionless travel. This is more secure,” CLEAR CEO Caryn Seidman-Becker told Axios. “This is making airports great again, ahead of the World Cup.”

“It’s fully integrated. It’s one step. And the total transaction time should be between three and six seconds,” Seidman-Becker added.

The move will also free up CLEAR agents “to bring other services to travelers,” Seidman-Becker said.

The eGates are being fully funded by CLEAR, at no cost to taxpayers, the company said.

Only travelers with CLEAR+ memberships, which allow them to bypass lengthy security lines, will be able to access the eGates. A CLEAR+ membership costs $209 a year.

The new eGates will conduct real-time biometric verification to confirm travelers’ identities, meaning once travelers are verified, they can bypass the TSA podium and go straight to physical screening. They then take that biometric data, such as facial recognition, and compare it with a passport to check someone’s ID and let them through security.

The TSA will still have complete operational control over the eGates, including triggering gate access and enforcing government security requirements.

CLEAR says it has no access to “no-fly” watchlists, cannot override TSA gate decisions and does not manually open the gates. CLEAR and TSA agents will remain at the gates to help travelers.

The company says it only transmits limited data, such as the live photo, boarding pass and ID the traveler used for enrollment.

While for now, the eGates simply provide a shortcut to the luggage screening process, they will eventually be able to scan passengers fully via biometrics, according to The Points Guy.

“Our expectation is to roll this out nationwide and so that by the time the World Cup comes around next summer our airports are competing and leading with the airports around the world,” Seidman-Becker, the company’s CEO, said.

https://www.the-independent.com/travel/news-and-advice/egates-us-airports-clear-rollout

Source: The Hill, Filip Timotija
Photo: Greenland

Less than 1 in 5 Americans favor the U.S. annexing Canada and semiautonomous island Greenland, according to a survey released Tuesday.

The Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that 17 percent of U.S. adults favor Canada becoming the 51st state of the U.S., an idea President Trump has brought up several times since winning the 2024 presidential election. More than half of the respondents, 57 percent, are opposed to the potential expansion of the U.S.’s territory, while 26 percent said they were unsure.

Similar figures were discovered when respondents were asked about the possibility of Washington annexing Greenland, a foreign policy goal Trump talked about in his first term and has reiterated in the past few months. About 19 percent of Americans are in favor of the U.S. annexing Greenland, a mineral-rich island whose foreign policy and defense are overseen by Denmark. Nearly half of Americans, 49 percent, are opposed to the idea, while another third, 32 percent, were unsure, according to the survey.

Vice President Vance said he will travel to Greenland on Friday, a decision that came after officials in both Denmark and Greenland said they viewed the scheduled visit of his wife, second lady Usha Vance, as a provocation and part of Trump’s push to overtake the Arctic island.

“There was so much excitement around Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday, that I decided that I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself, and so I’m going to join her,” the vice president said Tuesday.

Usha Vance was set to travel with other U.S. officials as part of Washington’s delegation, and Greenland Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede said it is a part of a “very aggressive” pressure campaign “against Greenlandic society.”

Voters were split when asked if Trump has prioritized the most important issues in the first two months of his second term in the Oval Office: About 43 percent said the president has focused on the country’s “most important problems,” while 45 percent of Americans said the commander in chief has focused on issues “that aren’t very important.” Some 12 percent were not sure, according to the survey.

The poll was conducted March 20-24 among 1,677 U.S. adults. The margin of error was 2.7 percent.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5214199-less-than-1-in-5-favor-us-annexing-canada-greenland-survey

Source: The Guardian
Photo: The US and Canadian flags are pictured at Peace Arch Historical State Park in Blaine, Washington, on 5 March 2025. (Jason Redmond/AFP/Getty Images)

New requirement hardens enforcement of existing law that hasn’t been applied consistently to Canadians entering the United States

Canadians who visit the US for more than 30 days will be required to register with authorities and have their fingerprints taken, as the Trump administration tightens migration rules amid soaring tensions between the North American neighbors.

The new requirement, effective from 11 April, will harden enforcement of an existing law, which states that all foreign nationals 14 years old or older who plan to stay in the US for 30 days or more must register with the authorities.

In practice, that rule has not been applied consistently to Canadians entering the United States across the 5,525-mile land border between the two countries.

On his first day in office in January, Donald Trump signed an executive order directing US authorities to enforce the rule. “Failure to comply may result in criminal and civil penalties, up to and including misdemeanor prosecution, the imposition of fines, and incarceration,” the order said.

The move marks a further deterioration in ties between the historical allies since Trump returned to power. Trump has meanwhile repeatedly called for Canada to become the 51st US state – a taunt seen by some north of the border as an annexation threat.

The new rule was published on the Federal Registrar on Wednesday as fresh US tariffs of 25% came into effect on steel and aluminum – widely seen as a blow to Canada, which already faces a separate 25% levy on other goods. Canada, in turn, announced retaliatory tariffs on nearly C$30bn worth of American imports.

It will probably affect the estimated 900,000 Canadians – known colloquially as “snowbirds” – who spend winters in warmer southern US states such as Florida, Texas and South Carolina.

The Department of Homeland Security estimates that between 2.2 million and 3.2 million people will be affected by the new visitor registration rules.

The immigration attorney Rosanna Berardi said: “It’s important to clarify that this measure specifically impacts Canadian citizens crossing land borders who intend to remain in the United States for periods exceeding 30 days.

“Casual travelers visiting for tourism or shopping will not be affected. However, Canadian business professionals who regularly enter the US for extended assignments will now face these new registration requirements,” she told ABC, which first reported the new requirement.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/13/canada-fingerprint-visit-us

Source: Knowledge@Wharton, Nathi Magubane
Photo: Journalists holding microphones out to a politician to illustrate the issue of media bias.

Researchers from Wharton and Penn have developed a new tool to equip news consumers with a way to gauge bias in media.

The following article was originally published on Penn Today.

The 2024 U.S. presidential debates kicked off June 27, with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump sharing the stage for the first time in four years. Duncan Watts, a computational social scientist from the University of Pennsylvania, considers this an ideal moment to test a tool his lab has been developing during the last six months: the Media Bias Detector.

“The debates offer a real-time, high-stakes environment to observe and analyze how media outlets present and potentially skew the same event,” says Watts, a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor with appointments in the Annenberg School for Communication, School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Wharton School. “We wanted to equip regular people with a powerful, useful resource to better understand how major events, like this election, are being reported on.”

The Media Bias Detector uses artificial intelligence to analyze articles from major news publishers, categorizing them by topic, detecting events, and examining factors like tone, partisan lean, and fact selection.

Watts and a few members of his team at the Computational Social Science Lab (CSSLab) discuss their motivations for creating the Media Bias Detector, rationale for launching this tool ahead of the presidential debates, and key insights from the project.

What Sparked the Debate Around Media Narratives

Watts says the idea of the Detector has been brewing for years, long before he joined Penn in 2019, when he’d read articles on topics he happened to have expertise in and started to realize that “some of this is just complete hogwash,” he says.

“But that really got me thinking: What about the stuff that I don’t know about? Is that all just fine, and the only problematic information out there is just the stuff I happen to know about?’”

Watts also cites anecdotes from early in his career when he’d talk to reporters who clearly knew what they wanted to say before reporting the piece. “I’d offer a perspective that didn’t fit their preselected narrative, so they would just not quote me, which was kind of frustrating,” he says. “So, I think I’ve always had some concerns about how media can distort the world through the lens of presenting a particular set of facts in a particular order.”

But, as with many people, Watts says, “those concerns grew following the coverage of the 2016 election. It made me think that media bias might actually be a big problem, not just a nuisance in my little corner of the information landscape.”

To that end, Watts started investigating how some of the ways information related to the election and other global events circa 2016 were covered and began to see that media narratives about “misinformation,” “fake news,” and “echo chambers’ were in and of themselves misleading and in some instances “overblown.”

A recent study led by Watts from CSSLab published in Nature reviews years of behavioral science research on the effects of exposure to false and radical online content online, and finds that such exposure is minimal for most, save the most extreme people.

In the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, Watts says, many people maligned the echo chambers they believed they saw taking over social media. People with like-minded friends were all sharing content online with the same political bent, amplifying a singular set of messages and leading to greater polarization overall.

However, according to research led by Watts, just 4% of Americans actually fell into such echo chambers online. But the number for television was much higher, with 17% of people in the U.S. consuming TV news from only partisan left- or right-leaning sources, news diets they tend to maintain month over month.

These experiences led Watts to believe there was a problem with how media presents information, but it seemed out of reach to build something that could consolidate news articles in real time with a high degree of granularity and let people know where the biases were.

“The methods that could do this sort of classification at scale didn’t work sufficiently well until the latest generation of large language models (LLMs) arrived towards the end of 2022,” Watts says. “The popularization of OpenAI’s ChatGPT truly changed the game and made it possible for our team to design the Detector around OpenAI’s GPT infrastructure.”

Leveraging LLMs to Build the Media Bias Detector

Playing crucial roles in leveraging these LLMs to build the Detector were Samar Haider, a fourth-year PhD student in the School of Engineering and Applied Science; Amir Tohidi, a postdoctoral researcher in the CSSLab; and Yuxuan Zhang, the lab’s data scientist.

Haider, who focuses on the intersection of natural language processing and computational social science, explains that the team “gives GPT the article and asks it to say which of a list of topics it belongs to and, for events, to compare the meaning or semantic similarity of the text.”

To manage this massive influx of data, the team developed its own pipeline.

“We then break the process into two parts: categorizing articles by topics using GPT and clustering articles into events using a sliding window approach to compare their text,” Tohidi says. “This method allows the Detector to not only label articles accurately but also to detect emerging topics and events in real time.”

However, Tohidi says human judgment remains a critical component of their system. Every week, research assistants read a subset of articles to verify GPT’s labels, ensuring they maintain high accuracy and can adjust for any errors they may encounter along the way.

“We’re currently scraping 10 major news websites every few hours and pulling the top 10 articles, which is a few hundred articles per publisher per day, and processing all of that data. We’re planning to increase it to the top 30 articles for our future versions to better represent media coverage. It’s a massive task,” Zhang says, “but it’s essential for keeping the tool up to date and reliable.”

Understanding the Biases in Media Coverage

Haider notes that in building the tool he has come to appreciate the power of biases in language, such as when the same set of facts can convey different messages depending on how writers use them.

“It’s just incredibly fascinating to see how these subtle differences in the way you can report on an event, like how you put sentences together or the words you can use, can lead to changes for the reader that journalists might not realize because of their own biases,” Haider says. “It’s not just about detecting bias but understanding how these subtle cues can influence the reader’s perception.”

Watts says that, while the current version of the Detector doesn’t have this feature integrated yet, he, too, has come to see how much of an impact small decisions in reporting can have.

He notes that in watching how this component can take in the facts and generate articles, some with a positive spin and others negative, “it is a little spooky to see how much you can alter things without lying. But it’s also potentially a really cool feature that can write differently biased synthetic articles about events on the fly.”

Watts says that there is no shortage of people who love to criticize journalists and that he isn’t trying to add fuel to the fire or create an AI tool to replace reporters. Rather, he and the CSSLab have created the Media Bias Detector in recognition of the importance of journalism.

“Journalists are crucial, as the fourth estate,” Watts says. “We want this tool to hold up a data-driven mirror to current journalistic practices, both good and bad, and to help the public and journalists themselves better understand the biases present in media coverage.”

He emphasizes the importance of high-quality journalism in democratic societies and hopes the Detector will help improve transparency and accountability in news reporting.

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/this-media-bias-detector-analyzes-top-news-reports-in-real-time

Source: Los Angeles Times, Terry Castleman
Photo: People run in a snow-covered park in Hoboken, N.J., with a view of the lower Manhattan skyline. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)

After a half decade of Californians moving to places like Texas and Florida, an unlikely state has been supplying California with new residents.

New Jersey, a similarly expensive and densely populated state, saw more residents move to California than the other way around in 2022 — a rarity amid the state’s population exodus. It was one of only eight states to be part of a reverse exodus phenomenon, and the state with the largest net number of transplants to California.

Among those moving from the Garden State to the Golden State was Korri Sammad, 26, who made the move from South Orange, N.J., to Los Angeles in 2021 to pursue his performance art career.

He moved with $1,200 in his pocket. “I didn’t have a job or anything, I just tried to figure it out,” he said. Jobs included serving at a Dave and Buster’s restaurant, then working at strip clubs, where his job “was to rake up money for the female dancers.”

After nine months in Los Angeles, Sammad moved in with a cousin in Hayward. Since then, he’s been working and performing, primarily rapping at gay bars up and down the West Coast. “I had like 25 shows in one year,” he said. “I’ve definitely gotten a lot more access being in California.”

Though Sammad misses “the vibe of the people” in New Jersey, where he thinks people move faster because of the cold, he believes that California has changed his life and perspective. He plans to stay.

In recent years, California has experienced a net exodus to most other states, with experts attributing the population shift primarily to California’s high housing costs. But a handful of states have bucked that trend, sending transplants into the Golden State at a time when more people are moving out. New Jersey, one of the nation’s most densely populated states, has recently recorded the biggest net exodus of residents moving to California.

In 2022, the so-called California exodus resulted in 818,000 Californians leaving for other states, while 476,000 moved in, resulting in a total domestic loss of 342,000 in the Golden State.

The exodus was highlighted by the droves who left for Texas. The five states that saw the most net arrivals from California — Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Florida and Idaho — each had between 20,000 and 60,000 more people arrive than leave for the Golden State.

Long Beach, CA – Motor traffic stacks up at the intersection of Wardlow Road and the 405 Freeway in Long Beach as the sun sets behind a reddish veil of smog on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023, just days ahead of the autumn equinox, which marks the last day of summer. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

By contrast, the eight states that were net contributors to California’s population added to a net contribution under 15,000 people. In other words, the size of the net exodus to each state has been much larger than the number of transplants moving into California.

More than 13,000 New Jerseyans moved to California in 2022, and fewer than 7,000 Californians moved to New Jersey. The net migration into California — nearly 7,000 people — was the highest of any state. Illinois was second, with net in-migration to California of around 4,000 people.

Nebraska, with 2,000 more leaving for California than arriving, was the third highest.

In total, 41 of 49 states saw more Californian arrivals than departures for the Golden State.

New Jersey, Illinois and Nebraska were biggest contributors to California’s population in 2022
Map showing numbers of people who moved to each U.S. state from California in 2022.

Typically, experts point to the state’s housing and affordability crisis as the primary driver of migration decisions.

However, New Jerseyans face “many of the same problems that Californians do in terms of cost of living and taxes,” said Ashley Koning, assistant research professor and director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University–New Brunswick.

In a 2023 poll, one-third of New Jersey residents polled said they would want to leave New Jersey if given the chance, she said, adding that she was surprised that those leaving would go somewhere that is “certainly not a cost savings by any means.”

Koning listed several possibilities as to why residents of her home state might make the move.

“It could be something as simple as the weather,” she theorized. “We experience all four seasons like many parts of California don’t.”

The polling suggests “it could very well be a move among millennials and younger adults,” Koning said. Similar lack of affordability across the two states suggested that “this is more about ambiance and atmosphere and potentially job opportunities” in tech, she said.

Cost of living was not a factor in Sammad’s move. Hayward is an exurb of San Francisco, much like South Orange is an exurb of New York, and costs are comparable, he said.

“The gas prices are crazy, but other than that everything is pretty much the same cost,” he said.

The rapper plans to move back to Los Angeles this summer. “I want to be seen, I want to be out there,” he said. “California is the perfect place for me to do that.

“I didn’t grow up on a beach, or around palm trees,” Sammad said, and now that he’s gotten a taste of the West Coast he’s realized it’s the right place for him. “This is my new home for sure.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-02-29/amid-california-exodus-new-jerseyans-continue-to-move-to-the-golden-state

Source: Amtrak
Photo: Amtrak

By attracting new riders, serving new communities and transforming passenger rail, Amtrak aims to double ridership by 2040

Amtrak is advancing several key initiatives in 2024 as part of the railroad’s ambitious goal of doubling annual ridership to 66 million by Fiscal Year 2040 (FY40). Building significant momentum in 2024, Amtrak plans to progress substantially on these goals.

“Amtrak has rebounded from the pandemic and is growing again as part of our plan to double ridership by 2040,” said Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner. “With funding from the infrastructure bill in hand, we and our partners are transforming intercity passenger rail across the country in a big way.”

Amtrak is advancing historic infrastructure investments that will, with the help of partners, launch new and expanded services, advance safety and reliability, improve accessibility, drive economic development and enhance the customer experience.

“Amtrak is working on two overarching objectives in 2024 – improving passenger train service for our customers and efficiently and effectively carrying out a massive major infrastructure capital program aimed to modernize and upgrade our infrastructure, stations, fleet and technology,” said Amtrak President Roger Harris. “As both a passenger rail service provider and a major construction company, we are quickly growing and evolving to deliver on both.”

Following strong growth in FY23, Amtrak plans to continue making strides in 2024 towards this ambitious goal of doubling ridership by 2040:

ADVANCING INFRASTRUCTURE

Investing roughly $5.5 billion in Amtrak’s largest ever annual capital program to modernize trains, enhance stations, tunnels and bridges, and upgrade critical infrastructure; this includes the Frederick Douglass Tunnel Program and East River Tunnel Rehab Project

Continuing construction for major Northeast Corridor projects, including the Portal North Bridge and Hudson Tunnel Projects and advancing Sawtooth Bridges Replacement and Dock Bridge Rehab projects, all in coordination with the Gateway Development Commission and partners in New York and New Jersey

Advancing megaprojects including the Chicago Hub Improvement Program, New York Penn Station Expansion and Washington Union Station Redevelopment; Amtrak is also supporting partners to improve future service, including Penn Station Access in New York, the Long Bridge Project in Virginia, and Compass Rail in Massachusetts

DRIVING TRANSFORMATION

Advancing initial New Acela service; achieving key milestones for Amtrak Airo where the first trainset will be nearly fully built by the end of 2024 and prepared for testing; and selecting proposals to begin replacing Amtrak’s Long Distance fleet

Furthering Amtrak’s lead in low carbon emissions AND taking steps toward Net-Zero; progressing Amtrak’s National Network Climate Vulnerability Assessment and Resilience Strategic Plan, engaging suppliers on carbon reduction goals, and advancing towards our target of 100% electric vehicle fleet by 2035

Continue maturing Amtrak’s industry leading Safety Management System with a focus on driving performance, establishing an engaged and accountable culture, and improving resilience

GROWING THE BUSINESS

Providing great service – and more of it by working with states to develop new and expanded service through the FRA’s Corridor ID Program; this includes twice-daily service between New Orleans and Mobile and extending the Hiawatha from Milwaukee to St. Paul

Continue implementing a customer-centric pricing structure nationwide in collaboration with states to drive revenue and ridership growth

DELIGHTING CUSTOMERS

Increasing Food and Beverage service with more offerings that our customers want, including a significant makeover to the Acela Cafe menu

Making big investments in talent and training for frontline teams – with an emphasis on customer service as part of a new World Class training program

Continue advancing accessibility to improve services, communications, equipment, and experiences for customers with disabilities while making stations accessible through Amtrak’s robust Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Stations Programs

EMPOWERING PEOPLE

Hiring more than 3,500 new employees to rebuild existing infrastructure and meet the growing demand for passenger rail

Implementing a Connected Workforce that transforms team collaboration, improves digital engagement and enables better decision-making leveraging real-time data; this includes upgrading the HR Information System that offers employees self-service tools, data analytics, dashboards and expands mobile devices and apps used by our staff

Advancing Amtrak’s Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging strategy while expanding Total Rewards Offerings to help retain and recruit the best talent

https://media.amtrak.com/2024/01/ambitious-2024-initiatives-propel-amtrak-ridership-growth

Source: Architectural Digest, Amelia Mularz
Photo: Getty Images

Did your city make the cut?

Each year U.S. News & World Report releases a list of the Best Places to Live in the US. These top-rated cities always include a few big players, like Boston and San Francisco, as well as some surprises, like Green Bay, Wisconsin, landing the #1 spot. To determine the best cities, U.S. News considers a multitude of factors, including quality of life, the local job market, value for your money, and the place’s desirability. And while we agree that all these factors are important in determining where to live in America, we’d also throw access to art and design into the mix. That’s why we used the U.S. News list as a jumping off point—zeroing in on the top 75 and picking the 15 best places to live for design lovers.

What is the #1 US city?

As mentioned above, Green Bay, Wisconsin, earned top honors in the U.S. News list thanks to its big-city conveniences and small-town vibes. While we can appreciate a city with a sufficient number of old-school supper clubs, the competition was steep when we factored in design-centric amenities, so we didn’t include Green Bay in our list. However, fellow Wisconsin cities Madison and Milwaukee are in our top 15.

What city is #1 quality of life?

U.S. News determines quality of life based on factors that matter to Americans most, including crime rates, quality of education, and quality and availability of health care. Ann Arbor, Michigan, nabbed the highest score for quality of life, with Boulder, Colorado (in our design list), a close second.

Where is the nicest place to live in the US with affordable housing?

As part of its value assessment, U.S. News examined each city’s median annual household compared to home prices in the area. As you’ll see in our list, good design and affordable real estate aren’t mutually exclusive.

What is the #1 place to live in the US for design lovers?

Focusing on the cream of the crop, the top 75 out of 150 from the U.S. News list, we chose our top 15 based on access to museums, art, cultural institutions, and top-notch architecture. We also considered which cities best fuel creative energy and make the best places to live for designers, artists, and innovators.

Boulder, Colorado
U.S. News & World Report ranking: #4

Boulder nabbed a top-five ranking in the U.S. News list thanks to its high quality of life. That’s due in large part to its natural beauty—towering mountains, awe-inspiring canyons, and rushing waters inspire hiking, biking, fly-fishing and a number of other outdoor pursuits. Boulder even has an annual Tube to Work Day. But the city is no slouch in the arts department either, with galleries, literary festivals, and a First Friday and Second Saturday art walk every month. A recent report even ranked Boulder in the top ten most vibrant arts communities among medium-size US communities.

Sarasota, Florida
U.S. News & World Report ranking: #5

It’s possible to hit the beach and the ballet in the same day in Sarasota, a coastal city that stands apart from other beachy spots in Florida for its buzzing arts scene. In addition to a critically acclaimed ballet company, Sarasota has an opera company and contemporary theater company. At The Ringling—home to an art museum, circus museum, gardens, and a 56-room 1920s mansion that’s open to the public for tours—admission is free each Monday. And while Sarasota used to have a reputation for only attracting retirees, the city’s Rosemary District has been luring young professionals with a slew of new apartment buildings. Within the same area, the Sarasota Design District has become a hub for architects, furniture makers, and interior designers.

Madison, Wisconsin
U.S. News & World Report ranking: #11

The capital of the Dairy State is a thriving food hub where spots like Fromagination—a local cheesemonger—and the Dane County Farmers’ Market stock some of the Midwest’s best bounties. And with the University of Wisconsin-Madison in town, the city is also an intellectual gathering ground. Architectural enthusiasts can visit multiple buildings designed by the Wisconsin-born Frank Lloyd Wright nearby. Both the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center and the Unitarian Meeting House host tours regularly, and the Seth Peterson Cottage—about an hour north—is available for overnight stays.

Boise, Idaho
U.S. News & World Report ranking: #12

One of Boise’s biggest draws—in addition to its hiking, biking, and river surfing—is its affordability. Compared to other cities in the Pacific Northwest, such as Seattle and Portland, Boise offers much more bang for your housing buck. And culturally speaking, it has the chops to lure both San Franciscans and Angelenos from the Golden State. The Opera Idaho, Idaho Dance Theatre, Boise Philharmonic, Boise Art Museum, and Ballet Idaho are all based here.

Grand Rapids, Michigan
U.S. News & World Report ranking: #20

Not only does Michigan’s second-largest city have 1,200 acres of public parks, over 100 colorful murals, and public sculptures like La Grande Vitesse, it also has housing costs that fall below the national median. And furnishing that affordable house could be a design lover’s dream, considering one of the local furniture companies is Herman Miller. In fact, Grand Rapids has a long history of fostering furniture innovation and even earned the nickname Furniture City. Today, Grand Rapids Public Museum is home to a collection of over 2,000 historically significant pieces of furniture.

Asheville, North Carolina
U.S. News & World Report ranking: #29

Hundreds of artists create and showcase their work in the studios and galleries of Asheville’s River Arts District, an area that has the nickname Paris of the South. As for where all these painters, potters, jewelers, and woodworkers might live, Asheville has an abundance of Arts and Crafts–style homes. But its most famous residence is the French Renaissance Biltmore Estate, which was George Vanderbilt’s 250-room castle and is considered the largest home in America.

Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minnesotta
U.S. News & World Report ranking: #35

Mall of America may be the most famous shopping destination in the area, but design-loving denizens of the Twin Cities have plenty of other artsy outposts to shop for homewares. Arlee Park is stocked with carefully curated vintage decor, while The Foundry Home Goods and Golden Age Design are filled with fresh accessories and furniture. If it’s inspiration you’re after, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Walker Art Center, and Minneapolis Sculpture Garden are the places to be.

Savannah, Georgia
U.S. News & World Report ranking: #37

America’s Hostess City of the South, also known as the country’s first planned city, has the winning combo of small-town charm with a big history of showstopping architecture. In fact, more than 40% of 2,500 buildings inventoried here have architectural or historical significance. Plus, thanks in large part to the Savannah College of Art and Design, preservation is a top priority. Spot everything from Federal- to Gothic Revival– to Regency-style buildings in this southern city, and consider owning your own piece of the architectural pie. Finding a low-cost home is possible here, as the median home price is below the national average.

Austin, Texas
U.S. News & World Report ranking: #40

Job opportunities in tech, education, and health care abound in Austin, as do activities for the design-loving crowd. Museums in town include The Contemporary Austin, the Blanton Museum of Art, and the Mexic-Arte Museum. The last in that list is located in Austin’s bustling Warehouse District, where old warehouses have been ingeniously redesigned to host restaurants, bars, and shops. Twice a year, the arts nonprofit Big Medium coordinates studio tours, offering a peek behind the creative curtains of nearly 500 local artists and makers.

San Francisco, California
U.S. News & World Report ranking: #45

It probably won’t surprise anyone to hear that San Francisco is expensive. But what it lacks in low-cost living, it more than makes up for in artistic appeal. In fact, analysis done last year determined that SF tops the list of Most Artsy Cities in America, with “the most art museums, theaters, music venues, cultural centers, art supply stores, and music shops per square mile” of all the cities on the list. And despite the metro area’s high cost of living, San Francisco still attracts a variety of residents, including everyone from students to tech wizzes to scores of graphic designers.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
U.S. News & World Report ranking: #47

Steel City can’t seem to shake its old industrial reputation. But that’s good for anyone looking to buy a home here. Housing prices are still cheaper than in other major US cities, though residents report they have been creeping up in the last couple years. What the wider world doesn’t quite know yet is that Pittsburgh, Andy Warhol’s hometown, has slowly morphed into a vibrant cultural center. Get an eyeful of art at the Andy Warhol Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, and Mattress Factory (set in, you guessed it, a former mattress factory), then catch a show at Heinz Hall, home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Charleston, South Carolina
U.S. News & World Report ranking: #53

With over 2,800 historically significant buildings in town, you’re likely to pass head-turning architecture each time you so much as run to the grocery store. Plus, in Charleston it’s not only individual buildings that have been preserved, but entire neighborhoods, like Rainbow Row—a stretch of pastel-hued houses built in the 18th century. But this level of top-notch architecture comes with a price tag, and homes in this part of the country are more expensive than the national average.

Nashville, Tennessee
U.S. News & World Report ranking: #61

Music City is clearly a hub for entertainment, and all that creative energy spills into other fields, like fashion and the culinary arts. As U.S. News points out, there’s a thirst for handmade and artisanal everything here, from “marshmallows to small-batch gin.” There’s also an appetite for interior design, thanks to both a growing job market attracting new residents and thriving tourism driving a boutique hotel boom in recent years. Giving New York City and Los Angeles a run for their money, Nashville has quickly become a must-watch city for designers.

Atlanta, Georgia
U.S. News & World Report ranking: #64

The ever-expanding tech hub of the Southeast, Atlanta has welcomed new offices from tech giants like Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft. And like Nashville, Georgia’s capital also landed on our list of four cities designers must watch. When innovation flourishes so does a desire for design, as evidenced by the success of the Atlanta Design Festival, which launched in 2007 and brings exhibitions, expert panels, and architecture tours to the community. The city is also home to the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center, which has 50 showrooms and the region’s largest collection of luxury furnishings for residential, hospitality, and contract projects.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin
U.S. News & World Report ranking: #65

Milwaukee’s skyline includes an iconic museum designed by Santiago Calatrava. Photo: Getty Images
Milwaukee has the winning combo of historical architecture and a cost of living that’s lower than other major US metropolitan areas. The Midwestern city made our own list of The 8 Most Unexpected Places to See World-Class Architecture in the US, with the Quadracci Pavilion at the Milwaukee Art Museum (designed by Santiago Calatrava), the Renaissance-style Basilica of St. Josaphat, and the six homes that make up Frank Lloyd Wright’s Burnham Block among its most notable structures.

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/best-places-to-live-in-the-us

Source: SF Gate, Gary Fields and Linley Sanders
Photo: FILE – Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, House Judiciary chairman and staunch ally of Donald Trump, meets with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. The Republican dysfunction that has ground business in the U.S. House to a halt as two wars rage abroad and a budget crisis looms at home is contributing to a deep loss of faith in American institutions. The pessimism extends beyond Congress, with recent polling showing a widespread mistrust in everything from the courts to organized religion. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

For many Americans, the Republican dysfunction that has ground business in the U.S. House to a halt as two wars rage abroad and a budget crisis looms at home is feeding into a longer-term pessimism about the country’s core institutions.

The lack of faith extends beyond Congress, with recent polling conducted both before and after the leadership meltdown finding a mistrust in everything from the courts to organized religion. The GOP internal bickering that for nearly three weeks has left open the speaker’s position — second in line to the presidency — is widely seen as the latest indication of deep problems with the nation’s bedrock institutions.

“They’re holding up the people’s business because they’re so dysfunctional,” said Christopher Lauff, 57, of Fargo, North Dakota.

Part of that business, he said, is approving money for Ukraine to continue its fight against Russia’s invasion, something he says ultimately helps the U.S. — a point President Joe Biden stressed Thursday during an Oval Office address.

“We’re usually the knight in shining armor, but we can’t be that now,” said Lauff, a Democrat.

The disdain for Congress is just one area where Americans say they are losing faith. Various polls say the negative feelings include a loss of confidence or interest in institutions such as organized religion, policing, the Supreme Court, even banking.

“Trust in institutions has deteriorated substantially,” said Kay Schlozman, professor of political science at Boston College. Schlozman said she believes in government and the things it provides, such as national defense and access to health care, but “I also can very much understand why the American people can be cynical about government.”

The turmoil in the House and the federal case against Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who is facing charges for bribery, show that both major parties are contributing to the dour outlook.

The House has been without a permanent leader since early October after a small cadre of right-wing Republicans pushed out a member of their own party, then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Subsequent attempts to replace him have failed.

“That is an example of exactly the kind of thing that I would say can’t foster trust of government among the American people — the multiple votes, the fractiousness within parties, of people being personally ambitious and not being willing to compromise” Schlozman said.

About half of adults (53%) say they have “hardly any confidence at all” in the people running Congress, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that was conducted in October. That’s in line with 49% who said that in March. Just 3% have a great deal of confidence in Congress, virtually unchanged from March.

About 4 in 10 adults (39%) have hardly any confidence in the executive branch of the federal government, compared with 44% in March. Most Republicans (56%) have low levels of confidence in the executive branch — which is overseen by a member of the opposing party, Democrat Joe Biden — compared with just 20% of Democrats.

About a third of adults (36%) say they have hardly any confidence in the conservative-majority Supreme Court, a figure that has remained steady in recent months. The polling reinforces that Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say their confidence in the Supreme Court is low. Black Americans are more likely than Americans overall, as well as more likely than white or Hispanic adults, to have hardly any confidence in the nation’s highest court.

One-third of U.S. adults (33%) continue to have low levels of confidence in the Justice Department, with Republicans having less confidence than Democrats. This comes as former President Donald Trump rails against the department after being charged with mishandling classified documents and attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Rick Cartelli, 63, a health care worker in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, who identifies as an independent, said he is happy with his local and state government but the current environment, especially the chaos on Capitol Hill, has wiped out what little confidence he had in that institution.

“What is happening now is not good for the country at all,” he said.

Cartelli also said he has little confidence in the executive branch, citing what he says are “mental lapses” by Biden that “are only probably going to become more and more pronounced.”

Multiple AP-NORC polls from earlier this year find that the dearth of confidence is pervasive, spreading to organized religion, the government’s intelligence gathering and diplomatic agencies, as well as financial institutions. Slightly fewer than half (45%) in a study from AP-NORC and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights said they have little or no confidence that the news media is reporting news fully, accurately and fairly.

Views on the military were best, with just 17% saying they have hardly any confidence in it.

Kathleen Kersey, a 32-year-old health care worker in Brunswick, Georgia, who is a Republican, said she has little confidence in any of the federal entities, including Congress, but has more for the institutions closer to home. She also is a fan of Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, who she said is a moral man.

“There’s only so much one person can do, and just with all the evil, it’s hard to have confidence in anything really, even the churches because everything works together as one,” she said.

Confidence in the country’s foundational institutions has ebbed and flowed historically, though there’s been a long-term downward trend since at least the 1970s. Trust in government waned in the era of Watergate and the Pentagon Papers before making a slight recovery during Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the 1980s — despite Reagan’s famous declaration that the nine most terrifying words in the English language were: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

David Bateman, an associate professor of government at Cornell University, said the tea party movement during former President Barack Obama’s term was the beginning of a steadier decline in confidence, as noted in polling from Gallup. But Bateman believes the most acute problem in recent years has been Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, despite dozens of courts rejecting his claims and multiple audits and reviews in the swing states where he disputed his loss.

“The biggest threat to trust in institutions was the Trump campaign’s refusal to concede the election and insistence that they had won,” along with a large segment of the Republicans in Congress going along with the claim in the certification process, Bateman said.

“That validated the idea that the whole institutional system is rigged, which it isn’t,” he said.

He said an example of the fallout is the Republican attack on the Justice Department, including the FBI. The “weaponization” of the FBI has been a battle cry for Republicans who maintain it has targeted conservatives and who are incensed at the various investigations of Trump. Candidates vying against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination have said they would fire FBI Director Chris Wray.

Distrust of the FBI had long been the purview of Democrats, especially those aware of civil rights-era monitoring.

“If you told me in 2000 that Republicans are going to be saying you can’t trust the FBI, I would have been shocked,” Bateman said. “Going after the FBI has been a real ratcheting up of distrust.”

The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/americans-faith-in-institutions-has-been-sliding

Source: Today.com, Alex Portée
Photo: Women+ Connect is Lyft’s new feature that aims to connect women and nonbinary riders and drivers. (Lyft)

Lyft says it is ramping up its efforts to provide women and nonbinary users worry-free rides, whether they’re the rider or the driver.

On Sept. 12, the ride-hailing company shared that it will roll out a new feature called Women+ Connect, that gives women and nonbinary riders the ability to request women and nonbinary riders.

“Just for your own peace of mind, the ability to choose a woman driver might be exactly the thing that allows you to say, you know what, yeah, this really is making my life better,” Lyft CEO David Risher told NBC’s Savannah Sellers in an exclusive interview that aired on TODAY.

Risher said in a press release that this feature gives women and nonbinary people “the opportunity to earn money on their terms.”

In the release, Lyft says that while women make up nearly half of the demographic of its riders, only 23% of its drivers are women. It says that by giving women and nonbinary drivers the option to be more selective when it comes to who they’re matched with, the company is creating an environment that allows women and nonbinary drivers to feel more “confident.”

Here’s what we know about Women+ Connect, the new Lyft feature working to give women and nonbinary users more control.

How does Women+ Connect work?

According to Lyft, the feature will exclusively roll out for early access in Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose. The company says it will soon roll out the Women+ Connect feature in more cities.

Drivers will have the ability to edit a preference in the Lyft app that prioritizes matching them with other women and nonbinary riders. The press release notes that this is an added feature and shouldn’t be looked at as a guarantee, so if no women or nonbinary riders are requesting rides at that point in time, the rider will be matched with men.

Can riders request female drivers on Lyft?

While users will not be able to request female drivers on Lyft exclusively, the Women+ Connect feature will allow riders to select a preference feature in the Lyft app that will increase their chances of being connected with a woman or nonbinary driver.

When the feature rolls out in a new city, women and nonbinary riders will receive a prompt in the app to select “Count me in.” The option will increase their chances of matching with women and nonbinary drivers, according to Lyft’s press release.

All users will be able to update their preferences at any time and have the opportunity to opt out of the feature in their settings.

How safe is Lyft for passengers and drivers?

Ride-sharing apps, including Uber, have proven to come with risks for both riders and drivers.

https://www.today.com/news/lyft-women-connect

Source: World, Eric Patterson
Photo: Martin Luther King Jr., delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech on Aug. 28, 1963, during the March on Washington. (Associated Press Photo, file)

“I have a dream. … Let freedom ring!” These words, spoken by Martin Luther King, Jr., were immortalized on August 28, 1963 before a crowd of more than 200,000 people on the National Mall. The hope that drew people to Washington that day, according to King, was to make good on a long-delayed promissory note from the Founding Fathers, a promise of freedom and justice for all. After 60 years, King’s words are a reminder and inspiration for us as well.

In 1963, legislation to end segregation that would ultimately become the Civil Rights Act of 1964 seemed to be stalled. It had been two decades since African Americans had fought valiantly in World War II and 15 years since President Harry Truman ended segregation in the military. It had been almost a decade since the landmark Brown v. Board of Education had dismantled segregated schooling. It had been nearly a decade since the murder of the young Emmett Till, who was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered at the age of 14. The nation was shocked as his mother allowed photos of his mutilated corpse to circulate.

By August 1963 a young Democrat president had been in office for two and a half years, but he seemed to only give lip service to civil rights, so something had to be done: A March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was announced. In an era in which many homes in the South did not have a telephone or a radio, word spread in churches, by word of mouth, and via broadcast announcements on loudspeakers mounted on the tops of cars.

No one knew for certain whether crowds would come to demonstrate the depth and energy of the Civil Rights Movement. An all-star cast of civil rights leaders was assembled to speak that day on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, opera star Marian Anderson, and folk icons such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan performed. A Jewish rabbi joined the other speakers including John Lewis (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee), Roy Wilkins (NAACP), and the white president of the United Auto Workers, Walter Reuther. A group of volunteers from New York assembled 80,000 cheese sandwiches for the participants. Providentially the weather was unusually mild with a temperature around 80 degrees, which was particularly helpful for the many participants who arrived in their Sunday best.

The speakers denounced the slow pace of progress towards equality in the country, usually using biblical language in their calls for justice. However, it was King’s address that has gone down as an inspiration, not just for that day, but for the ages. King began by noting that the Founding Fathers talked about all men being created equal and established a constitution that had not been equally applied to minorities. He called this a “promissory note” from the Founders. He observed, “Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.”

Moments before King went on stage, Mahalia Jackson told him to “… tell them about the dream.” She was referring to some of his previous speeches where he had envisioned a colorblind, prosperous America. King extemporaneously added the dream language to his existing speech text.

“I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”

King’s speech rang with biblical references to charity and justice. This language is not a form of bland civil religion using symbolic imagery, but rather biblical truth searing of the American conscience, particularly in the television age, when Americans had to confront the brutality and sin of the American South. King provided an alternative a vision of the country where there was healing and reconciliation; but first, freedom and equality must be guaranteed for all.

King concluded with another refrain that he made famous, “Let freedom ring.” He argued that when his dream was realized, it “…will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning: My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. …Let freedom ring…And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring!”

And when we allow freedom to ring, … we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.”

Eric Patterson
Eric Patterson is president of the Religious Freedom Institute in Washington, D.C., and past dean of the School of Government at Regent University. He is the author or editor of more than 20 books, including Just American Wars, Politics in a Religious World, and Ending Wars Well.

https://wng.org/opinions/let-freedom-ring-1693196439