Author: Alex Trent

American fast food giant McDonald’s has reported a worldwide drop in sales in its latest Q2 earnings report, the first such drop in 13 quarters. This sales drop comes amid recent high levels of inflation that have continued to keep prices high, changing the spending behavior of its low-income customers who are trying to secure better deals. Q2 Earnings Source: energepic.com/Pexels On Monday, the McDonald’s Corporation announced its Q2 results, which ended on June 30. Notably among these results, McDonald’s revealed that global comparable sales decreased by 1%, and sales in the United States fell by 0.7%. Acknowledging Hardships Source:…

Elizabeth Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, gave an interview with CNN on Sunday asserting that the Supreme Court is now an institution that is causing harm to democracy. Warren’s comments encapsulated the feelings of many in the wake of recent controversial rulings from the court. Her comments also came just before President Joe Biden announced change proposals to the Supreme Court on Monday. Jumping the Guardrails Source: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons On CNN’s State of The Union, Warren railed against the Supreme Court’s decision about presidential immunity, seeing it as enabling executive dictators. “Right now, we have a Supreme Court that…

A resident of Star County, Texas is suing prosecutors and the local sheriff after being charged with murder in a case that was eventually dismissed. The Texas woman alleges that hospital staff provided information to prosecutors after she attempted her own abortion, leading to the faulty murder charge and her spending two days in jail.  Seeking Damages Source: Engin Akyurt/Unsplash Lizelle Gonzalez has filed a lawsuit against two district attorneys, the Starr County Sherriff, and Starr County itself seeking over $1 million in damages. Gonzalez’s lawsuit alleges that these parties violated her Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process. Incomplete Abortion…

The oldest federal judge in the United States is battling to continue to serve in her position against her fellow justices who have voiced “serious concerns” about an alleged mental health decline. This judge has been refusing to cooperate with demands to submit to medical testing, which may cause an earlier suspension she was previously on to be extended. US Circuit Judge Source: Pete Souza/Wikimedia Commons Pauline Newman is a US Circuit Judge appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1984. Judge Newman is 97 years old, making her the oldest federal judge in the country. Before her judge appointment, she worked…

Last month, the US Supreme Court reached a landmark decision to allow governments to penalize their homeless population for sleeping outside and setting up camps in public spaces. Now, a flurry of actions is being enacted to sweep up these camps in several different states including California, Washington, and Iowa. Gavin Newsom Source: Charlie Nguyen/Wikimedia Commons This week, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order with the purpose of encouraging cities in the state to start sweeping up any homeless camps deemed dangerous. People living in these camps were to be given only a 48-hour notice before they had…

Governor Gretchen Whitmer has approved a $23.4 billion education spending plan that is part of Michigan’s new state budget and aims to provide free schooling for many residents. Some have criticized the plan for its investment in some areas while cutting school safety funding, mental health funding, and diverting funds away from the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System (MPSERS). Education Key to Growth Source: Alexander Grey/Unsplash Whitmer spoke in Flint, Michigan this week discussing the state’s efforts to invest in education. “As you all know, education is the key to growth: economic growth, community growth, personal growth. A good…

On Thursday, the Ohio Supreme Court handed down a ruling siding against a restaurant patron who sued after medical complications resulting from getting a bone stuck in his throat after consuming “boneless wings.” In a divided 4-3 ruling, the court said that boneless wings are a “cooking style” and that a reasonable person should expect chickens to have bones and take precautions when consuming them. Court Ruling Source: Katrin Bolovtsova/Pexels The court ruling was split between Republican and Democrat justices on the Ohio Supreme Court. Republicans thought it was reasonable for customers to expect bones in wings. “There is no…

A new DEI alternative movement called “MEI” has been picking up steam in the wake of it being endorsed by tech billionaire Elon Musk last month. MEI stands for Merit, Excellence, and Intelligence and is being seen as a response to DEI which stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Hiring for MEI Source: Alexandr Wang/X In a viral X post back in June, CEO of Scale AI Alexandr Wang shared a codified MEI hiring policy that ran counter to DEI principles and was seen over 5 million times. “Today we’ve formalized an important hiring policy at Scale. We hire for…

A new bill signed into law by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has outlawed what some call the “gay and trans panic defense” which allowed the use of the victim’s sexual orientation and gender identity by the accused as a legal defense in a criminal trial. This defense has been used effectively in high-profile cases in America’s history to reduce or eliminate the sentences the defendant would have received in murder cases where the victim was alleged to be gay or has threatened a gay act. House Bill 4718 Source: Farragutful/Wikimedia Governor Whitmer signed House Bill 4718 into law on Tuesday…

July 24, 2024, marked the 15th straight year that the federal minimum wage in the United States has remained at $7.25 per hour. Minimum wage activists did not let this anniversary go by quietly, and some are renewing demands to push for a higher federal wage. During the Obama Years Source: BarackObama/X Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, took to X on Wednesday to advocate for a higher minimum wage on the anniversary of its last raise. “A lot’s changed since July 24, 2009. Barack Obama was president. Netflix was still mailing out DVDs in red envelopes.…