Author: Alex Trent

US restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill may face a formal complaint from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after the agency determined that union worker claims against the restaurant have merit. Michigan union employees at Chipotle have accused the restaurant of denying them pay raises that other employees got after they became the first employees of the company to unionize. Employee Union Missvain/Wikimedia In 2022, workers at a Chipotle restaurant in Lansing, Michigan voted to form the company’s first union with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. “Today’s victory is an amazing moment for our team that has worked so hard…

On Monday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott bragged about the progress the state has made in refreshing the voter rolls since signing bills into law that increased penalties and restrictions around illegal voting. To date, the state has passed the 1 million person removal mark in three years, with the numbers consisting of noncitizens, deceased people, voters on the suspense list, and others. Noncitizens Emphasized Element5 Digital/Unsplash In an X post celebrating the milestone, Abbott emphasized how the state has removed thousands of noncitizens from the rolls, some of whom were found to have cast votes. “Texas has removed over 1.1…

Freddie O’Connell, the mayor of Nashville, announced on Friday that he is working to introduce new legislation aimed at “protecting First Amendment rights” while also ensuring people are safe to freely express themselves. These new restrictive proposals come after protests by far-right groups have worried some; groups that the mayor himself has previously called “clown cars of a circus of fear and hatred.” Extremist Protests Source: tr00peRR/X In July, multiple groups seen as hate groups descended on Nashville in a series of protest demonstrations. At the protests, some individuals carried flags bearing swastika logos and wore shirts that said “Whites…

US rideshare giant Uber has been fined over 290 million euros (~$324 million) by a Dutch watchdog organization over charges that it failed to adequately protect the data of its European drivers. This watchdog, called the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) accused Uber of allowing the transfer of personal details of European drivers to the United States without proper protection. Uber Under Fire Source: Erik Mclean/Unsplash This watchdog group accused Uber’s data transfers of breaching requirements from the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). “In Europe, the GDPR protects the fundamental rights of people, by requiring businesses and governments…

Just this month, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis experienced two embarrassing scandals in his “war on woke” culture campaign which has him fighting against ideas of diversity in colleges. DeSantis is now on the defense after reporting from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune exposed a book dump of hundreds of library books at New College of Florida and a University of Florida President he chose was exposed for excessive spending. New College Takeover Source: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons Previously, DeSantis and his allies had been accused of orchestrating an “aggressively ideological and politically motivated” takeover of the New College of Florida by the American…

A Federal District judge appointed by former President Donald Trump last week dismissed criminal charges against an individual for illegally possessing a machine gun. The judge in the case cited a constitutional right to carry this kind of weapon as a reason for the dismissal. Experts speculate that if this ruling is upheld on appeal it could threaten machine gun bans across the country. Judge’s Ruling Source: Wesley Tingey/Unsplash U.S. District Court Judge John W. Broomes in Kansas dismissed the charges against Tamori Morgan after his indictment by a federal grand jury last year. “The court finds that the Second…

In an emergency docket session, which critics sometimes call the “shadow docket,” the Supreme Court has reinstated parts of an Arizona law that requires proof of citizenship to register to vote. This order came as a response to a request from the Republican National Committee (RNC) and Republican leaders of the state’s legislature. Getting it Wrong Source: Tingey Injury Law Firm/Unsplash The petition from the RNC and Arizona Republicans insisted that previous rulings that barred the enforcement of the law were in error. “This Court has repeatedly instructed that the Purcell principle bars federal courts from enjoining the enforcement of…

On Thursday, Ford’s chief operation officer for Ford Model e made comments to CNBC outlining a new strategy shift for the company that will lean more towards hybrid vehicles and less on EVs. The company will also try to aim for more affordable models of EVs, which they feel will have higher adoption rates than their vehicles had previously. Gjaja’s Comments Source: Jasper Garrat/Unsplash Marin Gjaja, chief operation officer for Ford’s electric vehicles unit, told CNBC about the company’s plans to seek out areas where they can compete better. “We’re quite convinced that the highest adoption rates for electric vehicles…

Gun rights activists in Massachusetts are now fighting back against a new restrictive gun law recently signed by Governor Maura Healey aimed at cracking down on “ghost guns” and “modernizing” the state’s firearm regulations. Activists have filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop the law’s enforcement and are hoping to succeed in putting an initiative on the ballot for the 2026 election that could get it repealed. New Gun Law Source: Tim Graham/Getty Images Last month, Governor Healey signed H.4885, also known as “An Act Modernizing Firearms Laws,” into law in part as a defiance of a recent Supreme…

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) experienced a large drop in first-year enrollment from Black and Latino students following a controversial ruling from the Supreme Court last year that did away with racial consideration for college admissions. The dean of admissions for MIT has attributed this observed drop in the first admission year formed after the ruling directly to the Supreme Court decision. First-Year Class Profile Source: MChe Lee/Unsplash MIT recently released its first-year class profile for the approximately 1,102 members of the Class of 2028. In this report, the Black student population fell to 5%, far below the 13%…