Alex Jones, New Ferguson DA, & Paid Family Leave

Twitter Will Not Suspend Infowars’ Alex Jones
Several major tech companies, including YouTube, Apple, Facebook, and Spotify, have suspended Alex Jones and his controversial website, Infowars, from their platforms this week. Unlike the other corporations, Twitter has not followed suit. “He hasn’t violated our rules. We’ll enforce if he does,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced via tweet. “We’re going to hold Jones to the same standard we hold to every account, not taking one-off actions to make us feel good in the short term, and adding fuel to new conspiracy theories.” Dorsey’s decision, celebrated by Jones’ followers, has elicited criticism from others in the tech industry, such as former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao. “Your platform does not operate in a vacuum,” she tweeted. “If your site is the only one allowing this hate and harassment, it will get overrun and collapse.”
New Ferguson Prosecutor ‘Gives Us Hope’ Four Years After Shooting
Ferguson, Mo City Council Member Wesley Bell defeated Robert McCulloch, the prosecutor who declined to indict the white police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election for St. Louis County Prosecutor. The election results “felt like a form of delayed reckoning” for the activists who helped galvanize the Black Lives Matter movement, reports Farah Stockman for The New York Times. However, Bell and his supporters say his victory is about more than the Michael Brown case. Bell has promised to change the county’s cash bail system and to implement diversionary programs to avoid incarceration for low-level, nonviolent offenders— efforts he asserts will help crime rates and reduce prison populations. “We ran on a platform of treating people fairly, giving them a fair shake,” he said. Bell will run unopposed in the November general elections. Per a 2017 PRRI survey, white Americans are about evenly divided over whether the police treat minority communities the same as whites: 49 percent agree vs. 51 percent disagree. More than eight in ten (83 percent) black Americans and nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of Hispanic agree with that sentiment.
Black Pastors Support of Trump Likely Won’t Impact Black Americans
Last week, the White House invited a group of black pastors to discuss prison reform among other issues. One of the pastors, Rev. Darrell Scott, concluded that the Trump Administration was the “most pro-Black president of my lifetime.” That sentiment, may not extend to most black Americans. Eugene Scott writes in The Washington Post. “Despite the desires of those affiliated with the Trump administration who are focused on black voter outreach, there won’t be any significant changes to support for the president from the black community, based on historical voting patterns. How black Protestants vote overlaps significantly with black Americans in general, meaning Trump lost their support in 2016 and has continued to poll poorly with the groups.” According to a recent PRRI poll, only twelve percent of black Americans have a favorable view of President Trump.
People of Faith are Speaking up About Paid Family Leave
Religious Americans are coming out in support for paid family leave, Kelsey Dallas writesin The Deseret News. Congress is considering multiple bills on the subject from both Democrats and Republicans, and congressional action can be interpreted as a response to growing support in the policy. In 2016, the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago announced a three-month family paid leave policy for employees that worked 26 hours per week. The Church of Latter-day Saints (LDS) also altered their policy on paid family leave. In 2017, they began six weeks of paid maternity leave and a week of paid parental leave available to both mothers and fathers. Daniel Woodruff, a spokesperson for the LDS Church explains, “Paid family leave is one way the church attracts a talented and diverse workforce. The church continually looks for ways to build an appealing work environment that aligns with gospel principles including the need for mothers and fathers to fulfill their responsibilities at home.”
First Muslim Woman Elected to Congress?
In winning Michigan’s 13th District Democratic primary, Rashida Tlaib may well be on her way to making history as the first Muslim woman elected to Congress. The district, which leans heavily towards the Democrats, will not face a Republican opponent in the general election. Former Rep. John Conyers had held the seat before he resigned in December in the midst of sexual harassment allegations. Tlaib, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, is also seeking to represent Islam in the best way she can. “It’s not about just being out there and flaunting your faith. I always tell people that I’m exposing Islam in such a pivotal way, an impactful way, through public service,” she tells CNN. According to PRRI polling, 67 percent of people who talk with Muslims at least occasionally agree that Muslims are an important part of the American religious landscape. In contrast, fewer than half (45 percent) of those who have never spoken with a Muslim in the last year believe that American Muslims are an important part of the religious community here.
Gender Pay Gap May Go Back to Childhood
The New York Times featured an analysis of housework that looked at the distribution of the work across gender as well as allowance pay. Analysis from the paper found that boys ages 15 to 19 perform on average half an hour of housework a day, compared to their female counterparts that work 45 minutes a day, while being less paid. Writer Claire Cain Miller writes, “Shouldering more responsibilities at home is a big reason women are paid less than men and fall behind men in their careers.” Achieving equality, they argue, will require not just preparing girls for paid work, but also teaching boys to do unpaid work,” the article reports.